In the Beginning

It’s been about a month since the party where I accidentally drank a drugged drink and had a weird dream of my virgin girlfriend Grace engaging in bisexual depravity with her cousin’s girlfriend and our pagan English teacher. I hadn’t told Grace about the dream. It was too obscene to worry her with. Still, it stayed with me more than dreams usually do.

Grace must have picked up on my altered mood or maybe I was just projecting because she seemed different after that party too. A little more knowing, a bit more contemplative. She would question things that should be taken on faith. Even without the terrible dream it would be hard not to see Mr. Thomas’ influence. I knew I had to get her away from him but he was our English teacher, so what was I supposed to do?

It really got bad when Grace started missing Christian Student Union meetings. It turned out Mr. Thomas led a philosophy club at the same time. She argued that she had 18 years’ worth of education about Christianity and it would strengthen her faith to learn more about alternate points of view. Then she told a weird story about people in a cave watching shadows and I didn’t understand her point. She rolled her eyes and told me it was fine.

After a couple weeks of this while we were carpooling to school, Grace shocked me.

“Christian, do you want to have sex with me?”

“What?”

“Do you want to have sex with me?”

“Geez, honey, you’re catching me off guard here!”

“Well, do you?”

“Grace, of course I WANT to. I think about our wedding night when we’ll finally make love all the time.”

“But not before then?”

“Of course not, Grace! We’ve made a promise to the Lord!”

“Yeah that’s what I thought. Just checking.” Grace stared out the window for a bit. “I’ve got to talk to Damian about some class work after school. Can you pick me up an hour later at the soccer field?”

I didn’t like how she was exclusively using Mr. Thomas’ first name now. Now she was going to see him while he coached boy’s soccer. He used to coach girls’ soccer, but the team was disbanded last year after a number of players got pregnant all at once. Since Coach McHenry retired, the school moved Mr. Thomas over to the boy’s team. I had been on the team sophomore year but quit because talk gets really crass in the locker room. Also I refused to shower with other guys.

After school I did some homework in the library for an hour or so then headed over to the soccer field. The practice was wrapping up and the team headed into the locker room. I thought I saw Grace head into the locker room with them. Mr. Thomas headed in last. He looked at me and our eyes met before he headed in. Why would Grace go into the boy’s locker room? I guess Mr. Thomas’s office is in there?

After a few minutes a bunch of guys headed out… but not the whole team. Less than half. I found one kid I knew, Simon Cruz’s younger brother Hal. I asked him what was going on.

“Oh Coach said all the players under 18 were dismissed.”

“Just the ones under 18? Why?”

“Dude, I get to head home early. I don’t ask why.”

“Can I head in?”

“I wouldn’t. Coach does not like surprise guests during practice.” Then he left. So I was alone on the field.

I didn’t know what do so I texted Grace: “hey, here 2 pick u up”

After about five minutes she texted back: “got sum things 2 take care of, jus a few mor minutes”

So I waited on a bench outside the locker room. I put in my ear phones and listened to some Christian rock. (A lot of secular people deride it but it rocks!) Minutes kept passing. After maybe a half hour Oliver Harper and Stewart Gardner came out.

“That was [effing] sick, dude!”

“You know it, I got to bust in both ends!”

I hated to interrupt their soccer talk, but I asked them if they had seen Grace. They looked at each other.

“Yeah, Coach Damian’s got some like…”

“Extra credit.”

“Yeah, extra credit for her to do.”

“Is she going to be done soon?” I asked.

“I don’t think so, man. She’s got a lot left to do.”

“Okay, well… can I head in?” I asked.

“Nah, dude. Team only.”

They walked away, talking soccer. “Dude, next time I’m gonna hit it from the back.” “Dude, you gotta. It’s [effing] sweet.”

As the next hour went by soccer soccer players continued to occasionally leave, one or two at a time. They all had that confident swagger that I guess is just an athlete. They all smiled big so I guess Coach Thomas’s late practice was going well.

After I had been waiting over two hours and the last soccer player had strutted past me, Grace texted me “out in a sex” then after a minute “*sec.” I know to a lot of people I must seem like quite the prude but I will admit to getting an immature giggle out of the salacious typo.

In another few minutes I took my earphones out as I saw Grace come out. She was smiling big, which was odd because she was also limping awkwardly. Her hair was also damp like she’d just taken a shower.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah I just fell pretty hard on my a- on my backside. It’s really sore.” She explained.

“My poor darling!” I said. “Well, let’s get you home. It’s a lot later than I thought it’d be, you want to stop somewhere for food?”

“No, I’m pretty full.”

We got in the car, it damn near killed her to sit down. I guess she really was sore, my sweet angel. Ever bump in the road made her wince. I noticed something white on her cheek.

“What is that on your cheekbone?”

She wiped it off with her finger then licked it off.

“Oh just yogurt. Guess I was eating it intensely enough that some got on my face.”

I laughed. Grace could be silly sometimes.

She continued “I actually spilled so much the team let me use their showers to clean up.”

“Those showers don’t offer any privacy!”

“I’m sure they all looked away.”

I didn’t want to be rude and call Grace naïve but sometimes she really was far too trusting…