I was really looking forward to my twentieth high school reunion--for reasons I could never tell my wife.
I'm Joel Mathers. I'd been married to my wife, Miriam, for close to fifteen years; but what started as a loving relationship had deteriorated over the years to silly bickering and--to our own amazement and dismay--a slow but inexorable withering way of the affection we'd once had for each other. It was as if we were tumbling down some steep hill and couldn't do anything to prevent our inevitable crash at the bottom. We both knew our marriage was functionally dead, but neither of us had the gumption to actually make a break. You get that way sometimes: inertia just takes over, and you worry that being alone is even worse than being in a rotten relationship.
I made a token effort to invite Miriam to come with me to the reunion. To my relief, she declined.
"Are you kidding me, Joel?" she said in a harsh tone that matched the harshness of her expression. "All you guys reminiscing about good old high school days, leaving me totally out of the discussion! Are you forgetting that you didn't meet me until you'd graduated from college?"
"Of course not," I said. I would have added "dear" to the end of that sentence, but somehow I couldn't get the word out--it stuck in my throat. "I just thought you might like to meet my buddies from that time."
"No thanks," she snapped back. "The guys are probably fat and like to guzzle beer. As for the women--well, at thirty-eight some of them might still be pretty, and you're welcome to bed down with any of them if you should so choose."
"Miriam," I tried to say as calmly as I could, "I'd never do that."
"Wouldn't you? I beg to differ."
Let me be blunt: each of us had cheated on the other, multiple times. I think it was a kind of desperation. Sex isn't equal to love, but at times the physical intimacy of sex can seem like an acceptable substitute for love. I had a feeling she was wanting to stay home just so she could invite her latest lover over to the house to spend a long weekend with him.
Well, she was free to do that. For my part, I guess I was secretly hoping that I'd meet Christy again.
The funny thing was that Christy and I hadn't actually done anything in high school. We were friends, but that's about all. In fact, I don't think she had any boyfriends at all in high school. So she was just about the last person I expected to see on my doorstep that time in late August, just before we were about to head off to different colleges.
Our birthdays were within a week of each other, and both of us were now eighteen. Full-fledged adults! I think we were both looking forward to the freedom from parental supervision that would come in just a few days. But even so, I never expected her to say what she did as I opened the door in answer to her knock.
"I'd like you to take my virginity," she said in a high, musical tone that seemed to me the essence of femininity.
I gaped at her as I looked her over. She wasn't the loveliest girl in our class--but she was pretty close! Soft, flowing dark hair framing an oval face that was a strange mix of brightness and melancholy; lovely curves around the bust and the hips, with a really nice derrière (as I well knew from giving her admiring glances as she walked past me in the hallway of our school). A nice height, five foot six--not too short, not too tall. What better way to make a first venture into sexual union than to cuddle up with a girl like this?
Yes, I was a virgin too. I don't know if she knew that, but I think she sensed it.
I licked my lips and, after finally finding my voice, croaked out, "Okay."
I let her into the house. Did she know that my parents had gone off on some errand or other? Had she hidden somewhere and waited for them to get into their car and pull out of the driveway? This was one determined girl! She wanted to be deflowered, and she wanted me to do it.
I led her upstairs to my room. It was kind of a mess, what with my having to pack up whatever I wanted to take with me to college. But the bed--thankfully, it was a queen-size, easily big enough for two--was more or less made. I didn't want her to think I was a slob.
She looked around the room, nodded to herself, then turned to face me as I stood there like a dope. She gave me the most darling little smile you can imagine--tender but with a touch of alarm, even fear--stood up on her tiptoes (I'm a bit taller than her: five foot ten) and, placing her hands on my shoulders, gave me a soft little kiss on the mouth.
I barely had time to kiss back when she pulled away and then, turning her back to me, began to undress.
There is something about seeing a girl naked for the first time that really gets to a guy. All the mysteries of the female body suddenly seem to be revealed to your gaze, and you realize that the various parts are even more beautiful than you had imagined. But they're beautiful because it's the