A series of stories about the pleasures of youth and the fun had during those glory years...
Story Nine -- Can't Say No
After listening to Carolee Donahue sing another chorus of "I Can't Say No" from that year's spring musical: Oklahoma!, I pulled my baseball cap down a little further to hide my eyes, sighed and prayed that I wasn't going to throw up.
Looking out the door I could see several members of the baseball team heading down the hall to go practice for Saturday's game. I quickly turned and walked backstage so that they wouldn't see me and I wouldn't have to speak to them.
Man, trying out for the spring musical had seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, I'd been banging Carolee for two months. Pretty much since I'd won my division at the state wrestling championships. On the football field I was excellent, if no quarterback, but on the mat I was phenomenal. Carolee had been so hot for me at the time; there was no way I was going to turn that down. When an injury sidelined me from the start of baseball season, I'd willingly taken a part in the chorus line for the musical just so I could be a little closer to her. She had beautiful, full tits with large ripe nipples and a hairy bush hiding between her round, creamy thighs. I wanted to be near that, and in that, as often as possible. And I mean I may be a jock, but I could hold my own on stage and carry a tune. I got my fine tenor voice from my Irish grandfather.
Yeah, it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
Of course, the best laid plans always go wrong. Carolee hadn't gotten the part she wanted, which really was no surprise in retrospect. A new girl to the school, Jolene, had snapped the part right out from under her. It isn't easy to go from lead three years running to second fiddle. But Jolene had a set of pipes that would make a professional singer jealous. And she also had another set of pipes if you catch my drift. She was a dark haired, doe eyed good looker.
No doubt about that.
I just hadn't bargained for a girlfriend who was going to act like she was premenstrual 24/7. I made a mental note that it was a good idea to stop nailing actresses in the future. Way too much drama on stage and off. And I discovered that when Carolee got angry, she got focused.
Sex was no longer on her priority list.
Another wistful sigh passed uncontrollably from my lips, and that was another sign to me that I'd rather be out on the field with my buddies getting dirty than line dancing in the theatre.
"Heya, Marc," said Ryan Ford, coming up to me and giving me his big puppy dog grin.
Ryan was what we at school called a drama geek. But he was a real good guy. I liked him and we'd always been on friendly terms in the halls or in class, and we'd gotten along well working on the musical over the last few weeks. For a theatre person, he seemed pretty ripped up. Guess working out for ballet really paid off for him. I'd tried several times to get him to go out for one of the athletic teams at school, preferably one of the ones I lettered on: football, wrestling or baseball. Hell, I also played lacrosse, hockey and rugby. But Ryan never took me up on the offer. He never really wanted to hang out with the guys too much either.
So naturally I'd always assumed he was kinda queer.
"Hey dude, how's it hanging?" I responded sullenly.
"I never understand why you jocks use that expression," he said, a little too animated, "Look, I just wanted to let you know that Mrs. Miller called off work on our scenes tonight, so you're free to go home early if you want."
"Great," I said, again with less enthusiasm than I'd intended.
My buddies Steve and Greg were also on the baseball team, and consequently both at practice. There were a few guys that I could have called to hang out with, but I was taking some shit for agreeing to add my voice to the musical. While they were all cool with it, that didn't mean they couldn't use it as an excuse to rag on me. And I didn't really feel like listening to it tonight.
"Carolee's got to rehearse tonight though," he added, then after seeing my face added, "You sound a little down."
"Yeah, man," I said, "I guess it's just been one of those weeks."
He nodded sympathetically, and then put his hand conspiratorially on my shoulder.
"Look," he said, "I know that we've never really hung out or anything outside of school, but a couple of us are going back to my place to order a pizza and maybe watch a movie. You're welcome to come along if you want."
When I made no immediate response he added hastily as if really thinking through what he'd just asked me, "But if you're busy or something don't worry about it. I mean I understand."
He was trying politely to give me a way out. And I admit hanging out with members of the drama club was not exactly my idea of a good time, but beggars can't always be choosers, can they?
"Sure, man," I said, after a pause, "That'd be cool. Why don't I follow you over in my truck?"
"Great," he said, "Just give me a second and we'll head over."
I wrote Carolee a note and stuck it on her backpack. She was ass deep in choreography and I knew there'd be no way to get her attention before it was time to go.
When I met up with Ryan there were a couple other guys with him, Jesse and Trevor. And one girl: Jolene. My eyebrows rose a little when I saw her. We hadn't really been introduced yet, but I'd caught her checking me out on more than one occasion, and I hadn't missed the fact that she'd even been to a couple of my matches during the season.
I didn't say anything to Ryan about the make up of the company.
The ride to Ryan's took about a half hour as he lived away from the school out in the country a ways. We met his parents going out as we were arriving; apparently they were off to some dinner thing. They seemed nice and moderately wealthy, judging by their home, and I assumed that they probably moved in the same circles my own parents did.
Although I'd never met them before.
We settled in on the couches and shot the shit for awhile, drank some sodas and laughed a lot. It felt good to laugh. The drama geeks and I were pleasantly surprised to find that we had all kinds of things in common. Then pizza arrived and the sun started to go down. Jolene reached for the remote and flipped through the channels.
"Who wants a beer?" Ryan asked.
"You drink beer?" I asked him stunned.
"Yeah, of course I do," said Ryan, "Why? Don't you? I thought all you jocks drank beer."
"I'll have one," said Jolene.
"Uh, yeah," I stumbled, "I guess I will have one."
Jesse and Trevor both decided to try a little something other than soda too.
"Good that's settled then. Hey, Marc," Ryan asked, "Can you come and give me a hand with the beer, it's in the garage?"
"Sure," I told him.
I got up and followed him out to the garage.