He keeps checking his phone and reading texts. “Are you still nervous around girls, virgin boy?”

My stomach starts to bounce. “Of course not. Why?”

“Because we’re on our way to meet a special one.”

I feel my Adam’s apple rise as I swallow.

No wonder he gave me that weird look when I showed him the condoms.

————

Her name is Mandy Frack. I don’t know her. She attends a private school in Dearborn and lives on the other side of Michigan Avenue in snobby Blaine Heights. According to Tank, she’s been showing up in the bleachers at wrestling clinics all summer and is totally hot for him. Apparently, some of his fellow teammates noticed her constantly eyeing him and recently decided to set them up.

“And tonight’s my night,” Tank says to me just after we cross Michigan Avenue, about to enter the city known for its tri-levels, colonials, swimming pools, and white-collared men with high-paying jobs. “Her parents are out of town. She told me to meet her in the backyard around twelve-thirty. She’s been texting me all night. She has a pool, Zach.” He rubs his hands together, excited. “Man, I haven’t been with a girl since June. Feels like years ago.”

“So what do you want me to do, watch?”

“No, idiot. I told her I had a friend … a virgin friend.”

“What?” I say. “Dude, I can’t believe you said that.” I pause. Tank’s laughing. “Yeah, very funny, Tank … so what’d she say?”

“She said she loves making virgin wrestlers happy.”

“I don’t wrestle, so I guess that counts me out.”

“Oh, you wrestle, Zach,” Tank says, laughing again. “You do now, anyway. I lied a little to help you out, told her you wrestled but hurt your ankle back in May and have been rehabilitating all summer.”

“Uh … thanks,” I say and fall silent, trying to brainstorm a way out of this mess. Here I am, a seventeen-year-old virgin with what appears to be a golden opportunity to finally have sex, yet I can’t go through with it because I’m saving myself for my one true love, who happens to be the twin sister of the guy who’s working so hard to hook me up right now.

Tank says, “You’ll have to limp a little when we get there. You know, just to make it look good.”

“Fine, but what happens when school starts and she finds out I don’t wrestle?”

“Who cares? At least you won’t be a virgin anymore. Anyway, this girl won’t mind. She’s gets around. It’s not like I’m in love with her.”

I nod. Barely.

Tank says, “I can’t believe you actually have rubbers. That’s a message from above. Tonight’s our night, man.” He pauses. “You ever used one?”