As she stood there I could see her face was really flushed and she was struggling for words. "Mike," she eventually said, "I'm so embarrassed, I was d...ydreaming and I thinking my boyfriend. Last night he wanted to have sex with me but I wouldn't let him. I was scared." Scared?" I said, "haven't you had sex with him?" She blushed even deeper and shook her head. "No Mike, I've never had sex with anyone. I'm still a virgin." I thought for a moment, surprised that she was confiding in me then said,. He decided to make me feel uncomfortable and then, hopefully, I'd give him the answers. He would gently rub his hand against my lower thigh and whisper "Hey Jake, wanna give me the answers?" I told him to stop and gave him the answers, but, secretly, he really turned me on and I always had to conceal my hard-on for the rest of class. I thought he was just trying to joke around and get answers at first, but I began to think that it wasn't entirely a joke. His cousin had always been teased about. She knows in that instant that he bought this brush recently hoping that she would be standing in this very room to use it. The tender feelings in her chest threaten to overwhelm her, and she reaches to take the brush from his fingers. ‘Let me,’ she says softly, hoping her voice does not give her feelings away. ‘Why don’t you get us something to drink.’ His face in the mirror smiles over her shoulder, and he winks as he turns to walk from the room. She sets the brush on the counter as he walks. Instead she dyed it a platinum blond and faithfully kept her weekly appointment at the hair dressers, which just so happened to be the chicken shit yellow linoleum floored kitchen of my house. She would come over after dinner. Nanny would boil water and the smells of instant coffee, cigarette smoke and peroxide would mix like a cherished family recipe. I would sit under the ugly green and yellow table that would fetch a pretty penny today as art deco or retro. I played quietly with my Barbie’s.