When I was a firefighter Chapter 5 part 7 of 10

When I was a firefighter
Chapter 5 part 7 of 10

I said simply, “Sure.”

Trying to bring it together, she asked, “Who gets the dirty looks?”

I answered, “The person they are jealous of.”

She said, “Right…”

I asked, “Then why am I getting the dirty looks?!”

“Oh my god, REALLY?” Cherry asked. “Because she’s jealous of you! I can’t believe you made me say it…”

Showing how dense I can be and still not getting it, I said, “That doesn’t even make sense: ‘jealous of me’—if she was jealous of me, that would mean that she wanted to be with… Hold on a second! Are you telling me that she’s a— “

Cherry cut me off before I could say the word, “YES! That’s what I’m telling you!”

Stunned, I said, “Oh my god! So, Olivia is—"

“YES”

Pointing to Cherry and continuing I said, “And she wants to be with—“

“Yes…”

I remarked, “What a poor, confused girl. I mean: she knows you’re not a lesbian, right?”

She said, “Yeah, she knows… We’re best friends, remember?”

I asked, “So how did she get to where she is? I mean, she knows you are straight, but somehow, she has fixated on you.
How does that happen?”

Cherry seemed to groan internally and asked, “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

I said, “Yeah, tell me how this happened. I’m curious.”

She said, “Ok, but first you have to promise not to judge me because it’s sort of my fault.”

I said, “Your fault? How could it be your fault?”

Cherry just stared at me…

Understanding what she was waiting for I said, “OK: I promise not to judge you! That goes without saying from now on, ok?”

She said, “All right. To explain how this happened, I have to start from the very beginning. Olivia and I have known each other for pretty much our entire lives. We have been best friends since grade school and because we are neighbors, we played together all of the time.

We were always having sleepovers together and we told each other everything. It’s what best friends do. Do you know? And from the time we were really little, when we were having a sleepover, we did everything together; we even took bubble baths together. It was just kid’s stuff; you know how kids are. So, as the years passed, we outgrew bubble baths and they eventually became showers. Again: nothing was ‘going on’; it was just two friends taking a shower and we thought nothing of it at all. Other than helping to scrub each other’s backs, we didn’t even touch each other.”

“So this one time Olivia was sleeping over and we were talking about boys. I used to tease her about liking the wimpiest boys in school…but anyway, there was this boy that I liked and I decided one day that

I wanted to let him kiss me and I told Olivia. But I was scared to do it because I didn’t want to be a terrible kisser—I’d never kissed anyone before. I was afraid he would tell his friends that I was an awful kisser and I’d be an outcast. I guess it never dawned on me that he would be bad too or that neither of us would know the difference... Anyway,
Olivia said she didn’t want to be bad at kissing either and someone had the bright idea of practicing on a mirror. I tried it first and after she tried it we both agreed that it didn’t work too well. SOOOOO…

Olivia suggested that we practice—together. She said that after everything we had done together over the years, the things we could tell each other and no one else, we could try this, and it would be our secret. We could learn how to kiss and be good at it for our first time.”

“And so, that’s what we did. The first kiss was just a quick kiss; it happened so fast that we banged our teeth together and it was as bad as we feared it would be with a boy. So, we calmed ourselves down and did it again slower. After a few minutes of practicing our kissing, we just kept going and it was nice. It was not at all a sexual experience for either of us—we just wanted to figure out what to do and how to do it. You know?”

I said, “So, you and Olivia kissed once when you were kids and she’s been fixated on you ever since?”

Cherry continued her story saying, “WELLLLL….No. It wasn’t exactly a one-time thing. We kept having sleepovers and she said that she still wasn’t sure she was good enough yet and wanted to practice some more. And I didn’t mind kissing her, so we did. Pretty soon, I forgot all about kissing the boy I liked and just wanted to kiss Olivia. She was and is still my best friend beside you. I love her, but it’s not like how I Love you—with her, it’s not a romantic Love—it’s just…different. It’s like: with her, it’s not about whether she’s a girl or a boy; it’s the connection—the close friendship—we have. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

To be continued