The Contract with America

Chapter Two

        Paul was explaining to the class the solution to a maths problem.  Caroline, who had got the answer wrong, was not paying attention to what he was saying because all she could think about was just how beautiful the six foot three Ghanaian-American boy was with his black curly locks that had recently been permed, deep dark brown eyes and large but even and brilliantly white teeth.  His real name was Kwame although he’d always asked to be called Paul at school after Paul Cuffee and St Paul, his father’s two idols, and he was in every way a gentleman.  In her head, Caroline was trying to picture their coffee-coloured children who, because it was a fantasy, would inherit their father’s dazzling good looks rather than their mother’s poor ones, with the girls being slightly dark Amazons, worthy of the original manless/without husbands/warriors without [one] breast who loved to make war/engage in virility-killing.  Caroline liked the idea of her daughters being the equal of men in battle, an area where women are usually at a disadvantage, and dreamed of running Empires like Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria.  Unfortunately, there was one little problem with her daydream – Paul was gay and most decidedly so.  Caroline, who found labels regarding sexuality to be a bit limiting, had challenged him on this several times but he was obstinate: he was 100% gay.  “But…but…” she’d argued, “how can you be so sure?  Anyway, I’m basically a man in a woman’s body, I just don’t see the point of a sex change because I…well, like the crazy wackjob feminist that I am, I don’t see gender definitions as any more useful than sexual orientation ones.”  Paul had taken this challenge on the chin and merely laughed it off.  That was one of the things Caroline liked about him: he didn’t take anything seriously, even an ugly girl hitting on him.  All things considered, Paul was probably her best friend in this place.  He was certainly the one who put up with her the most!

        “Heya, did I make sense there or did I sound like a total dork?” Paul asked as he slipped back into the seat next to Caroline.  The class was meant to be working independently now and there was enough general chatter for their conversation not to be widely overheard.

“Uh…”

“You weren’t even listening were you?” Paul chuckled.

“Uh…no, not exactly,” Caroline explained, a dazed expression on her face as she looked at the pretty boy.

“You were checking me out again, weren’t you…”

“No, yes, sort of…”  Caroline blushed.  “I’m sorry I’m just so horny and you have to admit you’re pretty eye candy and I haven’t had sex in…”

“You’ve had sex?”  Paul was agog.  “I wouldn’t have thought it…I mean, seriously, you’re pretty and all and very forward but…sex, that’s serious.  We are talking vaginal intercourse right?  I’m assuming its not anal?”

“Uh…I…actually I don’t know…”  Caroline turned white as a sheet as she tried to recall anything about her sexual history.  “It would have shown up in my medical right?  I suppose I can check.”

“Bloody hell…” Paul gasped as what Caroline was saying sunk in.  “You’d know right?  I’d trust your instincts.  If you think you’ve had sex, you probably have…he must have been a pretty special guy.”

“Why?  Do I look like a prude?” 

“No, no, what I meant was you’re so picky in life, I reckon you’d be pretty picky about who you slept with as well, that’s all.  Come on Caroline, it is pretty cool.  Sixteen and experienced.  If I swung that way…”  Paul raised his left eyebrow suggestively and winked with the same eye.  It was sweet that he was trying to make a joke out of it but, unfortunately for him, what he was suggesting really riled Caroline.