Toni

Larry and Toni sat rigid in the back seats as the credits rolled down the screen. People were already leaving.

“I told you not to do that,” said Toni through gritted teeth.

“You didn’t need to hit me,” replied Larry, cradling his aching groin.

“Then you shouldn’t have tried to grope me. You know how I feel about that and zip your fly up.”

“They’re right about you.”

“Who is?”

“All the fellas. They reckon you’re a lesbian.”

Toni slumped in the seat while Larry struggled with his zip. She wasn’t a lesbian; she was a virgin. A rare species, apparently. Most of the girls in her class had thrown it away, and the rest wished someone would take it.

“I’m a virgin and plan to stay a virgin and boys rummaging around in my private parts doesn’t help.”

“I wasn’t going to screw you. Just, you know, have a bit of a feel.”

“I should tell your mother what you tried.”

Larry grimaced. His mother was bouncing up and down on the sofa with her current boyfriend, which she changed almost as often as her underwear.

“Why did you come to the pictures with me if you didn’t want a bit of action?”

Toni shifted uncomfortably on the seat, adjusting her dress. She really didn’t know. This being a virgin was getting tiresome. It was her mother’s fault. She kept giving speeches to Toni about virginity. No STI’s, no unwanted pregnancies, high moral values and the biggest prize of all, God would be proud of you. Her mom was something important in her church. The propaganda was all too much for a sixteen-year-old girl but the alternative seemed a little scary, so she resolved to stay a virgin.

“Well, you can tell all your creepy friends I’m not a lesbian. I happen to like boys. I even kiss them occasionally.”

“What about the time Harry kissed you behind the school toilets? You bit his lip and made it bleed.”

“He grabbed my left tit so hard it hurt,” she retorted, “Why is it every time I kiss one of you boys, you grab something?"

"You’re supposed to like it.”

“Gawds sake. Who told you that?"

Larry shifted in his seat.

“My dad. He said women like it rough, they like being grabbed and pushed around.”

“Half the women in the village have a protection order out on him and your mother has a domestic violence order. What’s he doing now, anyway?”

“Six months’ community service order for assault in London.′

They sat in silence, watching the credits. Credits seem to go on as long as the movie or it seemed to.

“Did you like the movie?” Asked Toni.

“Don’t know. Wasn’t really watching it.”

“Of course you weren’t. You were spending all your time trying to get your hand under my bra.”

“You weren’t complaining.”

She didn’t. Toni didn’t hold the top part of her body in as high esteem as the bottom part. She didn’t mind getting her tits squeezed now and again, gently, of course.

“You have difficulty dealing with a girl’s bra, don’t you?"

“I’ve been practising.”

"Practising? How do you practise dealing with a bra?"

Larry turned to Toni with the look of one about to reveal a dark secret.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

"Definitely,” she replied, not. This was too juicy. The girls would love it.

“Dad left behind a punching bag in the garage and I put one of Mum’s bras on it.”

Toni’s eyebrows lifted.

“Didn’t it slip down?”

“I cut a tennis ball in half and glued them onto the bag.”

“Why a tennis ball?”

“Mums got small tits.”

Toni wiped that image from her mind.

“Then what?”

“I put a blindfold on and try to take the bra off.”

“Did it work?”

Larry sighed.

"You’re the only one I’ve tried it on.”

Toni rolled her eyes.

“Couldn’t you think of a better place than a picture theatre to get my bra off? Anyway, I wouldn’t have let you.”

Again, Larry sighed.

“I suppose you’re right. I tried out on Heather Wilson.”

“Heather Wilson, you’re joking. She doesn’t wear a bra. She’s got no tits.”

“That’s what I found out when I got her top off. Didn’t know what to do then.”

“What did you finally do?”

“Grope her then she got mad and stormed off”

“Poor Larry, why don’t I take you to meet Sally Butterworth? She will let anyone take off her bra and, for a packet of cigarettes, anything else. If you bring a flask of gin you will hit the jackpot. Just don’t grope her.”

Silence fell between them again and Toni watched the credits roll on. For no particular reason, her mind turned to her sister, Tanya. Tanya was five years older and her half sister, the result of her mother’s dalliance with an unknown man, thus losing her virginity. In fact, she is always put on show when her mother is lecturing her.

It was obvious Tanya enjoyed sex as Toni kept finding used condoms floating in the toilet. She was pretty sure they weren’t dad’s. One would think, Toni thought, Tanya would be the perfect person to talk to about sex but she was worse than her mum. She was always saying she would beat her up if she found her with a boy, she should protect her virginity and wait till she was twenty-one. Twenty-one, for gawd’s sake. She stopped talking to her.

“I like you, Toni.”

She turned to look at Larry. The light from the screen illuminated his big, sad, brown eyes. Much too sad for a sixteen-year-old boy.

“If you’d stop trying to grope me, I’d like you too,”

“Can I tell you another secret?”

Toni groaned.

“Really Larry. You’ve got to stop telling girls your secrets.”

“I’m a virgin too.”

“I thought you did it plenty of times.”

“Well,. I try to.”

“You mean you groped them?"

He nodded.

“Then they get angry and go away,” he moaned.

“Girls don’t like that, Larry.”

“I know that now. You gave me a painful lesson.”

Just then, the credits rolled to an end, and the lights came on.

“Come on,” said Toni,” buy me an ice-cream and I’ll take you to Sally.”