Her First and Last

A block from my house Jackie looked across the car at me and asked if I always looked that way when I came back from a run.

"What way?"

"All sweaty and stuff."

"Probably. Why?"

"No reason." she said, looking down at the floorboard until she lifted her head and asked me why I didn't have a girlfriend.

"I have no idea but between school, my job and the reserves I don't seem to have a lot of time to date anyone. But just between you and me, I do have my eye on one chick. She's kinda cute even if she does dress funny most of the time."

"I dress that way, so people won't notice me."

"And the jeans and t-shirts?"

"So, you will notice me."

"It worked." I said with a laugh.

"Thank you, Matt." Jackie said a little later.

"For?"

"I would have never dreamed that you would be the first boy to ask me out. I honestly thought you and Kevin were pulling a prank on me. I came so close to saying no, but now I'm glad I didn't."

"Nope, no prank." I said we pulled into her driveway.

"So, are you going to volunteer to go, wherever?" she asked, unbuckling her seat belt and leaning against the car door.

"Probably, but don't let my mother know just yet. Please?"

"No!" Jackie said, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Huh?" I asked.

"I said no. You are not going to volunteer. I just found a boyfriend and I'll be damned if I'm going to let him run off and get killed in a foreign country." she said with a surprising amount of determination in her voice.

"Jackie, I'm a Marine. It's what we do."

"Bad things to bad people; right?" she asked.

"Exactly. Wait? Did you just call me your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"After one date?"

"Yes."

"Do I get a say in this?"

"No."

"When did you become so aggressive?"

"When I got a boyfriend. Now let's go inside, my mother is probably freaking out because of all of this."

Virginia was freaking out, and when we walked inside she flew into Jackie's arms; wrapping her in a tight hug and not letting go for several seconds. Then she looked at me and sobbing she wrapped her arms around me and hung on for just as long, if not a little longer, than she did when she hugged Jackie. When she finally did turn me loose I saw the toll that the day had taken on her; she looked like she had been crying all day and hadn't slept in a week. Her eyes were swollen and red and her makeup was a total wreck.

"It will be okay Virginia." I whispered to her.

"Three. Three people are all that is left out of a staff of over twenty. All of them had doctor's appointments and were coming in later today." she said as she walked to the couch and sat down her head dropped momentarily then she looked back up at me with a fierce look and said, "Promise me you will make them pay."

I glanced back and forth between the two of them. On one hand I had Jackie who had just told me that she didn't want me volunteering to go on active duty and on the other I had her mother, who had just lost over twenty co-workers to the cowards who had done this. I only paused for a second before I nodded my head and told her that if it was possible I would do everything I could and stood there as Virginia said thank you.

My eyes met Jackie's as I looked over at her and for a moment I thought that I would see anger, maybe a touch of resistance or possibly even resignation when she realized that she didn't have quite the grip on me that she thought she had. Instead I saw a small grin play across her lips that turned into a wicked little smile. I knew enough to understand that somewhere along the line I had screwed up, I just didn't know where or how.

Virginia went to lay down for a "a few moments" leaving me and Jackie in the living room alone and in awkward silence. Part of me was glad that their TV wasn't on because I needed a short break from all that I had seen, the other part of me wanted to find the remote. But Jackie put an end to that line of thinking by walking over to me, resting her head on my chest and giving me a hug.

When she pulled away I looked down into a pair of the softest, warmest brown eyes I had ever seen and saw a tear roll down her right cheek. As I reached up to wipe it away, she jerked her head away from me and then nestled it back against my chest. We stood there for several minutes just holding each other with her softly sobbing.

"Can I ask you something Matt?" she asked, with a sniffle.

"Sure."

"Will you at least promise me that you won't do anything stupid until I graduate from high school in June? Can you at least give me that?"

"Yeah. I will give you that." I said as I slowly began to stroke her hair.

"You just promised my mom that you would try to go." she said softly.

"Yeah, I know."

"I'm letting you know right now, I plan on cheating to keep you here for a while."

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked.

"Like this." she said as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She only paused for a second before her eyes closed and our lips met.

Her lips were warm, soft and had just a hint of a taste of strawberries. The kiss didn't last long and there was just enough passion from Jackie behind it to surprise me. A week ago, I would have never thought that I would be standing in Kevin's living room with his little sister in my arms, but I was, and I was really starting to regret all the time I had spent with him that I could have been spending with her. Jackie was certainly softer, warmer and had curves in all the right places.

And she also had a mother who was standing right behind us, which neither of us heard enter the room until she coughed lightly, causing us both to jump.

"Hi kids! I leave the room for a second and look what I find when I come back." Virginia said, grinning broadly at having caught us.

"Yeah well, admit it Mom, you're just happy I found a guy." Jackie quipped, reaching out and taking my hand in hers.

"I came back in here to suggest that you two run to Mr. Wong's and grab dinner for us all." Virginia said as she stared at me.

"We can do that!" I said quickly, desperately trying to find a way out of this situation.

And we did.

Twenty minutes later we walked back into the living room carrying three bags of Chinese food. Kevin was home now and we all sat in the living room eating and watching the news. Kevin asked me when I was going to leave to go over there and I gave him a noncommittal answer saying that when I got called I would go. In typical fashion he popped off at the mouth and said that he would leave tomorrow if he could, but when I offered to drive him to the recruiting office, he choked on his egg-roll and let the conversation drop.

Shortly after President Bush addressed the nation that night, I left to go home. Jackie had a history test to study for and I was wiped out. She held my hand as she walked to the car with me and as I reached out to open the car door she asked me if I was serious about my promise to her.

"Yes. I won't volunteer to go over there until after you graduate."

"You really want to go, though don't you?"

"Kinda. Yeah." I answered honestly.

"Are we still going out Friday?" she asked.

"If you want to, yes."

"Part of me still thinks this is some scheme between you and my brother." she said, staring at the concrete of the driveway.

"Jacqueline Marie Douglas, I promise you that I am not in cahoots with your brother. I asked you out because I wanted to, and I am damn glad that I did. Now, will you please stop accusing me of it?"

"Oh wow! I got the full name blast with that one huh?" she said with a shocked look on her face.

"Yes, you did, and stop acting like I picked low hanging fruit when I asked you out."

"I'm sorry Matt, but I'm not used to attention from a guy. You've kind of thrown me for a loop here."

"Deal with it." I said then added, "Look, it's late, you have a test to study for and I need to get home. I'll call you tomorrow. Okay?"

"Okay." she said as she turned and began to walk away.

"Hey!"

"What?" she answered.

"No good night kiss?"

"Out here? In front of the neighbors?" she asked, with her eyes growing wide.

"Yes." I said, smiling as I walked toward her.

"My mom could be watching from a window." she said as she glanced nervously toward the house.

"You're eighteen Jackie, she can look all she wants to." I said as I lifted her chin and kissed her.

"You do realize that you're the first guy I've ever kissed, don't you?" Jackie said when we finally broke apart.

"It just makes them that much sweeter." I replied, grinning as I opened the car door and slid behind the wheel.

"Good night Matt." she whispered as she turned to go back inside.

"Good night Jackie."

That was how 9/11 ended for me. Thirty minutes later I was laying in bed wondering where I would be this time next year and thanking God that my family was safe. It was after midnight before I fell asleep and the last thing I remember thinking about was how that first kiss felt.

September rolled on by as did October. I took Jackie to her first high school dance just before Halloween but the big one came on November 10th of that year when I took her to the Marine Corps Ball with me. The answer I got when I asked her if she wanted to go sort of surprised me. I knew she was coming out of her shell when she said that a girl would have to be nuts to say no to being in a room with hundreds of Marines in uniform.

I got the surprise of my life when I received a phone call on November 1st from my Platoon Sergeant telling me that I had been promoted to Corporal. Which meant a full-blown scramble to get my new rank sewn on my uniform before the ball. It also meant that I was getting a substantial pay raise of three dollars and eighty cents per drill period, bringing my monthly drill pay up to a whopping two-hundred a month; gross. I was rolling in the money now! I was going to need it too; the Birthday Ball was fast approaching and I had a new girlfriend to impress.

The reaction that I had when Jackie glided down the staircase and into the living room that evening probably mirrored the reaction that Kevin had when she came down them on the night we first went out. I was speechless, and she was absolutely the most beautiful woman that I had ever taken on a date. Somewhere, somehow over the past two months the girl I had known all my life was beginning to make me believe that I didn't know her at all.

The evening gown she had on was strapless, floor length and black with a slit on the left side that went half way up her thigh. When she lifted the front of it to walk down the stairs I immediately noticed that she was wearing heels; which was something I had never seen her wear before. Her hair was draped over her left shoulder and it was obvious that she or Virginia had spent a lot of time on it and her makeup was flawless.

"How do I look?" she asked me.

"Beautiful." I whispered as her smile lit up the foyer.

"You look sharp." she said, reaching out and running her fingertip down the red piping on the jacket of my Dress Blues.

"Thank you, are you ready to go?"

"Mom wants pictures. I guess she needs to prove to people that you are real and not imaginary."

"Oh Lord!" Virginia exclaimed, "I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I just wanted you two to have a few memories. Trust me, one day you will think back on tonight and want to see what you looked like. Now shush and go stand by the fireplace."

"Yes ma'am." we said in unison, as Kevin chuckled, knowing full well that I despised having my picture taken.

It wasn't that bad and a few minutes later we were on our way to the hotel ballroom that the battalion had rented for the ball. When we pulled into the parking lot it was packed with Marines and their ladies and everyone was in a good mood. I introduced Jackie around to several of the guys along with my chain of command as my girlfriend, noticing the smile on her lips as I said it for the first time to my Commanding Officer and his wife.

The rest of the evening was a blur and strangely, the only thing Jackie said that she remembered was the cake cutting ceremony, where the oldest Marine Present (a 78-year-old retired Sergeant Major and a survivor of Tarawa, Iwo Jima and the Chosin Reservoir in Korea) and the youngest Marine present (an 18-year-old Private First Class and a recent survivor of Parris Island) got the first two pieces of cake. After the ceremony Jackie and I ran into the old Marine and his granddaughter in the lobby and Jackie uncharacteristically struck up a conversation with him. The old guy regaled us with tales of the Old Corps for a few minutes then said that he must me boring us and we probably wanted to get back to the party. Jackie smiled at him and said thank you then gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Look out Corporal." he said to me with a broad grin on his weathered face, "The last time I got a kiss from a girl that pretty, I married her."

"I'll keep that in mind Sergeant Major." I replied dryly, grinning at him at the same time.

On pain of death I had promised Virginia that we would not be out all night. But as we headed home, shortly after midnight, Jackie asked me to drive to the lake instead of taking her straight home.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked glancing at my watch.

"Probably not, but I want to spend as much time with you while I can." she added, glancing down at her lap.

I reached over, took her hand in mine and squeezed it gently and said, "Your wish? My command, my Lady." The smile on her face made me forget how corny that sounded.

Nothing happened that night, at least nothing more than a few innocent kisses and a few muffled groans between us. Call me old fashioned if you will but I didn't want to push her. I was still, after two months, wondering why I had asked her out in the first place, but there was no way she would ever know that. The Jackie that I had now was a girl that any guy in her school would kill to go out with and I wasn't going to screw that up.

We were still mostly fully clothed, and the windows were fully steamed up, my right hand had just found the hem of her panties and I had just lowered my mouth to her left nipple when a loud slap on the side of my car caused us both to jump. As Jackie tugged her dress up over her boobs, I threw open the car door and found myself looking up at an Anderson County Deputy Sheriff with a bemused smile on his face.

"Good morning, Corporal." he said, grinning down at me ad shining his light into the car, illuminating a slightly ruffled and humiliated Jackie in the process.

"Good morning Sir." I stammered.

"What, pray tell, would our nation's finest be doing parked in a secluded area, this late in the evening, with a young lady in his vehicle?"

I went for broke.

"Well, we came out here because she is an aspiring bird watcher."

"A bird watcher?"

"Yes Sir, and we heard a rumor that you could see Snipes out here."

"Snipes?"

"Yes Sir, Snipes; and we saw one. She got so excited that she passed out. I wasn't sure if she had a heart attack or not, so I started mouth to mouth and a vigorous chest massage. She seems to be ok now, so if it's all the same to you, I'll go ahead and take her home."

"Why don't you do that Corporal?"

"I believe I will Sir." I paused and then added, "Unless you need something else."

"I think I'm good son."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Semper Fi Marine." he said with a wink.

"Semper Fi Deputy." I said, closing the door and fumbling with the keys in the ignition.

"God that was humiliating!" Jackie said, ten minutes later as we were driving down the road.

"What? Getting caught making out at the lake?"

"No! That vigorous chest massage remark you ass!" she exclaimed.

"Oh! I was adlibbing."

"You were bragging!"

"Yes; yes, I was." I said with a chuckle.

"Matt? she asked, suddenly getting serious.

"Jackie?"

"Where is this going?"

"Honestly?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Yes." Jackie responded, looking down at her lap.

"As far as you will let it go. I'm gonna be going to a lot of different places, and as for as I can see, you're going to be right here beside me when we get there."

"I will?" she responded.

"Yep. But you have things to do first."

"Such as?" she asked, turning to look at me.

"High school, college, saying yes in a few years when I ask you to marry me."

"Yes." she whispered.

"No jumping ahead."

"Too late." Jackie responded, sitting back in her seat with a triumphant little smile on her face.

"Really?"

"Yes. And before you go to wherever it is that you are going to go, I get a ring."

"That sounds like I don't get a say in it." I said as I pulled into her driveway.

"See! You're not just a pretty boy in Dress Blues! There is a brain in there." Then giggling she opened the car door and stepped out.

I walked her to the front door as slowly as I could and pausing for a moment I looked down at her. I smiled, then I chuckled; then I burst out laughing as I realized what she had said in the car.

"What?" she asked with her head turning slightly from side to side as her eyes locked on to mine.

"We haven't even had sex yet and you're wanting a ring." I responded.

"I'll get it too; and it will be after we sleep together." she said with a confident tone in her voice.

"Good night Jackie." I said, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her close to me.

That wicked little smile crossed her lips for a split second before she lifted her head and our lips met. When she finally pulled back from me, she placed her hands behind my neck, looked up at me and whispered, "If you had moved a little faster tonight at the lake, that deputy might've seen more of me than either of us would have wanted him to."

And with that, she opened the front door and slipped inside.

To be continued...

As always, I hope you enjoyed it.

YDW