Page 50 of Be My First

Chapter Sixteen

Juno

“How did we end up heretogether?” Keene says as we walk into the Secret Museum.

Declan shrugs. “Oh, come on, Keene. It’s just art.”

“God, this is going to get awkward fast,” Keene mumbles.

Declan, Maggie, Eli, Keene, Bode, and I stand in front of a fresco.

No one says a word until Maggie speaks, “A lot of these are from Pompeii. The assumption is that they were in brothels.”

Declan tilts his head to the side and continues to look at the fresco. “Well, this would be weird in someone’s home.”

We walk to the next one. Keene scrunches up his face. “Is this a position people do?”

Declan clears his throat and says, “No comment.”

Keene points to it and says, “Really? The geometry of that just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Declan puts his hand on Keene’s back and says, “Geometry? Keene, if there are math equations involved, you’re doing it wrong.”

Eli pinches the bridge of his nose and starts laughing so hard his whole body shakes.

Keene rolls his eyes and then waves his hand in front of the fresco and says, “No, this looks dangerous. I can’t get on board with it.”

Declan just shrugs. “You should never do something you aren’t comfortable with, Keene.”

Keene rolls his eyes again. “I just don’t want to break my dick.” No one comments, and we move to the next fresco.

Eli finally stops laughing and then says, “You know there’s something oddly comforting about this.”

I turn to him. “Comforting?”

He shrugs. “Yeah. Like thousands of years have passed, and people haven’t changed that much.”

I laugh. “Porn is still popular?”

He shakes his head. “No...well, yes, but what’s important to people. Sex is one of the things that makes us human, I guess.”

I feel my face start to flush, so I walk to the next fresco. It’s a painting of a man going down on a woman. I quickly walk to the next one. Why did I agree to come here with them? Honestly, I didn’t think it would be this graphic.

“I’m not sure sex is one of the things that makes us human. Some people are asexual,” Maggie says.

Keene shakes his head. “Not most people. Eli’s right – people haven’t changed much.”

We walk to a new section.

Keene starts to laugh. “Well, there are no small penises around here. This one is like ten times the size of his body.”

“It’s a different time period,” Maggie says. “During this time period, large penises in art were a symbol of fertility.”

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