High School Valentine

Elly said. "Ike and Jan have broken up. He was alone last night."

"Really? I saw the mess."

"Guys have nocturnal emissions."

From the look, her daughter gave her, Elly realized that Julie didn't understand what she'd said. She tried again. "He orgasmed while he was sleeping. Adolescents and young men have wet dreams."

"Oh. I see. That's a shame they broke up. I like her."

"So does your dad."

"Huh?"

"She's a nice girl. Your father and I like her too. You know how rough breakups can be. Give your brother some slack, okay?"

"Sure."

Elly resumed her morning routine. Julie gathered the unclean bed linens. After stopping by the laundry room and starting a load, she went to her room, and then returned to her brother's room. His door was closed. She knocked.

"Yes?" Ike called out.

"You decent?"

"Yes."

Julie opened the door, stepped inside, and said, "I've come for your sheets. Doing the family laundry is one of my chores. Everyone pitches in. Mom cooks. You do yard work and take out the trash. Why the bed linens are dirty is none of my business. My job is to clean them.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. My period is coming and I'm experiencing PMS. I'm one moody bitch. Mom told me you and Jan broke up. I'm sorry to hear that. This must be a tough time for you."

"Yes, it is. We dated a long time. I really cared for her."

She handed him a magazine and said, "Here's my Victoria's Secret catalog."

"What's this for?"

She raised her eyebrow and said, "I know how guys are. You're constantly horny and since you no longer have Jan as an outlet, here's something you can use. Please don't be a tool, like Toby, my friend Marie's brother. He stole her underwear and used it to beat off."

His face contorted. He looked perplexed and said, "Ah. You must know there's tons of porn on the internet and are we really going to talk about masturbation?"

Julie ignored his comment. She asked, "Is it a problem for you if I walk around the house wearing my sleeping outfits without wearing undergarments? Some are tight fitting and made of soft fabrics that hug my body."

She looked down at her crotch. The pliable, skin-tight fabric of the leggings hugged her vulva. "Oh, God! These are my favorite pj's. Can I wear them if you can see my camel toe?"

She pulled her shirt taut. The action called attention to her hard nips. "Is it going to drive you wild if I go braless and you see my boobs jiggle and if my nipples harden into pokies?"

"No. You don't turn me on. You're my sister! Stop all this!" he said in frustration.

She stared at him for a long moment. Then, her poker face broke, she cracked up and started to laugh.

"Ha! I gotcha! I had you going. I know you're not like that. You're a straight arrow. One of the good guys. You don't hit on or leer at my friends. You're not one of those guys, who hugs too long or when he embraces you, his hand drops and 'accidental' gropes your ass or, worst yet, presses his hips into you so you feel his hard-on."

"You're kidding me? These things happen?"

"More often than you'd think. To me and mom too. This shit happens at work, on a train or a bus, at parties, and even at family events."

"What? Who does this?"

"Don't get in an uproar. We can handle it. We enjoy a warm, friendly hug. If it becomes uncomfortable, we can usually extricate ourselves. If things get out of hand, we can deal with it. Remember, last Thanksgiving, a punch bowl spilled on Uncle Frank?"

"Yes. There was an accident," Ike said as he recalled the incident.

"He was too familiar with mom and she made him pay for it. Do you remember when Cousin Theo's friend, Barney, screamed and fell to the floor during April's 'Sweet Sixteen' party?"

"Yes. He hurt himself. Didn't he twist his ankle while dancing?"

"He'd been drinking. He invited me to dance. At first, everything was cool. Then he guided me to a dark corner away from other people. Out of the blue, he kissed me with tongue and pawed my breasts. I took umbrage and kneed him in the balls. He screamed like a little girl and fell to the floor like a rock."

"Oh!"

"Shit happens. We can ignore the little stuff. When you want to make the point that someone has crossed the line, mom recommends doing something memorable, something that gets their attention."

She took the soiled sheets off his bed and put them in her basket. She winked at her brother and said, "Everyone needs a place where they feel safe. Where they can be themselves. I shouldn't have given you a hard time because you had messy sheets, whether it was because you had sex with a girl or you had a wet dream.

"Thanks for being a good person, a good brother, and not ogling me when I'm dressed casually. Bras are uncomfortable. I can't wear one 24/7. My boobs will bounce. My nipples will dent my shirt. It's okay to look or notice. You've never stared or made me feel uncomfortable. I appreciate it.

"If you need to talk about your breakup or if there's anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask."

Ike spread his arms wide and came in for a hug. He said, "Thanks, sis." She hugged him in return. After a bit, he said, "Please don't hit me in the balls."

They both laughed. He went to breakfast. She took his sheets to the laundry room and washed them in hot water.

^^^

A couple of days later, winter break ended and school started. Day after day, week after week, Ike walked the halls, went to classes, and to wrestling practice or meets. Physically, he was there, but mentality he wasn't. His breakup weighed heavily on his mind.

"Get your head in the match!" the wrestling coach yelled at Ike. His best wrestler was distracted and it showed in his performance. He won his match, but he should've trounced the other guy.

In the locker room after a match, the coach addressed the team. He looked at Ike and shouted, "God Almighty! You're missing opportunities! You make those mistakes at the state tournament and you'll be out in the first round."

He turned away from Ike and addressed the whole team, "Fellows, I've told you. Little things matter. Do the little things right and the big thing, winning the match, will follow. Be alert. Execute your moves. Recognize what the opponent wants to do and counterattack.

"You've worked too hard, put in too much time and effort, to let victory slip through your fingers. Small things matters. Greatness is in the details. Pay attention to the small stuff!"

The next three weeks were more of the same for Ike. As they were riding home after wrestling practice, Keith said, "Dude, you're in a funk. You have to snap out of it. You need to get on with life."

"I feel hollow. I miss Jan," Mike admitted. "I miss her feisty spirit, her laugh, and her body."

Keith said, "You aren't thinking of calling her, are you? You can't contact her. You can't beg her to come back. She's not some flighty girl who changes her mind like the wind changes direction.

"The only way I can see her coming back is after she's had a chance to explore and experience the world. Maybe after discovers the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence, she'll realize that you are the best guy for her and she'll beg you to take her back."

Keith gave his friend a sympathetic look and added, "You know, she may never come back. Some people are too proud to admit they've made a mistake. You can't stay home moping and hoping. We have to get you out there. You've never dated anyone from our school. Is there anyone you've ever thought was hot?"

"Sure," Ike said. "There are many nice girls and some really pretty ones, but I never thought about dating any of them because I had Jan. I didn't want to be that guy. The guy that disrespects and cheats on someone he says he cares about."

Keith said, "Remember when we turned sixteen? We got our driver's licenses, and said, 'Now that we can drive, we're going to date all the pretty girls!'."

The guys laughed remembering how arrogance and full of bravado they were in their youth.

"We spent a month at the beach house with my folks," Ike said. "We told ourselves we'd try to kiss every girl we fancied."

"The first night," Keith asked. "We met Melissa and Tracy. We bought them cotton candy and we kissed under the docks. The next day, we met two other cute girls on the beach."

"Tammy and Gail." Ike supplied the names.

"Right," Keith said remembering. "We had a fun day splashing in the ocean and sneaking kisses. They let us rub suntan lotion on them."

"And Melissa and Tracy found us with the other girls and cursed us out."

"Melissa slapped the hell out of you, as I recall," Keith said and laughed.

Ike rubbed his jaw and said, "Yes, she did. She walloped me good."

"And all four girls told us to go to Hell. They gathered their stuff and marched off together."

The guys laughed at the memory. Ike said, "That was the day I stopped trying to be a player. I promised to be a faithful, one-woman man if I ever was lucky enough to find another girl who'd give me the time of day. I've kept that promise."

"Jan isn't the only girl in the world," Keith said. "You liked Melissa and you had fun with Tammy. Isn't there anyone at school who interests you?"

"I haven't been looking."

"You don't do anything for me," Keith teased his friend. "But someone will be interested in a tall, dark, and handsome guy who was a captain of the football team and is an all-around good guy."

"Thanks."

^^^

That night, Ike slept poorly. He tossed and turned in his bed while having a vivid dream about Jan. It began like the earlier wet dream. They were naked and in his bedroom. He was standing. She was kneeling and giving him a blowjob.

She pulled off him and said, "I love sucking dick. Whenever I hear a girl say 'I don't like giving blowjobs', I want to shout, 'Bitch, it's fucking amazing to hear your guy moan, to see him tremble, and know you're causing it.'"

Jan slipped his prick back into her mouth. She looked up at him with her big, baby blue eyes as she pleasured him.

Then, as in the other dream, Ike found himself in bed, on his back, and she was riding him hard, girl-on-top style.

"Ohhhhh," he cried out. "Sex with you is always great."

She wasn't breathing hard or moaning with pleasure. Jan said in a calm voice, "The whole 'It's not you. It's me' is a cliché, but it can be correct. What we've had has been wonderful, but I wonder what other boys are like. A nagging voice inside me keeps asking 'What am I missing out on?'. You may not want to go out with other girls, but I want to spend time with other people."

She climbed off him, off the bed and walked across the room. Ike hadn't noticed it before, but there were a dozen guys in the corner of the room. He sat up and noticed the guys were of different races, sizes, and ages. They had two things in common. They were all naked and they all had erections.

"Hi, guys," Jan said to them.

"Hi, Jan," they said with one voice.

She waded into the crowd, smiled and reached out to touch their cocks. The guys kissed her cheek, caressed her boobs and touched her ass as she passed. She kept smiling, walking, squeezing and stroking dicks. A dozen guys were suddenly one hundred. The corner of the room expanded to accommodate the men.

Jan kept walking and kept grabbing penises. The crowd of males grew to 500 and then, 1000. Ike lost sight of Jan. She was swallowed by the mob.

He woke and said, "She's gone. Jan meant what she said. We're not getting back together."

He got up and got ready for school. As he drove to school he said, "Six weeks after Jan broke up with me, I've finally accepted it. I feel like I've stepped out of a fog. The sun is brighter. Colors and sounds are richer. I'm going to be okay."

^^^

Ike was sitting in his homeroom. He and the other high school seniors participated in roll call, listened to the day's announcements, and were waiting for the bell to ring signaling it was time to go to their first class.

"What's this?" he asked.

He looked at the colorful heart-shaped card that had been placed on his desk. It was red and had an image of a bee on it. Printed on it was "You're cool! Bee my Valentine."

He looked at the classmate who'd place it there. The short, blond smiled at him. He recognized her as someone in his homeroom. "What's her name?" he asked himself. He couldn't remember. She was one of thirty people in his homeroom. One of 340 people in his class. He didn't know them all.

He automatically said, "Thanks."

She moved on and placed a card on the next desk and the next without saying more than hello to anyone.

"Oh, yes. Today is the fourteenth of February," he told himself. "This is weird. A girl is giving everyone in homeroom a Valentine's Day card. Are we in first grade?"

At lunch, he sat with Keith. He said, "Today, in homeroom, some girl gave me a Valentine's Day card."

"See. I told you. You're a hot commodity. Who was it?"

"I don't know her name and she didn't just give me a card, she gave one to everyone. Boys and girls alike."

"What? Like we did in elementary school?"

"Exactly. In first grade, I wanted to give Patty Crum and Dorothy Campbell Valentine's Day cards and I was forced to give one to everyone."

"I remember that," Keith said. "The school was so worried some kid would have his or her feelings hurt because no one gave them a card that they made the 'Cards for all or cards for none' rule. Were you her target or just one of the crowd?"

"Everyone got one so unless that was cover to give me a card, I'd say I wasn't her target."

"Was she hot?"

"What? Is that all you think about?"

"Yes. If she looks like Dorothy Dumptruck, than forget about it. If she's pretty, we need to find out who she is and learn if she was sending you a signal."

"Dorothy Dumruck is a nice girl..."

"A nice girl no one will date because she's as big as a dump truck. What did this girl look like?"

"She's short. Probably 5' 2". Shoulder length, dirty blond hair. Blue eyes. Pretty. Bigger boobs than you'd expect for a girl her size. A nice smile. She's in my English class."

"She sounds great. It's worth finding out who she is and what she was doing." Keith looked around the lunch room. He spotted Kenny, someone he knew was in Ike's homeroom. He was walking by taking his tray to the cleanup area.

He called, "Hey, Kenny. How's it going?"

Kenny paused and said, "Good."

"Who was the blond in your homeroom that gave out Valentine's Day cards?"

"That was Mandy Grubb. She does it every year."

"I see. She's dating..."

Kenny filled in the blank. "She's dating Butch Millerson. Rumor has it he can't close the deal. He's putting in the time hoping he gets her V card. He's got a slag on the side to take care of his physical needs while he woos her."

"Thanks, Kenny."

The lanky guy walked away. Keith said, "Little Mandy Grubb. She's kind of hot and Butch is a blowhard. He's no competition."

"What does it matter? You heard Kenny. She does it every year." Ike stood, gathered us his trash, and said, "Got to go. I have a math test."

^^^

The next day, while he was in homeroom, Ike found himself looking at Mandy. The pretty, young woman was surrounded by friends. She was talking and laughing. She looked up and caught him staring at her. She smiled in a friendly manner. Ike quickly looked away.

An hour later, Ike walked into his English class and took his normal seat. He scanned the room and saw Mandy sitting up front. She was smiling and talking to the people around her, boys and girls. The bell rang. Everyone stopped talking, sat attentively, and looked to the teacher, Mrs. McCarthy.

Mrs. McCarthy stood and read the opening lines of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

"Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Whole misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife."

The teacher closed her book and asked, "Class, this is the introduction to the play we are studying. What do you think the play is about it?"

Gerald said, "Here's my take. A boy and a girl from rival families fall in love despite all the associated challenges, yadda yadda yadda, something, something. They die."

The class laughed. Mrs. McCarthy said, "That's a very brief synopsis, Gerald. I think you glossed over many aspects of the tale that make it relevant even 400 years after it was written. Tell me what do you think Shakespeare meant when he described them as 'star-cross'd lovers'?"

"That they were supposed to be together. You know, their love was written in the stars," Gerald said.

The teacher addressed the class, "Does everyone agree?"

Mandy Grubb raised her hand and said, "The term 'star-crossed' has the same etymology as the word 'disaster'. 'Dis' means against and 'aster' comes from 'astro' meaning planet or star. Shakespeare is telling us that the stars, a stand-in for fate, are against this couple and their romance is destined to fail."

The teacher turned to another of her better students. He was quiet. He didn't volunteer answers, but he usually was spot on. She asked, "Ike, what do you think?"

"I think Shakespeare was foreshadowing. He's telling us they were 'crossed by the stars' suggesting the lovers were fated to die. The people at the time believed in fate. They looked around and saw good things happen and bad things happen seemingly without rhythm or reason. They thought their lives were beyond their control.

"A person was alive one day and dead the next. They didn't know about germs, viruses, and proper hygiene. They thought everyone's life was at the mercy of a spin of fortune's wheel."

"Interesting," Mrs. McCarthy said. "Tell me more. Why would an author use foreshadowing?"

Ike said, "It keeps the audience interested in the plot and it connects the characters and things that happen in the story. Juliet is introduced to the idea of marriage by her mother who tells her, she will meet someone who she will give her heart to and along comes Romeo.

"The friar boosted of his knowledge of herbs and plants. That's come in handy when a potion is needed to fake a deep sleep. Foreshadows create connections so the reader doesn't say 'That came out of left field'. Instead, they say, 'That makes sense'."

"Very good, Ike," the teacher said. She went on to discuss other aspects of the play and to bring other students into the discussion.

Near the end of class, the teacher said, "Pretend I'm Juliet. I'm standing on a balcony."

The class giggled. The gray-haired Mrs. McCarty pretended to be indignant, "What? Don't you think I can pull off playing a thirteen-year-old girl? I was one once. Wait a second. Let me get into character."

She raised a hand dotted with age spots to her forehead, she furrowed her brow, and cried out, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

She dispensed with her dramatic pose and said in a normal voice, "That's one of the famous lines from the play. You all know it. What does it mean?"

Patty Crum raised her hand and said, "She looking for Romeo."

"Actually, she's not. Anyone?"

No one offered an answer. The teacher turned to one of her deep thinkers and asked, "Ike, what do you think?"

"'Wherefore art' doesn't mean 'where'. It means 'why'. She asking why fate has made Romeo a Montague, her family's sworn enemy."

The bell rang. The students scrambled to go to their next class. Mrs. McCarthy smiled and said under her breath, "That went well."

^^^

Lunchtime found Ike in line with a tray. He chose from an array of food the overweight lunch ladies had prepared. He got a burger, fries, and some broccoli. His mind was elsewhere as it often was since the break up with Jan. He shuffled along behind a blond girl in a short skirt.