Tommy drove to Patsy’s Pizza to pick up Lydia Brownstone.  He sat outside in his 1957 T-Bird, and watched Lydia in action giggling and flirting with Animal.  Tommy didn’t think the guy was so bad.  He had the funds to keep up with anyone Tommy knew, but still his family wasn’t “acceptable” in polite society.  Whatever that meant.  He tooted the horn one more time hoping Lydia would get the hint so he didn’t have to get out of the car.  After three more quick kisses with Animal, Lydia hopped in Tom’s car.

            “Hi, Tommy.  This was the best New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had!  I just beat the pants off of Animal playing pool.  He thought I was a dumb cluck, and I just let him think that the first half dozen, or so games!  Tommy, I really like him.  He’s funny, and cool, and doesn’t think anything like our stodgy old parents do.  His dad is cool too.  Animal took me home to meet both his parents.  You should see the size of the diamond in his dad’s pinky ring!  His mother fixed all kinds of delicious Italian food, and was just as nice as she could be.  Their house is as big as the Gunderson’s, but not as big as yours, or mine.  His dad works in concrete.  I didn’t know there was that much money in it, but Animal says the way everyone has a car now, the roads need a lot to keep them maintained.  Hey, what do I know?”

            She was always happy and upbeat, and a real looker too, Tommy had to admit to himself.  “Thanks Lydia.”

            “Thanks for what?”  She looked puzzled.

            “Thanks for covering for me.”

            “It’s no more than what you cover for me.  Look Tommy, you’re a real nice guy and I like you a lot, but you just don’t ‘send me’, okay?”  She fluttered her eyelashes.

            Tom laughed out loud.  “Lyd, you don’t send me either.  So there.  Anyway, I still want to say thanks for everything.  Renée looked beautiful in the outfit you picked out for her.  The color really made her blue eyes sparkle.  Do you think you could pick out something just as pretty, maybe in pink, or red for Valentine’s day?”

            “Sure Tommy.  Sounds like you are smitten over this one, or is she just to spite your parents?”

            “Lydia, she, wow, man, she is just so beautiful, and I love the way she talks.  All the Norwegian has been lost by my family, but her folks came here during the War.”

            “What War?”

            “World War Two.  Geez Lydia, don’t you pay any attention in school?”

            “Just enough to keep from getting put on restriction!  Tommy, can I tell you a secret?  And, promise not to tell?”

            Tom thought what the hey, why not?  “Sure, we are all we’ve got if we want to keep our parents off our backs.”

            Lydia’s dark eyes twinkled.  “Tommy, Animal and I... parked!  We went for a ride so he could get cigarettes before we went back to Patsy’s Pizza.  He pulled down this road that went deep into some woods someplace.”

            “Parked, huh?  So did you kiss?”

            “Oh, yeah!  We kissed, and he gave me tongue.”

            “Whew!  Lydia, that’s so... intimate.”  Tom thought of where his tongue had been.

            “Oh, Tommy, I know.  It was like so creepy good to have something of his in me.”

            “Yeah, I can only imagine.”  Could he ever.  “Lydia, what do you call that?”

            “Frenching, Tommy.  You oughta try it with Renée sometime.  It really makes a girl feel... loved.  You know, to have his tongue in your mouth.”

            Tongue in the mouth, equals Frenching, hmmm.  “So, you parked, and were Frenching with Angelo, errr Animal.  That sounds like a perfectly wonderful New Years Eve.  Anything else?”  Tommy was very curious.

            “Just a little... light petting.  I said no, and he stopped.  Animal said it was okay that I let him play just a little, but not to ask him any questions about what he does, and who he sees after I leave.  He says I can be his good girl, and someone else can be his whore.”

            “Whore?”

            “Yes, the one he goes all the way with.  I’ve never done it, but Chloe has.  She said when Duane put it in her, it hurt real bad, but after he wiggled it around a bit it felt okay.  Then after they did it the next few times, it didn’t hurt anymore, and it felt really good.   She’s the only one I know that’s gone all the way except for married women, and they never talk.  I loved French kissing.  And...  he felt me up.  Above the waist only.  On the outside of my sweater.  I feel all tingly now thinking about it.  Have you done it yet, Tom?”  Lydia wanted to ask questions if he had.

            “Done it?  Well, let’s just say I’ve done what you’ve done.”  Tommy clammed right up.  He now knew that he and Renée had actually ‘done it’, gone all the way, when he pushed himself into her.

            “Yes, done it.  Have you done it, gone all the way?  I’m not ready yet.  My parents will just kill me if they ever find out I even see Animal, I can’t imagine what they would do if we actually did it, and they found out.  I don’t want to be doing it with anyone except Animal though.”

            “Lydia, be careful.  I need you Lyd.  You are my only link to Renée, and I’d die if I couldn’t see her as often as I get to now.”  Tommy turned the car into the estate of Lydia’s parents.

            “Oh, my goodness!  Tommy you aren’t denying it!  You’ve done it. and I have a million questions!”

            “I didn’t say that.  Well, you’re home.  Let me walk you to the door and smooch you so your parents can see how cute and in ‘puppy love’ we are.”

            Tommy was thinking how ridiculous it all was.  Here he’d “done it” and should be an expert, but it took a girl that hadn’t done it to explain to him what he’d done.  Tom walked into the darkened kitchen slipped off his jacket, and hung it in the hall closet.  He quietly walked up the staircase to his bedroom and shut the door.  He wasn’t three steps inside the room when the strong arm of his father swung around his shoulders, and took him down.  Tommy felt five harsh snaps of the belt across his buttocks and back.  “You little son of a bitch!  Where the hell have you been?”

            “Dad!  Stop!  I was with Lydia!”

            Tom felt three more belt lashes.  “Don’t you dare tell me to stop!  I’m your father, and I’ll discipline you any way I see fit.  And just where were you and Lydia?  Your mother and I stopped in for a New Years drink with the Gunderson’s.  You weren’t there!”

            “We were.  But, we left...  Dad some of the kids smuggled in booze.  I don’t want to get in trouble at school, and get kicked off the basketball team.  We left... we went to Patsy’s Pizza, then we ummm.... parked.”  Tom knew he and Lydia had been seen.

            Mr. Ericsen seemed satisfied with his son’s answer.  He strung his belt back through the loops.  “Well, that better be the truth.  It’s New Year’s Eve, and you parked.  Lydia comes from a good family, you better not be disrespecting her.  There’s riff raff for that sort of thing.  Just what did you two do when you parked?  Don’t you lie to me, boy!”

            “We, we kissed and I gave her tongue.”

            “You French kissed her, yeah what else?”  He kept his hands on his unfastened belt.  Tommy was aware.

            “Just a little... light petting.”

            The belt came flying off, and Mr. Ericsen was in the process of folding it over.

            “Dad!  Wait!  I felt her up, above the waist only.  On the outside of her sweater.  Honest!  Lydia said no, so I stopped.”  Tommy answered fast.

            “Well, okay then, you were necking, not petting.  But, don’t you be touching her again.  You find yourself a whore to fool around with.  There should be plenty to pick from in that public school you chose to attend.  That leggy blonde you brought home for the Homecoming Dance looks like an easy score.  Try sowing your wild oats on that one.  With her looks, it won’t take long to find another meal ticket when you’re done with her.  Just remember, finish your education, then marry your own kind.”

            “Yes, Dad.”

            “So... you felt up Brownstone’s daughter’s tits...  Way to go, boy.”   Tommy’s father left the room chuckling.

            Tommy had already forgotten about the strap on his back.  Seemed he’d been getting it as far back as he could remember, and just like tonight, with no warning, or reason.  Sow his wild oats on that one?  Tom was crushed.  He felt he truly loved Renée.  He recalled Lydia asking if he only saw Renée to spite his parents.  Could that have been it?  He didn’t think that was the case.  Sitting up, stretched out on his bed, with several pillows propped behind his head and back, his mind drifted remembering the ultimate thrill of feeling something warm and wonderful release from his body into hers.  Renée was everything he could ever want in a girl.  Now he knew her in a way no one else in the whole world did.  He knew he wanted to be with her that way again, and soon.  He placed his hand on himself, the part that just hours before joined him with beautiful Renée.  Lightly stroking, Tommy closed his eyes and remembered...