Even though people didn’t think Ginny was pretty until college, I used to think she was pretty all the way back in the fifth grade. I liked her lips, they looked soft. She kissed me once, backstage during play practice. She was playing Juliet, and said she didn’t want it to look awkward when she had to kiss Romeo on stage. The second time, she didn’t have that excuse.
I was really excited. I told my mom. She told Ginny’s mom, who didn’t care. Then she told Pastor Salus, and Pastor Salus told me some things.
I hadn’t realized I was sinning, but I guess it made sense after he explained it. I don’t want to go to hell. I’m married now, and his lips aren’t soft, but he’s got forearms as big as my calves. I’d take forearms and heaven over soft lips and hell any day. I miss soft lips, though. Sometimes.
Anyway, It wasn’t four months later that Ginny had another beau. She called me straight away that time and told me about him, and I told her about me and Marcus. She said she liked Marcus. Said he always seemed bright. That made me proud. He did seem bright.
Her beau wasn’t actually going to West Point. She said he wrote articles for the newspaper, and he’d come to interview her after her team won a basketball tournament. He was six-one, skinny, with freckles. She said he reminded her of home, but smarter, just a bit more, which I guess is what we’re all looking for. She also said he was twelve years older than her, which seemed a little creepy to me, but I guess once you’re in the adult club, you’re in, and it’s all sort of the same at that point, so it’s ok.
He turned out alright. People talked when he came to town with her after junior year. They didn’t have anything else to talk about. Patrick Morgan had fallen out of a tree the month prior and broken both his arms, so people were already primed to talk about her and the way she used to climb so fast. When she showed up with this older, media man, people bit hard.
Her dad didn’t like it. He was ten years older than her mom, so he couldn’t stand much against that. Media Man was a yank, though. Cardinal sin.