Chapter 5

Part I

THE PLOT THICKENS...

Those were my thoughts as I left my last class of the afternoon and headed out the door to meet with Lori.

No, it just couldn't be anything like that! Could it?

I was so spaced out by my thoughts that I almost walked by the waiting triumvirate of Lori, Katrin, and Tom.

"Mark! MARK! Where are you going?"

I turned to see Lori looking at me like I was lost or a zombie or something aimlessly meandering past her.

OK, maybe I was lost and meanderin'...

"Oh! Hey Lori! Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"You aren't turning back into a geek, are you?" Lori was smiling at me as she wrapped her arms around me and pulled us together.

I noticed both Katrin and Tom grinning at this and decided I just had to stop this line of inquiry - for the moment.

I picked up Lori in my arms and twirled her around in a circle as I kissed her.

I heard Katrin's squeal over the roar in my own ears as Lori and I got lost for awhile in each other.

Once I let Lori down and had a look around I found that my sister Katrin and Lori's cousin Tom were themselves engaged in a lip-lock of major proportions.

And I saw that we'd attracted a small crowd of on-lookers. My pal Matt was looking on and grinning like a total fool.

"Mark! You are so lost! You two need to go find a room!" Where'd I heard that before?

He then looked over at Katrin and Tom. "Katrin! I'm never gonna let you forget this day! Not after all that teasing you've done! The day you get married I'm hiring a male stripper to crash your wedding!" Matt was a bit of a practical jokester.

Did I mention how Katrin had always tortured me and my friends with stupid little sister taunts? Only, Katrin wasn't stupid. My buddies and I had suffered through too many long hours of her perceptive comments.

Katrin had a comeback! "Matt, I won't even notice him when it's Tom standing beside me at the alter!"

Whoa! Was that my little sister!?

Well, maybe Katrin wasn't so little anymore.

Matt grinned and then laughed at Katrin's comeback and waved as he headed out to the parking lot.

Tom certainly had an odd look on his face, having just heard Katrin's possible intentions. I watched as the oddness slipped away into a smile. And that's when I noticed that Lori was watching it happen, also. She had a happy smile on her face as she watched her cousin consider and realize that his life had just acquired a certain sort of a future. Well, a possible future...

"Come on, let's head over to my house. Our mom usually works late on Thursdays."

Lori smiled at that. "OK, that sounds good."

The four of us started out for the parking lot. When we got there we found a small crowd of our friends. A couple of girls were talking to Matt. They seemed to be pointing to my truck and then asking him questions about his. They were a couple of girls I hadn't yet really gotten to know. But I recognized them as some of Lori's own crowd.

Marcus and Darren were talking with the two girls I remembered meeting on Wednesday. I recalled their names as Amy and Tammi. There seemed to be some sort of animated discussion going on. I didn't have a chance to figure it out as Lori retrieved her cellphone and told me she was going to call her mother in London.

I stepped back. "Go ahead. I'm going to talk to the other guys. You need some private time and the space to talk to her." I smiled at her to let her know that I was willing to let her have that space.

She smiled at me. "You're too good."

She had the phone unplugged from its charging cable and checked to make sure that it was on. She called up a list of numbers and made her call. She smiled at me and walked away from the crowd of our friends.

I turned around and walked over to where Tom and Katrin had been joined by Gail, Grace, Greg, and Timothy.

Grace was talking about how Greg had offered to drive her home and have a look at her sick computer. Greg was grinning more than looking like the nervous guy he'd been at lunch. They told us goodbye and walked off towards Greg's car.

Gail looked over at Lori and raised an eyebrow. "Calling London?"

"Yeah. I figured she'd need some privacy."

"Oh, you are a good guy!"

Timothy spoke up. "Hey I told you he is. He's just been too shy around the ladies for any of you to notice him." He smiled as he said it.

We heard an outburst from over where Matt was with the two girls I didn't know. Timothy turned to Gail. "Matt's a real joker. He leans more towards pulling practical jokes. But, he still likes getting a laugh with a funny story. Your friends are likely to be laughing all afternoon if they keep hangin' around with him."

Gail had watched the two girls with Matt and smiled at Timothy's comments. "Tracie and Corinne have always enjoyed a good laugh. Both of 'em are fun to be around. Your friend Matt may be about to get into more than he's prepared for. Kinda like you, maybe..."

I could have sworn that Gail was leering at Timothy with that last comment. And Timothy's crooked smile got more crooked - it just might have been a leer to match Gail's.

I again thought that I could see where things were heading with them.

Right then Amy and Tammi came over with Marcus and Darren. Amy told us they were all going to over to her house in Darren's car. The girls had just wanted Gail to know that they didn't need their usual ride with her. We said our goodbyes as the four of them took off.

There was more laughter from over in Matt's direction and when I looked one of the two girls had her arm around his waist. Both girls were laughing hard and Matt had a huge grin on his face. The other girl leaned in close and seemed to whisper something into his ear. Matt's grin changed into a bright red blush.

Gail giggled. I'd heard Gail laugh. I hadn't heard her giggle.

"That Corinne is a wild girl! I bet she just suggested something crazy to your friend."

"What about Tracie?" That was from Katrin. She and Tom and just been taking all of it in.

"The two of them do just about everything together." It was interesting to see Gail openly leer with a broad grin.

Just then Matt took the two girls around to the tailgate of his truck and popped open the camper top. I could hear both girls giggle and knew that Matt had just shown them the mattress he keeps in the back of his pickup.

I explained what was happening. "Matt's just shown them his spare bedroom. He has a mattress and pillows back there."

Timothy already knew about it. Both Gail and Katrin started giggling and now Tom laughed.

Timothy corrected the impression that I'd caused with my comment. "Matt camps out and fishes some weekends. He sleeps in the back of his truck. He says it's a whole lot more comfortable than sleeping in the cab."

Three people now looked at me like I'd tricked them.

"I didn't say anything. Each of you jumped to an assumption about what his mattress and pillows are for." I smiled back at them. OK, my shyness was slipping away with each hour of my life since Lori and I had got together.

Timothy was chuckling at the looks on the three faces. "Mark may be shy, but he's also sly when he wants to be. You should know that Katrin." He lifted his eyebrows and widened his eyes to remind Katrin of something I'd done to her.

Katrin practically growled at Timothy. Then she glared at me. Tom looked between us. "What did she do? What did you do to her?"

I shook my head. "I'll tell you some other time. I don't feel like being stomped to death by my evil little sister at just this moment!"

It was at this point that Lori rescued me from imminent destruction at the hands and feet of my 'little' evil sister Katrin.

Part II

Lori still had her cellphone to her ear as she approached us. She must have been telling her mother she was about to ask us about something. She held her phone down against her waist as she started speaking to us.

"Hey guys! My parents are flying back into town on Saturday. They've bought some stuff in Europe and they're bringing it back with them in a bunch of boxes. Mom is sure it's too large a load to fit in the trunk of any of our cars. Dad wants to hire a truck to deliver it to the house."

She looked to me. "I told Mom that you drive a pickup truck. Do you think we could use it to pick up their packages and bring them over to our house?"

"Sure, Lori. That's easy." I looked at Tom.

"Especially if I have some help."

Tom grinned. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Sure, I can help Mark with whatever Aunt Jeanie has ransacked from the basements and attics of old European estates!"

Both Katrin and Lori giggled at that last from Tom.

Lori lifted her phone and started talking to her mother. Shortly, she was grinning at whatever her mother was telling her. Then, it seemed like their call was over. "OK, Mom. I love you and Dad! Just stay off the subways, please!"

There was another apparent bit from her mom. Then it was simply "OK, bye!"

Lori made sure her phone was off and clipped it to her waistband.

And with that she slipped her arms around my neck and pulled my head down for one hell of a kiss!

Once she released me I took a couple of minutes to catch up on my breathing. I was beginning to get worried and afraid that some day Lori was going to asphyxiate me!

Well, hell... What a way to go!

When I realized where I was I noticed that Timothy was chuckling and Gail was actually laughing. Katrin and Tom were just smiling at my flustered state. And Lori once again had that shit-eating grin shown for my consumption. I momentarily pondered whether she had gills or something. I mean, how was she breathing while my breath was being sucked out of my lungs whenever she pulled off one of those kisses? I was perplexed. Well, maybe I was really oxygen-starved.

Gail was the one to first say something. "I've got to go! I have to get my brother and sister to their practices." She looked at Timothy and he nodded.

"See y'all later."

"Yeah, bye!"

We said our own goodbyes to them and watched as the two of them got into Gail's car and pulled away. I looked around and noticed that Timothy's car was still parked in the now nearly empty parking lot.

Matt came over with Tracie and Corinne.

"Hey guys, I'm taking these ladies home. I'll be seeing you later!"

And just like that he assisted them with getting into the cab of his pickup. He went around to the driver's side and got in. He started up the hemi he'd fitted into it and backed up away from my pickup. He and the two girls waved as they left.

As they headed out of the lot a red Mustang convertible pulled into the lot.

Lori noticed it immediately. "Oh, Kyle's coming back by to see us."

I looked closely at the driver of the car and realized that it was Kyle. I then recalled having seen the car in the parking lot on lots of occasions. Before I'd hooked up with Lori I'd never noticed her Lexus. But I'd noticed that convertible Mustang. Even for geeks, it's a guy sorta thing - go figure...

There was a girl sitting in the passenger seat. She had really long hair that was flying back behind her as the Mustang sped through the length of the parking lot.

Finally, Kyle (the asshole, in my private opinion) pulled up beside us and shut off the engine. He smiled at Lori for a moment before turning to the girl seated beside him.

She was a really beautiful girl. She was a petite girl of Oriental origin. She was smiling at Lori and looking me over at the same time.

"Vicky, this is Lori's boyfriend Mark."

Vicky spoke. Her voice was just about as lovely as Lori's voice. "Hi Mark! Hey Lori!"

I wasn't expecting what happened next.

She had on a Catholic schoolgirl's sort of uniform. You know - dark plaid skirt, white blouse, knee-high white socks. She got out of the convertible. She didn't bother with opening the door. She just scooted up the seat and twisted around over the top of the door. As she did this her skirt was lifted up and I got a view of a very skimpy, thin lime-green thong!

As she slid over that door she laughed in recognition of what she'd done. I noticed that Kyle had a big shit-eating grin on his face.

Wait! That looked so much like Lori's big-time shit-eating grin!

Oh, OK. They had said they'd grown up together.

I'd barely got through those thoughts before I was spun around and hugged by Vicky. Vicky, who I assumed was Kyle's girlfriend who attended St. Bonaventure High School.

What was going on!? I looked over her head and saw Kyle smiling at Lori. Lori looked like she was about ready to laugh at my expression!

My geekishness fled away at that moment. I knew exactly what I needed to do!

I picked up petite little Vicky and sat her atop the rear panel of Kyle's Mustang. I pushed up against her, parting her legs. And I kissed her.

I made a production of it. I did what Lori usually did to me.

I could hear the gasps from over towards where Katrin and Tom were still standing.