The Summer That Changed Everything

Chapter Six - Part Two

“Oh, come on,” he let out a laugh. With a gentle shoulder, he nudged Felicity and raised his eyebrow. “You can’t tell me you’re not missing all the bedroom action!”

“You’re so crude! I can’t deal with you,” Felicity laughed. A bright pink colour lit up Felicity’s cheeks, and her eyes widened. “But if you must know… You can’t miss something you never had in the first place.”

“I beg to differ,” Jared mumbled, a glint of amusement in his eyes, but otherwise kept his eyes trained on the blanket. But then something clicked. His head snapped up to face her, and his eyes narrowed. “Wait, you and James haven’t had s*x yet?”

The blush returned to Felicity’s cheeks. “No, we haven’t. We are both 18-year-old virgins. I shall now give you enough time to tease me and laugh about it. Go ahead.”

“Whoa, no, I won’t be teasing you,” Jared rushed to say, shaking his hands. She raised an eyebrow in disbelief. It was almost a challenge for him to keep his word. “I’m a little gob-smacked, that’s all. Like, I know it’s not rare. Plenty of people our age are yet to do the deed.” They both cringed at his phrasing, but for once, he struggled to find the right words. “But you two have been together for two years now! I guess I assumed you would’ve done something by now.”

“A common misconception, clearly,” Felicity’s breezy laugh contradicted her inner feelings of awkwardness about the topic. She did not expect this conversation to take this turn. She then focused her attention on playing with a thin blade of grass between her fingers. Anything to not look Jared in the eye.

“I’m not being creepy or anything, and I don’t want all the gory details… Or not-so gory in your case. But why not?” Jared asked. “Have you never been alone and wanted it to escalate? Do you not feel ready?”

“I dunno,” Felicity shrugged. She hesitated to say the following words. She had admitted this to Layla, of course; what else was there to talk about? But was this a bit too intimate a topic to disclose with Jared? People assumed girls didn’t talk about s*x, when, of course, they did. More so than boys sometimes. But would this vein of conversation weird Jared out? “I guess I am ready to do it. I’m sure I’d say yes if it came to that. But we never even get that far when we’re being... intimate enough to discuss it. I mean, we’ve done other things, but nothing major and never all the way. I don’t think James is ready for it yet, and that’s absolutely fine. Obviously, I don’t want to force him into anything. We’ll wait until we’re both ready.”

“Of course.” Jared surprised Felicity with the maturity and understanding in his voice. “Forgive me for prying; I’m looking at it from a guy’s point of view. But I still don’t get why he’d want to be 18 years old, in a long-term relationship and still a virgin! Especially with a girlfriend that’s so... so... That’s so...”

Jared struggled to say the word pretty or even beautiful as he looked into Felicity’s confused eyes. She had a worried crease above her eyebrows as he scrambled for a sentence. Felicity worried his following words would be an insult when, in fact, it was the exact opposite.

“So what?” She asked, a little afraid of the answer.

“So annoying!” Jared recovered with an easy laugh. “Surely you would’ve broken him down by now.”

“That’s disgusting,” she said and clarified. “You’re disgusting.”

“Nah, all joking aside. Because it was a joke, an awful one at that, so I’m sorry. And it’s your choice at the end of the day. Who am I to judge?”

“That’s... oddly accepting of you,” Felicity said. “I’m pleasantly surprised.”

Jared sat up straighter and clapped his hands together, needing to change the subject. “So, now I know entirely too much about you and your personal life; why stop there?”

“What do you mean?” Felicity’s mouth went dry as she worried what could possibly be going on in that confusing head of his. Just when she thought she could relax, he comes out with this.

“Well, we’ve spent so much time together already,” Jared explained. His voice, a familiar melody, had a soothing effect on her, and immediately, she was no longer worried about where this was heading. It surprised her how quickly he could calm her. “Yet we’ve changed somewhat since we were kids. So, why don’t we use this lovely park date to get to know one another properly?”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Felicity asked with a curious yet excited glint in her eyes. She ignored the fact that he had used the word ‘date’, no matter how it made her heart flutter. This date was entirely platonic, anyway.

Although a picnic in the park would be a lovely, actual date. Maybe she should suggest it to James for the next time. Or even to Jared, so he could bring a girl he was actually interested in.

“Easy!” He laughed. “Let’s play twenty questions!”

***

“What was your least favourite subject in school, then?” Jared asked Felicity.

Felicity scrunched up her nose in disgust as she thought about it. “Science, definitely. I understood nothing at all.” She then chuckled. “It was quite upsetting, but at least that subject has been out of my life for two years. And I don’t plan to do it any time in the future, either. Lucky for me, you don’t need science to read books.”