Sex Education

5.

Friday. The weekend was almost within reach. But Ennis wasn't too excited about the weekend considering the fact that that was when his father put the most work on him. He expected this weekend to be even busier than usual because Ennis had been slacking off with some chores this week. He didn't mean to. Everything that had happened this week had taken up a lot of Ennis's thinking time. He could tell when his dad was mad and knew that this weekend was going to be hell. At least he had Sunday to look forward to. The Del Mars didn't work on the Lord's Day, as his momma said.

When Ennis walked into school, he cringed inwardly as he saw Alma walk up. He hadn't talked to her since that evening she had led him off to try and talk him into dropping his pants. He could probably keep on avoiding her, but if he did that, she might say something to her daddy and then Mr. Beers would be over talking to Ennis's parents and who knew what they would even talk about? If anything, he needed to face her now.

But, she acted as if nothing had happened between them. "Howdy, Ennis," she said with her usual bright smile. "Have any plans for the weekend?"

"Chores," Ennis mumbled, turning to head for his first class. She stayed walking right beside him.

"I talked to your momma," Alma said. It looked like she was tempted to reach over and take his hand. He knew she would only want to walk hand in hand, but he couldn't help but think about the last time she had taken his hand. He moved his hand just slightly away from her. She didn't appear to notice. "I asked if you and I could go horseback ridin' on Saturday. She said it was okay."

"No chaperone?"

Alma laughed. "It's only me, silly," she said. "We practically grew up together. Your momma trusts me." She smiled sweetly at him and he was afraid she would try to pull something while on that ride. "Starbright needs some exercise and she hasn't seen her ol' pal Lucky Fly in a few days." Lucky Fly was her horse that she had had for years. In fact, Lucky Fly was Starbright's daddy.

Ennis stopped at the door to his class and looked at Alma. "Not sure if my dad -"

"I'll handle it," Alma said. She patted him on the arm then turned and walked off.

Ennis watched her go, wishing that all it would be was an innocent horseback ride between friends. But the last time he had seen her...

Deciding that it would be fine if he missed his first class, it wouldn't be the first time, Ennis turned and headed for the room Jack's class was in. Jack had said yesterday that Ennis could tell him anything. And since Jack knew everything that had happened between him and Alma, Ennis could go to Jack about this.

He stepped up to the door and gave a light knock before opening it. Jack was standing at the desk, sorting out some paperwork. No one else was there, so thankfully the class hadn't yet started. He stepped in and closed the door behind him as Jack turned his head.

"Ennis," Jack said with a smile of greeting. He put the papers down and turned, sitting on the edge of the desk. "Here to hand in your paperwork early again?"

Ennis had stayed up later than usual working on that paper. He was okay with handing it out in class, but since he was here, he pulled it out of his backpack and handed it over. Jack placed it down on the desk without even looking at it. "I gotta talk to you 'bout somethin'," Ennis mumbled, shuffling his feet. "It's...Alma."

"She tried something else?" Jack asked, appearing concerned. The fact that he cared about Ennis's wellbeing let Ennis know that this was a safe space.

"She wants to go horseback ridin' on Saturday," Ennis said. "Just us."

"You think she'll try something then?"

Ennis didn't really answer the question. "I don't really wanna go," he said. "But if I don't, it'll look like -" He stopped when Jack turned and wrote something down on paper then hold the paper out to Ennis. Ennis took the paper and looked at it.