“This is all delicious,” Matt said, trying to ignore them. Haylee had the music so loud throughout the house that he practically had to shout. “I hate to see so much get wasted.”
“Maybe I can figure out how to throw out some and freeze some,” I said.
“Count me in when it comes to leftovers.”
After we ate, the four of us were soon dancing in the living room, and despite the slutty way I thought Haylee was behaving, I was beginning to have a good time. Every once in a while, we would return to the dining room and get something else to eat, but we weren’t even making a dent in the amount Mother had prepared.
“My mother worked so hard on all that,” I told Matt. “I feel bad about it.”
“Maybe you can put some in containers, and I’ll take them home and tell my mother your mother made too much. She won’t care.”
I kissed him. Would I ever find another boy as considerate? I wondered. Mother never talked very much about any other boyfriend she’d had besides Daddy. I had the impression that dating in high school and even in college was more like training for when you were confronted by the real thing. I knew Haylee thought of it that way. Once, angry at her for how she had belittled my feelings for Matt, I told her she would be in training until she was a member of AARP. Whenever I was able to break through her defenses and strike a sensitive blow like that, she would look at me with eyes so cold that I trembled.
Haylee played some slow music, and the four of us were dancing romantically. I was later sure that it was then, behind our backs, that either Haylee or Jimmy put something in Matt’s and my soft drinks. Whatever it was, it made both Matt a
nd me a little groggy and dizzy. I could see how they were both watching us and smiling, whispering and laughing.
“C’mon,” Haylee declared. “Let’s show them our rooms.”
Before I could object, Haylee took Matt’s hand and practically dragged him to the stairway. Jimmy took mine, and we were all upstairs quickly. Of course, both boys were surprised to look in the doorways and see how identical the rooms were.
“If you came home drunk, you could end up sleeping in the wrong bed,” Jimmy said.
“Oh, there’s a big difference. Mine is used more,” Haylee said, her comment full of sexual innuendo.
I saw even Matt smiling. He looked drunk.
Haylee and Jimmy were laughing at everything now. She took his hand to pull him into her room, Before she did, she leaned toward me and whispered, “What you need is on your pillow.”
I had no idea what she meant until Matt and I went back to my room and we both saw the contraceptive packet on one of my pillows. He froze, a look of astonishment on his face.
“I didn’t put that there,” I said. Did he believe me?
He shrugged and flopped on the bed. “I feel so weird,” he said.
“Me, too.”
It was then that the idea that something had been put in our drinks began to worry me more. What if it was something so strong that Mother would be home before it wore off? When the room began to spin, I sprawled out beside Matt. He started laughing, and so did I. Neither of us could help it or stop. We hugged and kissed and laughed, and suddenly, the lights in my room went off. I knew that Haylee had done it.
“It’s a party,” I heard her say from the doorway. “Start to have fun.”
I was annoyed, but as Matt’s kisses grew more passionate and his hands moved over my body, that annoyance took a backseat. I was soon returning his kisses with the same passion. His fingers undid the clasp of my dress and slowly unzipped it. I helped him take it off me. My bra followed quickly. His lips nudged and caressed my nipples. He kissed me on the neck, and then our lips met and drew so deeply into each other that I felt like I was floating backward, sinking into a warm cloud.
He rustled out of his clothes until he was in only his underwear, and I was only in my panties. I felt his hardness, and my legs, as if triggered by impulses passed down through centuries, impulses that couldn’t be denied, spread to welcome him. When I did that, he quickened every kiss, every caress. He was whispering softly, confessing how I had captured his heart like no other girl could.
Somewhere in the background, I heard Mother’s warning. Beware of promises and compliments made in the heat of passion. It’s not the young man’s mind speaking; it’s his lust.
But how would I ever know the difference, Mother? I asked. People in love lust for each other.
If you stay in control of yourself, you will know, she promised.
Was I losing control?
Matt reached for the contraceptive. I heard it crackling in his fingers.
“Is this what you want?” he asked, in a whisper so soft that it seemed to come from inside me.
Was he now convinced that I had put it there and my denial was just my hesitation, my innocence and fear? Why hadn’t I plucked it off the pillow and made my intentions or lack of them clear? Deep inside, was I happy Haylee had done this? Had it excited me?