Sex Crimes Read Free Page B

was a bit turgid and heavy. I didn’t relate to Cathy at all. She was wild and a risk taker. That’s not me. I play it safe. I couldn’t believe Chester knew about that BJ I gave Michael. It was the first and only time. I was still carrying my V card and that sort of gossip would have totally destroyed my reputation. Unfortunately if Chester knew, then probably his little group of abstract performers did too. Hopefully it was contained to Chester and Michael’s little club of outsiders. Maybe Michael only told Chester. They’re tight. Like bro’s. It was concerning.
    I may have blabbed a little about Libby and the ‘tummy bug’ but I made a firm commitment to myself that day to keep Chester’s secret, at least until it became common knowledge. Which it would. Stuff like that goes like a bush fire. It spreads. Fast and furious. On that particular day Libby’s pregnancy was like a flint sparking on dry leaves but it was going to be fanned by teenage speculation and I just decided right then to keep out of it because I for one did not want to get burned.
    ***

 
    4.
    Chester McNaughton
    She’d been totally avoiding me. For two weeks. I knew she was at school for one day during that last week because everyone was talking about it. There was an appointment at the school counsellor’s office and everyone, and I do mean everyone, was watching, when Mr and Mrs O’Neil arrived and everyone was also watching when they left, dragging Libby behind them an hour later. All of them had clearly been crying. I caught Libby’s eye but she just gave me a faint, almost imperceptible head-shake. What the hell did that mean? She couldn’t avoid me forever. I had a stake in this.
    I looked at her front door. It was solid. Wooden. Smooth and had an old-fashioned brass knocker. Taking a deep breath, that felt like dry ice in my chest, I leaned forward and rapped three times. It was louder than I expected. I’d been to this house a hundred times. My folks are best friends with the O’Neil’s. My dad teaches at Sydney Uni with Tom O’Neil. Stuffy academics.
    I’d been losing sleep wondering if Libby had told them about me. It’s not like we were an item. We weren’t going out or anything. Just friends. But we crossed the line back there that day and who knew it was going to end up like that. I was kind of hoping it was the beginning of something between us but I wasn’t thinking ‘baby’,  more like a casual sort of dating arrangement.
    Libby was a cool sort of chick. Pretty in an elfin sort of way and she’d been very affectionate that day. Almost rabid really. She certainly didn’t force herself on me but she was what you might call, ‘pretty forward’. It took me by surprise really because up until that point she’d always been a bit distant and aloof with me. Laid back and cool. But the day of her father’s birthday party, she’d dragged me up to her room and just offered it up. As if I was going to refuse.
    The door opened and it was Mrs O’Neil. Her eyes looked like they’d been sown in with red cotton and her nose was chaffed from all the tissues she’d been blowing into, I presumed. Not a happy woman.
    ‘Chester? Hi there,’ she smiled and nodded.
    There was a hard lump in my throat but I was fairly certain from her voice and the hint of warmth in her eyes that Libby had most definitely not told her mother about my role in this drama.
    ‘Is Libby home? I noticed she hasn’t been at school for a bit and wondered if she was sick. Is she okay?’
    Casey O’Neil looked nervous and her smile melted. She was a good-looking old broad. Maybe a bit hard around the edges. She was one of those ball-breaking career women who always seemed poised and ready to attack a lurking misogynist. She was a book publisher and a successful one. I really hoped that she’d help me get my book published one day. That was a dream I could see withering in front of me as she stepped back and welcomed me into her home.
    ‘She’s