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Driving Lessons

Posted on April 30, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

“You’re grinding the gears!”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“You’re fucking up my car!”

She giggled then, “Okay that. I know what it means.”

“So please, don’t?”

“It’s only a car.”

“I know. And if I had the money to get it repaired I’d let you drive it into a wall just to see how that feels.”

“You said you would let me practice.”

He nodded, “I know.”

He looked so miserable, she wanted to end the charade right then and climb across the gear shaft onto his lap. Cup his jaw in her fingers and suck on his lower lip. Grind the gusset of her jeans against the fly of his so that he could know that she appreciated what he was doing for her.

But she couldn’t; they couldn’t. The long line of cars stuck behind theirs on the sloping road would not appreciate the heat of young passion when they were just trying to get wherever they were going. So she tried again, one part of her brain still wondering what his lower lip would taste of. And she managed. The car lurched slightly but it roared up the slope, around the corner and onwards.

“Finally!”

She tossed him a stern look, a look that said, ‘don’t push it,’ so he stopped.

She weaved the car in and out of traffic and she sensed that he tensed up a few times but he was admirably restrained. He barely said anything and if she didn’t know better she would have thought that he wasn’t even watching the road. But he was and she knew he was all coiled up, ready to spring if she did anything that might endanger them or his precious car. She was tempted to try just to see what he would do.

Fortunately for him, she didn’t feel particularly delinquent right then.

When she finally pulled into the car’s parking spot he couldn’t properly hide his relief. She saw him exhaling and punched his arm for it, “I was not that bad.”

“No you weren’t.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

He followed her up the stairs and down the corridor. When she stopped, he stopped a couple of feet behind. The anticipation was building inside of him like a hot water geyser about to spout. There was a roaring in his head. She turned the key in the lock and let them in. When she had locked the door behind her she met his eyes, “You kept your end of the bargain. Now it’s my turn.”

“Look, it’s okay, we don’t have to do this.”

“Of course we do, a deal is a deal.”

“Yeah but I asked you for a lot more than I gave you.”

“I know. I didn’t have to agree.”

“Yeah so it’s okay. I’ll just go.”

“You can’t stay a virgin your whole life you know?”

He didn’t have any way to respond to that. He nodded and dug his fists into his jeans, unable to meet her eyes.

“Come on, it will be fun. I promise.”

“No, it’s not…I know it will be fun. I just don’t feel right about asking you to do that.”

“Oh I’ve done it before. For a lot less.”

“I should really go.”

“Fine! Then go. But no other girl in school is going to screw you until you know what to do. She’s not going to go for it.”

“Who?”

“Whoever you’ve got your eye on.”

“What do you mean?”

The shrug came off too nonchalant, “The guys always come to me to prepare them for someone else.”

He looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time, “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

“Aren’t you?”

He couldn’t have looked more unsure of himself if he tried. She wanted very badly to kiss him. He picked at a thread on the sleeve of his denim jacket, “If what you’re saying is true I can’t do this with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said the girls at school don’t like a guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing?”

“Yeah…?”

“Then you’re the wrong girl to teach me.”

“Are you kidding! Ask anybody, I’m the only one who has any patience for all the fumbling. I mean come on, how hard is it?” She realised what she had said and laughed, “Actually it has to be pretty hard…so…”

Even he managed a tentative smile. And then he was serious again. Serious and uncomfortable, “I really should go. Get the car home before my Dad notices it’s gone.”

“No, that’s not it. What did you mean earlier?”

“Nothing. I should go.”

“You keep saying that! And still, here you are! So what the hell did you mean when you said I’m the wrong girl to teach you?”

He looked ready to bolt. He was scanning the room as if he had only just realised that he was indoors, that he might be trapped.

Something seemed to deflate inside of him.

“It’s you okay. I want to know what to do for you.”

She didn’t immediately react. He liked the way her eyelashes messed up her fringe when she blinked. He wanted her to do it again.

“That’s a really fucked up thing to say.”

“What?”

“If you want to go just go, don’t tell me you like me. That’s just mean.”

“What? No! I really…I mean…”

She turned away and he crossed the distance between them surprisingly quickly, spun her around so that she just kept on moving until she faced him again. It was her turn to be unable to meet his eyes. So he kissed her.

She finally knew what his lips tasted like.

And that was not a gun in his pocket.

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