Love and Decay by Rachel Higginson Page A

most
awkward version of the birds and the bees talk ever .
    Nelson dropped his head to hide his smile and
Hendrix’s frown evolved into a harsh slash against his face. He
looked ready to explode. Or melt. Or die.
    Enjoying their reaction I couldn’t help but
push the issue. “Isn’t sex what you wanted to talk to me about? Sex
between a man and a woman?”
    Hendrix shifted on the table and it groaned
in protest. “Yep.”
    “Oh, then let’s talk about sex. Since you
brought me in here to talk about sex . I think we should talk
about it. Sex, that is. What do you want to tell me about sex ? Go ahead, I’m listening. You can say anything you want
to about sex . I have tons of questions too. Questions about
sex, in case you were confused. We could probably talk about sex
for the next four hours. That’s how many questions I have. I hope
you have all of the answers. These questions I have about sex have
been burning a hole in my brain for years. Everything is just so
confusing. What goes where? And how exactly are babies made? I
mean, what is the exact process? Does it hurt? Is it supposed to
hurt? How badly does it hurt? And just so I have some frame of
reference, how many times a day can you-”
    “Stop!” Hendrix practically shouted. “Dear
god, please stop.”
    Nelson’s shoulders shook with laughter, but
he still refused to look up at me.
    I smiled sweetly at Hendrix and raised my
eyebrows expectantly.
    “You’re teasing us,” Hendrix finally
decided.
    “I’m giving you a dose of your own medicine.
Do you have any idea what this has been like for me ?”
    His lips twitched. “I have some idea.” He ran
a hand through his hair and let out a long sigh. “So you already
know the basics?”
    I almost laughed, but I held back. “You’re
about five years too late. Reagan, Haley and Tyler dropped this
bomb forever ago.”
    They stared at me, mouths open, foreheads
furrowed.
    “No, they didn’t,” Nelson argued.
    “They did.” I finally let myself smile. “And
they did a way better job than you two.”
    Nelson threw his hand to the side. “Haley
told me this was a good idea! She encouraged me to speak to
you!”
    “Reagan, too,” Hendrix growled. “That lying
harpy.”
    “I’m going to kill them,” I vowed.
    “Not if I get there first,” Hendrix
countered.
    My eyes snapped back to him. “What even
possessed you guys to think I would need the… talk now? I’m
almost nineteen.”
    They turned a deeper shade of red and stared
at their feet. Hendrix cleared his throat. Again. And said, “I, uh,
I saw you with Miller before we left the Territories.”
    “You what?”
    “I saw you and Miller going at it in the
supply room.”
    My voice reached an entirely new octave of
humiliation, “We weren’t going at it in the supply room! Oh,
my god, Hendrix!” The redness of my face was eclipsed only by the
blush covering his. “We were kissing! That’s it!”
    Hendrix and Nelson shared a look that said
they didn’t believe me. If I’d thought I was mortified earlier, it
was nothing compared to this.
    “You say that now,” Nelson began. “But you
don’t understand guys like we do. Today you’re kissing in the
supply closet, tomorrow you’re six months pregnant and craving
pickles and ice cream.”
    “That is not how pregnancy works!”
    Nelson shot me a superior look and said, “The
point is that it’s better to know what you’re getting into than
make mistakes you can’t come back from. Miller is a guy! He thinks
like a guy. Acts like a guy. Kisses like a guy. Which means when
he’s kissing you, he’s not really thinking about kissing you. He’s
thinking about the next thing after kissing you. And the thing
after that. And all the other things that go after that.”
    I ground my teeth together so hard my jaw
hurt. “First of all, I know what I’m getting into.” Lie . I
didn’t have any clue what I was getting myself into. But I at least
had the physical stuff down. “Second,