…or, Like A Virgin

At an early dinner in the food court, Marlot was noncommittal about whether she intended to go to the farmhouse party or not.

“Why won’t you tell me?” I asked her.

“For three very important reasons,” she said. “Firstly, I don’t want you basing your decision on mine. Secondly, I haven’t decided yet. Thirdly, and most importantly, because.”

“Because?”

“Because,” she said. “Really, the other two are trivial beside that one. Utterly superfluous.”

“Do you really think it would be so terrible for me to enjoy the party more if my best friend is there?” I asked.

“Why are you asking me what I think? Can’t you make up your own mind?” she asked.

“I was being rhetorical,” I said. “I don’t think that it’s a bad thing that I’d feel more like going if I knew you were going to be there.”

“But would you still want to go anyway even if you knew I wasn’t?”

“So you do think I should go?”

“Jamie, do you want to just ask me to go to the party with you?” she asked.

“I’m not looking to change our relationship,” I said. “If that’s what you’re thinking. But we picked the same school and the same dorm so we could be together. I mean, do stuff together. Hang out. And it doesn’t suck to have someone familiar in a new situation. Especially someone who’s not looking at me like I’m some kind of trophy.”

“Well, that’s all fine, I guess,” Marlot said. “But I can’t go to the party with you. I’m going to Bobby’s parents’ house tonight.”

“Meeting the parents? Isn’t that moving a little fast?”

“Well, I was planning on waiting until he turned me into some sort of woodland creature, just so I’d know he was serious,” Marlot said. “But as it happens, I’m not meeting his parents. They’re going away on a three day trip.”

“Oh,” I said. “Isn’t that moving a little fast, too?”

“I’m sorry,” Marlot said. “You’ll have to repeat that. It’s a little hard to understand when you try to speak with a mouth full of holy shit you’re such a hypocrite.”

“I meant for you,” I said.

“Right, for me and not for you,” she said. “See also: hypocrite.”

“I just mean, it conflicts with my previous knowledge and impression of you,” I said.

“Oh, well, we could fix that,” Marlot said. She reached out and brushed my necklace with her fingers, making the spent rings clatter against each other. “Maybe I should start wearing one of these?”

“So is it just tonight you’re spending the night, or are you going to be spending the whole weekend with him?” I asked.

“Well, tonight’s a school night and he’s going to be having some people over,” Marlot said. “So it’s really just so I can see the place.”

“Oh.”

“I probably won’t actually be spending the night until tomorrow,” she said. “Though I’m bringing my toothbrush anyway. You know how it is.”

“Fucking hell! I don’t need to know that, Marlot,” I said.

“Know what? That I’m deeply concerned about dental hygiene?” Marlot said. “I’m a sexual person, Jamie. I thought you knew that. You knew I had sex before I knew you had sex.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t like it,” I said.

“I didn’t like him,” she said. “But I saw the potential. Really, that was what moved it from merely unpleasant to really awful. If I couldn’t see the top of the rollercoaster from where I was, I wouldn’t have minded being stuck on the dinky little carousel. With splintery wooden horses. That gave me slivers in the worst places. Okay, so I might have minded it a little. But the point remains: rollercoaster.”

“And that’s Bobby?”

“We’re getting there,” she said. “We’re definitely climbing.”

“Well, I’m happy for you,” I said.

“Good.”

“I am.”

“I’m glad.”

I was glad for Marlot. I kind of wanted to punch Bobby. I wondered why she would waste her time with a guy she had to “climb” with. But I was glad for her.

After dinner, I took a shower. I didn’t want to turn up at a party smelling like melee class. I worked out some of my aggression while I was in there. It was convenient how often aggression could be worked out the same way as arousal.

Back in my room, I put on a clean flannel shirt and actually buttoned it up over a clean white t-shirt. If that ended up being too dressy I could untuck it and open it up. If the party was outside and it got cold, I was covered. If I got hot, I could take it off.

I was fully prepared to deal with anything.

So long as it involved shirt configurations.

Iolana spotted me coming out of my room.

“Nice!” she said. “Date tonight?”

“No,” I said. “Party.”

“And you don’t have a date?”

“Not tonight,” I said. “I’m going st—uh, solo.”

She snerked.

“Uh, yeah,” I said. “Anyway, I should—”

“Can anyone go?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Someone gave me a flyer, but I don’t know if it’s an invite thing. I don’t feature anyone kicking you out. Why? Do you want to go?”

“I wouldn’t mind having something to do tonight,” she said. “Can you give me a minute to just put my hair up?”

It looked so good down, I couldn’t imagine why she’d want to, but I just nodded and said sure.

“It won’t take me a minute,” she said.

While she ducked into her room, I wandered over towards Marlot’s. Missy was listening to music on her bed. It looked like Marlot was already gone.

“There you went,” Iolana said. It hadn’t taken much more than a minute, but she’d put her hair up with a pair of picks and secured them with a piece of leather shaped like a butterfly. Turned out her hair looked pretty good up, too. “Do you think I need makeup?”

“I think you look fine,” I said.

“I’m going to go borrow some lipstick,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

If she’d asked, I would have told her that she looked really hot as she was. She didn’t ask, though. And when she came back, her lips painted a dark cocoa color that was so smooth it was hard to believe they hadn’t grown that way, I was glad she hadn’t.

“Where are we headed?” she asked me.

“West Campus,” I said.

“I didn’t know there were dorms on West Campus.”

“It’s off-campus,” I said. “But the flyer says there’s going to be rides for people who need them.”

“So you’re really alone?” she asked once we were outside and heading west.

“For the night,” I said. “I guess.”

“You didn’t break up with your boyfriend?”

“I guess ‘not yet’ would be the answer there.”

“Because I noticed you’re not wearing that bracelet,” she said. “But you’re still wearing your necklace, and those rings. Are, are those, um, you know?

“What?”

“Are those the things guys put on their dicks so you don’t get pregnant?” she asked, then blushed. “I mean, not that you would get pregnant. Actually, I’m not sure why you’d need to use something like that. Forget I asked.”

“I think you’re actually confusing a couple of different things,” I said. “Rings of protection, which they are, just go on the finger. They don’t just protect from pregnancy. They also prevent sexually generated diseases, and they help you resist irritation and small tearing and stuff.”

“Tearing? There’s tearing in sex?”

“Yeah,” I said. “So I guess you’re a—”

“Yeah,” she said. “It’s kind of a culture shock. So, ‘cockrings’ is just a figure of speech?”

“No, that’s something else.”

“Like a piercing?”

“No, that’s also something else,” I said. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yes?”

“When Juliana was giving me shit about my elfblood, you said something about thicker being better than longer.”

“Isn’t it?” she said. “It’s what I’ve always heard. My sisters told me.”

“So, it’s not a cultural thing? The virginity?”

“It’s more of an I’ve-never-had-sex-thing.”

“Why not?” I asked. “If that’s not too personal.”

“I was the baby,” she said. “They were older.” She shrugged. “I spent my eighteenth birthday on an airship headed east.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

When we got there, the rides turned out to be a horseless hay cart. I couldn’t decide if they were really committed to the theme or if it was just convenient. There was a guy managing it, and a small crowd of people who were waiting to be let on. He seemed predisposed to letting the hotter girls go ahead of everybody else, but when the girls on the cart saw me, they got downright insistent. The driver and another guy helped Iolana climb up. I got pulled aboard.

“You’re very popular,” Iolana said.

“I can’t explain it,” I said.

“Do you think it has something to do with your cock being on the ethernet?”

“It might.”

Discuss this story on the Livejournal feed.