2

Memories of that night returned to her, vivid as sunlight rays casting their brilliant light upon the earth. What they called The Last Party had ended and all the guests were gone, leaving a messy living room for Inara and her friend Zee but that wasn’t their problem.

Having nothing to worry about, they were seated over a deck of Whot Card game, willing to bet some part of their allowances already laid down on the floor as the house keeper in Zee’s home cleaned after the guests.

Inside Zee’s room where they were, no one was winning and the game was getting boring hence, Inara dropped her remaining cards onto the furry rug in the middle of the room where they were seated.

“I'm bored.” she complained to Zee. She was expecting Zee to demand for the backing out penalty fee but Zee didn’t do that. Instead, she seconded her move, laying down her cards as well.

“Me too.” she admitted and they giggled about it.

Inara liked Zee’s home because it was a free place. Zee’s parents were permissive and traveled a lot, leaving her with a lot of freedom. Inara herself barely enjoyed such freedom at her home except when her parents would travel for missionary work like now which had afforded her the luxury of partying and sleeping over at Zee's place.

Her family did not like Zee because they believed that she was a bad influence on her. She had been forbidden from hanging out with Zee, which was why she often formulated lies just to be with her. As far as she was concerned, Zee was not a bad person. She was just this carefree girl who didn’t take life too seriously and Inara didn’t see anything wrong with that.

Sometimes, Inara wondered if Zee did not really care about people’s opinion of her. Maybe she did care a little. Maybe she did not. Whatever the case, she had chosen not to judge her.

Concerning being a bad girl, Zee smoked though and cursed a lot which was a sin but Inara had taught herself not to let it bother her and lately, she had started cursing too but only when she was not at home or her parents would kill her.

Inara couldn’t help but think that while Zee was living her life, she was busy living a double life and she envied Zee who was who she was.

Inara noticed that Zee’s countenance had become extremely meditative, her blue eyes, glued to the ceiling.

“Penny for your thoughts.” she told Zee and watched Zee’s eyes fall back to her face.

“Inny, this party marking our imminent graduation from high school was great but I want more.”

Whenever Zee called her Inny, Inara always knew that whatever she had on her mind was serious, at least to Zee.

“Okay, so what do you have in mind?” she asked.

“What is the craziest thing that you have ever done?”

Inara juggled her memory and could find none. She remembered when her father had caught her smoking papers behind their home when she was fourteen.

He had grounded her for three days and she had never thought about trying it again, especially after his lectures about the health dangers involved. She did not want to have any heart disease and all.

She relived the event for Zee and watched her chuckle with amusement.

“Well, you were a kid then. How about like recently?” Zee pressed.

“Apart from sneaking around to hang out with you, I don’t know.” Inara responded.

“I thought as much.” Zee commented matter-of-factly and Inara realized that she was curious to hear about the craziest thing that Zee had ever done.

“So how about you?” she asked.

“You don’t want to know.” Zee responded and it made Inara more curious.

“Tell me.” she pleaded, unable to mask her curiosity.

Zee grabbed a cigarette and lighted it. Inara noticed that she didn’t shuffle away from Zee to protect herself from the smoke as she usually used to and Zee smiled knowingly, which meant that she had just noticed it too.

“You did not shift away from my smoke.” she said. “I guess you’re getting used to it.”

Inara shrugged and silently wondered about when the smoke had stopped bothering her. Maybe soon, she would start smoking too. But that was because, Zee had said that it was the smoke that killed her fat and kept her slim. She had recommended it for her and Inara had been contemplating using it to achieve weight loss for herself.

Evil company corrupts good manners her mother would often say but she ignored those words of wisdom. She guessed it was true what her father usually said; When someone wants to do bad, they have already decided it in their heart and always have the perfect excuse to do so. Inara knew that she was getting out of control even though she was still fighting the battle of being completely lost in Zee’s world of craziness.

“Fine, let me tell you about how I lost my virginity.” said Zee. “Have you lost yours by the way? I cannot believe that I never asked but I'm sure you have. All those boys you hang with.”

Inara’s face colored red with embarrassment. She hated the subject of virginity and sex because she didn’t know how to explain that it was forbidden until marriage. Almost all the girls seemed to be having sex and because of peer pressure, she often acted like she was also sexually experienced, in order to feel accepted.

“None of your business Zee, I am not a bloody virgin.”

Zee threw her head back and laughed.

“Who is a virgin these days anyway?” she scoffed and took a long drag of smoke. She took her time exhaling the smoke that she had dragged into her mouth and Inara watched her, enamored. She really liked Zee. Zee was so brazen and self-confident.

It seemed like the house had gone very quiet and they could hear the house keeper whistling away as she worked, cleaning up the mess from the party.

“Nuns are virgins.” Inara offered and they laughed. Silence followed their laughter and Inara spoke again. “Now seriously, how did you lose your virginity Zee?” She was impatient because of her eagerness to hear Zee’s story.

Zee took another long drag from her cigarette and her exhale was faster this time.

“How I lost my virginity huh? Well, long story short, I was in love with this boy some years back and he was busy cheating with some snotty faced bitch. I got mad and decided that I was done being a good girl who was saving her virginity for the right guy. I wanted to be free and have fun so I called a friend of mine to come and get rid of it.”

Hearing what Zee had just told her, Inara was shocked, her mouth hanging open.

“Just like that?”she asked, incredulous.

“Yeah. I just said to him, please come over. I don’t wanna be a virgin anymore. Come and get rid of it. He was speechless at first because, he had been asking me out earlier and I refused. Anyway, he came over and gave me the forbidden fruit if you know what I mean.”

Inara watched Zee laugh, still shocked.

“Zee, that was crazy.”

“I know right.”

“Was he gentle?” Inara asked. Word on the street was that, first time sex for a female was painful. She had tried putting a finger inside herself to confirm the information. And she knew that it was true because, she had felt pain and had quickly retrieved her experimenting finger.

“Very gentle.” Zee responded dreamily.

“Where is he now?”

“He moved to another state with his parents and that ended our bed sessions.”

“Why did you tell me this anyway?”

“Because I want us to do something crazy to mark our growing up. It will be like the icing on the cake after today’s party. Do you really wanna find yourself out there and when you’re asked about the craziest thing that you’ve ever done, you go mute? Nobody wants to hang around boring people. You’ve got to be more adventurous.”

Inara thought about it. She didn’t think that she wanted to be the boring and inexperienced one in the crowd and for a fleeting moment, she wondered if perhaps Zee already found her boring.

“No no no. Don’t get me wrong. I'm not saying that you’re boring,” Zee defended as if reading her mind, “I know you’re from a religious home but I just think that life is too short not to be free once in a while. King Solomon loved God but he wasn’t perfect right? What do you think?”

Inara knew that she had been convinced as she picked up the half-empty bottle of vodka beside her and drained the remaining contents.

“Bring it on.” she responded, replacing the empty bottle on the ground and what followed after, was Zee introducing her to The Last Dare.