Nervous

Jude knew exactly where to go: a strip downtown that was heavily populated with strip clubs and prostitutes lining the sidewalk. She had two hundred dollars and some change; Jonquinette’s life savings. She hoped it would be enough.

• • •

One P.M.

Jude stayed up in the bedroom for most of the morning, pretending Jonquinette was studying computer science. But Jude didn’t give a fuck about computer science. She did like going into chat rooms, though; particularly those where people talked about sex and nothing but sex. One such room was called “Freaky Black People.” It was her personal favorite.

She’d had cyber sex with countless men, most of whom thought she was a twenty-five-year-old nurse from Raleigh, North Carolina, instead of a fifteen-year-old high school student. Stupid idiots, as far as she was concerned.

Even Jude was shocked that so many freaks were online Thanksgiving Day. She assumed they all had family plans but their addiction to chat rooms must have superseded them.

Jude was just bored stiff and waiting for the fireworks to initiate later that day. She still had a few hours before the festivities so she started teasing around with one of the men in the chat room who had the screen name “Slanging Dick.” His profile boasted that he could lick a woman’s belly button from the inside. Nasty bastard, Jude thought. Just my type of man.

Jude had yet to have actual intercourse but it was only a matter of time, as far as she was concerned. Jonquinette led such a lackluster life that there wasn’t a single boy she spent time around that interested her. The boys at school were all revolting. Plus they were just that: boys. Jude yearned for a man.

A few of the men online had tried to coax her into offline meetings. One of them almost had her, a smooth talker who went by “DreamLvr4U.” She was all ready to meet up with him until she found out he wanted to rendezvous at a raunchy hotel instead of one of the fancy ones he always talked about doing the nasty with her in. She also found out, from another woman in the chat room who had actually met him and had sex with him offline, that he had the dick of an eight-year-old. She wasn’t sure if “BombAzz-Puddy” was lying or not, but she wasn’t taking any chances or wasting her time. Besides, Bomb also informed her that Dream looked nothing like the photo he was emailing to women in the room. She said the photo must’ve been more than a decade old and that he was really closer to forty instead of the thirty-year-old he claimed to be.

Jude, whose screen name was Hot CUMmodity sent Slanging Dick an invitation to a private chat so she could cyber him. What the hell, she thought. Practice makes perfect. Even if the practice isn’t real.

They entered a private room and it was on:

Hot CUMmodity: What’s up, love?

Slanging Dick: Nothing much. Just waiting to see what you’re working with. Do you cyber much?

Hot CUMmodity: A little here and a little there but nothing beats the real thing.

Slanging Dick: Amen to that. Cyber sex i

s cool, though. At least it’s safer.

Hot CUMmodity: Yeah, it’s safer than phone sex.

Slanging Dick: Phone sex?

Hot CUMmodity: Yeah, you should always wear a condom when you have phone sex so you don’t catch hearing aids.

Slanging Dick: LOL—you’re a wild girl.

Hot CUMmodity: So your profile said you can lick a woman’s belly button from the inside.

Slanging Dick: All night long and my dick’s so long you can feel it in your throat.

Hot CUMmodity: Damn, how big is it?

Slanging Dick: How big do you want it to be?

Hot CUMmodity: Big enough to satisfy me in all three holes.

Slanging Dick: Damn! So you like it in the ass, huh?

Hot CUMmodity: Ooh, yeah! I love it in the ass. In fact, let me show you my ass right now. I’m lying here naked on top of my bed fingering myself as you come into the room.

Slanging Dick: Umm, yeah, I can see you. Describe yourself.

Hot CUMmodity: I’m five-ten, caramel, I have long flowing dark hair and large bedroom eyes, and a body that screams, “Cum fuck me!”

Slanging Dick: Oh, my!