Ear-Witness Read Online Free PDF Page B

men.
    â€œSo what’s happening with you?” I asked. “Where were you yesterday?”
    Kelly’s eyes followed the game in front of us as the ball flew from one end of the court to the other. “I did a dumb thing,” she said. “I went to that clinic, the place where you can get birth control stuff.” Then she turned towards me and made a goofy face.
    I was quiet for a minute. I wasn’t exactly shocked, but I wasn’t exactly expecting something like that either. “So what happened?” I said.
    She sighed. “I never even talked to anyone. I just sat in the waiting room for a while, and then I took off.”
    â€œYou could go back,” I said. “You want me to go with you?”
    â€œI don’t know. Thanks, though.”
    An old man with a small rat-like dog on a retractable leash sat on the bench beside us. “Where are all the women?” Kelly said. “Don’t they play tennis?”
    â€œHome with the babies,” I said.
    She shrugged, looked sideways at the old man, and nudged me to my feet. We followed the path that ran beside the school and came out onto Jameson. “I came this close,” she said, showing me a space the width of her thumb, “to letting Joey do it. Without ... anything.”
    â€œOh, Kel,” I said. “Aren’t you scared that ...”
    She shook her head and turned a bright pink. “It’s not that easy to stop him, Jess. And anyway,” she blushed, “I really want to do it.”
    â€œThis is probably a dumb question,” I said. “But why? Why no condom?” This was something I couldn’t figure out at all. Why everybody didn’t use them, like you’re supposed to.
    She giggled. “You have to be there. Joey says it’s like washing your feet with your socks on.”
    I didn’t know what to say, then. It sounded to me like Joey wasn’t thinking of Kelly at all, but who was I? I thought for a minute, then I decided. I was her best friend, that’s who I was. Jealous, maybe, that she had a boyfriend and I didn’t, but I didn’t want her to get hurt.
    â€œDoesn’t he care about you?” I said. “What if he’s got AIDS or something? What if you get pregnant?”
    Kel looked up and down the street, like she was expecting to see somebody she knew. “He cares, and he doesn’t have AIDS, and I won’t get pregnant. He’s just stubborn.” Then she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the library.
    It was obviously time to talk about something else. “I had another scene with the Roach,” I said. “Yesterday. That’s why I was looking for you.”
    â€œHe’s a slime, Jess. You’re going to have to do something about him. I still think you should let Joey and the guys talk to him. Or whatever. Shake him up a little.”
    â€œUm,” I said. Joey, Kelly’s boyfriend, was huge, with arms and legs as big as trees. I didn’t know whether I liked him or not, or even if I wanted to like him, but I knew exactly what I thought of his friends. I couldn’t stand them. Guys who pass around joints on street corners and elbow each other when girls pass by aren’t my kind of people. They might scare off Ronny Roach, but they scared me off too. I didn’t want anything to do with them. It was time to change the subject again.
    â€œRemember Mrs. Jones, in grade seven?” I said.
    â€œMrs. Jones and the erogenous zones!”
    â€œMrs. Zones, we called her. Do those, um, places really feel nice? When Joey does... whatever?”
    Kel bit her bottom lip and crinkled up her eyes. “Yeah,” she said. “If he’s gentle, they feel totally superb.”
    â€œI can just see you,” I said. “Making those little whimpering noises and heaving your butt up and down. Like in the movies.”
    Suddenly we were ten years old again, doubled over on a street corner,