Chapter 1

In high school Virginia was known as being the school slut. It was a reputation that preceded Maxine, who was three years older than her.

Maxine seemed to embrace the label so carelessly and over the years Virginia found herself envious of it because when the rumor mills flowed with talk about her she let the label define her. Other times Virginia felt enraged by Maxine. Her flirtatious personality made men so willing to fall at her feet and she adored the attention. She made her life seem so glamorous and fun, but in actuality Virginia questioned whether it was Maxine calling the shots or if the men did.

Maxine lived her life in what Virginia liked to think as spurts of happiness. Similar to a rollercoaster, her emotions peaked and dropped constantly in big never ending circles. She loved the thrill of the chase, the moments of desire and the consumption of passion. Those high moments of her life only lasted two weeks at a time. Eventually she would run out of tickets and have to buy more to get on the ride again only to find she was sitting next to a person completely different from the last.

One of Maxine's favorite past times was to crawl in Virginia's bed in the middle of the night and gush about her latest and greatest. She described every detail about her "something new" down to the last drop of sweat that rolled off his body during their tryst in the bedroom.

When Maxine was sixteen she had a crush on Jorge, a teaching intern, in her world history class. Jorge was a new graduate of the local college and he was what Maxine described as “full of possibilities.”

Some time during her one year relationship with her boyfriend, Jared, Maxine realized that she was bored. Jared was well-liked, popular, cute and rich. He was a catch, according to high school standards, where only status, impressions and appearances seemed to matter.

“You’re so lucky.” Her friends would crowd her locker almost immediately after Jared left for his first class every morning.

“What do you mean?” Maxine replied. At first this was Maxine’s way of being humble, but after six months of the same old routine she really wanted to know what the big deal was.

The answer was a little bit different everyday. “You are like soul mates.”

“You are like the couple to be…the ultimate couple.”

“You are totally gonna be like high school sweethearts.”

This was all fine and dandy, but Maxine daydreamed about the spark that Jared never seemed to give.

Then Jorge came along and Maxine noticed a shimmer in his eye when he smiled at her. Maxine always knew that she was beautiful, but whenever she felt Jorge’s eyes bestowed her she felt vigorous, flirtatious….sexual. He had big hands. They were tan and strong and all Maxine wanted to do was touch them. When Jorge would come by to place her last graded essay on her desk she would take the chance to touch his hand lightly as if to ask him a question. He would look down at her and smile with that twinkle and then she would think of what it would be like to have those hands on her.

This scenario went on for months, until Maxine saw Jorge at a bookstore. She was suppose to be picking up a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird for her literature class, but was flipping through the magazines instead. She was just about to pick-up a copy of the latest prom special and saw Jorge standing in the cooking section.

“It’s nice to see you interested in something outside of dead people.” Maxine cooed sneaking up behind him.

“I’m a man of many talents.” He laughed wholeheartedly.

Maxine peered over his shoulder. She saw his big hands turning the pages of a sushi book. “It’s only a talent if your food actually is edible.”

“You probably won’t die from it.” He said, warningly, “but food poisoning might be in order.”

He looked over at her and Maxine felt a rush of boldness. She placed her hand inside his book, between his big strong hands. “Maybe…you could teach me something.”

This smile that he dealt her wasn’t at all like the others. He seemed almost as daring as her. “Perhaps, I can.”

That evening right before dinner Maxine sauntered into Virginia’s room. She sat down on Virginia’s bed, her legs swinging back and forth. Virginia looked up from her homework and raised a questioning eyebrow.

Although Maxine had many friends she would always say that they were nothing like the bond she felt with her own sister. Virginia remembered a particular incident when they were children at the grocery store with their mother. Maxine begged forever for mother to buy her a pink princess purse that she saw in the toy section. Maxine was already on punishment from a week before when she stole the neighbor’s cat and mother found out that Maxine had been hiding the creature in her room for the past week.

Mother looked outraged at Maxine’s lack of concern for her crime. “How dare you even ask, Max? You know that you’re grounded.”

“Can I have it after I’m done?” Maxine pushed.

“We’ll see.” Mother replied.

Maxine hated that expression. It was something that Mom obviously copied from Dad. Maxine knew that when daddy said, “We’ll see.” It meant, “No.” Maxine was not a big fan of false hope.

When they arrived home that night Maxine pulled Virginia into her bedroom. “You are my confident.” She just learned that word from one of the older kids down the block and was intrigued that you could have multiple words that all mean the same thing. She had a theory that their were secret words that adults used to make sure children didn’t understand them and was determined to learn this so called adult language.

Virginia wasn’t even sure what it meant, but forgot to ask as soon as Maxine pulled out that pink purse from her jacket pocket.

As they got older Maxine and Virginia grew somewhat apart. Especially when Maxine entered her freshman year of high school and Virginia was still only in the sixth grade. Maxine was going through her teenage years, something that Virginia couldn’t possibly understand until she got there herself. They only reconnected when Maxine had something to be said that she could not tell anyone else.

“The TA for Mr. Hendrick’s class….” Maxine paused.

“Mr. Casa?” Virginia asked.

“Jorge.” Maxine corrected.

“Uh...huh.”

Virginia sat up on her bed, crossed her leg Indian style under her and prepared herself for Maxine’s news. Maxine’s decisions weren’t always sound, but you can’t say that they were ever anything to yawn about.

“I saw him today and he invited me back to his place.” She confessed.

Virginia shrugged, “Yeah….so?”

“Welllllll…..” Maxine liked to draw stories out. She wanted to people to hang on every word and found it funny when they leaned in to watch them fall out of her mouth.

Virginia never had much patience for this. She explained to Maxine several times that it didn’t make her story any more interesting just because she wanted to make a novel out of it.

Maxine looked up at her sister and on cue she recognized Virginia’s annoyance. She smiled and went straight to the point just like Virginia wanted. “I slept with him.” Maxine blurted.

Virginia’s jaw dropped. Maxine had done some outrageous things, but her relationship with Jared was always so stable. Virginia actually found Jared comforting because she knew that he kept Maxine grounded.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before.” Maxine continued, “It was like the ground moved.”

Virginia followed this by a look of disapproval. “What about Jared?”

Maxine didn’t seem the least bit guilty. “Jared is so domesticated. He’s just a boy.” She lowered her voice to barely a whisper, “plus he’s never done or has made me felt what Jorge has.”

Virginia was speechless. This wasn’t at all like the time Maxine had confessed to losing her virginity to Jared. During that moment Virginia was so curious about sex, she was hanging on Maxine’s every word and bombarded her with questions about what it was like. This time Virginia shook her head not wanting to know the details.

Maxine didn’t notice and went on to talk about how Jorge immediately kissed her as they got in the door to his apartment and how she felt all fiery inside. She pointed out every spot on her body that Jorge’s hand grazed. “And then….something amazing happened.” Maxine exclaimed, “I felt all this passion build up at the pit of stomach and it just turned into like…this huge knot and all of a sudden I felt like this incredible release….it was like….I was being shot of a cannon.”

Virginia didn’t know what the hell Maxine was describing, but it couldn’t have been anything greater than making love to her love Jared, could it? “He took advantage of you, Max.” Virginia told her.

It was Maxine’s turn to be surprised. “No, he didn’t.”

“He’s almost ten years older than you. Of course, he did. That’s what college guys do.”

“He’s graduated.” Maxine corrected again.

Virginia frowned. “That’s even worse.”

“Oh, what do you know? You’re still a virgin.” Maxine rolled her eyes, ready to dust off any advice that Virginia could give her.

Ever since, Maxine seemed obviously aware of her own sexuality. Sex empowered her because she felt that it was the only way to make a man quiver. She dumped Jared soon after, to the shock of many girls in her class, and started seeking men who gave her that spark that she was looking for.

The students whispered about Maxine's escapades, but Maxine took no notice. She continued to clutch pillows and roll around in Virginia's bed in fits of giggles like clockwork every other week. Her escapades made her feel like she was alive. "It's like having wings." She would say when she felt the highest of high. People saw this activity as rebellious and reckless, but Maxine saw it as an adventure.

Virginia was never nearly as boy crazy as Maxine, but the boys seemed to think she was. During Virginia's freshmen year the boys would flock to her trying to claim their territory. It was partly due to Virginia's silky black hair, gray mysterious eyes and angelic skin, but mostly it was because they expected Virginia to give into her lust as easily as Maxine had.

Virginia was careful to not follow in Maxine’s footsteps.

Mother always told Maxine, “It’s not ladylike or respectful to have so many boyfriends. Who will want to marry you after they know you’ve been with so many other people?”

Their mother was very tied to traditional and religious Asian customs, one of the things that Maxine fought with her about constantly.

“Nowadays, mom, no one cares about that anymore.” Maxine pointed out.

Virginia was quite opposite from Maxine’s liberalism. Virginia believed in white picket fences and fairy tale romances. Wasn’t it every little girl’s dream to meet a prince, fall madly in love and spend the rest of your life with him? If her mother’s words were true, Virginia wanted to make sure she was qualified.

Virginia gave her virginity away to the star player and the captain of the high school basketball team, Tommy. She dated him for over six months in her sophomore year and only let him get as far as second base. He pressured her more and more the longer they dated, but she was convinced that he would value her more the longer he waited for her. Three months before senior ball, Virginia decided that would be night she would give into Tommy’s desires. It would be perfect. She would look stunning in her gown, they would dance the night away and end the night in the most intimate of settings.

Now, that Virginia looked back on it. She laughed at how cliché the thought was. Of course, when the night arrived it was nothing like she imagined it would be. Tommy certainly didn’t make the ground shake like Maxine described it should be like. Virginia didn’t really expect it to since the whole event from the time they entered their hotel room to the time Tommy groaned on top of her was a duration of ten minutes. No man, under those circumstances could make even a murmur.

Virginia wasn’t the only girl that gave her virginity away to Tommy. A week after, he broke up with her for a freshman on her cheerleading squad and continued this cycle until he graduated five months later.

During those five months began the downfall of Virginia’s reputation. Leo, Tommy’s best friend, asked her out the second he broke up with his girlfriend, Lindsay of two years. Virginia had always thought he was cute and she even sometimes playfully flirted with him, but it was never in her intentions to take it any further than that. However, Virginia saw this was a great opportunity to make Tommy see what he had given up and to prove that she wasn’t the least bit upset by his betrayal.

At the time Virginia didn’t realize what a mistake this was. The cardinal rule to stay away from your exes best friend was never relinquished to her, a lesson that Virginia had to learn the hard way.

A few days after, Lindsay got wind of Virginia’s date with Leo and leisurely waited for Virginia at her locker.

“Stay away from my boyfriend.” She warned.

“We’re not even together.” Virginia informed her.

“You’re about to get you grubby little hands all over him.”

Virginia scrunched her face in confusion. “I thought you were broken up.”

“We’re on a break!” She exclaimed.

This only made her more confused. “What’s the difference?”

Lindsay was certainly annoyed. As president of the senior class she was use to barking demands and was certainly not thrilled that Virginia wasn’t meekly agreeing with her. “You’re a slut.” She said.

Virginia gasped. She knew that there were whispers about her slowly making its way to each individual person at school. She had already decided yesterday that she would tell Leo that she could not go out with him because of the circumstances and she was sure that once she did that the subject of her and Leo would fade away just like so many other things did in high school.

“…just like your sister.” Lindsay added.

This moment was the moment Virginia feared most. Being the topic of gossip is one thing, but when Lindsay voiced those four letter words out loud to her face the ridicule felt so much more real.

Even after Lindsay walked away the word never seemed to leave Virginia alone.