Chapter 14

The telephone was ringing for a long time. Betty didn’t answer it. She didn’t have the heart.

Nobody wanted to call her that she cared about. Nobody loved her.

It kept ringing insistently, though, and finally Betty felt curious.

She went to the receiver, and lifted it off, putting it to her ear.

Her jaw dropped when she recognized the voice on the other end of the line.

It was Jenny.

“You haven’t been home all day. I’ve been trying to get you for hours,” Jenny said.

Her voice sounded strangely interested, not at all like the know-it-all that Betty had seen screwing Leonard.

“What do you want me for?” Betty’s voice was dull.

“I was worried about you.”

“How did you get my number?”

“Leonard, of course, how else?”

“But Leonard wasn’t worried, only you, is that it?”

Betty sounded bitter and unfriendly. She was pushing Jenny away with every word, but Jenny wouldn’t be pushed.

“Come on,” Jenny said, “you sound lonesome. Don’t you want to see me?”

Betty was flabbergasted. She didn’t know what to say. This was a strange turnabout for somebody she was beating at her own game not very long before.

“Now should I even want to see you?” Betty said.

“You’ll find out when I get there,” Jenny said. “I’m coming over, okay?”

She was still too flabbergasted to say yes or no, and she dropped the receiver, thinking that Jenny must have gone off the deep end.

Maybe Jenny was just doing what Leonard told her to do.

Betty sat down on the edge of the bed and let her hands droop between her legs. She took hold of her cunt in her hand and squeezed it, thinking what a funny sensation she had there between her legs.

She should be all fucked out, but she was really throbbing with lonesomeness, which always brought on sexual desires.

She began thinking about Leonard again. That was it. Leonard felt guilty about having treated her badly, and now he was sending Jenny around because he was too much of a coward to come himself.

Suddenly she hated Leonard.

She told herself that the last thing on earth she would do was to get even with him. She would get even with him, and then she would be content.

It wasn’t long before someone was knocking on the door, and then Jenny became in before Betty answered.

But the woman she saw was a different Jenny. Very different from the one she had known in Leonard’s arms.

The girl that stood before her looked incredibly young and scrubbed in the face. She didn’t have on the sexy bathrobe, either, and she didn’t look sophisticated in the least.

This girl had almost a look of a young cowboy. It was incredible.

Jenny walked in in a pair of tight jeans that fitted up along her thighs and her crotch.

Betty could see the V shape where her cunt was.

She had on a plaid shirt with short sleeves, the buttons opened down into where her breasts spread.

She had her hair combed back, too, so that her face was very clean-cut.

Betty wondered what was going on.

She looked up at the girl with curiosity.

Jenny said, “You’re different from all the other girls that Leonard brings back.”

Betty muttered something, cursing Leonard.

“That damned prick,” she said. “Why do I care who he brings back?”

Jenny laughed and sat down on the bed next to Betty.

She put her arms around Betty’s shoulders.

She turned the girl slowly toward her, and looked her in the face.

“Come on, where’s your sense of humor?” she asked.

Betty shook her head. “Why the hell should I have a sense of humor, when he used me like a dishcloth?”

“No man could use you like a dishcloth, beautiful.”

“Well, I feel like shit, if you must know.”

“It’s all in your head, sweetie pie. Buck up, shake it off. You’re too young and too pretty to droop around like this. Come on little flower, smile a bit, smile for Momma.”

She chucked Betty under the chin.

Betty felt irritated that Jenny was taking such liberties with her.

Betty then realized that Jenny was touching here, there, and everywhere. She sensed the pressure of Jenny’s fingers all over her body, or so it seemed.

In a second, she suspected that Jenny was going to be cupping her breasts.

So this is it, Betty thought.

Her face flushed with understanding.

She had never been with a lesbian before. It didn’t occur to her that Leonard would know such kinds of girls.

The last thing on earth she suspected was that Jenny would have lesbian inclinations. But here it was.

Jenny wasn’t trying to hide a thing. If anything, she was being very aggressive and letting it all hang out.

“So Leonard gave you my number, did he?” Betty smiled, with a knowing look of interest. “Does he know that you’re here now?”

“No,” she said, with a shake of her head.

“What do you suppose he would think if he found out?”

“He’d split his balls,” Jenny said.

“You don’t care for him much.”

“That’s not true, honey. I love Leonard a lot.”

“I thought I did too,” Betty sounded glum. “You have to get used to the way he is.”

“I never will. I need a guy to take care of me.”

“Must it be a guy?”

Betty’s eyes flickered. “Yes.”

“How do you feel so sure of it?”

“I don’t know. I just have the instinct.”

“Did you ever try a woman?”

“No, I never have.”

Jenny said, “You know, women can be big and protective, too.”

Betty looked at her unbelievingly.

Jenny laughed. She wasn’t at all hurt or discouraged.

“You really owe it to yourself to try.”

“I owe it to myself to get myself a nice guy.”

“Oh, well, that’s true,” Jenny said, “and I could introduce you to others besides Leonard.” Betty felt a new flicker of interest.

“What kind of others? Who do you mean?”

“Oh, I know plenty of fellas,” Jenny said, “I could hang them out on the clothesline if I wanted to. I know so many.”