Chapter 28: Alternate Prom

Saturday May 2

Duke and I walked out my backdoor to run, when he darted into the backyard to do his business. I heard the low rumble of him growling, so I decided to go investigate. I found Precious guarding something, something furry.

Oh Dear Lord, she caught one of Duke's squirrels.

You have to understand, there was a sacred bond between dog and squirrel. It was the squirrel's job to torment the dog by bouncing around and then running up trees. The squirrel then twitches its tail and chirped at the dog, heckling it from above. It was the dog's job to kill the little bastards. Duke explained this to me on more than one occasion, as he seemed to chase every one he saw. He was very serious about taking one of them out.

Duke was totally frustrated to see Precious had taken his job away from him. How could a cat catch a squirrel and he couldn't? I was worried we might have to move! The shame of it all! He danced around to indicate I should take the squirrel away from Precious and give it to him. I grabbed him by the collar and took him to the house and pushed him through the back door. I started to go to Brit's house, so she could deal with her cat, when Duke decided to wake the neighborhood with his barking. This was a sure recipe for disaster, as it would wake my parents. I figured the damage was already done, so I hurried over to Brit's and pounded on their back door. Bryan answered.

"Get your sister. Her damned cat has caught a squirrel."

"Why don't you take the little guy away from Precious?" he said with a smirk.

"The same reason you won't. The damned cat is evil."

He went and got Brit. She was in a shorty night gown and I just stared at her long legs. Her large breasts were swinging free, and I forgot why I was there. Bryan smacked me, and told her the problem. I watched in amazement as she walked over to our backyard without a care in the world. I had a bad feeling Precious wasn't going to give up her prize so easily. I liked Brit, except for her taste in pets, so I was worried she might get hurt.

"You want me to get you some garden gloves?"

I was on the receiving end of the look every teenage girl seems to have mastered. I decided standing at the edge of the garage was probably a safe distance. Duke was still losing his shit, and I was torn between quieting him down and the possibility of missing Precious make a believer out of Brit. I heard Mom yelling at Duke to 'Shut the &%@^# up!' Brit had just bent down and her shorty nightgown no longer covered her boy short underwear when I heard the back door open. My mind locked. At least that was what I would use as my excuse later. Brit had an outstanding butt!

"Don't let!" died on my lips as Duke crashed out the back door.

Five things seemed to happen at the same time. Duke crashed into Brit trying to get to the squirrel. Precious saw her master about to fall on her, so she jumped to the side. The stunned squirrel, looked for an escape route, and jumped into the gaping neck of Brit's nighty. Brit let out a scream which could have woken the dead. My mom charged out to see what was going on. I think she was more pissed than Brit was, if that was even possible.

"Classic!" Brock exclaimed as he caught the action on his phone.

"Did you get that?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Brock confirmed.

Brit rolled around on the ground, which caused the squirrel to get excited. She screamed and Duke barked like crazy, because he couldn't see where the squirrel had gone. I saw the neighbor on our other side stick her head out the back door, so I gave her a little wave. Mom came up and whacked me on the back of the head.

"Go help her," she said with more than a little menace in her voice.

I figured I should get my mutt under control, so I did a loud whistle and then gave him the come command. Hey, it worked for Dad. Duke ignored me, until Mom stomped her foot.

"You get over here, right now!" she ordered, which had Duke come and sit next to her.

I would have to learn that trick.

Brit finally got smart and ripped her nighty off. This caused me to have another brain cramp, as I admired her gorgeous breasts. The only flaw was there was a squirrel stuck between them. Brit did the only logical thing. She jerked the fuzzy rat from between her breasts and flung him as far away from her as she could. Unfortunately, for Mom, he landed on her head.

The stress was too much for Duke. He made a mighty leap and tried to remove the squirrel from Mom's hair. The squirrel, seeing its demise just moments away, made a jump I still can't believe! It landed on Bryan's leg, scampered up his back, and soared to safety onto the garage roof. I would bet I would never see that particular squirrel, ever again.

Brit finally came to her senses, and realized she was in only her panties. She tried to hide her magnificent breasts while she ran for her house. Duke circled the garage in hopes that the squirrel might fall down to him. Precious casually headed home now that the fun and games were over. I was going to see if the boys could send me the video, when my mom grabbed my ear and marched me into the house.

Dad came downstairs to find me backed up to the wall as Mom waved her finger in my face and explained how Duke and I would move to my uncle's farm for the summer. When Mom finally calmed down enough, Dad asked what happened. When Mom explained it to him, he broke out laughing. You could tell it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he couldn't help himself. I soon found out Dad was to go to live with Duke and me at Uncle John's farm, too. I didn't look forward to a summer putting in fence posts.

After I got back from my run, I was looking for something to do, away from the house. Then I got a text from Greg.

'Jet Water Board!'

Hell, yes!

I went and found Dad hidden in the garage, and told him our plan. He was scared to go into the house to get a swim suit. I convinced him we could buy him one on the way. I went upstairs, put on a swim suit, and got my Go Cam, so I could video us having fun. I also sent Lily a text to let everyone know what we were going to do. I saw her tweet a few minutes later.

I hooked up the trailer for the Jet Ski, and Dad and I were soon headed to State to pick up Greg. When we had Greg in the Jeep we went to the sporting goods store. The water was still cold so we got some wet suit tops. Dad bought a swimsuit and wore it out of the store. We were soon at our favorite beach.

It took Greg and me a few minutes to figure out how everything hooked together. You could tell how much we wanted to use our new toys, when Dad was forced to get out the instructions. It was good they had big pictures, or I think my brother would have been lost. Both Greg and I were pissed when Dad called first dibs. It was decided I would show Dad what to do, and Greg was put in charge of driving the Jet Ski. I put the Go Cam on Dad's head, and showed him how to use the controls for the Jet Water Board.

He was seated on the edge of the dock when he fired it up. When he felt comfortable he stood up from the dock to begin to float over the water. He had a blast as he slowly hovered next to the dock. I told him to lean forward, which caused him to start to move and he began to get the hang of it. Greg did his job of following him around. The hose from the Jet Ski to the Jet Water Board was only forty feet long. Dad took a turn around the lake and then came back and got to the edge of the dock and sat down. He never got wet.

I took the Go Cam off of him, and grabbed my phone so I could upload the video. While I did that, Greg took his turn. I wished I had left the video running because Greg was in the water more than he was hovering above it. I finally got it uploaded to my Dropbox account and sent Lily a text to let her know it was there. I'd gotten her some video editing software. She liked playing with videos and she would make it look like it was professionally done if she had the time. I expected this would just be a quick upload to my YouTube page and then she would Tweet it out.

People started to show up when it was my turn. I figured I needed to show off. I gently hovered out deep enough to ensure I wouldn't crash into the bottom of the lake if something went wrong, and then switched to the back jet. I let the nose of the board dip, and skimmed the top of the water. Then I tipped the nose up, and went almost straight up. I tucked tightly, and put it into a spin. I hadn't tucked tight enough and went flying into the water as I was ripped off the board by the centrifugal force generated from the tight cork-screw action.

Of course I had to try it again, and again, and again, until I got it right. When I finally came back in, Dad had a line wanting to go next. Mike was the lucky candidate. I have to say he had some moves I was going to have to try.

Pam put us all to shame. I had no idea she had skateboard skills she had brought with her from California. She could make the Jet Water Board dance. I made sure I had the Go Cam recording as I was operating the trailing Jet Ski. It wasn't anything pervy. The video was shot as a service to young men everywhere. Who wouldn't want to see a California surfer girl in a bikini doing sick tricks on a Jet Water Board? When we got back, I traded with Dad and it was now Cassidy's turn.

While she went I loaded the video of Pam. I sent it to Sandy Range. Ten minutes later, I got a call from Sandy.

"Two things," she started without saying hi. "The first is Devin is green with envy. The second is, please have the girl in the video sign a contract and release. We want to use her to make an ad. We also need to know who shot the video."

"Yours truly," I told her.

"I love you. It makes it so much easier with you being the videographer. Now get to work. I need everything signed, today," she said and then hung up.

I found Pam while she talked to Mike and Wolf.

"You want to make some money?" I asked her.

"Don't trust him," Wolf warned.

"I heard you fell for that line," Mike said to Wolf.

"Yeah, and now I'm his handy man and gardener."

I showed them the video and told Pam what Sandy offered. She called her parents, so they could sign the contract. They showed up just before Kendal.

"David, what have you been up to?" Kendal accused me.

"Making you money," I shot back in our familiar banter.

"I want to see the video," Cal, Pam's dad, said.

I showed it to everyone. He quickly signed the contract and went to get into line for his turn. His wife was not happy when he came back soaking wet with a smile permanently plastered on his face. He made me promise to tell him the next time we were going to use our new toy. I had a sneaking suspicion that in his mind he had already spent the check from Pam's video on his own Jet Water Board.

One the way home, I got a text from Angie to let me know my date for tonight was at my house. Angie and Greg planned to spend the night. Mom had agreed to watch the kids for them, so they could go out. When we got home, Mom was now talking to us; much to Dad's relief. I looked around for Sarah, but didn't see her. Angie found me.

"She's in your apartment."

Maybe she wanted to fool around before the dance. I hurried out the back door, with Duke trailing me. He bounded up the stairs to my apartment ahead of me. I came to the top of the stairs and froze. Sitting in my recliner was Harper. Duke didn't hesitate to say hi. Of course, he liked everyone. I edged up the last step and we looked at each other. She smiled at me as I walked into my bedroom, and went to take a shower.

I needed to get the lake water off of me, and also needed a moment to think. What did I really think of Harper? Why was she here? I thought I made it clear I wasn't the sharing type. The only way I was ever going to figure this out was to go out and face her. I stilled cared for her enough to do that.

I put on sweats and I walked back into the living room. I put water on to boil, because I wanted some tea to warm up with.

"Want a cup of tea?" I asked her.

"Yes, that would be nice."

She waited me out as I cleaned up the kitchen while the water boiled. I opened a box of loose leaf Rooibos Tea. It was a nutty herbal tea made from the South African Red Bush plant. The leaves were sometimes referred to as Red Tea. I liked it because it was different, and caffeine free. The trick to making it was to bring the water to a boil and then steep the tea for five to six minutes. If you went much longer it became bitter.

"Are you hungry? Would you like a snack with tea?" I asked.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble."

When I was in England, we had either cakes or what they called biscuits. I would call them cookies. I had a bag of Oreo cookies, because every once in a while I craved them. I think my mom got into my stash more than I did. I checked and she'd left me half a bag. She was pretty good about replacing them if she ate them all.

I tried to keep busy, because I couldn't seem to come up with what I wanted to say to Harper. I finally was done preparing the snack and tea. I turned the coffee table into a real table, and then I brought over the china tea pot and cookies. Harper smirked when she saw our snack. I had seen her attack chocolate, so I knew she would like what I brought. I poured us each a cup of tea.

Harper sampled the tea and seemed to like it.

"I wanted to come visit you to give you a chance to reconsider breaking up with me," Harper began.

I looked up to see if she was messing with me. Her face was unreadable. Could she be serious with this approach? I had to give her credit for not telling me how sorry she was. I would have shut her down and kicked her out if she pulled that. I wondered if Tami had coached her. Harper wasn't rushing me. She had allowed me to consider what she was telling me.

How did I feel about Harper? I had made an effort to seek her out and ask her to be my girlfriend. The last girl I had done that with was Nancy. I normally went with the flow and let girls come to me. Harper was different. She intrigued me from the moment I met her. I knew she had a boyfriend, and yet I hit on her shamelessly. For Harper, I had broken one of Dawson's Rules. Thou shall not be with girls who are with other guys.

"I thought you broke up with me when you decided to spend time with Alex instead of me," I said.

My comment seemed to piss her off and she took a moment to collect herself.

"Alex was a mistake."

The light bulb came on, and it made me a little sad.

"Let me tell you a story. You tell me when I get it wrong. Alex has always run with only the best people. He always seemed somehow unattainable when you were growing up," I said then paused to see if I was on track. "There were times when you would find yourself alone with Alex. You found he was charming and seemed so different than he was when he was with his group. Alex is from generational wealth. His father is either a lawyer or banker."

"Investment banker," Harper supplied.

"His mother does charity work. Your family's money is relatively new, only going back to your grandfather. Your mother is in politics and your father in construction and investments. You would never be a fit, but you and Alex were attracted to each other."

Harper looked away from me. I waited. I poured us both another cup of tea. She finally looked at me before I continued.

"Alex is a fool. He has no idea what you are made of. You have an inner strength which could have stood up to the pressure and eventually had you accepted. He was too weak to see it in you."

She looked me in the eye.

"No, I was the fool. Let me tell you a story."

She gave me a look which seemed to delve into my soul.

"You are one of the few special ones. You transcend social status. I've watched you grow into being more confident in yourself. You once said to Tami she would never think you were good enough. You are comfortable talking to the least of us and the mightiest among us. Even Tami knows you are good enough. Every girl at Wesleyan was envious when they heard we were dating, Jennie Wesleyan most of all.

"You're not normal, in a good way. I've watched you walk into a room, and every head will turn. It's not because you are attractive. It is because you give off a vibe of confidence and authority. What amazes me, is you don't even notice. If Alex had whatever it is you have, he would be strutting around like the cock of the walk. I guess what I'm saying is you will never have to worry about fitting in. You described my inner fears and insecurities perfectly. I have a feeling the more I'm around you the less I'll worry about them.

"You're right, Alex played me. He's not near the man you are, or will become. I had forgotten what Jennie Wesleyan did to you. Only you would understand Alex and his thinking. I had a blind spot for him, and years of growing up working to find the right guy. Alex was always put up as the ideal mate. What I didn't realize, was I had the right guy, and I let him get away."

She seemed to go deep into thought. My tea was forgotten as I stared at a spot on the wall. Always before, my emotions overwhelmed me. Everything was either black or white. Harper flirted with another guy, she had to go. Tami took her relationship with Trevor to the next level. Tami had to go. I know I talked a lot about trying to stay friends, but deep down I knew it was over. Why didn't I feel that way with Harper, now?

Was I, God forbid, growing up? Or could it be I was just so numb I no longer cared?

It seemed like trust was my biggest hurdle – with every girl. When the trust was broken, it was the beginning of the end for me. Could any girl ever live up to my high ideal? Wouldn't there be a time when something would be said or done, to break our trust?

Trust was a two way street. I needed to talk to Harper about my dirty little secret.

"Before we go any further, I need to tell you about myself. I'm not like other guys. My uncle tells me I'm an Alpha Male. I'm not sure I completely believe him, or if it just helps justify how I'm wired. Let me give you an example to help explain it. Answer me two questions. While you were my girlfriend, how many girls do you think I slept with, without your knowledge? Next, since we broke up, how many girls would you guess I slept with?"

She cocked her head. She was with me when I was given blowjobs by three sorority sisters and she watched as I fucked one. For those she was with me.

"I never once thought you were sleeping around on me."

"Correct."

"Since the breakup I would guess one at the most."

I shook my head.

"Four."

I let it sink in.

"Harper, I was trading fidelity for affection. When I was happiest, I had three very special friends. I loved them all, and they knew I was with all of them. My only rule was they had to be faithful to me. I really tried to be just with you. I'm not sure I'm ready to make that kind of commitment, at sixteen. I know someday I will, but I can't see it being anytime soon.

"I would love to date you. I may even love you. What I can't handle, though, is if you plan on dating other guys. I told you I would kick Alex's ass, and I meant it."

"Is this part you're your Alpha Male thing?" she asked.

"That, and leadership stuff, and a few other things. Basically you are supposed to be my sex slave and I can do whatever the hell I want," I said with a straight face.

"What does your mom think about your plan to have a harem of sex slaves?"

"She is okay with it. She went through the same thing with my brother."

"Oh, really. So what would the whole sex slave thing entail?"

"Let me think. Let's say we were in line for a movie, no that wouldn't work. You are with me, and we would never need to wait in line, but for argument sake, let's assume they were idiots, and didn't know who I was. I might see a pretty girl and get aroused. I would expect you to go fetch the girl and we have a hot threesome."

"That's all?" she asked.

"Oh, Oh! An alternative would be you go down on me while we wait in line," I said with a big grin.

"So I would be in charge of finding you other women and giving you blowjobs on demand?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

I didn't like her body language.

"If you were a good little sex slave, there would be rewards."

She leaned forward in her chair.

"What kind of rewards?"

"I would allow you to give me blowjobs and find me hot women," I said with a firm nod of my head.

She burst out laughing, and tackled me. I found myself pinned to the couch as she kissed me.

"I suppose you want to reward me right now?" she asked.

"Yes, I think we could start your training right now."

"You're not happy how I give blowjobs?" Harper asked in disbelief.

"Practice, practice, practice," I encouraged her.

She raised her eyebrows and I pointed to the bulge in my sweats. I made Mr. Happy twitch, which made her giggle. I had a dancing snake in my pants. Harper made me spread my legs as she went to her knees in front of me. She grasped the waist band on my sweats and pulled them down enough so they hooked under my balls. She grasped me at the base and waved my cock around.

She used her tongue to bathe my shaft to get it wet. She then flicked her tongue back and forth around the crown of my boner. Harper took about a third of my length into her mouth and sucked. I let out a little groan. She began to bob up and down my length as she used her right hand to jack me off. Her actions were to get me off, not to make this last.

I was wise to Harper's plans. I was much more compliant once I had cum. I expected we would have our real talk, once she had me in the mood to do whatever she wanted. Women had done this for ages. Greg confessed to me this was the reason Angie wore the pants in their household. He said he knew she wanted something when they had special sex. He just wished she wanted more things. I never asked what he meant by special.

Harper knew me well enough to know when I was going to cum. I think it was how I moaned, and tried to grasp her head so I could fuck her mouth. Both of those actions might have given her a clue. She shocked me when she slammed down and took me to the root. I think my eyes rolled up in the back of my head as I unloaded. Harper kept me buried in her throat until I finally stopped ejecting cum. I slumped back and closed my eyes. I felt a little dizzy.

She waited until I opened my eyes and smiled at her.

"We need to talk," were her first words to me.

I just nodded.

"First of all, I really hope you are full of shit about public blowjobs and me fetching you women."

"A guy can dream, can't he?" I asked.

"I'm not on board for anything like that. If you keep leading me astray, as my momma says, I might eventually be up for some of those types of things."

"Harper, what I was trying to tell you is I find myself enjoying wilder things. I'm not going to lie to you about anything. I was feeling sorry for myself when we started dating. What I missed from having my friends around was the tenderness of a loving relationship. I see what my brother has now that he is married. I also see him struggle at times. Not because he doesn't love Angie, but because he was used to dating different girls.

"The difference between Greg and me is he was a serial dater. He went out with one girl at a time for four to eight weeks. I on the other hand can't give a girl up once I bond with her."

"What happened with you and Tami?" she asked.

I stopped and thought for a moment. I came to the discovery it was okay to talk about it with Harper.

"Tami held a special place in my heart," I began.

"You said held," Harper inquired.

I bit my lower lip.

"I guess I did," I said as I wonder what it meant for us when she came back in a few weeks. "Anyway, we were best friends since first grade. You never saw one of us without the other. Everyone assumed we would live happily ever after."

"So what happened?"

I felt my chest tighten as I remembered the slow disintegration of our friendship.

"When we were younger I wasn't nearly as confident as I am now. Tami helped me grow up. I think we thought it was normal for her to basically run my life, because someday we were going to marry and have kids. However, I was holding her back. Actually, we were holding each other back. We were making decisions about our lives based on what was best for the other, rather than what was best for each of us," I said and then paused.

"Tami wants to be a doctor. I have no doubt she will be one of the best. When she went to Wesleyan it was the first time we were separated. No, I take that back. My being sent to my uncle's farm was the first time we were separated. With me out of the picture she had the courage to go to Wesleyan."

I got up and paced around. What really caused us to drift apart?

"People much older and wiser than us have had difficulties holding together long distance relationships. I guess it's not a surprise we weren't able to make it work. Two things finally did us in. Tami's need to be involved in all phases of my life wasn't working. She couldn't pull it off from long distance.

"The second thing was she needed to experience life. I couldn't handle her dating other guys. I had to pull away, or I was going to kill someone. You have no idea how close I came to flying over to the UK and ending Simon's miserable life."

Our eyes locked.

"Harper, you need to know this is the one thing which is non-negotiable with me. I will not share you with other guys if you expect me to be around."

"And yet you have no problem sleeping around?" Harper said.

"I've come to grips with it. I am not ashamed of who I am. I know in my heart once I find the woman who is going to be my one-and-only, the mother of our children, my soul mate, I will never stray. I don't see it happening anytime soon. My best guess would be when I settle down after college."

"So, what happens when Tami comes back?"

Here was what had alarmed Harper. I gave my head a little shake.

"I have no idea. I'm not even sure we will be friends. I'm sure it will never be what it was; at least, not now. Tami and I need to lead our own lives."

"So there is no chance you will dump me and she will swoop in and take you off the market?"

I chuckled to myself. Not even in my wildest fantasy did I see it happening like that. I would always love Tami. What was that stupid saying? If you loved something you needed to set it free. If it was meant to be it would come back to you. I felt my heart break all over again at the memory of setting Tami free. I was afraid I would never get over her. I felt a tear leak out of the corner of my eye and come to rest on my cheek.

Harper reached over and brushed it off. She wrapped me in her arms. She knew where things stood. I didn't need to confirm her fears. What was it they say about the best laid plans? God takes one look at them and then laughs. The other thing they said was God will not give you more than you can handle. I hoped they were right.

Sarah showed up and found Harper just holding me. She gave us a curious look.

"Are you still taking me to the dance?" she asked.

I held out my arms and she joined us on the couch. I gave her a kiss.

"I needed to fix things with David," Harper explained.

"Are you two?"

"Friends," Harper furnished.

Sarah was a questioner. I needed to slow her down before she had a meltdown. I pulled her to me and gave her a kiss with some serious heat.

"Better?" I asked when we finally stopped kissing.

"Yes, much," she agreed and then turned to Harper. "What are your plans?"

"I'm going back to school. I needed to clear the air with David."

"So what does friends mean?" Sarah asked.

I reach over and pulled Harper into a similar kiss as I had just given Sarah. Sarah smiled when I finally let Harper go.

"I see," was all she said.

I pulled them both close to me and we talked about other things.

We walked into the ballroom at the Dunes Country Club and the place went quiet. Sarah was wearing a Vera Wang black cocktail dress which looked like it was made for her. I had a little smile on my face when I saw my friends with their mouths open as they stared at the vision I had on my arm. They had all met Sarah before, but she'd been in jeans and a sweatshirt. This was Sarah, in full model mode, with evening makeup and her hair pulled up so you got the full view of her elegant neck.

I was in my Tommy Hilfiger tuxedo, which made the perfect backdrop for Sarah's entrance. She walked in with her head held high, using her runway strut as she held onto my arm. She had mastered the model's expression of the thousand yard stare. She knew all eyes were on her. Then she giggled and I think every guy in the place fell in love with her in that moment. She was no longer the unattainable beauty. She was now a sexy teenage girl who didn't take herself too seriously.