Chapter 2
With a long, graceful sweep, the girl's delicate hand spread a wide path of silvery lotion on Ida's back, straightening the tiny, almost white, hairs on the slender back of her neck. The last five months had provided her with a deep, rich copper tan, but she still spent every minute during the day at the beach in preparation for winter. School started next week, and as a "new girl," Ida wanted to impress her classmates, male and female alike, with the dark evidence of her leisurely summer.
"Do you think they'll like me?" she asked her doe-eyed friend.
"Sure, you don't have to worry at all. The word has already spread that you're coming, and besides, you've met at least a hundred of the seniors, so you don't have to worry about being accepted if you stay the way you are," Shirley Thompson told her while spreading the cooling lotion in broad, unrelated patterns on Ida's back.
"Mmmmmm, that feels good," the girl half-whispered, remembering that she had said something very similar to Hank last night. But, of course that was different, really different.
"Come on, your turn," Shirley said, slapping her friend lightly on her buttocks, then falling face-down on the straw mat that designated their territory of sandy beach. She waited for Ida to rub her down with the luscious, skin-saving lotion, licking her dry lips intently and staring at a small crusted shell. She had met her blonde friend last May at nearly the same spot on the beach, and since then had spent nearly every day with her, unless Ida was with Hank, or Tony had taken Shirley somewhere away from the beach.
"There's one thing, though," she said, hesitating for a moment, not sure if she should mention it or not.
"Mm?" Ida answered, her attention focused along the gentle curves of her ebony-haired friend's body. She couldn't help but admire the soft, smooth lines that out-lined her friend's silhouette, and often felt a tiny tinge of envy when she looked at her. Shirley was almost four inches shorter than Ida, but her long, slender legs and proportionate torso made her look much taller, and when she stood, her shiny black hair cascaded from her shoulders, spraying softly across her back, and sometimes nestling in its even ends at the dimpled top of the cleavage that separated her full-rounded buttocks. The long, flowing hair always swayed when she walked, keeping time with her sensuous hips like the pendulum of a clock. Ida too had what the boys called a "bitchin' walk," but she couldn't help wanting to be more like Shirley.
"What I mean is," Shirley paused for a second, lifting her torso and readjusting her full, firm breasts so that she rested more comfortably in the sand. "There, that's better. Now, what I mean is, do you know anything about really being accepted at school-like maybe being accepted by the fraternity?"
"Fraternity?" Ida asked, tilting her head to one side, then leaning it back slightly, trying to think of a fraternity. "I didn't know there was a fraternity at the high school."
"There isn't," Shirley continued, stopping for a moment to push the sides of her expanded breasts towards each other so that no one could see the darkened rings that surrounded her large nipples. "Damn, I wish that everybody would approve of topless so I wouldn't have to hide these stupid things."
Ida giggled at her friend's frustration, but wished that her breasts were as large as Shirley's, though she secretly knew that she hadn't met any girl at the beach whose breasts were as large or as firm and shapely as her own-no one except Shirley, that is.
"Where was I?" Shirley asked herself. "Oh, yeah, the Greeks, that's fraternity to you dummies. It's not a high school club, because the school board won't allow them in the system-the superintendent says they're dangerous to our morals. Anyway, it's a Greek House from the University, and most of the members have come from this area."
"Why?" Ida asked, not really interested in college boys, not this year anyway.
"Well that goes along with what I said about being accepted. You see, each of the high schools in town is allowed two candidates, and both of them are allowed to join the House while they're still seniors in their petty little high schools."
"So that makes the guys big shots, huh?"
"Right, wizard. But that's not all."
"What's the big deal? Do you mean that I should give up Hank and date one of the high school jerks who belongs to the fraternity?"
"Wow, man, watch your evil tongue," Shirley said with an elfish grin. "If any of the boys heard you say that, you'd be blacklisted in two seconds, especially if Hank heard it."
"What do you mean?" she said, applying the finishing strokes of the suntan lotion to Shirley's back.
"Because, know-it-all, Hank is a candidate for membership as soon as school starts."
"Oops, I guess I said the wrong thing," she giggled.
"Oops, yourself. You'd better believe you did, because Tony's up for it, too. Geez, you must be blind. Haven't you noticed how short-tempered Hank's been for the last two weeks?"
Ida nodded and almost said he was angry all the time for a much different reason than joining a stupid fraternity, but changed her mind and continued to listen.
"Tony's been the same way, and it's all because of the club. The first initiation party is a week from today, and they haven't come up with an idea yet."
"Idea for what?"
"For the initiation, silly. Boy, you sure are dumb sometimes. The guys have got to think of something really wild and outa sight, otherwise the other two who've also been nominated will get into the House and our boys'll be hell to live with."
Ida pondered the situation for a moment, wondering exactly what the impact might be on her. Even if Hank was upset for a while, he'd get over it and they'd still be together ... forever, she hoped. Mr. and Mrs. Hank Campbell, she mused with a pleased smile slowly growing at the corners of her lips.
"Oh, sure," Shirley said, half-sarcastically. "You think everything's fine with you and Hank, but there's more to the initiation than just a new idea."
"Like what," Ida said with a slight nod of her head, and reached into her beach bag for an emery board.
"Like you, honey! If the fraternity decides they don't like a candidate's girlfriend, then he's out, and there's no such thing as a second chance. Hank's probably worried about your being accepted. I know Tony is; he told me last night."
Ida remained silent, looking at her friend, then down at her long fingernails. The crusted emery board rasped back and forth rapidly while she thought about what Shirley had said. There shouldn't be any reason for Hank to worry, nor Tony, for that matter. Besides, she knew that she was more important to Hank than some old fraternity. If it was a question of choosing between the two, he'd take her over a bunch of rowdy college boys. She was positive. He loved her and that was all there was to it!
"I think the whole idea's stupid," she said, not looking up from her nails.
"Maybe so, but if you're not puttin' out to Hank, he might be looking for someone else. Boys always think that if you give them a little, you really care about them."
"Shirley!" Ida gasped, shocked that her friend would say such a thing. All summer long Shirley never, ever said anything like that, except, of course, when she was joking.
"Scare ya with the big bad words?" Shirley kidded. "It's not like saying fuck, so what's the big deal?"
"Oh," slipped from Ida's throat and she drew her hand to her mouth in defense. None of the girls she had ever known before had ever talked like that ... especially not Shirley.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I said it," Shirley apologized. "I guess it just slipped out. Tony says it all the time to make me mad, and I guess I'm just so attached to him, that I'm picking up his bad habits."
"Do-do you put-I mean, do you do it with him?" Ida suddenly asked, thinking that because Tony talked dirty to her friend, they must be ... lovers.
"No, I don't 'do it' with him, not yet anyway."
"What do you mean, not yet?" Ida asked, winking one eye and not sure that she wanted to know the answer.
"I'm going to let him do it Saturday night," she said matter-of-factly. "That way, he'll be so happy on Sunday when we go to the fraternity picnic that he won't possibly want to put me down."
"Shirley, that's terrible. Don't you have any self-respect?" Ida asked, afraid that her friend's sense of values might be in danger.
"No, I don't think it's terrible," she said with an unrecognizable tone to her best friend. "I'm not worried about losing my self-respect either. All men can be made to do anything, if a woman knows how to use the right tactics. Anybody can tell you that"
"Oh, Shirley, that's sad. You shouldn't really think like that. Don't you love Tony?"
"Oh, I suppose I do in a way, and we might even get married one day, but not 'til he's man enough for me."
"Well, I love Hank, and I'd never talk about him that way," she said, suddenly hesitating, then blurting out, "Have you ever done it with anyone else?"
Shirley looked up at her, scanning Ida's powder-blue eyes, suddenly worried that someone might know her secret. During the months that they had been together, the question had never come up, and Shirley hadn't asked Ida because the answer was so obvious.
"Well, since you're my best friend," she said a little uncertainty, "I guess I can tell you that I have, but you'd better not tell anyone."
"I won't," she said and asked quickly, "Who was it?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she said with a smile, though inside an all too familiar pang of fear struck the hollow of her stomach. "Sorry, though, you'll never know."
"Why not," Ida asked, her female curiosity aroused. She really wanted to know, so she'd know what it was like.
"I just can't tell you, that's all," she said softly, avoiding the statuesque blonde's searching eyes. "No one else even knows that I'm not a virgin, so you know more than anybody. Just be satisfied with it."
More than anything else she could imagine at that moment, she wanted to know who her friend's secret lover was, but it was obvious that Shirley would never tell, so Ida said suddenly, "Hank and I have never done it."
"I know," Shirley said with no tone in her voice.
"But we almost did, last night out in the woods. It was really close, but...."
"Close only counts in horse shoes," she said with a sly grin. "It's a lot of fun, much more than you think, and if you've only come close, you might as well have never done anything at all, because you're missing the best part."
"Well, maybe it is, but Hank loves me and he respects me. He wouldn't want to force me to do anything that would hurt me."
"Hurt you? Ida, for cryin' out loud, it's not going to hurt you except maybe just a little the first time," Shirley told her knowingly. God, the tiny bit of pain is all the pleasure, she thought, remembering her secret, a secret of pain and pleasure that she couldn't share with anyone. There was, and could be, only one real man in her life, a man with whom she could never marry, but while they were together they would always remain lovers. She knew that at eighteen she was already a woman, a real woman who knew how to please a real man.
"Maybe not," Ida said pensively, trying to think of a good answer, a reason to justify her virginity. But there was really none at all, none except her fear of the unknown.
For a few minutes neither of them spoke. Ida was remembering the exciting sensations that Hank had pulled from the very depths of her being the night before, while Shirley reminisced about her secret lover, a man she had known all her life. He was a real man, not some silly boy like Tony or Hank. Oh, they were all right, she supposed, but they had so much to learn, and by the time they knew what she did now, she would be much too far ahead of them in her experience to even think on the same plane. Life was so sad, she thought with a tired sigh.
"Shirley, are you going to the picnic next Sunday?"
"Of course. Tony's already asked me, though that doesn't mean much."
"Why not?"
"Because," she said a little too proudly, "my brother's the president of the fraternity. I can go anytime I want to."
"Then you mean that Tony's really already in the club?"
"If I say so, Rod will let him in," she said tossing her head back so that the long, silken strands of ebony hair seemed to wave across her shoulders and fall over her smooth supple back.
"Then why are you going to make love with Tony next weekend? If you have more influence in the club than he does, why bother to do it!" Ida asked, confused by her friend's hidden motives.
"Oh, I guess, really, I just feel like it," she said, cocking her head to one side and trying to determine the real reason. She knew that her secret lover satisfied her like no other man could, but for some unknown reason, she wanted to try some of the boys she knew; see how they were in bed. Variety, she thought I guess that's the real rear son.
"Shirley, I just don't understand you. I wouldn't do that, have sex with a boy just because I felt like it. It's not right, not like it might be with Hank, and I'd only do it with him because he really loves me."
"Sure," Shirley said, not trying to sound too sarcastic. She knew that the poor girl would just have to learn-there wasn't any love, not any real love. Even what she shared with her lover wasn't much more than sex. No, she thought, there's no love at all.