Junior Year Box Set

I just sat down on the floor and looked up as she sat back on the bed. Semen in the eye is not a good thing. It’s a real mood killer, and Brook looked pissed. I had a flash from the movie There’s Something About Mary when the title character thinks semen is hair gel.

“It hurts! What are you laughing at?” she asked.

“Come on. Let’s get your eye cleaned out,” I said, and helped Brook to the bathroom.

When she could see again, I put her in the shower to clean up. Of course, I had to make amends and help her wash her hair and get squeaky clean. She particularly liked the tool I used to clean her tight little kitty.

We got out of the shower, and Brook noticed the time.

“My parents’ll be home soon. We need to get back to the main house.”

I put my boxers back on and grabbed a towel to sit on. I didn’t feel like wearing my muddy gear. We raced up to the house, and I pulled my four-wheeler next to the garage so I could hose it down to get the mud off it. I was standing next to the garage in only my boxers with the hose in my hand when her parents pulled up. Ian and Ava got out of the car, and I acted as if it were perfectly normal for me to be in my boxers while washing their four-wheeler. Brook ruined it by looking guilty.

“Uh, I hate to ask, but why are you in just your underwear?” Ian asked.

“Brook told me that was the right way to clean the four-wheeler. She said that way I wouldn’t get my clothes wet,” I said as if I was that gullible.

“I did not, oh, uh, yeah, that’s what happened,” Brook said.

“I think something fell out of your fly,” Ava said as she pointed at me.

My head snapped down, and I saw she was teasing. I couldn’t help it, I blushed big-time.

“Maybe you should get dressed while Brook accompanies us into the house for a discussion. When you get done, feel free to join us,” Ian said.

I think her mom might be a mind-reader.

“No, you can’t just leave,” she said, as she hooked her arm under Brook’s and led her into the house.

Well, shit! The problem was that my clothes were in the house. I finished hosing the worst of the mud off the four-wheeler and then pushed it into the garage. All I could do was stand tall and walk to the house. I couldn’t leave anyway, because my keys were in my jeans. When I walked in the back door, Ava saw me and her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.

“My clothes are in there,” I said, pointing to the guest bathroom.

I ignored the muffled laugh from her dad as I waltzed through their kitchen to the bathroom. I debated whether I should come out or wait until they turned in for the night, but figured I might as well face it. When I came out, Ava pointed at a seat next to Brook at the kitchen table. I sat next to my coconspirator.

“How long has this been going on?” Ian asked.

I beat Brook to the answer.

“Today was the first day we tried four-wheeling.”

Ian gave me a hard look, and I think Brook had held her breath because she gave a giant sigh of relief when Ava started to laugh. Ian couldn’t keep a straight face any longer. They’d known that Brook was sexually active for a couple of years. I was sure they knew we were. Thankfully, Ian took his lead from his wife.

“It’s not every day we find a half-naked boy in our yard,” Ava said.

“He got muddy,” Brook offered.

“That would explain why his hair’s wet. It doesn’t explain your hair,” Ava said, letting Brook know she hadn’t fooled anyone.

Brook was terrible at this; she acted as if she’d been caught in the act. I didn’t plan on pulling off any convenience-store robberies with her.

“So, how was your day?” I asked to change the subject.

“Really good, until we came home,” Ian said, to bring us back onto topic.

“I love you,” I blurted out.

Shit, that didn’t work any better than it did on my mom. Even Brook rolled her eyes at me.

“Do we need to have a talk?” Ian asked.

“No!” Brook and I said in unison.

As my punishment, Ava called my mom and told her how she’d found me when she got home. There was a lot of laughing on her end of the call. I got told I had to stay for dinner. I think it was to see how long Brook’s parents could torture us.

On my drive home, I reflected on how different Brook’s parents’ reaction was from how Cal had reacted. It might have been a different story if they’d caught us in the act, but they knew what we’d been up to. When I arrived home, Mom just gave me a smirk, and I knew I would hear about it when she had a larger audience.

◊◊◊ Wednesday November 4

We only had a half day of school today. We found the Booster Club had sprung for two charter buses. Coach Hope split up the offense and defense to ride on each bus. On our bus, the cheerleaders were seated in the front, and then our coaches sat between them and us.