Sweetie's Diamonds (9 page)

“Look, just buy your dessert and leave us alone,” David said.
 

Matt inched closer to David, fists clenched, but before he could do anything he saw Mrs. Tuttenberg, the teacher assigned to patrol lunch period for the day.
 
She was a few feet away, giving a kid hell for throwing a napkin at his neighbor.

“You're lucky, shithead,” Matt said.
 
“If Mrs. Tutti Frutti wasn't right over there, you'd be on the floor.”

“Oh well,” David said, standing up to his tormentor.
 
“I guess that's too bad.”

“But after school, my friend,” Matt said, “after school on your way home, it'll be clobberin' time.”
 
For some reason, Matt always quoted the Thing from the Fantastic Four comic books.
 
David doubted that the bully had read anything in his life, even a comic.

Now the witching hour had come.
 
David faced the enemy but he had one advantage—they were still inside the school.

“Why don't you leave him alone?” Billy ventured.
 
It was the first time Billy had ever stood up for his friend.

Matt Shamrock ignored Billy.
 
“So, Boston, you about to walk home?
 
Shall I carry your books for you?
 
You don't mind a little company, do you?”

David shrugged.
 
“Sure.
 
Come on.
 
When we get to my house we can play something on my PS2, if you can handle the controls.”
 
He turned and started walking.
 

Matt Shamrock creased his brow.
 
This wasn't the reaction he had expected.
 
“I can beat the shit out of you, Boston, anytime, anywhere,” he shouted.

“Mister Shamrock?”
 
The voice of Vice-Principal McDonald boomed from down the hall.
 
“Watch your language, young man!”

David and Billy continued to move to the exit.
 
The pushed open the door and went outside just as the most-feared adult at school pulled Matt Shamrock's right ear lobe.
 
David and Billy heard the word “detention” mentioned before they were out of earshot.
 

“I guess you'll make it home in one piece after all,” Billy said.

“Yeah.
 
Thanks for sticking up for me.”

“No problem.
 
I don't think it did any good, though.”

As they walked across the school parking lot toward the sidewalk, David felt his heart pounding.
 
He often got palpitations if something caused his adrenaline to pump.
 
Sometimes it happened if he was excited, nervous, or anticipating something such as a doctor's visit, a test at school, or a conversation with one of the pretty girls.
 
He had to be careful, his doctor had told him.
 
Whenever he had palpitations, David was to stop what he was doing and breathe deeply.
 
He was to relax and mentally push the anxiety away.
 
Sometimes he could do it pretty well.
 
Other times it was more difficult, depending on the situation.

David stopped walking and sat on the curb.

“You all right?” Billy asked.

“Yeah, I just gotta sit a minute,” he said.
 
He closed his eyes and breathed.
 

“You sure?”

“Shhhh.”

“I can go get someone if you want.”

“Quiet, Billy!
 
I'm trying to meditate.
 
It's okay, really.”

“Sorry.”

“You go on.
 
Come over to the apartment later.
 
I gave you the address.”

“I'll stay if you want.”

“No, really.
 
Go on.
 
I think I want to be alone,” David said.
 

“Well, all right.
 
I'll be over in an hour.”
 

“Okay.”

Billy walked on.
 
David figured that one advantage to living in the new apartment was that he was closer to Billy's house.
 
They had planned to walk to and from school together, at least until they got into high school.
 

David continued his breathing exercises and eventually calmed down.
 
The scary thumping in his chest eased up and finally he was able to stand and continue the trek home.
 

He hoped this wouldn't become a daily occurrence.

D
avid opened the door and found Billy standing on the stone stoop where Diane had placed the “Welcome” mat.
 
The apartment was on the ground floor of the complex and in many ways was more like a duplex than an apartment.
 
Each dwelling had its own separate façade that indicated the apartments were individual homes—they were just connected to each other in one large building.
 

“What's up?” Billy asked.

“Nothing.
 
Come in.”

Billy walked inside and David shut the door.
 
“You feeling better?”

“Yeah.”

Billy nodded his head in artificial appreciation as he dropped his backpack on the floor and moved through the main room.
 
The apartment was still full of boxes and other signs of a recent move.
 
“So this is the new place,” he said.
 
“Nice.”

“It's all right.
 
We sure don't have a lot of room.”

“What did you do with all the stuff that wouldn't fit?”

“I guess mom sold it.
 
Remember we had that aquarium?”

“Yeah.”

“She got rid of that.”

Billy went to the glass door that faced the back yard.
 
“Big yard,” he said.

“It's not all ours,” David explained.
 
“It belongs to everybody.
 
We have that little deck and the grill, but that's about it.”

“Where's your room?”
 

“Back this way.”
 
David led his friend into the hallway and into the first bedroom on the right.
 
His room was almost half as big as his bedroom in the old house and David was having a hard time finding a place for all his things.
 

Billy looked at the mess and nodded some more.
 
“Nice.”

“Not really,” David said.
 
“But maybe after we get some shelves on the walls and I get this junk off the floor, it might be.”

It was obvious that they really didn't have room to play in there.
 
They moved back into the living room but bypassed the television and went straight to the kitchen.
 
David opened the fridge and asked, “You want anything to drink?”

“What do you have?”

“Orange juice, some sodas, some beer…”

“I'll have a beer.”

“Yeah, me too.”
 
David tossed a Pepsi to Billy and took one for himself.

“So what do you want to do?” Billy asked.

“I don't know.
 
We could go outside, I guess.
 
Or watch TV.
 
But we don't have cable yet.”

“Is your DVD player hooked up?”

“I think so.
 
The VCR too.”

Billy grinned mischievously.
 
“Great.
 
You won't believe what I've got.”

“What?”

“You'll see.”
 

Billy grabbed his backpack and unzipped it.
 
He removed a videocassette housed in a plain, white box.
 

“What's that?” David asked.

“I found a box of porno movies in our crawl space the other day,” Billy said.
 
“They belong to my dad.
 
I watched one of them at home when he wasn't there.
 
Pretty incredible stuff!”

“You're shitting me.”

“No, really!
 
They're pretty old.
 
You can tell ‘cause the quality isn't very good.”

“Is that one of them?”

Billy wiggled his eyebrows.
 
“Uh huh.
 
I haven't seen this one yet.
 
I just grabbed one out of the box and thought we'd watch it together.”

“Far out!”
 
His friend's enthusiasm was infectious.
 
David quickly forgot the warnings going off in his head and turned on the television.
 
He slipped the cassette into the VCR and the two boys sat on the couch to watch.
 

After the initial leader passed, a company logo appeared—Erotica Selecta Films.

“This one's by a different company,” Billy observed.
 
“The one I watched before was from some Swedish studio.”

David didn't say a word.
 
His eyes were glued to the screen as the main titles came on.
 
The name of the feature was
Blondes Have a Helluva Lot More Fun
.
 
The stars were Lucy Luv, Angel Babe, Karen Klinger, Pete Rod, Jerry Zork, and Paul Stud.
 
The boys laughed when they read the names.
 

The movie was shot on film and was obviously a low-budget production.
 
Although it was in color, the picture was grainy and had a home-movie quality to it.
 
Still, it was clear enough.
 

The story opened on a housewife who says goodbye to her husband as he goes off to work.
 
She is blonde, of course, and is wearing a dirty old bathrobe.
 
David felt as if the actress was familiar to him, but he couldn't place how.
 
Nevertheless he responded to something about her, for his heart began to beat faster.
 

The woman sat at the kitchen table and began to look through a fashion magazine.
 
As her blue eyes lingered over the ads of women wearing lingerie, she slowly loosened the front of the robe and reached inside.
 
She began to caress and squeeze her breasts.
 

“Holy shit!” Billy editorialized.

It didn't take long for the actress to open the robe completely, revealing a completely naked body.
 
She closed her eyes and began to touch herself between her legs, fantasizing about something that only she knew.
 

“Whoa…” Billy murmured.

Before the woman got very far in her self-pleasure, her doorbell rang.
 
She looked up, surprised, and quickly closed the robe.
 
She got up and the camera followed her to the front door.
 
She looked through the peephole and saw the mailman holding a package.
 

“Yes?” she asked.

“Package, ma'am,” he called through the door.
 

She opened it and saw that he was an attractive young man, well built and tall.
 

The camera came in for a close-up as she grinned wickedly and invited the mailman inside.
 
The actor playing the mailman adequately conveyed surprise and naiveté as he brought the package inside.
 
The woman closed the door behind her and locked it.
 
She told him to put the package on the table in the entry hall, then led the boy to the sofa in her living room.
 
Before he could protest, she slipped off the robe and stood before him in all her glory.