sex.
***
I thought I was special and then at a party a coworker was like, "Oh, I slept with him." I was like, "Really?" Then this other girl was like, "Yeah, me too." Later I found out that he had sex with almost every girl in that office.
Rhonda, 26
New York, NY
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POPSICLES AND COTTON CANDY
Mandy, 18
I grew up pretty tight with my cousins and I was always the youngest. They all follow the Insane Clown Posse and I went with them every weekend to Juggalo barbecues. A Juggalo barbecue is just smoking, drinking, grubbing with a bunch of other ICP fans. Everyone paints their face and braids their hair and bumps music from their cars. Just white trash kids hanging out, something to do on a Sunday.
There was this boy there about my age. Everyone was like, "You should hook up with this kid, Garrett. He’s really cool." It was not like they forced it to happen but everyone pretty much expected one day we would. And one day we did. We had our faces painted like Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, which was pretty cool. We were drunk, had sex in the woods, and I never talked to him again.
I stopped hanging out with my cousins after that. I stopped drinking and stuff, got away from those kind of people.
***
I wasn’t waiting for some magical moment. I mean, you’re putting something in your crotch and making it bleed. There’s no magic there.
Amy, 22
Brooklyn, OH
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TAKE HOME SEX ED. TEST
Molly, 25
It was my freshman year of high school. My boyfriend, Patrick and I had phys. ed. together and so when exams came, since there wasn’t a P.E. exam we all got three hours off in the middle of the day. We decided that since we didn’t have anything to do that we would catch a ride with some seniors to his house.
This had all been planned out. I was 14, I didn’t have anything sexy so I stole some black underwear and a matching pretty bra from my mom’s underwear drawer. Patrick was always badgering me about it and I "loved him" so I was going to do it. And once the wheels were in motion, once we were on our way in the back of the seniors’ truck, and once we were in his room on the top bunk next to the ceiling it’s not like you can say, "Oh, never mind. I’m uncomfortable." I almost said no, but once your pants come off you can’t just back out of it. I mean the poor guy had been trying for six months. He makes this whole elaborate plan, and he didn’t have a house key because he was only 15 years old so he had a secret key made to get us in – all so the parents couldn’t find out. You’re at his house, you’re in his bunk bed… you gotta do it.
Afterwards we walked to the mall, met back up with the seniors, caught a ride back to the school and made the bus ride home. His whole plan worked without a hitch. It wasn’t fun but I’m glad I got it over with. We were a 14 and 15-year-old in love, but how in love really are you? You’re just so dumb at 14.
And it hurt to walk back to the mall.
DO ALL LESBIANS GO THROUGH THIS?
Kara, 27
The first girl I ever dated or slept with was a girl I met my freshman year of college. I went to my first year of college in Southeastern Kentucky and I met her through some mutual friends. We had an algebra class together. Because I went to church, I was like the "good girl." I never really had huge crushes on girls but just some slight curiosity. I dated guys but it was a take it or leave it kind of a thing. And I grew up in the bible belt, Southeastern Kentucky, where there were all of maybe five gay people in the area and everybody knew who they were. I actually ended up hanging out with the gay people even before I came out and it got around to my church director, everybody knew everybody’s business down there, and he was like, "If you believe homosexuality is OK then you don’t belong here." Anyway she was in my algebra class in college. We never talked except, "Hey do you have a pencil?" or asking the answer to a question or something like that. But I was
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