Freddy reclined on the couch. He was busily contemplating the appearance of his penis. The skin was soft, yet tough, somehow. He looked at the "rings" around it, the shallow folds that would disappear when it lengthened and got hard. That wasn't going to happen any time soon, since he had just jerked off.
Freddy was home from school, having faked a stomach ache to get out of the field trip to the local newspaper publishing plant. He could give a shit about how a newspaper got from the word processors of the reporters to the street. How complicated could it be? He rolled over and reached for the remote. There was only two months left of high school for him, anyway.
As he flipped through the dull list of daytime soap operas, ancient movies and infomercials, he thought about Justine. She was Freddy's latest crush at school. The girl had just transferred in from some place back east -- Pennsylvania? Virginia? He couldn't remember, and nobody he knew really had cracked her shell yet. She seemed isolated and aloof. Freddy thought she had the most interesting face in the school, though. Her hair was dark brown and hung to her waist. The eyes (that had fallen directly on Freddy exactly once in the two weeks she had been in his home room) looked like they were black when she looked right at him, but at other times they looked like they were blue, or even green.
Most of the guys had already written her off, since she was fat. Freddy usually would have, too, but for the circumstances under which she had looked directly at him. He had been walking down the hall and she had dropped one of her books. Freddy had bent, picked it up and handed it back to her. She looked into his eyes as she took it from him with a 'thank you'. Freddy felt something inside himself flip over and a shiver went up his spine. He watched her lips curl slightly into a half smile when her hand touched his own for a brief instant. It felt like she was looking through him -- as if she suddenly knew everything about him.
The incident had unsettled him for the rest of the day and for a couple days afterward. She didn't pay any more attention to him than to anybody else, but he felt as if something was going on whenever they were in the same classroom. Besides his homeroom ( English class), she was also in his music class. He didn't particularly want to take a music appreciation class, but it fulfilled a requirement that he needed for graduation. The fifty minutes he spent there twice a week had been dull until Justine showed up. Before that, Freddy used the time to catch up on his math homework. These days Freddy spent the time pondering Justine, sitting three rows ahead of him, her hair draped over the back of her chair. Her hips were broad, extending past at least one side of the chair, but they were shapely. There was just something about her that excited him.
Freddy dropped the remote to the couch cushion and rose to his feet. It was getting late. School would be out in another half hour and Charlie might stop by, since Freddy had skipped the day. He went to his room and slipped into a pair of sweat pants, just in case. It wasn't that Charlie had never seen him naked. They had Phys-Ed together, after all. Still, they were 'guys', the way American boys are. All testosterone and macho bullshit. Freddy liked Charlie, but he had never examined his friendship with the other guys, Charlie included. But Charlie was his best friend. They were close and talked about the most intimate things together -- but they knew they both had secrets that were not subject to discussion.
Freddy went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He was reaching for the milk when the doorbell rang. Glancing at the clock on the stove, he saw that it was later than he had thought. School had been out for a half hour already. Charlie must have skipped tennis practice to come see him. He padded down the hall to the front door.
When he opened the door, he stopped dead in his tracks. Suddenly he was really happy he'd put on some clothes. Instead of Charlie's goofy grin, he was looking at the substantial bulk of Justine standing on the porch. She took in his bare chest and belly, then let her eyes drift slowly down from his waist to his bare feet. They snapped back up to his face and she smiled that little smile again.
"Hi. Can I come in?" she asked. Her voice sounded strange to Freddy. It wasn't as if she was asking, more like she was demanding to be let in. Without a word, he stood to one side and she swept into the hallway. She was wearing jeans and a kind of tank top with a loose, unbuttoned shirt over it. As she passed him he caught the trace of cinnamon scent he had noticed the day he had picked up her book for her. It was weird that he had never realized it before. Justine walked down the hall and went left into the living room as if she had an appointment with somebody.
