Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Chapter Thirteen: Lauren, Summer, 1982

He laughed. She'd ditched the overalls by this time, but her attire wasn't exactly girly by any standard. "No," he said. "What first drew me to you was your dimples."

"Of course."

"The second was the way you looked at me."

She blinked in surprise. "The way I looked at you?"

"You really don't know about that look?"

She shook her head, bewildered.

"I noticed it all the way back when we first got together, the LSDC, and we were deciding what stuff to do, and whenever I said something, even if it was something you didn't agree with, you would give me this look like you were sizing me up and figuring out what parts of me you wanted to eat first. It made me feel exposed, but also a little excited, like I couldn't imagine why any girl would want to pay attention to me."

"Are you kidding? You're all man meat. You must get a lot of attention at your high school from the Catholic girls."

He blushed. "Sometimes, but I always look forward to coming home to you every day."

"Good answer. As for what part I want to eat first, well, now I know for sure," she said. "It will be your pecker. Always."

"Jesus, I'm getting hard again."

"Good. I want to try at least one more time before we go. I want it to last a little longer."

"How did I get so lucky, to be with a girl like you?"

She shrugged. "It wasn't luck. I saw what I wanted and went after it. You were my prey, and hopeless to resist me, that's all."

"You're right. How about you? Do guys make passes at you at Endub?"

She sighed. "Do you really want to know?"

"That bad? Tell me who they are, and I'll throttle them."

"Don't worry. I manage. If they get fresh I tell them about the sword I have at home, and that I'll bring it to school the next day."

"Wouldn't you get in trouble for that?"

"Oh, yeah, but it's usually enough to tell them, let them imagine what would happen."

He frowned. "I can't stand not being there to fend them off for you."

"I know. Let's not talk about that right now. The school year's over, thank God, and I don't have to worry about them for a whole two months. I want to be with you again, and for that I want to be entirely present in this moment, not fuming about creeps and losers."

She began to move again, and kiss him again, and he was hard inside her already, and this time it lasted much, much longer.

If she'd told him the truth about how things were at Endub, he would have ended their lovemaking session early, packed the car, driven to the houses of every boy who harassed her at school and beaten them to a pulp, and he would probably be in jail right now.

She wondered if things would have been different if Al and Rachel still went to school with her, as they did in eighth grade and, for Rachel, part of the ninth. Friends provided a buffer, a safe zone that kept the predators out. Without Al and Rachel, she'd been left alone and exposed like a kitten in the rain, and her only option was to find a new friend or clique, quickly, or be prey.

She never found another group. So, just like when she lived in Richmond, she became prey.

Making friends proved to be just too exhausting, too futile, when most of the head space remaining to her after homework and Joe was devoted only to missing Rachel. The girls roaming the halls of her high school were shallow and superficial, impressed only with the latest clothes and shoes and makeup. Lauren, who wore none of these, concerned not at all with fashion, having only recently stopped wearing overalls to stop looking like a child, could not escape the indulgent pity in their voices as they condescended to her, because some of them genuinely thought she was some genius child who'd skipped a few grades. Mostly it was because of her height, but Lauren knew there was a little bit of racism in there too, because her face in the mirror was still Asiatic even if her skin was lighter than her father's, and the stereotype of the smart chink was alive and well, even if that wasn't her heritage at all.