Binding 13

"Thirteen," I muttered under my breath as I held her to my chest and patted her back.

"Holy Mary Mother of God," she sobbed harder, clearly hearing me.

Shit.

Balls.

"I am a virgin," I continued to say over and over while my mother cried into my school jumper. "I'm saving myself for marriage, Ma."

"It's the rugby," she sobbed, fisting my jumper. "I blame the bleeding rugby for this."

"For what?"

"For you losing your i

No, Ma, my dick led me astray when puberty kicked in...

"And she's in your bedroom," Mam wailed, dropping her head against my chest again. "Oh, dear god."

"Because you brought her here, Ma, not me," I replied as I continued to rub her back. "Let's say, for argument's sake, that I was with Sha

"Because I was still under the impression that you were a virgin when I brought her over here, wasn't I?" Mam huffed, slapping my chest. "I thought you were having your first crush. I thought I was catching you in time."

Fair point.

"Ma, I'm almost eighteen," I tried to comfort her by saying. "You were married to Da by the time you were eighteen."

"That's different," she sobbed.

"How?"

"Because you're my baby," Mam sniffled. "Oh, god, my baby is sexually active."

"No, I'm not," I coaxed, hugging her. "I promise, I am not having sex." Right now. "I'm not, Ma."

"Are you at least being safe?" she choked out, looking up at me with big, tear-filled, brown eyes.

"I'm playing bleeding PlayStation with the girl," I strangled out. "Shouldn’t that tell you how safe I'm being?"

"That's true." Mam nodded and sniffled.

I sighed. "Thank you."

"So, I don’t have to worry, do I?" she added. "Being safe?" She sniffled. "Using –oh, dear god, condoms –"

"No, Ma, you don’t have to worry because I am not having sex," I stuck to the story by saying, and pulled her back to my chest. "So just relax."

How the hell did I get myself into this situation?

What was my life coming to?

In the space of one day, I had upset no less than three females.

The one that created me by telling her that I was no longer an i

The one that used me by telling her via text message to fuck off.

And the one that blew my fucking mind.

Jesus Christ, my dick had a lot to answer to.

To be fair, I didn’t think I actually upset Sha

"Ma," I said after a solid ten minutes of her sniffling on my chest. "I'm going to have to go back up to Sha

"Okay, love," she sniffled. "You won't do anything–"

"No, Ma," I coaxed, freeing myself from her hold and standing up. "I won't lay a finger on her because we are just friends, and I am a virgin."

"I know you're not," she croaked out. "But I'm trusting you to do the right thing."

"You can trust me, because nothing is happening between us," I repeated for the millionth time. "But I need to take a shower because I'm fucking soaked, so I'm going to use your bathroom, okay?" I moved for the door only to turn back and say, "Call me when it's time to pick up your demented dogs."

"About that," Mam sniffled.

"You lied, didn’t you?" I gave her an accusing glare. "You don’t have to pick Bo

Of course, she lied.

One look at her sheepish expression and it was plain to see.

"You meddler," I accused.

"You sexer," Mam shot back in a tone as equally accusing.

For fuck's sake.

I wasn’t going to win here.

Holding my hands up in defeat, I hurried out of the kitchen before she drowned me in a fresh batch of tears.