AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I made a dejected, sadly-it’s-true face to affirm it. “The longest relationship I was ever in was during middle school. We were together for five months and never did anything past hand-holding and a couple of chaste kisses before her dad got transferred to Oklahoma, and I never saw her again.”
“Tragic,” she agreed with a shake of her head, even though she didn’t look sympathetic in the least.
“Wow.” I laughed over her lack of compassion. “You really don’t believe me, do you?”
“Afraid not. Sorry. I have a feeling you do just fine with sex and dating.”
“Oh, really? Alright, then. Allow me to convince you.” I rubbed my hands together, prepared to prove her wrong.
And she scoffed. “Please do.”
“Fine. After Nell in middle school, I didn’t get involved with anyone else until my sophomore year of high school. Her name was Ana Maria, and I really liked her. I took her to a movie and kissed her during the end credits. The next weekend, I got the flu and was stuck home in bed with a hundred-and-two-degree fever. So she went to a party without me, got totally wasted, I guess, and gave her virginity to some other guy.”
Raina pressed a hand to her chest and gasped. “Holy shit.”
I glanced down at my lap. “Yeah. It was with Parker too. Which made things epically worse.”
She didn’t catch on at first. But after a moment of squinting, her eyes widened. “You mean, yourfriendParker? Who we’re naming our firstborn after? She slept withhim?”
“Yep.” When her mouth dropped open, I quickly defended, “He had no idea I liked her, though. I mean, they all knew I’d gotten a crush on someone, but I hadn’t told them her name because she wasn’t exactly allowed to date yet—she’d had to tell her parents she was meeting her friends at the theater the night we went to the movies together. Even though I knew I could trust my guys to keep it a secret, I didn’t want to risk getting her into trouble.” With a shrug, I flailed out a helpless hand. “He felt like shit afterward, trust me. He couldn’t apologize enough. And she told me she was sorry too. But I guess I’d been moving too slowly, and so she didn’t think I was all that interested in her, and…well, you know.”
“You’d only gone out togetheronetime!” Raina cried in outrage. “And you agreed to sneak out to the movies for her, against her parents’ wishes, which honestly doesn’t sound like something you’d do, so that proved you liked her alot,” she argued, looking aghast.
I smiled, charmed that she actually got that about me. “You’re right,” I affirmed. “I wouldn’t have agreed to sneak out with her unless I really liked her that much.” I shrugged. “But it’s fine. It’s whatever. It wasn’t meant to be, so I guess I’m glad I found out sooner rather than later that we weren’t suited. Except...” Wincing at her, I had to confess, “I’m sure that was why Parker sent you my way that night. He felt as if he owed me something.”
“God.” Raina pressed a hand to her gut and shook her head. “And then I teased you about going out with him when I woke up if you didn’t get to me fast enough. God, Foster, I am so sorry.”
I waved my hand, dismissing her concerns. “It’s fine. I knew you were just joking.”
“But I never would’ve joked about something like that if I’d known everything.”
“I know,” I told her, gazing at her softly because her soul was too sweet and kind to try to hurt me that way.
Huffing out a breath, she answered, “Okay, sothatrelationship was bad luck. I’m sure they all weren’t?—”
“Oh, every single story I have is just as sucky as that one,” I assured. Then I shook my head and just admitted, “I’ve never been with a girl who’s wanted to be with me a second time. Doesthatconvince you of anything? Like, I’m so bad at it I’m not even good enough to rate a second round. I’m just a…one-and-done loser.”
“No,” she started loyally, shaking her head to deny such a claim. “That can’t be true.”
“Oh, but it is.” Needing her to understand, I started in again, “The first time—when I lost my virginity—it was between my junior and senior years of high school. Alec and I went to this kind of camp thing together for six weeks, where we volunteered to help build houses for people. And I met Laurel there.”
“Laurel,” Raina hissed with a wrinkle of her nose as if she was already prepared to dislike the poor girl.
“We hit it off immediately,” I started. “And I came on a little stronger than I had sophomore year, so I wouldn’t lose my chance the way I had with Ana Maria, and we had sex about four weeks in. But the very next day, she spread a rumor among the other teens about how bad it’d been. So, see… I suck at sex.”
“Wait.” Raina lifted a hand to stop me. “She didwhat? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nope. I was so humiliated I went home, like, the next day.”
“So would I,” Raina exploded. “I can’t believe that bitch! I mean, first of all, it was yourfirsttime. What the hell was she expecting? Casanova? Wait. She did know it was your first time, right?”
“Of course.” I nodded. “We knew it was both of our first times. After I was gone, Alec told me he confronted her, and she couldn’t apologize enough for the rumor. She claimed it was all a big misunderstanding. I guess she told some other girls about us, or theylearnedabout us, or something. I don’t know. But when one of them asked how I was, she told them it had been awful because she was worried that they’d try to steal me away from her if they thought I was very good at it.”
Raina furrowed her brow. “And you believed that?”
I only shrugged. “To be honest, I’dratherbelieve that than learning I was straight-up terrible at it, but no, I didn’t really believe it.”
“I’m sure you weren’t terrible,” she insisted loyally. “Did she ever clear your name?”
