Notes to the reader:
All characters are over 18 at beginning of story.
Story includes 7200 words (13 book pages).
*****
I'll admit I was a bit of a dork. (That's an impolite polite way to say 'late bloomer,' right?) I suppose that's why the three of them decided I would be the one they'd use for their little scheme.
All four of us attended the same, small, 4-year, rural highschool, so we all knew each other. And due to the way the calenders fell the year we started school we were all past eighteen the spring we graduated.
Molly Moritz: Now let me think how to describe her. Oh, yes. Tall and almost bean-pole-ish. Dark hair, but not black. Nice face, but not nice enough yet to attract enough boys to keep her entertained.
Leslie Long: Not as tall as Molly, also dark haired, but just a bit more shapely and with a face that had she tried, she'd have attracted plenty of boys to keep her entertained.
And last, Madilynn Gates: Funny how there's always one really good looking girl in every group like them, one who doesn't give a rip at all if there is a boy around to entertain her. Madilynn was blonde, a damned good looking blonde, but she squelched any approach a boy made toward her. When she finished a squelching, the guy involved wasn't about to try again.
And then there was me: Six-two, good shape from bucking baled hay on our farm and playing basketball four years, and with luck, headed toward the engineering school at State after starting two years of pre-engineering this coming fall at the local junior college.
Because of Madilynn's membership, I steered clear of those three, not that I wouldn't have asked Molly or Leslie out if adequate potential benefit presented itself. But this was summer vacation, and there were lots of other things to do with my buddies during those long evenings —after finishing whatever paying work came our way.
That Thursday evening I'd just finished my day at the Johnson family's apple orchard up on Morgan Rd when I stopped by Hank's Drive-In for a milkshake and a cheeseburger. Hank's wasn't only a drive-in, and with the late June sun beating down, getting out of the sun, meant I went inside to order my supper.
Molly, Leslie, and Madilyn sat in one of the back corners. I ignored them, as best I could, sitting as far away as possible while I sucked on my very good and very stiff milkshake and waited for Hank's helper to cook my burger and fries.
For the first couple minutes, that worked, but before long I detected their chuckling and carrying on was likely at my expense. Still, I did my best to ignore them. Then Hank's helper delivered my burger, so I had a decision to make.
Hank's burgers weren't those two-bit sized things you can hold in one hand while drinking your milkshake or Coke with the other. No, these were the size of a nine inch desert saucer and while not stacked precariously tall trying to look bigger than they were, certainly required two hands for control throughout the eating process. You may guess his burger's geometry heavily influenced us local guys' hunger-driven decision to patronize Hank's Drive-In—and you'd be 100% right. So, there I sat at the end of a long day of strenuous orchard work, sipping a very good strawberry milkshake, and about to chow-down on one of Hank's locally renowned burgers.
Then it happened. Into my sight stepped a pair of quite nice, long legs in jeans that left no doubt about how nice those legs would look, sans the jeans.
"Molly?" I said, looking up.
"Jerry?"
"Yes?"
"You want to come sit with us? We just got cheeseburgers, too."
Did I? Or did I not? Is that how that classic question goes? After all, Madilynn was there with Molly and Leslie. I guess that quandary must have flickered across my face.
"Don't worry. Madilynn won't bite. She likes you."
Did that mean she only bit guys she didn't like? And how long would her
like
last? 'Til once again I escaped to my car sitting in the parking area out front?
"Come on, Jerry. Sit with us. We promise not to bite, either." With that she began gathering up my supper, putting everything back onto the tray on which it had been delivered. She was halfway to their table when she turned back to me, while I made my half-hearted attempt to extract my tired body from the booth in which I'd sat while awaiting my burger's arrival. "Come on, Jerry. We have something very important to ask you."
Oh yeah? I thought.
So, I followed Molly to the other two, who scooted to one side and made room for me as the center of interest. The fact Madilynn gave me the start of a timid smile really seemed out of the ordinary.
"So, where do we start, girls?" Molly said.
Oh, did I mention Molly was the local politician in our school, having been her class president twice and chairman of the school's Women's Athletic Association during the year between? She looked from face to face, of course ignoring me as being outside the voting constituency for the up-coming vote. The other two shied away, which made me all the more wary. Then Molly looked me straight on in the face.
"You still a virgin?" she said.
Shit! Did I have to answer that? I started to say something about it not being her business.
"Obviously he is," Leslie said, "just like we thought."
"So, everybody in school was right on that question," Madilynn said.
Yeah, they were. I had no intention of playing that field, knocking up a girl, and sabotaging my college plans leading to an engineering degree.
"You still going to Junior College this fall?"
I nodded, to which Leslie muttered, "Good so far."
So far? For what?
"And the State University after that?"
I nodded again, to which all three of them nodded and added three more
Good so fars
.
"You healthy?" Molly said.
I guessed I was. Nobody, including the medical exam for basketball team, had told me otherwise.
"No heart trouble, or something like that?"
I shook my head.
"And don't smoke, right?"
"Only a little, five years back, but no more now."
"Not now. Right. Good. And for god's sake, no chewing."
I nodded again. If Coach even got a whiff of you smoking or chewing you were off the team quicker that my Labrador Retriever downs a salmon treat.
The three of them turned to each other. I was left completely out of this confab. Then Molly turned back to me.
"We decided you'll do. But you gotta promise, no smoking, ever. We all hate smoking. And go easy on the beer. We don't want you drinking and getting stupid drunk."
So? What now? They'd already intruded pretty deeply into my personal life.
"And you don't have a girlfriend, right?"
Didn't everyone in our school know the answer to that by now? I nodded, and muttered, "Right."
"So, Jerry James, here's what this is all about—since we suspect you're too naive to guess. We sure would be if we were sitting in your place."
I suppose I looked as if I'd been hit between the eyes with a baseball bat.
"We're virgins, too, in case you don't know."
I didn't know for sure, but I certainly wasn't surprised.
"And we don't want to be virgins any longer."