Chapter 2
Jason turned to Eve and sarcastically rolled his eyes at the mention of her friend.
"Oohhh Lauren's coming over?" he asked, wincing. "What's she want?"
"She has a present for me!" said Eve, laughing indignantly as she threw one of her socks at her boyfriend. "And besides, don't act like you don't love Lauren! Come on, admit it -- she's, like, the coolest girl you know."
Jason mimed thinking as he brought his hand up to his chin. "Hmmmm, well yeah, I'll admit, Lauren's pretty cool."
"Duh!" exclaimed Eve, throwing her suitcase open and starting to pack her things inside.
"And I mean, if I wasn't going out with you...ya know..." Jason persisted, and a devious smile appeared on his face. Eve threw another sock at him, hitting him in the face.
"Ass!" she laughed. "Like you'd ever have a chance with Lauren."
"You're right," he said, nodding his head. "I don't think I have enough tattoos to meet her threshold."
"Yeah, that's true," agreed Eve, "and you're also probably not submissive enough."
"Submissive enough?" asked Jason, confused.
"Well yeah, Jason," said Eve matter-of-factly as she folded up her shirts. "Haven't you ever noticed that the guys she goes out with are always...um...well, to start with, a good deal smaller than her?"
"Yeah, I guess I noticed that," he said mildly, sidling over and sitting next to her on the bed as he started to fold up her underwear.
"Wait! No, not my underwear!" she said quickly, reaching over and snatching them out of his hands.
"What? Why not?" he asked, a bit surprised.
"I...I'm just self-conscious, is all," she said, taking the rest of her underwear pile and moving it behind her. "You know...there are...stains and whatnot."
"Stains?" asked Jason blankly.
"Yeah, from my periods," said Eve.
"Oh! Oh..." said Jason, nodding his head. He had always been a little weirded out by period blood, and didn't really like having sex when Eve was on hers. The thing was, she was often quite horny when she was on her period, so it had, at one point, been a point of contention in their relationship, with Eve feeling hurt that Jason didn't want to have sex with her when she was menstruating and Jason feeling put-upon that Eve was expecting him to engage in sexual activity when he found her nether regions a bit...off-putting, to say the least. At one point Eve had angrily told him that a real man would embrace every aspect of her body, and wouldn't get all squeamish and repulsed just because she was menstruating. She had said that she had learned how to deal with it in sixth grade, so he should be able to deal with it when he was significantly older.
This had all happened about a year ago, and they had made up and dropped the whole issue, but even with this little aside in the conversation, both of them felt the old hurt feelings start to well up inside again. Jason felt a little twinge of irritation as he remembered Eve's angry words about him not being a "real man," and Eve felt more than just a little poke of anger as she thought back to Jason's unapologetic revulsion when he saw her bleeding that one time during sex. The immature little bastard, not being able to deal with the natural processes of a woman's body...thinking all women were just smooth little swans, perfectly fashioned for the male gaze...he didn't even know how long it took her to shave her legs every morning, to pluck her eyebrows, to get her make-up just right, to straighten her hair...and when he saw a little blood coming out of her he goes as soft as a...
But these were all just flashes of thought. In less than a couple seconds they had dissipated. Eve even felt a little guilty for the bubbling-up of those feelings from the past, and she compensated by smiling warmly at Jason. His face brightened up immediately when he saw her gorgeous smile, and he returned it in kind. She felt a bit of a sinking feeling in her gut when she saw him respond to her so instantly like that...it made her feel like she had a little more power in the exchange than she was comfortable with. She didn't like leading their exchanges as much as she liked following his lead. That was one big reason why they were going out -- more than anyone else in school, Jason projected strength and confidence, and it turned Eve on to no end. But here she was, getting anxious over the tiniest little exchanges.
'I need to relax,' she told herself, and she took a couple deep breaths.
"Everything ok there?" asked Jason, looking at her curiously.
"Uh-huh," she said, nodding her head. "I just got nervous all of a sudden for some reason."
"Nervous?" asked Jason. "About what?" He looked nervous himself for a moment or two, and Eve's anxiety increased again; once again he was just following her lead without even realizing it! But she felt a wash of relief when he suddenly burst out laughing.