Chapter 42

I called Clara the next morning, after finishing the chores my mom had assigned me. She seemed embarrassed about having passed out on me the night before.

"I don't even know what happened, Larry. It was like everything was going great, I was getting the best tingle ever, and the next thing I remember was waking up this morning. I think I tingled too strong or something. My mom acted all funny too when I got up. When I asked her why she didn't wake me up before you left, she just laughed at me."

"I had a nice time last night. It was good to see you, and to be with you again. I don't think you have to be afraid that you don't like boys. You sure seemed to enjoy things last night."

"I did. That was you though. I'm still not sure I'd like that with any other boys. So far, you're the only boy to make me tingle. Kate's the only girl. Maybe it's just your family?"

"So, is your mom still home?"

"Yes, did you need to talk with her?"

"No, I just wanted to see if I could come over to see you."

"She said whenever she's home, you can come visit me. If you're coming, you have to give me some time to get ready first. All I have on is my robe."

"That's enough for me. I like it when you don't wear that much. It makes it easier to touch you."

"That's another thing I wanted to ask you, Larry. How come you didn't play with me up top yesterday? Didn't you notice that I've grown a lot more?"

"I noticed, but we only had fifteen minutes. I wanted to make sure that you came. I plan on giving them a full inspection as soon as I have the time and a good chance to do it."

"Speaking of doing it. How come you didn't? I was sure that's what you were going to do when we went in my room. I think my mom expected you to do it too."

"If I had of, I'd be on a plane to Hungary with my mom. I already told you what my father's deal was. Even last night was more than he said we could do. I took a chance because I wanted to do that with you."

"I don't want you to be sent away, Larry. Still, I think about doing it with you all the time."

"I think we'll need to wait on that. My dad said that we can discuss it again in awhile, if we wait, and we still feel the same way about each other."

"I don't want to wait. I want to have it inside me. Just for a minute, so I know we did it."

"I wouldn't be able to stop if we did that, Clara. I know I wouldn't. If we started that, we wouldn't stop doing it until we get caught. I really don't want to take the chance."

"Are you going to be doing it with other girls?"

"Clara, what do you want me to tell you? I'm not going to lie to you about that. If I want to spend time with you, I have to promise not to do it with you. If I break that promise, they'll send me away. They didn't say I had to stop doing it, only that I can't do it with you."

"If you're going to be doing it with other girls, why should I stay home, and be good?"

I felt like the whole conversation was getting away from me. I didn't want to do it with other girls, not if I could do it with Clara. On the other hand, I couldn't do it with Clara, but I still wanted to do it. I knew it wasn't going to mean anything to her if I told her that I didn't love those other girls. She was going to tell me that I shouldn't want to do it with other girls if I really loved her. No matter what I told her, it was still going to come down to that. She felt like she shouldn't have to put up with my going out with other girls when she was wanting to do it with me, and I was the one who wouldn't do it with her.

"Kate got sent away for not doing what she was told to do. Is that what you want me to do too?"

"Did they tell you to go out and do it with other girls?"

"No. I don't understand how you think, Clara. I never minded when you and Kate did things together. Why are you being this way with me?"

"I don't know, Larry. Why do you think? Could it be that I don't want my boyfriend doing it with other girls after he refuses to do it with me? It isn't even that. I don't want you doing it with anyone else. I don't want you wanting to do it with anyone else. I know that you do, and that's what bothers me."

"Suppose I stop doing it with anyone else too, would that satisfy you?"

"Yes, if you really mean it. I'll do it with you, anyway you want to do it. I'll even not do it with you, if that's what you want."

"That isn't what I want, and you know it. If it was up to me, I'd have my dick so far up inside you that you'd have trouble breathing. I can't do what I really want though, not if I want to stay here and be near you. I don't want to be sent to Hungary."

"I don't want you to be sent away either. I feel so much better today, better than I've felt since when Kate went away. I can't make a good tingle by myself. Only when I get one from you or Kate are they strong like last night. Last night's was the best one ever. I don't want you giving tingles like that to anyone else."

"All right. Now that we got all of that settled, is it okay if I come over to see you?"

"Of course it is. Even if we didn't get it settled, I'm always glad to see you. I'm happy though that we did get it settled. I won't do things with anyone else either, I promise."

"Even Kate?"

"Is she back?" I had to move my ear away from the receiver, but it was already too late because of how she had shrieked her question so loud.

"No, she's not back. I just wanted to make sure of what you meant, when you said anyone."

"That was mean, Larry. You knew I didn't mean to include Kate. Everyone else though, except her."

"Do I get one exception too?"

"As long as you pick someone in Hungary, yes."

"All right. Zoli's niece is coming here for the summer. She's fourteen, and she'll be staying in Kate's old room. She speaks a little English too. I pick her."

"I said it had to be someone in Hungary."

"She's in Hungary. You didn't say she had to stay there. I saw her picture. She looks a little bit like Kate. Maybe she likes girls better too."

"I don't like girls better."

"I was talking about Kate." Clara giggled.

"Oh. Well, you can't do anything with her until after I meet her, okay?"

"I have to get your approval first?"

"Yes."

"Then you have to get mine, before you do anything with Kate again."

"Larry! That's not fair. I did stuff with Kate, since even before I started liking you. You don't even know this other girl. What's her name?"

"Gyorgyike, but we'll call her Georgia after she gets here. You should see how big her tits are. Kate wrote that she doesn't even own a bra either. Maybe we can both do it to her." Clara hung up the phone. Lucky for me, I was already holding it away from my ear when she did.

I called Bill, and asked him what he was doing. We hadn't yet gotten back to being close like we'd been before we started fighting over our sisters and Eileen. We were still friendly, but not like how we'd been before. There was also the matter of his sister that he made sure I knew he blamed me for. Apparently Jane had been working on him to not stand in the way of me taking her out on a date. According to Bill, she was making his life miserable by constantly bombarding him with pleas to change his mind.

"If I did let her go out with you, would you tell me how far you really got with Denise?"

"Why are you even interested, Bill? I already told you that I grabbed at her boob and she slapped me. Why do you keep trying to get me to tell you we did more than that? I haven't spoken to her for months now. I know you made that up about the things you said you did to her."

"I didn't! She let me put my finger in her pussy twice. I swear! We were up in the balcony at the movies the first time, and in her father's car the last time. I'm not lying!"

"Then the hell with Jane, I'm going after Denise!"

"Larry! You better not tell her that I told you about what she let me do."

"I was only kidding, Bill. I don't have any interest in Denise, not even if you told me you screwed her."

"I almost did. She would have that night in her father's car, if I'd had a rubber. She told me."

"Come on, Bill. Give me a break, okay?"

"Don't believe me then. It still happened, even if you don't believe it. Kevin Saunders said he saw Denise in the balcony last night with Tommy Lampkin. They were both making out like crazy. Kevin's going to ask her out next weekend. You think she'll go out with him?"

"Don't know, and I don't care. I wouldn't go out with her, not even if I knew she sucked dicks."

"I heard Trudie does that. You know, her kid sister?"

"That's how all these rumors get started, Bill. Half of the stuff they're saying about Kate, never even happened."

"If only half of it did, I'm sorry we ever made our deal."

"Nice, Bill. That's the kind of thing I want to hear from my friends."

"Yeah, that wasn't very nice. I didn't mean it to sound like it did. Sorry."

"That's all right. So, you going to let me take Jane out, or what?"

"One movie? No balcony?"

"Can I kiss her, or not?"

"I don't know. You've already kissed her. Why would you want to kiss her again?"

"Because she's cute. Kiss her or not?"

"Don't ask me that again, all right? Kiss her if you want to. I won't get mad. Don't you feel her up though, and I mean that. If one guy tells me that he saw you feeling her up, I'm going to come right after you."

"Never mind then. If I took her out, I'd treat it like a regular date. I'd keep trying to do stuff until she either slaps me, or yells at me to quit it. Don't you have any faith in Jane?"

"Not where you're concerned, I don't. If it was someone else, I might have. Don't forget I saw you with her that day on the sofa. If I hadn't been right there with the two of you, she probably would have let you do it to her."

"I didn't think that at all. I thought it was her not knowing what was expected. I don't think she'd ever been in that kind of a situation before. She just got too nervous. When she came back, she was in complete control of herself, right up until Kate started acting up."

"Larry, Jane's my sister. You are my friend. Don't you think you can just take her out one time and treat her like you'd want me to treat Kate?"

"How about if I take her out one time and treat her like you wanted to treat Kate?"

"That's it! No way you are taking Jane out, never!"

"Good. You want to meet me at the park and I'll pitch to you?"

"Come over here instead. I'll catch you for awhile, and then you can tell Jane that you aren't going out with her."

"Sorry, Bill. I already told her I'd take her out if you said it was okay. Let's meet at the park."

"Larry, if you don't tell her, she's going to keep after me."

"Look, I already told her I wasn't going to take her out unless you agreed to it. Just tell her what you told me and get it over with. You make it seem like Jane is more powerful than you are. Just tell her."

"I already tried that. My mom told her to keep after me. She wants you to take Jane out. She doesn't know what I know."

"Tell her what you suspect then. I don't want to get caught in the middle here. Tell your mom about the agreement that we made. Tell her about how Jane acted if you want to."

"That would get me in a lot of trouble. You know that."

"Are you going to meet me at the park, or what?"

"No, you come over here. You can take her on a date, but you just better remember what I said."

"Tell me again, so I'm sure I've got it. Didn't you say I could feel her up as long as no one tells you that I did?"

"Come over here, and I'll make it real clear to you."

"That's okay. I'm going to the park. All of you Terry's are too hot blooded for my taste. You coming over to catch me, or do I let someone else see this curve I've been perfecting?"

"Is it the one that breaks an inch, or the one that only looks like it's going to break, right before the batter knocks it out of the park?"

"It's the one that breaks so much that Bill Terry can't get his mitt on it. I'm telling you, my curve is really breaking now."

"Let's settle it that way then. I'll come over to catch you. If you can throw even one curve that breaks more than three inches, you can take Jane out and do whatever she lets you do. If not, you tell her that you changed your mind, and you decided not to go out with her. Deal?"

"Bill, it isn't that I don't trust your honesty, because I really do. It's your eyesight I don't trust. How about we get an unbiased person's opinion to make the decision on how far the ball breaks. I get to warm up first, and then I throw five curves. If the ump we get says none broke more than three inches, you win. Deal?"

"Deal. I'll meet you there in ten minutes?"

"I'll be there. Wear your cup. This thing is really breaking and I'd hate to see you get hurt."

"Now you're claiming that your fastball has improved too? I'll take my chances."

What Bill didn't know was that I'd learned how to throw a curve ball the year before. Both times Bill had caught my pitches this year, I'd been throwing nothing but lob fastballs, and very few fastballs that were me going all out. My arm had loosened up from those first two times throwing, and I knew I could start trying to throw curves again. The coach that had taught me had told me that my curve had a lot of bend to it, as long as I didn't try to throw it too hard. From the mound, it had looked like it broke at least a foot, all of it over the final fifteen feet. It also dropped quicker, like a sinker ball. I hadn't thrown a baseball for so long, I guess I never mentioned it to Bill. When Bill had caught me in Little League, I couldn't throw a breaking ball. I went out back real quick and threw a few balls up into the air, loosening up my arm up, and seeing how it felt. The looser my arm was, the more movement I could get on the ball. The practice mound at the park would be facing into the wind, where Bill's backyard was set up so that I'd be throwing with the wind at my back. The ball broke more when it was thrown into the wind.

When I got to the park, Bill was already there, waiting. There were two guys waiting with him. Guys who played on the junior varsity with Bill. I knew one of them, Bob Fruntillo. He was an honest guy, so I'd pick him to be the judge if I could. The other guy was already a junior, and I didn't know him at all, except I'd seen him around school the whole year.

"You ready to start warming up, Larry? Either one of these guys can be the ump for our bet, so you pick one."

"I'll pick Bob. I know he can see the ball. That's all I'm going to need, someone who sees where it starts from and then sees where it finishes. Bob, when I start, I'll try to keep it off of the plate on your left, and let it break across the plate. The bet is about whether my curve breaks more than three inches. Take out your dick, Bill, so Bob knows how small three inches is."

"Fuck you, Larry! See this ball, Bob? That's close enough to three inches for you to use. I know his curve isn't going to break ten inches, so I won't show you my dick."

"He's telling you the truth too, Bob. Of course, in his house, they always measure dick size from the back of their asses, to the tip of their wee wee's. That's the only way it could reach a full ten inches on Terry. Bill's ass is already at least ten inches, so he might have twelve inches, counting from there."

"I've got your wee wee, asshole! Let's warm up before you chicken out on the bet. Don't forget, five pitches, and then you have to tell Jane you changed your mind."

"And, if I win, you don't say anything, or ask me any questions, right?"

"I caught you for two years, Larry. In all those pitches, together, your ball curved less than three inches, total."

"True, but I never tried to throw a curve before. I was waiting for my arm to mature and strengthen. Last year, Coach Herndon showed me how to throw a curve. Did you wear the cup? The curve drops down too."

"Never mind about what I'm wearing. Twenty pitches to warm up, is that enough?"

"I'll throw some first and let you know when I'm ready. You don't want to rush an arm like mine. It's too valuable."

"You mean you don't want it too sore for you to beat off later tonight?"

"Don't worry about me, Bill. I'm ambidextrous when it comes to that."

"Just throw me the ball, Larry. Delaying isn't going to save you. Neither is this little bit of breeze. Let's just do it, and then we can all play some Hit the Bat."

I went to the mound and started throwing some catch with Bill. After five minutes, my arm was feeling pretty good. I threw five or six fastballs, hearing the satisfactory pop they made when the reached Bill's mitt. I knew I was throwing faster than I had before I quit pitching over a year ago. Part of it was that I'd grown a couple of inches, and added about ten pounds. My arm had gotten stronger too.

"Okay Bill, I'm ready. Five pitches. Bob, are you ready?" Bob nodded and got in tight behind Bill. He had his eye about three or four inches to the left of the plate, leaning in over Bills left side. I let my first curve ball fly. It started right where I was aiming it, about seven inches off of the plate. For the first forty feet or so, it didn't do anything, and I wondered if I'd done something wrong. I saw Bill's smile, and then the ball began moving sharply right, and diving down. It landed in Bill's mitt somewhere towards the right side of the plate.

Bill got up from his crouch, and threw his mitt forcefully to the ground. It was obvious to everyone that I had easily won our bet. Bill tossed me the ball back and bent down to retrieve his mitt.

"Throw the other four, Larry. Prove it wasn't just a lucky fluke."

I threw four more curves. Two were about like the first one, the other two just kind of hung there, like batting practice lobs.

"Man, you can't throw a curve ball when half of them are sitters. You'll get creamed in a real game."

"I don't pitch in real games, Bill. Three were pretty good, that's sixty percent, not half."

"Two were sitters that any hitter with power could take out of the park. Two of the good ones would have been for a ball. Only the first one was a real curve, that wouldn't have been either hit or a ball."

"That's right, the only one that really mattered to me."

"I guess you're right. You won the bet, anyways."

"Jane will be so happy. She doesn't need to know about the bet, Bill. You can pretend that you were being nice to her one time. I wouldn't want to spoil your moment."

"All right. Why don't you come home with me after we get finished up here. I'll tell her then that I've decided to let you take her out. She's already promised to clean my room for a month, if I let her go out with you. My mom was going to make me give in anyway. Winning this bet was my last hope."

"You know, Bill, I don't need to take her out if you're so dead set against it?"

"It isn't that. I'm just afraid for her, is all. I guess she's going to be going out anyway, whether I like it or not."

"Well, I promise to keep my hands to myself with her. I'll take her to the movies, then over to Frank's, and then right back home. I might kiss her at the door, goodnight, but nothing else."

"Why didn't you just say that before then? Why did you put me through all this?"

"You don't ever believe me when I tell you things the first time. Like Eileen, like Denise. I figured that if I won, and then told you I was going to be good, even after I didn't have to be, you might actually believe me."