Chapter 5

We said goodbye to Liz and Terri in the parking lot. We climbed into the car and I turned to Lori.

“So do we need anything besides eggs?” I asked.

“No, not really.”

“Oh, okay.” I furrowed my brow. “So ... how many eggs do we need?”

She smirked. “That was code.”

“Code? Code for what?” Then I got it. “Oh. It’s like Len’s rubber band.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Well, maybe we’ll have to ask them to get eggs later.”

She grinned back at me, which warmed my heart.

“So where do we go?” I asked.

“How about the video store?”

I chuckled. “You know the way to my heart.”

She grinned. “Not something else?”

“Oh, that too! But ... movies.” I made a point of dramatically sighing.

She laughed. “Well, there’s a good store on College Avenue.”

“Sounds good.”

About ten minutes later, we pulled into a strip mall lot with what was obviously a local video store trying to hold out against the chains. The place wasn’t too large but it was well lit. We headed inside.

Unfortunately, the store was disappointing. They just didn’t have a large enough selection. The comedies section was mostly films from the past few years, none of which had been box office smashes. They had both The Breakfast Club and Police Academy, neither of which interested me. Lori picked up Revenge of the Nerds but set it back down.

Their drama section was worse. I recognized several films that had barely spent any time in the theaters. I briefly considered Absence of Malice but that didn’t seem like a date film.

“We could get Cat People,” Lori suggested.

I frowned. “That’s more horror.”

“Ah.” She put the box back on the shelf.

“So what’s one of your favorite movies?” I asked.

“Risky Business.”

“Oh?”

“I thought the train scene was hot.”

I recalled that scene of the characters having sex. Fortunately, I didn’t blush. “It was.”

“Mmm hmm.” She smirked, so maybe I’d blushed a little.

By then, we’d wandered toward the back of the store. Lori gestured toward a curtained entryway.

“The, um, adult section?” I looked around. No one was paying attention to us and the clerk was helping someone else. Still, my heart raced.

“Porn section,” she corrected. “Yeah.”

She took my hand and pulled me through the curtain.

The room was poorly lit and held maybe fifty cassettes. Most were turned cover out and my heart raced as I scanned the covers. Mostly naked women filled the area. I was about to say something, but caught myself.

This was just like when she’d been looking at the Kama Sutra in the bookstore all those weeks ago. I needed to play it cool.

Lori studied the tapes. I watched her as much as I looked at them. She pursed her lips as she looked at the covers.

“So...,” she asked, “have you ever watched a porno?”

“Just once,” I admitted.

“Once?”

“Yeah. At a sleepover with a bunch of guys. We didn’t watch it long.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“It was bad,” I scoffed. “Really bad. It had scenes on loops, so we saw the same thing again and again. One scene was just the woman’s elbow. It was awful.”

She laughed. It was the laugh that made me sigh inside. “That sounds pretty bad.”

“Besides ... it was uncomfortable with all the other guys there.”

“Was it just guys?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded. “Yeah, it’s better in a mixed group.”

“Really?” My eyes widened but I kept from gaping.

“Yeah. And it doesn’t compare to the real thing.”

I laughed, out of nervousness as much as amusement.

“Is that so?” I asked.

“Mmm hmm.” She turned toward the curtain as if to leave. “Speaking of which...?”

The smoldering look she gave me turned my dick to iron.

“Maybe we don’t need a movie,” I said.

She nodded. “Maybe we should go back to the apartment.”

I liked that idea. I liked it a lot. But then I caught myself.

“You think they’re done by now?” I asked.

“Does it matter?”

I took a deep breath. “No,” I said. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

“Good. Because I want something better than a movie anyway.”

We arrived back at the apartment to the strains of Bolero. The classical music crept out the cracks under and around Terri’s bedroom door into the empty living room. Lori put her finger to her lips in the classic symbol to be quiet. I nodded. Then she stole closer to the door. Doing my best to remain quiet, I followed.

As the music crescendoed, we could hear a voice. It was ... moaning. Crying out. It got louder and louder until it was unmistakable. The woman was coming hard.

My blood heated.

And then the cat rubbed against my legs.

Lori silently laughed and then scooped the animal up. She took her to the kitchenette and got out some more cat food while I remained rooted in place, watching.