Jim went a little pale.
“Damn! She’d castrate me. Okay, how about this? I’ll be a loving and supportive brother until she leaves.”
“Deal, you’re in.” I should have been a little further away. He grabbed me, put me in a bear hug, and swung me around like a doll.
“You snooze! You lose, suckers!” Jim yelled.
Not the most gracious winner, but he was happy. I sent Tami a text confirming the list.
I had some happy boys on my hands. I also had an unhappy girl, Gina. Now that I knew her better, I knew what the problem was. In her eyes, everything was either black or white. Either I was with Kara or I wasn’t. I got up and walked over to her end of the table.
“Come with me. We need to talk,” I said.
I thought she was going to refuse, but Alan told her, “Go with David.”
We walked out to the side of the building. It was set up like a little park, with benches and walkways. I led her over to a big oak tree, and we sat down on the ground. I used a trick my mom uses on me.
“What are you mad about?”
That was all she needed to get started on me.
“You make me so mad. I work to find the perfect guy for my sister, only to find out that you’re planning some kind of sex trip. It’ll break her heart to find out that you plan on cheating on her. It turns out you’re like every other horny teenage boy, and I thought you were different.”
She seemed to slow down.
“Gina, you have to stop making assumptions. You make it sound like Kara’s my girlfriend. We’ve been on exactly one date.”
“But you guys are together.”
“Let me ask you something. After your first date with Alan, if I asked you out, would you have gone?”
She went scarlet red. I could almost feel the heat come off her face.
“I’ll take it that as a ‘yes.’ How long did it take before you considered Alan your boyfriend?”
Gina finally looked me in the eyes.
“Would you really have asked me out?”
Oh hell, that took a nasty turn. I needed to be careful here.
“Not if I thought you and Alan had a chance. Now I couldn’t even if you two broke up. Alan’s one of my best friends.”
“What if Alan was fine with it?”
“No. Alan might say the words, but I know him. It would ruin our friendship.” I took a deep breath. “When did you know Alan was your boyfriend?”
“I think it was our fifth date.”
“So what’s different for Kara and me? Don’t you think we need more than one date before we’re going together?”
“But you had sex with her.”
“Gina, do you understand that sex and love are not the same thing?”
“But you’re talking about having sex with other girls.”
“Kara already knows I have sex with other girls.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Yes, she does. You told her about Suzanne. For the life of me, I don’t understand why you and Alan felt like sharing that with anyone. Anyways, Kara knows that I’m sexually active. She’s also a very smart girl. I bet if you asked her, she’d tell you that she suspects I’ll have sex with more than one person while she’s gone. Do you think she might have sex while she’s gone?”
Gina was biting her lower lip.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but she might. David, this is so confusing.”
“Gina, Kara and I are friends. Someday we may be more than just friends, but for right now, we both have agreed that we need a friend more than we need a relationship. Let me ask you this: you and I are friends. Does it bother you that I sleep with other girls?”
“Yes.”
I laughed.
“Okay, I get it. You have a crush on me. Let me ask it another way: if I sleep with someone, are we still going to be friends afterwards?”
I could tell she didn’t want to answer, but she did.
“Yes.”
“Am I the biggest slut you know?”
“Lisa Felton might be a bigger slut than you, but you’re in the top two.”
“I’m hurt. I thought I was the biggest slut you knew.” I gave her my fake pout. “So, if I’m one of the top two sluts you know, why would you want to go out with me?”
She shook her head.
“Oh, no you don’t, I’m not falling for that.”
“Come on, Gina, baby. I know how you like to look at my body. I’ll take my shirt off, and you can rub your hands all over me.”
She giggled.
“Oh my God! You are the biggest slut I know!”
“Whew, I thought I was losing my title. Are you still mad at me?”
“No, but take your shirt off.”
I didn’t hesitate. I pulled it off and dared her to touch me. She drank me in, but she didn’t take the bait.
“You tease. Put your damn shirt back on before I do something stupid.”
We walked back into the cafeteria laughing, and she even gave me a hip-bump before we got back to the table. Alan was smiling when he saw we’d worked things out.
“So, you two okay?” He asked.
“Yep, your girlfriend has a weird way of making up. Does she make you take your clothes off, too?”
The table suddenly went quiet, and their heads looked like they were following a tennis match. Gina looked like she’d been caught, but Alan knew I was toying with him.
“I wish. She makes me massage her feet.”
Speak of the devil. My competition for biggest slut was walking by. Gina saw her and got an evil glint in her eye.
“Lisa, I need your help.”
The poor girl looked confused, but she stopped to talk to Gina.
“David contends that I talked him out of his shirt. I contend that he’s an exhibitionist and will do it if anyone asks. I’ve seen him take it off for Luke in the middle of Monical’s. Can you ask him, so everyone’ll know the truth?”
She put her tray down and walked up to me.
“Okay, Big Boy, take it off for me.”
I pulled my shirt off, and Lisa wasn’t shy about touching.
“Oh, hell yes, if I’d known that was all it took to get you to take your clothes off, I’d have asked a long time ago. You have muscles on muscles. There should be a rule that you’re not allowed to wear a shirt to school.”
Lisa was cute in a slutty way. Today she wore knee-high white stockings with a plaid skirt and a pink top that exposed her belly button. It was obvious that she wasn’t wearing a bra. She was a small girl, at five-two and weighing maybe a hundred pounds. She had long, straight brown hair.
I looked her in the eyes. It was time to prove to Gina who was the bigger slut.
“Lisa, you keep rubbing on me like that, you better be ready to back it up.”
“Big Boy, I’ll do you right here.”
The lunchroom made a collective gasp. I might have bitten off more than I could chew.
“Guys, move your trays. We’re going to do it right here.”
Gina burst out laughing when Lisa’s eyes bugged out and she bolted for the door. Gina gave me a high five.
“You’re such a competitive guy. What were you going to do when she crawled up on the lunch table?”
“I guess I would’ve had to do it.”
“You’re my number-one slut,” Gina conceded. “Anyone disagree with that?”
Alan gave me a dirty look.
“Put your shirt back on before my girlfriend takes Lisa’s place on the table.”
I waggled my eyebrows at Gina, and she made a lunge at me. Alan acted as if he had to pull her off.
“Alan please, let me have my toy,” she whined. She got an evil look in her eyes. “Get him, girls.”
Pandemonium broke out as all the girls around us made a grab for me. I darted out of the lunchroom, laughing. I got to the door and yelled back.
“Okay, Gina, you won this round. I’ll be back for a rematch.”
LAST PERIOD I WENT to my math class and found Mrs. Sinclair waiting for me. She didn’t say a word and handed me the test. I sat down and read the first question. Wow, if I hadn’t worked with Suzanne to understand the concept, I would never have gotten that one. As I worked through the test, I slowly realized that technically, it was from our classwork, but each question was geared so that you had to take the concepts presented and take them to the next level. Only a complete understanding of the concept would allow you to make the necessary leap to be able to get the correct answer. It took me the full hour to complete it.