RELUCTANT PRESS

looking at. What the hell, I thought. Since I had no choice anyway, I might as well go along with the fun.

We coated one another's fingernails and toenails with an array of shades of red and pink polish. Maybe it was the fumes from the polish but when we were done we were all very giddy and it must have been quite a sight to see the five of us waving our fingers in the air to dry our nails as we laughed uncontrollably.

"Anyone for a little game of poker?" asked Linda with a devilish look on her face, shuffling a deck of cards.

The girls all seemed anxious and I thought, "now you're talking a real man's game."

"When will your Mom be home, Susie?" asked Linda. "Oh, not for another couple of hours. We're safe, let's get the stuff. We're all eighteen, right? So we're legal."

"Yeah, legal with the law but not with your mother," Karen quipped and everybody laughed.

Linda and Susie went out to Linda's car and returned with a six-pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes. Everybody gathered around the table and lit up and took a swig of beer right from the bottle. I had never smoked nor ever had a drink, but I followed suit, just to be "one of the guys".

The poker chips were distributed and the cards dealt. The girls had their own rules for playing and the one with the least chips after three hands had to stand up on the table and remove an article of clothing. Since none of us was wearing anything more than a nightie and panty, it did not take long for two of us to be completely naked and two others to be sitting with just their underwear on. Only Linda had yet to lose.

By this time we were all feeling the effects of the beer which is probably why we did not hear Mrs. Wales come in the back door and catch us all red handed, or more correctly, red faced.

"What is going on here?" she demanded sternly, although not as mad as I would have expected and certainly not as mad as my mother would have been if she had walked in on this orgy.

"Where did you get the beer and the cigarettes? And for gosh sakes, get your clothes on!"

RUFFLES & CURLES

By Kammi Morton

Whoever said chivalry was dead would have been proven wrong that night even if the knight was wearing a flimsy nightie and had his hair in curlers.

"It's all my fault, Mrs. Wales. I'm terribly sorry. I talked the girls into letting me stay for their slumber party so that I might be able to get them to play strip poker and brought along the beer and cigarettes to make it easier to get in the swing of things. They really did not want to do it, but I talked them into it. I take full blame for everything!"

"I should have known better! I thought that you were different from other men, but I can see I was wrong. You're all the same!" shouted Mrs. Wales with obvious bitterness. "It is amazing the lengths you will go to for a little ass. I've a good mind to take your picture and show it all over town. Then we'd see how many girls would even let you get near them, you little pervert!"

The last remark really hurt. I was dressed the way I was because I wanted to please her daughter. But I suppose she had a point. Any guy who let himself be put in a nightie and have his hair curled maybe was a pervert. And the thought that she would show a picture of me to everybody would make me the laughingstock of Meadville.

"Let's go! I'm going to take you home and let your mother see what a darling little sissy boy she has."

Now, I really panicked. Aside from the obvious humiliation I knew that my mother would be most angry about my drinking. I had only recently found out why my mother was so opposed to drinking any alcohol. My father had been killed by a drunk driver and over the last couple of years mother had preached constantly about the evils of drinking. "Please, please, Mrs. Wales. Don't tell my mother. It would really upset her. I'm terribly sorry about what I have done and promise that it will never happen again," I pleaded, now regretting that I had taken the blame for something that I had actually been coerced into.

"Do you think that you should go unpunished for this despicable behavior?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Then are you willing to accept my punishment, without any questions?"

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