Greg looked stunned. He thought about it for a while and smiled.
“Ah, grasshopper wishes to learn from the master.” His fake Chinese accent wasn’t very good.
I nodded to him.
“If you’re serious, I would love to train you to be a little stud. But you’re going to have to do as I say, and some of the things you’re going to fight me on,” Greg said.
I looked confused.
“What will I fight you on?”
“That’s the point: nothing. If you agree to follow my rules, I’ll teach you.”
I let out a long breath of relief.
“Agreed!”
“So, who is this junior you have the hots for?”
I started to evade the answer.
“Look dumbass, you want help or not?” he asked.
I sure did.
“Peggy Pratt.”
“I guess you either go big or stay home. Peggy would be an excellent choice. I think she even likes you.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I know so. She always comments on what a nice guy you are. That’s half the battle. I even heard you did her a solid on Monday by giving her your gym shirt.”
I remembered her wet-t-shirt look and smiled.
“She needed a change after being caught in the rain,” I explained.
“Well, I can tell you the rest of the male population at the school would rather she not have gotten the t-shirt, but it was a nice gesture, and her friends were talking about you for the last few days because of it.”
That caught my interest.
“What were they saying?”
Greg got an evil grin.
“After all the talk about you saving Peggy, they mostly talked about how much you’ve grown. I think the phrases ‘cute butt’ and ‘hot bod’ were used once or twice.”
Greg saw me go completely red and he broke out laughing.
“Greg, are you kidding me?”
“Sorry, dude, no, I’m not.”
I was too stunned to continue the conversation. I pulled out my cell and called Jeff.
“Sorry man. Greg needs me to do him a favor so I won’t be able to play tonight.”
“No problem, I’ll let Alan know.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you at school.”
I hung up and decided to give Tami a quick call and invite her to Beth’s a week from Sunday.
Tami answered and I just started talking.
“Hey, I have to help Greg until dinner. How about I call you after?”
“I can’t tonight, Bert Nelson is coming over.”
What the heck, did someone just punch me in the stomach? My chest felt like someone was sitting on it. I didn’t have any right to tell Tami who she could go out with, but this was my Tami. I leave for the summer and she goes from being a tomboy and my best friend to having boobs and seeing a football player? I felt miserable.
“Will I see you in the morning?” I asked.
“No. I’ll see you in school.”
Sunday was forgotten at that moment. I just told her goodbye and I let Greg drag me to the car. There was just silence as he waited me out. One of the things I loved about him was he never pushed me. I asked him about it one time, and he said it was his philosophy on life. If you don’t know what to do, just shut up and see what happens. The weird thing was our silence was always comfortable. My mind was spinning as I tried to figure out what it would mean if Tami were dating. Why did it hurt so much? Did I have feelings beyond friendship for Tami? The image of her with another guy almost made me physically ill.
BEFORE I COULD SOLVE my problems, we were at Cindy’s house. She met us at the door.
“David! Thanks for the help. The kids are in the backyard running off some energy. Why don’t you go back and meet them.”
I knew when I’d been dismissed, so I went out back. There were six screaming kids from the ages of 3 to 11. Needless to say, I earned my stud education that day. I also realized I didn’t want to have unprotected sex if this was what it created. I was the happiest guy in the world when their mom showed up about two hours later.
Afterwards, I collapsed on the back porch. The little rugrats had worn me out. I wished I had that much energy. It wasn’t that they were bad kids, they were just wound up. Finally, Greg came out about thirty minutes later.
“Come on in.”
I followed him into the kitchen. Cindy’s family had money and their house showed it. Cindy came into the kitchen in a short silk robe. Her hair was a mess and her nipples were very obviously pressing through the flimsy material. She thanked me for watching the little monsters and I handed her the thirty bucks their mother had given me. She tried to give it back.
“No, Greg and I have a deal and it doesn’t involve me taking money from you.”
“I told Cindy what we’re going to do and she wants to help,” Greg said.
I was a little pissed he had told her, but I could use a woman’s perspective. I saw some real upside to this. Plus, I looked at her in her robe and imagined her naked underneath. Cindy saw me check her out.
“David, are you a virgin?” she asked.
I turned bright red and made some ums and ahs. Could I blush any more today?
“Look at me,” Greg said to get my attention. “Lesson one. We’re going to have to work on your self-confidence. I want you to realize most girls your age are as nervous as you are. Why do you think most freshman girls are looking to go out with juniors and seniors?”
To be honest, I’d never thought about it. I assumed they liked the looks of older guys.
“When I was a freshman, I was dating a junior,” Cindy said. “It had to do with his confidence. He didn’t stammer or beat around the bush. He just asked me out and I said ‘yes.’ I was happy to have someone take me by the hand and teach me about dating. What do you think Peggy will think if you’re stammering?”
I just nodded. Wait! How the heck did she know about my crush on Peggy?
She looked me up and down.
“You filled out nicely over the summer, and most girls like taller guys.”
She had me off-balance. She’d laid the Peggy bomb on me and then she had checked me out. I decided to follow Greg’s philosophy: just wait and see what was next. I think Greg saw my wheels grinding to a stop, so he bailed me out.
“First we need to find out your experience level. Are you a virgin?”
I knew that Greg was aware I was.
“Yes, I’m a virgin. I went out with a girl in middle school, but the furthest it ever went was some kissing.”
I had one brief girlfriend: Jan Duke. Jan was cute and had just broken up with Justin Tune. A couple of weeks after our first date I saw them kissing in the hall at school and never talked to her again. Shortly after she broke my heart, I had gone off the deep end. Three months later was when Lily happened.
“Good job, you didn’t hesitate, you just answered. So I can see there’re two things that are working against you: one is experience asking a girl out, and the second is experience being with a girl,” Greg said.
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
Didn’t that sum up most 15-year-old boys?
“Okay, lucky for you we have a girl you can practice on,” my brother said to stun me.
I looked at both Greg and Cindy and tried to figure out whom they would get to practice with me, when Cindy burst out laughing.
“David, ask me out.”
I went bright red again and looked at my shoes. I guess I wasn’t done blushing. I figured that if I didn’t die from this, it was going to help get a date. If I ever wanted to go out with Peggy, I’d better man up and ask my brother’s girlfriend out.
“Cindy, if you’re not doing anything Friday night, we could, ummm...”
Greg bailed me out.
“Stop. First, have a plan. What would you like to do with Cindy on Friday?”
I got an evil grin.
“I think I can guess,” Cindy volunteered.
Greg gave me a dirty look that said I’d better straighten up or Cindy wasn’t going to be my test partner.