Popping the Cherry (3 page)

‘Sorry,’ Gemma said, not sounding the slightest bit sorry. ‘I thought I’d texted you to say we were going to be a bit late, but I’ve just spotted the failed-delivery message. I must be out of credit after calling Ben during first break.’

‘So where were you? I asked, as Gemma plonked herself in the seat opposite me. Chloe and Piper took up the seats either side of me, and Flick chose the chair next to Gemma. ‘And what were you doing that took so long?’

Gemma quirked her perfectly plucked eyebrows at me. ‘This, my dear Lena, is an intervention.’

‘A
what
?’

Heads turned to look at us, my words coming out louder than intended.

Gah!

Gemma waited until everybody had gone back to minding their own business. ‘An intervention,’ she said, completely matter-of-fact, using the same tone she’d use to tell me I had lettuce stuck in my teeth. ‘We, as in all four of us—’ she paused for dramatic effect and waved her hand to include Flick, Chloe and Piper ‘—are all agreed that you need our help.’

‘Is that so?’ I asked.

Flick suddenly seemed determined to avoid eye contact but I refused to let her off the hook. She finally gave in and offered me a small shrug, along with a resigned smile.

Not good
.

The heavy feeling in my gut got even worse. ‘Help with what, exactly?’

Gemma met my glare head-on. ‘You need to lose your virginity.’

‘Pardon?’ I hissed, unable to believe my ears.

‘Don’t you see, Lena?’ she said, not backing down so much as an inch. ‘You have so many hang-ups about sex, you’re like a faulty telephone.’

‘You’re joking, right?’ I forced out a laugh. Gemma jutted out her jaw even further, not even a flicker of a smile. My nails pierced the apple, the juice running down my fingers to form a satisfying puddle on the table. ‘Don’t tell me this is your big plan.’

‘It’s a damn sight better than being dumped.’

‘Whoa, hang on,’ I said, narrowing my eyes to accuse each of them. ‘Are you all saying I should have slept with Damian?’

‘No way.’

‘Eww, no.’

‘Not at all.’

‘Nuh-uh.’

They all answered at the same time, their voices jumbled together so I couldn’t be sure who said what. At least we were all agreed on something.

‘You can do a million times better than him,’ Flick said.

‘Which is exactly what I said,’ Gemma said. ‘And that’s where we come in.’

‘Huh?’

‘We had a little brainstorming session and came up with the most wicked idea.’ Gemma reached into her tote and produced a piece of A4 paper with a flourish. I could already see Piper’s cursive handwriting running down one side.

‘Wicked as in evil and demonic, or wicked as in excellent?’

‘It’s good to see you’ve still got your sense of humour.’

‘Who’s joking?’

Gemma ignored my outburst and started to slide the page towards me, but then she noticed the state of the table. ‘Bloody hell, Lena, what did the apple ever do to you?’ She prised the mangled apple out of my grip and dumped it on my tray. ‘You’ve well and truly murdered it,’ she said, grabbing a load of napkins. She tossed one to me, then used the rest to mop up the juice and bits of pulp. ‘Right, let’s try that again,’ she said, finally getting back to the sheet of paper and offering it to me. ‘Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it.’

In no mood for one of her silly games, I snatched it off her and scanned the page. It turned out to be a list of names, all of them boys, and some of whom I recognised. And then I noticed the title: ‘Operation: Popping the Cherry’. I leaped to my feet and fired a glare at each of them in turn, trying not to shout. ‘Are you shitting me?’

Flick at least flinched and mouthed, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘So what am I supposed to do?’ I asked, caught in two minds whether to tear the list into a thousand pieces or scrunch it into a ball. ‘Work my way down the list and sleep with them all?’

‘Are you going to at least hear us out before you go off on one?’ Gemma sounded infuriatingly calm compared with my wailing-banshee routine.

‘I don’t even know who half of these guys are.’ I settled for tossing the page back onto the table in disgust. ‘Why not just shove me at the first guy to walk in here and pay him to have sex with me?’

‘It’s not like that, Lena, and you know it.’ Gemma snapped, finally biting back, but, instead of getting drawn into a slanging match, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Composure restored. ‘I know you’re spoiling for a fight, and I know this is hard, but you know we’d never do something like that to you.’

‘Hmph,’ I grunted.

‘Can’t you at least give us two minutes to explain?’

As I stood mulling it over, trying to decide whether to stay or flounce off as I’d intended, I noticed the glances and raised eyebrows being directed my way. Being the only one of our group standing up, combined with my raised voice and Gemma’s hissing, I was drawing way too much attention. All of the fire left me and my legs gave way before I’d made the conscious decision to sit back down.

‘Thank you.’ Gemma seized the opportunity and slid the list back across the table. This time, she kept her hand on it as if expecting me to try to destroy it. She wasn’t wrong. ‘These are just a few of the names we came up with. Guys we thought you might like, but wouldn’t necessarily think of yourself. Now it’s your turn to add your own potential candidates to complete the shortlist.’

‘Candidates? You make it sound like some kind of election.’

‘In a way, it is,’ Chloe said, speaking up for the first time. ‘Take a look at the list and get to know some of the guys on there that you don’t know already. Go on a few dates maybe. And then you cast your vote.’

‘As in …?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Chloe lowered her voice, ‘You have s-e-x with them.’ She even spelled out the word ‘sex’ as if it would deter eavesdroppers and lessen the impact.

‘And this is the best you could come up with? Your brilliant plan?’ I said to no one in particular. ‘What happened to saving yourself? Waiting for the right person?’

‘Saving yourself? This isn’t the 1950s. All you’re doing is missing out on something fun. No guy expects you to be a virgin on your wedding day these days, so you might as well get it over with.’

‘Get it over with? Jeez, Gemma, you make it sound like going for an injection?’

‘Let’s just hope it’s more than a little prick when the time comes, then, eh?’ she said, waggling her eyebrows up and down. Her quick-witted innuendo earned a chorus of giggles. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of making me smile but—damn it—the corners of my lips were curving up whether I wanted them to or not.

‘Touché,’ I said, giving up the fight. ‘That was a good one, even for you.’

‘I am rather proud of it.’

‘But isn’t the first time supposed to be special?’ I asked.

‘I wish,’ Chloe muttered.

‘My first time was over in thirty seconds flat,’ Flick said. ‘He barely got it in there in time. Talk about an anticlimax.’

‘I hate to break it to you, but it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be,’ Gemma said, yet I knew for a fact Ben had been her first. Even Piper sighed. ‘It gets better, though,’ Gemma said brightly. ‘It’s a bit like kissing, I guess.’

‘Kissing? Yeah, right.’

‘No, really,’ she said, sitting more upright to plead her case. ‘Nobody is a great kisser at the first attempt. You might accidentally bump teeth, or the guy might try to suffocate you by covering your nose as well as your mouth. And sometimes he might shove his tongue too far down your throat until you gag and—’

‘Ugh, yeah.’ The memory of my first ‘proper’ French kiss still had the power to make me shudder. ‘Been there, done that.’

‘It just takes practice, you know, until you get the hang of it.’ It might not be want I wanted to hear but Gemma was making sense even if it went against every romantic notion I’d ever harboured.

‘I think I see what you mean,’ I conceded. ‘So you’ve all had … I’m the only …’ I squirmed, too embarrassed to say the words. I’d already gathered Gemma, Flick and Chloe had done … it … but then Piper nodded, too. I spun in my chair to face her, unable to mask my surprise. ‘Even you?’

‘Yes, Lena, even me,’ she said, lifting her chin and meeting my stare, her eyes brimming with defiance.

‘Jeez.’ I was in the minority again.

‘Oh, come on. Is it really such a surprise?’ she asked.

‘
Yes!
‘ I wanted to yell. If I’d had to put money on anyone else still being a virgin, it would have been Piper, the oh-so-shy girl who always had her nose stuck in a book. ‘No, I guess not,’ I lied, seeing Piper in a whole new light. ‘I guess that makes me the odd one out, then,’ I said, forcing out a feeble laugh.

Nobody spoke. It was as if they could sense the battle raging inside my head. Up until that moment, I’d never considered myself to be naïve, nor did I think I was a prude, but now I had to wonder. Operation: Popping the Cherry went against everything I’d been brought up to believe, but my closest friends made it sound as if I’d been fed a load of old-fashioned nonsense.

We couldn’t all be right, so which of us was wrong?

A girl laughed at the next table but one from us, disturbing my thoughts. I couldn’t help peeking at her out of the corner of my eye, watching her from beneath my lowered eyelashes. She was sitting with a guy from Upper Sixth, holding hands, and their heads bent together. I didn’t know either of them, except in passing, but any fool could see how happy they were. The guy was hanging onto her every word, and, when he leaned in to plant a tender kiss on her cheek, a pang of jealousy zipped through my veins.

A sense of longing hit me so hard, my heart physically ached inside my chest. I dragged my gaze away before they made me cry, and my focus immediately zoomed in on the list of names until the letters danced before my eyes. If I wanted what that couple had, what Gemma and Ben had, what every other goddamn person on the planet except me seemed to have, then maybe Operation: Popping the Cherry was the key.

‘So, I just have to go on a few dates and see if any of these guys get my mojo going enough to want to … you know …?’

‘Exactly.’ Gemma grinned at me, looking mightily pleased with herself. ‘You see, ladies, I told you she’d get it,’ she said, exchanging high fives with the others. ‘So what d’you say, Lena? Are you up for it?’

Am I?

Deep down, I knew they had only my best interests at heart but they were staring at me so hard, my skin prickled. The vibe coming off them was so strong, I was left in no doubt whatsoever that they wanted me to do this. No, they
really
wanted me to do this. A bead of sweat broke out on my forehead and trickled down the side of my face. Nobody could make the decision for me, but even my gut instincts had abandoned me, leaving me to figure it out on my own. I could say no, but then what? I risked upsetting my friends and becoming even more of an outcast. They’d called it an intervention, but the longer I took to think about it, the more it weighed on me like an ultimatum: my friends or my virginity?

‘OK, I’m in,’ I blurted, before I could talk myself out of it again.

‘Yay!’ Gemma did her clapping thing. ‘Now, on to the deadline.’

‘What? Nobody said anything about a deadline.’

‘Go on, you tell her, Piper, seeing as it was your ingenious idea.’

‘Well,’ she said, her eyes glinting with pride. ‘What better date than your birthday, what with it being Valentine’s Day?’

‘Isn’t it just perfect?’ Gemma was having way too much fun with this.

‘Yeah, great,’ I said flatly.

‘Plus, it gives you loads of time to meet someone you like,’ she added. That much was true at least. ‘And there’s no time like the present, eh?’ she said, waving at somebody who must have just come into the canteen.

‘Huh?’ I turned in my seat and followed her gaze all the way to the guy from her Drama class—Sean something-or-other—who returned her wave and changed course.

With a sinking feeling, I checked the list of candidates. Sure enough, Sean Cole was in at number three. And he was now headed our way. There wasn’t time to fold the shortlist neatly, so I screwed it up in my fist and rammed the damning evidence into my bag. From my hunched position, I watched as a pair of brown suede Vans came to a stop directly behind me.

‘Hey, Gemma,’ said a deep voice with a soft Scottish lilt. ‘Did you want me?’

Caught red-handed, I froze, still collapsed in my chair like a moron. You could always rely on me to make a good first impression—not!

‘Hey, Sean.’ Gemma’s voice sounded muffled from my position beneath the table. ‘I thought it was about time I introduced you to my best friend.’

Say what?

I shot up so fast that I caught the back of my head on the edge of table, hitting it hard enough to make a loud bang. If Sean had any sense he’d back away slowly from the crazy girl before I did anything else stupid. Instead, he hovered, waiting to be formally introduced. Maybe he felt sorry for me, or thought he was being punked. Once my eyes stopped watering, I glared at Gemma, giving her my best evil eye. To her credit, she didn’t bat an eyelid; the drama lessons were clearly working for her.

She didn’t even react when I ‘accidentally’ kicked her under the table as I twisted in my seat to meet cherry-popping candidate number one. Sean was standing so close to my chair, I had to tip my head right back to see him. The weird perspective made him look like a giant. He could probably see straight up my nose, too. Jeez, would my misery never end?

‘Hi, you must be Valentina,’ he said, turning his brown-eyed gaze on me and offering me his hand.

‘Yep, that’s me,’ I said, placing my hand in his. ‘But everybody calls me Lena.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Lena,’ he said, bending from the waist in a bow. Cute
and
charming, but I felt nothing, no tingles or flutters, not even when Sean lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss onto the backs of my fingers.

‘You too, Sean.’ I could see why he was taking drama. Sean practically oozed charisma, definite actor calibre. In fact, he probably had a whole entourage of swooning groupies already, and judging from the sigh I’d heard behind me, Flick was more than willing to become a fully fledged member. My friends weren’t the only ones capable of playing matchmaker. ‘So tell me, Sean, have you been introduced to Felicity yet?’