Chapter 9: Being Prepared

It turned out that I was wrong about something else that afternoon, too, since it wasn't Kayla that I was with when I opened up my first condom.

Josh and I went back over to his house after we left the drug store. We went upstairs to look for a good hiding place for his rubbers, someplace neither his parents nor his sisters would look. He finally decided to open up the box and hide the packets in some of his balled-up socks in the back of his underwear drawer. He also tucked two into his wallet. "For emergencies," he pronounced seriously.

"Emergencies!" I howled, and laughed until I cried. "At least I know who I can come to in case of emergency," I said, wiping tears from my eyes.

"Hey, you guys," came a voice from the doorway. "What's so funny in there?" Josh's twin sister Molly stuck her head in the room. "Hi, Sean. What are you guys laughing so hard about?"

"Nothing," grumbled Josh. "Just some guy stuff you wouldn't understand."

"Guy stuff? That sounds like a convenient excuse just to not even try to explain," said Molly with a grimace. "Come on, give it up. What are you guys doing?" She stepped into the room and stared us both down. She was dressed in a halter-top and shorts that left her midriff bare. Why is it that a bare midriff on a fit, young female is such an aphrodisiac? I couldn't stop looking at her.

To compensate for my suddenly tight shorts, I sat down on the bed, crossed my arms, and openly stared at her.

"Christ, Molly, why is it that only girls can have secret stuff to talk about? Sean and I were just bullshitting. Really. We weren't talking about anything in particular."

"Yeah, right," she replied sarcastically. "Just bullshitting. Well, I know that's what you're doing now, to me, anyway."

I decided that I would let the two stubborn Irish kids butt heads for a while. No sense sticking my nose in and getting it bent, I thought as I sat back to enjoy the fireworks.

I had known both Josh and Molly since about the second grade, and they both had flashpoint tempers that could go off at any time. Both, however, were just as quick to get over it, and to the best of my knowledge neither of them had ever carried a grudge away from any argument they had been a part of. Their fiercest fights were with each other, as was to be expected of brothers and sisters. But, they also were the first to jump to each other's defense if someone else was involved. It was a little complicated for a dumb jock like me to figure out, so I usually let these things run their course with no interference. I figured that if I kept my mouth shut, I couldn't get into any trouble saying the wrong thing. It worked more often than not for me, and it worked this time, too.

Besides, just sitting and watching Molly while she was otherwise occupied was pleasure enough for me.

So there I sat, not paying any attention to what was being said, letting their voices wash over me while I contentedly watched Molly's skin flush with anger, when she suddenly reached out and grabbed the paper sack that held my purchase from the floor.

"Hey!" I shouted, reaching for the bag a fraction too slowly. Molly opened the bag and looked in, just out of my reach.

"And what do we have here?" she murmured as she pulled out the box of condoms. "Why, Sean, you little devil. Are these yours?" She looked at me coyly, with a big smile on her face.

"Sure," I said as bravely as I could. "They're mine. Of course, they're mine. Whose else would they be?" I sat back down again, feigning indifference that she had found them.

She looked at the sales receipt, and broke into a wide grin. "Well, well. It seems that you got these today, according to this receipt. And less than an hour ago, too." She put the receipt back in the bag and examined the box. "Hmmm... lubricated... medium... box of twelve..." She looked up at me, a gleam in her eyes. "How long do you think it's going to take you to use a dozen of these things? Or is this your yearly supply?"

I stood and grabbed the box out of her hands and roughly shoved it back into the bag. "Very funny, Moll. A year's supply, huh."

"Wait a minute!" she cried suddenly. "Now I understand! Josh, you are a sneaky one. If Sean just bought these, that means that you got some too, didn't you?" She walked over to his dresser and started opening drawers to search for them. "Where are they? Come on, Josh, show me."

Josh ran over and shoved his dresser drawers closed. "Cut it out, Molly," he said.

"I know you've got them here, Josh. Just show me where, I promise I won't tell anybody." She looked over at me, and moved toward me and leaned down to grab my hand to pull me up. "Come on, Sean, show me where he's keeping them."

I resisted, making her pull a little harder. Her halter top gapped at the top while she was bent toward me, giving me just the briefest glimpse of the pale shadow of her tan line at her breasts before the material tightened against her again as she pulled. She couldn't pull me up, so she dropped to her knees and clasped my hand to her bosom and batted her eyes at me. "Please, Sean? Show me? As a favor to me?"

A lot of evil thoughts played themselves out in my mind at her words as she clutched my hand to the swells of her chest. She was making it hard to think straight. I distractedly noticed that the tops of her tanned thighs were very lightly freckled.