Chapter 3

And so it began. We started hanging out after our respective practices ended, talking for as long as we could. Missy's mother would always pick her up from cheerleading practice, and Brad was just as happy to stick around and wait for me since that gave him and Lindsey more time together, too. Missy told her mom that practice was being extended by twenty minutes, a little white lie to buy a little extra time for us. When she saw her mother's car pull into the school lot she would jump up, give me a quick wave and a smile, and run down the drive so her mother wouldn't see she was sitting around talking to a boy. The good news about this routine is I really loved watching her run down the drive. The bad news is that all the other football players who were still around also were watching her appreciatively, which I didn't particularly care for. Even Brad, as seriously in lust as he was with Lindsey, took a moment out of whispering in her ear to watch Missy run, for which he earned a killer look from Lindsey along with a slug to his arm that I'm sure stung for quite awhile. And, to top it all off, I had a feeling that Melissa's name was going to be added to a few more lists the next time we got around to revising them.

Missy's parents were very conservative and wouldn't allow her to go out on a date. Group activities were all right, however, so the next Friday we arranged to meet, as usual, at Fabrice's after the football game. Brad and I had concocted a scheme to take off right away from the pizza parlor and head out to one of the public beaches with the girls. We made sure we had some beer, some wine, and lots of blankets in the car. Missy was nervous about leaving her friends at Fabrice's, but I think she was as anxious as I was about having a little time alone together, and that sentiment prevailed.

It was a clear, cold night. We brought along a large pizza and ate it in the car at the beach, popping open the beer and wine at the same time. The windows of the car were steaming up from the pizza and the combined exhalations of the four of us, and we were all as happy as it was possible to be at that age.

When the pizza was gone we all jumped out of the car, each with a blanket or two, and we ran down toward the waterline. There were fire pits built into the ground and we found enough sticks and wood to build a small fire. The four of us dropped our blankets and ran down to the lake, where Brad and I tried to teach Lindsey and Missy how to skip stones on the water. Their efforts were pitiful, and we all ended up falling on the frozen sand, laughing until our sides ached. As we were lying there catching our breath, Missy just naturally rolled against me, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

We all got up and headed back to our meager fire. It had burned down to mere embers, giving us a point of reference, instead of heat or light. Brad and Lindsey wrapped themselves under two blankets on one side of the pit, and Missy and I spread one blanket on the ground and pulled two others over us, covering ourselves from our feet up over our heads. Within this dark cocoon we were insulated from the cold and from the rest of the world.

As we lay there we were facing each other. I had one arm around her neck, hand resting on her shoulder. I unzipped her heavy coat and slipped my other hand under her coat across her waist. Gazing into my eyes, she slowly unzipped my coat and threaded her arms inside and around me, then lifted up her face to me. She closed her eyes, and without saying a word, kissed me tenderly on the lips. Her lips were soft and creamy and again tasted faintly of strawberries. We separated momentarily, remembering to breathe once again, then slipped into another kiss. Her arms clenched, and heat suddenly poured into the kiss as I felt her mouth open against mine and the tips of our tongues met for only the second time. I felt more than heard her moan softly, and I heard myself growl as sensations I had scarcely imagined began coursing through my body. I couldn't seem to get her close enough to me as my arms tightened. I felt her leg reach around mine as if she, too, was trying to remove some distance between us. By this time our tongues were wrestling with each other, first within her mouth, and then inside mine. We were both breathing heavily, sharing the close air underneath the blankets, and the air temperature around us moderated with our exhalations and the release of our body heat. My hand, already warmed, found its way under her sweater to the soft skin beneath, and I pressed my palm against the small of her back, luxuriating in the softness of her skin overlaying the hard muscles just under the surface. In response, I felt one of her hands snake under my sweatshirt and T-shirt, caressing up and down my back and side. I ran my hand up the smooth length of her back until I felt the tight band of her bra, and slipped under the strap between her shoulder blades, and pressed her even more tightly to me. I twisted, turning her under me so that she was on her back and I was over her, still engaged in our kiss. My hand slipped back down her back, then across her waist to her stomach, still under her sweater. She broke the kiss, and I bent to kiss and suck on her neck and earlobe, creating a purring sound from deep within her. She stretched her neck up, giving me more to caress with my lips, and she brought one hand up to the back of my head, fingers running through my hair as she pressed me closer to her sensitive throat. Her leg was still running up and down mine, her knee creating contact from my upper thigh to nearly my shin. Her breathing was ragged as she pulled my face up to indulge in another open-mouthed kiss. I thrust my tongue deeply into her mouth, and felt her lips and teeth nibble along its length. At the same time she sucked in, drawing breath from my lungs into hers. My hand slipped up to her small breast, and I could feel her nipple poking into my palm through her bra. As I gently squeezed, her breath caught, and she pushed my tongue out of her mouth with hers and roughly entwined it with hers.