"I told them if they do that," she had said to Jake on one occasion, "that I'll just have to move out and get a job as a waitress or something to put myself through school. Maybe at one of those places where they make you wear short skirts."
Though Jake still wasn't sure whether he was all that keen on being a rebellion symbol so Michelle could get back at her parents, he had to admit that he'd laughed his ass off when she'd shared that with him. Especially when she described how red her father's face had become, how he hadn't been able to speak for the better part of five minutes, how her mother had dropped to her knees and begun praying right there in the middle of the living room.
Still, their relationship wasn't only about delayed rebellion and pissing off conservative Christian parents. If that were the case one or both of them would have undoubtedly made the decision to move on by now. That had only been what got them together. They stayed together because they genuinely enjoyed each other's company in a variety of ways. For Jake, he enjoyed rubbing away her naiveté, exposing her to things she had been denied while growing up. She got drunk for the first time with Jake. It was he who introduced her to the pleasures of smoking marijuana. He introduced her to rock and roll music-real rock and roll music instead of the filtered, popular crap she'd been fed in her school and in her home. And, of course, he introduced her to the pleasures of the flesh-or at least as much of it as she would allow him to share with her. He was not the first boy to French kiss her, but he was the first to put his hand on her bare breast, to slide his fingers up beneath her prim and proper skirt and play with her wet vaginal lips under her panties. His cock was the first she had touched, the first she had really even seen in the flesh. He had taught her how to give a proper hand-job without spilling a drop of the offering on the couch or the car seat or the movie theater seat. So far that was as far as her prudish upbringing would allow, but she had hinted on several occasions that it wouldn't exactly be a mortal sin for her to go all the way with him as long as she was truly repentant afterward.
"So," Matt asked as the trio worked their way a little closer to the stage, Michelle's eyes peering towards the darkness, searching for him, "you tapped into that shit yet, or what?"
"I'm getting there," Jake replied, standing up and brushing the dust off his jeans. "It'll be any night now."
This produced an immediate look of boredom on Matt's face. In his view of the world there was no such thing as a woman worth waiting more than two dates for sexual congress. And even that was stretching it. "Well, you go talk to your little virgin. I'll stay here and scope out the future groupies."
"Right," Jake said. He walked out of the alcove they were in and onto the side of the stage. Michelle spotted him immediately and began working her way forward. Her two friends followed listlessly behind her.
"Hi, sweetie," she said cheerfully when they met near the front of the stage. "How's everything going?"
"Good," he said, sliding down so he was sitting on the edge of the stage. He gave her a brief kiss on the lips. "Thanks for coming to see us tonight."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," she told him. "It's so exciting. Your first concert. I know you're going to be just awesome. Besides, it pissed Daddy off something fierce when I told him we were coming here." She giggled a little in her ain't-I-being-the-rebel manner. "He called this place the Devil's seduction pit."
Jake chuckled, thinking that would actually make a cool name for a club. It certainly had a better ring to it than D Street West. He looked at Michelle's companions, who were both chewing wads of bubble gum and sniffing dramatically at the cigarette smoke in the room. "Rhonda, Mindy," he said politely, nodding at each of them. "Nice to see you both again."
They looked at him with identical expressions of contemptuous disgust, as if he were a cockroach on a shower floor. "What are friends for?" Rhonda asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Yeah," Mindy put in. "Someone has to keep Michelle from getting raped and murdered in this... this place."
"Oh, Mindy," Michelle scoffed. "It's just a different crowd than we usually run with. Jake had taken me here six or seven times and we've never had a problem."
"That's because he's one of..." she started, then seemed to realize she was about to go over the edge of propriety. "I mean, they know him here. We're here alone now."
"Yeah," Rhonda agreed. "What if one of these... guys tries picking us up?"
"Then you might actually have a good time," Jake suggested, making the two girls gasp and making Michelle giggle again.
"I don't think that's very funny," Mindy said.
"Look," Jake told them. "Why don't you just try to have fun? This is a bitchin' place. Have a few drinks. Loosen up."
"We're not twenty-one yet," Rhonda said, giving another eye roll.
"They don't give a rat's ass about that here," Jake told her. "If you got the green, they'll sell you the booze."
This perked their interest. "Really?" Mindy asked carefully, as if he were setting her up for a practical joke.
He turned to Michelle. "Am I lying?"
She shook her head. "We've never been carded here," she told her friends. "Not even once."
Understanding seemed to dawn on their faces. Jake could almost read the thoughts going on in their pretty little heads. Here, at last, was a possible explanation for why their friend was hanging out with a longhaired loser. He knew how to get drinks.
"Well, maybe we'll have just a couple," Rhonda said.
"Yeah, since we have to be here anyway," Mindy agreed graciously.
"That's the way to party," Jake said, his sarcastic tone quite over their heads.
"Buy us the first round, Shelly," Rhonda said. "So we can see how you do it."
"Yeah," Mindy said. "Let's go get some."
"I want a Tom Collins," Rhonda said excitedly. "I heard those are bitchin'."
"My sister made those for me once," Mindy squealed. "Oh my Gawd! They are like, so good!"
The two reluctant attendees continued to talk excitedly about what kind of drinks they were going to have, what kind of drinks they had had in the past, and in what order they were going to consume them tonight.
"I think you've finally impressed them," Michelle whispered with a smile.
"Yes," Jake said. "I seem to have a way of getting to you religious girls, don't I?"
This produced yet another giggle. "They don't know the half of it," she said, reaching out and stroking his hand.
"Should I show them?"
She laughed. "You're naughty."
"That's what they say."
She was about to say something else but Rhonda grabbed her by the arm. "Come on," she said. "Let's go get those drinks now."
"Yeah," Mindy said. "I'm really thirsty."
"Your entourage awaits," Jake said. "Do you need any money?"
He was just being polite and she knew it. Money was one thing Michelle never seemed to be lacking. "I can swing it," she said. She leaned forward and gave him another kiss, a long one this time, the tip of her tongue just reaching out to touch his. "I can't wait to see you play," she told him. "You've been working so hard for this."