Julie loses her virginity, and she loses her religion too.

The first of these processes was over in a matter of moments. Well, if you don't count the build-up. The second was different. The events of this story were just the beginning of a life-long change in Julie's way of thinking, which was neither completely consistent nor continuous. There were times, especially around life events or family when she went back to feeling quite religious. There were times of stress when she prayed.

But, there was a connection between these two events. After that evening with Sandy, Julie never allowed herself to be dominated or bullied by the Church again. Just as she freely decided, as a consenting adult, what to do with her body, she also decided to take charge of what she did with her thoughts.

Let's go back a bit, to that first Sunday of Julie's first term at College. Julie went back to her room and cried, after the two elders from the Church left. This was hard. She was challenging just about everything in her life; her father and his authority, her family values, the whole framework of her upbringing. If she rejected all these things, what was there to put in their place? What did she have left? And all this was quite apart from the nagging, terrible fear that she might be plotting a route to eternal damnation.

There was a knock on her door. It was Sandy. Julie put her arms on his shoulders and she sobbed.

"It's OK, it's OK," Sandy murmured. "It's OK to go to Church. And it's OK not to go to Church. But don't just go because someone else says so!"

"I don't know what I'm going to do if my dad disowns me, like he did with Kevin!"
They sat down, and Julie poured out the long story of what had happened in their home, since that night Kevin confessed that Katie was pregnant.

Sandy was quiet for a long time. Then he said, "Maybe you could talk to someone? The pastor who took Kevin's wedding? He sounds a pretty reasonable bloke. And the Chaplains at the University, I met some of them them last week. They're OK! They held a joint event for all faiths yesterday. They're not Bible bashers!"

"My father would hate that!" Julie grimaced. "He would say that they're consorting with Satan!"

"Well, I think you should listen to a range of different views!" Sandy concluded, "And think about them all! I'm here for you too. You're not going to be on your own."

The next day saw the start of lectures proper, and Julie was quickly distracted. The first class for each of her course units in year one was an overview, an introduction to a range of subjects which were all completely new to her. Social Anthropology. Archaeology. That looked an interesting one. Julie had always been told that the earth and everything on it had been created only about four thousand years ago. Moral Philosophy; interesting too. Julie thought that right and wrong were all laid down, for all time, in the Word of God. World Religions. Where do you start?

On Thursday a letter arrived. It was from her Henry, her father. Julie was shaking as she opened it. Her eyes scanned the lines and words jumped out. "As you see the Day approaching; sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth; dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses; worse punishment..."

Still shaking, Julie folded the letter back into its envelope. At least there nothing said about him renouncing her, like he did with Kevin. At least, not for now.

That evening Julie wrote back to her dad. She told him that she wanted the chance to make the most of her life. For her to learn and grow. And they should always be able to talk. They might not always agree, but they should never fall out. And that she loved him as her dad.

Sandy seemed to know everyone in the block straightaway, but Julie was always less sure of herself. But she noticed how all the other girls, especially, seemed to reach out to her. They invited her to join them around the kitchen table. They asked what bus she was catching to campus, and would she like to go with them? They always exchanged a few words in passing. Julie did not know, but Sandy had spread a good word about her. He mentioned, several times to the others, that it was not as easy for Julie as it was for most.

Julie worked hard, reading the first chapters of various books and making notes, every evening. After lectures on Friday, she went with Sandy to see a film. It was a rom com. They giggled most of the way through, in between disapproving images of her dad that intruded into Julie's mind. Especially during the kissing scenes. There wasn't any sex.

Then they went out to a restaurant. Sandy ordered a bottle of wine. During her second glass, Julie felt relaxed. It was the first time since last weekend, when she'd had wine with the others, that she'd felt really relaxed.

They took a bus back to their residence and walked in, hand in hand.
They were hit by a wall of noise and laughter from the kitchen. Everyone living in the block seemed to be in there. As they approached, there were whistles and cat-calls! "Oh, look, Sandy and Julie! Hand in hand! The first love birds of term!" A couple of the girls went up to Julie and hugged her.

"Good for you, Julie! It's so good to see you both together!"

Sandy went over to join some of his mates. They went into a huddle and muttered together conspiratorially. Julie was talking to two of the girls who had the water fight with the boys last week, and she remembered that one of them was called Jen. Then Sandy and his three friends came over and stood all around them.

"We've got unfinished business!" Sandy said, pointing at the other girl. Then Julie remembered that she was one of the group who had soaked the boys with water last week, but she had run off before they could get her under the shower or into the bath.

The girl realised that she was surrounded, "Oh come on," she said, "Let bygones be bygones, forgive and forget, and all that!"

One of the boys growled, "We never forget!"

"Oh, are you an elephant, or something?"

"That does it, are you coming quietly, or are we going to take you?"

Sandy had run into the bathroom and the gushing sound of two taps running on full blast into a bath could be heard.

"Wait a minute!" the girl replied calmly, "Let me get my phone and my purse out first!" She pulled these out of her hip pockets and passed them to Jen. She was wearing jeans and a white shirt, buttoned up to the neck and hanging loose outside her jeans. She took her shoes off.

"You can take your shirt off too if you want!"

The girl gave her adversary a withering look, such as you might to a naughty little brother. "Oh, have your teenage hormones just kicked in?" she asked.

A little procession to the bathroom was formed, with the boys flanking and leading the girl and Julie following closely behind. She was getting that incredibly excited feeling again!

There were about six inches of water in the bath already. Two of the boys moved as if to lift the girl, but she stopped them. "No, thank you!" she said firmly. Then she obediently stepped into the bath, looked all around, then taking hold of the sides lowered herself slowly into the water.

"Happy now?" she enquired, looking up at the grinning boys.

"Not quite!" one replied. Sandy was holding a large measuring jug. He scooped it into the bath by her feet, and slowly emptied the contents over her hair. The next boy took the jug and did the same. Unfortunately for the girl, it was a rather a large jug. And there were still two boys due to take a turn. Water streamed from her hair. By the third jugful her shirt was soaked; it clutched her shoulders and clung provocatively to her chest. Her frilly white bra offered little protection or coverage, and if any of the group did have teenage hormones then they must have been in full flow by now. The fourth jugful was emptied very slowly, over her shoulders, on her neck and quite deliberately onto her shirt just where her bra was showing through.

The dribbling and dripping sounds slowly subsided. "Are you quite finished now?" she asked. The boys laughed and high-fived each other. The girl climbed slowly out, wrapping herself in a big towel that Jen held out for her.

Julie was squeaking and squealing with excitement, "Oh that was fun!" she said.

"It is fun, isn't it!" agreed Sandy, bending down and starting to untie her shoes. "And it's about time you had a bit of fun, too!"

"Me?" Julie gasped with astonishment, "But I haven't done anything!"

"Oh, we'll think of something," Sandy replied, turning to place her shoes aside. "It's your birthday next month, and everyone gets a birthday bath! You're just having an extra one! In you get!"

Julie looked at all four boys in turn, momentarily caught off guard. Then she started to laugh, "You rotten lot!" she grinned. Julie too climbed obediently into the bath and sat down. She was wearing a knee length beige skirt, tights and a pastel coloured blouse. The water flowed over her legs, making little pools on the top of her skirt.

Then Julie got the jug treatment too. Except they all gave her two jugfuls each. The first three jugfuls soaked the top of her skirt, and it clung to her, showing a wonderful profile of her thighs. Then jug after jug was poured over her head, over her shoulders down her back and down her front. They all made sure that Julie had a good bath.
She climbed out, water pouring off from her clothes. Sandy wrapped a towel tightly around her and Julie tip toed slowly back to her room, following a stream of drops and splashes that already lay on the floor.

Sandy paused at the door, "Oh, you can come in!" Julie smiled.

Sandy ran his eyes all over her as Julie removed the towel, "Well, I think we did quite a good job!" he said, admiring the wet clinging look of his new girlfriend.

"Let's get these wet things off!" Julie replied.

"Do you want me to go?"

"No, I want you to stay with me!" Julie unfastened her blouse, unzipped her skirt, pulled it down and carefully stepped clear of it. She put her arms out towards Sandy, removed one arm from its sleeve and invited him to her pull her blouse away.

Julie stepped forward and kissed Sandy full on the lips. He felt her wet bra and knickers brush against him.

"Julie! Oh, Julie!"

"It's time to start growing up, Sandy. I want to be a big girl now! Will you show me what it's like?"

There was a pause; Sandy held Julie firmly by the shoulders. He sounded suddenly serious, "Do you mean sex? We have to be clear about this, Julie, are you consenting to sex, right now?"

"Yes!"

"Wait a minute, we need to use protection!" Sandy hurried out of the room, his heart racing. He'd no change.

"Hey, quick, lend me a five dollar piece!" he shouted urgently at his friends, laughing together in the kitchen.

"Sandy needs five dollars!" one of them yelled. "Johnnies?"


Sandy grabbed the coin from him and ran to the gents. The condom machine was working, thank goodness.

Back in the room, Julie was naked and drying herself with a towel. She ran her fingers around her vagina. She was intact, she'd never played with herself. Never dared.

Sandy embraced her and they ran their hands all over each other. Julie loved Sandy. She loved him being here, so close to her.

Then Sandy was naked too. Julie had never seen a naked man before. Not even in pictures. She was excited, but apprehensive too. He penetrated her, pushing hard. He had to try three times and Julie cried.

"It's OK!" Sandy brushed his hands over her hair, "It's OK! It'll get better each time!"

The sex wasn't great, but it was sex.

And Julie's life was never going to be the same again.