"Him? Curt McGinty?" I said in disbelief.
It was fourth period lunch hour and I was sitting with my best friend Laney. Her boyfriend currently had mono so he was at home and wasn't sitting with her today like he usually did. I didn't mind sitting with Laney and Chaz at lunch usually...though I did get tired of all the immature booger and fart jokes Chaz always told.
I looked at the boy sitting a few tables away from us. "But Curt is so...country," I said. "He wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, for Christ's sake!" I protested.
Laney just shrugged.
I frowned to myself. Technically Laney and Chaz and I were townies, in that we lived in town. Curt ran around with a totally different group of country-dwelling people.
But, on the whole, our school was country, though. It was a high school in a very small, rural town. There were around 135 in my graduating class. So I suppose when I said Curt was country, he was in good company here. Curt and all of his country friends took their jacked up trucks to mud bogs and drove them around in the mud. It was a mark of status how dirty your truck was. I guess it didn't get much more country than that.
And Curt's dirty truck usually took the cake.
"That's what I've heard, anyway," Laney said.
"Where did you hear that? That Curt was...available for such a thing?" I whispered.
Laney leaned towards me. "Christina. In Latin class. She swore he did it for her for free."
I rolled my eyes. As if he'd charge. He was a red-blooded, young American male. It wasn't like I'd be asking for him to date me. A single fuck was all I was wanting. To once and for all get rid of my innocence that was becoming a huge pain in my ass.
All my girlfriends now had boyfriends. They talked about sex all the time. How good it felt, the positions they'd done it in, the cars and the trucks and the rooms in their parents' houses where they'd done it.
I didn't have a boyfriend nor did I have any prospects, either. And the days of my senior year were getting away from me. College would be upon me soon and I was determined to lose my virginity before then.
And so it appeared that Curt was my only option.
I swallowed the last bite of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and slid out of the picnic-style table bench. "Okay. Fine. Be right back," I said.
Laney's eyes widened. "What, you're just going to walk up to him and ask him to fuck you?" She hissed.
I shrugged. "Maybe. Do you have any other ideas?" I said.
She just looked at me and shook her head once.
The walk to Curt's table seemed to take ages. And when I got there, he was sitting alone, elbows deep into his school lunch. Maybe his friends had different lunch hours.
I stood looking at him for a minute and he didn't look up, so I sat down.
That got his attention.
"Hey," I said.
He looked at me and grunted.
He was a striking-looking guy, I guess. I'd never really thought about him like that before. Light blue eyes and hair the color of the corn that grew in the fields around the school. Though I couldn't see his hair right now due to his big tan cowboy hat.
He just looked at me. When I didn't say anything, he coughed. "What do you want?" He asked.
I leaned towards him because a teacher monitoring the lunch room just walked by and I didn't want the teacher to hear me. "I've heard some things about you," I said quietly.
He took a big bite of his school-issued rectangular piece of pizza. "Yeah?" He said.
I nodded.
"What kind of things?" He asked.
I shrugged. "Something about you helping Christina Perry out. In her time of need," I tacked on.
Curt suddenly grinned at me. It was a wide, open grin. It held no malice or judgment in it at all. "I might have," he said.
"Well?" I said.
"Well, what?" He asked.
I sighed. Now he was going to be difficult? "Would you help me out in the same way?" I asked him.
His smile faded and his eyes narrowed at me. "Are you sure we're talking about the same thing here?" He asked me.
"Um...yes?" I said, though now I wasn't quite so sure.
"Christina Perry was a favor," he said, taking a drink from his chocolate milk carton. "I owed her brother money for his weed. She and big brother worked it out between them and I closed the deal with her instead of paying him the money," he said.
I nodded.
"So. How do I get in on this?" I finally asked him.
He chuckled. "Well, now I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me say it," I said.
He leaned forward and licked his lips. "I did Christina as a favor. I don't owe you any favors," he said.
I sat back in my chair. "Don't tell me you want money," I said.
He chuckled, but then shrugged.
I leaned forward again. "That would make you a prostitute," I said.
He shook his head. "It would make me cash," he said.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. You don't have a girlfriend. I can't imagine you have that many fuck buddies. This is free and guaranteed sex."
"Guaranteed sex. With you?" He said thoughtfully, eyeing me. I frowned under his intense gaze. I wasn't a troll or a toad. I looked alright. I was quiet and awkward which didn't exactly make me a catch. But he surely could have done worse. "What's in it for me?" He finally asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "A free orgasm. Don't guys like those?" I asked.
He nodded. "True. We do. But why are you so hot for me?" He asked.
I rolled my eyes again. "I'm not hot for you. I just want to get rid of my V-card before college," I said.
He grinned. "What about waiting until you find the right guy and you're both in love?" He asked me.
I narrowed my eyes at him again. "Now you're making fun of me," I said.
He raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"
"Look, I don't want all of that," I said.
He nodded. "You just want a fuck. Nothing more?"
I nodded. "Nothing more," I said.
He thought for a minute. He took a big bite of his vanilla pudding. "Okay. I'll do it," he said.
I blew out a relieved breath. "Thanks," I said.
"When and where do you want to do this?" He asked me.
I blanched. I had no idea.
"Well...what do you suggest?" I asked.
He shrugged. "My parents will be out late this Saturday night. Do you have wheels?" He asked me.
I nodded but then I shook my head, frowning. "My car is off limits because I'm currently grounded," I said.
"So now I've got to pick you up? This is sounding more and more like a date," he grinned.
"Don't flatter yourself," I said sourly. "If you want to do this on Saturday you'll have to pick me up," I said.
He sighed. "Okay. Deal," he said.
*****************
Saturday finally rolled around and I was so nervous I was almost sick. I called Laney to talk.
"Don't be nervous," Laney said. "That's what I wish my first time had been like," she said.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Relaxed," she said. "If you tense up it hurts more," she said.
I groaned.
"Besides, it's sex! It's supposed to be fun!" She said.
"Okay. So, I need to majorly relax. Any other suggestions?" I asked her.
"Yeah. Don't gag and nearly puke when he cums in your mouth. Guys hate that."
I paused. "We didn't talk about blow jobs. Do you think he's expecting a blow job?" I asked her worriedly. I had no idea where even to begin one of those.
"How the hell do I know? I wasn't there when you talked to him," she said.
I felt the nerves even worse now.
"I feel like I'm going to puke already. Or have diarrhea. One or the other," I said.
Laney burst out laughing. "Diarrhea and sex don't go well together. Please don't," she said.
I sighed.
****************
I was grounded, sure. But I was only grounded from everything non-church related.
"Mom and Dad, my friend Curt's picking me up and taking me to an old-time Saturday night southern Baptist church revival," I said. "I'll probably be out late. There will be healings, I'm guessing," I told my parents.
"Okay, baby," my mother said without even putting her crossword puzzle down.
"Sounds wholesome," my dad said, not taking his eyes away from the war documentary he was watching on TV.
I quickly hurried out to the front porch. A few minutes later Curt roared up in his big, jacked-up truck. It was covered in mud. I couldn't even tell what color the truck was.
I pulled open the filthy door handle. "Hey," I said.
He looked down at me. He was, for once, without his tan cowboy hat. His hair was wavy, longish blonde, and it curled around his ears. Plus, the most amazing smell wafted to me from the cab of the truck. Was he wearing cologne? Should I have put on perfume?
I hopped up into the cab and closed the door behind me.
"That was easy. I thought you were grounded?" He asked me.
"You're taking me to a church revival, don't you know?" I grinned.
He burst out laughing.
****************
We drove and drove out deep into the country until I was hopelessly lost.
"You live this far out?" I asked him, anxiously looking around. All I could see were soybean and cornfields, houses and barns dotted here and there, and the gravel road before us.
"What? You think I'm taking you out here to murder you?" He grinned.
I rolled my eyes.
Suddenly we rounded a corner on the little gravel road we were flying down and he braked, pulling into his gravel driveway. His house was really cute - a small white ranch with an above ground pool I noticed in the side yard. Cows stood on the other side of the fence looking into Curt's yard. "Don't touch the fence. It's electrified," he warned as we both hopped down from the cab.
"Where were your parents going tonight?" I asked him as we walked. The air was filled with the smell of freshly mowed grass and the sound of mooing cows.
"There's an Elvis impersonator up in Fettersburg," he said. "The last time he performed they were out until midnight," he said. "So we've got lots of time," he said.
I nodded. Fettersburg was 45 miles away. Add in dinner and the show and the drive home and yes, they'd be gone for a long, long time.
"Brothers? Sisters?" I asked him as we walked up to the house.
He shook his head. "I'm an only child," he said.