“Naw, I’m not fooling you, Nancy. Here, this was me a few years ago.” Eddie took out his battered leather bill fold and opened it to a picture of a boy, the picture half obscured behind a foggy plastic window. “That was me, I swear.”
The handsome, muscular boy who sat next to Tamera had not been as bad as Nancy’s mother, but close. He had triple chins and was standing self-consciously holding up his pants, which were obviously let out in the seams to accommodate all of his fat.
“Hey, you were cute, Eddie,” Nancy giggled, taking the photo from Tamera. “Lover boy, all right.”
“Yeah, well it all sort of dropped away when I started growing.”
“And how much more growing do you think Nancy needs?” Jason asked with a smirk. “She grows any more, and Sophia Loren will be replaced for God’s sake. I mean, look at her jugs, man.”
“Jason!” Nancy said in mock shock, and then she giggled again.
“You’ve got a point there,” Eddie said. “Or two.”
“So what did you two cats have in mind for us tonight?” Tamera asked, wanting to steer the subject away from lewdness.
“How about a motel?” Jason answered, snickering.
“That’s subtle,” Tamera said. “No thanks.”
“A motel,” Nancy said, and giggled, nudging her boyfriend in the ribs. “You’ve got your nerve.”
Tamera wondered for a moment just how much nerve Jason had—or needed. He was loose-limbed and relaxed in his manner, like a good-natured sloth, with a heftier chest expansion than Eddie, but without the overall coordination. He was simply pleasant and average, with an ordinary face whose only feature was small eyes set too close together that had a habit of nervously shifting around as if he were looking for somebody. Not exactly a boy you’d throw yourself at, she thought, but she was sure, from what Nancy had taught her, and from what Nancy had said in sly hints, that Nancy was “experienced” in sex. And that her teacher had been Jason—that in the cruder terms of her high-school chums, Jason was “balling” Nancy every chance he could get—and Tamera had her doubts that Nancy ever did anything to stop him much. Not that she’d ever asked Nancy; that would have been in bad taste!
“Well,” Eddie said, “we can’t stay here all night. Besides, I could use a drink. What about you, Tamera?”
“I…” the teenager hesitated.
“What’s the matter?” Eddie asked, frowning. “You do drink, don’t you?”
“Well… sure. Sure I do.” She was bluffing, and hoped that the others wouldn’t catch it. She was afraid that she might be letting herself in for more than she could handle, saying she did more than she really did, for anything over an occasional glass of wine gave her the woozies. But she didn’t want to do anything which might make Eddie think less of her, not now, not when this was her chance to snare a big prize like him. He was really “in”, and she couldn’t afford to be childish about it…
“Good,” Jason said. “I could go for a couple of beers myself on a warm night like this.”
“But… where shall we go?” Nancy asked, not worried about the drinking at all. “I mean, we can’t just go anywhere, you know.”
“How about a movie?” Eddie suggested. “The drive-in.”
“Naw,” Jason said. “Who wants to see Monster from Atomic Atoll?” He waved his hand disparagingly. “Strictly for the kids.”
“Well, who says we’ll be watching?” Eddie said with a grin.
“I don’t want to go anyway,” Tamera said. “Horror movies scare me.”
“Awww,” Jason said in a mock pout. “Awww, is little Tammy-wammy all frightened of a little old monster? Awww…”
“Cut it out,” Eddie said sharply. “Listen to me. How’d you all like to see some real movies? I mean some hot ones!”
“Hot ones?” Nancy asked, puzzled.
“Sure, sexy ones!”
“Not around here, you won’t. Last one that showed a bathing suit was closed up by the police, remember?” Jason snickered. “Only ones I can think of are the ones your…” He stopped, and a wolfish smile spread across his features. “Say, speaking of that, where’s your dad tonight, Eddie?”
“What I’ve been trying to tell you. The Old Man’s at some business meeting up in the city, see, and Mom’s gone to see her sister, and won’t be back until tomorrow. We’ve got the whole house to ourselves.”
“Yeah…” Jason breathed excitedly. “Yeah, that sounds great.”