Chapter 1

To say that Mark was shy around girls would have been a tremendous understatement. He was almost a total introvert when it came to the opposite sex. When he talked to his family or male friends, he was fine, but when a girl talked to him, he became a stammering, stumbling, babbling idiot.

Mark tried to remember when this change took place. He hadn't always been this way. There had been a time where he had no problems at all talking to anyone, let alone a member of the opposite sex. It was about the time he hit puberty that this change as well as the other changes associated with puberty took place.

Mark was 15 when he decided to ask a girl out for his first date. It was at the first of the school year and it was a new girl, a very pretty new girl that he decided to ask out. They were both freshmen so, no one else would have prior "dibs" on her. She was gorgeous. She was everything that Mark had ever hoped for and more. She was blonde and blue eyed and had a nice figure. She was tall, 5'8", and slender, and had medium sized breasts, and had model's legs. Because of her slender frame, her breasts looked even larger, but in reality were probably a "B" cup. They might have been a "C" cup, but Mark doubted it.

Mark fancied himself quite the breast expert. In reality, he'd never seen naked breasts. Unfortunately, his expertise was from having read so many of his older brother's men's magazines and seeing so many breasts in that 2 dimensional photographic format.

Mark's goal was to change all that. His goal was to see, and touch a real live pair of breasts. Who was he kidding? He'd never even kissed a girl before. "You have to get the order right", he thought to himself.

It was nearing the end of the first day of school and Mark knew he was going to ask her out. Gail was her name. He'd already learned that much. In a few more minutes, he was going to have his first date lined up.

He saw her heading to her locker right after the last class and he wanted to ask her then. There were several people surrounding her, though. Fortunately, they were all girls. One of the girls said something and Gail looked right over at Mark. Gail had a very friendly smile on her face. Mark knew that she was smiling at him.

He went to his locker, hoping to accomplish two things. One, he knew if he stalled a few minutes, the crowd of girls surrounding Gail would diminish, and two, he wanted a few extra minutes to gather his courage. That few extra minutes proved to be his undoing. He looked up from his locker, down the hall, and--SHE WAS GONE. "Oh, no", he thought. He ran down the hall to the exit, ran outside in time to see her getting on a school bus. It was too late! He didn't realize that she rode the bus. Mark walked to school and assumed that Gail did, too. Bad assumption on his part!

After Mark got home, he wanted to consult with his brother. His older brother, Joe, was wise beyond his years. He was the star receiver on the football team, the star center on the basketball team and amazingly popular with girls. Joe always seemed to have a good-looking babe at his side. "Maybe that was his secret", Mark thought, "football!" All Mark played was basketball. He was a pretty fair player, himself, but not nearly as good as his brother.

Mark waited for Joe to get done with football practice. About the time Joe got home, Mark got cold feet about asking him. Since Joe was a junior and he was a lowly freshman, Mark felt a little silly running to his "big" brother for advise. He decided to handle it on his own.

When Mark got into bed that night, a thousand things seemed to be going through his mind. When to ask her, would a lot of people be around her again, would she say yes, would she say no? In his mind, he felt that she would say yes. That smile she had given him told him that.

As Mark shut off the light, his mind drifted off. He was thinking about how nice it would be to hug Gail, and to actually kiss her. In his mind, he took the scenario further. He was not only kissing her, but fondling her breasts as well. He removed her blouse and bra and marveled at what he saw. She had lovely, very shapely breasts. Not the largest he'd seen, but certainly the shapeliest. Her nipples were big and thick, begging to be sucked. As this scenario played out in Mark's head, his cock started swelling. He slipped his shorts down and started stroking himself. He reached in the nightstand drawer and got some lotion. This was going to be a good one! As he started stroking his well-lubed cock, the scenario started playing in his mind again. He was kissing her magnificent breasts. He was sucking those thick, pink nipples. She was moaning. She pushed him back for a moment. She reached down and loosened Mark's belt. She unzipped his fly and reached into his underwear and grabbed his cock. She pulled Mark's pants and underwear down and started to stroke his cock. Mark felt like he was in heaven! Just as she moved her mouth over his cock, his lower body started convulsing and he started cumming, not into her mouth, but onto his chest. Unfortunately he was brought back to reality. Instead of a beautiful babe being with him, he was alone. He continued to stroke as jet after jet of cum erupted from his cock. "Wow", he thought, "that was the best one ever." If he could close his eyes and fantasize and have it feel this good, just think what the real thing would be like. It took several tissues to clean himself up, as he'd cum a huge amount. He drifted off to sleep dreaming of Gail and the good times to come.

The next day at school, Mark was restless with anticipation. He couldn't wait to see Gail and ask her for a date. After the second class of the day, Mark saw her. What a vision of loveliness! He walked up to her and was very excited because she had no one else around her. He did it! "Gail, I was wondering if you would like to go out with me Saturday night", he said, "that is, if you don't have other plans." Her smile faded. "I'm sorry", she said, "your brother asked me out after my first class this morning, and I already accepted."

His heart skipped a beat. He was stunned! He was crestfallen! "This had to be some bad dream, or a twilight zone episode", he thought, "this can't be happening." He didn't say another word to her. He just walked away. He couldn't seem to catch his breath. He was devastated!

He spent the rest of the day playing the "what if" scenario. What if he'd asked her yesterday? What if he'd gotten there earlier this morning? The problem was that she couldn't get there any too early since she rode the bus. He couldn't really be mad at his brother. Joe didn't know that he wanted to ask her out. Had he confided in his brother, maybe Joe would have backed away and not asked her out. He just accepted it as fate.

The next day at school he slipped her a note at the end of her first class. She looked at the note and, with a sad look in her eyes, nodded. The note had said, "Please don't tell Joe that I asked you out too". Mark didn't want his brother to feel bad about it.

He never said a word to Joe about this incident. Joe and Gail's romance developed into quite a high school romance. Mark watched them at school dances, having the time of their lives. All he could think was, "that should be me with Gail." He slowly receded into a shell. The effect was so severe that he never could bring himself to ask any other girl out. For two reasons, this was true: if he couldn't have Gail, he didn't really want anyone else. That, he'd get over in time. The second reason was that he couldn't bring himself to ask anyone else out was that he just couldn't stand the disappointment if he failed again. It had been too devastating to ever want to try again.

Instead of dating, Mark decided to put all of his energies into basketball. He had a good freshman season in basketball, but, with regard to any sort of dating life, he was a zero.

Mark had a good sophomore season in basketball, but again his dating life was a zero. Joe had a great football season his senior year and an even better basketball season. He was destined to make All State in both sports and was sure to get a scholarship. Gail had made the cheerleading squad. Joe and Gail continued to be the proverbial ideal couple. The football/basketball star ended up with the cheerleader. How poetic! Mark continued to long for what might have been and continued to recede further into his shell.

Joe did get a scholarship in football at a large university out of state. Since his family lived in Tempe, he hoped to get a scholarship offer to ASU. That way he would still live in the same city as Gail. For some reason, ASU wasn't interested in another tall wide receiver. He decided to try to play both football and basketball out of state. He knew that this would require a lot of work academically, which would involve him going to summer school every year. Joe and Gail decided to have a long distance relationship.

During the fall of Mark's junior year, the next-door neighbors moved away. It seemed strange to see them go. They were a good bit older than Mark's parents and wanted to move closer to where their grandchildren were. Mark really hated to see them go because they were both such nice people. They had a swimming pool which Mark and Joe were free to use most any time. He found himself wondering if the new neighbor would be so generous. From Mark's upstairs bedroom window, he had an unobstructed view of their pool and their beautifully landscaped yard. He spent many happy hours, in the summers either swimming, laying out by the pool or just relaxing and watching the pool. He wondered if that would change.

In December, Mark came home from basketball practice early one evening to discover a moving van in front of the neighbor's house. The movers appeared to be taking a break. As Mark entered his house, he could hear voices. His mom was talking to someone. As he entered the living room, his mom stood and said, " Mark, I'd like you to meet Dr. Sonya Young, our new next door neighbor. She's the new English Professor at ASU. " Mark was mesmerized. She was absolutely gorgeous! She had dark hair, brown eyes and a figure that put most women to shame. She had medium to large breasts that appeared to be very firm (Mark guessed about a "C" cup). She had a trim waist, flaring hips and very pretty, athletic legs. Mark guessed she worked out quite a bit. She stood up to shake hands and Mark just marveled. She told Mark and his mother to please drop the doctor title and just call her Sonya. She then announced that she needed to get back to unpacking and showing the movers where to put everything. Mark's mom asked if she could help and Sonya accepted. The two ladies left to go next door.

Sonya and Mark's mom became good friends. Mark's mom and dad took Sonya to all of Mark's basketball games. Mark guessed that Sonya was not nearly as old as his mom's 50 years. He guessed Sonya's age to be about 35.

Mark felt a new ray of hope with regard to his interest in women. The reason was very simple: Sonya. In his mind, he knew that a woman as beautiful as Sonya would have nothing to do with a punk kid like him. But he could always hope--and fantasize.

Basketball season ended and that meant one thing--warm Tempe weather! Hopefully, that meant swimming. Mark really hoped that he would get an invitation to Sonya's pool.

Mark didn't know a lot about Sonya, basically just what his mom related to his dad. He found out that Sonya had been married to an abusive alcoholic named Jim. He had a history of violence with her. She had divorced him and had a restraining order against him. She'd moved to Tempe to try to start a new life. She hoped to never see him again.

One spring Saturday, Mark heard splashing noises coming from the pool. He looked out his window and was amazed at what he saw. He could see Sonya swimming the length of the pool. She was wearing a bikini. What a knockout! She was an absolute stunner. He had to get a better look at this. He found his binoculars and looked toward the pool with them. He really liked what he saw. She had just come out of the pool and was facing him. She had on a skimpy aqua colored bikini. It showed plenty of cleavage on top and plenty of cheek on bottom. It wasn't a thong, but it was close to it.

Mark couldn't bear to look away. He spent the afternoon in his room with his door closed. When she finally had enough sun, she went inside and Mark was able to leave that window. It was like he was frozen there.

As the weeks passed, Mark spent many weekend hours looking out his window. One night, he lay in bed and his mind wandered to what might happen with Sonya. His cock started to harden. All at once, a realization hit him. He'd masturbated thinking about Gail the night before he had "fallen on his face" with her. Had that somehow jinxed it? He stopped his fantasy. He refused to masturbate while fantasizing about a "goddess" such as Sonya.

School was out. Mark's junior year was officially over. He found himself spending a lot more time thinking about Sonya and what might be than he did thinking of Gail and what might have been. He felt like he was making progress. He was at least having desires again, even if the source of the desires was unattainable.

Mark turned 18 that summer. It was uneventful. He didn't really FEEL like a man. Yet.

One Friday morning, his dad woke him to tell him that Mark's grandmother had fallen. It was nothing overly serious. She was very lucky, just bruised. Mark's parents decided to make the long drive to spend the next week with her. Mark's dad asked him if he wanted to go with them or stay at home. That was a no brainer. This was going to be the first time that Mark was home alone for any length of time. Mark's parents loaded the car and left.

Friday night was fun. Mark ordered pizza and had it delivered. One might have thought that Mark would have had a party, but that was not his style. His parents expected him to be responsible and he was going to do just that.