That was when she told me she intended to remain a virgin until she was at least eighteen. In those days that was a pretty big step; most girls still saved it for their wedding night. That trend pretty much continued on into the seventies, in spite of all that free love bullshit. More eighteen year olds were virgins than not, in 1970.
I said that I understood and I wouldn't force her to do anything. But I think I sprayed about sixty gallons of sperm on the shower walls over the next two years.
Anyway, there I was coming out of rehearsal, still feeling high and almost skipping. It was cold and overcast and drizzly, but even the weather couldn't get me down after the music had flowed so well. I was thinking about borrowing the truck and taking Tabby somewhere to skate, because I really needed to burn this energy.
I had just passed through the little breezeway between the arts building and the gym, headed for the parking lot when I heard a shriek. I had spent almost ten years with Tabby and I recognized her voice instantly. It was coming from the direction of one of the little greenbelts behind the school, and I instantly took off running in that direction. I was glad that I had decided to leave my guitar locked in the arts room closet, because I wouldn't be hung up with it if I had to get involved in something physical. My backpack bounced on my back as I pelted through the drizzle.
Another shriek from Tabby urged me to greater speed. Some asshole was hurting my girl and I was going to fuck them up, big time.
I rounded the block and cut through onto a dirt maintenance track, the sounds of laughter and shrieking spurring me on. I came up upon a sickening sight that stopped me dead.
"Gonna make me a fucking tar baby!" Brian Devlin was screaming joyfully. He scooped up a huge handful of mud and threw it all over Tabby, who was pressed flat on the ground by Rosie. Standing in a circle were four of Brian's buddies from the football team, all laughing like maniacs. "Tar baby tar baby tar baby!" they screamed, stamping in the mud and sending it splattering all over Tabby.
"Now you're really black, you fucking niggerbitch!" Rosie screamed, scooping up more mud and slamming it into Tabby's face. "Teach you to fuck around with white boys!" The mud drooled in thick dollops from Tabby's curls. Her eyes glittered angrily from the mud caking her face.
"Wait, you ain't nearly black enough yet!" Devlin screamed, yanking off Tabby's skirt and tossing it to one of his cohorts. I was really pissed to realize that the guy he tossed it too was my old buddy, Frank Shepard. "Gonna make you reeeeally black now!"
This had gone on far enough. Tabby was shrieking and sobbing and trying to scramble out from under Rosie, who's knees were planted in Tabby's soft belly. They had already half stripped her and I had no doubt they were going to do more to her than cover her in mud.
I grabbed a big ass branch off the ground and rushed out from behind the tree I was hiding behind. I kept my head down and smashed two football players across the back of the head, sending them toppling like trees. Still keeping my face averted, I kicked Rosie in the ass just as hard as I could, sending her sprawling in the mud with a surprised yelp. I leaped over Tabby on the ground and broke the branch across Brian's back, sending him face first into the mud puddle he was scooping out of. His hands shot out to try and save himself, but he ended up knocking the other two football players off their feet.
The whole thing had taken about three seconds. Without stopping, I scooped up Tabby along with her backpack, and, half dragging her, I hightailed it back out just as fast as I could.
By the time they gave chase, we were already in the parking lot. I helped Tabby into the seat of the truck and jumped in after her. I didn't want to take the time to close her door, run around to the other side, open the door and climb up. I slammed the door and scrambled across Tabby's legs to the driver's side and got the tired old motor running, just as Brian was puffing into view from the other side of the parking lot. Then I gave him the finger and just drove away.
We were about half a mile down the road when it started.
First I heard a sniffle. Then I heard a hitching sob. And then, Tabby was bawling like a baby. It broke my heart to hear it.
I pulled over to the side of the road and I grabbed that mud covered, smelly and dirty girl and tugged her into my embrace. She clung to me desperately and sobbed, like her heart was broken. She kept at it for almost ten minutes. The front of my shirt got soaked with her tears and snot and the mud on her. Crazily, the Beatles came on the radio, singing "I wanna Hold Your Hand." They were followed by the Rolling Stones doing "Time is On My Side." I wondered what the hell the music was trying to tell me.
As the time passed, I began to make out words buried among the sobs. "Bastards … fuckers … won't let them win…"
I knew she was going to be okay. Those assholes hadn't broken her spirit. She wasn't crying in anguish anymore; now she was just fucking pissed off.
Her face lifted off my chest and she looked up at me. Her tears had left clean tracks in the mud on her face. She looked like a fucking raccoon. A very pissed off one. Her lips were tight and her eyes glittered.
"I'm going to get those assholes," she said in a voice I hoped to Christ would never be directed at me. "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to get them."
Since I always had been a little reckless, I mentally got a grip on my balls and asked, "What happened back there?"
I saw rage flash across her face, but thankfully still not at me. "Those narrow minded inbred idiots were accusing me of trying to steal white boys. Apparently Rosie has a thing for Jack Silver and she went crazy when he stopped to talk to me this afternoon."
She paused, sniffed congestedly and pulled back from me a bit. "God I need to blow my nose."
After pulling a tissue from the glove box she continued.
"Silver didn't really do anything, anyway. All he fucking wanted was to ask me if I had some notes for Hanson's English class. I said I'd give them to him tomorrow and he left, after I gave him a kiss on the cheek. Hell, we grew up together and I do it all the time with our friends. That's it.
"So I was going to go home and help Mom since you had rehearsal. I was heading across the field when Devlin and his sister and Devlin's buddies dragged me into that greenbelt. Devlin said something like "I wonder if he'll still look at you if you're real real black." And then they started rolling me in the fucking mud. I was pretty sure they were going to do worse than that when Devlin pulled my skirt off."
I sat there and thought about it. Tabby had bloomed spectacularly over the past year and more and more boys were paying attention to her, it was true. And now that I looked back, I could remember Rosie giving her glares and snarling at Tabby's back when she walked by. Rosie thought she should be queen and she wasn't about to stand for some uppity nigger to try and dethrone her.
What the silly bitch didn't realize of course was that Tabby didn't want any of that; she was happy being mine. Tabby didn't want to be a cheerleader, homecoming queen, prom queen or any of that other dumb ass stuff. She wanted to be my girl and that was it.
"I can't believe this shit," I said. "What the hell do they think this is?"
"I don't know, Bobby, but they're going to have to pay. I never fucking did anything to her since eighth grade, in fact, I did my god damnedest to ignore her. But I can't let this go. We have to do something."
"Like what?"
"I don't know," she said again, frustrated. "But I do know that we can't tell my parents. They'd try to do something and I want this to be something for me to take care of."
"Us," I said. "It's something for us to take care of. We're a team."
"Yes, us," she said. Then she came back over and hugged me. "Thanks for saving me Bobby."
"I think that makes us even now," I said. "And you never have to thank me."
She smiled a little at my echoing her words back at her. "We have to think of a way to explain my dirtiness to my folks."
"That's easy. I chased you and you fell into a mud puddle." We were always doing dumb shit like th
at anyway, chasing each other around the fields like little kids, so it wasn't that far-fetched. "We ended up wrestling in the puddle. I think there's a spare pair of pants in the back there, from that time we went to the lake last summer, so they won't notice your missing skirt.."
"That'll work," she said, grimacing as she scrubbed some of the now half-dried mud off her face. "Take me home, Bobby. I feel awful."
After she found the old pair of jeans, I did what she said and we drove home. Mr. Langston shook his head at us when we told him why Tabby was so dirty. "You kids need to seriously grow up," he chuckled.
"Why? That wouldn't be nearly as much fun," I said, swiping a cookie out of the jar on the counter and going to change my clothes.
"How's your band going, Bobby," Mrs. Langston asked me later at dinner.
I swallowed and replied, "Not all that bad. I'm a little nervous since it'll be the first time we played for a crowd, but I have a good feeling. Today we pretty much ripped through our whole set without a problem."
"My boyfriend the rock star," Tabby beamed at me from across the table.
"We signed up as chaperones for the dance so we'll get to hear you play," Mr. Langston smiled.
"Aw, does that mean I can't do anything with him since you'll be watching?" Tabby whined.
"Tabby!" I said, looking shocked.
Mrs. Langston just laughed. "Girl, I have no doubt that you'd find away to do something even with us right there in the room."
I turned red, because sure enough Tabby had been running her bare foot on my leg. She, however, just smiled and kept doing it. "No idea what you're talking about, Mother," she said sweetly.
We all laughed and then Tabby and I did the dishes, while Mr. and Mrs. Langston went to snuggle in front of the TV for a while.
Later that night, Tabby dragged me outside, while I was busy trying to do my homework. I could tell that what she wanted to discuss was serious, because she wasn't smiling. I didn't put up a fuss and just closed my books and went with her.
"What're we going to do about those jerks?" she hissed, once we were safely away from the house. "They're a menace. And to be perfectly honest about it, Bobby, I think they're going to try and do something to me again, or maybe even to you. I'm sure they know it was you who rescued me."
The night was clear and cold, with a harvest moon shining down. I couldn't help but notice, however, that whenever we passed a mud puddle, Tabby would give it a hard look. We were walking through the back pasture toward the trees where all of our very private discussions had taken place, both of the verbal and physical variety.
"Did you have something in mind, Tabby?" I asked warily. I had visions of Tabby wanting to go over to Vancouver and shoot the Devlins in their beds or something.
"We need to get them expelled, I think. I can't be the only one they pick on. We need to watch them and get something on them so the principal will finally do something about it."
"Phew. I thought for a minute there you were going to suggest we shoot them or something," I laughed nervously.
"No, it hasn't quite gotten to that point," she said, not even cracking a smile.
I stopped in my tracks and stared at her. "What? You think it will?"
"Bobby, people like that never quit," she told me. "They don't quit until something makes them. Do you really think they're going to let it go?"
"I just can't believe this. Are you sure something else didn't happen to make them come after you today? This all seems so … out of the blue."
Tabby looked upset for a moment, then her brow cleared. "Oh. At first I thought you were accusing me of lying to you, but then I realized you wouldn't do that. I don't think anything happened, but I'm not sure. That little talk with Jack was the only thing I could think of that might've set them off today."
"There had to be something," I said. "Maybe somebody said something to them or they misinterpreted something … I just can't believe they'd jump on you out of the blue."
We were quite a ways from the house by now, almost to the woods that bordered the bottom of the pastures. So when a voice came out of the darkness to our right, I jumped a mile.
"You're right, Torrence, it wasn't out of the blue."
Brian Devlin and Frank Shepard moved out of the trees and stood in front of us, wearing shit-eating grins. I was pleased to notice that Shepard still had a big old lump on his head from where I hit him this afternoon. Devlin's nose was swollen, but I was disappointed to notice that it wasn't broken.
"What the fuck do you want, assholes?" I said, moving in front of Tabby.
"We want to finish what we started," Devlin sneered, moving closer. "That uppity nigger doesn't belong with the rest of us decent folks. And you, hanging out with her, that just ain't right."
"What the hell did she ever do to you, fuckface? We've left you and yours alone ever since you fucking got here."
"That bitch has been strutting around the school like she's fucking queen bee all god damn year, and the year before that," Shepard snarled. "I heard Ronnie Belsin say that he'd go after her, and lots of the other guys on the team said so too. It ain't right for a nigger to be tryin' to steal guys from respectable white girls. She's gotta be put in her place."
"Oh for fuck sake," I said. "You've been listening to this asshole and his sister too god damn long. This ain't' fucking Alabama or wherever they're from, Shepard."
"What the hell do you know about it, Pansy?" Shepard grinned maliciously. "You can't fucking look sideways without this girl says you can, and you've been that way since you were fucking six years old."
"Sometimes the pansies grow up, Shepard," I said, and then I hit him. I hit him with a punch that came all the way from California. The punch lifted him off his feet and knocked him on his ass and I heard a popping sound. I hoped that meant I'd broken his fucking nose, but maybe it was my knuckles. My hand hurt like a bastard.
Tabby's scream probably saved my life. I jumped sideways and Devlin's ham-sized fist rocketed through the space that had been previously occupied by my kidneys. All would've been well, but my heel slipped on a patch of wet grass and I fell hard to the ground, my head smashing into something hard. I saw stars and heard little birdies, but before I could begin to try and get my equilibrium back and get on my feet again, Devlin's smirking face swam into view.
"Gotcha now, fucker," Devlin hissed as he jumped on top of me. "You're gonna be sorry you was ever born."
Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, I heard another familiar voice from somewhere behind us.
"What in the hell is going on here?" Mr. Langston thundered.
Devlin was straddling my waist getting ready to pound my face into hamburger. The shock of hearing a strange voice was just enough to freeze him for a split second. I used that opportunity to grab a rock in my right hand. I still wasn't quite all there from hitting my head, but I was compos mentis enough to bring it up and smash Devlin in the chin just as hard as I could.
He didn't even scream; he just toppled over like a dead tree. His jaw was hanging sideways and I had felt the shock of the blow all the way up to my shoulder. I hoped I hadn't killed him.
"Holy shit," I heard Mr. Langston say, and I saw him hurry over.
"Are you all right, Bobby?" Tabby asked, kneeling at my side and tenderly checking my face and head for injury, completely ignoring Devlin and Shepard."
"Yeah fine, just a knock on the head," I said, sitting up gingerly and checking the back of my skull. There was a lump there, but nothing that wouldn't heal. No blood, thankfully.
"I think you broke his jaw," I heard from my right. I looked over there and saw Mr. Langston bending over Devlin, who was still out cold. Shepard was sitting on the ground holding his nose and moaning. It leaned over to one side like a crooked tombstone and I felt glad for him.
"What the hell happened here?" Mr. Langston asked again, now looking between me, Tabby and the two boys with their various injuries.
Neither of us knew how to answer him. If
we did, we'd have to explain that we'd lied about that afternoon and who knew what trouble that might cause?
"Um, do you remember back a while ago when I hit that guy's sister?" Tabby said, pointing at Devlin who was finally beginning to stir. His lower face was swelling like a balloon.
"Yes," Mr. Langston said suspiciously, looking back and forth between us.
"Well, ever since, Rosie has been filling this guy's head with stories that I'm trying to steal guys from her. So him and his buddies decided to try and teach me a lesson. Bobby saved me this afternoon and tonight I guess they wanted to get back at him."
Mr. Langston sighed deeply and shook his head. "This is going to be trouble, I just know it. You two," he barked at Devlin and Shepard, "get up and come with me. I'll take you to the hospital."
"What about us?" I asked, holding Tabby's hand protectively.
"You two wait here. I'm almost certain the police are going to get involved this time, and I don't know which side they're going to come down on." And with that ominous statement, Mr. Langston led the two injured idiots away, leaving us standing, shaken in his wake.
Chapter Six
Without a word, Tabby and I waited in the living room for either Mr. Langston or the police. We explained to Mrs. Langston what was going on and she didn't say much, other than that she wished we didn't have to deal with this kind of thing. She thanked me for saving her daughter from what might've happened, but told us we should've come home before violence erupted tonight. I didn't bother telling her that they would've just caught us some other time and just sat silently holding Tabby's hand.
Mrs. Langston went into the kitchen, presumably to call the hospital, and we were left alone in the quiet living room.
"Does it bother you that I'm black?" Tabby asked out of the blue.
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