Cherise, Virginia Slims, and Tennis, Part 2

Cherise, Virginia Slims, and Tennis
Razzman14@aol.com
Part 2

One day after getting back from such an outing, she arrived home shortly 
after lunch. She still smelled her mom's cigarettes from when she came home 
on her lunch break. Her sister Carrie was at a neighbor's house playing, so 
she was alone. She showered, and wanting to fix her hair with a headband, 
found none that were clean in her room. She went to her mother's closet and 
looked in there for a headband. Standing on a chair and looking on the shelf 
in the closet, she noticed a carton of cigarettes. It was a carton of 
Virginia Slims Menthol Light 100's. She had known that her mom would buy 
cartons, but never knew where she had put them or really given it much 
thought before. She eyed the carton with interest. She remembered the ads in 
the magazines. The Virginia Slims ads always seemed to have some pretty woman 
smoking. Not like the weird kids she saw at the mall or around the 
neighborhood. She reached in the carton and took out a pack. She had never 
touched anything to do with cigarettes before, and a weird, uneasy feeling 
came over her. She saw that the carton was nearly full and only had two or 
three packs missing. She wondered for a second. If she took a pack would her 
mom notice? Then she caught herself, why am I so curious about something that 
is bad for me? The cigarette pack seemed so seductive to her; it seemed 
powerful to her, like she was holding something sacred. She thought back to 
when she pondered her mom's smoking and how it shaped and changed her life. 
How profound her thoughts were regarding that. She wondered, would I change a 
lot if I smoke? Would I want to be around those freaky kids that smoke? Would 
I get my nose and belly pierced and my hair dyed green if I smoked? She knew 
that to anyone that knew her, smoking and her didn't go together. At her age, 
kids begin to get labeled by their peers. Her label was becoming "Cherise the 
tennis player, nice girl, cute, friendly, somewhat quiet, doesn't do anything 
wrong". She took the pack of cigarettes to her room, closed the door even 
though no one was home, sat on her bed, and unwrapped the pack. She opened 
the flip top box, pulled off the top of the aluminum wrapping as she had seen 
her mother do before, and eyed the cigarettes. Her heart was pounding. She 
couldn't understand what there was to be so excited about. It must have been 
the rush that a person gets when they are doing something exciting and 
naughty at the same time. The adrenaline rush that one gets from racing a 
motorcycle down a highway at high speeds. She grabbed one of the Virginia 
Slims and pulled it from the pack. She placed it between her index and middle 
fingers, mimicking a smoker. She slowly brought the unlit cigarette to her 
mouth, eyeing it the whole way. She placed it between her pursed lips. She 
had never felt so excited before, even though it was simply an unlit 
cigarette. She sucked on the cigarette, noticing how much it was like sipping 
through a straw. She could taste the mentholated taste even though the 
cigarette was not lit. She then got up and went to her mirror. She had a 
sheepish grin as she put the cigarette in her mouth and took a fake drag. She 
could hardly look at herself, and was embarrassed at her silliness and 
thought how glad she was that no one was watching her. She held the cigarette 
in her bent right arm, placing her elbow on her dresser and holding the 
cigarette near her hair. She couldn't help but notice how sexy she looked, 
and she grinned coyly at how devilish she was being. At that moment, she was 
so tempted to go find a lighter and light the cigarette. But she didn't. She 
knew that her sister Carrie was going to be home at any time, and she wasn't 
even sure if she could even go through with it. She felt nervous about it, 
yet excited at the same time. The thought of her lighting it and actually 
smoking the darn thing made her heart pound. Cherise turned and placed the 
cigarette back in the pack, and hid the pack in a shirt pocket in her closet, 
and went about her normal routine.
As that day wore on, all she could think about was smoking. Her mom came 
home, and now Cherise watched her mother with greater interest than ever 
whenever she lit up. Carrie was having dinner at a neighbor's house, so 
Cherise and her mom had supper, and sat around at the table after eating. 
Courtney lit up her first of two after dinner smokes. Cherise felt that rush 
of excitement as she watched her mom smoke. She could not hide the curiosity 
and excitement on her face as she watched her mother take her long puffs on 
her Virginia Slim. Courtney noticed this and asked Cherise,
"Hun, what are you thinking about?" 
"Oh nothing mom...."
"Is my smoke bothering you?" Courtney asked. She was aware that her daughters 
had never really complained about her smoking, but she wanted to make sure.
"Oh, no Mom, its just… do you like smoking?"
The question took Courtney aback - "Um, well, its not good for me honey you 
know that don't you?"
"Yes, mom, but do you like it?"
Courtney knew she couldn't lie and say she didn't like smoking. Everyone that 
smokes obviously likes it or they wouldn't do it. If people know something is 
bad for them AND they didn't like it, no one would do it, she knew…
"Yes honey I do enjoy smoking. But I know it isn't good for me and I don't 
plan on doing it the rest of my life."
"Why do you enjoy it Mom?" Cherise asked.
Where are these questions coming from?  Courtney thought to herself. She 
would never expect Cherise to have an interest in smoking. She seemed so into 
tennis and in doing the right thing. She was nearly a straight-A student, 
quiet, kept mostly to herself, and never presented a problem to her mom or to 
anyone that has had to deal with her.
"Honey, are you interested in smoking? I am kind of surprised that you would 
be. You aren't the type of girl to smoke."
This bothered Cherise a little - "Mom, you mean just because I don't have 
green hair and my belly pierced and I look so innocent I can't have an 
interest in something?"
Is this my daughter? Courtney had never heard any of this from her oldest 
daughter. She wondered if Josh or one of her friends was influencing her 
somehow.
"Cherise, no it isn't that. It is just that you have never shown an interest 
in any of the things that people your age get into. You are really into 
tennis and stuff, and while I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, I must 
admit that I am."
"Actually mom, I have been kinda drunk before."
"You have?" Courtney asked in surprise.
"Yes. I had rum and coke with a friend of mine about a month ago" Cherise 
replied, not wanting to admit that it was Josh.
"And have you smoked also?"
"No. Mom, never."
"So why are you interested in smoking?"
Cherise pondered this for a moment... "I don't know mom it just looks 
interesting. It is something I would want to try."
Courtney thought about this. Well at least she is being open with me about it,
 she thought, most kids do this stuff behind their parents' backs or don't 
even bother to tell their parents about an interest in doing something like 
smoking. They just do it -
"Well I guess if you want to try something there is nothing that can stop you 
is there? Besides..." Courtney said as she glanced at her second after-dinner 
smoke, "how can I sit here and tell you not to do something when I am doing 
it right at this very moment?"
The two laughed light-heartedly at this. Cherise felt weird at the 
conversation she had just had with her mom. Did she really want to try 
smoking? Would her mom give her a cigarette if she asked for one? Would she 
teach her how to smoke?
"Cherise,"  Courtney said suddenly, "If you want to try smoking, I realize 
that it is unrealistic for me to think that even though we have laws that 
don't allow kids your age to buy cigarettes, you are going to find a way to 
get them if you try. I see kids everywhere smoking and I wonder how they get 
them. I love you and I can't do anything about it if you really want to try. 
But I cannot help you. If you want to try smoking, you are on your own. I 
won't get angry with you if you try smoking, or if you decide that you want 
to smoke regularly. But I will not feel good about myself if I gave you 
cigarettes or helped you in any way to begin smoking. Do you understand dear?"
Cherise understood where her mom was coming from. She also was aware that her 
mom had no idea that she had taken a pack out of the carton earlier that day. 
At that point she felt bad about it. She knew, however, that she wasn't going 
to tell her mom about it.
"Yes, mom I understand. I don't really know if I will try it anytime soon. 
But I don't want you to feel bad if I start up and become a heavy smoker and 
then I die before you do." They both had a good laugh at that, and Cherise 
and her mom went along their separate ways…
Later that night, after Carrie had come home and gone to bed, as well as her 
mother, she retrieved the pack of cigarettes from her hiding place. Once 
again, she sat in bed and eyed the pack. The pack itself was elegant in its 
design, Cherise though, eyeing the different shades of green stripes running 
along the pack, and the distinctive "Virginia Slims" logo written in script 
on the top of the pack. The general surgeon's warning reminded her that 
smoking was a bad thing to do for her health. At that point Cherise was too 
young to take the warning seriously. She knew that people didn't just drop 
dead suddenly from smoking a cigarette unless they were older, much older, 
than she was. And she also had read that the bad effects of smoking had never 
been proven on occasional or light smokers, only on heavy smokers that smoked 
a pack a day or more. Once again she took out a cigarette and placed it in 
her mouth, pretending to inhale and exhale and then taking it in her hand and 
flicking imaginary ashes into an imaginary ashtray. She did this for quite 
awhile, even getting up and looking at herself in the mirror as she did 
earlier that day. She went and got some of the magazines her mother 
subscribed to from the family room. She skimmed the pages looking for 
cigarette ads. There were ads for Misty, Capri, and of course Virginia Slims, 
among other brands. The women in all of the ads were attractive, not unlike 
her mom or some of the women she had been seeing at the mall or at a 
restaurant. She looked at the magazines for a bit and played with the 
cigarette for awhile longer, then returned the pack to her hiding place and 
went to bed.
Cherise dreamed that night about smoking. She dreamed of her sitting on her 
bedroom floor, and being surrounded by Virginia Slims packs and cartons. She 
dreamed of a burning cigarette in her hand, she dreamed of her mom smoking. 
And finally, she dreamed she had an unlit cigarette in her mouth, and there 
was a flame in front of her. The flame slowly got closer to her cigarette, 
and finally, got close enough to light it. She dreamed vividly of her 
cigarette beginning to smolder, slowly coming of age... 
At that moment, Cherise woke up. She was aroused. She had never been in the 
state of mind and body that she was in now. She had never been aroused 
before. She quivered a bit as she lied in bed, and she rolled around 
restlessly. She felt blissful; she had a good feeling. Her next thought sent 
her heart pounding with excitement - she was going to smoke her first 
cigarette! She looked at the clock; it read 2:24 a.m. The time was perfect. 
She got out of bed, grabbed the pack of cigarettes from her closet, and went 
into the kitchen, where she knew her mom kept matches. Opening a drawer, she 
took out a book of matches and went downstairs to the recreation room. There 
was a big room with a television and stereo, assorted games, a ping-pong 
table, and furniture. Also downstairs, in a separate closed off room, was a 
storage and laundry room. This is the room Cherise went to. She did not want 
to be caught by her mom, or else her mom would know she got the pack from her 
carton. Grabbing an ashtray her mom kept in the room filled with a few spent 
cigarette butts, she sat down on a rug covering the cold concrete floor. The 
only light provided was the moon shining through a basement window, but that 
was plenty. She took a cigarette from her Virginia Slims Menthol pack, and 
placed it in her mouth. She then took the book of matches. Cherise had used 
matches before when lighting candles for her sisters' birthday parties, but 
she was still shaking and trembling with excitement as she broke off a match 
from the book. She then struck the match, not lighting it at first. She was 
having a time lighting the match due to her shaking. Eventually Cherise 
produced a flame from her match, and brought it to the tip of her cigarette. 
Her heart was beating rapidly in anticipation of experiencing something so 
powerful and sensual as smoking for the first time. She lit the cigarette, 
sucking on it as she had seen others do as they light up. She sucked too 
hard, and took in a large amount of smoke; She covered her mouth and coughed, 
not wanting to make too much noise. Almost immediately a rush came over her 
body. She felt lightheaded, and slightly dizzy. The nicotine was immediately 
acting upon Cherise's pure 13-year-old body. A huge cloud of smoke that came 
out of Cherise's mouth as she coughed drifted ominously through the dark 
room, visible only through the glow of the moon. She looked at her cigarette, 
studying the trail of smoke emitting from the lid end.      
Wow I am smoking! She thought to herself. She knew that she couldn't suck on 
the cigarette like she did that first time. She took another drag, slowly 
this time. The mentholated smoke filled her mouth, and she let it out after a 
couple of seconds. Once again a large cloud of smoke emerged from her pretty 
young lips, although not as large as the first cloud. She knew that this was 
not normal. She was used to seeing a plume of smoke when smokers exhaled. She 
would have to learn to inhale the smoke into her lungs. She did like the 
taste of the cigarette, and the way it made her body feel. She got a bit more 
lightheaded as the second hit of nicotine reached her brain. She could only 
imagine what she would feel like once she learned to inhale like her mom did. 
She tapped the ashes of her cigarette into the ashtray, a little awkwardly of 
course, being her first time and all. She repeated this step several times. 
She took even lighter drags and attempted to inhale. She had to stifle a 
cough a few times. Her body was not quite ready for the abrupt changes that 
smoking was bringing to her. She felt more dizzy and lightheaded still, and 
her heart beat rapidly, but at the same time she felt relaxed and mellow. She 
could understand now the effect that it had on her mom, how smoking made her 
relaxed. She eyed her cigarette, now half-spent, and marveled that she had 
succeeded in smoking that much of it. She would inhale and exhale, observing 
the end of her cigarette burn brightly as she puffed on it, and watching the 
smoke trail up towards the ceiling as she exhaled. The whole thing was 
fascinating to her, and she still felt somewhat aroused. She was able to 
inhale a little more each time she dragged on the Virginia Slim, and was 
learning quickly how to smoke a cigarette. She smoked the whole cigarette, 
pressed it into the ashtray, and tried to stand up. She was dizzy and her 
stomach felt a little queasy, but she managed to put her mom's ashtray back 
and gather up her cigarettes and matches and head back upstairs to her 
bedroom. Getting back into bed, she felt a little sick. She really liked the 
feeling she got from smoking, and the whole experience, but at that point she 
couldn't see how she could ever come to smoke as often as her mom did. One 
cigarette, without inhaling a lot of smoke, had a drastic effect on her body, 
she thought, so she couldn't see how people would need to smoke that much. 
What she didn't know at that point, however, was how quickly the body gained 
a tolerance to nicotine, enabling the smoker to smoke more and more. She 
would learn about that soon enough though....
END OF PART TWO

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