“Of course it hurts,” Melissa said from the other side. She sniffed and the toilet flushed.
The doorbell rang. Brock sighed heavily and went to the front door. He opened it and saw Laura. He opened the door and smiled at her. “Hey, Laura,” he said.
“Hi, Brock,” Laura answered. “Is Melissa home?”
“Yeah, she’s in the bathroom,” Brock said. They went down the hallway. Brock knocked again on the bathroom door. “Melissa? Laura is here. I’m gonna head out. I’m meeting some friends. I’ll see you later.”
Melissa sniffed again. The sound of running water could be heard behind the door. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Laura. Bye, Melissa,” Brock said and left the house.
Soon after he left, Melissa came out of the bathroom. “Are you alright?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Brock’s an ass,” Melissa sniffed again and tried to laugh.
“What did he do?”
“Does it matter? What’s up?”
“I was going to walk to the Cream Cup,” she said. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure. I don’t really want to be in this house anymore,” Melissa said. “Let me throw on shoes and we’ll go.”
Almost two years later, Melissa and Laura were sitting in the Cream Cup as freshmen when two guys--seniors--came up to them. One was wearing a letter jacket and actually seemed more polite and intelligent than the other guy who had a stupid smile on his face and kept staring at Melissa’s breasts. “Melissa and...Laura, right?” the one in the letter jacket asked.
“Yeah,” the girls both said.
“The guys and I are having a party out in the country and we would like you two to attend,” letter jacket guy invited.
“Yeah,” the other guy guffawed a couple times and pulled his eyes away from Melissa. “You know where Mitch Hollander lives?”
Melissa had gone down on Mitch back in September and they were at his place. She wasn’t sure if they were hiding the fact that they knew or actually didn’t know but she smiled at them and answered. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be there.”
“Really?” Laura raised an eyebrow.
“It’ll be fun. Come on, Laura,” Melissa goaded.
“I’ll think about it,” she replied. “Thanks for the invite,” and she waved her hand at the boys in an effort to get them to leave. They stood for a few more seconds and then walked off.
“Why don’t you want to go?” Melissa asked.
“They don’t want to hang out with us. They just hope we’ll be drunk enough or stupid enough to take our clothes off. Wasn’t Mitch the guy you…?” Laura loosely held up her hand, moved it back and forth in front of her mouth as she pushed the inside of her cheek with her tongue “He probably just wants to see if you’ll go further with him.”
“It’s a high school party, Laura. Drinking and sex, sex and drinking. Besides, that one time having sex was enough for me. I’m waiting until marriage.”
By one, most everyone had left the party. Melissa was one of the few who was still there although she had crawled into Mitch’s bed and fell asleep--alone and forgotten. At about two, only a handful of kids remained, spending the night instead of risking a drunk drive home. Mitch and the guy in the letter jacket, Travis, went into Mitch’s room to get more blankets and saw Melissa asleep on the bed.
“Looks like she was trying to wait for you,” Travis said.
“Nah, she just passed out,” Mitch chuckled. “Take these two blankets. We’ll leave this one here.” Travis took the blankets and headed out of the room.
“Great party, man. Thanks for letting us stay here,” Travis thanked.
“No problem.”
“You gonna sleep with her?” Travis nodded at Melissa.
“I’m gonna sleep next to her,” Mitch corrected.
“Whatever, man. Night.”
“Night.” Mitch took his shoes and socks off and then his shirt and pants. He sat down on the bed in his boxers and was about to get under the covers when he corrected himself. He grabbed a pair of pajama pants and put them on then got into bed, his back to Melissa.
He felt a tap on his back. “You should kiss me,” Melissa croaked.
Mitch rolled over and looked at Melissa. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. Besides, it’s late.”
“Come here,” Melissa reached over and attempted to pull Mitch over to her. Mitch moved himself over to her and they began kissing. “You should take advantage of this,” she moaned between kisses.
“I don’t think…” Mitch was interrupted by more kissing. They continued making out. Mitch moved on top of Melissa, his hands underneath her shirt. She helped him get her shirt off and then both of their pants. Mitch stopped kissing and fondling when he noticed Melissa stopped moving. She snored lightly. “Uh,” Mitch groaned. He raised himself up, looked at Melissa in the darkness his eyes had adjusted to and shrugged. “She’s the one who started it,” he said to himself and reached over to grab a condom from his bedside drawer.
“I need a boyfriend,” Melissa said as she and Kyle sat in history class. Kyle was sitting sideways at the desk with his arm on Melissa’s desk. She was using a pen to draw on his hand. “It’s been three weeks.”
“You don’t need a boyfriend,” Kyle said. “You never need a boyfriend. At least not the boyfriends you end up with.”
“What’s wrong with the guys I date?”
“Do you want me to make you a list? You are terrible at dating.”
“How dare you,” Melissa said. “I’m great at dating.”
“You’re great at sleeping with your boyfriends. I’m sure you are a great girlfriend but you don’t ever let that shine. You date a guy a week or two, jump into bed, and then that’s all the relationship becomes.”
Melissa stopped drawing and stared at Kyle.
“Prove me wrong. You’re kind of the class slut,” Kyle took his hand away. He looked at what Melissa drew on him. “What are these? Are these supposed to be penises?”
“Yeah.”
“They look like mushrooms. You have seen a penis before, right?”
“Of course I have,” Melissa began. The bell rang, dismissing class. Melissa stood up and headed to the door. “I’m the class slut.”
“Which boyfriend has a penis that looked like this? I promise I won’t tell.”
Melissa thought about what Kyle said all during her next class. At lunch, with her tray, she went up to Laura and Kyle, still sitting at a table. “Kyle, would you like to go out with me this weekend?”
Kyle stared at Melissa. “Yes, I would love that.”
“Good. I may have asked you but you are the man so dinner, movie, whatever you think would be a good first date. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Mel, what are you doing?” Laura asked.
“Proving Kyle wrong,” Melissa replied.
They had been dating a month when Melissa had Kyle over for dinner with her family. After dinner and after watching a movie with them, Kyle and Melissa walked out to his car arm in arm. “I don’t think they liked me,” Kyle said.
“To be fair, they don’t like anyone I bring home. They think teenage boys are sexual deviants who just want to get in my pants. For the most part, they are right but they don’t have to be so obvious about it.”
“You know what you should do to get back at them?” Kyle stopped and took Melissa in his arms.
“Not have sex with you until we’re three months into this thing?” she smiled at him and they kissed.
“Exactly.”
“And you are still okay with that, right?” Melissa asked.
“It’s the same thing I had been doing only now I’m not doing it with a girlfriend,” Kyle replied. “I agreed to it and I’d do anything for you.”
“Mm. You make it so hard to keep this agreement.”
“I try,” they continued kissing.
Melissa looked to the side and saw her dad staring at them from the front door. Upon seeing his daughter look at him, he turned and shut the door. “I gotta go in. I’ll see you at school.”
“I can’t believe this,” Laura said, pacing in front of Melissa. “He’s going to be devastated.”
“I’m devastated, too,” Melissa said. “I finally get this relationship thing figured out and I go and screw it up again.”
“You aren’t screwing it up. When did you know?”
“I’ve thought it for awhile, since my first boyfriend, but I can’t keep faking it. It’s not fair to the guys I date or me.”
Laura nodded. “Are you really going to break up with Kyle because you’re bisexual?”
“I need time to deal with coming out. I told my family and they are taking it as you would expect so I’m thinking I need to spend time with them to acclimate them to the idea that I am the same person but I like both men and women.”
“I can’t wait until you graduate and can get away from those people,” Laura sighed.
“Me too.” Melissa paused. “Do you think Kyle will handle it all right?”
“I’m fine,” Kyle said when Melissa told him later that night when they were out having dinner. “I’m just glad I got to have that time with you.”
“Why are you taking this so well?”
“Because I love you and I want you to be happy,” Kyle said. “I get that you probably haven’t heard that a lot.”
“I’ve been so worried that you were going to freak out or something.”
“The break up hurts but I understand,” Kyle looked at the time on his phone. “Almost ten. Ready to go home?”
“Yeah. I may be bisexual but I still have a curfew,” Melissa said and slid out of the booth. They walked hand-in-hand to Kyle’s car and he drove her home. They stood outside the car for a minute before she made the walk to the front door. “I guess I will see you later.”
Kyle suddenly hugged Melissa. She hugged back and rested her head on his shoulder. “If you need anything, I’m always there for you.”
Melissa sighed. “You are making it really hard to break up with you.”
“Enough for us to get back together?”
“Now it’s ruined,” Melissa broke off the hug.
“I figured it would be. Still gonna be there for you though.”
“I know. I’ll see you later.”
“Love you,” Kyle waved as she walked up the slight hill to her door.
She turned when she got to the porch and waved back.
