Seventeen year old Paul Daniels was a bit of a loner, as most introverts tend to be. He had some friends but he also had some confidence issues. Five years spent in an American all boys private high school that did everything it could to strip away his individuality had left him at the tail end of self assurance by the time he graduated from it in 1985.
But one day shortly after graduation he met Suzie O’Neil who had moved to North Carolina from Texas and his introverted nature was severely tested. He wanted Suzie more than anything, but she was the kind of girl who would eat shy boys for breakfast, because she was really something else. The total opposite of him. Boisterous, brash, self assured. Proper Texas.
Suzie was taller than most girls her age, but she wasn’t quite as tall as Paul, who stood 6 foot 2 in his bare feet. He was a gangly boy, whereas she was slender and well apportioned. She had shoulder length auburn hair, almost red, but not quite a ginger. Her eyes were a striking mix of blue, hazel and green flecks. It was hard to say what the dominant color was.
Her dress sense was grungy, a little out of place for 1985 when flamboyance was the fashion of the day. Sometimes she wore distressed denim with paint flecks or motor oil stains on them. She also had a penchant for Converse high tops, usually also filthy dirty looking. Paul just wore what made sense to him; jeans, Nike’s, T-shirts with a flannel over them.
They met down at Jovino’s Diner & Arcade on an overcast Saturday afternoon the week after school had let out for summer. Paul had gone into the town by bus along with his best friend Joey McNulty. They took the bus because finding parking in the downtown area was never easy. All the street parking was metered anyway, so the bus just made sense. On this particular day they were going to hang out, play arcade games and watch the girls.
Jovino’s was an arcade and diner combination with a line of U shaped booths that looked out onto the street. You’d enter on one side, pick a booth or sit at the bar to eat whatever greasy slop the proprietor Aldo had on the menu. It was usually burgers or hot dogs with a variety or sauces and a side of fries. Aldo may have been Italian but his gastronomy was all American. At the end of the line of booths was the entrance to the adjoining arcade, so to get to it you had to walk through the diner. It was Aldo’s little trick to get bums on seats. Entice the youngsters in, get them depositing coins into the machines and then when they were hungry they could order up some chow before they went out. He always played the latest music loud in the diner. His business catered for young people and what was was trendy at the time. Business had been booming for a good few years in 1985. His diner was the most popular amongst the youth.
Paul and Joey had just sat down in the booth furthest from the entrance when a young couple walked in. One of them was Suzie. Paul’s eyes lit up when he saw her. She looked very pretty to him but he wouldn’t ever let on to Joey that he liked any girl, so he tried to play it cool. The guy she was with was pale skinned, somewhat tall with long and curly blonde hair. He wasn’t quite albino but not far from it. Even his eyelashes were blonde.
“Hey, that’s Fred Andrews. He’s got a chick with him.” said Joey.
“Who’s Fred when he’s at home?” asked Paul.
“Oh, he lives in the building upstairs. Quite a cool dude, I know him from karate. Plays guitar, I think he’s probably good enough to be in a band. I hung out at his place a couple of times after karate class waiting for my Dad to fetch me. I dunno who this chick he’s with is though. She’s new.”
Fred and Suzie walked along the line of booths towards the games arcade entrance on the other side of the diner. Joey lifted his hand to wave at them. Fred smiled and waved back with his free hand, the other still holding onto Suzie’s.
“Hey Joey.” said Fred. “How’s it hanging, bro?”
“Still hanging, Fred.” said Joey. He held up his palm and Fred high-fived him as he and Suzie stopped at their booth.
“This is Suzie.” said Fred.
“Hey Suzie, why you hanging out with this ugly creep?” joked Joey. It was in his nature to playfully denigrate all his friends. Suzie smiled back and looked up at Fred, not saying anything in response. Fred feigned a karate chop at Joey.
Paul coughed from the other side of the table.
“Oh shit, sorry man, this is my best buddy, Paul. We go way back.” Joey pointed at Paul, who smiled at them both before lowering his eyes back to the menu on the table. Suzie looked at him and smiled back.
“Are you guys gonna play games?” asked Joey.
“Yeah, got a coupla bucks from my Ma, gonna see if I can beat my high score on Donkey Kong today.” said Fred. “Maybe see if Suzie here is any good. You guys coming through or just hanging out here?”
“We’ll come through in a bit, gonna crush a shake first.”
“Cool, see you inside.” Fred said, tugging Suzie by the hand as he walked away from the booth. Suzie was still looking at Paul. She hadn’t stopped looking at him since Joey introduced him.
The couple moved through the doorway and into the arcade. Joey craned his neck as he watched them go.
“She’s a bit of alright, eh?” he said. “I wonder where she came from? Haven’t seen her around here before.”
“Not really my type.” lied Paul. “Redhead. Ugh.”
“Dude, you know that redheads are the wildest of them all in the bedroom, right? Mrs McKenzie back at Connor High was pretty damn hot and she was even more red haired than little Suzie there. Ooh, the dreams about Mrs McKenzie!” Joey stuck out his tongue, giving it a little lascivious wag. Paul smiled.
“Yeah, I suppose McKenzie was pretty hot. For a teacher that is. But this one seems a little dirty. Did you see what she was wearing? It’s like she raided somebody from the 60’s closet for clothes and slept with them in a dumpster.”
“Dude, if you get her to come home with you what she’s wearing becomes pretty irrelevant once she’s in your bedroom.” He made a mock dumb face. “I think I need to learn how to play guitar if it means you can pull these sorts of chicks. I mean Fred ain’t no fucking oil painting, right?”
Paul held up his hand to get the attention of the waitress as he slowly shook his head in agreement with Joey’s assessment of Fred’s looks.
“Red pubes. What do they call that again? Fire something or other.” continued Joey.
“Ok bro, I’m thinking of having a strawberry milkshake, I don’t need any graphic description of what her girly bits are gonna look like, okay?”
“You’re such a nerd, Paul. We need to get you laid before you go gay on us. Maybe Suzie has some friends? Or a sister?”
“I’ll leave that up to you to find out, Casanova.”
The waitress arrived with a red notebook to take down their order.
“What’ll it be, boys?” she asked.
“Fire crotch. That’s what they call it.” said Joey. The waitress gave him a stern look. Paul put his head in his hands.
—-
They finished their milk shakes and walked through to the arcade. Dozens of game machines were lined up along all the walls as well as in rows of six, back to back in the middle of the room. They found Fred and Suzie at the Donkey Kong machine, Fred playing while Suzie leaned with her back up against the side of the machine, watching the rest of the room, a bored look on her face. When she saw them approaching she smiled, her gaze locked on Paul as they got closer.
Fred was focused intensely on his game and barely acknowledged them when they reached the Donkey Kong machine.
“Did ya hit the high score yet?” asked Joey, resting a hand on Fred’s shoulder.
“Not yet, but I’m gettin’ there.” he replied.
Suzie did not take her eyes off Paul. Bashfully he averted his eyes to the playing screen. He was standing on the same side of the machine as her and he just didn’t know what to do about her staring at him. Was she about to do something unexpected? He didn’t know. Eventually she stopped looking at him and began surveying the room again. Paul felt his eyes drifting over to her occasionally to see if she might still be checking him out. Her eyes had almost transfixed him. He thought that she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, even though she had a hobo-like appearance.
“I’m going to play 1942.” he eventually said, fishing out a coin from his pocket. The 1942 game was four machines down, on the opposite side of the row where Fred was hammering the buttons on Donkey Kong.
“That’s a better game to watch.” Suzie said. She followed him over to the other machine. Fred and Joey remained focused on his Donkey Kong progress. He was getting close to his high score.
Paul inserted his quarter into the 1942 machine and waited for the splash screen to play out. Suzie leaned in closer to him, her shoulder close enough to touch his arm. She smelled really good.
“You’re a hottie.” she said softly, her back to Fred. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
Paul found himself instantly perplexed. Was she coming on to him, right in front of her own boyfriend? He cleared his throat.
“No. I don’t.”
“You want one?” She placed her index finger lightly on his forearm, suggestively.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” Paul asked, his nervous nature beating its way to the fore. “Aren’t you with Fred?”
“He’s a dick. I don’t really like him. I’d like to like you, if you’re available to be liked?” A statement and a question.
Paul’s game started and he got tagged by the enemy almost immediately, his mind swirling with the implications of this proposal from a pretty girl. His plane disappeared somewhere into the digital Pacific. His heart was beating faster than it ever had.
“Um, this is a little awkward with him standing right there. I don’t want to get in the middle of… things.” It was all he could say without coming across as timid.
Suzie chuckled lightly.
“Where do you live?” he asked, trying to be nonchalant.
“Across the street. Mercury Building. Number 301.” she moved slightly in front of him, her hand still on his forearm. “Why don’t we go out next weekend. I’m gonna break up with Fred later today.”
Paul’s plane died again.
He looked at her, his mouth open. Speechless. He had no idea what to say. No girl had ever taken this much interest in him, let alone even spoken this many words at him.
Suzie reached into her denim jacket pocket and pulled out a small spiral notebook and a short pencil stub. She was left-handed.
“What’s your number?” she asked, flipping to a fresh page. “It’s Paul, right?”
“Yeah, Paul.” He read out his home number, scarcely believing it was coming out of his mouth. She wrote it down and put the book and pencil back into her pocket, smiling.
“I’ll call you next week.” she said and then moved back to the Donkey Kong machine where Fred and Joey were raucously celebrating his new high score. Paul watched her go. What the hell was going on, he wondered as his third plane ploughed into the Pacific without him even registering a score.
—-
The week moved slowly for Paul. Every day felt like a month. He was excited to see if this Suzie girl would actually call and make plans to see him. He wasn’t sure what he was going to tell Joey if she did, or if he even needed to tell him anything. What if the whole thing fell apart before it stuck together? He’d look like an idiot if it did fall apart and he’d made a big deal of it. He had never been on a real date before. And the girl had been the one to initiate it.
Joey came over to his place on the Tuesday morning and they talked about going to college while listening to some new music. Paul was going to enrol in a journalism course and Joey had decided to pursue mechanical engineering as a career path.
“What do you know about mechanics?” he asked Joey.
“Not much, but that’s why I’m going to school, to find out.”
“Surely you’d want to study something that actually interested you, not just a random engineering course?”
“I’m following the money, dude. Engineers make big bucks.”
“I see.” said Paul. He knew Joey’s Dad was an engineer of some sort but he wasn’t sure of the discipline. It might have been civil engineering.
What Paul really wanted to do was quiz Joey on the situation with Suzie and Fred, but he didn’t want to raise any suspicions by asking outright. He was hoping that Joey would broach the subject, but as the day wore on and nothing came up he decided to take a different approach.
“Have you heard the new song by The Cult?” he asked. “It’s pretty rad.”
“Nope. Where’d you hear it?”
“On the radio. I actually recorded it. Let me play it for you.”
Paul went over to his stereo, flipping through some loose cassettes that were lying on the lid of the record player. He picked one up, checked the hand written label and then put it in the tape deck. The first few notes of She Sells Sanctuary began sounding out before the heavy riff and beat hit.
“Holy crap! That’s bitchin’, man!” exclaimed Joey as the song ended. He was bouncing his head along to the sound, air guitar in his lap. Paul smiled.
“Thought you’d like that one. I’m gonna go into town and buy the album this Friday. You wanna come?”
“Nah man, I got a karate thing on Friday. An all day assessment.”
“Oh, so you’ll be seeing Fred again?”
“Yeah. He’s pretty glum, that chick Suzie bust up with him right after we left them at the arcade. I guess his Donkey Kong isn’t as good as his guitar playing!” he laughed at his own joke.
“Oh? Really?” Paul said, nonchalantly. “Did she say why?”
“Who knows, man. Chicks can be weird.” Joey stretched out on the floor. “Play that song again. I dig it.”
Paul rewound the tape and hit the play button again, a smile forming on his face. He had played the song hoping to initiate some talk of Fred’s guitar playing and because Joey always revealed way more information in a conversation than he should perhaps additional news about Fred and Suzie would follow. His plan had worked and now he had the info he needed.
She hadn’t called him yet though.
—-
Her call came later that evening. Paul had just finished his nightly dishes washing chore when he heard the phone in the living room ring. His Mom answered.
“Paulie, call for you. Please take it in the hallway.” she said. His parents were settled in the lounge watching TV and didn’t want a phone conversation to distract them from the latest episode of Murder She Wrote.
“Ok, thanks Mom. Just drying my hands.”
He hung up the dishtowel and made his way into the hallway to pick up the phone extension.
“Hello?”
The phone in the lounge clicked off as his Mom set it back down.
“Hey Paul. It’s Suzie. How you doing? I told you I’d call you.” There was a hint of playfulness in her voice.
“Suzie, hey.” He was trying to act casual but his heart was practically bouncing out of his shirt. He was sure she’d be able to hear it on the other end of the line.
“Are you happy to hear from me?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah, sure I am.”
Silence.
“You don’t sound so enthusiastic, Paul. Cat got your tongue?” she snickered a little.
“Um, well… Suzie… I’m a bit confused about this all, to be honest. I don’t know what to think. I literally just met you and you tell me you’re breaking up with your boyfriend and want to go out with me. That’s a bit weird. Well, for me it is, anyway.” He blurted it out and immediately regretted it.
“Oh, okay.” she said. “I understand. Well, you know it’s not like I was married to the guy. I’d only been seeing him for a week or two. He’s a bit of a jerk. Really bad halitosis. I think he eats curds and whey all day.”
More silence.
“Geez Paul, aren’t you going to say anything? I made a joke, you could at least laugh a little.”
“Sorry, I’m not very good talking on the phone. Maybe we should meet up in town on Friday?”
“Cool, let’s do that. Phone chat is stupid, I agree. What time should we meet and where?”
“Koko’s record bar. Do you know where that is?” he asked.
“Um, yeah, I think so. Down Beatrice Lane, right?”
“Yeah. I can meet you there at midday. Ok?”
“Sure thing. See you Friday, Paul.”
She hung up. Paul was on the verge of hyperventilating. This was more excitement than he’d had since falling down the stairs at a football match in front of the whole school last year. He hoped he wasn’t setting himself up for something bad with this date. His thinking was that if she could dump her boyfriend for another dude while in the presence of both dudes, what other drama might erupt in her presence? The cautious side of his mind asked if he was making a big mistake while the adventurous side was urging him on. His mind was reeling.
After cleaning up the kitchen he went to take a bath, his mind was still swinging from side to side like a trapeze artist.
—-
On the Friday morning of his first date with Suzie, Paul laid out his coolest clothing on his bed. He had T-shirts from about 10 different bands but he couldn’t make up his mind which one would be the coolest. AC/DC, The Cult, The Cure, PIL and others. He settled on a black shirt with a simple U2 emblazoned in white on the front. Black went with everything, or so his aunt Liz had once told him. She was the fashion guru in the family. The rest of his clothing was his usual garb. Blue jeans, Nike’s and a flannel worn over the T-shirt. It was probably a bit too warm for the flannel but he wore it anyway.
He caught the 10am bus into town and got there just after 10:30. There were a lot of stops and quite a few younger kids enjoying their holidays got on at different points, chattering excitedly about their day trip into town. Paul could have taken his Mom’s car, but he didn’t mind riding the bus. It gave him time to think.
He tried to plot out how his date with Suzie might unfold. They’d meet at the record shop, maybe go for a burger somewhere and then what? He couldn’t think of what else they might do. Do they find a quiet place to make out? Go for a walk? Go to the movies? What is the sequence of events when you’re on a first date? He was beginning to think that maybe he shouldn’t have kept this all from Joey. He might have given him some advice, especially since he already had dating experience with at least three different girls that Paul knew of.
By the time he got off the bus his mind was buzzing with confused thoughts. He decided that he would just be passive and let her decide what to do with their time together.
Koko’s record shop was fairly busy with teenagers flipping through the many record and cassette bins. Loud music by Thompson Twins was playing on the store’s sound system. He scanned the room looking for Suzie’s striking auburn hair but found nothing. He was early. Like an hour early. Well, he thought, at least I can check through some albums while I wait for her.
He was reading the back of Frank Zappa’s album Joe’s Garage, Part 1, when a hand slipped under his shirt from behind him, gently caressing his spine. He spun around immediately and saw Suzie grinning back at him.
“Hey, shy boy.” she said. “Did I give you a fright?”
His heart was racing faster than it had when she had propositioned him at the arcade.
“Ah, it’s you. Yes, just a little.” he patted his heart with his free hand, the record sleeve still in the other. Suzie pressed her body into his, taking the record sleeve and putting it on top of the bins. She enfolded him with both arms, looked up into his face and planted a kiss right on his lips. Paul’s eyes widened while his arms hung slack at his sides. What the hell? This kind of greeting he was not expecting.
“Don’t be so shy.” she said as she pulled out of the kiss but not the embrace. “I’m your girl now.”
“Oh. Right.” Paul said. He could feel he was blushing and wondered what the rest of the people in the store might be thinking. After a few seconds he gathered his thoughts and tried to arrange them logically in his mind. She was his girl. She kissed him. On the lips. She embraced him and touched his bare skin with her nails. It was like something had fundamentally changed in his universe in just a few seconds.
“Are you buying that record?” she asked, looking at the Zappa album cover. “Looks like shit to me. Who is that guy?”
“Frank Zappa, he’s actually quite cool. This is a great album.” he said, picking it up again. “It’s all about this guy in a band who meets a bad girl and winds up in prison.”
“Really? You think girls are a bad influence?” she scrunched up her nose in disapproval. “I’m a nice girl, you’ll see.”
“I don’t have much experience with girls, so I really can’t say what they’re like. Will you get me arrested?” he said, starting to get into the banter.
“We’ll have to see just how much of a bad boy you can be.” she replied. “Come on, let’s go for a walk, unless you were actually going to buy something here?”
Paul decided to put the purchase of any new album on hold for now. He had other fish to fry. Apparently.
“No, I can come back later. Where are we gonna go?”
“To the moon and back.” she said, pulling on his arm.
—-
Outside it had cooled down a bit. The sun had been hiding behind a thick cloud all week, putting paid to most people’s idea of early summer outings. Suzie was dressed a little less grunge-like today. She had a white Frankie Say T-shirt on with three quarter blue jeans and her filthy black Converse high tops. They walked along the city streets slowly with no particular destination in mind. Suzie directed most of the conversation. She told Paul about her family, her school and that they had just moved from Texas to North Carolina that year. She was very talkative.
Her hair danced gently around her shoulders as she walked and talked. It fascinated him and of course he couldn’t get the thought of what Joey had said about the downstairs region of redheads out of his mind. How soon would he find out about that, he wondered? With a girl this forward it might even be later today. Would he be ready for that kind of intimacy? The thought of it both thrilled and terrified him.
“You hungry?” she asked. “We can go back to my place. I can make you a sandwich.”
“How about I just treat you to a burger?” he replied.
“Hmm, okay. But don’t you want free food instead? I think we have pastrami and cheese at home.”
“I have money.” he said. “It’s no big deal. I can buy you a burger.”
She pursed her lips and took hold of his hand.
“Okay Paul, take me for a burger, why don’tcha?”
They walked towards Jovino’s Arcade, hand in hand. Paul was feeling a lot more at ease. Thoughts of running into the recently jilted Fred who lived just above Jovino’s didn’t even occur to him.
None of the booths were available because the diner was crammed full of teenagers who’d come out for the day. They managed to get two stools together right at the far end of the bar. Aldo himself came to take their order. Paul shouted it to him over the loud music.
There was so much good music coming out and a lot of kids were talking about the upcoming Live Aid concert next month. Paul really wanted to go, but it was going to prove to be a bridge too far getting to Philadelphia for an all day concert. Transport, accommodation, food. These were all things he would have to consider. Also, he didn’t have enough saved up for such an adventure. His parents would most likely object to his going, especially his Dad who thought that the 1980’s was turning kids into a puppet show with all the weird things they were wearing and saying. He was ex-military and had served two tours in Viet Nam, once before Paul was born and then once after his Mom got pregnant with him. Paul understood that this had happened while Dad was on R&R during the Summer Of Love. They got married just before he shipped out again.
“So, when you’re not playing video games what else are you into?” Suzie asked.
“Mostly music.” Paul said. “I can’t play any instruments but I love listening and I really enjoy seeing bands playing live. Not too many of them come around these parts though. This town’s too damn small to attract them. And what are you into?”
“Oh, this and that. Nothing to write home about.” she said. “I like watching movies. Maybe one day I’m going to direct a movie. Seems like a good career, right?”
“Well, yeah, if you can find a way to get into it out there in movie land.” he replied. “I’ve heard that girls have to do some pretty unsavoury things to get into that business.”
“I suppose. But just how unsavoury can it get? I mean, giving an old guy a blow job might not be the worst thing in the world if it means you become a millionaire later.”
“What if it’s more than a blow job?”
“Like what, getting into orgies and shit?”
“Yeah. Would you get into that? What about the drugs? There’s always stories about young people getting sucked into that drug shit in Hollywood and then finding themselves living on skid row.”
“Naw, I’m definitely not into orgies or drugs, but… there’s gotta be a way into the business that doesn’t involve selling your body or soul.” she said, as their food arrived.
“I think the movie business is corrupt as all hell.” Paul said, squirting ketchup all over his fries. “Not a single redeeming thing about it.” He was on a roll with the conversation side of his date. He was actually enjoying it a great deal.
“Well now, hang on a bit, Paul. I’m sure it’s not all that bad, right? I mean they do make some movies that seem to reflect a certain level of human decency. Take On Golden Pond as an example. Those old people surely weren’t leaving the set to go and fornicate like rabbits in the wild between scenes, were they?”
Paul laughed. In spite of his bashful nature, talking so openly to Suzie was really having an effect on him. He felt that while she was insanely audacious, just talking to her was like a great big gulp of fresh air. She was an open book. No airs and graces, just plain Suzie.
She was also really sharp witted, which he took as a sign of high intelligence. As they finished up their lunch he wondered what else the date would bring. If anything he hoped that it wouldn’t lead to any awkwardness or situations that he wouldn’t be comfortable with. Like intimacy for instance. It was way too early for that to happen, right?
—-
After lunch they walked around town a bit more and found their way to a park near the city hall. The sun was trying to come out but failing. It looked like it might even rain at one point. Paul wondered what the next appropriate step on their date might be. Does he kiss her now? Or do they just go on holding hands? He had no idea what to do, but he suspected that if anything like that was going to happen Suzie would be the one who initiated it. And he was right.
There was a backless bench set deep into the park, slightly off the walking trail, surrounded by huge elm trees. Suzie pulled on his arm and led Paul in the direction of the bench where they sat down facing the walking path. She leaned into his side, her head on his shoulder, their hands clasped together, resting on his thigh.
“You’re not used to being with girls, are you?” she said. It came out as more of a statement than a question.
“Nope. Not at all.”
“Why is that? You’re a good looking guy, Paul.”
He shrugged.
“I dunno, I just never got up the nerve to ask any girl out before, I guess.”
“So how did you feel when I asked you out?” She lifted up her head and swivelled her body so that she straddled the bench, facing him side on.
“I was too scared to object!” he said, laughing. She chuckled along with him for a moment and then scootching closer towards him she placed one hand behind his neck and pulled his face to hers. This would be Paul’s first passionate kiss. Her other hand rested on his thigh. His hands were stuck in mid-air, limbo like.
At first he didn’t know what what was going on. He stiffened his neck and body as her tongue caressed the inside of his lips. He relaxed a little after she tenderly moved her hand from the back of his neck to the side of his face, caressing and then running her nails through his hair before she pulled back slightly, smiling at his startled face.
“Did you like that?” she asked. Paul was somewhat slack-jawed.
“That was freaking awesome.” He adjusted his sitting position so that they now faced one another on the bench, their knees touching. She lifted her legs over his and planted her feet behind him, bringing their bodies closer together. He held her with both hands and they kissed again, longer and deeper this time. Paul was entirely lost in the moment. Everything he had ever known about anything in the world suddenly faded away into nothingness as Suzie’s enchanting kiss melted it away.
The first rain drops came down like big splotches, slowly at first but then with intensity.
“Eek!” shrieked Suzie, pulling away from their kiss. “We’re gonna get soaked!”
“Oh no… I was really enjoying that.” said Paul. “Where can we get shelter?”
“There’s a bus stop just outside the park. Shall we go there?”
“Yeah. Let’s go, quickly!”
They both stood up and ran towards the shelter, only to find it was already well inhabited by several other people with no space left to get out of the rain. By now they were already pretty drenched.
“Aw rats.” said Suzie. “Let’s cross over to the other side and get back to Main Street.”
Paul nodded and they both dashed across the road, hand in hand. By the time they found shelter in front of a shop with an overhang it was too late. They were both soaked to the bone. Suzie’s white T-shirt had become totally see through, her bra, while also white, was visible as were her nipples. Paul could see that they were somewhat erect. He took off his blue flannel and covered her shoulders with it.
“Oh God.” she said, looking down to see what he saw on her chest. “Frankie Say this T-shirt is a bit useless when wet.”
Paul burst out laughing and didn’t stop until Suzie punched him on the shoulder.
“It wasn’t that funny.” she said, burrowing herself into his chest.
“No, wait, you see..” he tried to explain but the smile on his face was making it difficult for the words to come out. She looked at him like he was high on drugs. Eventually he composed himself and explained to her that on the Frank Zappa record she had found him looking at earlier is a song called Wet T-Shirt Nite where the guy Joe in the band’s girlfriend, Mary, enters and wins before she goes home after her adventure of being a Crew Slut with another band’s roadies.
“Charming music you listen to, Paul.” Suzie rolled her eyes.
“Oh, it’s just funny is all.” Paul said.
They stood together under the overhang of the shop waiting for the downpour to abate which it did after a few more minutes.
“What now?” Paul asked, looking into her eyes.
“Well, we can go back to my apartment and get dried off. What time is the last bus back to your home?”
“About 7pm, but I’ll need to phone and let my Mom know where I am, otherwise they might send the police out to look for me.”
“Really?”
“It’s happened before. I stayed out late at Joey’s place one night when we first became friends and they had the cops put out an APB on me. They thought I had run away because of the private boy’s school thing. I didn’t like it there very much, but it was my Dad’s old school and he insisted I go too.”
“Oh wow, so how did they find you?”
“They didn’t, I just went home. And I caught flack for that, let me tell ya.”
“So your parents are protective?” she asked.
“Yep, for sure.”
Suzie pensively put a finger to her lips.
“Okay, let’s go back to my place and get dried off.”
The rain had stopped as abruptly as it began.
—-
Suzie’s family apartment was modern and well furnished. She asked him to stand at the doorway while she went to get them some towels to dry off. When she came back there was a small puddle on the tiles under Paul’s feet.
“Oh man, we’re gonna have to get you out of those clothes.” She grinned as she said it and his heart leaped into over-drive. Was this really going to happen? Right now? “Take them off and put this towel around you. We have a dryer.”
This was it. The fork in the road. The point where whatever happened next might determine the course of the rest of his life. He recognised this moment for what it was and began untying his shoes first. So did Suzie. He unbuttoned his soaked jeans and pushed them down to his feet, grabbing the hem and pulling them off. Suzie stopped undoing her laces.
“Damn. You got some hairy legs there, Paul.” she giggled. He was suddenly self conscious as he wrapped the towel around his waist and lifted off his T-shirt.
She proceeded to undo the zipper of her jeans and pushed them off, revealing white panties with a fine frill sewn into the waistband. Her legs were perfectly shaped, like she could have been a swimsuit model. She had already taken off Paul’s flannel shirt and now she peeled off her Frankie Say T-shirt, revealing a thin white bra. They looked at each other. Paul felt shy, but she was very much enjoying the moment.
“I bet this is another first for y’all, right?” she said. “Seein’ a gal in her under garments.” She was cranking up her Texas accent.
“In person, yeah.”
“Okay, so before you go gettin’ any funny ideas, this is as far as it’s gonna go today, okay? You can look but I ain’t no wham-bam first date hussy. My folks come back home and find us doing shit half naked there will be all kinds of hell to catch.”
“Yes ma’am.” said Paul. “What time are they due back?”
“Around five thirty.”
Paul looked at his watch. Somehow the day had edged close to 4pm. Where had the time gone? Suzie gathered up their wet clothing and took it through to a room off the kitchen where their laundry was. Paul followed her. She wrung out the rain water from their clothes over a large sink and then put everything in the dryer, one garment at a time.
“Is your underwear dry enough? You wanna toss them in too?” she asked.
“How long is that thing gonna run for? I really don’t want to be in this position if your parents come home early.”
“No, they won’t come home early. You’ll be ok. Promise.”
Paul felt for his underpants beneath the towel and shimmied them off an inch at a time while keeping the towel wrapped around his waist, just like surfers do. Suzie took them from him and added them to the dryer. She closed the door, turned a dial and the machine began humming as it began its cycle.
“Now I got you where I want you.” she said in a slow, suggestive voice, moving closer to where he was standing.
“You said no funny business.”
“What if I lied?” she teased and moved right up to him, touching his bare chest with one hand while the other reached around his back. She was still only in her underwear with a towel draped over her shoulder. Paul only had the towel to protect him. He felt extremely vulnerable in that moment. What was going to happen next?
Suzie looked up at him and then on her tip toes kissed him lightly on his lips before moving away towards a counter in the laundry, wrapping herself with the bath towel. She hopped onto the counter.
“Come sit over here with me.” she said, patting the space next to her. Paul complied. They sat that way for a moment before Suzie continued the conversation. “I like kissing you. For somebody who hasn’t done it before you seem to know what to do.”
“Really? You think so?”
“Yeah. You’re tender. So many boys don’t have a clue how to kiss a girl.”
“So you’ve kissed a lot of guys then?”
She squinted her eyes at him.
“Don’t y’all get sassy with me, Mister. I could make life very hard for you right now, remember.”
He didn’t know if this was a double entendre so he just smiled.
“Yes ma’am.”
This was becoming a thing between them now, she the mistress and he the obedient lapdog.
“Tell me about your college plans.” she said. “Where are you going? What are you going to study?”
“Uh, English major. I am planning on following a journalism path, just waiting to see if I get accepted at a few schools. You?”
“No college for me. My grades were too crappy. I gotta find some kind of job soon. My Pa’s gonna see if they have any positions open at the company he works for. Some good benefits there.”
“Where does he work?”
“Fadden & Co Insurance. He’s a broker there.”
“So you gonna start selling insurance and stuff?”
“No, they have admin positions. I’ll probably end up making coffee and filing papers. Ugh. The thought of it makes me quite bilious. I really should have paid more attention to the teachers in high school.” She stuck out her tongue.
“I think you’d make an excellent insurance salesman. Who’s gonna say no to ya?” Paul said.
He was experiencing a warm sense of connection with Suzie. No topic was off limits. She was open to discussing anything without getting coy about it. He felt like he could confide anything to her and she wouldn’t be shocked or make him feel ashamed. It was almost like they were two wheels rolling on the same motorcycle, totally in time with each other.
“What are we gonna do the rest of this summer?” Suzie asked. Paul shrugged.
“I dunno. I’d really love to go to that Live Aid concert, but it’s in Philadelphia, like a whole day away by car. My parents probably won’t let me go anyway.”
“Why not? It’s not like you’re a juvenile. I mean they don’t know that you’re here with me now, and… you’re not wearing any clothes either. What would ya Mama think about that?”
They both laughed.
“So, what are you saying? That I should go?”
“We should go together. Why the hell not? What’s it gonna cost us? Some fuel? We go for a day, sleep someplace and then come back the next day. When is it happening?”
“July 13th.”
Suzie jumped off the counter and turned to face Paul.
“That is just over a month away. We’re going to that concert, boyfriend. Come hell or high water, we’re goin’.”
Paul smiled. He liked it that she was calling him her boyfriend.
TO BE CONTINUED
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