And Baby Makes Two - Dyan Sheldon [12]
“So how’s your science project going?” Amie asked one lunch-break.
Shanee squashed her drink carton under her foot.
“OK. My plants seem to be doing what they’re meant to be doing. You know, different stuff depending on how much light and water they get … I haven’t lost any yet.” She looked over at me. “What about yours, Lana?”
I groaned. “Oh, my God, the plants…”
Shanee bought the seeds, planted the seeds, separated the tiny plants out into pots, and then gave me a dozen to look after. I was meant to put three in a place where they got a lot of light, three in a place where they got a bit of light, three in a place where they didn’t get much light, and the rest in the dark. I was meant to check them every day and keep notes. I was meant to be making scientific observations.
“I totally forgot about them … I’ve been so busy lately…”
“Not doing homework obviously,” said Gerri.
Shanee bit back a smile.
“No,” said Amie in this baby voice. “With Les…” She gave me one of her sour looks. “I thought he had a job. Doesn’t he ever go to it?”
“You know, you’re not the only one with a boyfriend, Lana,” purred Gerri. “Other people manage to have a love life and occasionally get some work done.”
It was as if their bodies had been taken over not by aliens but by preachers. What was wrong with everyone all of a sudden?
“I never said I was the only one with a boyfriend,” I snapped back. “I just said I’ve been busy.”
Amie snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“So what’d you do last night?” asked Shanee, the Peacemaker. “Anything exciting?”
The other two spluttered.
“Nothing special. The old bag went to Charley’s, so Les came over after work and we hung out.”
The first couple of weeks we were going out, Les and me did do things. We went to the park and had tea in the café; we went to the cinema; we had a meal in the pizza place by the station; he took me for a drive up to Hendon because he loved roundabouts. But as time went on, nothing special was all we did. Not that I was complaining. I wasn’t complaining. I’d be happy watching paint dry with Les. Doing nothing with Les was a hundred times better than doing something with anybody else. I’d meet him for tea after school, or I’d drop by the shop, and, if Hilary was out, he’d come round at about eleven-thirty or twelve, after he finished work and the pubs had closed. We’d watch a bit of telly, then we’d snog for a while, and then he’d go home. He never invited me round to his, because he lived with four other guys and there wasn’t any privacy. He wanted me all to himself.
Gerri glanced over at me. “Have you slept with him yet?”
Gerri’d been having sex since the day before her fourteenth birthday. So, since she was thirteen. At least that’s what she said. She never actually went into much detail.
“No, not yet.” I crumbled up my sandwich wrapper. “Les is a gentleman. He never pressures me.”
This was true, but it did puzzle me a bit. Boys were meant to want sex; they were meant to pressure you. But Les never did. We’d snog in his car, we’d snog in my flat when Hilary was out, we’d even snogged in the Blockbuster office a couple of times, but he never tried to go any further. Most of the time I didn’t think about it, but when I did think about it I couldn’t decide if there was something wrong with Les, or with me.
I wasn’t the only one.
“Oh, puhlease…” Amie spluttered with laughter. “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with him?”
“Maybe he’s gay,” said Gerri. “Only he doesn’t know it yet.”
I’d seen that film, too. Only the guy Kevin Kline played was obviously gay. I mean, it was incredible that it’d never occurred to him or anyone else. Les wasn’t anything like that.
Shanee waded in again.
“Maybe they have a real relationship,” said Shanee. “It doesn’t mean a person’s gay just because he’s interested in more than sex. ”
“Exactly.” I could always count on Shanee. “Not every boy is sex-mad, you know.”
“Wanting to have sex with your girlfriend isn’t being sex-mad,” Amie shot back. “It’s natural.”
Gerri’s smile was as slimy as a slug trail. “You have been seeing Les for a while now.