CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Hey, Rosa, will you get a move on? I want to get to school."

"What’s your hurry?" she replied.

"I want to get there early."

Rosa grumbled, but she complied. We set out for school early—even earlier for Rosa, as the middle school started 15 minutes after the high school.

"So, what’s so important that we get there so early?" she asked as we walked.

"I need to talk to Cassie."

"I talked to Tanya on the phone this morning, said Cassie was weird last night. I also heard about those pictures. That was horrible."

"Yeah. Cassie was weird last night?"

"Yeah, Tanya said she thought Cass was going to start bawling a few times. I guess the pictures really got to her."

"Well, no, I don’t think that’s it," I said.

"Why, did something else happen?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, what?" she pressed.

"None of your business," I grinned. "Sorry, but it’s not."

"Hmmm," was all she said. Anyhow, we got to school, and she found some friends at the middle school who were there early. I, however, wasn’t so lucky. Cassie’s Mom pulled up and let her off at the last minute. The warning bell rang, and we had to go do the undressing thing right away.

"Hey," she smiled at me. "I owe you an apology. For yesterday."

"Uhm, well, I was willing, so what are you apologizing for?"

"Not that," she laughed. "I meant afterwards. I didn’t mean to kick you out, but that’s what it sounded like. I’m sorry."

"Don’t worry about it." Then, we had to strip and head inside.

I sleepwalked through my next two classes, until history. She sat down next to me and smiled. However, before we could say anything, Mr. Riley, the teacher, came in.

We had been studying World War Two, and were talking about the Battle of Stalingrad. Mr. Riley had this map set for WWII, it was this big series of cylinders that hung from the top of the wall in front of the board. Each cylinder had a different map in it that you could pull down. He had been using the one for the Battle of Stalingrad the past day or so. You pulled it down, and it had a map of Stalingrad and the surrounding areas, crisscrossed with all the troop movements and battles and such.

He pulled that map down today—and I wanted to strangle someone.

Up the top, where it said "BATTLE OF STALINGRAD", Stalingrad had been crossed out, and "CASSIE’S STOMACH" written in below. Around the map with all the troop movements, someone had drawn a stomach and torso and thighs. And they had added more jagged lines in amongst all the troop movements on the map.

I really wanted those two assholes dead.

I looked at Cass, and she didn’t look like she was going to cry—which is what I thought I’d see . No, instead, she looked furious.

Mr. Riley was pretty pissed himself. "I want to know who did this! This is inexcusable! Not only did you ruin a map that’s part of a set that’s very expensive, you also humiliated a fellow student who’s trying to do something that takes a lot of guts."

"They didn’t humiliate me," Cassie spoke up. "They tried to humiliate me." I looked at her, as did Mr. Riley. She continued. "I know who did this, and they know, too. I also know who did the pictures that were hung up yesterday. I got all upset at those pictures, to the point where I almost dropped out of The Program. Which would’ve been stupid."

"Because you can’t humiliate me unless I allow myself to be humiliated. I have scars. I can’t hide them. There they are. What I’ve learned this week is that some people can see past them. Some people can’t. And, if you can’t, that is your problem, not mine."

Suddenly, she stood up. She was facing the whole class, but I knew who she was talking to. "Does this disgust you? Why? It’s just a few marks. OK, more than a few marks. But that’s all it is. It’s healed skin. It’s skin that was once wounded but now is healed. That’s all it is. It’s not me."

"This is the good part. Scars? Who cares about scars? I don’t have a fucking spleen! I don’t have half my right kidney. I don’t have about a foot of small intestine. I don’t have a right ovary. Think about that one. I want kids someday. A woman only has a certain amount of eggs. I lost half mine before I even entered puberty. I only ovulate every other month. And some of you are disgusted by scars."

"I have had to live with this for nine years. And some of you assholes can’t live with it for a week. Well, fuck you. I’m done hiding it. If anyone doesn’t like that—well, you all must be perfect. And it’s funny, I don’t see any perfect people in this room. Keep trying to humiliate me. It’s not going to work anymore."

"Someone told me yesterday that I was beautiful. That is what I choose to believe. I’m Cassandra Vyshenko, and I’m beautiful. Scars and all."

Oh, man, if I could’ve, I would’ve hugged her right then. As it was, I just joined in with the thunderous applause that spread throughout the class. Including Mr. Riley. The two hyenas not included, of course—but everyone else—even Paul, the guy that had dumped her on Monday.

She sheepishly sat in her seat, blushing, as the applause went on. I reached over and grabbed her hand, and gave it a squeeze—and got a blinding grin for my trouble.

Mr. Riley sent a message down to Mr. Tilling about the damage to the map, then managed to get the class underway. He got through it, mostly, and then the bell rang, and we headed to art.

When we got in the hall, I reached for her hand. "You’re incredible, you know that?" I told her. "That was great."

"Thanks," she said, gratefully squeezing my hand. She left her hand in mine as we walked down the hall. "I saw what they had done to the map, and I just got so mad. And I started talking and just got on a roll."

"It was a good roll," I grinned at her. "But I’m glad you finally took my words to heart. You are beautiful. Don’t you ever forget that."

"I won’t," she said. And then, in barely a whisper, "as long as you’re around." Before I could say anything to that, we were at art class.

Yes, it felt good. It felt damn good. I got it off my chest, and it felt very, very good.

Missy and Laura? Fuck ‘em. They want to keep trying to get to me. It succeeded yesterday. No more. I had other things to do.

And one of them was walking down the hall with me, holding my hand, telling me—again—that I was beautiful. We needed to talk, and badly—but, somehow, I thought it might be a good talk. Maybe I hadn’t blown it all to pieces yesterday.

Anyhow, no chance to talk now—it was time for art. Mrs. Taylor called us up to the front.

Her first pose arranged us on the couch. Frankie was on his left side up against the back of the couch. His head was propped up by his left hand. I was in front of him, also on my left side, flat on the couch. His arm was around my waist. It was a very cozy pose.

It was also turning me on, because I felt his dick up against my ass!

Then, after a couple minutes in the pose, something strange happened. As I said, he had his hand around my waist, so it was resting on my stomach. Suddenly, I realized his hand was moving. His fingers were lightly tracing some of the scars. I breathed sharply.

"Does that bother you?" he whispered.

"No," I said. "It feels funny."

"I’ll stop, then."

"No, I didn’t mean bad funny," I said. And I didn’t. As his fingers lightly grazed the scars, my stomach was doing flip-flops like you wouldn’t believe. Because he was--- caressing me, is the only word I could come up with. He was caressing my scars. Like you’d caress a dimple or something.

It is hard to describe how I felt right then. Content, warm, loved—hell, I was verging on euphoric. Talk about feeling accepted. I knew he didn’t mind the scars. Didn’t mind! He was touching them! I was a little stunned. I felt it hard to hold the pose—I was supposed to be looking at the class and smiling. I just wanted to close my eyes and drift off on a cloud.

Mrs. Taylor had us change poses and I didn’t want to move. I just felt so content. It was almost like how you’d feel right after a good cum—but I hadn’t cum.

She had me lie on my back, my head propped up by the armrest on the couch. She told me to spread my legs, and then she told Frankie to crawl up between my legs.

"Oooooooh!" I said with a laugh.

"No, no, not that," Mrs. Taylor laughed. "This pose is going to be suggestive, but not that suggestive." She had Frankie crawl up further. His hands were on my hips, and his head was hovering above my stomach. "Y’see, that’s more of a hint," Mrs. Taylor said. "It looks like he’s kissing your stomach. Now, this implies where he’s headed, but we don’t draw that part—we draw the anticipation." The whole class laughed at that.

"Am I supposed to be kissing her, or just hovering?" Frankie asked.

"Well, it’ll be hard to hold a kiss for that long," Mrs. Taylor said.

"Well, if I don’t move too much, you should still be able to draw it," Frankie said. And he started kissing me. Little tiny kisses all over my stomach, that he held as long as he could for posing purposes. Little kisses….all over my scars.

Oh MAN. I had to say something to him. I had to tell him how I felt. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the time or place.

After about fifteen minutes, Frankie said, "My arms hurt! Not to mention my neck." He had been holding himself up by his arms, hovering over my stomach, and his neck was kind of in an uncomfortable position.

Mrs. Taylor laughed. "OK, relax. Find a comfortable position while we finish up." He flopped onto my stomach, resting his head on it, just lying there. I reached over and stroked his hair. I just lay there in bliss for about five minutes, until Mrs. Taylor said, "OK, guys. Time’s up. Frankie, Cassie, you can take a look."

I didn’t even bother with Laura and Missy. Who cares what they drew? A lot of them were very good. I liked Amanda’s. And Natalie’s were, of course, magnificent.

We walked to lunch, and he held my hand again. Again, it wasn’t the time or place to talk. I looked at him, and tried to talk with my eyes.

Lunch wasn’t the time or place to talk, either—not with the Ed Bauer show going on around us!

It was just an impulse. Me tracing her scars with my finger, I mean. I really didn’t think about what I was doing. Well, maybe I did. Look, they really didn’t bother me. And maybe, when I did it, I had her little speech in the back of my mind. Because she had said that some people could see past them. I really didn’t see past them, not in my mind, because to me that implied sort of ignoring them. You know, pretending they weren’t there. They were there, and I didn’t pretend they weren’t—but they didn’t bother me. They were part of her—and everything that was part of her was good.

Maybe that’s why I touched them. And then, in the second pose, kissed them.

I wondered what she felt about it. In the first pose, when I first touched them—she relaxed, visibly, after she told me that she wasn’t feeling bad about it and I kept on doing it. She visibly relaxed herself into me. She couldn’t react much more, or we would’ve blown the pose!

I had to talk to her. I wanted the school day over. I needed to find out exactly what was going on.

I suppose we could’ve gotten an out of the way table during lunch, but no tables in the lunchroom are that out of the way. So we sat with the usual suspects.

"Hey, Brazil," Ed greeted Cassie, "I hear you smacked a few people in the head with the ol’ clue-by-four in History class."

"Something like that," Cassie grinned.

"Let me tell you, it was impressive," I chipped in.

"Not as impressive as the poses I’m getting to draw in art," Natalie grinned. "You should see these two," she told the table. "Even though the poses are pretty innocent, they still put on quite a show."

Cassie just blushed. I was pretty sure I was, too!

"A better pose than I gave you when you drew my naked ass up at bat?" Ed asked.

"No, of course not, sweetie," Natalie grinned at him.

"I should hope not!" Ed said indignantly.

"I can see it now," Lily grinned. "Natalie, five years from now, a young, sought-after new artist. She’s having her first gallery show. Featuring seventeen drawings of Ed’s naked tush."

"She’ll make a mint on them," Ed grinned.

The rest of lunch pretty much went like that, so Cassie and I just got drawn into the rest of the conversation.

The afternoon passed by way too slowly. Then I had baseball practice. Because I was pitching tomorrow, I was allowed to take a light practice. I threw a little, and did my running. Then, done, I asked Coach permission to take off, which he granted.

I ran back to the school building. I was hoping to catch Cassie before band practice ended.

I wasn’t disappointed. There was an observation window on the side of the band room, and looked in, and there she was—stark naked, playing the flute. She caught my eye at one point and smiled. About fifteen minutes later, band practice ended. I waited until most of the band had gotten out of the room, and walked in—and there she was, still sitting at her chair. The rest of the stragglers, and her band director left, and it was only the two of us.

"Hi. We need to talk," I said.

Here it was. Do or die time.

"Yes, we do," I agreed. "Can I go first?"

"I suppose." He sat down next to me.

"Look, I am really sorry about what I said yesterday, when we were done. It was stupid, and I’m ashamed of it. I was feeling awkward, and I panicked."

"You weren’t the only one feeling awkward," he grinned. "It’s OK. The question is, where do we go from here?" He sighed. "I don’t want to lose your friendship."

"Well, I have to admit, I don’t want to be friends anymore." He looked at me. "I want more." There. I said it.

"That’s what I want, too," he said softly.

"You DO? I wasn’t sure."

"You weren’t?" I asked. "Cassie, I don’t make love with just anyone."

"Yeah, I know—but it’s been awkward since then. I wasn’t sure what you were feeling."

"I wasn’t sure what you were feeling, either," he said.

"This is what I’m feeling. I love you." There, now I really said it. "I figured that out before we ever went to bed. And I’m sorry that I didn’t say that yesterday."

"Better late than never," he grinned. "I love you, too, Cass." I grinned back at him. "I’m still worried, though."

"Why?"

"Because relationships don’t always last. If this blows up in our face, there goes another good friendship. And I can’t help but being a little worried that I’m not what I would’ve considered your type before this week."

I sighed. "One thing this week, and baring myself as I have been, has done, I think, is make me grow up.. Let’s face it—I’ve been dating little boys, and I mean mentally. And I suppose I was a little girl myself mentally. I mean, look, the two people that I thought were my best friends have been acting like eight-year-olds all week." I grinned at him. "You’re no little boy, not with your family. You haven’t been for quite a while. And I’ve been through too much this week to be a little girl anymore." I smiled at him. "This hasn’t happened before this because I wasn’t ready. I’m ready now. Frankie, it’s not going to blow up in our face. Not from my end. How do you feel?"

"I talked with Lily about this," he told me, "and she said some similar things about her and Mike, how she wasn’t ready for him before either. As for me? Look, you might say you’re a ‘little girl’ but you matured dating-wise far before me, and you were already dating before I ever would’ve been interested, so I never let myself become interested. It took a lot of thinking to decide if I felt anything more for you than friendship. It was a leap I had to make in my mind." He grinned at me. "What I found was it was a pretty easy leap to make."

"Good," I grinned. "It hit me all at once."

"I just thought of something," he said. "Tanya is going to freak."

I broke up laughing. "Yeah," I agreed. "I guess she saw it before either of us did." He grinned at me, then stood up. He pulled me up to my feet, then wrapped his arms around me—and kissed me, long and deep.

I broke the kiss and said, "Let’s get out of here."

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"My house. Nobody’s there again." I grinned at him. "And you thought I was kidding about being insatiable."

"Oh, look, I get a girlfriend—and she’s a horny teenaged boy’s dream. How cool is that?" he laughed.

I laughed back. Then we practically raced to my house.

We got to her room—still naked—and I wrapped her in a kiss as we tumbled on to her bed.

"No quickies today," I told her. She smiled at me. I kissed down her neck and went right for her boobs, nibbling on them while I stroked her thighs. She moaned and gasped underneath me. Then I started kissing my way down from her boobs.

I kissed my way down her stomach, and I took my damn time. I ran my tongue right down one of the more prominent scars. She giggled.

"Tickles?" I asked.

"A little," she said. "That was not a suggestion that you stop, by the way. I’ve never let anyone get near my stomach, you know that." Her voice dropped a little. "So I never knew how sensitive it was."

"Ah," I said. It was turning her on. How about that? Not that she wasn’t turned on in the first place, mind you. I just kept kissing my way down her stomach. Heading closer to paydirt, I took a little detour—to kiss the heart-shaped scar on her thigh. She let out a long sigh when I did that.

Then I headed straight for paydirt. This I hadn’t done to her. Honestly, I hadn’t done it much at all. Like I’ve said, though I’m not a virgin, the most experienced guy in the world I am not. But I had done it, a couple of times, and more or less knew my way around down there. It must’ve been more rather than less, because I had her squealing and moaning in no time at all. As I felt her movements get more frenzied, I slipped a finger gently into her pussy. BAM! Off she went!

As she came down, I started coming back up, kissing my way back up her stomach. She reached down and ran her fingers through my hair. And then she said, "Frankie? Make love to me, please?"

"Gladly," I said, and moved up and slid into her. "Oh God," she moaned. I started in on her, a slow rhythm meant to build her back up. It worked. It didn’t take too long before she was moaning and gasping. Finally, she screamed, "Oh God Frankie FUCK ME! FUCK ME HARD! Oh God….." So I did. I knew it wasn’t going to take me long, but I knew she was close, too. I was right. We went together, in no time at all.

This time, when we curled up in each other’s arms afterwards, it wasn’t awkward. Not at all. It was wonderful.

Oh, I felt so happy and content. I felt loved and wanted. And I love him. Does it get any better than that?

Well, the aftermath could’ve been better. No, no, it wasn’t awkward like yesterday. It was wonderful. Too wonderful. We were both so content and at peace—that we fell asleep, naked, in each other’s arms.

Tanya has a very bad habit of not knocking on doors.

I was woken up by her yelling "Hey, Cassie, do you have my---" and my door bursting open, and then a blurted "OH MY GOD!" She turned bright red and quickly backed out the door saying "I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"

"Oh shit," I murmured.

"Hum, was that Tanya?" I heard from behind me.

"Uh, yeah. We fell asleep. And we just got caught."

"Oops," he said.

"My mother knew, she knew about yesterday—but I’m sure she’s not going to be thrilled we let Tanya catch us."

"No doubt," he said. "I think we’d better get dressed and go face the music."

"Yeah." Right after we got our clothes on, there was a knock on the door. "Can I come in?" It was Mom.

She came in, and I said, "Mom, we’re so sorry. We fell asleep."

"It’s all right. Really. Tanya’s got to learn how to knock on doors." Mom grinned. "I don’t think she was shocked to find you in bed with someone, I think she was shocked at who you were with. She was so excited when she came downstairs, I thought she had caught you in the middle of something."

"No," I laughed. "Naked, and spooning—but sleeping."

"Yeah, I finally got that," Mom laughed. "Like I said, I think she was shocked it was you two."

"She called it," Frankie said, "before either of us knew."

"Yup," I agreed. "She was trying to tell me on Monday that Frankie liked me. Remind me to listen to Tan more often. But, I’m still sorry we let her catch us like that, Mom."

"Don’t be. Look, you know that dealing with your sexuality hasn’t been the easiest thing for me. But I think I’m getting better. And you know I think the world of Frankie. And Tanya’s getting older. I was way too uptight when you were Tan’s age—I don’t want to do that to her."

"Oh, Mom," was all I could say. "You were never that bad."

"Thank you for saying that," she smiled. "I was overprotective, though. Because of the accident."

"Hey, I was overprotective of myself." My voice dropped. "Yesterday, and today, are the only two times I’ve ever made love in a lit room with my shirt off."

"Oh, Honey," she said, and then looked at Frankie. "You’re a good man, Frankie Gutierrez. I’ve always known that. If I had to catch my daughter in bed with someone," she giggled, "I’m thrilled it was you. I mean that." Frankie just blushed. "Tan wants to come up and talk to you."

"OK," I said.

Mom left, and Tanya came right up and entered the room, looking sheepish. "I’m sorry I didn’t knock," she said, looking downcast.

"That’s all right. Sit," I pointed to the chair at my desk. Frankie and I were sitting on the bed. "Mom knows, but, outside of her, you should be the first to know, anyway."

"Yeah, since you predicted it back on Monday," Frankie laughed.

"Wait a minute, that’s right!" Tanya laughed. "You do like her!" she said to Frankie.

"I love her, actually," he said.

"And I love him, too," I said.

"Wow. That is so cool!" Tanya enthused. "Were you two just sleeping, or did you, uh…."

"Have sex?" I laughed. "Yes, we did. We did yesterday, too, but we managed not to fall asleep then."

"Wow!" Tanya said. "I can’t wait to tell Rosa!" she said, starting to stand up. Then she stopped. "Oh, well, I guess you’d rather tell Rosa yourself, Frankie? I almost forgot she was your sister," she giggled.

"No, that’s all right. Since you predicted it, you get to tell Rosa," Frankie laughed.

"COOL!" and she was out of the room.

I just looked at Frankie and laughed. "She’s almost as happy about this as I am," I said.

"You’d better watch out. I think her and Rosa are going to start looking for those bridesmaid’s dresses any time now," he laughed.

"I’ll have to tell her that I’d kinda like to go to college first," I giggled.

"Good plan."

Just then, Mom showed up. "Uhm, guys? You need to go to Frankie’s house, OK?"

"What’s up?" Frankie asked.

"Well, when Tan told Rosa what was up, I guess she screamed ‘Frankie and Cassie are in love? And they had sex?’ Right within earshot of your mother."

"Madre de dios," Frankie said with a smile. I grinned back. I knew all about he and Rosa’s code word.

"So, your Mom got on the phone, asked for me, and then told me that she’d like to talk to the two of you."

"Oops," Frankie said. "So, shall we go face my mother—and kill Rosa while we’re at it?"

"Yeah," I laughed.

We walked over to my house. Tanya tagged along, apparently hoping for some fireworks.

Rosa saw us coming and opened the door. "Madre de dios!" she said with a big grin.

"You, little sis, are dead meat. Fajita filling. Sliced and diced."

"I’m sorry, Frankie," she said, "I forgot Mama was there."

"It’s OK," I said. We walked into the kitchen to find Mama. She was working on the supper. She looked up, and gazed upon us with a stern expression. "Hi, Mama. You wanted to see us?"

"Si," she said. "So, you finally woke up, eh?"

"Huh?" I said.

"You two. You finally woke up. You two were made for each other." She looked at me. "I was wondering when you were going to figure it out, el stupido." Then she looked at Cassie. "You, too. You think I don’t see? You live right over there. Your sister is in my home all the time. You think I don’t see your boys? Like that one last year, that pendejo you wasted six months on." I was shocked—Mama never cursed! "And you," she looked back at me. "All those flighty little girls. Always looking for the one, when she was four doors down all the time. I don’t interfere, but I wondered if you two would ever wake up." Then she smiled, walked over to Cassie, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Welcome to the family."

"Thank you," Cassie managed to get out. I think she was in shock. I know I was.

"What?" Mama said to me, seeing the expression on my face. "You think I’m shocked? You think I brought you over here for a lecture?" I nodded. "Feh. I know everything. You and Rosa, with that ‘madre de dios’ stuff, you think I don’t know?" I just looked at her. She smiled. "Why do you think I keep saying it, every time sex comes up? To give you two more ammunition." She looked at me. "I was brought up in a different world, it’s true. Your grandparents are very traditional, you know that. But I know the world my children are living in, and it’s different. I wasn’t ever really worried about what you were doing, it was who you were doing it with. Frankie, you’re my firstborn, mi bambino. And I watched you falling all over yourself over the likes of Renee Boddicker. I wanted to barf. She wasn’t worthy of you." She smiled at us. "But you two together, that’s what I’ve been hoping for. Cassie, now she is worthy of my firstborn son. Just don’t let the little ones see all that ‘madre de dios’ going on, OK? And I want grandbabies from the two of you, but not now!"

I cracked up laughing. "You don’t have to worry about that!"

"Good. Now, go! Get out of here. Eddie Bauer called and told me to tell you that the gang is going to The Burger Hut if you wanted to come. Go. Go celebrate with your friends." She leaned over to me and dropped her voice. "And I’ll prepare your father. He’s much more old fashioned than I am," she grinned.

I laughed, stood up, and hugged her. "Thanks, Mama. You’re the best."

Cassie and I left the kitchen hand-in-hand and walked through the living room like that, through the "Ooohhhhh!" comments from Rosa and Tanya. Then we headed out to the Burger Hut.

"Wow. Who woulda thunk it?" I said.

She laughed. "I like this. Think about it. We got together because we wanted to—but we’ve managed to make everybody around us happy about it. That’s pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah, that is very cool."

" Although," she added, "I think we now have to worry about your mother looking for her mother-of-the-groom dress. I almost swallowed my tongue when she started talking about grandbabies!

I laughed. "You think we should get tee shirts made up that say ‘Shut up, we’re going to college first?’"

"That might be a good idea," she grinned. "Frankie? Tell me something. Why does it seem like we’ve been together forever, and not just a couple of days?"

"Because we’re comfortable with each other. We always have been. The only thing that’s really new is the chemistry between us. And, looking back, I think that might have always been there, but we were willfully ignoring it. At least I was."

"Good point, and I think I was, too," she said. "I guess your mother was right about that."

"Well, since you’re now a member of the family and all, you’ll have to understand something. My mother is often right. Infuriatingly so at times, but she’s often right."

She laughed. "Yeah, your mother, and my sister!"

We got to the Burger Hut, and walked in, hand-in-hand. We went up to the counter and ordered, got our food, then wandered into the dining room.

"Frankie! Over here!" Lily yelled. She waved us on over to where the whole gang had commandeered a table. We walked over hand-in-hand. I could see the questions on some of their faces.

"Hey, where were you? Your mother didn’t know, so we didn’t know if you’d show up," Ed asked.

"We fell asleep," I said.

"We?" Lily asked.

"Well, we fell asleep in my bed, so I hope I was there," Cassie grinned.

Ed started singing the old Queen song, "Another One Bites The Dust."

"You got that right," Cassie laughed.

Lily leaned over and whispered in my ear, "This isn’t ‘friends with benefits’, is it?"

"Not by a long shot," I whispered back.

"Good!"

"And the program works its magic on another unsuspecting duo," Ed declared.

"Yup," I happily agreed. "So, who’s next? Maggie?"

"I doubt it," she grinned. "I think for me to find true love and all that gooey stuff, they’d have to pair me up with someone I’ve never been with. And that ain’t a long list."

"Well, there’s Dave Shiell," Jared said. Dave was a good friend of his.

"Dave’s sweet, but maybe a bit too sweet," Maggie grinned.

"Dave’s also terrified of girls," Cassie said. "We’ve been in band together for almost three years, and he still blushes when I say ‘hi’ to him. And if he’s terrified of girls in general, he’d be absolutely flummoxed by Maggie."

"Too true," Maggie grinned. "Too bad I didn’t go through this week, I’ve never been to bed with Frankie."

"And you never will," Cassie grinned. Maggie just grinned back. Me? I didn’t mind Cassie’s comment at all. A girl getting all possessive over me? I must admit, I liked it!

"Mark Dufor," Amanda said.

"No, I’ve been to bed with Mark Dufor. Freshman year. For all of the seven seconds that it took, mind you." We all laughed at that. "Hey, it was his first time. It happens. And I’m always willing to give someone a second go-round, especially a virgin that goes off too quickly--but he was so embarrassed he hasn’t talked to me in two years."

"There’s always Chuck Braden," Mike said with an evil grin.

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" Maggie proclaimed.

"Who’s Chuck Braden?" Lily asked.

"That’s right, I keep forgetting you’re new," Maggie giggled. "Chuck is the Mouth That Roared. Go to bed with him, and it’s practically posted on the bulletin board."

" You do that, though," I said.

"What I’ve found is that most guys don’t mind. Girls do. Especially when it never actually happened. And I know the guys that would mind, and my lips are sealed. There’s guys that I’ve been to bed with that even Amanda, who’s my best friend, doesn’t know about."

"Really?" Amanda said.

"There’s one, I won’t tell you who, but when we slept together, he had a girlfriend," Maggie said. "And things were getting to that point with the girlfriend, and they were both virgins, and he was terrified he wouldn’t be able to do it right. So I took him to bed and taught him how to do it right. He was very grateful, and, from what he told me, things with the girlfriend went swimmingly. But I’ll never say who, because the girlfriend probably wouldn’t understand—and they’re still together."

"So, those are the ones I keep secret, the ones that would really hurt someone. Chuck doesn’t care, though. You know Vicki Langham," she said to Cassie.

"Yeah. She’s my one good friend that’s still my good friend, because she supported me this week. And, yeah, I know what Chuck did to her." Cassie turned to Lily. "One date, nothing happened except a good kiss—and, Monday morning, it’s all over school that they did it. Vicki was still a virgin at the time. She was humiliated."

"Yeah, and there’s Tara Boucher, who’s a friend of mine," Maggie added. "They did go to bed together, and it was Tara’s first time, and she really liked him, and thought he liked her. Come to find out the next week that it was all over school that Chuck was in bed with three different girls that weekend. Tara was crushed."

"Oh, jeez," Lily said.

"So, now you know why Chuck Braden is at the top of my shit list. He’s at the top of a lot of people’s shit list." Maggie concluded.

After the Burger Hut, we headed back to our houses.

"You want to come in?" I asked him.

"Yes. I don’t want this day to end, honestly."

"Good point, I agree completely," she grinned.

We walked into the living room, and my parents and Tanya were sitting there.

"Hey," Mom smiled, "did Frankie’s mom read you the riot act?"

"Not exactly," Frankie grinned. "She congratulated us for not being idiots anymore."

"Well, you know I talk to Luisa all the time," she said, "and I think we’ve both been in agreement on that for some time." She smiled at us. "I knew what she said to you, actually. She called after you two left the house."

"Oh, Jesus," I said to Frankie with a smile, "we’ve been going out five hours, tops, and they’re planning the wedding already."

"Not quite, but it was close," Dad spoke up with a smile. "Do me a favor, you two. Go to college first, OK?"

"Exactly what we said," I laughed.

"I think we should break up," Frankie said, deadpan. "This is way too much pressure. What are they going to be doing when we’ve been going out a whole week, looking for baby furniture?"

" That had better come after college, too!" Dad said.

"Thank goodness there’s one sane person in the place," Frankie said. "You just keep talking, Mr. Vyshenko. Get Mrs. Vyshenko and my mother over once a week, and keep telling them this."

"Not to mention Rosa," I said, pointing to Tanya, "and this little brat over here."

"Who, me?" Tanya said.

"Yeah, you," I said.

"Well, it’s just that everyone here loves Frankie," Mom said, "and everyone there loves you, and we all know how perfect you are for each other, and always have been."

"Yeah. I can see that, now," I smiled.

"Me, too—and thank you for saying what you did," Frankie said to Mom. "However, I think I have to get me back over there before Mama has a coronary."

"Your mother’s not expecting you home tonight," Mom said.

"HUH?" I said, stunned. Frankie was just staring, open-mouthed.

"Well, you can’t be together at Frankie’s house," Mom said.. "Here, well, Tanya’s old enough to know what’s going on—and she’s also old enough to give you privacy. Right, Tan?"

"Of course," she grinned.

"Good. And I’m sure Rosa is all those things, too—but your younger brother and sisters aren’t, Frankie. So you can’t go over there. We all know what’s going on. It’s no secret. I’m going to force my daughter and the guy she loves apart, when I know full well what’s going on? No, I’m not."

We just stared at her.

"Well? GIT!"

We got.

After we got up to my room, we sat down on the bed, leaning against each other, laughing hysterically.

"You know, this is just a plot," Frankie said. "A fiendish plot. To ensure we never break up. Think about it, if you ever dump me, you think you’ll be able to bring my replacement up here to spend the night?"

"Good point," I laughed. "Hey, you know how you said your mother is often right?" He nodded. "Mine is, too. If they are really so happy about us dating, who are we to argue?"

"I love you, you know," he said.

"I love you, too," I grinned back at him. "But now you need to show me."

"Insatiable."

"You bet your ass. And I just got free reign to bring you up here as often as I want. You sure you can handle me?"

"Watch me," he said, and he proceeded to handle me just fine, thank you very much. Then he used other parts besides his hands. And that was even better.

It didn’t take long after that until we fell into a deep sleep.

--end of part four—