Chapter 43

"This is the last time I'm going to ask you, Clara. If you don't go down there and talk with her, she and I are leaving, and you can just forget about me loving you anymore."

I didn't really mean it, about not loving her anymore, but I did want her to go down and speak with Jane. I felt like she had to suffer some consequence for her spying, plus, I hoped that she and Jane might become friends. Clara had already mentioned several times that none of the kids at school talked with her anymore. I watched as Clara stood up, and moved past me to the aisle. I didn't know if she was going to turn left and leave the movies, or turn right and go sit with Jane. I looked over at Jane, sitting nervously, by herself. When she turned right, I exhaled the air I hadn't realized I was holding in. I knew that Clara had made the more difficult choice. I got up and followed her back over to where Jane was sitting.

"I'm sorry, Jane. I was jealous because Larry decided to take you out instead of coming over to see me. I shouldn't have come here and bothered him."

"I didn't know he was your boyfriend, Clara. Not until he saw you here, and then told me. I've never seen you with him, except for that time at his party."

"Did he tell you that I was his girlfriend?"

"One of them, is what he actually said." The two of them giggled. Just then, the lights were turned off, and a cartoon started playing on the screen. I couldn't hear what they were saying anymore, because they both started whispering to each other. I watched the screen, peeking over at the two of them every now and again, making sure that they were doing all right. They kept up a steady stream of whispers for the entire newsreel, cartoons, and the first Francis the Talking Mule picture. I wondered what they were talking about for so long.

At the intermission, I had to take a leak, so I excused myself, after asking Jane if she was going to be okay in my absence. When she indicated that she'd be fine, I got up and left for the bathroom. The date wasn't going that badly for me. In fact, the distraction with Clara was working out in my favor. I wasn't tempted to try to make out with Jane, like I might have been. In spite of my earlier good intentions, I had been somewhat worried that I might try to fool around with her a little, just to see her reaction to it. I finished up my business in the bathroom and returned to my seat, only to find Clara now sitting in it. Both of them were looking at me with smiles on their faces. I looked at the vacant seat between them for only a second before proceeding forward and claiming it. Clara leaned in and whispered into my ear.

"Jane is mad, because she has to clean her brother's room for a month. She was hoping you were going to make out with her."

"I told her that I wasn't going to."

"You told her that you wanted to, but you weren't going to. She says that she wants you to do some stuff with her."

"I already told Bill I wasn't going to do that. I told you that too."

"But, you'd like to?"

"No, I told her a lot of that stuff just to scare her away from me."

"It didn't work, then. She says that she's dying to feel your dick. I already told her how big it was, but she wants to feel it."

"Well, she isn't going to."

"I want to feel it again too, Larry. If you take it out so I can feel it, I wouldn't mind if she got to feel it too."

"I'd mind. Quit talking so much and watch the movie. I'm not some doll that you can decide to share with your friends."

"I haven't played with dolls for a long time, Larry, dicks either. Jane is really curious. You know you like having two girls wanting to play with it."

The whole time she's whispering this to me, I'm getting a big boner listening to her, and thinking about having someone else playing with my dick. I was also thinking about playing with Clara's pussy too. Plus, I figured that Jane might want to be felt up some too. I was heading right back into the very kind of situation that I wanted to avoid. I had real good resistance, right up until the time I was faced with any kind of temptation. Then, I let my dick do all of my thinking. I was surprised when Clara reached over, put her hand on my crotch, and gave my hard on a squeeze. I took her hand away, and told her to quit doing that. She laughed, but she didn't do it again. Then Jane spoke. She didn't bother to lean in and whisper though. She just came out and said it.

"I get a turn too, Larry."

"No, you don't! I'm not going to be treated this way by the two of you. I'll decide what I want to do, not you two. I don't want to do anything with either of you. You might think this is funny, but it isn't to me. I could get into a lot of trouble just for being here with Clara. My parents would never believe I didn't set this whole thing up to be this way. Clara, I want you to go right back to where you were sitting before." Clara looked at me long enough to understand that I wasn't just playing hard to get, then, she got up and left. After she was gone, Jane spoke again.

"That isn't fair, Larry. You're my date, and you let Clara touch it. I've never touched one before. You can let me touch it for a minute, just so I know what one feels like. I have to clean Bill's room for a month. Just for a minute? I won't ask you for anything else, I promise."

I swear, if Clara hadn't already felt me up, I would never have allowed Jane to do it either. I reached over and grabbed her hand and placed it on top of my dick. She started feeling it all over. Using her fingers to see just how long and thick it was. I just sat there, looking at the movie, and feeling a little embarrassed by it. After awhile, she stopped touching it and took her hand back over to her side. She leaned in and whispered to me.

"Thanks, Larry. It sure is a big one, just like you and Clara said. I don't think it would fit inside me. Clara says she's going to make it fit in her though. I'd sure like to see you do it with her, just to see if it hurts too bad or not. You can touch me too if you want to. Clara said it was all right."

I sat and watched the movie, ignoring Jane's offer for me to touch her. After awhile, Jane started watching the movie too. When the movie was over, we both stood up, but I couldn't see Clara anywhere. We waited for a few minutes until the crowd all exited before we started moving towards the entrance ourselves. In the lobby, I saw Clara just leaving out the front doors. I stopped, delaying for awhile, hoping that her mother was parked up front, and would drive away with Clara before we stepped out into the well lit area in front of the theater. If Jane wondered about why I was delaying leaving, she didn't mention it to me. Five minutes later, we left. There was no sign of either Clara or her mom outside. We walked over to Frank's, but it was full from the people who had left the movies before us.

When I told Jane that I didn't want to wait to get a place to sit, she looked disappointed, until I asked her if she wanted to go over and see if Pepe's was still open. Pepe's was a local pizza place where people went to eat. They only served pizzas and fountain drinks, unlike a real Italian restaurant. They were cheap though. A large pizza was only $1.75, and that came with whichever toppings you wanted. When we got there, there were several empty tables. Jane got one for us, while I went and ordered us a pizza, and got our drinks. It was twelve o'clock by the time we had gotten our pizza delivered to our table. I was hungry, and started to dig right in. Jane wasn't a big eater apparently, she was toying with her first slice, taking tiny bites.

"You aren't hungry?" I had just finished my third slice when I asked her that.

"I was thinking about tonight, and about what you said on the way to the movies. You didn't mean any of it, did you?"

"Any of what?" I knew what she was saying, I just didn't want to admit that I did.

"About wanting to do all those things to me. You were making fun of me."

"I wasn't making fun of you. I did mean them. It's just more complicated than me only doing what I'd want to do. Bill and I made a deal after that time on the sofa at your house, with Kate and the three of us. Plus, now I have Clara to think about. Other things have happened to me and my family too. You know about Kate and Clara having that trouble at school?" Jane nodded that she did. "Well, my parents sent her to Hungary, and they've promised me that I'm next, if I can't behave myself. I already got caught a couple of times, doing stuff with girls. It wouldn't take too much more to get me sent away too."

"So, you would like to do those things, if you wouldn't get in trouble for doing them?"

"I guess so, sure. But, I'm not going to do them, not even if I knew I wouldn't be caught."

"I wouldn't want to go all the way, Larry. There is some of that other stuff you said, that I would like though. The touching stuff, and the kissing all over too. Clara said you do both those things really nice to her. She said that I'd love having it done to me. I know she's right about that too, because I think about it a lot, and I touch myself too, and pretend it's you touching me. I wouldn't even have to be your girlfriend. I just want to feel what it feels like to be touched by someone else."

"Jane, there are a lot of other guys who'd loved to show you how it feels."

"I trust you, Larry, and I like you. I don't just dream of any guy doing it. It's usually either you or Frankie Avalon that I think about."

"Frankie Avalon? The singer?" I could see that Jane was hurt by the incredulous tone of my question. "He's pretty old, like twenty five or something, plus, I think he's already married."

"I don't really expect him to come see me, Larry. It's just that when I think about those things, it's always either you or him. I always knew I had a better chance with you, than with Frankie."

"If it wasn't for all those complications I told you about, Jane, you'd have a terrific chance. Probably a sure thing. With them, you better just leave your bedroom window open at night and hope that Frankie comes by some night. Of course, things change all the time. Like tonight, if Clara hadn't been there, I might have tried something, even though I promised myself that I wouldn't."

"Really? I was nervous about all those kids being around us, but I would have let you do stuff to me. There isn't going to be anyone around when we walk back home." While we were talking, I kept working on that pizza. I finished off the last of my seventh slice by the time Jane put the leftover crust on her only slice down on the pizza tray. I scooped it up and polished it off as well. Pepe's made good pizza, and I had been hungry besides. We got up and left. It was already twelve thirty five. It was a ten minute walk to Jane's house.

On the way back, I stopped several times to kiss her. I touched her breasts, outside her top, and even cupped both her butt cheeks while I was kissing her. She reached out and felt around for my dick once, but I broke the kiss, and started walking again, before she could try to do much with it. We arrived safely at her house, without anything happening that either one of us would regret. I gave her one last kiss goodnight, right on her steps in front of her door. She was standing on the first step, so we were lined up just at the right height for kissing now.

"Thank you, Larry, for the great walk home. I'll remember it when I'm working on Bill's room."

"I'll remember it too, when I'm in bed in a few minutes, Jane. I'll be thinking about you tonight before I go to sleep."

"Are you going to do it tonight? With your hands I mean?"

"Yes. It's going to be a good one too, I can already feel it."

"You promise you're going to be thinking of me when you do it? I'm going to do it too, and I promise to think about you then too." I smiled and nodded to her, then watched her slip inside before I left for home. I walked a couple blocks out of my way to be able to pass by Clara's house. All of her lights were out though, and I saw her mom's car parked out front. After I got home, I kept my promise to Jane. I had a hard time sleeping after that, so I did it again. This time, I was thinking about Clara and Jane, the three of us playing together on Agnes's bed. After, I was able to fall asleep easily and quickly.

At nine o'clock, my mother woke me up by telling me I had a telephone call. It was Clara, wanting to know if I was going to come see her when I got back from going to church. We spoke for only a few minutes, but she didn't ask me anything about the rest of my date with Jane. She didn't even mention the night before, not even once. Clara seemed to have some kind of mental insulation that she was able to deal with things, and then put them away into a special compartment that shielded things from her. I think that was part of the reason she had always seemed so happy and good humored before all of the troubles started with her family, and all the rest of it. I told her I'd come over as soon as we got back from church.

I got over to Clara's house at about one o'clock. I had changed out of my church clothes into regular play clothes. Mrs. Townsend let me in, because Clara was on the telephone. She was talking with Jane. For a minute, I worried about that, but then I thought that Clara had given me permission to do all of the things I'd done to Jane, plus, I hadn't even done that much. Except for the promise to think about her when I was beating off. Well, it was too late to worry about it. Mrs. Townsend was excited because Clara was actually talking happily with someone on the phone again. She excused herself to go make some lunch for the three of us. I went over to where Clara was and started rubbing both her breasts outside her shirt. She was certainly right about them having grown some more. She now had almost as much as Denise did.

"Larry just got here Jane. He's playing with my boobies right now. Larry, Jane says to tell you hello. Yes, she's here, but I think she's in the kitchen. His hands feel really good. My nipples don't hurt anymore, not like they did before, and his hands are already making me hot. No, I already told him he could do whatever he wants to me. You want me to really tell him that? You're sure? Okay. Larry, Jane says you can do anything you want to her too." Clara was sticking her tongue out at me when I grabbed at my crotch. "Jane I have to get off the phone now because Larry's here. Thanks for calling and talking to me. I'll see you in school tomorrow. Jane, you don't have to talk to me in school. If you do, the other kids might be mad at you. Really? I'd like that too. I don't have any left right now. See you tomorrow then."

After she hung up, she was still all excited. Jane had called her and wanted to be her friend. Jane had already talked this over with her mother, knowing that it wasn't going to be the easiest thing for her to be Clara's friend, not after all that had happened at school before. Mrs. Terry had told her that she thought it was a fine idea, and that she was proud of her for feeling that way.

"Did you tell your mom yet about why you wanted to go to the movies last night?"

"I told her that I saw you there with another girl, but not about knowing that you'd be there. Do I have to tell her about that?"

"I can tell her if you'd prefer that. I just thought it might be better if you told her yourself. I don't want her thinking that I was helping you to be sneaky with her."

Clara pulled out of my arms and walked into the kitchen. I went back to the living room and sat down on the sofa. Clara's mom came out a few minutes later. I saw Clara heading off to her room, and heard her door shut rather loudly. She came over to the sofa and sat down on it, facing me.

"Did you have anything to do with Clara lying to me last night, Larry?"

"No, I didn't. I had no idea about anything until I spotted her hiding behind me. I was on a date with another girl."

"Clara told me that. I was under the impression that you and Clara had a 'special' relationship Larry, especially after the other night's display. Was I mistaken about that? Is Clara just another conquest to you?"

"No, I love Clara, and only her. I had told this other girl that I'd take her to the movies if her brother dropped his objections. He dropped them, and so I took her to the movies. I told her about Clara as soon as I noticed Clara there, and I had already told Clara about me having the date. "

"Well, I've sent Clara to her room for deceiving me. Is the girl who called here the same girl you were with at the movies last night?"

"Yes, Jane Terry. Her brother, Bill, is a friend of mine."

"Do you know why she called Clara today?"

"Yes, she wants to be Clara's friend. I made Clara go over and apologize to Jane for spoiling her date, and they talked for awhile, and got to know each other better."

"Did you do this hoping that they could be friends?"

"That was part of it, but I mostly thought Clara should apologize to Jane."

"You know, Larry, I'm having a difficult time with placing you in any category. Sometimes I think you are an evil, manipulative, little bastard, and then you keep doing things that convince me that you really love Clara, and are more concerned for her well being than any of the rest of us are. It is upsetting to me that I can't figure you out."

"I love Clara, and I do want her to be happy. It isn't so simple, because we're both so young, and my father has placed restrictions on what I can do with her. I already told Clara that I was going to stop doing stuff with other girls, but she didn't trust me."

"Should she have trusted you, Larry? Are you trustworthy?"

I didn't know how to answer her. There was always a difference between what I wanted to do, and what I actually would do. My parents, and all the adults I knew, thought nothing, themselves, about their making changes from their previously announced plans, but let a kid do that, and suddenly, it was a really bad thing. I felt trustworthy, but if I told her I was, she'd probably start in right away, telling me all the times I hadn't been trustworthy. I wished then that I hadn't made any mention of it, about Clara not trusting me.

"Sometimes I might not be. I wouldn't ever do anything to hurt Clara just to be mean though. I try to be honest with her, tell her what I'm doing, so she doesn't have to worry. I wasn't trying to sneak around on her."

"When you really care about someone, Larry, you don't do things to make them worry."

"That isn't true. Maybe we all wish it were, but it isn't."

"Well, you're right, it isn't true, but you should try not to make Clara worry."

"I do try. That's why I told her, so she wouldn't need to worry. Instead, she just worried more, because she didn't believe what I told her. Even after I caught her spying on me, I still tried to make sure she didn't worry about me being sneaky with her. I don't know what else I could have done to not make her worry."

"You could have not made a date with another girl, Larry."

"I had already said that I would take her out, even before you let Clara and I see each other again. I told Clara yesterday that this was only going to be that one date, and that I wasn't going to be doing a lot of stuff with this girl."

"Put yourself in Clara's place for a moment. How would you have felt? Wouldn't you have been worried?"

"Me personally? I might have been worried, but I wouldn't have gone over to the movies to check up on her. I would have waited until the next day, and then asked her if she had done what she said she would."

"Would you have believed what she said then?"

"Yes. Right up until I found out that she had lied to me. I wouldn't lie to her, so I wouldn't expect her to lie to me."

"Do you think I should punish Clara for lying to me? I have to admit that I might also have done what she did, if I were in her place."

"That's up to you. I don't want Clara to be punished, but she did lie to you. You have to decide on what you want to do."

"If I told you that my punishment for Clara was that she couldn't see or talk to you for a week, would that seem fair to you?"

"I guess so. I'm getting punished too though."

"That's sometimes the price you have to pay for being someone's friend. Their problems affect you. I'd feel better about things, if I can punish Clara in this way. If you don't agree to it, because it inconveniences you, I'll choose another punishment."

"How about not seeing me for two weeks, but we can still talk on the telephone?"

"How about not seeing or speaking with you for four days?"

"Okay, but can I go in her room now, for a little while, and play around with her some?" I was smiling when I said it, letting her know that I was mostly just kidding with her. I saw her smile back at me.

"That's not any way to start out her punishment. You leave and I'll tell her that I almost let you come in for a few minutes to say goodbye to her. I'll tell her that I would have let you in her room if she hadn't made me so angry."

"If you don't let me say goodbye to her, the four days should start with today. I hardly had any chance to see her at all."

"Thursday night, after you both are done with dinner, and all of your schoolwork. For being such a good sport about it, I'll let you tuck her in, and can even put her to sleep the same way as you did before."

"I'm not sure that would happen again. We hadn't seen each other for a long time. If I had enough time though, I could probably tire her out enough so she'd be able to sleep."

"Good night, young man. You can stick your head in her room, to tell her goodbye if you want to. No phone calls until you see her on Thursday. If she calls you, please don't talk with her."

I went over to Clara's bedroom and knocked on her door. When I opened it, Clara was sitting up on her bed, crying. She tried to smile when she saw me, wiping at her tears off of her face.

"I have to go. Your mom says you're restricted from seeing me or talking to me until Thursday night."

"She told me it was a week. How come she changed it?"

"She couldn't stand not seeing me for so long."

"I believe it. Jane feels like that, too. Most of the time, she was talking about you, and those things you said to her. She wanted to know how it felt to get licked by you."

"Did you just tell her, or did you offer to show her yourself?"

"No, I told her how it felt, but I did think about doing that, showing her. Do you hate me?"

"I love you. I wish you would just believe me. It would make it easier if you did."

"Easier for you, you mean? She wouldn't be curious, if you hadn't put it into her mind by talking about it."

"Really? Who put it in your mind? Or in Kate's? I'm starting to wonder about you, Clara. You're beginning to seem more like Kate to me everyday. What you're saying now, well it sounds like something Kate would say. Jane didn't need me to make her be curious. People get curious all by themselves. I'll see you Thursday night. Try to stay out of trouble until then. Your mother might let me come in your room on Thursday night, if you've been really good."

"Will you do it to me then?"

"No. I told you that already. If that's all you want from me, you may as well find somebody else to do it with."

"Maybe I will." I looked at her. She was sitting there, trying to see if she could make me as unhappy as she was. I didn't know why she wanted to do that to me. I didn't like it. I'd really had enough of playing this same game with her. It felt a lot like the game that Kate had kept playing.

"You win, Clara. You kept wanting to see how far you could push me? I'm guessing that it wasn't quite as far as you thought it was going to be. I'm done with it. You make it too hard. You weren't ever going to be satisfied, not until you managed to push me away. Now, you did. Goodbye."

I shut her door, and walked out of her house. Her mother just watched me as I was leaving. She knew what had happened, had probably been expecting it. I got the feeling that this blow up between Clara and me had somehow been anticipated, and probably, even welcomed by her. Maybe she was right to feel that way. The way things were, it was safer for Clara and I to stay separated from each other. I felt like Mrs. Townsend believed I only represented bad things for her daughter. I didn't think so, but I could see possible problems for both of us too. Clara's mom was willing to use me in order to get Clara to do what she wanted done. That was my only value to her, using me to get control over Clara.

When I got home, I went into my bedroom and thought about what had just happened. One minute, things seemed fine, the next, they were all screwed up again. How was a guy supposed to understand things, when they kept blowing up in his face so fast? I asked myself if I had stopped loving Clara? No, I felt exactly the same about her. How could I love her like that, and still be willing to give up on her like I had? I didn't have any answers. I really wanted to be able to find out how Clara really felt about me. If I was right about Clara's mother, would knowing how Clara really felt about me change the way I felt about her?

I knew that it wouldn't change the way I felt. It would change the way I'd act though. It had with Kate. I loved Kate as much as before, but now I was willing to stand back and let my parents try to get her to change her behavior, in spite of the cost to Kate.

Right now, I was close to feeling the same way about Clara. She was going through something. Whatever it was, I didn't really understand it. It was different than with Kate, but it was similar to her too. Both of them seemed unable to accept not getting what they wanted. Clara's way was less obvious than Kate's way, but she seemed just as determined, in her own way, as Kate was in hers. Like Kate, if having her own way caused serious consequences to other people, that was acceptable to her. I didn't like being treated like one of those other people. I especially didn't like it when it looked like I was going to get caught right in the middle, and sent away because of it.

I looked at my watch, it was still not quite three o'clock. I felt like calling Jane and warning her about Clara. If I felt like I could have explained myself clearly, I would have called her. Instead, I walked over to Bill's house. I really though Clara would benefit from having a friend, but I also wanted Jane to understand that Clara might draw her into things she might better have avoided. When I knocked on the door, Mrs. Terry answered it.

"You just missed Bill and Sissy, Larry. They went over to visit their cousin, Eileen, at her house."

"Do you think it would be all right if I just went over there?"

"How did it go with Sissy last night, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She sure doesn't eat much, does she? We got a pizza, and she only managed to eat one small slice."

"Maybe she was just nervous about eating too much in front of you?"

"Maybe. We saw the movies. There was this girl that I knew that was there too."

"Clara Townsend?"

"Yeah, Clara. Anyway, she sat with us and the two of them talked a lot during the first movie. Clara left after the first movie was over though, to go sit somewhere else. We watched the other movie and then went over to Frank's, but every seat was taken, so we went to Pepe's. After we ate, we came back here. It was before one o'clock."

"That tells me what you did, Larry. How did it go?"

"I think, Jane was a little disappointed because I had Clara come talk to her, and explain about her being there like that."

"I don't think she was disappointed, Larry. In fact, she was quite happy this morning, even while she was working on cleaning up her brother's pig sty. So happy, in fact, that it worried me. It made me wonder what had happened to make her feel so chirpy in the morning."

"I don't know. She said several times that she had to clean Bill's room for a month, in order to get him to say it was all right for her to go out with me. She sounded like she wished she hadn't agreed to do it."

"Something about all this is making me nervous, Larry. Were you a gentleman with her?"

"I didn't even hold her hand in the movies. After we ate at Pepe's, we walked straight home. I did kiss her once, on the steps in front of your house, and a couple of other times when we were walking home, but I wasn't pushy or bold with her. I didn't do anything to make her upset with me."

"I never said you did, Larry. She never mentioned anything like that either. Maybe she was happy because she had gotten through her first date?"

"I guess. It certainly wasn't because of anything that I did."

"You're too modest. Jane has been on the telephone all morning, probably with every friend that she has. She seems to always manage to mention that she was out on a date with you, Larry, a really cute high school boy, I think that's how she usually described you."

"Did she mention my 'dancer's butt'?"

"No, I don't believe I heard her talking about that. I did hear her mention something else, a different part of your anatomy, though. I keep hoping that I just heard her wrong. If I didn't hear her wrong, then you weren't being completely candid with me before. I would prefer to think that my hearing is getting a little less acute due to my age."