Chapter 5: The Fifth Element

“Holy shit, is this for real?” I muttered while staring out the front windshield and coming to a stop behind the car in front of me.

I’d always thought college parties would be way cooler in the movies than in real life. I mean, I’d grown up in a pretty affluent neighborhood and attended a number of high school parties at big mansions with expansive backyards, swimming pools, and all that (one or two of them might have even been while the parentals were out of town), but never anything on the scale of what you’d see in a Hollywood teenage comedy. I figured the over-the-top excess of those kinds of parties would be reserved for those who actually had Hollywood movie production budgets and a line in the credits for the catering company.

Apparently I was wrong.

The girls and I had been queued up in a line of cars inching its way deeper into the Berkeley Hills from two blocks back, searching for an available street parking spot. But as we made the final turn, I was able to see down the street and realized there was an honest-to-god uniformed valet service parking all of the cars across the overlarge cul-de-sac, with nearly twenty cars neatly already stacked together in tight rows.

To the far-right side of the “parking lot” was a large mansion all lit up, with crisscrossing string lights visible over the yard along with what looked like inflatable plastic palm trees and a bouncy castle better suited to a five-year-old’s birthday party peeking over the fence. Sonic vibrations from pumping bass music lightly bounced off the windows.

Something pinched my right arm, and I jerked around in surprise to find Sam grinning at me from the shotgun seat as she pulled her hand back. “Not dreaming?” she drawled. “Looks like it’s for real.”

“Whoa ... this is soooo coooool,” Belle gasped from the third row way in the back, and I glanced over my shoulder to find that she’d unbuckled her seatbelt and was leaning over the middle row to stare out the front windshield.

After three more cars, it was our turn to pull up to the valet stand and disembark the vehicle. I would’ve been perfectly fine driving my minivan, but Sam insisted on having us roll up to the party in her freshly washed and waxed Escalade. There were two parking valets running back and forth, and as one of them drove a car past us, I caught him checking out the girls through the windows and losing his focus for a moment, because he had to suddenly slam on the brakes just before hitting the parked car right in front of him.

The other valet hustled back to us after parking someone else’s car, eyes wide as he jogged to a stop with his jaw hanging open. I could only imagine what was going through his mind at the sight of one ordinary-looking guy (me) holding up the keys while five ridonkulously hot girls tumbled out of the shiny black SUV behind me. Sam, Naimh, Belle, Lily, and Eva had all dressed to impress with skimpy cocktail dresses that clung to their ample curves and showed off an impressive amount of skin. By the time the guy walked up to me and reached out to take my keys, Sam and Naimh had both molded themselves to my sides, a busty bombshell wrapped around each of my elbows, while Belle and Lily preened right behind us.

Eva stood apart a bit, arms crossed with an air of boredom about her. But when she caught the guy checking out the cleavage her stance was currently emphasizing, she tilted her chin and blew him an air kiss that made him snap out of his stupor and blush in embarrassment for getting caught staring.

“Hey man, I’ll need a valet tag, please,” I said finally, gesturing to the little booklet of tags he held in his other hand.

The poor guy blinked three times before muttering, “Uh, right, right.” He finally tore off a tag and handed it to me before scurrying around to the driver’s side of the Escalade.

Only then did I turn my attention to the huge mansion before us. “Come on, ladies,” I announced confidently. “Let’s have a good time.”

The front door of the house stood open and the six of us walked inside without incident. Music pumped throughout the house on synchronized speakers embedded in the ceilings, and the central corridor passed directly through the house and straight to double-doors at the far end that led into the backyard. A crowd mingled in the living room immediately off the foyer, although nobody paid us any mind at our arrival. As one, the rest of us all turned to Sam looking to her for leadership, not only because she had always been The BTC’s leader but because she had been the one invited to the party by a classmate in her Pre-Law Society, welcome to bring her boyfriend and “a few girlfriends” as well.

“See anyone you recognize?” I asked my Head Girlfriend, tugging her against my side with my right arm wrapped around her waist.

“Not yet,” Sam replied calmly, taking in her surroundings in an observant yet unhurried manner. She was absolutely exquisite tonight in a sexy LBD (little black dress): poised, confident, and undeniably gorgeous. Returning her gaze to me, she gave me an affectionate smile and suggested, “Let’s get some drinks and then find somewhere to settle in, yeah?”

“Can we check out the bounce house? Big Tits Club Bounce Party!” Lily yelled enthusiastically, practically hopping up and down on tiptoes. The way her big jugs started jiggling up and down in sympathetic harmony made me smile at the prospect of watching the giggling girls enjoying themselves.

“You and Belle are the perfect height for the slide,” Eva drawled sardonically, and Sam snorted and shook her head with a smirk.

“Drinks first,” Naimh pronounced, her face darting left and right like a bird.

“Sure thing,” Sam laughed.

“C’mon, love,” Naimh took the lead, squeezing my hand and striding forward down the main corridor. I followed along and brought Sam with me, with the other three trailing. The kitchen and a large great room were at the back of the house, featuring a separate granite bar adorned with rows of 2-liter soda bottles and various hard liquors. On a back deck just beyond the double-doors and against the fence was a large aluminum beer keg.

The tall, well-built young man behind the bar immediately noticed the girls and put on a wide, toothy grin as he called out gregariously, “Heyyy! Welcome, welcome! Sam, you look amazing.”

“Charlie, hey, how are you?” Sam replied in a friendly tone. She let go of me and opened her arms, and the big guy stepped over to give her a strong but chaste hug. After he took a step back, she looked up at him and remarked, “You told me this was going to be a big party, but I had no idear.”

“Yeah, Lincoln’s family is loaded,” Charlie replied. “So don’t feel bad about drinking all his alcohol. Speaking of which, pick your poison.”

Sam held her hands up. “I’m the designated driver tonight. But my friends...” Her voice trailed off as she pivoted and gestured towards the rest of us.

Charlie’s attention first turned to Naimh’s lush cleavage put on display by the scoop neck of her electric-blue dress, and then his eyes darted up to her freckled face. The redhead still had an arm wrapped around me, so a moment later, the guy glanced at me with a bit of an apologetic look for checking out my girlfriend. His gaze then quickly passed over Belle, Lily, and Eva, and within moments he was asking everyone for drink orders.

A few minutes after that, the six of us headed outside into the backyard. There were people mingling on the back deck, people mingling down on the patio, and people mingling by the pool. The inflatable palm trees and bouncy castle were on the lawn by the fence. Alongside it, people were playing cornhole (the bean bag game, get your head out of the gutter), and there was even a painted basketball half-court with a glass backboard, although nobody was shooting balls.

“Bounce house?” Lily asked Belle excitedly, grabbing her new bestie’s hand and tugging on it.

“Hold this for me, Matty?” Belle asked before taking a large swig from her red Solo cup and then extending it to me.

I took the cup and then gestured to a set of patio furniture nearby, arranged in a square surrounding a coffee table with a large sectional forming two sides, a lounger on the third side, and a pair of armchairs on the fourth. Half of the sectional and an armchair were currently unoccupied, so I said, “We’ll be over there.”

“Great!” Belle got up on her tiptoes to give me a quick peck on the lips. Lily handed her cup to Eva, and the pair of shorties giggled and scampered off hand-in-hand.

“They’re like schoolgirls,” Eva drawled with a sigh.

“They ARE schoolgirls,” Naimh pointed out with a grin.

Eva mused on that and shrugged, following along as I led the rest of us over to the patio furniture.

“Adeline, Roshani, heyyy,” Sam greeted as we approached the folks already seated on the lounger and the occupied half of the sectional: two girls with two guys I assumed to be their boyfriends.

“Hey, Sam. Good to see you,” the Indian girl replied before turning her attention to me ... and the gorgeous redhead still wrapped around my side. “And is this the infamous boyfriend?”

“‘Infamous’?” I queried with a smirk of amusement while stepping forward and extending one hand out for a shake. “But yes, I’m Matt.”

“Roshani,” the Indian girl replied while shaking my hand. I then quickly went down the line, shaking hands with Adeline and the two boyfriends who gave me their names which flew out of my head almost as soon as they entered.

Rather than shake hands, though, the other girls hung back and just gave almost shy little waves. Sam sat down on the sectional closest to Roshani, and she cuddled herself against me while I sat down next to her. Naimh was still molded against my left side, and Eva took an armchair. Sam did the honors of introducing the girls, and as expected the initial conversation turned to Sam explaining our little romantic dynamic with her and Naimh both dating me at the same time.

Eva, on the other hand, was quick to shut down any speculation, “Nope, not me,” when the curious attention turned to her.

Sam was quick to change the topic and the pre-law folks went off on a tangent. Adeline’s boyfriend, however, wasn’t pre-law and he and I wound up talking about football (which made me start to miss Zofi a bit). Naimh interjected with occasional remarks about how she didn’t understand the game and the ridiculousness of some of the rules. And Eva pretty much remained silent, nursing her drink on the side.

After a few minutes, though, Roshani suggested Sam go with them to say hi to a few other pre-law folks at the party. The two couples got up together, and for a moment I gathered myself to stand up and be Sam’s plus-one as well, but my girlfriend turned and gestured for me to stay seated.

“Stay with the girls, Matty. I’ll be fine,” she assured me.

I raised my eyebrows questioningly but took a deep breath and nodded, confident she could handle herself. She bent over to give me a quick kiss on the lips and I let my eyes dart down to ogle her hanging cleavage right in front of my face while I grinned. She giggled and gave me another peck before straightening and then walking off with the others.

Almost immediately after, Naimh turned to me with a grin and an emerald-green fire in her irises. “Ooh! Opportunity!” she enthused before pivoting in her seat and then swinging herself into my lap so that we were face-to-face. And then my perpetually randy redhead held my shoulders and sealed her lips over mine so we could start up a hot-and-heavy makeout session right then and there.

Naimh moaned into my mouth and had started dry-humping the bulge forming in my pants when my Baby Belle’s voice cut in from the side, “Ooh, that looks like fun! Can I get in on that?”

My redhead and I separated to glance over and find that Belle and Lily had rejoined us, sweaty bangs plastered to their flushed foreheads after their bouncing activities. Naimh was quick to smile and slide off my lap, saying, “Hop aboard!”

My petite pixie didn’t need to be asked twice before she straddled me and grabbed my head. Within moments, Belle and I were playing tonsil hockey and having a grand ole time of it.

“Me too?” Lily queried a minute later.

“Of course!” Belle proclaimed after popping off my lips, a bit out of breath. Naimh scooted over and Belle slid into the open gap while the cute Hawaiian hottie hopped into her place.

I hesitated for only a moment while arching an eyebrow at Lily, but she had no hesitation herself before grabbing my head and mashing her mouth against mine. It wasn’t our first kiss, and although I still wasn’t totally sure where this relationship was going just yet, I was happy enough to go along for the ride right now. It wasn’t like she was going to unzip me and mount me right here in the middle of a stranger’s backyard during a party.

Our kiss last night had been abruptly cut off with Sam’s “pahtty foww” joke, but nobody interrupted us this time. We were both able to relax and flow into each other’s embrace, and I paused to concentrate on our kiss and consider all the sensations. I wrapped my arms around the short-but-stacked girl’s lower back and then let my right hand slide up her spine. Lily was wearing a white floral-print halter dress that coordinated with the flower behind her ear and left the upper half of her back exposed, and she shivered in my grasp when my palm began to rub against her bare skin. She had a different taste from the other girls, almost spicy, and as I sharply inhaled I smelled her unique scent of coconut lotion and sweat.

I found myself thinking back on my first kisses with the rest of The BTC. My first kisses ever had been with lovely Zofi, and I still recalled the giddy head rush of overwhelming excitement at kissing a girl for the very first time. But there had been no lust or sexual arousal in those first experimental liplocks. My first kisses with Alice and Mari had likewise been ... exploratory.

But this kiss with Lily was much more like my first kisses with Sam and Naimh: clearly passionate, clearly lustful. Lily moaned into my mouth with a crooning note of arousal in her throat while her fingers bunched up my shirt in her tight grip. She definitely kissed me like a girl who wanted to take my clothes off and get my big dick shoved up her twat...

... until all of a sudden, she didn’t.

I found myself gasping for air and clutching at open nothingness when the hot and horny girl in my lap abruptly disappeared. I mean, she didn’t literally disappear into the ether or anything, but when my eyes finally swam back into focus, it was to find Lily walking away from the couches with her fists bunched and her teeth gritted. I was still a bit dazed, so I stared after her a bit dumbly wondering what the hell was going on. Eva was frowning and staring after Lily but made no move to get up from her seat. But Belle had already slipped off the couch and was going after her new friend.

Meanwhile, Naimh slid in alongside me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

“What just happened?” I asked her in confusion.

My redhead frowned and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”

On instinct, I started to get up to go after Lily, but Naimh clutched me close. “Let her go for a minute,” she advised. “Lily’s still sorting out how she really feels about you. Let Belle talk to her first.”

I blinked and took a deep breath, regarding the steady assurance in Naimh’s expression before exhaling slowly and nodding my acquiescence. I then glanced over at Eva, who merely shrugged and took another swig of her drink. And then I turned my head to scan the area in the direction of where Sam and her pre-law friends had gone.

I quickly spotted Sam up on the elevated deck. She stood by the railing laughing and chatting with a group of guys. I could tell from the posture of the nearest guy to her that he was clearly hitting on her, and for a moment I tensed up just a bit.

Naimh had followed my gaze and felt the tension in my arm, and before I could say or do anything, she rubbed my leg and murmured, “Don’t worry, she has no interest in some bone-headed knuckle-draggers when she knows you’re waiting for her at home.”

I immediately relaxed and glanced at Naimh. “I wasn’t actually worried.”

My affectionate redhead rubbed her cheek against mine. “I’m sure you weren’t, but you’ll still have that instinctive reaction to defend your territory. Basic biology, remember?”

I chuckled. “Right. Seriously, though, I trust Sam.”

My blonde bombshell girlfriend had her right arm resting across the deck railing, and as if on cue, the guy reached out to brush her forearm with his fingertips. Sam instantly jerked her arm back, stood up straight, and said something inaudible with an ice-cold expression. The guy immediately backed off and held both hands up.

Naimh giggled and gestured. “Proving my point.”

I nodded. “Proving my point. I just said I trusted her.”

My randy redhead leaned in close to me and bit my ear. She murmured in a husky voice, “Just wait and see. She’s getting an adrenaline rush having to defend herself from predatory guys. Tonight when we get home, she’ll be extra-horny and driven to prove how much she loves you.”

I chuckled. “You think so?”

“Just wait and see,” she repeated and then leaned in to give me a fierce kiss.

For a few moments, the world around us faded away. Nothing existed except for me and Naimh and the feel of her body molded against mine. The roots of our love intertwined while the passion of her lust flooded sexual energy through my veins. And my arms cinched tighter around her body and gripped her shoulders while I tugged her back into my lap so she could resume dry-humping the bulge in my pants.

But then an alarm went off in the back of my head, piercing the veil of silence around us. A voice from my left trickled through, barely audible, and it took a few moments for the words themselves to register:

“Really, I’m okay.”

The words said ‘I’m okay’ but there was just a hint of tension in the voice, the kind of tension I was well-familiar with. I’d spent a lifetime backing up The BTC girls and intervening should they ever find themselves the object of unwanted attention, and my ears had long been attuned to that particular tone of nervous anxiety.

So I pulled my lips away from Naimh’s and immediately focused on the source of the voice. Eva was still slouched in the armchair nearby in a pretty purple dress, holding up her red Solo cup as if it were a shield between her and the guy seated on her left armrest.

“But it’s empty,” the guy observed with a grin. “I’d be happy to get you a refill.”

“Thank you for the offer, but seriously, I’m good,” Eva replied firmly, but with an undertone of that same nervous anxiety.

“Hey Eva,” I called out strongly. “Why don’t you come sit with me and Neevie?”

The tall, lithe dark-haired beauty glanced over at me in surprise but then almost immediately slid out from her seat. Naimh was still in my lap, but Eva was quick to park herself on the cushion beside us, and when I opened my left arm and draped it across the couch’s backrest, she was quick to nestle herself against my side.

“She said she doesn’t need a refill, pal,” I stated seriously while giving the guy a ‘get lost’ look.

Pursing his lips for a moment, the guy shrugged and muttered, “Was just trying to be a gentleman.” He didn’t wait for a response before spinning off the armrest and then walking away.

Naimh immediately turned her focus to Eva. “You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, totally,” Eva replied while almost delicately taking my left hand and lifting it off her shoulder.

When I realized what she was doing, I was quick to pull my arm back and let her slide herself a couple of feet away from me along the sectional, although she didn’t return to the armchair.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Eva muttered while narrowing her eyes at me. “I’m used to guys flirting with me and didn’t ask to be rescued.”

I frowned and momentarily glanced at Naimh before returning my attention to Eva. “I’m ... sorry. Did you want that guy to keep flirting with you? I didn’t mean to ... uh ... what’s the female version of ‘cockblocking’?”

“You didn’t ‘clam jam’ me,” Eva drawled with a smirk. “I didn’t want him flirting with me or anything. But it’s not like ... I mean ... I didn’t need you to step in. I can take care of myself, yeah?”

“Sure, sure.”

Eva’s eyes narrowed. “Should I expect you to keep getting jealous every time a cute guy stops to talk to me?”

I blinked. “I’m sorry. I’m not jealous. ‘Jealousy’ implies ownership, and I don’t own you.”

“Perhaps ‘envious’ instead?”

I held up both hands defensively. “You’re welcome to flirt with whomever you want and it’s not my place to get jealous or envious.” I arched an eyebrow. “My apologies if I overstepped. Force of habit from taking care of The BTC girls. You had the same kind of tone in your voice that they’ve had in the past when they needed a lifeline, and I just sort of reacted on instinct.”

“It’s alright,” Eva said with a shrug and a dismissive wave as she turned to pointedly look away from me. Adopting her bored air once more, she muttered, “Better safe than sorry, I know.”

“Tzeitel,” Naimh suggested. “We need to teach you about ‘Tzeitel’.”

Eva frowned and glanced back at us, looking confused. “What?”

“It’s code for: I don’t like this guy that’s hitting on me so please come rescue me,” Naimh explained. “The BTC girls taught it to me back in high school. We all liked to flirt with guys but only up to a point. So if any of us heard one of the girls say ‘Tzeitel’, we’d know to drop everything and go rescue her.”

“Ahhh ... from Fiddler on the Roof,” Eva remarked. “For the daughter getting betrothed to the old butcher.”

“Exactly,” Naimh confirmed.

Eva glanced at me. “Did you have to do a lot of ‘Tzeitel’ rescues back in high school?”

I shrugged. “Not many. Like Neevie said: most of them liked to get attention from the guys; for practice, if nothing else. They also learned how to handle themselves and only called in a ‘Tzeitel’ if they really had to. And the same goes for you. You said you can handle yourself and I’ll respect that. You’re not my girlfriend and I don’t have the right to be jealous of you. You really are welcome to flirt with whomever you want. But at the same time there are advantages to having a guy friend as backup. Know that I’m here if you need me, just in case.”

“Good to know.” Eva gave a thoughtful nod and shifted in her seat. “Let me get out of your way. You two looked like you were in the middle of a moment. And after all...” Eva then effected a Yiddish accent as she finished, “ ... What would you do with two?”

“The same as I do with one,” I said in the same Yiddish accent without thinking, just to complete the quote. But my eyes immediately bugged out once I realized the implication, and I started to apologize for my presumption, “I-I didn’t mean--”