Chapter 7

After that unfortunate event the day began to wind down. Most of the girls had missed the action as they were inside the shop, (Jodie was one of these) and so the three girls who had been behind Christian and I, regaled the others with the story of how the idiot had attacked rob and I'd put him down hard.

Of course their retelling took almost half an hour and by then they'd managed to completely psycho-analyse the idiot and come to the startling conclusion that ... he was an idiot.

Rob, Christian and I meanwhile were bonding over the experience as guys tend to. Rob was upset that he didn't get a chance to hit the idiot while Christian it seemed was glad he hadn't had to get involved but it was clear he would have if he had too.

Though I couldn't have known it at the time, this one fight led to a friendship between Christian and myself that has lasted years. An experience like that really brings people together.

I'm sure there is a really clever reason a psychologist could give you for why men bond over being in fights, but I only got a C in A-level psychology. As such I can only guess that it's some kind of animal instinct we aren't aware of. It seems to me that when you're in a fight with someone it's kind of the ultimate pledge of friendship. For a second it's as if it's you and them against the rest of the world, in truth it's just a group of stupid teenagers but at that moment it seems much bigger.

That fight showed me I could rely on Rob and Christian and they would be there for me, Christian literally had my back while Rob was ready to leap to my defence if I had needed it. That really cemented our budding friendship.

Of course the girls thought we were just being stupid macho idiots getting excited over a little scuffle. They were probably right, but to us it seemed important.

I could tell once Jodie had heard the full story because she immediately gave me this look, and I swear I shall remember how she looked at me that moment until the day I die.

In one look she managed to convey so many things. There was clear pride in my actions and a sort of smugness that one gets when they guessed an answer correctly, I had the feeling that I'd just managed to live up to her estimates of my character. I had succeeded in impressing her, but more importantly it was easy to see that there was something else there too, a fondness mixed with lots of lust.

I thought that I had detected a bit of lust for me earlier but now I was certain, the way she was looking at me that my not so pure feelings toward her were returned.

While I was quite excited at the prospect of any kind of intimacy with Jodie, I nonetheless found the idea that we might have sex very intimidating. Being a virgin I was hardly well versed in pleasing a woman, and of course I wanted our first time to be amazing. The odds of that happening of nothing more than book knowledge were quite slim I knew.

Another thing that made me very nervous was the possibility that as a very beautiful and desirable girl Jodie probably didn't have the same lack of opportunities as I had. And though I had never heard anything about her being 'with' anyone, it was probable that she was more experienced than me.

Of course if she was more experienced than me then she might have high expectations! How could I measure up when the most exciting point of my sex life to date had been getting a feel of a girls boob over her top?

Evidently my sudden bout of doubts and fear had shown on my face as Gemma leaned over and softly squeezed my thigh as she whispered in my ear.

"She's never been with a guy before, Michael. She wanted to save it for someone who would actually care for her. And she chose you. Just be honest and talk about things, you'll learn."

She squeezed my thigh again in re-assurance and winked at Jodie, who clearly knew what she had said if her blush was any indication.