Calling Maggie May by Anonymous Read Free Book Online Page B

“That wasn’t totally his fault.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œIt was . . . It was my idea, kind of. I mean, I may have sort of . . . pressured him.”
    Again, I thought back to last night, and so many thingsseemed clearer. Why Damon had been such an incredible listener. Why he showed me such a good time. And why he seemed so hesitant to take the next obvious step. “He kept trying to back off, but I . . . I was the one who wanted more.”
    Ada looked at me like she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
    â€œYou poor thing,” she said. “You really feel responsible. Look, honey, you’re sixteen. He’s twenty-seven. You’re a virgin, and he is . . . Well, he’s about as far from that as they come. Believe me, you didn’t force him into anything.” Suddenly a new look of horror came over her face. “Wait,” she said. “You made him wear a condom, didn’t you? Oh God. Please say you did. I will fucking murder him if he—”
    I reassured her that he did wear one, though again I felt a little guilty that it hadn’t been my idea. It hadn’t even occurred to me until he brought it out. What had I thought would happen? I really felt like an idiot that I hadn’t even given a thought to pregnancy or disease. I was just so caught up in the moment.
    Anyway, that calmed Ada down a little. She took my hands and asked me really seriously if I was okay and how I was feeling. I said I was fine, just a little confused.
    â€œDo you need anything?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œDid you . . . ? Well, did you have any fun, after all?”
    I couldn’t help smiling at that. “Ada, it was the best night of my life,” I said honestly. That made Ada smile back.
    â€œGood,” she said. “Don’t worry, then. It will be fine. We’ll just have to hope Irma never finds out about this little mix-up.”

Tues, Nov 18
    I just read over that last entry, and it feels like a dream I had. It’s hard to believe that’s something that really happened to me. I mean, in some ways it’s hard to believe it happens at all. High school girls working as prostitutes? But it is really hard to imagine that I came in any way in contact with that world.
    Not that I’m a prostitute! I never asked for nor accepted any money. Or was even offered any, for that matter. So really I’m just a sixteen-year-old girl who had sex with an older man. Which isn’t that unusual. That’s probably pretty normal, actually. It definitely isn’t illegal. Oh wait. Yes, it is. I guess technically that’s rape. Wow. How ridiculous that anyone would think what happened between me and Damon could possibly be called rape. I knew what I was doing! I’m not that innocent. Although I guess he did know a lot more about the situation than I did.
    But whatever. It was great! I had a lot of fun, and I didn’t do anything illegal, in any case.
    But all that’s over now, and it’s back to regular life for me. It was kind of weird and twisted that Ada set the whole thing up for me, but also kind of . . . sweet in a way. I guess she reallydid see something in me that I didn’t, and so did Damon. And the weirdest thing is, it worked! I still see Tyler all the time at swim practice, but I’m not obsessed with him like I used to be. My world’s a little bigger now, and I can see he isn’t the only good-looking guy in it (though he is still really good-looking—nothing’s going to change that). But compared to Damon? He is a twerp and a loser.
    The other nice thing is that I expected to be horribly embarrassed around him all the time now, ever since I did my weird staring thing at him the other day. And it’s true that he and his friends sometimes laugh at me or make comments when I walk by, and the old me would have been devastated by that. But