Chapter 2: Union

Early the next week, Andy invited her on a picnic for that Saturday and she accepted. They got the same order, drove to almost the same location. It was a bright day, and he parked under the trees and spread his blanket in the shade. After their first kiss, he turned her around to hold her. She could feel his erection against her back. He bent down to kiss her neck. His kissing her there always turned her on.

“You go ahead,” he said. “I’ve got what I want to eat right here.” He nibbled at her neck with his lips.

“Silly.” She sat down, and he sat down across from her. They ate their lunch and put all the garbage into the original bag. She took the napkins and put them in her back pocket.

“I’ve got a towel in the car,” he said, smiling. When he stretched out on the blanket and put the bag behind him, she stretched out facing him with their heads level. They had a warm kiss, then a hot one. He stroked her arm, her back, then her tit. When she sat up to pull off her tee, he sat up and pulled off his.

“Lie face down,” he said. When she did, he unhooked her bra. He began kissing her back at the shoulder. She felt a little aroused and a lot cherished. He pushed aside the bra strap to continue down to her waist. When he started back up, she turned over. He took her bra from her and put it on her tee at the corner of the blanket. “You are so lovely.” He kissed a path upward towards her tits.

When he’d kissed and sucked them until her nipples were hard, he went on to her mouth. He lay on her, though they were both still dressed below the waist. They had a lovely kiss with his legs between hers and his chest hairs tickling her nipples. He was loving her and arousing her, but she couldn’t help feeling that all this was preparatory.

He kissed down to her waist. He unbuckled the belt and opened her jeans. These fit more loosely. They didn’t look as sexy, but Andy would remove the sexy ones, anyway. Instead of taking the jeans off, he sat back and removed her shoes and socks. Then he removed his own. He pressed his bare feet against hers -- parts of their bodies which had never touched. He lay down beside her and gave her tits a kiss. Then he took the jeans off. Again, he was careful to leave the panties on.

“Darling!” He kissed her tits and then lay down on his back. He brought her hand to his belt buckle. She’d get her chance to undress him. She sat up and began unbuckling his belt. He grabbed her hand when she started to caress his hard on. “That’s too much,” he said. “Just seeing you is already scarily exciting.”

When she’d opened his jeans, he fished in one pocket. He took out what had to be a condom packet and put it on the blanket by her shoulder. He looked her straight in the eye. He was saying something, but what? That this time he’d brought something? That he would take care of her? He stripped off his jeans before kissing her again. His underpants were white briefs. She could see the tip of his cock peeking out above the waistband. Then he kissed down to her waist, stopping a long time on both tits. He held the waistband of her panties in both hands while looking her in the eye again. This message was plain, and she raised her hips to help him get her panties off.

“Darling.” He kissed her mound and then up to her tits. His kisses there were nice, but she didn’t feel that he was giving them enough attention. He kept shifting his legs around. When he knelt between her legs, she spread them to make that easier. Then he stopped all contact. He was on his knees but perfectly vertical, dealing with the packet. His cock drew her eyes. She’d only seen one other, and Andy’s seemed long and thin -- rather like his body in a way. While the head of Colin’s cock had been only slightly wider than the shaft, Andy’s swelled out like an arrowhead. For the first time, she felt nervous. Could she hold all that inside her? It looked awfully long from here. Then he got the condom on and bent to her again. His eyes held hers.

“Sweet Marilyn.” While he kissed her tits, she raised her knees to his chest. “Should we?”

She nodded. Her mouth was suddenly too dry to speak. He moved up her body, His hand went to her hip and then to her pussy. He kissed her chin, her mouth. When he kissed the tip of her nose, she felt him put his tip in the entrance to her pussy. He moved up her torso, and he was entering her. She felt the lips spread, and then she felt herself being filled. Despite her fears, there wasn’t the slightest pain, not even discomfort. He stopped when he had filled her.

“Darling, oh sweet. Is it okay?” It was, she felt wonderful. “May I move?”

“Sure. I’m fine.” He stared into her eyes from inches away while he drew his hips up. She felt him leave her mound and rise between her thighs. She felt, quite acutely, him slip out of her pussy. Her entrance was stretched again by the head of his cock. Then his middle thrust forward again, and she was filled again -- more rapidly. Even more rapidly, he withdrew, and she was emptied while her entrance was stretched. Then he rushed inward. She felt him pulse deep within her.

“Oh, God! ... Oh, Marilyn! I’m sorry.” Apparently, he was finished. He moved off her and flung himself down on the blanket. “I came in a second. It must have been awful for you.” Well, this talk was starting to make it fairly bad. She went from that.

“Andy. That was my first time. Don’t make my memory of my first time be all about your moaning.”

“Okay. Sorry ... It was my first time, too.” Yeah. She could tell.

“All right,” she said. “We’re starting together. We’re learning together. Don’t you like it better than if I’d had tons of experience with some older man?”

“God, yes.”

“Well, maybe I’m glad that you didn’t have some woman educate you. We’ll learn together.” And, really, Andy was great with his fingers and his lips. He’d probably learn this part, too.

“Marilyn, you are so wise.” He leaned over and kissed her. The kissing turned to making out. There was no urgency in his motions, just stroking all over her.

He might not feel urgency, but -- after a while -- she did. She pushed his face down towards her tits. He kissed and sucked them both while his hand stroked her pussy. As she tensed, he sucked her left nipple hard and then lifted his mouth. Lightning struck within her. The part he’d stretched a little tightened a lot. Fire from her center spread through her as warmth and pleasure. As his finger kept moving, lightning struck again.

“Oh, Marilyn,” he said. She lay back to savor the feelings, and he kissed her eyes shut. He kissed all over her face and down her neck. He kissed down to her mound. He kissed each thigh once, and then lay down beside her. “Turn away,” he said. She didn’t want to lose sight of him, but when she did, she was compensated by the feel of him against her back.

He kissed her ear, chuckling when she squirmed. It was both from the tickle and from the pleasure. Holding her, he pressed his hand against her mound. She first snuggled back more firmly against his chest and then raised her right leg. That seemed to be what he wanted as he put his hand against her pussy lips immediately. One of his fingers parted those lips while his lips kissed the side of her neck. He kept stroking slowly until the lightning struck again. When it did, the fire thrust her legs back and her mound forward against his hand.

“Darling,” he said. As she relaxed, she felt him hard against the back of her leg.

“It feels like you want to do it again.”

“Want to? How could I not want to? The question is whether you want to.”

“Really, I do.” What in hell was all the talk about, anyway? His fingers weren’t ‘real sex,’ but they brought real pleasure. What was ‘real’ about that half minute when his cock had been in her?

“Then lie back.” He reached for his jeans. She supposed he didn’t want her watching this time, but she did. He took a string of packets out of his pocket, tore one off, and then tore it open. When it was on, he got between her legs. Then he slowed back down.

He kissed her deeply, and then kissed down to her tits. He moved between her legs while spreading kisses over both tits. His fingers on her pussy aroused her until she felt her hips pushing up against his hand. As he moved upwards on her body, she grabbed his waist with her knees. He kissed her lips lightly. Then she felt him at her entrance.

“Oh, Marilyn.” He spread her entrance and pushed inward until he’d filled her. He stared into her eyes. She loved him, and at that moment he looked like he loved her, too

“Oh, darling.” He kissed her hairline. Then he raised his hips between her legs and pulled his firmness almost out of her pussy. “You are so smooth, so warm.” He was warm, too, as he moved in her. As he began stroking in and out, she felt her excitement rise again. “Oh, love,” he said. He was still watching her face.

“Yes, Andy.” She locked her ankles behind his butt. As he came down, she pulled with them until she raised her pussy to fill herself with him. As he raised up, she relaxed her legs. He increased his pace, and she matched him. Suddenly, surprising her because she was concentrating on matching his rhythm, the lightning struck yet again. The fire was hotter, the waves stronger. The pleasure was hotter and spread faster. She could feel his hardness as she clamped around him. “Oh!”

“Darling,” he said. He thrust down again and buried his length in her. She ran her heels down the back of his legs, straightening hers. “Oh, Marilyn. Oh, darling.” She could feel his pulsing within her own contractions. “Oh, sweet.”

He fell onto his elbows. His face was much nearer hers. She could see him gasp, the breath spreading his lips when he exhaled. She was gasping herself. His weight was on her stomach, but she wanted him that close.

Those waves of pleasure had been what all the excitement was about. That had been her first real sex. Now, she could understand why everybody wanted it.

When her legs relaxed, he moved off her. She wanted to complain, but he had been heavy, and the ground was hard. She felt him reach back and pull something out of her -- the condom, certainly. He lay on his side and moved so he was against her arm. He put one arm around her.

“Oh, Darling. You are so sweet! I can’t tell you.”

“You’re not bad, yourself.”

“You said that we’re learning together. It seems to me that we learned something very good.”

“Oh yes.” And, just maybe, they might learn more. Still, it seemed unlikely that there was more beyond what she’d experienced this afternoon -- a soft bed, maybe. She rolled to her side and then backed against him. He kissed her head and stroked her.

The sun invaded their shade, but they didn’t move until it was much lower. Then they dressed. A little of Andy had dried on her leg. In the car, somehow, the afternoon was over. They were something else, friends, a couple, but not the lovers they had been on the blanket.

“10:30 tomorrow?” Andy asked

“Do you want to?” Few of the church members would approve of what they’d just been doing, if they knew. Somehow, she was a different person, they were a different couple, than they’d been the previous Sunday, though she’d already been taking the Pill then.

“Oh, yes.” He paused. “Where else are we a couple in the same way?” There was that, and they were more certainly a couple now than they’d been this morning.

“Why not? ... Let’s go, I mean.”

When she got back to the house, she showered and changed before supper. She looked around the tables, a quarter full on a Saturday night. They were her sisters, the same women with whom she had eaten supper for most of the previous year. She, on the other hand, was entirely different.

The next morning, nobody in church seemed to see the difference. She was glad she’d come. After all, she realized on the way back, if some of the church members had thought them married when they’d first gone, despite the lack of a ring and the introduction by different last names, they had to have thought that they were having sex, too. Married people did. She might feel different, she might feel more related to Andy, but that wasn’t something that showed to the outside world. But she did feel closer to Andy, even separated physically as they must be for him to drive the car.

“I love you,” she said suddenly.

“Oh, I love you too.” And, back at the Zeta house, when he’d walked her to the porch, his good-bye kiss was sexier and longer than any previous kiss had been after services.

Zeta Sunday dinner was pot roast -- a lot fancier than a hamburger and shake, although that didn’t make up for the change in company. Afterwards, there was Chapter Meeting. After the ceremony, Iris called on Donna, the academic chair.

“Look,” Donna said, “what I’ve seen of test results so far isn’t good news. Our house GPA last semester was nearly three tenths of a point lower than the all-sorority average. Ours will be higher this semester because pledge period is over, but so will everyone else’s.” She went on about trying harder, but Marilyn could afford to tune her out. At a bit above 3.4, her GPA was comfortably above the all-sorority average, and it didn’t look like collapsing this semester. Simple arithmetic said that a shift from a B to an A in one woman’s three-credit course made as much difference as a shift from a D to a C in another’s. Nobody pushed girls like Marilyn, though -- nobody but Andy, and he pushed very gently. His horror over his once getting a B in Calculus pushed her more than anything he said about her grades.

Indeed, Andy’s tutoring her sisters taking College Algebra was counted by everyone in the house as a contribution by Marilyn to the chapter academic push. She started to pay attention when Andrea raised an objection.

“Look, that’s all fine for you to say,” she said. “But some of us have problems with trying for academic success. Carl and I have the same major, Business Management. I got better grades than he got on two exams, two different courses at almost the same time. And, boy, did I hear about it. Now, you want me to study more and get higher grades, but my boyfriend doesn’t like a woman to outperform him. I’m not going to cram. That’s like trying to lose him.”

Marilyn raised her hand at that, and Iris called on her.

“Look, if one of you has a boyfriend who thinks your grades are too high, maybe you don’t need different grades, maybe you need a different boyfriend.” That brought a flurry of comments, none of them even trying to be recognized. “Yeah, I know what you’re saying. That’s easy enough for me to say since my boyfriend makes dean’s list. But, back when we started studying together, I got an A on a test which Andy’s section took later and he didn’t have his grade, yet -- an English test. Andy was happy for me, even before he knew what his grade was. And much less of Carl’s identity is wrapped up in his intellectual achievement than Andy’s is.”

“We should hope so,” said Merrilie low enough so Andrea probably didn’t hear it, but Marilyn could.

“Look,” Marilyn continued, “I’m not trying to compare boyfriends.”

“Lucky for her,” said Frances. She was across the room, but she spoke loudly enough that Marilyn could hear her clearly. Well, she hadn’t been recognized, and Marilyn would ignore her. She went on with her thought.

“I’m not even complaining that boys have such fragile egos. We all know that. It’s just that it seems to me that our doing less than our best is a damn heavy price for us to pay because they haven’t grown up.” Having said what she wanted to say, she sat down.

The meeting didn’t resolve anything. Really, some girls would buckle down to their books a little more, and some wouldn’t.

“Thanks for the help, Marilyn,” Donna said after the meeting broke up.

“I’m not sure whether it was a help or hindrance, and I wasn’t really trying to address your issue. I was addressing Andrea’s. I just get tired of our always having to make way for the male ego.”

“How would you feel if you made more than your husband?”

Shocked, mostly at being married.

“Seriously, I don’t think it’s likely to be a problem. I’m going into education. And, probably, I made that choice thinking that I’d get married and my husband would really support the family. Still, that’s a hell of a long ways from holding back. I’m going to do something important with my life -- important if poorly compensated.”

“And Andy will support you?”

“Well, you’re much surer about us than we are.” She wasn’t going to discuss with Andy his blurting out about marriage, much less with Donna. They went their separate ways.

Marilyn changed to jeans and a tee in her room and took her books down to the study room. She had assignments for the weekend, and most of the weekend had gone. There were more girls there than usual; maybe Donna’s talk had done some good. She left her books there over supper and went back to studying until her work was done.

The other two were in bed when she got to her room; they were either asleep or too nearly asleep to make small talk. After she’d changed and had her bathroom time, she lay in equal silence. But Donna’s question stayed with her. Would Andy support her? Financially, sure. Not now, but getting married before graduation was a sucker’s choice. Things could happen in the next two years; Andy could get hit by a truck or fall in love with another girl. Somehow, she thought the truck was the greater risk. But without some catastrophic accident, he was going to graduate in two years and go to work as an engineer. They made decent salaries, if not great ones. And Andy’s dream was of producing, not consuming. If she let him, he’d go to work in the clothes he now went to class in.

If his wife let him. She hadn’t decided to marry him yet. For that matter, he hadn’t really asked her yet.

And a schoolteacher made enough financially to survive, if not to flourish. Many of the boys she knew going into teaching were the first of their families going to college. It was a step up into the middle class. More of the girls were like her -- already middle class, expecting to marry middle class, wanting to make a difference while somebody else brought in the larger paycheck.

And Andy would, if they did -- as she hadn’t decided yet -- get married, support her emotionally. He’d say that teaching was something important. He sincerely believed that, if less sincerely about HS English than college math teachers. And he’d treat her as having responsibilities -- not only responsibilities to him. He already treated her this way, really. Really, he was a nice guy.