Author's note: This is sort of an AU/missing scene story. The idea came to me after watching, rather re-watching the scenes where Tami talks with Julie about sex, the first time from season one after Tami sees Matt and Landry buying condoms and the second time after Eric walked in on Matty and Jules NAKED in bed together. My feeling is that Tami would have thought some more about Matt and Julie having sex and even though Julie insisted that Matt ALWAYS used a condom every single time, we all know how that tends to work out, don't we?
The drunken fumbling and ripping and tearing of clothing while you both stumble through the house trying to reach the bedroom, then spending five minutes trying to open the condom wrapper, then trying to see if you put the damn thing on inside out and then passing out on top of her and waking up to find you've puked in her hair, which leads to you slinking out of her place with your tail between your legs, only realizing two hours later that you've left your phone at her place and since it cost you $200 you have to go back and get it and *Hits self in the back of the head* FOCUS DAMMIT! Anyway, this is about Eric and Tami talking about Matt and Julie and Tami's wanting to take Julie to the clinic to get on The Pill.
As usual only FAWNING LOVE or SEARING LOATHING is wanted from your reviews, but from the miniscule number of reviews my other stories have gotten I'm not gonna hold my breath. What's wrong with you people? Trust me, I'm not going to be all offended and pissed off if your review says that my story idea sucks, my story sucks, and that I suck. The only way I can improve or get worse is with feedback. So CHOP CHOP, make with the reviews.
As Eric got into bed, Tami turned the page down in her book and rested it on her legs. Eric looked at her. "Uh oh."
"What?"
"You've got that look."
"What look?"
"You're 'we need to have a serious talk,' look which always seems to be about something I screwed up or how I said the wrong thing to Julie or someone or that I was rude to Buddy Garrity."
Tami smiled and laughed. "Sugar, I don't think you can possibly be rude enough to Buddy. Well, that's not true, but he does get on our last nerves way too often. But I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that you're less polite to him when I'm not around."
"Sometimes. He….all it is with Buddy is the damn team. I mean, I'm the same way, but it's different. But Buddy's not all bad."
"No, but that tunnel vision he has about the Panthers is tiring. But this isn't about Buddy or the team or something you've done wrong, it's about Julie. And no, she hasn't done anything wrong, well she let the garbage sit there for two days until I took it out, but you've done that too, so. Anyway, I've been thinking about her and Matt and….I think I should talk to her about going on the Pill and taking her to the clinic to get a prescription."
"What pill?"
"The 'Pill.' Birth control."
"Are you serious? No. Uh-uh, no ma'am." Eric got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Tami heard the water running then Eric came back in with a glass of water. He drank half of it, and sat on the bed.
"Eric. Matt and Julie are having sex. And you can stick your head in the sand or stick your fingers in your ears but that isn't going to make them stop or turn back time to before they had sex for the first time. This is happening and after what happened three weeks ago I talked with Julie, but I've been thinking about it and this is the logical thing to do."
"They're just kids, this is some puppy love infatuation, who kno—"
"Eric. They care about each other. A lot. Whether or not it's love, I don't know, but I wouldn't say no to it. If it's not in the house yet, it's certainly on the front porch."
"When you said you talked with Julie, what did you say?"
Tami sighed. "I asked if they love each other and Julie said that she loves Matt and Matt loves her. And I have no reason to doubt her. I asked her if they were using protection and she got a little squirrely, but I told her we needed to talk about this and she said they used condoms every time. I told her to be careful because boys try to….well you know how boys can be, 'But I can't feel anything after I put it on,' and such, but that Matt was very insistent on using them every time. I told her that this doesn't mean that even though she and Matt are together now if she doesn't enjoy it or feel good she doesn't have to have sex; it's a choice she gets to make. And if she and Matt ever break up she doesn't have to have sex with the boy after that. Or the one after that.
"Having sex isn't the single nail you hang a relationship on. And if she feels that Matt or another boy is taking her for granted as far as sex goes, she doesn't have to. It's a choice every time. The barn door isn't always open. And I guess I cried a little and Julie asked me why and I said it was because I loved her and that I wanted to protect her even though I couldn't always do that and that I wanted her to wait. I told her that I wanted her to always feel like she could talk to me about anything, even things that were very hard to talk about like sex. She said that she didn't want to disappoint me and I told that she hadn't and we hugged. And it's that disappointment that's been on my mind. I think you are disappointed with her and she knows it."
"Babe, I walked in on my 17 year old daughter lying naked in bed with my starting quarterback."
"Well, why did you walk in on them? The way Julie told me, you didn't even knock, or if you did it was so light they didn't hear you and you didn't wait but just barged right on in. That's rude. That's not like you."
"Look, I'd just been visiting Buddy Garrity in jail and hearing him try and explain why he was at the Landing Strip and how he caused $30,000 in damages to the place, so I guess I was a little impatient, because you said Lyla would be staying with us and I wanted to get home and have Julie help set things up."
"You've been avoiding Julie ever since."
"I have not."
"You haven't talked to her except to make some two word comment about something at dinner and you've blown off movie night the last two weeks by saying you had too much work to do. Matt and Julie aren't doing anything we haven't done."
"Except have sex earlier than we did."
"Oh my god. They had sex a whole year earlier than we did. Get my fainting couch. Kids are having sex at an earlier age; in fact Julie's older than the average age for Texas."
"Well good for her."
"Oh stop it. Listen I know how part of you desperately wants to have sent Julie off to a convent when she was 6 years old and your feelings on what boys in high school can be like aren't wrong, but I think we can agree that Matt Saracen is not like those boys. He's certainly not like Tim Riggins."
Eric ran his hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, it's just….you know I don't like to talk about this stuff. It's, hell you aren't the one who saw them in bed together. I almost drove off and left Julie there. I was in my car and her door was locked and she was standing there and I remember just being angry and ashamed and embarrassed and guilty and wanting to be anywhere other than there and I just about drove off and left her standing there. Yeah I know she was feeling the same things I was, but…."
Tami kissed Eric. "I know sugar. Back to the topic at hand, while I am glad they're using condoms and I do believe Julie about Matt's using them every single time, that's no guarantee, right?"
"No, with Julie it was because we were both a little drunk and by the time we thought about it, well I sure wasn't going to withdraw." Eric smiled.
"True, but that's what I'm getting to. If Julie is on the pill and they're using condoms, that's another layer of protection, so that if they get drunk or the condom breaks, they have that backup there. And if they do break up and Julie meets someone else, there's no guarantee that guy will be as….reliable and trustworthy as Matt seems to be."
Eric nodded. "You're right. But why talk to me about this. Seems like you were gonna talk with Julie and take her to the clinic regardless."
Tami frowned. "C'mon now, I wouldn't do that. I'm talking to you about it for a couple of reasons, one so that I can tell you my reasons and that we can discuss like we're doing now. Another is that I wasn't going to talk with Julie and go to the clinic without telling you and then have you find the pills and freak out and get all full blown into 'Coach Taylor' mode with her, when she wouldn't have been doing anything wrong, it would have been on me for not telling you. And using birth control certainly isn't something she should be ashamed of."
"A'ight. When are you gonna talk to her and take her?"
"Wednesday after school."