“How old were you when you had sex the first time?” she asked.
I was surprised by the forwardness of the question. I laughed and rubbed the back of my head. “Ah, like…fourteen, almost fifteen.”
She made a face, but I knew it was meant to cover somewhat judgmental surprise. “Fourteen, huh?”
I shrugged. “Shania Lautner. She lived in the trailer next to ours. She was sixteen, I was fourteen. Her parents were a mess, mine were always working, so we were both home alone a lot. Well, her folks were always drunk and fighting so she was never in there if she could help it. She came over a lot, and we’d watch TV, drink my dad’s beer, and sometimes steal her dad’s shitty whiskey if he was passed out. And one day, she looked at me, shut the TV off, and took her top off.” I laughed, remembering. “I was shocked as hell. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was a horny fourteen-year-old with a hot sixteen-year-old neighbor, and those bathroom windows weren’t exactly frosted too well, so I’d gotten some looks at her, I’m ashamed to say. But oh boy, seeing her take it off in front of me like that? Coulda knocked me over with a feather.”
She laughed. “Lucky you, huh?”
“I guess so, yeah. She and I…well, I wouldn’t call it dating. We were just kids and it was mostly just sex. But it was some good times. Then she started dating Kyle Kuhn, who was nineteen and had a cool Trans Am, and that was it for me and Shania.”
“Just like that?” she asked.
I waved a hand. “Eh, I knew it was coming. She told me as much. After, one time. She was like, ‘you know, one of these days I’m gonna have to find a boyfriend who can get me the hell out of here, and I hope there won’t be no hard feelings.’” I sighed, because I really did have fond memories of Shania. “She told me before she started dating him. Gave me a real nice last hurrah, and told me she had to stop coming over to see me, because she was gonna start seeing Kyle, and she was gonna get him to move to Lexington with her so she could get the hell out of our shitty podunk little trailer park and shitty podunk little backwoods town.”
Torie was intently watching me. “And? Did she?”
I winced, shook my head. “Nah. He knocked her up, and now they’ve got four kids and she’s cutting hair at a Fantastic Sam’s or something like that, living in a different trailer with him in the town we grew up in.”
“Oof. That sucks.”
I nodded. “The way shit works for a lot of folks. Shania’s mom had her when she was sixteen, and Shania had her first kid at just barely seventeen—sometimes, you just get stuck.”
“But not you.”
I laughed, not a little bitterly. “Yeah, not me. I kept my ass unattached and saved every penny I could. The day I got my diploma, I had my truck packed and I was gone. Didn’t even bother walking in the commencement. Got the diploma from Principal Hyde, and I left from school that very day. I’d already said goodbye to Ma and Dad, and they knew I wasn’t coming back.”
“How’d you end up in New Haven?” she asked.
“You got a lot of questions, don’t you?” I said, wryly.
She pulled a face. “Sorry. I get nosy. You don’t have to answer.”
I waved. “Nah, ain’t got any real secrets. I left town with no clue where I was going, just figured I had to get away. I’d planned on going west; I guess I was thinking California because that’s basically as far from Kentucky as you can get. But I took a wrong freeway exit and ended up going north. So I said fuck it, I’ll go north. I was sort of homeless for a while, lived in my truck. I’d stop at a local mechanic in a random town or city and beg for busy work. Those guys always got brake jobs and oil changes and shitty boring tedious things like that when they’d rather be doing the big-dollar stuff. So I’d do those shitty jobs for cash, and take little enough that they’d make a profit on the job. That work put cash in my pocket and taught me more of my trade. I’d stay in town a few days, then keep heading north.”