Mother smiled.
I knew Haylee was pretending. She had heard the term. We both had. She was just trying to appear innocent. I was surprised at how good she was at it, but instead of appreciating her ability to deceive, I was worried for us both.
“Not four as in the number four, Haylee. Fore as in before.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t expect you hear the term from any of your friends. They would probably just say ‘making out,’?” she said, “or ‘hooking up.’ Something like that.” She looked at me, too. “Anyway, foreplay involves touching, kissing, and even licking.”
“Licking!” Haylee exclaimed. She knew about that, too, but she continued putting on a good act, an act Mother accepted because she believed she was that innocent or maybe wanted to believe it. She did look happy that the idea wasn’t immediately attractive to Haylee, but I knew from Haylee’s conversations with Melanie that it was—all of it, what Melanie called L and S, licking and sucking. She glanced at me to see if I might give away the truth, but I didn’t change expression. The way Melanie had described it disturbed me. It was all I could think about at the time, and I imagined doing things like that with different boys.
“It’s all a way to arouse you or for you to arouse a boy someday. I hope not soon,” Mother added. She paused and looked at us more carefully. I think we were both holding our breath. “Other mothers would never discuss this with daughters at your age, but you are older, wiser, and more mature than their daughters, I’m sure, and will benefit from what I’m telling you.”
“Arouse a boy,” Haylee repeated, as the images began to settle into both our minds, thanks to Melanie.
“Well, when I was a teenager, we called it being turned on, and I imagine that still is something you will hear. When you’re turned on, you’re more apt to make a mistake. Understand?” she asked, looking first at me.
I nodded, so Haylee nodded quickly, too. She wanted to appear older now, even in front of Mother.
“And if you’re turned on and make a mistake, you can get pregnant,” Haylee said, anticipating that I might say it first.
“Exactly. Any boy who doesn’t want you to be careful and doesn’t want to be careful himself is not a good boy to be with. If one of you knows of such a boy and sees that he’s interested in you, what should you do?”
“Warn each other,” I said immediately.
“Very good. I’m depending on you both to do just that as you grow older. Now,” Mother said, relaxing her arms, “I want you to have friends who are boys, and someday, as you know, you’ll have a real boyfriend and you’ll go to dances and parties, but you’ll always remember that mistakes can spoil your whole life, right?”
We nodded.
“I have told you never to come to me to tattle on your sister,
but I’m going to make a big exception to the rule starting today,” she said. “I want either of you to tell me if one of you is close to making a mistake. Until you’re on your own out of this house, I want you to remember that new rule. Understand?”
We nodded.
“Good,” she said. “From this day on, whenever you have a question about sex or boys, you ask me, not your peers,” she added, looking mostly at Haylee. “There are girls who might enjoy seeing one of you in trouble. That’s the bottom of the barrel when it comes to jealousy between girls. Beware of it.”
“We will,” Haylee said quickly. She looked at me to see if I would as much as suggest that some of her girlfriends fell right into Mother’s definition of jealous girls. I was so tempted, but I didn’t do it.
“All right. That’s enough for now. See how fathers get away with everything when there are daughters? Not that your father would have the time to have a good, healthy discussion with you even if you were boys. Especially these days,” she added unhappily.
Daddy had been gone for nearly two weeks on a major business trip to London. He had told us that his company had a chance to get a very big international contract. Haylee wasn’t as aware of it as I was, but Daddy was away more often, and even when he was home, he missed many dinners because of working late at his office.
“Do you have any questions?” Mother asked.
Haylee looked at me.
“I don’t,” I said.
“Me, neither,” Haylee said.
“My girls,” Mother said, smiling. “My perfect girls. Haylee-Kaylee, Kaylee-Haylee.” She hugged us as usual and then left.
The first thing Haylee did when we returned to our room was to seize my arm again. Her teeth were clenched, and her eyes were full of threat. “Don’t you ever tell Mother I’m with a boy who might not be careful, Kaylee.” She gave me her superior look. “You don’t know enough about boys to decide who I should be with and who I shouldn’t. Is that clear?”
I pulled my arm out of her grasp and surprised her by smiling back. “Of course. But there’s no reason for you to worry. You’re just as smart as I am, Haylee. You won’t ever be with such a bad boy, either, will you?” I said. “Right now, you have to worry about it more than I do because you could get pregnant, so you won’t make a mistake, right? You certainly don’t need me watching over you.” It was something my friend Sarah would say, and with the same sort of smile on her face.
Haylee looked a little stunned and then quickly regained her composure and said, “Of course not.”