Chapter 8

School was over and now Bud concentrated all of his free time on Kelly. They'd spent the day together and now they walked toward Bedlow Street hand in hand, chatting about friends and what they wanted to do with their lives. Reaching Kelly's house, they stood at the little white picket fence gate that marked her front walk. Bud deliberated for a few moments before quickly leaning forward and kissing her cheek.

"Bud! I mean, my parents might see," Kelly's eyes twinkled.

He smiled and turned toward the alleyway that separated her house from his. "I'll see ya' tomorrow. I gotta get home for dinner."

Kelly ran up to her room and waited until she could see him walk through the narrow alley. She waved and blew him a kiss through the window. He laughed, remembering the strip shows she'd done for him after school and went into his yard. Kelly sat down at her desk. She pulled out her diary, a serious look replacing the smile she'd had on her face.

Her eyes watered as she counted the days on the calendar over and over, always coming up with the same number. "Nooo," she moaned, "please don't let it be true."

Kelly knew that she had to find Rebecca. Her best friend would know what to do. Blinking back her tears, she ran to McPherson's Store. It was nearly dinner time and the soda counter was almost empty, but Rebecca was there, sitting and chatting to Stevie. With only the barest courtesy, Kelly dragged Rebecca into the bathroom.

"What's eating you?" Rebecca was puzzled by Kelly's nervous, frazzled manner.

"I'm late," Kelly whispered, as if talking to herself.

"Beg your pardon?" Rebecca's said in a low voice. Suddenly she realized what Kelly had meant. The shell-shocked look on Kelly's face, the preoccupied fidgeting, it all made sense. "Did you say that you're late? But..."

"Bud's the father. He's the only one that I've... that... well, you know."

"Christ, I asked him to take you to the dance." Rebecca paced the small restroom. "I'll kill him."

"No Becca, it wasn't his fault. I wanted to... Ah, Jesus, what kind of mess have I gotten myself into?"

Rebecca leaned against a sink and lit a cigarette, her hands shaking. "So what are your options?" She blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling. "You could marry Bud, but you'd be a widow the second my father found out."

"I know that I'm not going to any sleazy quack. I heard Melissa Jones had an abortion, that's the reason she spent six months in the hospital. The guy cut up her insides so bad she almost died." Kelly took the cigarette from Rebecca's hand. "And now she can't have children. Ever."

"So what's your plan?"

"If I can get enough money, I'll leave town. I've got some distant cousins who live out in Arizona. I can get a job and have the baby. I dunno, maybe I could come back in a few years, once my class graduates and everyone forgets about me." She passed the cigarette back, having never put it to her mouth.

Rebecca set the cigarette down and hugged Kelly tightly. "I'll see how much money I've got in savings. It's not much but it'll help."

Kelly sobbed and rested her head against Rebecca's shoulder.

"Have you told Bud?" Rebecca asked quietly.

"No. I'm too embarrassed. Hopefully I can get a job and pull the money together before I... my condition gets obvious. I'll leave town and no one, not even Bud, has to know."

Rebecca looked her friend directly in the eye. "He played a part in this as well." Rebecca saw that Kelly was on the verge of another crying jag, so she let the topic drop. "Let's just work on getting you that job. We've got three months before school starts again. I think we can get a good nest egg together by September."

Kelly used her handkerchief to wipe away the tears and let Rebecca lead her from the rest room. To her surprise, Rebecca steered toward the soda counter and waved at Stevie to come over to them.

"Stevie, is Mr. McPherson hiring any more summer help?"

"Yeah, I think so. Why? I thought you had a job at the library."

"I do, it's Kelly that needs a job. She needs to save up some money before school starts."

Stevie looked at Kelly critically. Rebecca recognized his expression as the same one he'd given her that night in the studio, the night she'd offered to model for him. Stevie caught her looking at him and raised an eyebrow in a silent question. Rebecca pretended to look at the menu while the last customers walked into the main part of the store. She looked over Stevie's shoulder and made sure that the cook had gone back to the storeroom.

Stevie wrung his bar towel in his hands. "I could use some help in the studio." He watched the girls to gauge their reaction. "Another model, perhaps. Give me a little variety. Mr. McPherson would like that. And the money's good, you could make a couple of hundred by Labor Day, no problem."

Kelly's eyes lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. "A couple of hundred. Shit, I'd do anything for that kind of money. Oh Stevie, you're a lifesaver."

Rebecca looked at Stevie. She wasn't sure whether to brain him with a Coke bottle for suggesting that her best friend model for his dirty pictures or kiss him for risking a jail sentence to help Kelly out. She looked at Kelly, who was spinning around on her barstool like a little kid.

"Maybe we need to go up to the studio and make sure that we are clear about what we're talking about here," Rebecca said.

-=)0(=-

While Kelly poured out her heart to Rebecca, Bud was walking into his house without a care in the world. His mother was weeding in the garden, so he went to the kitchen and poked around in the ice box for a Coke.

"Well look who's strutting in here. Mistah Rooster, what'll you be having?"

Bud laughed at Millie's joke. He hadn't seen her when he walked in because she had been shelling beans at the kitchen table. She stood and went to the stove to stir something on the stove.

Bud took another drink and compared Millie's lush, round backside to Kelly's slender, firm rump. Millie turned around and caught him staring at her ass. She wiggled her butt and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now that you've had a little pussy, you looking at all women like dat?" She wiped her hands on her apron, a motion that made her breasts ripple and roll under her cotton house dress. "My little white boy's done grown into a real hound dog, ain't he?"

She cupped her breasts and teased her nipple with her thumbs, laughing at him with her eyes. "Why you still chasing that skinny little white girl since you've had a real woman?"

Bud put the Coke bottle down on the table and took her in his arms. "Why can't I have both?" He leered at her. "A man needs some variety."

He played with the big white buttons on her dress. "Why don't we go downstairs and fold some laundry?"

"Go on," she said, playfully slapping at his hands without really trying to drive him away. "You been mooning after your little white gal so much I don't think you've got the strength for the likes of me."

Bud undid all four buttons and wrapped his hands around her bare waist. He pushed his hands under her panties and cupped the twin globes of her soft, fleshy ass. At the same time, he kissed her neck, feeling her pulse throb under his lips.

He pulled his right hand away from her bottom to unsnap her bra and free her big, heavy breasts for his mouth. His lips descended on her erect brown nipples and Millie arched her back in appreciation. Bud pushed her panties down her thighs as he sank to her knees.

Bud's face was level with Millie's furry snatch, and, giving her panties one last push toward the floor, he gave her pussy a big, wet kiss. Bud spread her pussy lips with his thumbs licked her silky slit with the broad edge of his tongue.

"Millie, I think I love you," Bud said, his voice muffled by her thighs.

"There's more to love than fuckin' and don't you forget it," Millie sounded serious for a change.

"Mmm," he said, pulling his mouth away from her soft inner labia. "There's pussy eating, too."

Millie grabbed him by his ears and forced him to look up at her. "If you really want this gal, you'd best think twice before you go mouthing off like that." She pushed him back on his heels and pulled her panties back into place. "Now git on up to your room, I gotta finish dinner. If all's you want is pussy, there's a gal down to the diner that'll give you that fo' two dollars."

Bud, stunned by her sudden rejection, wiped his chin with his hand, almost forgetting to take his soda up to his room as he left.

-=)0(=-

Up in Stevie's studio, Kelly sat speechless. She flipped through several of the "blue books" that Stevie had made, her eyes gaped and her skin flushed a bright red as she saw Goldie doing things that Kelly had never thought about.

Kelly held out a picture of Goldie inserting a cucumber into her pussy. "Would I have to do these kinds of things?"

"Not it you don't want to," Stevie said as he checked his camera. He tossed her a black velvet mask. " Just put this on and we'll give it a shot. I'll stand over here in the shadows. Just do what you feel like doing."

Kelly nodded numbly and walked over to the bedroom set that Goldie had used. Turning toward the floor length mirror, she took a deep breath and found that her thoughts drifted back to the after-school strip teases she'd done for Bud.

She piled her hair on top of her head and slowly turned around, admiring herself in the mirror. Kelly imagined she was in her room, teasing Bud as he watched from his tree house. She was so absorbed in her fantasy, Kelly didn't hear the soft clicks of Stevie's camera. She stripped slowly and unselfconsciously. Finally, she crawled on to the bed. Kelly pointed her ass at the camera. She looked over her shoulder, a sultry pout on face, and spread her knees. She arched her back and opened her pussy lips with her fingers. As soon as her hand brushed against her erect clit, she shuddered and collapsed onto the bed.

Amazed at how far Kelly had gone in her first photo session, Stevie looked over at Rebecca. The tall redhead sprawled on a chair, her skirt bunched up around her waist. Her fingers danced through her ginger furred slit, their tempo increasing. Choking back a cry, her body stiffened and her legs clamped together.

-=)0(=-

RJ stood against a stack of crates in Dennehy's store room. Goldie had given him his blowjob and now he waited while Scooter grunted and thrust against Goldie's skinny flanks. Scooter's hips jerked back and forth, rapidly slapping against the girl's pale ass as he neared climax. When he finally came, Scooter's hairy butt clenched and his body went rigid.

Scooter pulled up his trousers and rebuttoned his suspenders. He smiled and pulled a cigar from his vest pocket, lighting it while Goldie wiped up and left. "You still tapping that young thing you was telling me about?"

"At least once a day." RJ looked extremely proud of himself. "She's the perfect little plaything. Sucks, fucks, anything I tell her to do."

"Don't the hotel bills start to add up?"

"Naw. We do this shit in my office." RJ lit his own cigar and followed Scooter out into the diner. "Hell, yesterday she was under my desk sucking on my knob and one of the other managers walked in. I held her still, my cock still in her mouth, while this Good Samaritan let me know that rumors about me and Miss Flint were starting to circulate." They walked out on to the street and stopped. "We're going to start using her apartment at lunch, I think. The boss likes discretion and it wouldn't do to have the office gossiping about me plugging some redheaded snatch during coffee breaks, now, would it?"

Scooter chuckled and turned to walk back to his store. "Well, now that you're branching out, don't you forget your ol' buddy Scooter." He laughed as he flipped RJ a wave over his shoulder.

-=)0(=-

Harriet enjoyed working in the garden; the simple manual labor helped her forget about her troubles. Troubles like her husband. She'd tried to rekindle their passion that night in the living room. That had only lasted the weekend and then RJ slid right back into the same old rut. Once a week, lights off - on your mark, get set, go.

She slammed the hoe into the ground a little too hard and it stuck. Harriet tugged at it for a second before standing up and stretching. She was just about to go back to her work when she heard the back gate opening.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Lostridge." Harriet turned to see Lance Sterling, Rebecca's boyfriend, come in from the alley way. "I was looking for Rebecca."

"I'm afraid she's already gone to the library, Lance."

Harriet's insides trembled. She ducked her head and tugged at the hoe, more to hide her face from his than anything else. She was overwrought, she told herself but she felt a bit strange from the way Lance was looking at her, almost as if he were undressing her with his eyes.

That was exactly what Lance was doing. He'd opened the gate in time to see Mrs. Lostridge bent over, her dress taut across her delicious rear end. She bent over and tugged at the hoe that was stuck in the ground, a movement that caused the neckline of her dress to gape open and reveal the cleft between her full, white mounds.

Lance stepped across a row of plants. He stopped right behind her, his hip touching hers, and leaned across her back to help her free the stubborn hoe. He felt her shiver as their bodies touched and he covered her hands in his as he easily pulled the hoe from the soil.

Harriet stepped away from him quickly and tried to quell the roiling feeling between her legs. "Thank you, Lance," she said, "I've been moving these plants out of their pots. I guess it's time to clean up."

She'd meant it as a hint for him to go, but he bent over and helped her gather a stack of the small clay pots. Her green eyes met his blue ones. Harriet's insides started to boil. She remembered her stolen hour with the plumber but tried to tell herself that this was different. She was contemplating having sex with her daughter's boyfriend, an indiscretion that wouldn't go away without repercussions.