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She simmered down and returned to feeling sorry for herself.

"I can never have a decent boyfriend. I'll never meet anyone but dorks," she whined.

I turned over in bed and closed my eyes. A little more than a half hour or so later, I heard her sigh deeply, get up and prepare for bed. She finally crawled under the covers.

"Brooke?"

"What?"

"Are you still awake?"

"No. I'm talking to you in my sleep," I said. "What?"

"I lied to you guys," Raven said. She was quiet. Damn it, I thought. I felt like a fish, hooked. Reluctantly, I turned over.

"Okay, I'm biting. What?"

"I'm not as experienced as I pretended to be. Actually . ."

"What, Raven? Actually what?"

"Last night was the first time."

"Last night?" I started to sit up. "You were careful, right?"

"It was hard to be careful, Brooke. It's never happened to you, so you don't know what it's like. You just forget how far you're going. It feels so good and you keep telling yourself, there's time to stop. There's time to be careful, but . . ."

"But what?"

"There wasn't time."

"He wasn't wearing any protection?"

"No."

"Oh Raven. He's a creep to do this to you. Why wasn't he careful?"

"He's not a creep," we heard Crystal suddenly say from the bedroom. "He's stupid. He doesn't know you from a hole in the wall and he takes a chance being sexually active with you? That's stupid."

I smiled. Good old Crystal, pretending to be asleep and listening to everything.

"I did the same thing," Raven admitted. "I was stupid too."

Crystal came to the doorway and looked at us. "Yes, you were. Let's hope you're lucky this time, Raven," Crystal told her.

I'm scared," she said after a pause. "Could I get pregnant?"

"Of course you could," I said. "Right, Crystal?" "When is your period due, Raven?"

"About three days," she replied.

"You're probably all right. You've always been regular, haven't you?"

"Yes," she said in a small voice.

"I think you'll be all right, Raven," Crystal reassured her. "But I wouldn't go out with him again. He didn't care about you, that's for sure," she said. Raven was silent. She turned and buried her face in the pillow. Then we heard her sob. I touched her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry I'm stupid. And I can't help being afraid."