Free The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle Page A

back.
    â€œJo Spencer, how can you not laugh at ‘exploding breasts’?” Lisa yelled. “Have you ever in your life seen a boob explode?”
    â€œHow could she?” Tricia laughed and slapped me on the back. “She doesn’t have any.”
    â€œWell, the trucker’s loins are throbbing,” Lisa said and held her hand to her mouth like a microphone. “Tell us, have you ever seen throbbing loins?”
    â€œNo,” I said and without even thinking of the teasing that may be ahead, I continued. “Who is that guy over there?” I realized then that I was setting myself up. “I can’tfigure out where I’ve seen him before.”
    â€œPardon me, but haven’t we met somewhere before?” Lisa was still speaking into her fist. “Wasn’t it you whose loins throbbed when my breasts exploded?”
    â€œI can’t believe it.” Tricia shielded her eyes and looked over at the tower. He was standing with his back to us, looking out to the other side of the lake where there was a row of homes. “Jo has actually seen a guy. This girl who always asks ‘who’ when we see good-looking guys.”
    â€œThe space queen has landed,” Lisa said and waved her arms. “Ahoy, stranger!” Luckily his back was still turned.
    â€œI think his name is Red,” Cindy said, at last, a serious answer.
    â€œRed Williams,” Tricia said. “My God, don’t you notice anything? He graduated with your brother.”
    â€œWell, that’s probably how I’ve seen him before.”
    â€œThat and the fact that he was All State track and has throbbing loins.” Lisa threw her magazine onto my towel. “You better read this and if you have any questions, just ask.”
    â€œGive it to Cindy when you’re through,” Tricia said but Cindy was already back beneath her shirt and was too lazy to give any more of a response other than “bull.”
    â€œSo you do want the scoop on Red Williams?” Lisa asked and I shrugged. “You have to say yes or no.”
    â€œI guess,” I said. “You won’t be happy until you tell it.”
    â€œIn a nutshell.” She started with the microphone bit again. “He’s a runner; his real name is Claude; used to gowith Snot Queen, Buffy Paige, and rumor has it that the affair ended when Buffy went to visit her aunt in New York to get rid of Little Red.”
    â€œI don’t think that’s true,” Tricia said.
    â€œWell, still,” Lisa continued, “he has a devious reputation in that sense.”
    â€œWhat sense?” Cindy mumbled.
    â€œIn the sense of making breasts explode, singly, jointly, repeatedly.” By that time, he was back in the water and swimming towards the older group, where Bobby I noticed was still talking to Nancy Carson. I hoped that Lisa would shut up but she was on a roll. “Buffy Paige has got the kind that explode regularly. Look, Jo, there he is.”
    â€œAll I asked was who he was,” I said. “I’ll never ask again.”
    â€œCome on,” Tricia said, finally getting a serious tone in her voice, “you asked because you think he’s cute, right?”
    â€œRight?” Lisa repeated.
    â€œRight,” I said finally to which Lisa clapped her hands, and for the first time all day, shut up.
    Then he was gone, up through the trees, a lingering “See ya, Red,” trailing behind him. The rest of the afternoon, I waited for him to come back, saying that I didn’t have enough sun though my shoulders and nose were already touchy. Cindy, by then, was completely wrapped in her towel so that no skin was exposed, and Lisa, who, thank God, was on the last story, was unable to use her hips for dramatic effect because they had gone fromsnow white to lobster red. Tricia had merely tanned a shade darker, and since several of the college guys were still around, she wanted to