Forever! Elaine closed her eyes and lay back on the bed. She tried to imagine Richie and her married. Of course, that wouldn’t happen for some time. After all, they weren’t even going steady…yet. But after tonight…
Elaine didn’t want to think about it. Maybe she was guessing wrong and he would not ask her. After all, they had only been dating seriously for a month. A month. It seemed like forever. She could not remember when she had been so happy. Richie Walters. It seemed like a dream come true.
Elaine had had a crush on Richie Walters since her sophomore year, but he had not even noticed her until this summer when they had both worked at the Empire Department Store. At first he had just talked with her at breaks or when he passed through her department. Her father, Dr. Harold Murray, knew the Empire’s store manager and he had gotten her the job for the summer. Richie had gotten his job the same way. They had joked about being rich and having pull. Elaine was sure, though, that Richie could have gotten any job he wanted on his own. He was so handsome. She loved his curly blond hair and blue eyes. His nose was so perfect. And he was so smart, so deep. Richie knew all about things. He had worked on President Kennedy’s campaign this fall and had actually met the President when he had campaigned in Portsmouth. She knew Richie had applied to a lot of colleges and was so smart that he could probably go where he wanted, but she hoped that he would choose State, where she was hoping to go. It would be hard to go steady and be separated. She knew that she would remain faithful, but…There she went again. He hasn’t even asked you, dope, she thought. Then, again, she was sure, positive, he would. Wendy Blair was going with Frank Coppella and Frank played football with Richie and was his best friend and he had told Wendy that Richie had been thinking about it and Richie had been acting funny this week.
Elaine pulled herself up and sat down again in front of her dressing table. She applied eyeliner and mascara and turned her head back and forth. She thought that she was pretty. Not beautiful like Alice Fay, the queen of last year’s prom, but pretty. And there were plenty of boys who thought so, too. She was a cheerleader and had been a princess in Alice’s court, so she was no wallflower.
Elaine slipped on a pair of white panties and hooked up her bra. Then she put on tan toreador slacks and a white blouse. She pulled a red and black ski sweater over the blouse. It had been a funny winter, she mused. Here it was, just after Thanksgiving, and it was not all that cold. That was fine with Elaine. She never did like the cold weather.
Elaine doublechecked her blouse and noticed that one of the buttons was undone. As she rebuttoned it she felt a thrill of excitement. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine Richie’s strong fingers unbuttoning the blouse, one button at a time. Very slowly and deliberately. Her mouth was suddenly dry and her stomach tight. Her nipples were growing taut beneath her bra and the friction between them and the cloth was not unpleasant.
Richie was a gentleman in every way, but he had the urges that all men had. Elaine had talked to her mother about sex and men. Her mother had told her to hold on to her virginity, because she would lose a man’s respect if she was too free. She had followed her mother’s advice even though it had been hard at times. Like when she was in Richie’s arms and he was caressing her breasts through her blouse. When he did that she just wanted to let him do it like he asked. But she was glad she had not given in yet. A woman’s body was a gift for the man she married. Her present to him. It would be so much better if they were married. And what her mother had said about respect was true. Look at the way the boys talked about Eleanor Strom behind her back and everyone knew how far you could get with her. But, tonight, she had made up her mind. Tonight, if he asked her to go steady, she would let him touch her breasts. It would only be fair and she would want him to have a reason to stay with her.
She looked at the clock. Holy cow, it was after eight and he would be here any minute. She slipped on a pair of tennis sneakers and looked at herself once more. Downstairs the doorbell was ringing.
Bobby Coolidge was standing in front of the mirror in the men’s room of Bob’s Hamburger Heaven, admiring himself. With great precision he raised the black plastic comb and drew it through his thick, greasy jet black hair. First, he swept the hair on the sides straight back. The hair on both sides of his head resembled wings and there was a little “tail” where the hair on each side joined behind his head. Bobby surveyed his work. A perfect duck’s ass if he had to say so himself. He twirled the curl that he had placed in the center of his forehead one more time. Presley never did it better, he thought.
“Lend me the comb when you’re through, greaseball,” his brother Billy said as he zipped the fly on his tight-fitting jeans.
“Just one second, man,” Bobby said. There had been a hair out of place on the left side of his head. He stepped back from the mirror and ran the comb through again. When he was satisfied, he rinsed off the comb and handed it to Billy.
Billy stepped in front of the mirror and Bobby leaned against the bathroom wall, taking a cigarette out of the pack he kept in one of the zippered pockets of his black leather jacket.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“What I don’t want to do is stick around this joint anymore tonight. That pussy Delores is giving me a pain.”
“The waitress with the pimples?”
Bobby nodded and Billy saw him in the mirror.
“The word’s out on her, Bobby. Harry Capri says she toots on the root.”
“Well, I got more class than Harry Capri. Do you ever see the pigs he goes out with?”
“Listen, Capri says she gives a hum job to the tune of Yankee Doodle and makes you come on the last note.”
“You’re full of shit.”
Billy shrugged.
“Would I lie to my own brother?”
“If she’s so hot, how come you ain’t made a play for her?”
“Too ugly. I save the ugly ones for you.”
Bobby laughed. He was lucky to have a brother who was also a good friend. The Coolidge brothers stuck together. They fought together. They screwed together. He smiled, took a drag on his cigarette and tried to picture Delores giving him a blow job. Nah, he couldn’t do it. Shit, he’d never be that horny.
Billy straightened up and handed Bobby his comb.
“You still didn’t answer me.”
“About what?”
“What to do.”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “We could crash Alice Fay’s party.”
“She having a party?” Bobby asked with interest.
“That’s what Rog says. We can ask him when we get back to the table.”
Billy pushed open the bathroom door and they wound their way through the usual tables of squares and teeny-boppers to their table in the far corner of the restaurant. Roger Hessey and Esther Freemont were eating their hamburgers and Esther, as usual, was finishing an extra shake. Bobby absentmindedly scratched his crotch when he looked at Esther. She had big tits, and Bobby liked big tits, and she wasn’t bad looking, either. All the same, she fucked anything that walked and Bobby’s personal opinion was that a good-looking guy like Hessey could do a lot better for himself. Also, she was a pain. She had a crush on Bobby and was always making cow eyes at him and giving him the big come-on. Bobby knew he could fuck her if he wanted, but he knew a broad as dumb as Esther wouldn’t keep his interest long and he couldn’t hack the big scene he knew would happen when he told her to get lost. He was also a little nervous, because he knew that Esther had stabbed a guy at Stuyvesant High who had tried something funny when she wasn’t in the mood and he didn’t want any of that scene. Nah, all in all, it was best to leave Esther alone. Now Alice Fay or Elaine Murray-there was class. Too bad they were such stuck-up bitches. He’d sure like to pop one of them.