Naked In School

"It’s The Program," Jared said. "It’s hard to keep control when you’re constantly exposed like that."

" You manage to," I said to him.

"Not on your life," he laughed.

"Sure you do. What would you have done if, say, Maggie Benson grabbed you in the woods and said ‘fuck me’?"

"I would’ve told you," he said. "I did say that the thing that really bothered me was you doing it behind my back, didn’t I? So, yes, I would’ve told you. And if you didn’t raise any serious objections, I would’ve gone for it."

"You would’ve?" I asked, incredulous.

"Like I said, if you didn’t raise any serious objections. Listen-I know I was upset with you today, but that wasn’t all of it, and I have to confess. When I was watching you do your cheerleading moves in the nude today, I was imagining all the cheerleaders nude. Lined up. Waiting for their turn. Let me at ‘em."

"Oh, Jesus," I had to laugh. "You know, I might be able to arrange that," I grinned at him.

"You want a turn, or you just want to watch?" he grinned back.

"Now that’s more like it, little brother," Tina laughed. Good, I’m glad she was her old self.

"Damn right. Hey, I am Easy Tina’s little brother, aren’t I?" She stuck her tongue out at him, and I couldn’t suppress the giggle. "But, no," he turned to me. "This isn’t about control, and it isn’t about sex. It’s about trust. It’s about love. Lose control all you want. Just don’t hide it from me. That makes me think the worst."

Tina looked at him. "He thought that what he saw was leading up to me dumping him," I told her.

"Ah," Tina said. "Been there, done that, didn’t even get a tee shirt."

"I did not have, and do not have, and can’t see having any time in the future, any intentions of dumping you," I said to Jared. "I love you. It might be hard to believe at the moment, but I do. I’m just confused. It’s the control thing. I can’t control my feelings. I mean, how do I know?"

"Mom," Jared asked his mother, "you told me you and Dad met pretty young, and knew pretty much right away."

"Yes," Jared’s mom confirmed.

"Did you guys ever, you know, be with other people?"

"Yes," his mom confirmed. "We attended separate colleges for two years."

"Until I said, fuck this, my soulmate is 500 miles away, and I transferred," his dad put in.

"Right," his mom continued with a laugh. "But we had an agreement, that we weren’t going to be hermits while we were apart, and we weren’t going to deny our wants and needs either. Control was never all that important to either of us. So, yes, we were with other people while we were apart. And, remember, this was a different world-you had to be more cautious about these things back then. But we didn’t deny ourselves, no, and that goes for both of us."

"Hey, I envy you kids today," his Dad said. "If I had grown up in a world with no AIDS, with no STDs, with easy access to very effective birth control, and with the puritan moralizers beaten down into the hole where they belong-I probably would’ve gone nuts." He got a big grin. "I know I just would’ve loved all this naked in school stuff." He looked at Jared’s Mom then. "And I still would’ve ended up with your mother."

"There was never any doubt?" I asked them.

"Nope. Never," his Mom confirmed. "Even when we were with other people, there was never a shadow of a doubt."

"And you never wavered," I said.

"Not once," his Mom said. "Look, great sex is better than good sex. But good sex is better than no sex. If there’s no great sex, go for the good sex."

"My philosophy of life, right there in a nutshell," Tina laughed.

"Uh-huh," her Mom said. "But the other thing you have to remember is that truly great sex is very rare-because, to have that, there has to be love. It just doesn’t work any other way. I’ve had good sex with a lot of guys. I’ve only had great sex with one. Some people find that with more than one, but it’s never very many. For me, it was always only one. Now, I don’t regret finding that out for sure-but then again, I always knew. I knew from the beginning. Before I ever went to bed with another man, I knew."

"I knew, too," his Dad said.

"I know," Jared said very softly.

"And, I’ll tell you something else, Missy," Tina pointed at me. " You know, too." She got a big grin. "And the sooner you admit it to yourself, the less you’ll be fucking with my baby brother’s mind." She stood there, hands on her hips, looking very satisfied with herself. Jared was a very lucky guy to be born into this family.

And, she was right. I did know. Now I just had to convince him of that, after what I had done.

"Now," Tina continued, "who is going to help me with the garlic bread and pasta?"

"I do believe that’s my job," Jared said, starting to get up.

"You stay right there," his mother said. "Spend time with your girlfriend. Your father and I will go change and then go help your sister. Five minutes, Tina?"

"And not a second more!" she called from the kitchen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE JARED

We were finally alone. And I have to admit, I was on tenterhooks. I was holding her in my arms. I was wearing a polo shirt, and the three buttons on it were undone, and she was lightly playing with one of my lonely chest hairs. It was very nice, but I didn’t know quite what to say. I was enjoying the moment, but I still felt we needed to talk.

Then, she broke the silence. "You know," she said with a grin, "I know for an absolute fact that a good number of my fellow cheerleaders would love to pull you into the woods for a little somethin’-somethin’."

I couldn’t help it. I cracked up laughing. "You don’t say."

"True story. That massive member of yours has attracted some attention. Oh, and our little tale of deflowering we told in Bio seems to have spread its way around."

"Oh, Jesus," I said, still laughing. "So, what, you want to open up to experimenting, is that it?"

"Well," she said, getting serious, "I think we might want to discuss it-at least until the end of The Program-discuss keeping our options open, I mean. Are you planning to attend the football game on Saturday?"

"To watch my favorite nude cheerleader? Wouldn’t miss it."

"You have to be nude, too." I nodded-I knew that. "There’s a party afterwards. It often turns into an orgy, though I’ve never partaken in that part of it. However, if we go, we’d still have to be nude, because it’s sort of a school function, though not school-sponsored-but I checked, we’d still have to be nude. With an orgy raging all around us. The temptation will be enormous." She grabbed my dick through my shorts. "This will no doubt be just as enormous," she giggled. "I’d love to take you to that party, and I say that knowing you’re going to be fending off hordes of horny cheerleaders. So, yeah, I think we should discuss keeping our options open. But that’s up to both of us. And no more hiding anything from you, I promise."

"I don’t know," I told her. "I’m still worried."

"Don’t worry, please," she said. She looked up at me with a beatific smile. "Jared, I know. Your sister is right, I do know. I’ve known since you undressed me in front of school Tuesday morning. And it’s time I stop denying the truth to myself."

"You’re still scared," I said to her.

"Of course I am. You are, too," she said. She was right. "I’m scared of being in love. You’re scared of the same thing. Maybe for different reasons, but the same thing."

"I need to be able to trust you," I said. "I’m serious-you want to fuck half the football team, fine-as long as we’re on the up-and-up about it. Hey, we’re young. I’ve got nothing against experimenting. I just know where I want to end up."