Hot For Teacher(140)
“I think it’s best if I go up there. Not that you couldn’t beat them easily, but I have a few things I want to say.”
“Okay. I trust you.” She nods and we both listen as the other team wraps up their rebuttal.
I know there’s only one way we can win. And that’s if I tell them all the truth.
Before getting to my feet, I reach into my pocket and pull something out. “I’ve been meaning to give this back,” I say, dropping the object in Arleen’s hand.
She looks down at the silver locket I had picked up all those weeks ago after falling asleep with her in the ruins.
Arleen looks startled and then a little weepy. Shit, am I going to make her cry again?
“I thought I’d lost it,” she whispers.
Maybe I shouldn’t have given it to her when we were expected to give a rebuttal, but the timing just felt right.
“My mom gave it to me. Before she left. It’s the only thing I have left of her—that’s good, anyway,” Arleen says softly, fingering the chain.
She grabs my hand and puts the necklace in my palm. “You keep it. For luck,” she says with a smile.
“I can’t—”
“Just take it. I want you to have it,” she insists, leaning over and giving me a kiss on the lips.
I tuck the locket in my pocket and know exactly what I need to say up there.
As the opposing team member steps down, I straighten my suit coat and tie, smoothing them out nervously. When I reach the podium, I clear my throat.
I look to the judge and he nods, giving me the go-ahead.
“My name is Simon Blackwell, the third.” I look around the room and see the faces of several of the girls I’ve slept with. “And I’m a douchebag.”
What had once been restless bodies in motion becomes absolute and total silence.
“I’ve shared my bed with several women. I’m not proud of it. To understand my story, I’ll need to take you back to a time when I was at a low point in my life. My parents were constantly traveling, I didn’t have many friends, and my imagination ran wild because I didn’t have anyone to keep my feet grounded. I’ve always been a guy with big ideas and big dreams, and I’ve always mapped out a plan to achieve the success for my future. But no matter how unrealistic those dreams were, I always found a way to make them happen.”
“That’s when I lost my virginity. And even though I was sixteen at the time, older than some in this room, I was still too young. But the problem with the opposition’s stance is not that they’re wrong. I can’t argue that they make a strong case. Contraceptives promote a certain promiscuity at any age. But let’s be honest: when we’ve got the King of Teenage Hormones asking us to go into battle, he doesn’t care whether or not we’re armed. We do as he says without asking questions. It isn’t often we’re given the opportunity to fight for the cause that doesn’t involve pornhub dot com and a bottle of lotion.” The room roars with laughter, and I wait for the crowd to settle down before I continue.
“Everyone in this room knows what it’s like when we’re in that moment. Self-control flies out the window. It’s hardwired into us. You can’t argue it if you’ve been there. If you’ve read the material on this subject, then you know that kids are having sex whether they have a condom in their drawer or not. So this argument has nothing to do with whether or not giving out free contraceptives is a moral question.” I pause to make the last sentence resonate.
“I’m a planner, a researcher, a loyal spreadsheet creator. I’m kind of a geek that way. But when I was fifteen, I passed my school office and the word SEX caught my eye, poking out from behind a brochure on suicide and mental health. I stuffed it into my backpack and read it when I got home. Have you ever read the brochures they give us about this subject? Well, I have. I can tell you that I read them when I was researching for more than just a debate. It’s been a couple of years now, but from what I can remember, those brochures inform the kids of STDs, pregnancy, and about dozens of other issues that only arise when you become sexually active.” I stare off into the audience. “But what they don’t tell you is who you should be sharing that sexual experience with.” I glance over to Arleen, and she smiles in that way of hers that I love.
“Emotions are at their peak when we’re teenagers. Hormones rage, and directly affect our…urges. What we think is love, isn’t. But it takes years of truly believing you’ve fallen in love and even more years of being rejected to know that what you felt really wasn’t that. So if you haven’t heard it until now, I’m going to give you a simple and brief education: sex should be with someone you love. And chances are, you’ve never felt it. No matter how much you may have convinced yourself you have. And until we can teach our teenagers, our students, and our sons and daughters that abstinence is the best way of preventing STDs, pregnancy, and having our hearts stomped on, then there’s absolutely no way you can stop us. And I’m pretty sure we all know that convincing us kids is impossible.” I shake my head with a half-smile.