"The Unplugged Challenge"
Date: 2/19/2017,
Categories:
First Time
Taboo
Voyeur,
Author: brianbigdogsmith
... mine? It’s got a pink skin on it. I’ll cover you.” I thought about it, shrugged. Why not? I asked her to hold mine, and then went back in for it. It didn’t take long; I’d already seen where it was. When I gave her hers, she smiled. “Thanks.” Then Mom came around the corner. She must have come out through the side door instead of from the back, where Krista could see her coming. I imagine she heard something downstairs and snuck around that way deliberately to try to surprise us, to catch us in the act. We both tried to hide our phones behind our backs, but it was too late, she’d seen everything. “That’s it. Just for that, we’re going to two weeks.” “Two weeks?” I cried. It was inhuman. “And every time you break one of the rules again, we’ll go another one. You want to try me?” She held her hands out. “Give me the phones.” Krista sighed and turned over hers. I followed suit. Mom went back inside. “Nice going,” Krista said. “Hey, if I didn’t go back for yours, I would have gotten away clean. You were supposed to keep watch.” She stalked off. Krista made the next move in the rebellion against the Unplugged Challenge. Monday morning, as we headed towards the bus, I joked about another long boring night of board games ahead of us. “Have fun with that,” she said. “I’m spending the night at Quinn’s.” “What? You want to stretch out another week of this?” She smiled. “It’s not against the rules to visit friends after school, so long as I’m home before curfew.” “She’ll just order ...
... you back.” She gave a smug smirk. “How’s she going to do that? It’s not MY fault if I don’t have my cell phone on me, is it?” She had a point, and a good plan. So I copied it. After school I spent a couple hours at a friend’s place, enjoying his Internet while suffering through some of his good-natured razzing about all the ways my life must suck without access. As usual, the rebellion was short lived. By the time I returned home, because his parents wouldn’t let me stay for dinner, Mom was there and guessed what we were up to. I talked her out of extending the punishment on the grounds that we technically hadn’t broken any rules, at least not that she could prove, but that just made Mom make a new rule. No going out to friends without explicit permission. Krista learned of it a few hours later when she made it back. I expected that was coming, but it felt pretty good to get away with it the one time. Mom can talk all she wants about how computers are distancing us from each other, but to be connected again, even for a couple hours, was worth it. However, there was one problem my little rebellion still hadn’t solved. It was probably my biggest problem with the Unplugged Challenge, the one I wouldn’t have told anybody. The boredom was aggravating, of course. Nights seemed to take twice as long and I was almost grateful for school just so that I could talk to my friends. But I could have suffered through all that with only token complaints. My real problem was jacking off. I’d ...