Read Online Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown - Free Book Online

you’re doing anyway, Leroy.”
    “Yeah, yeah, that’s the way I figure it. I’m just scared someone’s gonna find out and throw Craig in jail or beat me to shit. The guys at school roll queers all the time. I ain’t up for being blasted to hell, for sure.”
    “Leroy, you screwed any girls?”
    “Yeah, I screwed this blonde whore at the Blue Dog Inn one night. Everybody had a shot at her. I didn’t think it was so great. I mean it was okay but it wasn’t so great. You been fucking around?”
    “Naw, it’s harder for girls. I go doin it and I lose everything, you know. Carrie and Florence would put me in a convent plus the whole damn school would run me to the ground. But I’ll do it on the sly, the first chance I get. See, the real problem is getting the boy to shut his mouth. They screw a girl and they got to announce it to the whole friggin’ world. I got to find a boy with his tongue cut out or something.”
    “You ain’t worried about getting pregnant?”
    “No, I ain’t that stupid.”
    “Do you think I’m a queer?”
    “I think you are Leroy Denman, that’s what I think. I don’t give a flying fuck what you do, you’re still Leroy. It’s kinda cool that Craig likes you and you get to fly around on that big machine. He sounds nice. And he sounds better than pumping some tired whore, who don’t give a shit if you live or die. I mean, Leroy, at least he cares about you. That’s got to count for something now, doesn’t it?”
    “Yeah, but it makes me feel funny inside. Sometimes when I hear songs on the radio, I think that’s how I feel about Craig. That scares me a lot more than getting sucked off. What if I’m in love with him for Chris’ sake? Have you ever loved anybody?”
    “I think I loved Leota, but that was a long time ago.”
    “See, I told you you were queer.”
    “Fuck off. Why have you got to label everything? Get off that jag before I bust you one in the mouth.”
    “That’s the way it is. You ain’t gonna find many people that think like you so you’d better be ready to hear what they call you when you talk to them the way you talk to me.”
    “Guess I’ll find out for myself, because I ain’t shuttin up.” Leroy didn’t look much better than when we started this conversation. He was fiddling with his fishing pole. “You got something more to say?”
    “No.”
    “Then why are you so God almighty nervous?”
    He shifted his weight and stammered, “You said you’d do it if nobody’d tell? I like you betterthan any girl I ever met and well, I got to find out, you know. I won’t tell, I promise I won’t tell, if you’ll do it with me. Come on, please.”
    The thought of doing it wasn’t shocking, it was that I’d never thought about doing it with ole Leroy. “But Leroy I don’t think I feel, uh—romantic about you.”
    “That don’t matter. We’re best friends and that’s better than all that mush.”
    “How are we gonna do it without getting caught?”
    “We’ll go down to the shack back of the lots. Only other person who ever goes there is Ted and he’s at work. Come on.”
    “Okay, it can’t be all that bad, I guess.” We snuck around the far side of the trailer and went down through the palmetto scrubs to the shack. An old twin-bed mattress that had the stuffing half knocked out of it was on the floor. We checked it for snakes and bugs. Then Leroy whips out his thing and jumps on top of me.
    “Leroy, you asshole. Don’t you want to take your clothes off?”
    “I never did that before.”
    “Well, I ain’t fuckin’ unless you take every stitch off. I want to see what I’m getting.”
    “Okay, okay, I’m taking them off.” He tugged at his socks, dawdled with his pants and generally took a very long time. I had my things off in about two seconds.
    “Molly, I never saw a girl without her clothes on except in dirty pictures. You look fine. I can see all those little muscles in your stomach. Your stomach is better than mine. Look. You