Page 44 of The Silent Waters (Elements 3)

As the days and weeks passed by, Cheryl started staying home more nights. She’d spent most of her time reading books. When she came to visit my room, she wasn’t telling me all the stories of her wild adventures with different guys. She started talking about her wild dreams of adventure—traveling the world, seeing some of the sights she read about in the novels. She started building her own to-do list, too.

One night when she was talking about London, I brought up sex, and her mouth hung open with bewilderment. “Oh my gosh, Maggie!” she said, ripping the paper out of my hand tearing it to pieces. “One: those are the kinds of notes you never want Dad to find, and two: are you and Brooks having sex?”

My cheeks heated up and I shook my head.

“But you are doing some stuff, right? Oh my gosh! I’ve dreamed of these conversations with you! Okay.” She plopped down on my bed and crossed her legs. “Tell me everything you two have done.” Her eyes were wide with wonderment.

Kissing.

She nodded rapidly. “Uh-huh, uh-huh! Nice! What else?”

I wrote kissing again.

“What? But you two have been dating for like, weeks now. That’s a long time to just be kissing. Why haven’t you done anything else? Are you not ready? Because if you’re not ready, that’s fine. Brooks wouldn’t care.”

No. I’m ready.

“Then what’s the issue?”

I blushed. I don’t know how to do anything.

“You mean…anything? Like hand jobs? Or rim jobs? Or blow jobs? Or nip-lick jobs? Or pineapple-upside-down-cake jobs?” I cocked an eyebrow, and Cheryl nodded. “I know what you’re thinking, all of these seem like unpaid positions, but trust me, if you do them right, you’ll be paid in full.”

Ohmygod. I couldn’t handle her sometimes. But still, I missed her so much.

She jumped up from her seat and hurried out of the room. When she returned, she had candy, bananas, and other random fruits, including rings of pineapples. “Okay, we’ll start from the beginning.” She picked up a banana. “Hand jobs 101.”

“Hey, girls,” Brooks said, popping his head into my bedroom.

Cheryl threw her body over the items. “We’re doing nothing!” she shouted.

Good job, sis. Not suspicious at all.

Brooks arched an eyebrow. “Oookay. I was just supposed to tell you dinner is ready, and your dad told me I had to go home because I’m no longer welcome in the house where Maggie sleeps.”

I smirked. Sounds like Dad.

“Okay, well, you can leave now,” Cheryl replied, giving Brooks a tight smile.

He walked over to me and kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When he left, Cheryl groaned and sat up with a banana smashed to her chest, leaving residue all over my blanket. “Sorry for the mess,” she said, wiping banana off her shirt. “But trust me, if you do it right, the messy stage is completely normal.”

On a cloudy Saturday night, I headed over to Maggie’s room to hang out. We spent a lot of time in her house, and I didn’t mind at all. As long as she was there, I was happy. I walked up to her bedroom, and she was already standing in her doorway with a stack of papers in her hands. She looked different than normal. Her hair was curled, and was she wearing…makeup? She was still beautiful, just a different kind of beautiful.

Guess what!

I smiled wide. “What?”

She dropped the first piece of paper to reveal the next one.

My parents got me a cell phone for my graduation gift.

“No way. Seriously?”

She nodded rapidly and dropped the next piece of paper.

Seriously.