That Boy

I've had the bra and panties for months now. They've just been sitting there in my drawer, waiting patiently. They've been there so long that every time I open the drawer, even they ask me when I'm finally going to do it. So after much deliberation, I have decided tonight is the night.

After many clothing changes and panicked calls to Lisa, she took pity on me and came over early. She did my makeup and I tried on more clothes, finally settling on a pair of low fitting, dark denim jeans, some obnoxiously high heeled black sandals that she scrounged around and found in Mom's closet and a shrunken raspberry cashmere sweater. I love the sweater. It feels so soft on my skin that I keep wanting to hug myself, but I suppose me feeling myself up would look a little weird, so I just keep petting the sleeve a little.

Lisa and I re-gloss our lips, make sure nothing unfortunate is hanging out of each other's noses, get out of the car, and head toward the party.

As usual, the Warner twins are in charge of the door.

The Warner twins, Gary and Larry, are seniors too. They come from a big farm family and, believe it or not, have siblings named, Cary, Barry, Harry, Mary, and Jerry.

Kinda SCARY…get it?

Scary rhymes too.

Oh, never mind.

They are both huge farm boys, about 300 pounds a piece, and the pipeline for our football team's offense. Basically they are so big that they'll either knock you down, or run you over like a pair of freight trains. To look at them you'd think big, tough, dumb as doorknobs, yet they are both at the top of our class academically, crazy practical jokers, and really just great big teddy bears. I love those guys.

Lisa and I say hi to the boys, hand them our money, and I ask, “Is Jake here yet? I didn't see his truck.”

Gary looks confused. “You're supposed to meet Jake here?”

The boys exchange pointed looks.

Larry looks me up and down and changes the subject, “Hey, you look hot tonight.” Then he gives his brother another weird glance.

“Thanks. What's going on? Come on boys, spill the beans.”

“Um, JJ. Gosh, I don't want to tell you this, but Jake is here, and um, well maybe I should start by telling you that I never liked Jake much,” Gary stammers.

I give him a frustrated look. “Keep going.”

He grimaces. “Alright, well, Jake is here, but he's with another girl.”

“Yeah, some slut from Park,” Larry pipes in.

Larry adds, with his hands cupped in front of his chest, “And she has got the biggest cans I have ever seen. And you can see the top part of those thong underwear thingys right here,” he says, turning and pointing down to his own side, “above her jeans, you know, like…”

“Lar-ry,” Gary interrupts, with a don't say stuff like that scorn to his brother.

Okay, my practical jokers. I'm not that gullible.

“Really?” I say, testing them. “So what does she look like?”

Gary and Larry look at me blankly, “We just told you, JJ,” Larry says.

“I mean her face, boys.”

They look at each other like they don't have a clue what her face looks like. I know it's a joke for sure.

“Look, I know you two, very fu

We head to the keg and find Phillip there. He hands Lisa a beer.

What a sweetie.

Phillip looks so cute tonight, in a deep purple polo shirt with a pair of those plaid patchwork shorts. Yes, I picked out his outfit. I must say, the dark purple color looks sooooo good on him. Phillip is really quite cute. And I know he wanted to look especially nice for this girl he has been talking to and, well, is hoping to hook up with tonight.

It makes me kinda wish I was wanting to hookup with an adorable boy like Phillip, rather than Jake.

But I'm not backing down, tonight is the night.

For better or worse because I seriously can not go to college a virgin.

I grab a red plastic cup, tilt it under the tap, and let him fill it with beer.

He whispers in my ear, “We need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Jake. He's here with another girl, and she's all over him. It's pretty obvious it's a date.”

Phillip touches my arm gently and tells me this news in hushed tones, like a doctor who just lost a patient would tell the family.

“Shut up, Phillip. You're just in on the twin's big joke, right?”

“Princess, I'm not joking. When did you and Jake break up anyway, and why didn't you tell me?” He looks at me closer and says sweetly, “You look gorgeous, by the way.”

I melt slightly because that is exactly the look I was going for, and then I say very seriously, “Phillip, we did so not break up. I am, or was, supposed to meet him here tonight. We spoke about it just a few hours ago. I mean I didn't tell Jake, but I decided tonight is the night.”

But in my mind, I wonder. I really don't think Phillip would joke about something like this. Honestly, he would probably tell me about the joke, so I could play along. I look at the ground, the reality of what this could be is sinking in. “You're serious?”

“Come over here.” He takes my hand and guides me away from the keg and everyone's ears.

“Let me get this straight. He didn't break up with you? He told you to meet him here and then brought another girl to the party? That's it. I'm going to kill him.”

“Phillip, calm down. Are you sure he brought her?”

I'm thinking this can't possibly be true, yet at the same time there's this sinking feeling in my stomach. “Maybe she's just over there trying to pick him up. That happens sometimes. Girls like Jake. I'll just walk over and see what's going on. Surely, there's a logical explanation for this.”

I turn to walk toward Jake. Phillip grabs my arm. “There's not a logical explanation for this. They came here together, I saw them. The boys up front were really pissed about it, but they thought you must have come to your senses and broke up with the loser. They figured he brought her to try to make you jealous. Plus, he's been kissing her like crazy.” He sighs. “Well at least one good thing will come out of this.”

“What's that?”

“You NOT doing it with Jake.”

I roll my eyes at that boy. He has always been very much against my doing it with Jake. He told me if I wanted to lose it that bad, I should do it with a friend, a guy that would at least treat me right, but I can't go asking Joey or Dillion to just do me.

How awkward would that be?

So then Phillip made me a pros and cons list, well I should say a cons list, I had to add the pros because he couldn't come up with any pros for Jake.

Maybe he was sort of right after all.

“Where are they, anyway?”

He leans next to me and points, “Over there, on the other side of the bonfire. Can you see him?”

I follow his point with my eyes and say sadly, “Yeah. God, she really does have big boobs.”

Phillip looks at me sympathetically. “You know what? He's not worth it. Let's go, get you out of here. We'll go get some ice-cream, or pizza, or something.”

Like ice cream could fix this mess. Well, it can fix just about anything, hmm. You know, it might be worth a try.

No. I need to get to the bottom of this first. Plus, that wouldn't be fair to Phillip. Even though he's going to Prom with Carrie Sadler, I know he was hoping to hook up with Megan Masters tonight.

“Phillip, let me be clear about this. I'm not going anywhere until I talk to Jake.”

I think.

“Why would you do that?” Phillip asks me, like it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard in his entire life.

“Because I think I deserve to know what the hell's going on. Don't I? Wouldn't you want to know?”