Cherry by Lindsey Rosin Page B

voice. It keeps creeping up at the end of your sentences.”
    â€œI don’t know what to say about the ‘creeping,’ but as far the sex goes—”
    â€œOhmigod-I-still-can’t-believe-you-had-sex,” Zoe blurted out all at once, causing the whole table to erupt into a round of giggles. “I’m sorry,” Zoe said as soon as she could manage words again. “I’m just . . . it’s like . . . wow. ”
    â€œYes, it’s definitely wow . . . ,” Layla confirmed playfully for Zoe, “but we’re still trying to get the full mental picture of whether it was good or not.”
    â€œI swear it was good,” Emma said, still laughing, “but I guess, maybe if you really want the full mental picturemaybe we have to define what ‘good’ actually means. And possibly also ‘it,’ too.”
    â€œOkay, so it would be sex,” Layla offered.
    â€œYep. It happened. Nick put his penis inside my vagina.”
    â€œ Ohmigod  . . .” Zoe squealed, managing to put a napkin in front of her mouth so as not to spit rainbow ­sprinkles across the table. Her squirmy, sex pact–related reflexes already seemed to be improving.
    â€œAnd good means you liked it,” Layla said in a way that made it sound more like a question than a statement.
    â€œI did like it,” Emma insisted, “but, it wasn’t . . .” She paused, as if she were trying to listen to her own thoughts. “I think the truth is that it didn’t last very long. Like, it was happening, and I knew it was happening, but then it just sorta ended. ”
    â€œRight. No fireworks,” Layla said definitively.
    â€œGuys, it’s okay. You can just say the word ‘or’ . . . ‘org’ . . .” Zoe melted into a puddle of giggles before she could get the entire word out of her mouth.
    â€œZoe, can you say the word ‘orgasm’?” Alex teased.
    Â Â *  *  *  
    ZOE apparently could not.
    She also felt red, and rashy, and ridiculous , but even she had to admit that this was fun.
    The conversation made her feel mature, even though she was still anxious and sweating in strange locations, like behind her knees.
    â€œWas Nick on top of you?” Layla asked.
    â€œAs opposed to . . . ?”
    â€œI don’tknow. Like. Some other position . . . ?”
    â€œOh. Ha. No,” Emma said quickly. “We barely got through one position . . . I mean, we got through it, but then he finished and that was basically it.”
    â€œHmmm,” Layla said, looking a little bit like an inflated balloon.
    â€œAlso, it got a little messy, so I had to deal with that afterward,” Emma explained. “We probably should’ve just put a towel down on the couch or something. I had to put one of the cushion slipcovers in the washing machine. It got wet . . .”
    â€œOh, from the . . . ?” Zoe started to ask before realizing she had no clue how to even begin to finish her question.
    â€œDidn’t you use a condom?” Layla asked.
    â€œWe did , but there’s, like, fluid,” Emma tried to explain. “ You get wet and so that’s . . . it gets all over. And there was a little blood, too,” she added. “Not, like, a lot, but . . .”
    â€œSo it did hurt?” Layla asked.
    â€œNot really. ‘Hurt’ isn’t the right word . . . It’s hard to explain. Sorry, I keep saying that, but maybe it’s just something you have to do to totally understand.”
    Zoe wished she understood a little bit better, but, like Emma said, the only way to do that seemed to be to do it—and that wasn’t happening. Not yet, anyway.
    Wow .
    Did Zoe really just think about herself and then also about sex and then also about all of it