CHAPTER8

Jules cleaned up the wine glasses and took Arnold out for his last walk of the evening. He was tired, but talking about Julia earlier that evening made him want to work on her corsage before he went to bed. When his eyes felt heavy and he no longer trusted himself to handle a knife, he brushed his teeth and got into his bed, thinking about Bethany having that intense orgasm just an hour or two earlier. As his eyes closed, Arnold jumped onto the bed and made himself comfortable near Jules’feet.

THEN:

Fifteen-year-old Jules chugged milk straight from the carton, even though his mother admonished him whenever she caught him doing this. But she wasn’t home and he needed fluids and nutrition quickly, so milk seemed like the obvious choice. He and his friend Dennis had spent the hot August day together. Even though high school was not in session, the athletic department allowed students to come and use the gym as long as the proper consent forms and releases of liability were signed. They worked out together in the primitive and basic manner fifteen-year-old boys work out. No warm-up beforehand, no knowledge about what a balanced workout should look like, and no stretching afterwards. Just a lot of dumbbell curls to make their biceps lookgood. 

“Let’s be realists,” Dennis said. “No one looks at your calf muscles or your back. Babes just want to see bigbiceps.”

Jules found himself laughing uncontrollably. Neither one of them were unpopular, but neither one of them was routinely hanging out with babes other than the girls they were friendly with. And truth be told, Jules had a lot more experience with girls than Dennis, yet Dennis pretended to know what “babes”wanted.

“Dude, in this century,” Jules said. “I don’t think we call the female population ‘babes.’ Julia has made that crystal clear tome.”

Dennis’ face lit up at the mention of Julia. “Well, your sister is definitely a babe, so let’s get working on ourbiceps.”

“In a minute. First, I have to swallow the vomit that comes up whenever you say my sister’s name. You’