The next Saturday was the night of Rose’s eighteen birthday party.

Rose and Julie had been close when they were kids but drifted in high school, so Julie had brought Adam with her in case she got bored.

She was standing in the backyard talking to Rose’s mother, Elizabeth, who was asking her if she’d made her mind up about college.

“Well, I’m still waiting to hear back from Wesleyan,” Julie told her, “that’s my first choice. But my parents don’t think I’m ready to move that far from home.”

“Hey, I was seventeen when I moved here, and I hitchhiked across the country to do it.”

“What did your parents say?”

“Well, I’d wanted to run away from home ever since I first read On the Road. By the time I finished high school, I’d been threatening it for years. I think they were just happy I was actually graduated.”

As they made their way into the house, Julie saw Rose and her little cousin Jennifer sitting at the top of the staircase. Rose was showing Jennifer her tarot deck, a birthday gift from her mother.

She walked into the living room and tried to figure out where Adam had drifted off to, while Beth called up to her daughter and told her come downstairs.

“Don’t be so antisocial,” she said to Rose. “All of these guests are here for you!”

Reluctantly, Rose and Jennifer descended the staircase to go mingle with the rest of the party. Beth took the tarot deck out of Rose’s hand. “You can play with your gift later,” she said.

Adam entered the living room and scanned for Julie, who was sitting on a sofa talking to Rose’s grandparents. “Well, Wesleyan is my first choice…” he heard her saying. Every adult she talked to asked her where she was going to college and what she wanted to major in. He bet she was sick of it.

Adam walked up to Rose, who was sitting on the other side of the room.

“Hi. I’m Adam. I’m here with Julie,” he told her. “I just wanted to say happy birthday.”

Julie came up to him and pulled him aside.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know this hasn’t exactly been a great time.”

“No, it’s been fine,” said Adam.

“Well, I can think of a way to make it worth your while,” said Julie. She took his hand and led him to a room upstairs.

Julie closed the door behind them and then started kissing him. He kissed back, vigorously, and the two of them collapsed on the bed. He started feeling up her dress, but then stopped himself.

“Are we actually doing this?” he asked her.

“Why not?”

“In a house full of people? Someone could catch us!”

“Well, I am an exhibitionist, aren’t I?” Julie said with a smile.

She lifted up the bottom of her dress to show Adam her landing strip, made easier by the fact that, as he quickly observed, she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Julie turned around, still holding up her dress, and faced the other direction, showing Adam her butt.

Then, still facing away from him, she lifted the dress completely, and removed it from her body.

Slowly, she turned back around to face him, and reached for the zipper of his jeans.

“Wait,” Adam said.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I don’t have any protection,” he said.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’re not going that far. At least, not tonight.”

Julie pulled down his pants and stared intently at Adam’s erect penis.

Adam looked at her, then back down at it. She grabbed it, and began stroking, gently at first, before turning up the intensity and tugging at it vigorously.

Just as she did, Rose’s sister Amy walked into the room and saw the two of them there.

Julie let go of his penis, but the crescendo had already been reached and Adam was in the process of ejaculating.

“Oh my god,” Amy said, closing the door and walking away from the room.

Julie put her dress back on while Adam tried to find a way to clean himself up.