Chapter 10: The Virgin Circus

"I'm really looking forward to seeing your school, Tiffany," Dr. Hanson said from behind the steering wheel. "Aren't you, Amber?"

"Absolutely, Daddy!" she agreed happily, smiling at me in the fading light of the setting sun. "I feel like we're practically sisters."

"Well, it's so nice to finally meet you," Mom said as she looked over her shoulder. "Your father talks about you all the time."

"My favorite topic, I'm afraid," Dr. Hanson chuckled.

"I don't believe that," Amber said with a smile for my mom. "His favorite topic is someone else these days."

"Oh!" Mom blushed and gave Dr. Hanson her adoring eyes and I thought she looked ten years younger.

"You guys look great together," Amber sighed as she reached for my hands, giving me a squeeze. "Don't you think so, Tiffany?"

"Yeah," I nodded and that wasn't a lie, I just felt really ... distracted. I hadn't expected Amber to be coming along with us to the Virgin Circus.

"You're so nervous," she said softly, leaning close enough to press her firm breasts against me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied innocently, doing my best to smile as I chanced a look at her beautiful face.

In the front seat of Dr. Hanson's large BMW, he and my mom were talking about the weather of all things. Probably they just wanted to act cool in front of the kids, you know? Like play it down or whatever. But any time they were together it was totally obvious how they felt about each other.

I wondered if my feelings were so obvious as well. I felt like we were on a first date or something, except I'd never been on any date before in my life, so ... Was this a date? Amber wouldn't let go of my hand. She held it in my lap, rubbing her thumb across my skin and squeezing my fingers gently. Why did that feel so good? It was just my hand, you know? It shouldn't have felt like anything, but it did ... I just didn't know what or why.

"You look really great," she whispered. "You don't have anything to worry about."

"I know," I said, looking down to avoid her eyes and seeing her fingers entwined with mine.

"You're gonna be the hottest girl in school tonight," Amber giggled, leaning her head even closer, enough so I could feel her strawberry blonde hair against my cheek.

"It's just a fund raiser thing," I told her. "Not like the prom or anything."

"Yeah," she shrugged, breathing the words into my ear, "but everyone's going to see you, Tiff. You're so beautiful."

"Ummm..." I laughed nervously.

"All the other girls will be so jealous," she continued. "The boys are gonna want you so bad."

"I just, um ... Oh!" I shivered as I felt the tip of her tongue flick across my ear.

"You're gonna own that school tonight," Amber promised and I had no idea what she meant by that.

"What are you two whispering about back there?" Dr. Hanson wondered with a good natured smile.

"Nothing!" I answered quickly. Too quickly and Mom turned her head to look at me.

"We're just picking out colors, Daddy," Amber said and she liked to play the little girl for him, I'd noticed, but I did the same thing sometimes. Probably all daughters do that.

"Colors?" Mom looked between us with a curious smile.

"For your bridesmaids," Amber grinned at her. "We're thinking pink."

"Oh!" Mom really blushed then and turned around quickly.

"Amber..." her father warned the girl, "be nice."

"Just being practical," she said with a giggle. "Somebody around here has to plan ahead."

Dr. Hanson offered my mom an affectionate smile and let the subject go. He hadn't even proposed to her yet, at least not officially, and they'd only been dating for about a month. But they did seem awfully perfect for each other.

"You're pretty good at that," I whispered, kind of admiring how easily Amber handled her dad. My mom too, for that matter.

"Lots of practice," she whispered back with a scrunch of her nose. "It's true anyway."

"What's true?"

"Pink is our color," she said and stole her very first kiss from my glossy pink lips.

It had only been a quick one, just a peck, but I felt so warm after that kiss, inside and out. We rode the rest of the way in silence, holding hands and listening to our parents talk about trivial things. Our parents. Our color. What did it mean? And Amber was right about one thing, she did feel like a sister to me and I wished very much that she really was ... It might have made things so much simpler.

The Virgin Circus wasn't a circus at all, that's just the clever name Carol Hahn had suggested. There'd been about a dozen suggestions for what to call our little fund raiser and the whole school had voted on the best one. In the end Carol's had won and I'd helped put up the big banner that said, "Welcome to the Virgin Circus!"

Yeah. It was pretty special.

"Where's the kissing booth?" Amber teased me and I giggled, feeling ... I dunno. Confused.

"It's a catholic school, remember?"

"Too bad," she grinned. "You coulda made a lot of money from me."

That made me blush and I gave Amber kind of a petulant smile, wanting to tease her back. I couldn't imagine her ever paying for a kiss though, not even for charity.

I mean, Amber was just ... Amber. She looked kinda really amazing just wearing a pair of red leather hipsters and a black silk blouse, like a short sleeved shirt with only three small buttons to guard her braless breasts. It didn't hide her belly button at all, or her tummy and those incredible abs. The girl had a sexy six pack, you know? She wasn't Ms. Universe or anything, but she could have been one of those girls on TV every morning working out on a beach in Hawaii. Amber had a real body and she liked showing it off.

Throw her strawberry blonde hair and emerald eyes into the mix, along with her upturned nose, bee stung lips, and dimples and freckles, and ... Yeah. Amber. But none of that would have been enough to make me like her, you know? A person is more than just a great body and a pretty face, or at least they should be, and I don't think Amber was vain or even impressed with her looks. More like she was just ... amused.

"Hey Tiffany!" Jenny found me right away, like she'd been waiting for me to show up. "Wow!"

"Hi ... What?" I narrowed my eyes as my friend looked me up and down.

"Nothing," she said and then looked at Amber. "Who's your friend?"

Jenny hated Amber immediately, I could tell, and I braced myself for the worst.

"Oh, um ... This is Amber," I said, glancing between the two of them, "and this is my friend, Jenny."

"Hi," Amber said. "Nice shoes."

I looked down at Jen's feet, but she just wore a pair of brown sandals to go with kind of a boring brown dress. Jen was a cute girl, definitely, but she really needed help getting dressed sometimes. Probably because it was just her and four boys at home. Jenny's mom had run off with her gynecologist a few years before. Or maybe her dentist? I could never remember.

"Best friend," Jen told Amber.

"Huh?" Amber tilted her head with a curious smile.

"I'm Tiffany's best friend," she repeated, sorta looking like she wanted to hear Amber try to deny it.

"Well, yeah," I nodded quickly. "That's what I meant."

"Somebody's a little jealous," Amber whispered in my ear.

"We better, uh ... Let's go this way," I suggested. "See ya later, Jen."

"Hold on," she stopped me. "Jeremy's here someplace. He's looking for you." Jen shot a catty smile at Amber. "Tiff's going out with my brother, you know."

"Really?" Amber shrugged and looked around like she was bored.

"No, I'm not," I sighed. "Who's in the dunk tank?"

The gymnasium was pretty crowded and we stood near the main doors, but from somewhere on the other side I'd heard a metal clang sorta sound, a big splash, and a loud cheer.

"Monsignor Harden," Jen told me with a grin, forgetting about Amber for a second.

"Oh yeah?" I grinned back at her. "I gotta see that!"

"Hey Tiffany!" and "Hi Tiff!" turned my head and I saw Katie and Sandy standing there.

"Check it out!" Carol sorta squeezed between them and spread her arms. "They made t-shirts!"

She wore a big yellow t-shirt with "Virgin Circus" printed across the front, giggling happily because it had been her idea, like I said.

"What are you all dressed up for?" Sandy asked me and I rolled my eyes.

My friends were checking out Amber as well and wondering who she was, so I made all the introductions and basically felt kind of out of place, you know? Like we were in a zoo, on the wrong side of the bars. Everyone that walked past looked at us, staring at me or blinking at Amber. Men especially, like the fathers of all the girls I went to school with. Some of them sorta bumped into each other and I saw one guy, Erin's dad, get a serious elbow from his wife. Ouch! But he deserved it too. The man was practically drooling on his shoes.

"Tiffany! Hi!" Jeremy found me and I kinda groaned inwardly, but managed to smile at him.

"Hey Jeremy," I nodded as my friends kind of faded into the background the way shy girls do around boys they like. You know, giggling and whispering and trying to get his attention without begging for it, but he only had eyes for me.

"Hi," he repeated and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah," I said. "Hi."

Amber laughed lightly and Jeremy glanced at her, but that was all. A college coed, a really hot one standing two feet away from him, and Jeremy didn't even blink? He just stared at me and I think that was the very second I started to believe that maybe he really did love me.

"I was hoping you'd be here," he said. "I wanted to ask if we were still on for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I blinked at him and Amber cleared her throat. "Oh! Jeremy, this is my friend, Amber."

"Hi there," Amber said, giving Jeremy a teasing finger wave.

"Hi," he smiled politely, but he didn't even check out her tits! He just smiled quickly and then looked at me. "Yeah. We're going ice skating, right?"

"Ice skating? Oh! Um..." I giggled nervously. "I remember we talked about it, but ... I don't think I can make it tomorrow, Jeremy."

"After lunch," he said in a gentle, cajoling voice. "Come on. It'll be fun, I promise. I'll pick you up, okay?"

"Pick up who?" Josh Hawkins slapped his younger brother on the back. "Hey! Tiffany?"

He looked at me like he'd never seen a girl a before, but I'd been to their house plenty of times with Jenny. I'd grown up living two blocks away from them and Josh was a senior, eighteen years old and pretty much one of the hottest guys around. All three of the Hawkins brothers were seriously cute and that included the youngest, Jared, who appeared right on cue.

"What's going on?" he smiled at us, especially at Amber. She'd grabbed Josh's attention as well and I didn't mind.

"Who's your friend, Tiff?" Josh wondered, doing the man thing and standing as straight as he could, shoulders back, stomach in, you know. Except Josh had a pretty tight body anyway and didn't need to pose at all. All three of them were built pretty solid, actually.

I made introductions ... again, but at least I could avoid Jeremy's interest for the moment. Sandy and Katie were trying to get Jared's attention and Carol kept making happy faces at Josh, and Jen was in love with Jeremy ... None of my friends were really happy with Amber, I didn't think, or with me for bringing her, and I figured I'd hear about it first thing Monday morning.