“I know, but…” Trina trailed off and shook her head, eyes still focused on me. “When we first met and I was showing you around the library, I asked if you had a boyfriend. You said no, and that you’d never had one before. Unless I’m remembering wrong.”
“People can have sex outside of relationships, you know,” Adam said, poking her with his teaspoon.
“Right,” Trina said, cheeks turning slightly pink. “Sorry, Laney. I shouldn’t have assumed. And like you said before, who cares if you’re a virgin or not?”
“Exactly. Doesn’t matter,” Adam added.
A slow smile spread across Trina’s face. “But now that we know… I totally wanna hear all the details about the guy, whoever he was. Or guys.”
I looked down at my mug, wishing I hadn’t opened my mouth and blurted out that I wasn’t a virgin. Why the hell did I do that?
“Sorry, I don’t really want to talk about it,” I said.
She grinned. “Wow, he must’ve been terrible,” she said, leaning forward on her elbows. “C’mon, spill. Only lasted ten seconds? Tiny dick?”
I blinked rapidly, shoulders going tight as cold crept down my spine.
“Oh, fuck,” Trina said, finally registering my haunted expression. “I just put my foot in my mouth bigtime, didn’t I?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not your fault,” I said. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“I don’t get it. What happened?” Adam asked, like a typical oblivious guy. Trina elbowed him, and comprehension dawned on his face. His eyes widened. “Wait. You were… oh, shit.”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Trina said hurriedly, moving around to my side of the booth. She put one arm around me and squeezed me tight. “I’m really sorry, Laney. That it happened, and also that I kept harassing you to give me details. I had no idea.”
I sighed. “I shouldn’t have brought it up at all. It just… slipped out,” I said. I paused to take a long sip of my hot chocolate. It was delicious, and it warmed me to my core. “But now that it’s out there, I guess we can talk about it.”
“You really don’t have to say anything about it.”
“It’s okay,” I said softly. “After it happened, I had to see a counselor for a while, and she told me that it could be good to talk about it with my friends. Get it all out and let them support me. But I didn’t really have any friends at the time, so I never did.”
“That’s awful,” Trina murmured, rubbing my shoulder in slow, soothing circles. “I’m so sorry you had no one to share it with. I can’t think of anything worse.”
“You really don’t have to tell us anything about it if you don’t want to,” Adam said, eyes filled with concern.
I took a deep breath. Infused my spine with steel. “No, I think the counselor was right. I might feel better if I talk about it. Just a little bit.”
I thought back to how it all started; the series of random events that led up to that one awful moment.
My dad was still alive at the time, working at someone’s house on the other side of town. He had his own handyman business, so people called him at all hours to go and patch things up or help out in some other way. Mom was working as a cleaner at the local hospital four days a week, and on the other three, she worked as a maid at Charles and Tinsley Connery’s mansion over in Royal Falls.
I was fourteen and old enough to take care of myself while my parents worked. I walked to school with my friends every day, and afterwards we’d hang out in each other’s backyards, gossiping and giggling. Just like most other young teens.
On one of those days, Mom’s car broke down when she tried to leave the Connery estate, and Charles Connery was kind enough to arrange a tow to the nearest garage and drive her home to Silvercreek while the car was getting fixed.
By that stage, it was getting late and my friends had gone home. I was playing in the yard with our little dog as the sun dipped low in the sky, and my dad had just arrived home. When he saw Charles dropping off Mom, he invited him in for a drink to show his appreciation.
Charles accepted, and the two of them went out the back with some beer. Apparently they got to talking about some sort of renovations Charles was organizing at the mansion, and Dad gave him some advice about one of the contractors he’d hired. The guy had a reputation for being shady and ripping people off.
Charles was so grateful for the honest advice that he offered to pay my father for helping him out. Dad waved him off, saying it was just a small favor, but Charles insisted on doing something to repay it. He called me over from the yard and introduced himself. Then he asked me if I had any hobbies that I needed things for, or if there was anything that I’d always wanted to do but hadn’t yet had the opportunity.
I told him I’d always wanted to learn a musical instrument, but all we had at school were recorders, and that didn’t count as far as I was concerned.
Charles thought about it for a moment, and then he asked if I was interested in the piano. He knew a guy who used to teach his daughter in another small town about fifteen minutes away from Silvercreek, and he said he was happy to pay for me to get some lessons if my parents were okay with it.
They were, and that was how I wound up at my first piano lesson the following Tuesday. I had four more of them over the next month, and they were fine.
Until they weren’t.