In the car, I looked in the back seat where Camille was sitting. "Milla?"
Camille grinned. "My mother’s side of the family calls me that."
"Would that make me Jimma, then?" I giggled.
"Very funny."
Patty looked over to me from her driving. "Jimma," she said, looking at me. "Interesting name."
I just grinned at Patty.
The rain was starting to let up as we got to Wendy’s house. Wendy’s mother had already left for work.
"Hi, guys," Wendy said as she answered her door.
Patty returned the greeting. "Hi, Wendy. We figured we’d hang out here, if you don’t mind."
Wendy shrugged. "Mom wants me to do the grocery shopping today. We need cold cuts, so I’ll need to shop first before we have lunch."
I felt some money in my back pocket. "Um, what if I treat my friends to lunch? We could go, maybe, to Vaughn’s." Vaughn’s was a combination ice cream and fast food place just outside the mall, in a shopping center that also had a grocery store.
Patty looked at me, curiously. "You have money for Vaughn’s?"
I smiled. "Courtesy of our favorite Princess Bitch!"
Camille and Wendy started laughing. "You didn’t!" said Wendy.
"Yup." I started singing an old Louis Prima song my parents used to play, "Just a Gigolo…"
"My god!" Camille said. "You got her to pay you yesterday?"
I nodded, self-satisfied. "Uh, huh!"
Patty raised an eyebrow. "You should be saving your money, Jim. Not spending it on us."
I said, confidently, "There’s more where that came from."
Patty gave me another of her looks, one that indicated that she might be thinking that I was going to go into the Male Prostitute business. I hadn’t yet told her about my arrangement with Kristen.
I simply shrugged off Patty’s look.
Wendy looked at me admiringly. "You really are something else, Jim."
"Are you going to keep us standing in the rain, Wendy?" I asked.
Wendy, realizing that she was being less than the perfect hostess, invited the three of us in.
We removed our coats and shoes in Wendy’s foyer, and sat around the living room.
"So," Wendy said, once we were all sitting comfortably. "What’s new?"
"Guess what?" Camille asked.
"What?" Patty answered.
Camille was grinning. "Guess who called me last night?"
Wendy suggested, "Jack from the soccer team?"
Camille shook her head. "Nah. Not a boy. Jackie!"
Patty said, "You mean, Jackie as in Kristen’s gang?"
Camille nodded her head. "Uh, huh. She said that Kristen stood up her and a few of her friends yesterday at the mall. And afterward, Kristen had called her gang up, sounding quite strange, and saying things like maybe they could be nicer to other people."
Patty was overjoyed. "YES! She listened to me! Yeah!"
I nodded, never doubting for one minute the power of the tickets.
Patty then looked serious. "I got a call last night. My mom said it was a girl, but when I got on, there was nobody there. Nobody called back, either. I figured it was a wrong number. Maybe Kristen’s gang is calling us to tell us that they will treat us nice and whoever it was got cold feet."
Camille nodded. "Maybe. Or it could have been a wrong number."
Wendy looked at me and said, "You said that Kristen paid you yesterday?"
I nodded.
"May I ask how much?"
I thought about it, and finally said, "I don’t think a gentleman should answer that question."
Patty gave a weak smile at me, but still had a look of concern. I knew that I would have to have a talk with her later to assure her that Kristen was just a special case.
Wendy accepted my reluctance to answer, and changed the subject. "You know who called me last night? Gerry!"
"The guy that plays the guitar?" Camille asked, eager for juicy gossip.
Actually, I knew a guitar player named Gerry from my experiences with the high school band (my music teacher occasionally "loaned" me out to help out with stuff like school musicals). He was quite talented and had a band and everything. I didn’t know Gerry’s last name, so I couldn’t ask if it was the same person.
"Uh, huh," Wendy said. "Like, I’ve been trying to get him to notice me for MONTHS…"
"Anybody with eyes will notice you, Wendy," Camille said. This remark was met with laughs at Wendy’s expense, confirming to me that the girls were talking about Wendy’s large breasts.
The girls dropped into what I guess was typical female gossip. I wasn’t too interested in this, but after a few minutes, I realized that I must have passed some sort of milestone in my friendship. I was probably the first guy that these girls would ever discuss such things around. I tried to follow the conversation, but it kept jumping around. I was feeling all too happy to be trusted like this to interrupt them.
After about a half hour, I noticed that Patty was looking at me occasionally. And then I noticed that she pointedly started drawing me into their conversation, trying to get my opinions on things.
The girls were talking about another of their classmates, a girl named Sally. She was dating a guy that had graduated a couple of months ago. Patty was saying, "I can’t see why Sally would think that Kevin would be faithful to her, especially with him over three hundred miles away. What do girls see in older guys, anyway? I kind of like them younger."
"Younger?" asked Camille. "How about Steve? Isn’t he a hunk?"
"Brainless, mindless jock," spat Patty. "I had my fill of them for a lifetime. I want somebody like Jim, here."
All three girls looked at me. Quickly, I protested, "I thought you want me just as a friend, Patty."
"Not you, necessarily," Patty said. "I said, like you. I want somebody smart, mature, and definitely not a jock."
"Hey!" I said in mock protest.
Camille giggled, "Jimma Not-A-Jock. I like the sound of that!" Patty and Camille giggled at that.
"Jimma?" asked Wendy, confused.
"Jim heard Mom call me 'Milla. And he suggested that we call him Jimma."
"No, I didn’t!" I said.
"Aww, poor Jimma!" said Patty, moving over to me. "Is Cammie hurting your feelings?"
"Hey!" Camille said, "You’re the one that said that Jimma wasn’t a jock!"
"Let’s kiss and make up," Patty said, nuzzling my cheek. "There, Jimma. Feel better now?"
Camille and Wendy both decided to get in on the action.
Wendy said, "Jimma. I like that." She kissed me on my left cheek.
"Yeah, Jimma," mocked Camille, who lightly brushed Patty aside to kiss my right cheek. "And it looks like Jimma Junior likes the attention, huh?" Camille had her hand on my crotch, which was starting to react to the proximity of the three girls nuzzling me.
Camille wasn’t dumb. "Aww, Jimma’s little friend seems to be all cooped up in here. Think we should let him out?"
Patty gave me a questioning look to as if to ask if I had any of the girls under the control of my tickets. I simply shrugged at her. I had no idea what had gotten into Camille.
Camille turned to Patty. "Well, Patty. Do we get to see Jimma’s little buddy? Or do you want to hog him all for yourself?"
"Hog him?" Patty asked.
"Uh, huh," Wendy agreed.
Patty blushed as she realized her friends knew that the two of us had more than a non-physical friendship.
Camille, said, "You said not Jimma, but like him. So, he’s not yours?"
Patty said, "No. I mean…" She blushed as she tried to get the words out.
Camille and Wendy let me go.
Camille said, "Oh, pooh! Patty, we’re just teasing you and Jimma here." She went to hug her friend, and Wendy did likewise.