Chapter 5

I slept most of the way home, waking up when we were almost to our exit. I sat up and stretched, wishing I had some Advil or something. I still felt pretty hung over. My dad looked over at me and smiled.

"Tough night?" he asked. I nodded. "A girl was involved, I bet."

I shrugged. My dad got this concerned look on his face.

"So, you're seeing more than one girl? Not just the one we met... Vicki?"

This got my attention. "You met Vicki?"

My dad nodded. "Yeah. When she and that other girl dropped Ronnie off. She came up to the house and introduced herself to your mother and me."

Fuck! That was all I needed. "What did she say?" I asked, hoping not much.

"Well, she told us about herself, and said that you two have been seeing a lot of each other. She said you were pretty serious, and that she hoped we could all get together at Christmas, her family and ours." My dad kept his attention on the road as he was saying all this, and he seemed a little uncomfortable.

I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just sat there wishing I could wring Vicki's pretty little neck. I couldn't believe she went up to see my parents when I wasn't even around. My dad cleared his throat.

"I'd never tell you what to do Austin, but you've got a lot of school still ahead of you. Your mother and I'd hate to see you, uh... make a mistake that could jeopardize your education." Now he looked really uncomfortable.

"No way, Dad!" I protested. "I'm not sure if I even like Vicki sometimes, and for sure not like that. I mean, she's great... well, in some ways, but she can be really pushy too." I thought about saying more but decided that this was dangerous territory for a guy talking to his dad.

My dad smiled. "I'm glad to hear that."

He reached across the center console and patted me on the shoulder, then hesitated.

"I'm guessing I know what at least two of those 'ways' are, Austin. Vicki's got an impressive set of headlights on her," he said, grinning.

For some reason, my dad saying something that goofy didn't bother me as much as it would have when I was in high school. I grinned back at him and nodded slowly.

"Was Ronnie with Vicki, when she came to see you and Mom?" I asked. I figured that Ronnie might have tried to run interference. He wasn't crazy about Vicki - he usually called her 'the Witch' when she wasn't around.

My dad shook his head. "We haven't seen much of Ronnie since he got home I'm afraid, with all the problems."

"What problems?" I asked. My dad gave me a weird look.

"Between Dean and Janice. They're separated. Dean moved out a couple of weeks ago. I thought you knew."

This hit me like a shot to the gut. I knew that Ronnie's folks had some problems but nothing like this. I felt really bad for him, and for Janice.

"So Mr. Randall just left?" I asked.

"Well, yeah. He didn't go far, he's got an apartment over on Wilmont, in that new complex that looks like a ski lodge."

"Wow." This was so weird. I mean, he'd been gone a lot but to be totally living somewhere else. Poor Ronnie.

When we got home my dad dropped me off. He had to go to work for the afternoon. I hauled my suitcase into the house.

"Mom? You here?" I shouted. No answer. I figured she was working too. I poured myself a glass of milk and grabbed a handful of cookies to eat in my room. I almost dropped my snack when I got there, though. Ronnie's mom was sitting on my bed, waiting for me. Her hair was cut shorter, not even to her shoulders.

"Jeez! Janice! I didn't know you were here."

She stood up, looking flustered. "Sorry, Austin. I wanted to talk to you before you saw Ronnie."

"About you and Mr. Randall?"

Janice nodded. She didn't seem to know what to do with her hands.

"My dad told me... he said you guys split up," I said, then asked the question that had been bothering me. "It wasn't because of... us, was it?"

Janice laughed. "No, Austin. I wish it were that simple." She pulled the chair from my desk closer to my bed and sat on it.

"Sit down, Austin. Eat your snack and I'll explain," she said, motioning with a hand. I sat. Janice stared at me for a minute, then sighed.

"Things like this are hard to understand, Austin," she said, hesitating. "Ronnie's dad and I haven't been very close for a long time. You remember when he got promoted to the sales manager job?"

I swallowed some cookie. "Yeah. That was when he stopped coaching baseball."

Janice nodded. "Well, that isn't all he stopped doing. At least with me."

My jaw dropped. "You mean... you guys don't, I mean..."

I couldn't figure out why it was so hard to talk about this stuff with Janice. She was the first woman I ever screwed and the last time I saw her she blew me right here on my own bed.

"Fuck?" Janice asked, then smiled.

"Yeah. I mean, that's been years."

"Almost three long, very dry years. Not for Dean though. He's been banging everything in a skirt working down at his office. I knew about it but just didn't have the energy to fight about it. We had sort of a deal, Dean and me. I didn't ask what he was doing and he didn't rub my nose in it."

"So, what happened now?" I asked. Janice laughed a little.

"What happened is that his latest little chippie convinced him that he was in love with her. More like she wouldn't keep fucking him unless she got a ring and he moved out on Ronnie and me." She shook her head, looking at me.

"She's twenty-two years old. How am I supposed to compete?"

I sat my snack on the table next to my bed, not hungry anymore.

"Janice... you shouldn't think like that. Mr. Randall's just screwed up. He has to be. I mean, you're about the hottest thing around. Way too good for him," I said.

"Thanks, Austin. That's sweet. Which brings me to last August." Janice blinked and then wiped at her eye. It looked like she might cry.

"When I woke up it wasn't hard to figure out what you and Ronnie had been up to. I was naked, my pussy was practically on fire and even though it's been a while I still remembered what cum tastes like. I was really groggy. Maybe that's why I didn't freak out. That and the fact that I felt so good - like I said, it had been a long time since I'd gotten any."

I had to shift on the bed a little because my dick was hard as granite. Hearing Janice talk about us nailing her was way hot.

"Anyway, you boys were in the family room getting a beer but I could hear what you were saying."

"Jeez, Janice..." I began, but she cut me off.

"No, Austin. It was great. After feeling so unwanted, to hear you guys saying that I was hot was terrific and you sounded so excited, like I was a new roller coaster out at Universal."

"You're way better than a roller coaster," I protested. She smiled.

"You know what I mean." Janice paused. "So I played along. And it was fantastic. I came... a lot. I've never been fucked like that."

"Well, there were two of us," I said. She nodded.

"Ronnie." She sighed. "Even that didn't bother me at first. I just knew that it felt good and figured that I had it coming. Then after a couple of days I started feeling guilty. About Ronnie, and you too, Austin. I practically helped raise you. And at the same time I started to resent what you did a little. You guys took advantage of me while I was unconscious. I liked it but you didn't know that, or care. And I was pretty mad at men in general at that point."

"So that's why you acted that way, the morning we left?" I asked. Janice smiled.

"Yeah. I guess I was giving you a taste of your own medicine. And taking my frustration out on you," she said. I rubbed my crotch, grateful for the opportunity to work my dick into a more comfortable position.

"For a while there I was afraid you were going to pull my dick off," I said.

"I'm glad I didn't. Were you mad?"

"Nah. I hadn't had many blow jobs and even if it hurt it was still great," I said.

We stared at each other for a minute.

"So, are we going to have sex now?" I asked hopefully. Janice had on a soft-looking sweater and I could see the outline of her bra. I could still remember what her tits looked like but a reminder sounded pretty good. Either that or I was going to have to beat off like crazy as soon as Janice left.

"Thanks for asking, but no. Not now at least. Ronnie will be wondering where I am. Maybe we can both think about it and see how we feel in a couple of days?" Janice said, then stood up.

"Why don't you finish your cookies and unpack, Austin. Then you could come down to the house. I think Ronnie could use your company."

Ronnie gave me a brave smile when I saw him, but I could tell that he was hurting. We sat around for a while watching part of a football game neither of us cared about and had a beer. Then I decided that what Ronnie needed was to get out of the house. Being there probably made him think about the problems, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop staring at Janice's butt.

"Hey, why don't we head over to Cooties?" I asked, with sudden inspiration. "We could ask Mr. Regan for our old jobs back at Christmas, and maybe he'd even let us work a few shifts this week. I could really use the cash."

Ronnie perked up. "Great idea. I'm about broke too. Keeping Brittany happy isn't cheap."

We borrowed Janice's car and drove to Cooties. The dinner rush hadn't started yet and the counter was wide open so we sat down and started looking for Mr. Regan, the manager. We didn't see him so we grabbed menus.

"You two pencil dicks have got a nerve showing up here."

We both looked up. It was Sarah, the hot blonde waitress who told me she'd fuck me when hell froze over. She looked pissed.

"Excuse me?" I asked, taken back. Sarah was about twenty-eight and pretty tough. Most of the other waitresses were afraid of her.

"Oh, sorry. Maybe I should be friendlier since I'm supposed to be fucking both of you little turds," Sarah said. Now she was leaning over the counter and didn't look like she was kidding around. Ordinarily with her leaning over I'd be checking out her tits, which were first class, but now I was afraid to look down in case she took a swing at me.

"Huh?" Ronnie said, sounding scared and really confused. It was like we'd walked into the Twilight Zone and we had evil twins or something.

"Cut the stupid act. Your little friend Susie Tightbutt the Cheerleader was in here this afternoon," Sarah said.

"Susie Venable?" I asked, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I'd forgotten the lie I'd told Susie that first day in her room. When I said Ronnie and I had been fucking Sarah to cover my screw-up in mentioning the sex we'd had with Janice.

"Bingo," Sarah said.

"What did Susie say?" I asked, stalling for time. There was always the outside chance that a meteor would hit the restaurant before Sarah could kill me with the handful of forks she was holding. Ronnie was looking even more confused. I was pretty sure I told him about the Sarah lies, but he looked clueless.

"Well, lets see. She came sashaying in here - in her freaking State cheerleading sweater - and said she wanted to compare notes with me. She as much as admitted that she'd been banging both of you losers. She said some other crap but it would be too painful to repeat it," Sarah said, rolling her eyes.

"What did you say?" I asked, swallowing hard.

"What the hell could I say? There were a couple of guys down the bar listening in. I've been trying to get one of them to ask me out for weeks, and he was eyeing little Miss Tightbutt like she was naked and covered in whipped cream," Sarah said, lowering her voice. "I lied my ass off and said I taught you two everything you know."

"You did?" I said, feeling a little lightheaded. "What happened then?"

"Susie Q said I'd done a great job and that she wanted to get together with me to talk some more, then she left. About five minutes later the guy I'm interested in asked me out," Sarah said.

"So it worked out pretty good, right?" I asked hopefully. I took a chance and looked down at Sarah's tits. They were even nicer than I remembered. Big mounds of soft-looking flesh billowing up from the low-cut neckline of her waitress uniform, so round and perfect that you wondered if they were fake. From the way they bounced when Sarah walked I was pretty sure they weren't.

"Ouch!' I said, startled. Sarah was poking me under the chin with one of the forks, forcing me to meet her gaze.

"Listen, dickweed. Just because I took advantage of it doesn't mean you're off the hook. I've killed guys for less. Well, not really but you two owe me big time," she said.

"Sure. What do you want?" I asked, trying not to move my head.

"You two out here looking for jobs?" she asked. Ronnie nodded.

"Fine. I'll talk to Regan. You two will work my shifts and do all my setups and cleaning. And if any guys I like come in here you'll drop your tasty little cheerleader's name and then tell them I'm the hottest piece of ass on the planet. Got it?"

"What the hell was that all about?' Ronnie asked as soon as we got outside.

"Sorry. I thought I told you. I told Susie we were both fucking Sarah," I said.

"Are you high? Who the hell is going to believe that?"

"Susie for one," I said. "Listen, I know it was dumb but I had to think fast. I told Susie I had sex the day we came up to State and she asked who with. I could hardly say it was your mom, and Susie knows all the girls from school so I said Sarah. It was all I could think of."