Chapter 2

Nearly all of our first period Shakespeare class’s characters had conspired to get Kim and me together, despite our protests. She called me a prince’s jester. Why would I fall in love with a wicked-tongued woman like that? Meanwhile, Mel was engaged to a short, red-headed boy with an unfortunate case of acne. She’d be married by Wednesday. The play was pretty funny to begin with but since we all knew each other; it was sort of like there was a subplot that Shakespeare didn’t know about.

When I overheard Kim’s uncle conspiring with Don Pedro to get us to fall in love with each other, I was shocked. Shocked, I tell you! I didn’t remember having this much fun in any class before.

We left the classroom, laughing and in a good mood. What a great way to start the day. Kim and I got to lunch first and went to our private table to talk. With cheerleading essentially over for the season, the squad wasn’t quite as tight. We talked about Angela and horses for rehab. Then, we talked about Marci, and other potential victims. That’s the way we saw her.

“She’s growing on you, isn’t she?” Kim asked.

“Well, she’s weird, so, yeah.”

“You’re a dufus. Wait. Am I weird?” I made a face at her and she grabbed my lunch sack to see if there was anything worth stealing. There wasn’t.

“Did you talk to Miss Bentz about it?”

“Yeah. She had a couple of ideas and maybe they would work. Obviously, she knows about Dillon and the whole attempted rape thing. She and Mr. McClusky talked about having some sort of pre-prom class where they would teach etiquette and all that but really it would be sort of a rape prevention thing.”

“Perfect. Gentlemen, here’s how to ask a girl to dance, and, by the way, don’t rape her after the dance.”

“That’s part of the problem. Saying that without being obvious or whatever. She said, they could talk with the girls about how to not send mixed signals, knowing when to leave, and all that. But they could also talk to the boys about consequences and stuff. Maybe they could have you give that talk.”

“Ha, ha. Maybe having someone from the Charleston Police Department give that talk would be better.”

“Who would you pay more attention to, Officer Friendly, or Timex?”

“That’s pretty much a no-brainer. Timex,” I said.

“Maybe they could just tell what happened to Dillon. He tried to rape a girl and didn’t get caught. Did it again and got his nose broken and expulsion. Tried it a third time and got the shit beat out of him, hospitalized, and then got arrested. He’s in jail, right?”

“No idea. I’d assume so but I don’t know.”

Kim started laughing. Something got her funny bone and she couldn’t stop. I waited. She caught her breath, tried to tell me, then started laughing again. She finally managed to get it under control.

“Dillon attempted to rape three different girls.”

“Yeah? So?”

“Attempted. Dillon James went to jail as a virgin.”

“He probably isn’t one now,” I said, finally realizing why she was laughing. “He’s probably been raped more than once by now. Holy crap.”

“Now that might be a persuasive argument.” It was funny at first, and then it was pretty sobering.

“Sort of a karma thing, I guess,” she said as the bell rang.

In keyboarding that afternoon, I told Miss Durand about my new computer. She asked, and I told her what kind it was. She gave me a sheet with all kinds of shortcuts on it. Instead of clicking a bunch of times, I could just hit two keys to get the same thing done. It would make working with it even faster. Sweet.

In PE, we were still in track and field. Coach timed us all for a single lap, and for the first time, wrote our times down. He told us we’d have our own little track meet on Friday. We practiced a baton pass for relay races and he told us he’d timed us to help him come up with teams that would be fair.

Back at my house, Kim, Mom, and I had a good push workout while Angela watched. While we were working out, we talked about horses and horseback riding. Kim started it and I could tell she was just trying to gauge Angela’s interest level. We discovered that not only had Angela never ridden a horse before, she’d never been close enough to touch one. She was completely clueless. So much so, that she didn’t know what to ask. For all our talk, we had no idea if she’d be open to riding or even going to the stable.

We both had papers to write so Kim scooted home as soon as we finished. I called her after dinner and told her some of the shortcuts I’d gotten from Miss Durand. The ‘control’ key was the secret to everything. Cut, paste, copy, and spell-checking made writing a breeze. I wrote a paper for biology in about half the time it would have taken me on the typewriter. On top of that, I was a lot more likely to make edits since I didn’t have to print it until I was happy with it. I printed my paper and tried to think if there was something useful I could do with the little strips of tractor feed holes. Nothing came to mind.

Mom called me to the phone. “Who is it?” I asked.

“Cheryl something,” she said. I took it in the library and waited for Mom to hang up on the other end. I knew Cheryl from when she worked at Bad Kitty. She had given me great advice on sex, and had teased the hell out of me, which was pretty easy to do, since she was super-hot. I did not need Mom to know all that, that’s for sure.

“Hey,” I said. “How are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, why? Oh. You heard why I left. Mickey was just being Mickey. Not sure why it took me so long to figure that out. I’m good now, though. Are you still engaged to that Kim slut?”

“Hey! Yes, and she’s not a slut!”

“I’m teasing you, Aquaman. Calm down. I saw you on the news. I never watch the news. That’s not true. I always watch the news; I just never pay attention. You were cute.”

“Thanks. You’re safe from Mickey, but you had to move and change jobs and all.”

“Maybe I didn’t have to but I was ready for a change anyway. It’s not like I want to be working in a sex shop when I’m forty, you know.”

“Where are you working now, if it’s okay to ask.”

“Pernod’s. I’m working evenings as a bartender so I can take classes in the day.”

“Pernod’s is a ritzy bar just off Meeting Street, right? What kind of classes?”

“I’m going to Trident Tech. Learning SQL and C++.”

“I don’t know what those are.”

“Computer stuff. SQL is Structured Query Language. They’re both computer programming languages, just used for different stuff.”

“Holy crap, Cheryl! That’s really cool. So, you’re learning how to write computer programs and stuff?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. They’re languages and I’m good at languages. It’s like learning logical languages. Easier than English, that’s for sure.”

“Good for you. I bet there are some good paying jobs where you need to know that stuff.”

“I do pretty well at Pernod’s but I’m not going to live on tips forever. There’s another bartender there who’s in his sixties or something. He’s been teaching me. I don’t want to be serving Daiquiris to drunks when I’m sixty.”

“I wish I could pay you a visit, but I don’t think I’m old enough to get in.”

“I’d let you in,” she said and it didn’t sound like she was referring to Pernod’s.

“Uh-huh.”

“Damn, Jack, I bet you’d be just a whole lot of fun in bed. Fifteen. Oh, my.”

“You know I’m a one-woman guy, Cheryl.”

“I know, I know. Have you ever...”

“Cheated? No.” It was quiet for a minute. “That doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it.”

“Yeah? With me?”

“Yeah. I confess.”

“Was it good?”

“Oh, man, Cheryl. Why do you ask that kind of thing?”

I could almost hear her smiling on the other end of the line. “I’d like to think we were good together, in your imagination. Were we?”

“Yes. Okay, yes. You’re hot, Cheryl. What can I say?”

“Don’t be embarrassed. What did we do?”

“Oh, man. I can’t tell you that.”

“Come on, Aquaman. Tell me and then I’ll give you some ideas on how to make your slutty girlfriend go crazy.”

I couldn’t believe I was going to tell her, but that was a deal I couldn’t pass up. “You were on top and I played with your tits while you sort of went crazy.”

“Was it good for me?”

“You had a great time. You were really loud, in my imagination.”

“Nice. I’m glad you have a good imagination. I bet your face is red. Oh, my gosh. Alright, fair is fair. I’ll give you some ideas,” she said, and she did.

We were about to hang up when I had a thought. “Cheryl, I have a friend who is, let’s just say, socially awkward. She cute but she’s sort of clueless. I’m sort of concerned that she’s going to be a victim, you know?”

“She’s in high school?”

“Yeah. She’s the same age as me. Maybe a little older. Who am I kidding? All of my friends are at least a little older. She sat down across from me a couple of weeks ago and asked, ‘what’s the fascination with tits?’ or something like that.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said she was socially awkward. Obviously, if she asked you that, she feels comfortable talking with you.”

“I’m not sure if she really feels comfortable talking with anyone but I guess she trusts me. I don’t want her to get raped or something because she’s so clueless. Is there something I can tell her?”

“Tell her to buy a gun. No, she’s probably not old enough to own one. Let me think. Okay. Two things. First, tell her she needs to set limits before she ever goes on a date and then not change those limits until after the date. I don’t care what they are. That’s up to her. The second thing is to learn how to say ‘no’. Sometimes, a guy needs to be convinced that ‘no’ means ‘no’. A swift kick in the nuts is pretty convincing. So is Mace.”

“Those both make sense. I don’t think she’d be the kind to kick a guy but she might carry pepper spray. Like Mace, right? Do you have a gun?”

“Colt 1911. My dad got it for me and made me learn how to use it. I didn’t move here for my safety. I moved here for Mickey’s. Mace is just a brand name, I think. I think most gun stores carry it. Let me know if you have, or rather, she has trouble getting it.”

“Thanks. I’m going to try to tell her both of those things. I think she’ll hear it from me. You know, I don’t think anyone ever tells guys to learn how to say ‘no’.”

“Would it do any good? You’re a sweetheart for thinking of your friend like that. A lot of guys wouldn’t. Listen, I have to go, but you can call me anytime. I think after I get home from work tonight, I’ll see how good my imagination is.”

“Whoo boy. Why did you tell me that?”

“Just to turn you red, little boy. Just to turn you red. Bye,” she said and hung up, leaving me red and horny. It was too late to call Kim so I used my imagination. Cheryl was so hot.

After kung fu class, Sifu Chen invited us to watch a competition on Friday. Once a quarter, students from three different schools got together for a friendly competition. Three months prior, they had competed in kata, which is a choreographed set of moves that look like you’re fighting a bunch of invisible opponents. This competition would be fighting. Neither Franklin nor I were ready to compete but he wanted to give us a chance to watch. We could bring Kim and Karen, but there just wasn’t room for more.

On Wednesday, Mom, Dane, Mr. and Mrs. McTighe, Dr. Calhoun, Dr. Legare, and Dr. Calhoun were all going to dinner at Poogan’s Porch. As soon as they left, Kim and I went back to her house.

“We probably have two hours.”

“After the close call at the marina, I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances,” I said. “Your mom didn’t say anything?”

“Not a word. Maybe we got lucky. Probably not, though. My mom has a wicked poker face so if she knows and doesn’t want us to know she knows, we won’t. Have a seat,” she said, pointing to a chair in her bedroom. I started to turn the chair around but she wanted me facing away from her. “Fashion show.”

I could wait. Kim’s fashion shows never disappointed. I heard her open a drawer, then go into the bathroom to change. I adjusted my pants.

“You can turn around now,” she said.

“Wow. Just, wow.” Kim had on a lacy black bra and panties. The bra was sheer and almost, but not quite see-through. The straps were really thin, like silk ribbons on a present, which I thought was a pretty good description. The panties, if you could call them that, were a small triangle of black lace, with that same black ribbon around her waist. The little ribbon clung to her waist, resting on her hips. She had really toned her stomach and the bra lifted her boobs just a little. “I’ve never...” I said and ran out of words.

“You like?”

“Damn, Kim. You look amazing. Your body is, well, it’s just amazing.”

“I’ve been working on it, you know.”

“I do know. You’ve got that biker babe vee and abs and that’s a wicked good combination.” The word ‘wicked’ had crept into our speech. We were slowly being Yankified.

“Good. You like my shape?”

“Of course, I like your shape. I’ve always liked your shape and this is as good as you’ve ever looked.”

“Better than Lori?” There it was. I had mentioned Lori’s ridiculous hour glass figure once and Kim had never forgotten.

“Definitely.” I’d better say more than that. “Lori has a nice body. But she doesn’t have your vee and that’s super sexy. You have bigger boobs. Hers look big because she’s so small but yours are definitely bigger. And she definitely doesn’t have your stomach. No contest, Baby. No contest.”

“Really?”

“Plus, you have the most amazing smile in the world.” Man, those dimples just do something to me. I waited for a moment. “You know how you would look even better?” Her eyebrows went up. “You could let me help you change out of that.”

She smiled, turned away from me and raised her arms over her head. I crossed to her, put my hands on her sides, then ran them up, enjoying the smooth warmth of her. I reached around and cupped her tits, still held by her new lacy bra. Kissing her neck as I did, I told her, “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. No one comes close.”

“Your hands feel good on me. Really good.”

I turned us so we could see ourselves in the mirror at her makeup table. I cupped her tits and ran my thumbs around her nipples, then began kissing her neck again. I slid out of my shoes, then reached up with my right and fumbled to get the clasp undone with one hand. Not easy. With her bra loose, I slid my hands up, lifting it off, then cupped her tits again, this time, skin to skin. Her nipples were tight with desire and she started circling her hips, pushing back against me.

We had two hours. I kissed her neck and slid my hands down her firm belly, then teased her by running my fingers just under the tops of her panties. “Silky smooth. I like that.”

“Your callouses aren’t as hard as they were after the summer.”

“Your hair is getting long.”

She pulled it forward, covering her tits. “You like it long?”

“I do like it long. Do you like it long?” I asked. I saw her smile in the mirror and her hand reached behind her and grabbed me.

“I like it just a little longer,” she said, stroking me.

I pushed my pants down and off then pulled my shirt over my head. Her panties were gone, too. We went to the bed and I climbed in and sat at the head of it, leaning back against the headboard. I pulled her to me and she sat in front of me, facing away. I ran my hands over the front of her body.

“You have an amazing body, Baby. We could take down Mom’s Rachel McLish poster and put one of you up there.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, dripping sarcasm.

“I’m not kidding. Rachel McLish is super sexy but you’ve got her beat,” I said, trailing my hands up her legs.

I rested my fingers on the inside crease of each leg, feeling her heat, and enjoying the sound of her breathing. I could feel her heartbeat pulsing. I inched my fingers closer to her sex and she squirmed around, trying hurry things along. I nuzzled my face underneath her hair to kiss her neck and she tilted her head to give me access. She pulled her feet up so she could lift when she wanted to. I’d become good at watching all her little signs to tell just how worked up she was.

“Can you feel me against your back? I want you, but I want to make you happy, first.” I slid a finger up her slit, testing to see if she was wet yet. She spread her legs a little to give me better access.

“I like to feel good. I feel pretty good right now. You feel so big behind me.”

I slid my fingers across her slit, to see that she was beginning to open up a bit. I trailed my fingers between her lips, wetting them and she moaned. I wasn’t going to do everything Cheryl had suggested but I wanted to play with some of her ideas. I wrapped my left arm around her, holding her tight to me and gently squeezing her right tit. Then, I put my feet over her legs and slowly pushed them down. I felt like I had her pretty well controlled.

She tested it, straining against me, but not too hard. I slid my middle finger inside her and slid my thumb around to get it good and wet. When it was well lubricated, I sort of pinched the two together, squeezing her sex between them.

“Oh, goodness. If you keep doing that, I’m going to feel really good, really soon.”

“Lean your head back,” I said and when she did, I put my chin over her shoulder and sort of trapped it to me. She could have gotten loose easily but she was enjoying it too much to try. I felt her try to lift up with her legs but I held her down with my feet.

“Oh, god, Jack. I’m going to cum. I think I’m really going to cum.”

“Good, Baby. I want you to.” I picked up the pace with my fingers and squeezed a nipple, then rolled it between my fingers. I pulled on it, just a little and she really started to strain against me. “I love you, Kim. You feel so good to me. Cum for me, Baby.”

She arched against my feet, trying to thrust up. I held her down and let my fingers go crazy on her. I felt a little shudder, and I knew she was seconds away from her climax. I clutched her to me, preventing her from bucking the way I knew she wanted to.

“Here it comes. Oh, oh,” she said and thrust up. I held her down for the first three or four thrusts and then relaxed so she could let her body do what it wanted to. She arched high off the bed and when she came down, she threw her head back and I had to quickly move to the side to avoid getting head-butted. I trapped her legs again and started over, as though she hadn’t just cum. She complained for about two seconds and then relaxed.

“I’m going to cum again. I’m still so, oh, oh. Here I go...”

She came a second time, so close to the first that it almost could have been one long one. This time, her legs started twitching at the end of her orgasm. I wrestled my way out from behind her and climbed between her legs.

“Jack, what? Oh, Jack. Not again. Oh. Okay. Maybe just one more time,” she said as I planted my lips on her wet pussy and went to work. “I’m so wet. You’re going to, oh. That feels really nice.”

It was time to try another thing Cheryl had said. So far, she hadn’t steered me wrong. I reached up with my finger and got it soaked. Then I used Kim’s lubrication to coat the outside of her anus. She jerked a little at first. I soaked my finger again. This time, I sucked her clit into my mouth as I forced a finger into her ass. She grunted as it went in. I sawed it in and out a little until I got it in. Then, I leaned to the side to slide a finger into her pussy as I continued to suck and lick at her sensitive clit.

“That feels crazy. Good, but crazy. I’m going to cum again Jack. I’m really going to cum again. Feels so weird. Oh, uh.”

She started jerking in a funky way. I was completely maxed out with a finger in each hole and my tongue working on her the best I knew how. I was flat on my stomach and I knew I was leaking pre-cum all over her sheets. She started to make noise and when she came, she really exploded. When she arched up, both fingers popped out and I lost contact with my mouth. I reached up and fingered her through her third solid orgasm of the day.

She collapsed back on the bed and I climbed up. “Baby, I’m going to explode,” I said and positioned myself at her opening.”

“Slow down a little,” she said and got up on her elbows. “I want to watch you disappear into me.”

She watched my dick part her lips. I watched her face as I did. I tried to ease in slowly but I was so amped up I just couldn’t. I pounded into her hard two times and started to cum. Two times! I arched hard and drove into her as deeply as I could, erupting into her. We locked eyes as I continued to fire load after load into her. When I’d finished, I held myself in as deeply as I could, willing myself to stay hard.

She smiled up at me. “You are really good at that, you know. I’m just done. Just stay right where you are, mister. I like you buried deep in me.”

“No place I’d rather be.” She squeezed me with her pussy. “I like that but if you do it again, I’m probably going to pop out.”

“Don’t do that.” She pulled me down to her and the change in angle popped me out anyway. “Ew, it’s all shrunk. Ick,” she said and pushed me off.

“I’ve never cum harder than that, Kim. Wow. You just feel so good.”

“It probably didn’t hurt that you warmed up by bringing me off five or six times.”

“Five or six? Really?”

“I lost track. Jack, that was just crazy. How long until you can get hard again?”

It didn’t take all that long and we went for another round, this time with Kim on top. She knew I loved that position because I could see her and play with her tits. After that, we got busy cleaning up. Kim threw the sheets in a quick cycle and I rinsed off, got dressed, and got ready to walk home.

“That was pretty special, Baby,” she told me at the front door. “I don’t know where you came up with that.”

“Cheryl. I stopped in a while back and she had moved on. I left a number and she called the other day. She gave me some ideas about Marci, too. I’ll tell you on the way in, tomorrow.”

The next morning, I climbed into the truck and she started off with, “I slept like a log. Dang, Jack, you were really great last night.”

“Must have been the lingerie,” I told her about my conversation with Cheryl and her advice for Marci. We talked about whether or not we thought it would have helped Annie when Dillon tried to rape her.

“I’m pretty sure a gun would have helped,” Kim said.

“That’s what Cheryl said. She has a Colt 1911 her dad gave her and he taught her how to use it.”

“Would have saved the taxpayers a lot of money. Are we getting married today?”

“What? Oh, in English. Man, that caught me off guard.”

We didn’t get married. And, I learned that turning a statement into a question, while funny, was also unacceptable. I would leave the humor to Shakespeare in the future. It was still pretty funny to me.

At lunch, Marci ended up sitting next to me. I looked across at Kim and knew we had the same thing in mind. Hey, Marci, you should buy a gun and learn how to say ‘no’. I don’t even know what we talked about that day because I was so preoccupied. Marci had opened up a bit but she was still awkward. It seemed so crazy that a super cute cheerleader that was also very athletic, and probably smarter than she realized could also be so clueless.

“I thought cheerleaders were supposed to be stuck up,” I said, and it came out of nowhere. Conversation stopped and everyone looked first at me, then at Kim to see if she could fix me.

“We’re out of practice,” Jan said.

“We should practice,” Mel said and stuck her nose up in the air.

“I’m just saying that you’re destroying the stereotype. That’s all. It’s a good thing.”

“I’m not talking to him,” Annie said. “Huh.”

“Come on, girls. Let’s go to another table,” Jan said and they all started to get up, then sat back down and laughed.

“Were you trying to out-awkward Marci so you would have common ground?” Kim asked as we walked to chemistry.

“No. I guess I did, though. That came out of nowhere. What a dufus.”

“You were pretty nice to me last night, dufus.”

“I think we owe Cheryl a Christmas present or something,” I said.

“Like a new house, maybe. I’m still floating.”

“Nice.”

“You’ve sort of restrained me before but this was different.”

“Good, though, right?”

“Good doesn’t begin to describe that,” she said as we walked into chemistry.

We had our track meet in PE and that was fun. We could compete in any or all events but we had to compete in at least three. I’d rather be a participant than a spectator so I competed in almost everything. It was pretty much a given that Jake would win the shot put and you would have thought he’d win the javelin but Gil had figured out a great technique and he won by a mile.

We finished up with the four by four hundred relay. Everyone competed. Coach went over the rules one more time as if we needed to hear it again. Gil, Allen, Bobby, and I were all the last to run, presumably because we’d run the fastest individually. I didn’t have a lot of faith in the three runners ahead of me and for good reason. They couldn’t run. I figured the other guys were in the same boat.

Our four first runners lined up and coach blew his whistle. They were painfully slow but my guy was the slowest. I should have brought a book. Be nice, Jack, I reminded myself. Not everyone is an athlete. Finishing the first lap, I could see that he hadn’t moved the baton to his left hand. That was the deal. You took the baton with your right, then, sometime during your lap, you switched it to your left so the next guy could take it with his right. Or you could start with it in your left and it wouldn’t be a problem. You can’t forget to switch to your left, though, and he had.

“Just take it with your left,” I told our second runner. He could see what was happening, too. He nodded and got ready. When our first runner got near the transition, he started running. That’s when our first runner remembered to switch hands and he did. Our second runner didn’t realize that and had his left hand behind him for the pass, and that’s how the darn thing ended up bouncing on the track.

Be nice, Jack. Encourage. Right. “Just pick it up and go! Go! Go!” Our second runner picked it up and took off. We’d been the last team before the drop and now we were really behind. I have no idea why I was suddenly so competitive at something that didn’t matter. Our first runner realized that he’d not only been painfully slow, but screwed up about the only thing you can screw up in a relay race.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” I said. He didn’t look much happier. “Unless your scholarship hopes and dreams were tied up in that, it isn’t a big deal. It’s PE.” He smiled a little and we looked to see how our second runner was doing. Not much better. We were a half lap behind. Allen stood next to me, trying not to laugh. Bobby and Gil pretended they didn’t notice. They noticed. Our next transition went a lot better and our third runner actually made up some of the gap but there was no way I was going to overcome that giant gap.

There are two good things about being last in a relay race. First, there’s no one to get in your way for the transition. Second, you know exactly what you have to do to win. Too much. Gil was in third and seemed happy with that. I did my best to catch him. I probably would have if the rest of his team hadn’t hollered at him. He looked back, saw me, and picked up the pace. Thankfully, it was still January when I crossed the line. I’d given it my best and caught up some, but finished at least a hundred yards back.

“It’s just PE,” Bobby said. Allen put his hand on my shoulder, shook his head sadly, and said, “You did your best.” Thanks, guys.

We circled around the coach and he talked to us about our track meet and gave people the opportunity to tell what they’d learned. Conversation died down and I said, “Hey Coach, we didn’t run the mile.”

He checked his watch. “We have time, depending of course on how fast you are. Anyone besides Pierce care to run a mile? Four laps.”

I knew Allen would go for it. Gil decided to run, and, surprisingly, so did Jake. He was a big guy and a mile was pretty far for a football player. Maybe not. Only one way to find out.

“Alright, gentlemen. Four laps. I’ll call out your lap times as you pass the starting line. Don’t start out too fast or you won’t finish. Don’t puke on my track,” he said by way of encouragement. “Anything under seven minutes is good. Under five and I’ll let the track coach know.”

He blew the whistle and we started. Allen took the lead and hugged the inside lane. I decided to follow him as closely as I could for as long as I could. I went through a mental checklist as we ran down the back straight-away. Eyes on the horizon to open up my chest and get good breathing. Relax my arms and use them to help set my pace. Lengthen my stride and try to keep my head level. That was just about it. Allen and I passed coach at almost the same time and heard him say “one-twenty-two”.