You ever play chicken?  Not the car game where James Dean or some other rebel proves he’s the coolest, while some poor fifty seven Chevy that never hurt nobody, goes flying off a cliff, but the one where you and a member of the opposite sex, or rather the sex you’re interested in, cause maybe you’re not so keen on the opposite sex, take turns moving your hand up the others thigh, til someone chickens out.  Chicken???

 This little game held both fascination and terror for me, fear, curiosity, shame, lust, especially lust.  I was thirteen, incredibly horny, and even more incredibly pre pubescent.  It seemed my emotions, and desires were a bit ahead of body hair and the growth of certain external organs.  I was checking daily for a bit of fuzz.  All of my friends were growing hair, and cracking voice, while I remained hairless and squeaky.  One time when a friend only a few months older than me was taking a piss, I took a quick glance.  His dick was so big! And his balls were covered with hair, and above it all was dark thick curly hair like my dad had.  I felt demoralized, less than manly, hence the fear.

 Chicken was a way that I might finally get my hands on some box, but what if they found out I wasn’t really filled out yet.  What would I do, was my shame and humiliation to be trumped by my hornyness.  This was such a tough decision for a young mind.

 My group would go swimming in the lake by the house, jumping off cliffs and hunting for snakes.  We would go pimp beer or score some buds, and then go to the skating rink.  We would work out and then lay out trying to bronze our buffining bodies.  Sometimes getting one of our parents to drive us to Lake Perris, the white trash Newport.  We called ourselves the “buff me buckwheats” I don’t know why, but if you look around in the drainage ditches in western Riverside county you may run into our graffiti.  Well there was this one spot the buff me buckwheats loved to hang out.  It was part of a drainage canal that eventually made its way down to the Santa Ana River.  There was this little waterfall with a cave behind it.  There was only room for two people in there and the water was dirty enough to prevent anyone from seeing inside, not dirty enough to keep us out of it however.  My friend Jeff, who had I am sure a crotch full of hair would go in the cave with his girlfriend for long stretches of time.  We would just splash around in the water trying to stay cool in the desert heat.  Sometimes we would throw shit in the cave to bug them, but Jeff could kick as high as your head and was very respected due to this fact.  Sometimes when he wasn’t in there we would go in and just sit there.  It was really cool if you were stoned.

 Jeff would tell us about what he did in there with his girlfriend.  She was a little pretty, nothing special but had boobs which made her perfect in our eyes.  We believed everything he told us, mainly cause one day we hoped that we would be doing all of these wonderful things he so freely shared with us.  We tried to hide our hardenings, which was easier I was sure for me having much less equipment to worry about.

 One day we were at the waterfall, just sharing two beers that David had taken from home and puffing on a joint of homegrown grass.  I climbed into the cave and waited to be kicked out by Jeff.  But to my surprise Wendy jumped in with me.  Everyone knew that when a guy and a girl were in the cave they were supposed to mess around, that was the rule.  I wasn’t really attracted to Wendy but she was a girl, and I was thirteen, and we were in the most romantic place in the world, a rock cave with a cement roof and a curtain of dirty water.  She was pale, like white pale.  Like ass white pale.  She had to go to the hospital for sun poisoning once.  Her hair was a strawberry blonde, thin and strait.  She was very skinny, and didn’t have much in the way of tits.  She was also a very annoying whiney type, with a pest of a little brother.  But she was female, she possessed the happy box.

 I decided right then to really pour on the charm, “so you stoned?”

 “Yeah, kinda”

 “me too”

 “yeah”

 “I got the new Kiss record, it’s really cool”

 “yeah, I heard it yesterday”

 “you wanna play chicken?”

 “okay”

 I had figured out that if I went first I could get a little feel without letting my little secret out.  I put my hand on her knee “chicken?” she said no.  She put her hand on my knee and asked, I said “no”.  Slowly we worked our way up to the waistbands of our OP shorts.  With each move I got more and more exited, my little wiener was staining out to its full two inches of glory.  My fear of being discovered was over ruled by my desire to experience third base.  My heart raced, my heads throbbed, adrenaline city.  I said “chicken?” and the no resulted in the undoing of her shorts button.  Mine was undone next.  The next chicken and subsequent no resulted in me sliding my hands into her pubic hair.  I was absolutely going nuts.  I think I was shaking.  I had touched bush.  I am sure if I was capable of pre mature emission I would have. 

 Then terror, if I wanted to actually touch the kitty, I would have to say no to the next question.  This would mean, the Sahara desert, the Kojak, the slip and slide.  But if I didn’t say no, I couldn’t go on.  But if I did she would know I was just a boy.  But I really wanted to, but I really didn’t want her to.  AAAHHHHHH.

 I said, “no.”

 And then, that little bitch just pulled my shorts down to my knees, took a good look and jumped out of the cave.  Pure embarrassment, I have never been so humiliated in my life.  I began to wonder if she had been sent into the cave for just this purpose.  I imagined that she was even that moment telling everyone that I didn’t have any hair, down there, that I was hung like a mouse, that I was practically drooling over her.  My life was over.  I would now be the laughing stock of the buff me buckwheats.  I sat in the cave and pondered the utter ruin of my social life, the jokes, the laughter.  One moment of weakness had destroyed my entire life.  I wondered if I could ever come out of that cave.  I wondered if I could part those dirty water curtains and walk into the shame, the humiliation.  I knew they were all laughing and pointing in preparation for my exit.

 But hey, I got some bush. 

 Chicken, what a game.