drives Shaun and me to school. At 3 PM, school is over. We walk to her office at SRI, and wait, and wait, and try not to get into trouble, sometime after 5 PM we go home. I can see from an adult perspective how little two hours is. But I’m twelve and losing prime daylight sitting in an office. Just do some homework ? Screw that, I just got out of school. I need to let loose.
It is in the multi stalled sterile white tiled men’s room at SRI that I discover the greatest thing known to man, or woman. I discover my penis, and how good it feels rubbing it. Yes I had discovered all this earlier, in utero I suspect. But this, this is where it all comes together. The SRI bathroom, looking at pictures I had drawn of a naked girl. A side benefit of being the son of an artist and going to a hippy school is, you can make your own porno.
“I balled a girl.” We are in Jim Garrison’s driveway in a small Airstream caravan. We have been power eating poppy seeds because we heard it would get you high. Jim is going to hippy boarding school and apparently getting laid.
“You didn’t. Prove it.”
“Peter, only a virgin would think you could prove it. I could have got her pregnant.”
“So, I could get a girl pregnant.” They both look at me. I want to be as cool as Jim. I should have kept my mouth shut. Well, I should have done that a lot, but I didn’t.
“No you couldn’t, you have to ball a girl, you do that?”
“No. But I could get her pregnant if I did.”
“How do you know?”
“The same way you know you’re a total dickhead!”
“You’re the dickhead.”
“You’re both dickheads.” It isn’t much of this before we are fighting and wrestling as only peace loving hippy kids can.
Peter has a bloody nose. Jim has a chipped front tooth. I am bleeding from my ear.
“So how do you know?”
“You are such a major dickhead.” How do you put a cool spin on, I was rubbing my pecker in the men's room at my mom’s work, and I got so excited that this white goo came out of me.
I am 12, there is no cool spin on a wanking story. Especially seeing as I’m the only one perverted enough to be wanking. For the next two years I jerk off, in secret, ashamed but unable to stop myself.
And then she comes along. Kat, oh my God, Kat. She joins our drama class, at Ravenswood. She is beautiful, amazing, long dark hair, a smile to break my heart. And she points it at me .
DATE 1 - I invite her to a party at my house. Only I wasn’t having a party, I was riffing, sure she’d say no. She said yes. Fuck. OK JJ don’t panic, you can make this work. I call all my friends, three agree to come, Tomas, Peter, and Jonathan. OK not a party but I won’t look like I lied. Add Lark and one of his girls into the mix it’s not bad. Almost a party. My mom is out of town yet again. It could work, my friends all have my back. Or should. Jonathan is the wild card, he is dark and swarthy in the sexy unibrow way that many girls dig. He has big sad brown eyes that can be mistaken for soulful. From the moment Kat gets there he starts in trying to embarrass me, not that that’s a real chore. I get flustered and stumble over my words. I explode a beer all over my Bowie te e shirt .
“Smooth move ex-lax.”
“I didn’t, um, crap, Kat, you um... shit.”
“I got it, here Kat, a nice frosty.” Strange thing is, she takes the beer from him, but never stops looking at me. She tilts her eyes down at the wet shirt, smiles and cocks an eyebrow.
“You maybe should get out of that wet shirt.” Her eyes are actually twinkling.
“Good idea, thanks, um… be right back.” Her face falls a bit as I leave the room.
Dumb fucking dumb fucker. I am pounding my head against the wall in my room to the beat of my stupidity.
I build a fire, we sit and drink brandy watching the flames. Kat moves up next to me. Tomas
Andrea K. Höst
David O. Stewart
Elliott Mackle
Alex Kava
Lincoln Cole
Dara Joy
Frederick Reuss
Fiona Kidman
Claire Thake
Natalie French, Scot Bayless