Читать книгу The Pink Ghetto - Liz Ireland - Страница 11

Renata told me that the catalyst for her weight loss, the event that drove her into the arms of Jenny Craig, was losing her virginity on graduation night.

Her older brother, who was just home from college and working at a country club for the summer giving tennis lessons, had let it drop that Jake Caddell, a boy in her class she’d had a crush on since third grade, was going to be working at the same club as a golf caddy. Not that her brother knew about this unrequited love of hers, or even suspected it. Jake wasn’t the best looking guy in her class, and he certainly wasn’t the smartest. He was one of the cut-ups, though he was one of the rare boys she’d known since third grade who had never used her appearance as the butt of his humor.

That alone would have made him a dreamboat. But because of his comparative kindness to her, she’d also endowed him with all sorts of attributes over the years: gorgeous brown eyes, wit, incredible aim with a spitball…

Right before graduation night, the talk of the school was that Jake’s girlfriend, Courtney Rogers, had dumped him for Rance Dumars. Jake was free, wide open, and on graduation night, fortified by two Mickey’s Big Mouths, Renata made her move. She waited until the band played a slow number, and then—boldly, bravely, tipsily—she asked him to dance.

The element of surprise worked in her favor. Jake blinked a few times, then said, “Sure, why not?”

Two dances, one long drive, and five cans of Old Milwaukee later, the two of them were huffing away in the back of the Caddell family’s Chrysler minivan. Which, even in Renata’s state of inebriation, was not all that comfortable. About the time her taffeta skirt was pushed up to her chin, she began to have doubts.

When she felt his erection pressing against her—urgently—she raised an alarm.

“What’s the matter?” he panted. He sounded a little annoyed, but she could understand. They had reached a critical juncture. She could feel his sweat dripping down her neck.

“This is my first time.”

“So?”

She bit her lip…not sure she should take a chance. “So…won’t it hurt?”

“Nah—and anyway, it’ll be over in like, five seconds.”

“Really?”

In the movies, sex scenes seemed to go on forever.

He pressed against her again, and she felt a surge of heat between her thighs.

“Trust me,” he murmured.

She did.

He was such a liar. He thrust into her, and for a moment it felt like a steak knife going into her vagina. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.

But he was right about one thing. He chuffed against her for about five seconds, fast, like a fornicating bunny, then he stopped, groaned, and collapsed on top of her.

“Goddamn!” he moaned.

Renata winced. She could feel something dribbling down her leg and toward the beige upholstery beneath them. She hoped it wasn’t blood.

Jake sat up, hitched his pants up from his ankles, and began zipping and buttoning. Following his lead, Renata sat up, too, and tried to pull herself together. Her dress was a wrinkled mess, but she didn’t care. Despite the pain, and the curious brevity, she felt lit from within.

I am a woman now, she thought, not entirely humorlessly.

When they crawled into the front seat, where Jake chugged the remains of a beer before firing up the van again, she decided to toss out a hint concerning her future availability. She knew he was a sought-after guy, but look where a little initiative had gotten her so far.

“This could be a great summer,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” He sounded distracted. “How come?”

“Well…I’m not really doing much of anything. If you want to get together sometime.”

She imagined going and hanging out at the country club every once in a while. Sharing a Coke.

Maybe he would even give her a golf lesson.

“Oh.”

“For dinner, or a movie, or…”

“You know what?” he said. “The truth is, I’m not even gonna be around much this summer.”

She darted a look at him. “But—” She bit her lip.

“No, see…I, uh, I’m going to be working on my uncle’s farm this summer. In Pennsylvania. I might be around occasionally, visiting…I mean, if you happen to run into me or something, that’s probably the explanation…”

She faced forward. “I see.” He thinks I’m too fat to be his girlfriend. Her face burned.

But maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe he’d decided to turn down the country club job…

Over the summer, her brother mentioned Jake in passing several times. He was a golf caddy at the country club all summer.

Renata vowed that the next time a guy slept with her, he wouldn’t want to toss her away like an old tissue afterward. And the next time she saw Jake, she swore she’d knock him off of his feet.

She waited until she had starved down thirty pounds, and then squeezed into a pair of shorts and went to the country club to see her brother. She happened to pass Jake, who walked right by her without recognizing her. He did a double-take, but by that time, she had noticed that he had a sunburn and a piggy nose. And she recalled that he wasn’t very bright.

Besides, she’d spent a lot of time in the library in June, and after researching some back issues of Cosmo, she was fairly sure that sex was supposed to last longer than five seconds.