CARBON COPY

Chapter 3: Teenage Accountability

Chapter 3: Teenage Accountability

Milton Jacobs High School, Keedon, Georgia (1992)...

      History class had been its usual standard of boring for a rather restless young man by the name of Whitmore J.W. Talton as he sat back against his seat at his desk and did his best not to fall asleep during the PowerPoint presentation that had been going on for hours about the civil war. He had not been alone in terms of finding the class particularly boring, especially when the bell had been due to ring at any moment to signal the end of a rather uneventful school day. He like many of his schoolmates had been looking forward to cutting loose and going on about the rest of his day with no pencils and books to have to deal with. Whitmore Talton had been having a bit of difficulty as of late given his recent growth spurt making him appear older than he had been. He'd recently started the ninth grade and felt more or less out of place with the rest of the students and mostly kept to himself.

He had his fair share of fights due to bullies and standing up for himself but the oddest thing to have to adjust to in addition to puberty with hair sprouting in places it had not been before, was the increased amount of erections he'd been getting as a result of being around a good deal of well-developed girls in his vicinity. He wasn't exactly small below the belt, something he inherited from his father J.W. Talton, and as a result he was prone to a good deal of embarrassment when an unwanted erection due to friction from his jeans had gotten out of hand.

As for the pros, he'd garnered the attention of a few girls who had taken an interest in him following a rather embarrassing assignment in the front of the class when he'd been particularly attentive and they had taken notice. The town's resident handful, Becca Taylor had taken an interest in him and as a result, she became his unofficial girlfriend and did her best to get him alone to see what he'd been truly hiding.

Whitmore had been tall and growing taller by the day given his father's height range and decidedly thin given the increase in his metabolism, another trait from his father, he appeared to be lean in terms of build and less likely to engage in a physical confrontation, unlike his father who often did even as a teen himself.

The boy didn't have the natural charisma of his father often fumbling over his words and inflicted with a good deal of unsteady nerves when talking to girls especially girls who took a heavy interest in him. It was lucky for him that they'd been physically attracted to him as opposed to intellectually due to him always looking like an idiot in conversation.

The bell finally rang and class had been dismissed by the time Whitmore found himself paying attention to his surroundings after trying desperately to will his unwanted erection to go down before he was forced to stand up. He had not been able to get it to do so before Becca made her way over toward him. She blew him a kiss and he nervously gathered his books before filing out of class and heading out front to the parking lot and his father's blue pickup truck.

He'd been an interesting freshman, having been taller than his other classmates in the same year and sprouting facial hair already. Becca and Whitmore had spent quite a bit of time together and it cultivated in his loss of virtue to her one night in an abandoned barn. A barn that his father happened to walk in on them and find Becca getting dressed. J.W. had of course lectured his son on moving too fast with a girl he barely knew, especially with one of her particular reputations of sorts, but he understood the workings of teenage hormones, from his own experiences.

He did however lecture Whitmore on his lack of use of protection when he noticed his son had gone in raw. Whitmore got the impression that he'd been more upset about possibly being an early grandfather and the fact that the boy's mother would lose it if she knew about the incident in the first place. Becca had taken her sweet time getting dressed and flirting with J.W. who rolled his eyes at her and watched his son scramble to rush out of the barn before his mother, who had followed J.W. to lecture him about Whitmore being out so late after he let him go out.

J.W. opted to cover for his son, feeling it worse to have to explain to his wife that their son was a boy no longer and careless enough to lay with a girl without protection. Wilma Jean took one look at the disheveled dress of the unseemly girl Becca and immediately accused J.W. of having an affair.

There was a long argument between the two of them and J.W. took off for six months.

Whitmore had not seen his father since and regretted his part in causing the fight between his parents due to his carelessness and hormones. Finally reaching the parking lot, Whitmore filed into his father's truck thinking of him and wondering when he'd be home after the long absence. His mother had not been exactly cheerful following the incident and mostly ranted and raved about what she'd do to Becca and J.W. if she ever caught up to either of them for their gall in playing her for a fool.

The boy didn't have the heart to tell her that he'd been the one with Becca and not his father but secretly hoped everything would blow over once his father had been home. He hadn't spoken directly to Becca since then but she remained interested in him nonetheless.

Whitmore Talton started the engine in his father's truck and pulled out of the parking lot. He had dreaded going home and the fact that his father had still been gone. As he drove he made too wide a turn and got the unwanted attention of a patrolling sheriff who had clocked his increased speed and pulled him over.

With a sigh, Whitmore pulled over taking immediate note of Sherif Pike approaching the truck. He searched for his permit and was annoyed to find that it had expired and his father had been nowhere around to get him out of this mess, or so he thought.