Win Some, Lose Some

“No problem,” he said. “What the fuck is wrong with that idiot?”

I shrugged.

“So…are you dating Mayra Trevino now?”

“Um…” I didn’t know what to say. “I don’t think so.”

Joe laughed again.

“You think maybe you should figure that out?”

I just shrugged again, and we finished the rest of lunch in silence.

~oOo~

“Your uncle is a big idiot,” my Aunt Bethany said as soon as I got into the car. “Now tell me about the girl.”

I looked down at the strap on my book bag. I wound my fingers around the strap, and then I wound the strap around my fingers. Beth didn’t press; she just waited for me to answer.

“Her name is Mayra,” I finally said as we pulled out of the school parking lot.

“I got that from Travis,” Beth said. “I also got the idea he sent you off to the internet for info, which I told him was about as irresponsible as it could possibly be.”

I didn’t have anything to say about that though the conversation about using Google to research certain topics played back through my head.

“Did you?” Beth asked.

“Did I what?”

She let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

“Google sex,” she said.

“No.”

“Good.” She sighed again. “That’s the last thing you need.”

Bethany turned into my subdivision and headed toward my street. She gripped the steering wheel kind of tightly, and I wondered what she was thinking about. She seemed agitated, and I wasn’t sure if it was something I had said or done. When she pulled into my driveway, and I started to get out, she stopped me.

“Matthew, you know you can talk to me, right?” she asked.

I went back to staring at the strap of my book bag.

“You can,” she said again. “You can ask me anything you want—about girls, relationships, sex—anything.”

I could feel my body starting to rock back and forth in the seat. I tried to stop it, but that word—sex—kept going around and around inside my head. Bethany said something else, but I didn’t catch what the words were. I felt her hand on my arm.

“Relax,” she said quietly. “It’s not something to be afraid of.”

“I’ve never even kissed a girl,” I said quickly. “I’ve never been even close to doing that. I don’t think I could.”

“Of course you could.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“What do you do before you try anything new?” she asked.

“Read about it,” I replied. That was always my first step. “Then talk about it.”