She was beautiful, ripe as a peach in mid-summer with luscious willing lips and long reddish blond hair. Mothers with sons worried. They talked among themselves. They knew how vulnerable their boys were to the wiles of a free spirited young girl.
“He’s not going out with that Wild Jane, is he?”
“Oh boy, you don’t want him bringing home a spring colt, do you?”
“He’ll never get through law school at this rate.”
“He’ll be lucky to finish high school.”
“You know she’s not just beautiful, she’s wild as the summer breeze.”
“The boys talk about her being the sexiest girl in school.”
“That can’t be good.”
Kristie had been very active in theater both in-school productions and semi-professional theater. She was a champion in the state speech contest and a member of every choir, ensemble, speech, or drama class the school had to offer. She was a good student – A’s and B’s mostly, but she was so damn outspoken with all her talk about sexual freedom and liberal politics.
She was tracked for college and so was in classes with all the potential doctor and lawyer types. It terrified the parents. They warned their kids, both male and female, to steer clear of her. She was was trouble, they were sure of it. But they couldn’t deny being attracted to her themselves, especially the men who would have liked to have her themselves if it was legal. Instead they secretly willed their teenage sons to have the opportunity to cherish the memory of someone like her for the rest of their lives.
She was the type of girl to flaunt it. She wore a powder blue blouse with a black bra on purpose. “Well, it wasn’t white…” was her defense. She liked to unbutton one button too many just to taunt the guys. Pretty soon her behavior produced gossip that had her sleeping with every boy in the class. No one denied it because they all wanted the credit, but she was technically still a virgin.
She had worked really hard on the school play. She was the director and played the leading role. She cast the show and designed the props, scenery, and costumes. Some of her classmates helped. She had a contagious spirit. They got out of class a lot for drama projects, so lots of people wanted to work with her it seemed. It was all a lie.
That Carrie Moment came at graduation when the awards were given out. She was to receive an award for drama. Everyone knew she deserved it. The gossip was going strong, moving through the crowd. She could almost see it happening. “She did it with Cheatum… She did it with Brian too… She’d do it with anyone…”
Her name was called out and she approached the podium. The drama teacher gave a speech about what a dedicated and inspiring individual she was. The crowd was very quiet. Too quiet. No one applauded or cheered – not even her two best friends, not even her own sister who was the mascot for the cheerleading squad, no one.
Cheatum was standing in the back with a pack of his buddies around him. He was leaning up against the back wall with his leg cocked up and a shit-eating grin on his face. OK, she got it now. She didn’t care about the award. She didn’t care about Cheatum. She didn’t care about a fucking thing.
She didn’t know who she was going to fuck, but it was going to be someone no one expected. And this was her Carrie Moment. She picked the nerdiest, geekiest, nicest guy she could find and blew his fucking mind…
(First published 9/30/13)
