“Didn’t say she went down on you,” Sam said, just loud enough for me to catch it.
“Really, Sam?”
“Really, Justin.” She paused, peeled the banana, and shoved it in her mouth, bobbing her head up and down as if she were blowing it. Then she winked. “Just like that to anyone that pays attention to her.”
I didn’t answer right away. The sight of Sam easily slipping most of the banana down her throat had caught me by surprise. Not that it should have. Sam not only dressed like a guy, but also had a dirtier mouth and mind then most of the ones I knew. She ruined the image by biting the tip off.
Collecting myself, I went on the defensive. “Look, Jen’s like me. She was raised to take sex seriously and that’s why we haven’t done anything yet. She thinks you should only have sex once you really care about the other person.”
“She’s a very caring person.”
“Knock it off, Samantha!” She was pissing me off at this point.
“Samantha?” She grinned. “You never call me that. Truth hurt?”
“Why do you care? You’ve done nothing but rag on Jen since I started going out with her. You say she’s stuck up and slutty and you barely know her. What’s your problem?”
“That I care about you and think you’re getting used.” Sam took the last bite of the banana and tossed the peel into her backpack. “Look at today. She’s this big green freak and says Earth Day is such a big deal, but you’re here and where is she?”
“She’s in Jamestown cleaning up the cove. She doesn’t have a lot of people helping, so she spread us out.”
“Yeah, she’s spreading all right. My sister says her ex-boyfriend is part of the cleanup. I think he’s …” She snapped her fingers. “At the beach. You can think what you want, but there’s no way in hell she isn’t fucking Rob and who knows who else. She’s using you, Justin, but I guess you’ll have to find that out yourself.”
I stared at her and frowned. I had heard Jen’s ex, Rob, was sniffing around, but whenever I mentioned it she got mad and said I was acting jealous and shouldn’t worry. When I’d pushed, Jen had brought up Sam and how much time I spent with her and how she wasn’t jealous.
Watching Sam unwrap a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and begin eating, I recalled how I had told Jen that Sam and I had been best friends since middle school, and that we’d never been more.
Jen had insisted that was because that’s how I saw it, claiming Sam had a thing for me, that I was too naïve to see it. Just like Sam was telling me I was naïve thinking Jen was waiting for the right time with me.
I was well aware I tended to take people at face value and was a little too trusting; but in these cases I was right. Sam was a good friend and had zero interest in being anything but, just as I had no interest in her as a girl.
I was also sure Jen wasn’t fucking around. Unlike me, Jen had been with someone before, and most likely more than just Ron. Then again, I was the only person my age I knew who hadn’t been with anyone.
But after my mother had discovered my asshole father had been fucking anything in sight for years, she raised me to believe that sex should be special the first time, with someone who meant something.