Chapter 11: Some Roads Lead Nowhere

Monday September 28

As I walked out of my apartment to run, I could feel the first hints of fall in the air. Duke ran to the back yard where Precious was waiting on him. Mom had taken him to the vet for a checkup and he was seventy pounds now. She’d bought him a new crate for my apartment and a doggy bed. I think she spoiled him more than I did.

I stretched in the drive when Rachel and Buster came up the drive. She let him off his leash and he joined the two rowdies in the back yard. I was sitting on the drive when suddenly I had a cat in my lap. For being so tough, I had to chuckle that Precious was scared of Buster. Pit bulls had a bad reputation for a good reason: terrible owners. If you trained them and showed them love, they could be great pets.

I was about bowled over when Duke wanted to check on his friend. Right behind him was Buster. I stroked Precious’ fur to calm her as Buster came up to sniff her. Neither of us expected the big lick he gave her. That was too much for her dignity, and she decided to go home.

Rachel and Buster had showed up most days and ran the first mile with me. Now that Rachel had the training collar, she could control him. Rachel told me she was in eighth grade and wanted to run cross-country when she got to high school. When we ran she would ask me what I did and she’d found out I knew Peggy Pratt, her hero. Peggy had apparently gone to the middle school and talked to the students about her pregnancy, and in the course of educating them about safe sex, had talked about cross-country. Angie and the charity had arranged for the talks, and the schools where they had done them seemed very happy. The way Angie explained it, prevention was cheaper than helping another girl who was in trouble.

When we got close to where we would split off, Rachel needed to ask me something.

“The girls in my class don’t believe that I run with you. Could I take a picture of us together?” she asked.

I remembered how harsh other kids could be in middle school.

“Would it help if I took my shirt off?” I teased her.

I’d seen how she looked when I took it off. I think Rachel had a secret crush on me. She blushed when I pulled it off, but she didn’t hesitate to get her cell phone out so she could take our picture. On the first one she chopped my head off, so we had to take another.

When Buster and Rachel left us I was able to lengthen my stride and fall into my rhythm. I was happy that I felt so good after the first three games. Normally I would be nicked up by now. Our offensive line had done a much better job this year, and Ty was a hundred times better at picking up blocks than Bert ever was. At the very least he would holler out if someone broke free. The unexpected shots really took their toll. If I knew it was coming I could move, or brace myself, but my best option was turn and deliver the blow. Any of those options was better than being blindsided.

Looking ahead at our schedule, the only games that concerned me were the rematch with Springfield and the game ESPN was putting together. This week we played Lakeside, who had lost their first three games by a wide margin. I knew that Coach Diamond wanted to balance our attack this week.

In my personal life, I’d pretty much gotten over Tami. The main reason was the three new women. Brook was adventurous and up to anything physical; Halle was artistic and understood the movie business; and Zoe seemed to center me and understood my spiritual side. The one person I’d neglected was Pam. I vowed to make time for her this week.

I could tell Duke was done when he tugged on his leash to start for home. There were times I wished he weren’t with me and I could just run all day, but I’d been warned about overdoing the distance running from the trainers at STIC in Chicago. For my sports, speed was more important. I had plenty of stamina, and the extra running wouldn’t make that much difference.

When we got home, I filled Duke’s big water bowl so he could get a drink, and left him in the house. He would go and wake up my parents and get his morning loving. Dad had complained that he wished they never had let him start doing that. When he was a puppy, it was cute. Now that he was a horse, it hurt if he stepped on you. Mom allowed it, so Dad’s complaints went unheeded.

When I walked up to the front of the school, I saw Alan cornered by Stacy Clute, his current girlfriend.

“Explain to me again how you got those marks on your neck,” Stacy said.

“He did it,” Alan said, pointing at me.

I made a kissy face at Alan and flounced by. I wasn’t going to lie for him, but I would goof around. Stacy was smart enough to know I didn’t swing that way. I was more than a little irritated that Alan would blame his hickeys on me.

I soon forgot about Alan and the house of cards he’d created, and found the object of my desire. She was with all the cheerleaders, and sitting back as Tracy told them some story. I walked up, stepped inside the circle — getting all their attention — and then turned to Pam.

“Hey Baby, how you doin’,” I said in my best New York accent.

“Good, good. What you been up to, Hot Stuff?” Pam said with a terrible New York accent.

“Yous two should get a room,” Halle said, as she nailed her accent.

The theater kids were doing West Side Story, and they had been promoting the show by doing scenes at lunch and before school. I acted as if I was combing my hair back and giving Pam some old school hip thrusts, which made her laugh.

“Let’s go, Doll Face,” I said, as I put my arm out for her to take.

“Oooo, he’s so dreamy,” Brook said, as she faked as though she was going to faint.

One of the theater guys gave us two thumbs up as we strutted into the high school. The football players gave us fake golf claps, which I gracefully ignored. Pam gave them a little head nod, which would just encourage them. I would have to talk to her about feeding the peanut gallery. I walked her to her locker.

“Why don’t we go out this week sometime?” I asked.

“You still like me! Are we talking about a real date?” she asked.

“Whatever you want,” I said.

“Are you here this weekend?”

“No, and we actually have to fly out after the game. We’re going to the University of Georgia,” I said.

She wanted my schedule this week. When she heard that Brook had me Tuesday, and Halle Thursday, she decided she would come over to my house and watch Monday Night Football with me.

“We could always watch it at your house,” I suggested.

Cal did have a nice setup for watching football.

“I think he punched you once,” Pam said, to let me know what she meant by watch the game.

I didn’t realize she was such a fan of the game. I’d have to remember that.

At lunch, Kendal called me and gave me an update on the movie. Most of the cast had been in Tampa over the weekend for Comic-Con, and the response was good. The production company had made the ad buys to start the launch of Star Academy, and she sent me a link to the ad they would run. There had been some discussion, and it had been decided to move the release to the first weekend after the New Year. The industry projections for the new Star Wars release showed it dominating ticket sales for three straight weeks. Some of the numbers were staggering. One projection said they would make over a billion dollars in the first three weeks. We would be ecstatic with a tenth of that.

Then Kendal made my day.

“Devin has a new toy he wants you to test for him. It’s called a wingboard. It’s like a wakeboard, but instead of being pulled by a boat in the water, you’re pulled by a plane in the air. The only catch is you have to skydive off the board when you’re done. Devin said that it’ll be much more fun than a wingsuit,” Kendal told me.

She sent me a text with a link to the specifications and design.

I read the specs and it was an airfoil similar to a stealth bomber. You strapped your feet to the top of it as you would a snowboard. You could hold onto a handlebar. It had been designed to be like the wingsuit. The advantage it had over the wingsuit was that instead of a glide time of only sixty to ninety seconds, you could use the wingboard for as long as the plane had fuel or until you got tired. It had a video of the creator and their test flights with models. I was fully on board when I saw them doing barrel rolls with a robot at the controls. I felt I could do better.

The only thing I had to do was get qualified to skydive. Kendal had to have my dad sign some paperwork, so she said she’d get him to sign off on the classes. When I hung up with Kendal, I ran into the lunchroom to find Brook.

“Guess what we’re going to do,” I said.

I must have been a little excited, because I soon had our table surrounded. I let her tap on the video to start it. Granted, it looked a little silly with the model behind a toy airplane. She gave me a doubtful look until she saw it do a barrel roll.

“All we have to do is take skydiving lessons and get qualified. Then Range Sports will let us play with it and make a commercial,” I said as I bounced up and down.

“Did someone give him too much candy?” Cassidy asked, walking over to our table.

“No, he just found another way to kill himself. I can’t wait until he tells his mother,” Wolf said.

“I’d pay big money to be there for that conversation,” Tracy said.

They weren’t going to ruin my fun with details. She let me have a jet water board, after all. This looked perfectly safe, compared to that.

Kendal gave me the good news that my dad had signed the papers so that I could take lessons to qualify to parachute. She must have mixed the release in with other things, because he hadn’t mentioned it. My first class was Tuesday. I sent Brook a text with the details so she could take the class with me.

Kendal sent me the qualifications for skydive certification. Tuesday we would take a four-hour class and then do three jumps with instructors. Wednesday we would do three more jumps and learn to pack our own parachutes. That would complete Phase 1. Over the next few weeks, we would have to do another nineteen jumps to complete Phase 2 training. Once we had 25 jumps under our belts, we would earn our USPA A-license. Then, having our own equipment, we could skydive almost anywhere.

Tonight Fritz became the instructor at the dojo. He introduced Cassidy and me to the Bo staff. The first thing he did was help us pick out a weapon.

“The rule of thumb is it should be a few inches shorter than you are. How tall are you, David?” Fritz asked.

“Six-four.”

“Then you need one that’s six feet long.”

Cassidy ended up with one that was five feet to fit her five-five frame. A Bo staff is a one and a quarter inch in diameter length of wood that resembles a spear without the point. Because we were going to practice on each other, we had padded Bo staffs. When we got onto the mat, I figured you would use it like a sword or baseball bat. Fritz found me amusing.

“I want you to hold the Bo in front of you. Hold the staff in thirds with one palm facing up and one palm facing down. This will be the position you will hold the Bo the majority of the time,” Fritz instructed.

I did as I was told, and Fritz corrected me in that he wanted my right palm facing up and left down.

“You’re right-handed, so holding the Bo like that will make your right hand the dominant or control hand.”

He showed me that my thumbs needed to curl around the Bo like I would grip a baseball bat.

“As you spin the Bo to do different strikes, you’ll loosen you grip, but you’ll keep the Bo staff in the base of the V created by your index finger and thumb,” Fritz said as he demonstrated.

He then showed us the narrow hold, which was holding the Bo staff with about a fist-length between our hands. Fritz showed us how he could do what he called rowing figure eights. He then showed us how to go from that hold to one-handed. You could twirl it like a cheerleader’s baton.

We then worked on our stances. What I quickly figured out was that what I’d learned to this point with the batons and my other martial arts could be converted to the use of the Bo staff. Fritz didn’t let us practice on each other, but he gave us a demonstration. I could see this used in a movie role. The Sith Lord’s apprentice in one of the Star Wars movies had used a two-bladed light saber. The moves he had were the same as we were using with the Bo staff.

Before we left, Fritz sorted through the practice staffs and found the heaviest six-footer. He told me he wanted me to practice swinging and spinning the Bo staff when I ran in the mornings. The heavier Bo staff was like a weighted baseball bat. Once you got used to the weight, when you went back to the normal bat or staff you were much quicker.

When we left the dojo, I was starved. Next door, a new Mexican place had opened that was just carryout. I was surprised when I saw they had a line. I read their menu and they had a burrito they claimed was as big as your head. Of course, I was getting that. I thought Pam might want something light, so I got the deluxe order of nachos. Cassidy ordered two of the giant burritos to take home with her. I tried to feed her and her dad as much as I could because Cassidy didn’t charge me for lessons at the dojo. It was the least I could do to pay her back.

When our food came, I was a little worried when I felt the weight of the bags. I now understood the line. You got a lot of food for a very reasonable price. I would have to let the guys on the team know, because they always wanted to fill up but not go broke doing it.

When I got home, I went up to my apartment and found my trusty hound sound asleep in his crate on his new bed, and Pam stretched out on my couch in sweats, watching TMZ. I deposited the food on the coffee table, and went to take a shower.

“David! Get in here!” Pam shouted.

I wrapped a towel around my waist and hurried out to see what the problem was. She pointed at the TV, and I saw myself dancing.

“They showed a hilarious video of him dancing. This just goes to show you that white boys shouldn’t dance,” the gay guy in the back said. “But we have some exclusive video of David doing lip sync in a bar.”

It showed me with my shirt off.

“He can dance for me anytime,” the small girl with curly hair shouted out.

“I hear he’s only like sixteen,” Harvey said.

“I’d do the jail time,” the mean girl who’d gained weight said.

“So what’s the verdict? Can he dance?” Harvey asked.

It was pretty much split guys vs. girls. In the end, I didn’t care what the guys thought. My phone began to ring as soon as the segment was over. It was Harper from Wesleyan.

“Hey, Dancing Stud. You were just on TMZ,” Harper teased me.

‘Tell him it’s on YouTube‘, Tami said in the background.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, I’ll put it out on Twitter in a minute. So were you with the girls on my dancing ability, or with the boys, on TMZ?” I asked.

“Do you need your ego stroked?” she asked and laughed. “Let’s just say the guys were jealous.”

After the Wesleyan girls had their fun, I began to get calls from all over the country. Some I was surprised at, like Flee and Candy in Miami, and others I expected, like Sandy Range. While I talked, Pam ate my dinner and had Monday Night Football on. Then our ad came on. It showed the four of us walk out of a fog and I thought we looked badass. I had my tattoos on full display and a monster gun on my shoulder. Bree and Elizabeth look hot in their leather clothes. Craig looked like a tough nerd-boy, if I was being kind.

They showed a clip of Ben and me doing one of our fight scenes, and then me as I kissed Elizabeth. There were a couple of other scenes that showed the rest of the cast, including Ashley Judd. Then it ended with me doing a dance on the bridge of our spaceship after we survived the attack. Pam gave me a funny look when it was done.

“You’re a real movie star,” she said.

I didn’t really know what to say to that. I think it had been one thing for everyone to hear about me making the movie, and they must have just filed it away as another thing David did. To see it on TV somehow made it real for her, as I would expect it would for others.

While that thought had gone through my head, Pam had given me a look that caused Mr. Happy to swell. Being a horny teenage boy, I turned my phone off and forgot about eating. Things that are more important had come up. I ran to the bedroom and got a condom and came back to find Pam lying back on the couch with a pillow under her head. I covered her body and kissed her. She broke our kiss with desire evident in her look.

“I need you now,” she told me.

I got off the couch, lost my shorts, and put the condom on. Pam was no help, so I grabbed her sweats and underwear and pulled them down to her knees. She squeaked when I lifted her legs, got on the couch, and pushed them to her chest. It was sexy as hell to see her fat little cunny displayed between her surfer-girl thighs. I lined everything up and plunged forward. This position made her tight. I made sure she could feel every inch of my cock as it pushed to the hilt.

I felt the dominance that had been missing while I was at the swinger’s party. From this position, Pam was at my mercy as I towered over her. I got a feral grin.

“Tell me when you’re ready,” I told her.

She just nodded. From this position, I fucked downward. I held her legs with one hand and I used the other to rub the top of her cleft. It didn’t take long for Pam to begin to react in a big way. I wondered why I hadn’t been with her more. While we were good friends, this always worked for us. Pam finally came and begged me to stop for a minute. She was too sensitive for me to continue to rub her clit.

I gave her a moment and then began to fuck her again. By now she was opening up to my relentless thrusts. She loved it, and verbally encouraged me to faster and harder efforts. I chuckled. Ask any guy, I mean from the shyest nerd of a virgin to the biggest stud: they all believe they can fuck hard. Yeah! I could fuck her hard! Pam had never responded as she did when I used my cock to pile-drive her pussy. There was a rapid staccato as our flesh met and slapped together.

She screamed like a banshee and I felt the walls of her tight little pussy flutter up and down my length. My balls tightened and I felt the wonderful spasm as my cock began to pump sperm. I leaned forward and our foreheads touched. We both had big smiles on our faces as we tried to catch our breath.

“Damn, if I knew fucking a movie star was so good, I would’ve been like all those other airheads back home and tried to bag me one,” Pam announced.

I disposed of the condom and cleaned up. When I got back, Pam had gotten dressed. She had left me most of my burrito and half the nachos. I put them in the microwave to heat back up. I sat down on the edge of the couch to eat. Pam wrapped herself around me and watched the football game. When I was done eating I found I had several messages to return.

Pam’s hands found their way under my shirt as I returned calls. She was evil, as she pushed one hand down my shorts and brought me back to life. She gave me a slow hand-job while I talked. When I finally finished my call, she had me lean back as she stroked me from behind. She seemed happy when I finally came. I grabbed some napkins, cleaned up, and then finished making my calls.

When I was done Pam had me held tight as I rested my back against her chest. I was surprised when I found her asleep. Her dad was still acting a little funny around me, so I had to wake her up. Duke and I walked her to her car and said goodbye.

Wednesday September 30

Tonight at the dojo, Fritz taught us how to defend ourselves while using the Bo staffs. Cassidy was much better at defending and then switching to the attack than I was. For me it was more self-preservation than anything else. Even with the padded Bo staffs, it still smarted when you were struck. The Bo staff could cause a lot more damage than just a normal hand or foot strike because of the momentum you could generate. While I liked the batons, the Bo staff felt more substantial in my hands.

After my dojo workout, Brook and I went to the airport to do our final three jumps for our Phase 1 training. We had found that learning to skydive wasn’t as much fun as we expected. For our first jumps, we each had two instructors jump with us. They had positioned themselves on each side to make sure you had the right form. I could understand the concern, and even why they did it. They didn’t want you tumbling through the air and to your eventual death. What was lacking was the free form of being able to zip around and try different things. Brook felt the same way, but the opportunity to do all that down the road made us agree to suffer through the training.

When we were done, Brook had some news.

“Our leathers are ready,” she told me.

It didn’t take much for her to convince me to drive to the motocross track and get them. I tried them on and I noticed they had lined the pants in the crotch and thigh area. That would prevent chafing and make it easier to get out of them. I put on the jacket and looked at myself in the mirror. Everything fit me like a glove. I stepped out of the dressing room, and the look Brook gave me confirmed that they looked good on me. I’d gotten a more aged leather finish because I didn’t want to have to break them in, as you would dress shoes. My number one concern was comfort.

Brook went and tried hers on, and when she came out, she astounded me. I thought her slutty sweats showed off her butt. I had been mistaken. She might not make it to the car before I attacked her. We decided to quickly pay and wear our new clothes home.

“I’m your biker bitch, right? Well, I have to ride your hawg!” Brook purred as we got near the car.

I’d driven the Charger, so there was more room in the back seat. In a frenzy I somehow got her leather pants off, got my leather pants over my hips and put on a condom in record time.

“Give me your hawg!” Brook cried.

She took a sharp breath as I flipped her over. I wanted to see her butt as I took her. Our sex was like our relationship: it was physical and a rush. Not that we hurried once we got started, but it was more that everything seemed to be at a level of ten out of ten in everything we did. She liked that I would try things with her. I liked that she was as turned-on as I was. Brook Davis was a passionate woman who rocked my world.

What I enjoyed most about her was she pushed me to try new things. When I made my goals, I had added that I didn’t want to have any regrets about missing out on things. With her, it was always an adventure, and now that we were having sex it was even better. There was something about doing something physical and being on a rush, and then having sex. It was just better. You seemed to feel more. Orgasms seemed more intense.

I still had doubts that she’d be faithful to me, and that was a big concern in the back of my mind. For now, I was willing to risk it and just enjoy the moment.

Speaking about enjoying the moment, suddenly things felt a whole lot better. Luckily the big brain registered that something was wrong and just before I came I pulled out. Sure enough, the condom had ripped. Brook was not happy I painted her ass with cum, but the alternative was worse. I was sure Brook was protected, but I didn’t want to press my luck.

“Put it back in,” Brook whined.

She must be close. I instead used two fingers to get her to the finish line. I had my duffle bag on the floor of the back seat and found a towel.

“It stinks,” she complained.

I just got dressed. She cracked me up sometimes. One moment she could be flying around a track on a motorcycle, and the next she could pull the rich-princess routine. Not that she was ever a bitch about it or showed off her wealth; it was just little things that you could tell came from growing up with money. A good example was the towel. Shouldn’t they all be clean?

“Afraid you’ll get cooties?” I teased her.

“If I’m ever going to get them, it’ll be from you.”

I pinned her to the back seat and gave her a raspberry on her neck.

“David!” she squawked.

I let her up and we got into the front seat to go home. When we were pulling up to her front door, Brook had a good idea.

“We should wear these outfits for Halloween.”

I’d been thinking about when it would be okay to wear leather pants in my town without everyone wondering about me. They had seen me in other weird clothes, but this outfit might make them all talk. Then it dawned on me that Brook had, in effect, secured me as her date for the Halloween dance. She was devious. I just played along.

“Sounds like a plan.”

I could see the self-satisfied look she got. Girls always thought they got the better of us.

Friday October 2

Today had been test day. I could never figure out why teachers felt the last day of the week was the day students would be most focused on their studies. Wouldn’t it be obvious we just wanted to get ready for the weekend? For my test in PE, I walked Coach Diamond around all the weight machines and explained what they did. I know what people think, and it’s true: being a jock did have the benefit of a sure A in PE.

Trigonometry was easy for me. I loved that they gave us multiple-choice questions. I think Ms. Lowden just wanted to use the scanner to grade the tests instead of trying to read our handwriting. That was when I found out how many people had iWatches in my class. The teachers hadn’t yet figured out that we could send messages with them. There were rules about your phone being turned on during class. The genius was that with the iWatch all it took was a touch to revert it back to an actual watch. Afterwards I was told that you could also store the different formulas on your watch beforehand. That little factoid would have been too much temptation, because memorizing the formulas was a pain.

I thought about why we hadn’t been discovered as of yet and then it came to me: teachers wouldn’t spend that kind of money on a toy or electronic gadget unless they were really a techie. What I did know was that when a bunch of us had identical answers someone would get suspicious. After I received a message for the fourth time about needing help with a question, I actually took my iWatch off. The capper was the answer given was wrong. If anyone would be made an example of, it would be me. Moreover, I had actually studied.

My next two classes were English – Short Stories and Life Drawings II. Neither was geared towards taking a traditional test. In Short Stories I wrote a story about the day Precious and Duke ran away and the imagined fun they got into. In Life Drawing I did a charcoal portrait of Halle. I liked it enough that I decided I would use it as the basis for my final project.

At lunch, the guys wanted to talk about our trip to Atlanta to watch the Alabama vs. Georgia game. For Ty and Alan this would be their first time flying. We would spend the night in Atlanta and then drive to Athens in the morning. It was only about an hour and a half away. I couldn’t resist booking rooms at the Ritz-Carlton. Every time I stayed at one of their hotels it had been a perfect experience, and I’d recommend them to anyone who wanted to splurge on themselves. It was my treat because I had talked them into flying out right after the game tonight instead of traveling all day tomorrow.

Early in the week Tim told us he couldn’t make the game because of his knee, so I got the guys together and asked them whom they wanted to bring with us. They told me that because I was paying for the hotel Friday night I got to pick. I decided to bring my half-brother, Phil. I figured it would be a good bonding experience, and I really hadn’t spent a lot of time with him since Dad had told me he was my half-brother. I was surprised when his mom said no. I couldn’t really blame her because there would be no adult supervision on a college campus. He admitted to me that he got himself grounded when he complained too much.

My next choice was Kelly. Everyone liked him and he had made a solid contribution to the team. I’d thought about bringing Johan, but I was a little skittish about his religious aspect and the potential that what might happen would conflict with his beliefs. The other choice would have been Bryan or Brock, but I only had one ticket. How could I pick one twin over the other? The no-brainer would have been Mike, if we based it on performance, but I didn’t really feel like spending a weekend with him.

My afternoon tests were easy. American History was just memorization. Biology II could have been hard, but I called Suzanne and she helped me study. Finally, World Geography was about capital cities. Thankfully it was multiple choice, so you could at least eliminate a couple. Why I would need to know the capital of Yemen was beyond me, but somehow I remembered it ended with a weird ‘a, so it wasn’t hard to pick Sana’a.