"You don't, but then again you've never treated a girly have you?" She raised her eyebrows after that one, as if daring me to top it.

"Guess you got me on that one," I said with a casual shrug. "But tell you what, how about you ask me again after this weekend?"

Sam's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, I just might..."

My phone went off and I couldn't help smiling when "You don't know You're Beautiful" blared from it. It was Jen. The timing couldn't have been better.

"Like she doesn't think she's beautiful." Sam muttered

"Hey, sweetie." I bit my lip not to laugh at the disgusted look on her face.

"Hey, hot stuff!" Jen chirped in my ear. "How goes park detail?"

"Halfway," I told her. "It'll be done in a couple hours."

"Wow! That was quick!"

Hopefully she wouldn't be saying that in my ear in bed, I thought, but said, "I have some help."

"That's great! More the merrier! I'm surprised you could rope any of your friends into getting up on Saturday morning."

"They didn't. Sam's helping me out." Even as I said it, I wondered why I brought her up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, raising my voice and glancing over at Sam to see if she had noticed, but she was on her knees pulling beer bottles out from underneath the bushes.

"Hey, don't get mad, baby," Jen purred. "I just want to chill with some people I haven't seen in a while, okay?"

"I just figured—"

"Now, tomorrow, on the other hand," she said, giggling, "rumor has it my hot boyfriend is going to have his place all to himself until the next day. Hmmm."

My jealousy was quickly replaced by another twinge, but this one lower than my stomach.

"You know, Justin, you've been so sweet about waiting for me, I think it's time you and I got a lot closer."

"You do?" It wasn't exactly smooth, but I couldn't think about anything but Jen in my bed looking up at me with those big blue eyes, her naked body moving against mine.

"I do, baby. I have some things to do in the morning, but how about I come over around three?"

"Yeah, that sounds great."

"I'll see you then, baby." Jen released a sweet sigh into the phone that caused my cock to throb and added, "I'm going to so make it worth you waiting."

Jen had no idea how long I had really waited. Grinning like an idiot, I said, "I'm sure you'll more than make it up to me."

"Oh, I will, and I have to thank you for your help today, too, so I'll have to find something fun to wear, and come up with a proper way to show my appreciation."

I was hard as a rock from just her talking about coming over and had to adjust my shorts around my aching dick.

"Justin, speaking of your help ... You know there's a little competition going on at school for which team can do the most clean-up this weekend?"

"Yeah."

I took a deep breath, pushing thoughts of Jen from my mind. I needed to start helping Sam before she started bitching, and do it without an obvious hard-on. My mind already on oral sex, I thought of what Sam had done with the banana and caught myself wondering if she swallowed? The thing about Sam was that if I asked, she would probably answer me, and fairly crudely.

Sam got upset when she was considered one of the guys, but she brought it on herself with the way she dressed and her language. Some of my friends and I had debated whether she was a freak or all talk. Personally, my feeling was she would be a wild ride, but not with just anyone. Sam had been with two guys that I knew of and had dated both for months before putting out.

"Hey! Helping is one thing, but I'm not doing this shit by myself," she called out.

"That what you told your last boyfriend?" I joked. A quick check showed my cock was under control. I turned around in time for her retort.

"Coming from the king of doing it himself?"

"Laugh it up, Sam. You won't be able to make those jokes after tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" She stood up from the bush she was in front of and wiped the dirt from her jeans.

"That was Jen. She's coming over tomorrow afternoon, and she's ready."

"She's always ready," Sam quipped, but she didn't smile. Instead, she turned serious. "You sure she's not messing with you? She promised you last month, too, remember? Then all of a sudden she needed to do something with her parents."

"That was different. She told me after that she was just nervous. Nope, tomorrow is the day, Sam."

"Are you sure you want to with her, Justin? I don't think she's really into you."

"All that matters is I'll be into her." I laughed, walked over to the tree on my right and removed a beer bottle that was stuck in a small hole.

"Cute, that's just the attitude your mother doesn't want you to have."

"Don't give me that crap!" She was getting on my nerves again. "I've been with Jen for six months. She does care and she does want to."

"I'm sure she wants to, Justin. You're a good-looking guy who treats her better than she deserves. But I don't think she cares."

"Of course you don't. You don't like her."

"I don't think you care that much about her either."

"What?"

"You like her, but do you love her? Every time you talk about her, it's about how hot she is, not about how sweet or nice she is. I think you're just getting horny and don't want to wait anymore."

"Don't get me wrong, Justin. There was something there. Jack and Derek were both nice to me, but it wasn't love. But, well, I figured both times, what am I waiting for? A Family Channel romance? Some perfect guy? So I decided to just have some fun. I guess that's what it was because neither worked out."

"So you knew you didn't love them?"

"Right."

"Then what the hell is your problem with me and Jen?" I said, putting my hands out. "You're being a damn hypocrite."

"I ... I guess you're right, but I never planned on it being that special, and at least those guys were serious with me. Jen is using you. It's a game to her. Why tomorrow? What's she doing tonight?"

"She's ... going to stay up at the beach and hang with—"

"Rob. Justin, Jen's fucking around with him."

"You—"

"And I'm sure she will come over tomorrow and fuck you because she does want to, but that's all it would be and your first time will be sloppy seconds and—"

"Why the hell do you care so much?" I yelled at her. "Jesus Christ, Sam, give it a fucking break and just be happy I'm happy!"

"I care because you're too good for that, Justin, and there's better than her out there. If nothing else, girls like Jen are a dime a dozen down the line, but you wanted the first time to be special."

"It will be."

"Then why not wait a little longer? Dump that bitch and—"

"I'm not waiting! Why the hell do you think I can do so much better? Never mind. I'm not starting over and wondering how long it would be with someone else."

"You can do better because you deserve better." Sam looked down at the ground and looked as if she were trying to decide what to say next. A first for her.

Raising her head, she said softly, "Justin, on the outside, you're a hell of a good-looking guy, especially like this." She tousled my thick black hair. "I like your hair like this, not the way you put all that goop in it most of the time. And how many girls tell you how gorgeous those green eyes are?"

"Whatever." Sam stood up. "The point I was getting at was even though you're good-looking and popular, you're a sweet guy, and that's pretty rare at our age. That's the best part about you, and that's why you deserve better. Jen is just a shallow bitch."

"You're more than that and deserve more. Now, I've told you how I feel and you don't really care, but at least I said it. Hope you have fun tomorrow." She grabbed the bag and turned away from me, ending the conversation.

I thought about defending myself, but why bother? Once Sam dug in, nothing changed her mind. She'd made a good point about how I really cared about Jen, but I wasn't about to cancel tomorrow. By her own admission Sam hadn't been gung-ho over the guys she had been with. She was fine with it. Why shouldn't I be?

For the next half hour, we moved about the bushes and trees in silence except for the sounds of bottles and cans clinking together. I felt like an ass. Sam was helping me out and I had treated her like crap. Granted, she had been badgering me, but what else was new?

In my mind, I heard my mother's voice and one of her famous overused lines, 'If it bothers you, it's because the truth hurts.' Mentally telling my mother to shut up, I glanced up from the bushes, relieved to see we had almost reached the end of the small stand of trees that bordered one side of the playground.

"Hey," Sam called out, "looks like I earned that movie after all."

"I told you I was treating for you helping," I told her, glad she had spoken and still wanting to keep up our movie tradition.

"Doesn't matter, I'd win the gross-out anyway."

I got home just before Bill picked Mom up and was happy to see how excited she was to be going away. She asked for the hundredth time if I was comfortable with her being with Bill and I told her I was thrilled for her.

That was no lie. My father was an asshole who my mother wasted way too many years with, and I was sure a lot of that time was for my sake. Bill was a good guy who seemed to go out of his way to do all the little things for Mom that Dad never did. For the most part he was the opposite of my prick father, which made him okay in my book.

In the span of the half hour we were home together, Mom asked several times if I was seeing Jen. I was pretty sure she suspected I was glad she was going away for reasons other than her happiness. That suspicion was confirmed when Mom hugged me goodbye and said,

"I'm proud of you, Justin. You're only eighteen but more of a man than your father ever was. He was already a dog in heat by your age. I don't know what I was thinking when I married him. But you're not like him, and I'm sure Jen sees that and knows how special you are." She paused and with a sly smile added, "I think you've proved yourself a good man. Maybe it's time you were rewarded for it."

After she left, I did a few things around the house she'd asked me to do to get them out of the way, showered, and threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I figured I would just chill tonight and watch some TV. Lying there, I replayed Mom's words and couldn't help smiling.

I had no doubt that was Mom's green light to go for it, without being awkward about it. Her words had put me in a better mood. Because of my father's bullshit, I had promised Mom that I would be better and hold to values he never had, but she had officially let me off the hook.

Not that I wouldn't have had Jen over tomorrow anyway, but Mom giving me her blessing removed any feelings that I wasn't doing the right thing.

She was right. I had earned it, sitting home whacking off while all my friends had already been getting laid and having fun. Even Sam, the indifferent tomboy who didn't give a rat's ass what she looked like or what people thought of her, had found guys to mess around with.

I frowned at that last thought. It wasn't a good one, especially seeing how good a friend Sam was. I'd never once thought I was better than her or anyone else, but that was what it felt like. It also sounded like something Jen would say when making fun of other people, which she did frequently.