Claire and Sara met Tonya and Kayla in the lobby of the restaurant and they
immediately gave each other hugs. All four girls were nervous and not sure
what to expect. The last time the four of them had all been together things
had been much different.
The hostess recognized them and said, “Non-smoking, right?”
“No,” said Claire, “smoking.”
The hostess paused for a moment before leading the four girls to the smoking
section.
“Hey,” said Kayla as the girls sat down, “did anyone bring their Bibles
tonight?”
The girls all laughed in unison before Claire said, “No, but I brought
these.” Claire pulled out her pack of Newport 100’s and quickly lit up. The
other three girls followed as the smoke above the table quickly became very
thick.
The girls talked about what had happened all summer before Claire finally
said, “Okay, we all know why we’re here.” Typically Rachel would be the
“leader” of the group when they were all together, but when she wasn’t around
it was usually Claire who tended to steer the conversation and take charge.
“The Rachel thing,” Tonya reminded everyone, taking a drag off her Marlboro
100.
“So what are we going to do?” asked Kayla, “she’s going to not be our friend
when she finds out.”
“You know what I say?” added Sara, “I say fuck Rachel!”
“Yeah,” said Tonya, “the way she fuckin’ thinks she’s some sort of leader to
all of us just because her dad is the pastor of the church we all used to go
to.”
“Yeah,” added Kayla, “Besides, it’s been me and Tonya and you two girls as
best friends for the longest time. Rachel’s always been the odd man out. Fuck
her.”
“Guys,” said Claire, double pumping her Newport, “We’ve all been friends
since elementary school. Rachel hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s us who have
all changed. We need to be sensitive to that. Think about how you would react
if it had been you who was still the Christian and your four best friends had
all changed.”
Tonya thought for a moment and then spoke up, “We’ll give her a chance. I
still want to be her friend, but she has to understand that right now, I
don’t want to change. Maybe I’ll return to the church thing eventually, but
if I do, it will be my decision, not her nagging which will do it.”
The girls all nodded in agreement. They would give Rachel a chance. The girls
sat for a few hours and lingered after the meal, chain smoking and talking
about how their lives had changed that summer.
“So, it appears you were the first one to turn to the `dark side’ Claire,”
said Tonya.
“Yeah,” said Claire, lighting her sixth Newport since entering the
restaurant.
“So who put that pack of Newport 100’s under your car seat?” asked Sara.
Claire laughed. “I still haven’t figured that out. When I first found out you
girls were smokers I thought maybe it was one of you, but I guess not. You
all started after me, and none of you smoke Newport’s.”
“Maybe it was Satan himself,” said Kayla.
The girls all laughed as they finished their cigarettes. They did pray before
leaving – that their friend Rachel would understand. They all knew Rachel
though; it would be a surprise if she still wanted to be their friend…
It was Friday night which, of course, meant it was bible study night for the
five girls. Rachel had called Claire and told said her plane had just landed
so she was going to be about thirty minutes late. Claire told her not to
worry, they would wait for her. It would give the other four girls a chance
to talk before she got there.
Rachel got to the restaurant with her bible in hand. She glanced into the
non-smoking section and didn’t see her friends. The hostess pointed to where
they were sitting – in the smoking section. Perhaps there had been no seating
available in the non-smoking section when they had been seated, Rachel
thought, but that was strange. That had happened before and they had waited
for a table to become available. Besides, they all knew she would be late and
there was no hurry. Rachel sat down and noticed there was something different
about the girl’s attitudes. They all seemed so confident – almost defiant.
“I’ll get right to the bottom line,” said Claire, interrupting the small
talk…
“We’ve all made some changes in our life,” continued Claire, “changes which
you might not approve of, Rachel. Changes which might affect our
friendship.”
“Oh,” said Rachel, somewhat surprised, “what kind of changes?”
“Well,” said Claire nervously, “A lot of changes.”
“Such as?” probed Rachel.
“Such as this,” said Claire, pulling a Newport out of the pack in her purse.
Claire quickly put it in her mouth and lit up. Tonya, Sara, and Kayla quickly
followed suit and pulled their packs out, lighting up. Rachel sat there
silently for a moment without expression before she started laughing. The
girls weren’t sure what to make of her reaction, but they all assumed the
worst.
“So,” said Rachel, continuing to laugh, “You’ve all started smoking. That is
a huge surprise. You know what, though? I can deal with this. Smoking isn’t
going to send you to hell. It just makes you smell like you’ve already been
there. It’s not going to make me not want to be your friends, I guess. It’s
not like you girls are having premarital sex or anything.”
The girls all looked at each other, wondering who was going to speak up.
“You girls aren’t sexually active?” asked Rachel.
There was silence for a moment before Tonya spoke up.
“Rachel, we all lost our virginity this summer.”
“Is this some sort of friggin’ joke?” asked Rachel, becoming upset.
“No,” said Claire, “We’ve all rethought our lives. We haven’t been to church
all summer. We don’t want to go back to church right now. We thought about
being hypocrites and secretly being bad girls, but we wanted to come clean
and be honest about it. We do want you to still be our friend.”
“Rachel,” said Kayla, switching her cigarette to her other hand so she could
put her now empty hand on Rachel’s. “We don’t want to lose your friendship.
We’ve all been friends too long to let it end over something like this. We
want you to be our friend. We all need you to be our friend.”
Rachel looked at the four girls one by one as if she had been betrayed before
she finally spoke up.
“You know what I need?” said Rachel, pausing for a good ten seconds.
Everyone else around the table waited for her answer. “I need a cigarette,”
Rachel finished.
The girls looked at each other in shock before Kayla finally extended her
pack of Marlboro Light 100’s towards Rachel. Rachel pulled one out and
dangled it for a few seconds before grabbing one of the lighters on the
table. She flicked the Bic lighter, putting it within an inch of the unlit
cigarette before taking the cigarette out of her mouth, still unlit.
“You know what?” asked Rachel, putting the Marlboro Light back into Kayla’s
pack. “If I’m going to smoke a cigarette, I’m not going to smoke a Marlboro
fuckin’ Light. I want something stronger.” She paused for a moment as she
looked at the other three girls. “Claire,” she said, “Give me a Newport.”
Claire was surprised that Rachel knew what brand she smoked since she hadn’t
pulled the pack out of her purse like the other girls had, but quickly pulled
her pack out and extended it towards Rachel, who lit up her Newport and took
a huge drag.
“Oh my God, that feels sooo good,” Rachel said as she exhaled.
“When did you start smoking?” asked Sara.
“Actually, I quit smoking three months ago – at the beginning of the summer.”
Rachel replied as she double pumped her Newport.
“Really?” said the other four girls almost at once.
“Yeah,” said Rachel, smoking as if she was making up for lost time. “You see,
I’ve been living sort of a double life since the beginning of last school
year. You know that cute older guy Craig in the choir at church? I’ve been
going out with him for a little more than a year. All those times when you
thought I was out witnessing for God I was probably at his house fucking him.
“But I felt really guilty about it, and I was afraid that I would be caught.
I was afraid I would lose all of you girls as friends. I felt dirty and knew
I needed to get back to God. I guess what made me really want to change was
that I had tried to get one of you to start smoking. I desperately wanted to
have a best friend. It was always Claire and Sara *and* Tonya and Kayla, but
I always seemed like the odd person out. I thought if maybe one of you
started smoking, I could come out of the closet as a smoker and then I’d have
one of you girls as my best friend. I never thought I would actually succeed
in getting her started, but it appears I was successful.”
Claire took a drag off her Newport as she finally figured out how Rachel had
known her brand preference…
“So you put a pack of Newport’s under my car seat in the hopes that I would
find it, try it and like it?” asked Claire. Rachel started crying.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I regretted it almost as soon as I did it. I tried to
find a way to get them out of there, but couldn’t without getting caught. I
guess I originally figured since your parents smoked, you would be the most
likely to start smoking, but I never really thought you would seriously try
it. I thought you would throw them out when you found them.”
Claire lit another Newport, which gave her a few more seconds to respond.
“Rachel,” Claire said, exhaling, “You didn’t get me started smoking. It was
all me. Everything I’ve done this summer I did because I wanted to. I didn’t
even know about Tonya and Kayla until a few days ago. Maybe I’m just going
through a wild phase and will go back to being a good Christian girl someday,
but I am where I want to be in my life right now. The important thing is that
we all stay friends – all five of us. I think we need to all agree to be
best friends forever before the night’s over, regardless of what we do in our
personal lives.”
The girls all nodded their heads in agreement.
“So, are you going to start smoking again?” Tonya asked Rachel as Rachel
finished her first Newport of the summer.
“I don’t know. I missed my Newport’s all summer. Maybe I’ll buy a pack and
decide after I finish it.”
Claire reached into her purse and pulled out a pack of Newport 100’s. “Here,”
she said, tossing the full pack towards Rachel, “I think I kinda owe you a
pack.”
The girls all laughed, chain smoked and talked about the summer and how much
fun they would be having their senior year of high school.
It started out like any Friday night – sitting in the restaurant, taking
advantage of their Friday night fish fry and hopefully having a good sighting
in the smoking section. Most of the summer, though, had been disappointing.
Sure, there was always the eighty year old woman with emphysema who coughed
whenever she took a hit off her unfiltered Pall Malls but that was definitely
in the category of amusement, not sexual stimulation. I was definitely
overdue for a good sighting.
I had been running later than usual and sat down at my usual spot. I looked
around and then did a double take. Wasn’t that the Friday night bible study
group? Sure enough, there they were Claire, Sara, Tonya, Kayla, and of course
Rachel all sitting in the smoking section. Trying not to stare, I took note
of which brands the girls seemed to smoke.
Watching Sara, a.k.a. “Snow White”, take drags off her Virginia Slim would
surely make the seven dwarfs want to find a secluded spot at the mine to take
care of things.
The way Claire took huge drags of her Newport 100’s was incredible. I
wouldn’t mind sitting in her Mustang, she could give me a pack’s worth of
smoky kisses any time.
Kayla the Barbie doll who smoked Marlboro Light 100’s made me wish I was her
Ken.
Tonya was the surprise. I had always seen her as somewhat of a cute dork, but
tonight she was looking really hot smoking her full flavored Marlboro 100’s
with her full lips. I still hadn’t figured out whether she was Hispanic or
Italian, but it didn’t really matter. If I got a chance; I would love to make
olive-skinned babies with her.
Then there was my dream girl Rachel. I couldn’t tell from where I was sitting
what brand she smoked, but I wanted to get closer and watch her smoke. Maybe
I should join them, I thought. I was nervous, but still felt confident. I
walked over to their table.
“You girls look like you could use some male companionship,” I said, “Mind if
I join you?”
My dream girl moved over and pulled a chair from another table. She wanted me
to sit next to her.
“So, what have you girls been up to the past three years?” I asked.
They told me what had been happening with special emphasis on their
adventures that summer.
“We’re bad girls now,” said Tonya.
“I can tell,” I said. My penis could tell as well, I thought. “Can I bum a
smoke off one of you girls?”
“You want to share with me?” asked my dream girl Rachel flirtatiously.
I looked at the pack of Newport 100’s in front of her. I wasn’t into
menthols, especially Newport’s, but I could get used to them. If I played my
cards right, maybe I could get her switched over to Virginia Slims Menthol
120’s.
I shared a few Newport 100’s with Rachel, making sure to have my hand touched
hers the whole time before I played my trump card.
“Hey, Rachel, you remember when I asked you out when you were a freshman?” I
asked her, thinking maybe she had forgotten.
“Of course,” she said, taking the Newport out of my hand slowly before taking
a drag. “I told you if I ever started smoking I would go out with you. I
guess since I smoke now, I owe you a date.”
I was feeling bold.
“How about tomorrow night at six o’clock?” I suggested.
She double pumped the Newport and blew the smoke seductively into my mouth
before gently touching her lips to mine.
“I got a better idea,” she said. “My parents are out of town on some damned
bible retreat this weekend. How about I spend the night at your place tonight
and show you how wild a preacher’s daughter can be?”
She kissed me again, this time passionately as the other four girls said
“Ooooh.”
We smoked a few more Newports, making out as the five girls continued to
catch up on the events of the summer. I heard the story of how all five girls
had started smoking, which made me really horny. Preacher’s daughter Rachel
and I would surely have a wild time tonight, I thought.
I walked Rachel to her car and gave her directions to my apartment. We smoked
one more as we stood outside her car. I made a note to myself to pick up a
pack of Virginia Slims Menthol 120’s when I went to buy condoms. She took one
last drag off the Newport before giving me a smoky French kiss. In thirty
minutes, I would be in heaven…
As I walked back to my car, I thought about religion. I had never really been
all that religious, sometimes my faith bordered on agnosticism. In that
moment, though, I became a believer. There truly was a God – he had answered
my prayers…