" I understand," Seth said, nodding but not understanding anything."Thought I ought to talk to you first." He looked at his brother slantwise. "I mean...before I asked her."Seth nodded some more, dumbfounded, speechless."Thank you," Robert said, patting his back.Seth felt like his brother had kicked him in the stomach.Instead of going down to the Bethesda Meetinghouse with his family that Sunday morning for the long, dry Presbyterian services, plus a lecture on abstinence or hell-fire, Robert. " Oh." What's up? Feel free to speak your mind, Gary," I said as I opened a new can. "Something wrong at home?" No... nothing like that," he replied meekly.We sat in silence for a few minutes as he gathered his courage."I... I saw you and Brian with Ellen on the deck," he blurted out."You were outside, obviously," I chuckled."Yeah, I was getting a rake from the shed and saw over the fence," he admitted."And?" I prodded.He swallowed half the beer, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and. And that is why I have been Jacking off wearing that Teddy, stockings, and panties.. The phone rang I went to answer it was dad asking if we were coming? I yelled back to Sarah in the other room asking her that we were invited for boat ride? She said she had other things to do and couldn’t, I told dad we would not be coming, he told me that there was a float plan in the dock box log. I said I knew that, was law on our boat. I asked where they were going, he said over to the Casino at Kelly’s. It was nice to be normal, to gossip and laugh about clumsy boys and openly talk about what having a real boyfriend would be like. Then summer hit and as Edy prepared to live the life of a grown high school girl, she wandered into a whole new kind of relationship.Her house was just down the street from where a freeway had gouged a deep trench through Edy’s neighborhood, turning a quiet suburban community into just another place people hoped to move away from. Their street now ended with a turn.