Ellie and I said awkward goodbyes, and I gave him my number before walking to my dorm. And now…
“You could have an STD.”
“I don’t have an STD.”
“There’s no way to know. You need to get tested. I read that it can take weeks to get a reliable result, so you should probably get tested twice. Once now, once in two months. Do you think the campus health clinic offers STD screenings?”
“They do. I don’t need to get tested.”
“That’s so irresponsible. He probably had HPV. I read that most people have HPV. Did you get the vaccine? My mom wouldn’t let me, said it would encourage me to sleep around—”
Wow. I just realized I don’t have HPV yet. I should really get the vaccine this time.
“He was a virgin, Madison. I’m fine.”
“I know hesaidhe was—”
“He wasn’t lying. Trust me, I know.”
Late-night drunk talks, remember? But my words cause Madison to freeze. Her voice drops down to a scandalized whisper when she says, “He was that bad?”
“No,” I protest. “He wasn’t bad at all. He was… great.”
“It’s okay. Most girls don’t enjoy their first time. I read that in a magazine. That’s why I want to get it over with as quickly as possible and move on to the good stuff.”
I decide not to disillusion her with the reality that for most women, bad sex continues far past the first time.
“Ididenjoy it. It was lovely and meaningful and… great. And you’re right—most people’s first times aren’t amazing. Mine sure wasn’t—”
“So itwasbad.”
“No, that’s not what I—”
There’s no good way to explain to Madison that in another life, I lost my virginity to George from my statistics class, a guy who thought that three quick thrusts of his fingers was adequate foreplay. Because in this life, I lost my virginity to Ellie. Was it perfect? No. But itmeantsomething.
It meant everything.
“Okay, it was kind of bad. It’s fine, he can learn. What about you?”
“What about me?”
I pull up at a red light and side-eye her.
“You really expect me to believe you spent all night in Patrick’s room watching TV?”
“It was areallygood show. I think I might like anime. Oh God, listen to me. I’mso weird. I’m never going to get a hot guy to look twice at me. I should just resign myself to ending up with someone like Patrick.”
“Yeah, you should. Not someonelikePatrick. Patrick himself.”
“I don’twantPatrick.”
“Why are you acting like this is a death sentence? Patrick’s a great guy.”
“You didn’t say two words to him.”
“I would have if you hadn’t pulled him away, Ms. Thinking-of-Switching-Majors. I can’t wait for Patrick to learn that you’ve nearly failed every math class you ever took.”
“I was wingwoman-ing you. And itworked. I already took care of that by pretending to be surprised that engineering is so math-heavy.”
