Chapter 3

The Monday after my dates with Rachael was amazing. Guys came up to me all day asking about the girl they saw me with. To top it off, girls were paying me more attention, too. I could understand about the guys. A hot girlfriend with a cool car gave you instant stature. With the girls, though, what did it matter? Well it mattered for sure. Girls who had snubbed me for years were suddenly smiling and saying hello while some girls that I though of as friends were cool toward me. I ran my problem by my sister when I saw her at lunch.

“That’s easy Runt, the girls being nice now see you as maybe worth having, if someone as hot as Rachael likes you. The ones who already liked you are miffed because you found someone like Rachael. By the way, she is a terrific girl, Johnny but don’t you think she’s a little old for you?”

“We’ve been on two dates, Moose, I’m not ready to propose yet. Put yourself in my shoes, here is this absolutely gorgeous girl wanting to go out with me, the guy who couldn’t hire someone to do that six months ago. Now I’m supposed to be choosy because she’s older than me?”

At gym Stan and Richie pull me aside in the locker room.

“Spill it,” Stan said.

I gave my buds a non-detailed synopsis of my dates. I explained I hadn’t told them about Rachael because I didn’t want to jinx it. They nodded wisely as if my weekend fit in with their own dating experiences.

“My sister is seriously pissed at you over this,” Stan added.

“Why is she pissed? I told her and Jenny that I wasn’t going to mess with my friends’ sisters.”

Both Stan and Richie looked sheepish. “Ummm, I told Michelle that we would forget that rule. I got to thinking that it wasn’t fair for us to try to run our sisters’ lives. I mean would it be fair if Richie and your sister wanted to go out but didn’t because of you?”

I was speechless for a few seconds until it hit me.

“You like Jenny don’t you?”

Stan shushed me and swore me to secrecy. Then he said, “So we are agreed, we can go out with each others sisters as long as we treat them with respect.” Richie agreed and I nodded as well, I figured I didn’t have much to worry about. I shouldn’t have underestimated my friend Richie like that.

At football practice even Coach Boyette got in on the act by dogging me about being to tired to practice because of my hot new girlfriend. He broke everyone up when I slipped down running a pass route by braying from the sideline. “It’s hard to stand on your feet all day if you’ve been standing on your dick all night, ain’t it, Pulaski?”

Yep, Rachael Scofield was better for my reputation than hitting the lottery.

It was Thanksgiving week, and we were out of school Thursday and Friday. I called Rachael Tuesday night to wish her well for the weekend. She had committed to flying up to Rhode Island to spend the holiday with her mother’s parents. She sounded as sad as I felt that we wouldn’t be together but insisted that I go out if I had the chance.

“Don’t mope around the house Johnny,” she ordered. “Go out and have some fun or your parents will have second thoughts about us.”

So that’s how I ended up at the Hoffmans’ house on Saturday night. Stan invited me over to hang out because his parents were out of town and his older brother had a date. He casually mentioned that Jenny was spending the night with Michelle. Richie was spending the weekend hunting with his grandfather and uncle. How convenient. The Hoffman’s had a heated pool with a hot tub built in next to it, and a cool game room with a huge plasma television. The game room was strictly the turf of the teenaged Hoffmans, an inducement to keep them from finding other places to party.

I was on my good behavior as we sat around eating pizza and watching a Blockbuster copy of ‘The Transporter.’ Michelle was sitting next to me trying to figure out how mad to be at me. When Stan and Jenny slipped out to sit by the pool, Michelle turned off the TV and turned to face me.

“I heard all about your new girl friend,” she sniffed.

“We had two dates, Shelly, that hardly qualifies her as my girl friend.”

“I heard that she’s in college and is a model or something.”

“Her name is Rachael, and she goes to UCF. Why are we talking about her when I’m here with you?’

“How can I compete with a hot college girl with a sports car, Johnny?”

“It’s not a competition Shelly, last weekend I dated her, and tonight you’re my date.”

Her mood improved immediately. “Is this a date?”

“Sure it is, we are together eating pizzas and watching a movie. What else could it be?”

Michelle smiled and jumped up from the couch. “You’re right, what else could it be.” She hit the pause button on the DVD player and cranked the satellite receiver to a country music station. Walking to the sliding glass doors she announced that she was turning the lights off. When she rejoined me on the couch it was by the faint glow of the lights inside the pool. She sat close to me and draped my arm over her shoulder.

“So,” she asked, “did you learn anything new?”

I kissed Michelle like Rachael and I kissed thinking Michelle would be shocked. Instead, she took right to it and was surprisingly terrific at it in only a couple of tries. Rachael kissed passionately but I could always tell she was keeping herself in check. Not so with Michelle, she kissed with wild abandon. We had been kissing for about five minutes when Michelle fell back on the couch dragging me on top of her, she moaned into my mouth and ground herself against my leg. I stopped kissing and watched in bug-eyed wonder as her arms dropped limply from around my neck.

“You okay, Shelly?”

“Yeah,” she said dreamily, “very okay. Now get down here and make that happen some more.”

I had to laugh as I bent down to kiss her again. The little minx had had an orgasm. Once again I wasn’t leading anything, I was just along for the ride. I kissed her again and we squirmed around until I was between her legs. Michelle had on a button up blouse and shorts over her bikini. I had on jeans and a polo shirt over my bathing suit. Yet through all those layers of clothes my hard shaft and her eager little cleft found a way to rub against each other. The next time she started that little panting noise I decided to see if I could make it even better for her. I trailed kisses down her neck into the open collar of her blouse. When I kissed my way to the top of her cleavage her hips slammed up and ground against me holding us both up. Black dots danced in front of my eyes as I came about a gallon in my Baggies. I groaned as we collapsed on the couch.

“Did you, too?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah,” I said.

“She smiled, “Good.”

I think that Michelle’s unrestrained sexuality took away all my embarrassment. Oh damn, did she love this stuff. I was amazed that she was still so unspoiled because she was so hot natured. We got up off the couch, my swim shorts starting to stick to my groin uncomfortably. Michelle understood my plight and suggested we get in the hot tub. We sat cuddled up in the tub for almost an hour talking and laughing. Michelle showed me how she used the pulsating jets of the Jacuzzi to get herself off. She was more open about her sexuality than anyone I’d ever met. When I commented on it, she told me that the only other people who knew about her were her mom and Jenny.

“From the first time we kissed, Johnny, I trusted you. I knew you’d accept me and not make fun or take advantage of me. I’m starting on the pill as soon as I have my next period. In six weeks or so I’ll be able to have sex if I want. I swear when I’m around you my body is on fire and all I can think about is us making love.”

Sunday afternoon I was back at the Hoffmans’, this time it was Richie, Stan, and I lifting weights and shooting the breeze in the garage.

“So Stan is hooked up with my sister, and Michelle is after Johnny. I guess that means I have to ask Katrina out,” Richie said.

Stan and I gawked at him trying to figure out if he was serious. Richie was the Romeo of our little posse, an accomplished ladies man. But still, this was Katrina Pulaski he was talking about so nonchalantly. Katrina was about as far out of our league as Paris Hilton. I started to say something and Richie held up his hand.

“I won’t break her heart, I promise,” Richie said. “Now all we need is a plan.”

You’ll notice that Richie has no shortage of self-esteem. Richie had been like that from the time we were in the third grade. I suppose it’s genetic or hereditary because his entire family is that way. The Caldwells are part of the ‘beautiful people country club set.’ Richie’s (Richard Drake Caldwell’s) father, Jack Caldwell, is the general manager of TnT Ford, the largest Ford dealership in the nation. His Mother, Denise Drake, is a former University of Florida cheerleader and Homecoming Queen. She is now a local television personality who co-hosts the Palmdale Fox television affiliate’s morning show. Richie is a handsome dude. He has perfect blonde hair, dazzlingly white and even teeth, dark blue eyes and a flawless complexion. If he had any faults it was that he wasn’t very tall. He stood about five-eight. To make up for that slight Mother Nature whipped him up a taut, slim, muscular swimmers body with the grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov.

At the mention of a plan, both boys eyed me expectantly. I was the unofficial leader of the great triumvirate and it was to me they looked when a scheme was needed.

I sighed, “Are you sure about this Richie? The Moose is perfectly capable of twisting your head off if you piss her off.”

Richie smiled and answered, “I know that, and that’s part of the allure. Yes, I’m positive.”

What I said about my sister twisting his head off was literally true. Katrina has studied martial arts since she was nine. When other girls her age were taking dance or cheerleading, Katrina was working her way towards black belts in Taekwondo and judo. Katrina started competing in tournaments at the age of eleven and at twelve was the US Amateur Athletic Union Junior Champion in judo. She had a relentlessly aggressive style and knew her stuff. I figured Katrina was as safe from Richie – or any other male – as she wanted to be.

“I’ll work on it,” I said, “but don’t expect any miracles.”

The semester was coming to an end and Christmas break was looming as we headed back to school after Thanksgiving. I was stuffing my head full of facts nightly preparing for mid terms. I did well in school and took all honors courses but I had to work at it. I called Rachael Monday night and we talked for an hour. She said she missed me a lot but couldn’t come down the following weekend because of midterms. She was really applying herself and wanted the best grades she could get. I was disappointed and told her so, but I also told her that around my house school came first so I understood.

With a free weekend coming up I turned my attention to a plan to get Richie together with Katrina. I thought for a while and a glimmer of an idea came to me. I called Richie.

“Richie, do you guys still have the houseboat out on Lake Jessup?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well suppose you asked your parents about having a party on it this weekend, would they let you?”

“I guess.”

“Further suppose you said you wouldn’t need any parents there, because my sister was chaperoning.”

“I’m on it,” he said excitedly.

I’d leave conning the parental units into the plan in Richie’s capable hands. He could sling a load of crap bigger than a tugboat could pull. I had full faith in his ability to con his parents into just about anything. I next called Stan and asked him if he thought his folks would go for Michelle and him going too. Stan thought that it would be no problem. All he had to do was to guarantee no drinking or drugs. As further camouflage, he said he would say the invitation included his older brother Evan and then make sure Evan begged off. The Evan angle was perfect, I told him to talk to Evan right now. By nine that evening Richie had the houseboat, and a catered lunch provided by the marina. Stan had secured all the permissions at his end. Now it was up to me to get Katrina to go for it.