She looked up, smiled with half her mouth, showing one dimple. A finger wave before she focused on the floor again. Her parents had more to say.

“Hello, Del.” From her father.

Her mother said, “We hope your family’s well, Del.”

Me and the Griffiths family always got along.

Then they were past us, on the way to Terrier’s office, I supposed. When they were far enough away that the gossip could resume at a comfortable volume, the chatter ramped up. Shianne wasn’t the first Baby-Getter to return to Green Creek, but the “glad it’s not me” relief we felt all around didn’t seem to decay.

Me and Qwan kept it moving. He said, “You talk to her since she had the baby?”

“A text here or there.” An overstatement. I sent her a “congrats” when I heard through the Green Creek grapevine that her kid made it into the world. She hit me back a week later with “thx.” That was the most communication we’d had since school ended last year.

“If you ask me—”

Sensing ignorance, I said, “I didn’t.”

“—that’s who you need to be focusing on. I mean, y’all already got a kid together.”

I lunged like I might punch him. “That ain’t funny.”

He threw up his hands in mock shame. “My bad. Too far. I’m saying though, y’all used to smash. I never got why you backed off her at all. Shianne cute as hell.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Because you probably made it that way.”

If only he knew. Me and Shianne had a secret, one that made Mya’s interrogation at FISHto’s, and Kiera’s warning at church about my “reputation,” so much more ridiculous than anybody knew.

Shianne was the only other person in Green Creek who knew that, really, my participation in Purity Pledge was completely aboveboard. Even if involuntarily.

While she went and got a baby, my sexual status remained unchanged. The same as it had always been. Despite the legend.

I, Del Rainey, was, and still am, a virgin.

Chapter 8

I MEAN, I’VE DONE STUFF. Not a lot of stuff. Some stuff.

You can’t go on as many double dates with Qwan as I do and not get physical occasionally. I’ve had a girlfriend or two. I’ve touched a boob. Once.

I just, you know, haven’t had need of my trusty condom. Yet.

Though everyone at Green Creek who had knowledge of the infamous basement party would tell you otherwise. Me and Shianne included.

The rest of the morning became a stomach-twisting blur of guilt, math, paranoia, science, and a bunch of other things I wasn’t excited or prepared for.

Shianne coming back . . . I wasn’t necessarily worried about her, I didn’t think. She’d kept our vow about what really happened (or didn’t happen) in that bathroom two summers ago at Tanisha Thompson’s for this long. But seeing her again mixed with Jameer’s plan, Purity Pledge, and Kiera’s reaction to my so-called reputation hit like an anxiety bomb.

Tanisha’s party had been billed as a barbecue/cake/ice-cream thing; not even my mom had an issue with it. Us kids would play music and watch movies. Mister and Missus Thompson would be there the whole time! No big deal.