Walk of Shame

Momma always told me not to play with fire or I’d get burned. I should have listened to her. Instead, I was standing in the girls’ bathroom, playing with the small book of matches I had nicked from Mr. Johnson’s diner when no one was looking. Peer pressure can make you do stupid things.

Set on proving I was not, in fact, a Pollyanna, I lit the first match. The small tremble in my hands hid behind a flourished pull. The match caught and burst into flame. Everyone stared as I raised my hand up to the smoke detector, but the flame licked my fingers and I dropped the match. I waved my hand to ease the burn.

“See I told you she was too scared to do it,” Sissy Lowell told the crowd.

I was in it now. If I backed down and didn’t try again, I wouldn’t just be a Pollyanna; I’d be ridiculed for chickening out forever. I got myself into position for a second go. What I failed to notice the moment I lit that second match was Sheila Daniels pulling out her hairspray, applying yet another layer of lacquer.

There was a sudden flash and whoosh. I turned around to discover the carnage before me. There was Sheila with her perfectly manicured hair singed beyond repair. The acrid smell clung to my nose and I knew I was going to die. Without waiting for a reaction, I bolted out of the bathroom just as the first shriek pierced the air. I ran down the hall and all the way to class, plastering my butt to my desk and waited for my doom.

It didn’t come. Not that hour and not the next. By 4th period, I was a wreck. I only half listened to Mrs. Swaranski as she droned on about the innards of the frog we were about to dissect and I completely failed to send Craig Peters any admiring glances. Every time the loudspeaker crackled I flinched, but my name never rang out. No one came to collect me with a summons to Mr. Phinney’s office either.

I ran from class to class expecting Sheila or one of her friends to grab me in the hall and give me hell. I was so preoccupied with trying to avoid the popular girls that I managed to miss my bus home. I stood out on the sidewalk kicking at the grass as I watched the busses pull out onto the road. This must be my penance. I hitched my backpack and started the very long walk home.

Half a mile later, a car pulled off the road in front of me. I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the sun, but I knew the color of that car. Craig Peters got out and my heart dropped into my stomach.

“Hey There. Need a lift?”

I couldn’t seem to get any words out so I nodded instead. Craig Peters was giving me a ride home! Maybe this day wasn’t so bad. After all, I was a real rebel. A regular rule breaker.

“You’re in my Biology class right?”

I nodded again. Then swallowed hard. “That’s right. Thanks for the ride. I live off Old Preacher’s road. You can just drop me off at the corner store.”

“Sure. No problem.” He gunned the engine and spun off leaving a spray of dirt behind us.

I watched as he passed the turn off to my road. “Um.”

“Mind if I show you a secret spot I found first?”

“Ok.” My heart leapt, Craig Peters wanted to show me something!

About six miles later, he turned down a dirt track that led into the woods and parked the car. He smiled. “It’s just up the way. You can leave your bag here.”

“Alright.” I got out and followed him down the path toward the sound of water. Just beyond the rise, the path dipped down into a little hollow and there was a bubbling sulfur spring. I could taste the tang in the air.

“Come on.” He said as he pulled off his shirt.

“I don’t have a swimsuit.”

“I didn’t think a girl like you would be scared to go skinny dipping.”

“A girl like me? You don’t even know my name.” He stepped toward me, finger grazing the bottom of my chin. “Take a dip with me Jenny.” I blinked dumbfounded. He did know my name.

He turned his back and stripped off the rest of his clothes. I couldn’t help staring at his butt as he slipped out of his jeans and into the water.

“Well are you coming?” He kept his back to me and I thought “What the hell. I’d already broken one rule today, what was one more.”

“Alright.” I pulled off my clothes, left them in a pile next to his, and got in the steaming water. Craig turned around and grabbed my arms, pulling me to him.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a while,” he said and then he kissed me.

At the very moment, when my world was crashing around me and sending me off flying to the moon, I heard a rustle and opened my eyes to see Sheila and three others jump out of the bushes, grab my clothes, and run off.

Craig jumped out of the water, scooped up his own clothes, and chased after them. I knew I’d been had the minute I heard his car start up. I trudged back down the path to find my backpack, but not my clothes, sitting in the dirt where his car had been.

Momma always said if you did the crime, you did the time. I picked up my backpack and started home again. The funny thing was. I didn’t feel humiliated. I felt free and oddly alive. Even if I was standing naked as a jaybird in the middle of nowhere. Craig Peters, the cutest boy in school, had kissed me.