"Uh-huh," Tina said, looking at us incredulously. Meanwhile, Amanda bit the last bit of strawberry out of my fingers, and then started licking the juices off my hand, going "Mmmmmm!" the whole time.
"Jesus. I can’t take any more of this!" Tina proclaimed, but she was laughing. "I’m gonna go back out in the living room and leave you too to your post-coital fruit bash." And with that, she was off.
Amanda looked over at me and started giggling wildly.
I couldn’t help it-I grinned back at her. "What got into you?"
"What did I say earlier? Insanity, lust, love? All those things." She looked at me. "I just figured I’d better keep up with her!"
"That you did." I looked at her. "I learn new things about you every second, don’t I?"
"What’s funny is you’re learning about them at the same time I am." She looked down. "I hope you don’t mind."
"Of course not. I like to see someone go toe-to-toe with Tina, it’s such a rare experience."
"Yeah. But I also remembered what you said. You know, what do I have to be ashamed about? Nothing. It was great." She took a bite out of an orange. "Although, I must admit, I never thought I’d ever be sitting stark naked discussing intimate details of my deflowering with my boyfriend’s sister."
"Yeah, I never thought I’d see that, either." Then it hit me, what she said. "Boyfriend?" I said tentatively.
"Yeah." She looked up at me, under her lashes. "Is that OK?" she asked, just as tentatively.
"Skipped past OK," I said with a grin. "Headed straight for delirious."
"Oh, I do love you," she said with a shiver. "Feed me a banana."
"Your wish is my command."
That’s when we heard the voices from the living room. "So, did they do the deed?" I heard my mother ask.
"They did the deed," Tina confirmed, "and apparently it was world-shakin’, earth-quakin’, a whole lotta rockin’ and rollin’." My parents started laughing and Tina continued, "And now they’re in there feeding each other fruit!"
Amanda and I looked at one another, and collapsed in a fit of giggles.
CHAPTER TWENTY AMANDAOK, I was shameless. Completely, utterly shameless. And it felt as freeing as walking around naked did.
Besides which, I liked Tina. She was really cool. And she obviously adored Jared, despite all the teasing. I know he would’ve gone at it with her just as I did if I hadn’t been there, but he was thinking of protecting me. So, I took matters into my own hands.
I even enjoyed it. And I meant what I said-I don’t have a damn thing to be ashamed about. I was shameless-there was no shame. Just joy, and love, and all kinds of other good things.
And then I called him my boyfriend. I have a boyfriend, I have a boyfriend. That kept running through my mind, I have a boyfriend. And I love him. And I had sex with him. And it was the greatest night of my life.
I had changed a whole hell of a lot in three short days.
I also found out that eating fruit out of your boyfriend’s hand is amazingly intimate, and sensual, and spine-tingling.
Anyhow, after the fruit, we walked out into the living room. I was blushing, I know it, his parents kept smiling, and Tina had that evil grin again.
"She’s got a curfew, I have to get her home. I’ll see you folks in a bit," Jared said. I didn’t trust myself to talk, so I just waved and squeaked out a "bye!" when they all said goodbye to me. We went down to his car hand-in-hand-still nude, remember-and he opened the door for me.
I just beamed like a lighthouse the whole way home. We got there, he let me out, walked me to the door, and gave me a heart-pounding kiss goodnight.
"I’ll see you tomorrow, lover," I told him. "All of you."
"I’ll see all of you, too," he grinned. Kissed me one more time, and then off he went. Dammit. Oh, well.
I walked in the door. Daddy was waiting up for me.
"Hi, Punkin. Have a good time?"
"The best," I told him.
"How was it?" he asked. He knew, and I knew, and he wasn’t talking about the food at The Mariner.
"It was fantastic," I told him honestly.
"Good."
"How’s Mom?"
He sighed. "She finally calmed down, took a sleeping pill, and went to bed. I think we have to have a talk, though, all three of us. There might be some excrement hitting some fans tomorrow."
"No doubt," I sighed. "Daddy, I can’t be what she wants me to be, not anymore. I’ve changed too much. I know it was fast, and I know it was drastic, but it’s happened. I can’t go back to being what I was."
"I know that," he told me. "I don’t want you to."
"Mom does, though."
"Well, we’ll talk about it. She’s got to see the truth. I love that you’re dealing with your emotions instead of hiding them-but your mother doesn’t understand that."
"That’s because she hides her emotions," I said.
"Not really. She hides them most of the time, and then they come out in vicious little bursts," he sighed again. "I’d rather see you happy, even if the happiness is a bit wild, than to see you repressed half the time and angry the other half."
"She wasn’t always like this, was she?"
"No, she wasn’t. But, we’ll talk about that later." He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Good night, Punkin. Get some sleep." He looked down at me, and grinned. "So, when was the last time you had any clothes on?"
"7:30 this morning," I grinned back.
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah," I admitted. "I have to say I do. It is liberating. And exciting."
"Good. You do it whenever you want, then, and don’t worry about your mother." He kissed my forehead again. "Night, Amanda."
"Night, Daddy."
I sat there for a moment, lost in my thoughts, then headed up to my room. I kicked my shoes off, opened my dresser drawer, took out a nightgown, looked at it, and said, "Fuck it." I put it back in the drawer, and climbed into my bed, wrapping my blankets all around my nude body. Which was still tingling. Wonderfully tingling.
PART FIVE THURSDAY DAYTIME
I woke up the next morning, threw on some clothes, and went downstairs, still rather delirious.
"Hey, little brother." Tina greeted me. Mom and Dad were there, too.
"Hiya, Jared," Mom said, "want some breakfast?"
"Love some." I sat down and Mom started spooning out some bacon and eggs.
"So, how are you today?" Dad asked me.
"Just fine."
"I’ll just bet," Tina butted in.
"So, how long are you going to tease me about this?" I asked her.
"As long as I can get away with it," she admitted. "I have to admit, though, Jared, Amanda surprised me. I didn’t expect her to be that open."
"Neither did I, to be honest with you," I told her. "I think I bring out the best in her. And you, my dear sister, bring out the worst."
"That’s my job," Tina said, making even Mom and Dad chuckle.
I looked into her eye and retorted, "You’re fired!"
"You can’t fire me, little brother, you’re stuck with me." She stuck out her tongue at me. "Want a ride today?"
"No, I’ve had just about all of you that I can take," I teased. "No, you know I like walking. It’s not that far."
"Damn, I’ll just have to find you in school and tease you there. That’ll be more fun anyway, you’ll be naked."
"You just watch yourself. I’ve already told Amanda what your nickname stands for. You want me to spill all the sordid details?"
"You didn’t! You wouldn’t!" Then she composed herself. "Besides which, you don’t know all the sordid details."
"I know enough," I smirked at her.
"Wait a minute, what nickname, and what does it stand for?" Mom interjected.
"Whoo boy," I laughed. "They don’t know about that?"