Chapter 15 -- Party!

We are to have a birthday party,
And you can wear your birthday clothes!
Then we can hit the floor,
And go explore,
Those Popsicle toes!

--Popsicle Toes (Michael Franks)

During lunch on Thursday, the subject of Kristen's birthday party came up.

"How many people will be there?" Sherry asked.

"Well, from this school, there will be Patty and Toby, Camille, Wendy and Gerry, me, you, the rest of the cheerleaders and their boyfriends."

"Jim's family will be there," Kristen said. "Patrice and Jack and what's-her-name, his girlfriend."

I nodded. "Doreen. Kristen's family, too."

"Not many people there," Kristen said.

I smiled. Kristen's brother was making a surprise visit, but Kristen didn't know that.

"Sounds like a party," Sherry said with a smile.

Patty seemed a bit quiet. Kristen picked up on that immediately. "Anything wrong, Patty?"

"No. I was just thinking about what I was going to wear."

"I've got a lot of stuff," Kristen said. "We're about the same size. Would you like to borrow something?"

Patty shrugged.

"Come on, Patty," Kristen insisted.

"When?"

"Friday... no... wait. Jim and I have a date. My last day at seventeen. How about tonight?"

"I have to be at Roman's tonight," Patty said, referring to the recent part-time job she got at a pizzeria.

"How about after school?" Kristen said. "Oh, wait... the rehearsal. I missed it last week..."

It suddenly hit me what Patty was doing.

"I think the band will survive another rehearsal without my muse," I said.

Kristen looked at me suddenly, her eyes narrowing.

I think I might have agreed too easily.

Kristen said, "How about tomorrow after school, Patty?"

Patty forced a smile. "That sounds fine."

The subject changed, but I noticed that Kristen continued to look at me suspiciously during the entire lunch period.

Kristen made damn sure she was at rehearsal. Mr. Proilet saw that and smiled. I asked Kristen if she wanted to do a solo on the electric piano.

My girlfriend was still suspicious that something was up, and so she just shrugged.

The music teacher was handing out arrangements of Gershwin's "Summertime," which he suggested as an encore. As he handed it to Kristen, he apologized to the two women for the cold reading.

I was at the podium and counted down a slow tempo.

Kristen played the number flawlessly, albeit a bit stiffly. I stopped the number about halfway through.

"You're doing great, Kris!" I said, smiling at her.

Kristen simply shrugged.

I turned to the chorus members, and asked "Who has the vocal range to sing this song?"

Stacey volunteered, and I decided to do it with a soloist.

I took the number again from the top, and this time, Kristen sounded much better. The song sounded better having a vocal part, and Mr. Proilet agreed.

We spent the rest of the session rehearsing "Summertime" and "Anything Goes."

After the rehearsal, Kristen came over to me. "I'm sorry, Jim."

"Sorry for what?"

"I didn't... I thought you didn't want me at the rehearsal today."

It was true, but having Kristen there didn't seem to be a bad thing.

"I always do better when you're around. Also, after watching you play 'Summertime, ' Amy hit the Cole Porter song with a vengeance!"

Kristen smiled. "Amy's definitely better than when she started last year."

Camille was coming out of the gym, as cheerleader practice just finished up. She saw Kristen and me and came over and said, "Hi!"

"Patty's coming over to Kristen's tomorrow to find an outfit for the party," I said.

"Yeah," Camille said. "She told me."

"Kris and I have a date. Would you and Patty like to tag along to celebrate Kristen's last day as a seventeen year old?"

"Like a bachelor party?" Camille asked.

"No. Just friends celebrating privately," I said. "We were thinking of the Islander."

"Chinese... yum!" Camille said.

Kristen said, "Think you guys can come?"

Camille looked at Kristen. "Are you sure that we wouldn't be intruding?"

Kristen shook her head. "I wanted to do something like go out with friends, but didn't know how Jim would feel. Since he brought it up, I must say that both of us would like that."

"I'll have to find out if Patty is working tomorrow night."

"Hey, Cammy... if Patty can't make it, then let's bring the party to her." I turned to Kristen. "How about Roman's?"

"Do you think Patty will mind?" Kristen asked.

"Patty will love it," Camille laughed. "She says the biggest problem with her job is that she doesn't see her friends as often as she used to see them."

"Great. Let us know tomorrow," Kristen said.

We were now at Kristen's Camaro. Camille waved good-bye as Kristen drove me home.

"Are our plans still on for after dinner, Jim?"

"Of course, Kristen," I said. "I want to make love to you before midnight and after midnight. Your last as a minor and your first as an adult."

"You don't mind that I'll be eighteen?" Kristen asked, gunning the engine.

"Who knows? I might find that I have a fondness for older women!"

Instead of laughing, Kristen sighed. "You're spending too much time with Camille."

On Friday, I located Sam and handed him a piano arrangement and asked if he'd be able to work out a bass line for it.

Sam glanced at the music I handed him and furrowed his brow. "I can't place the tune."

"It's something I wrote."

"Oh," he said. "Shouldn't be too difficult. Do you have a demo of the piece on keyboard?"

"Actually, yes," I said. "Electric piano, actually. I was thinking acoustic would be better."

Sam continued to study the music. "Electric is probably perfect for this one."

"You think?" I asked. Sam had a great ear for music, and I valued his opinion highly.

"Ask your music teacher after class," Sam suggested. "I'll get the tape from you during seventh. If you see Amy before that, we have orchestra together and she can get it to me."

"Thanks, friend!"

After music class, Mr. Proilet saw me hanging back. "What's up, Jim?"

"Can you listen to this?" I asked, showing my teacher the cassette. Sam was still hanging around, interested in the teacher's reaction to my song.

I watched Mr. Proilet look around for a cassette player and he finally found one. He took the tape and put it in.

The two of us listened to my rendition of a song that I'd had been working on for the past month. At the end of the song, Mr. Proilet said, "This is for Kristen?"

"Yes."

"It needs a bass line, more than you do on the keyboard. The electric is perfect for the melody line."

"I was thinking a bass and a drum."

"Sam and Derek?" Mr. Proilet asked, looking at Sam hanging around.

"Yeah. They're going to be at the party, and..."

"Do you have the bass part written?"

"I gave a copy of the score to Sam."

My music teacher smiled. "That's a good idea. Give him this cassette so he can get your meter as well."

Sam laughed in response.

I nodded, seriously.

"Your song reminds me of Pachelbel's Canon."

"Whose cannon?"

"You've never heard that song in church?"

I shook my head. I wasn't much of a church person.

My teacher walked to the piano and started playing what appeared to be arpeggios. The melody became familiar as he played it, except that there were many more motifs in the song my teacher played.

"I've heard that melody before," I admitted. "It may be where I got the idea for the beginning."

"Nothing wrong with inspiration, Jim."

I shrugged. Now that I heard Canon, I saw the similarity.

My music teacher asked, "Do you have words to go with that song?"

"Unfortunately, only part of it. I am running out of time getting this done before Kristen's birthday."

"Pity. It sounds as if it would be a lovely song."

"Maybe I'll come up with some, but I'm not much of a poet."

The three of us laughed at that.

Mr. Proilet left the room, and I spent about ten minutes explaining to Sam about some songs I wanted to do as sort of "improvisations" but to let people such as Toby, Sam, Derek, and the other to be ready for them.

That afternoon, Kristen drove me to her house, and reminded me that Patty and Camille were coming over. Kristen promised Patty that she could borrow some clothes for the party on Saturday.

"Oh great," I said in mock indignation. "Another couple of hours wasted while girls try on dresses."

Kristen looked at me and smiled when she saw that I was smirking. "Poor baby," she said.

When we got to the apartment, I headed straight to the kitchen. I figured that dinner was a couple of hours off, and I was a bit hungry. Kristen discovered one of my weaknesses--making Jiffy Pop--and stocked about a dozen or more of them in the pantry.

I put the gas stove on a low flame, tore the cover off the top and started heating the snack.

Kristen called out to me to pour her a glass of the white wine we kept in the refrigerator. Since the kernels didn't start to pop yet, I took the foil pan off the flame, poured a glass for the Goddess, then put the glass on the pass-through that led to the living room.

Once again, I started shaking the pan over the stove when the doorbell rang.

"Can you get that for me, Oogie?"

Of course, the kernels were starting to pop.

I once again put the pan on an unused burner and ran out to open the door. It was Patty and Camille. I welcomed them in, and ran back into the kitchen to try to resuscitate the popcorn.

"What are you doing in there?" asked Camille.

"Trying to make Jiffy Pop," I said.

Camille saw the glass of wine on the pass-through. "Is that for Kristen?"

"The wine?" I asked. "Yeah."

"You mind if I have some, too?"

"As long as you come in here and pour it. I don't want these kernels to burn."

Camille and Patty both came into the kitchen. Patty sniffed a bit and turned on the fan over the stove. "They're burning, Jim."

"Yeah," I sighed. "Burning things seems to be my specialty."

Camille poured two half-glasses of wine for Patty and herself.

The foil wasn't even half inflated when the popping slowed down.

I shrugged, and put the pan into the sink (it was too hot to put into the garbage as it was), and went into the pantry and retrieved another Jiffy Pop.

"How many of those do you have, Oogie?" Patty asked.

"Twenty or thirty," I said, grinning.

I started a new batch of popcorn.

Kristen called out, "Oogie, can you bring my glass of wine into the bedroom?"

I looked at the Jiffy Pop and the two girls laughed.

"I'll take over the popcorn for you, Jim," Camille offered.

"Thanks."

I went into the bedroom, and found clothes all over the place. "What's going on, Kris?"

"I'm not sure what outfit Patty will want," Kristen said. She emptied almost her entire closet--and it was a large, walk-in closet, believe me--on her bed, on her dressers... everywhere.

"Patty and Camille are here, love," I said, handing Kristen her wine.

"What burned?" Kristen asked, sniffing the air.

"My first batch of Jiffy Pop," I said.

"You always set the heat on too high."

It was more like I'm always interrupted when I make popcorn, but saying anything would make it sound like I was angry, and I wasn't. Well, not really. "Yeah. Cammy took over while I fetched your wine."

"You're sweet," Kristen said, sipping her wine. "Cammy won't burn the popcorn. You always cook it too high."

"Yeah. Guys like me need to learn how to cook. Maybe next year I'll take a home economics class."

Kristen heard the sarcasm in my voice, and dispelled any argument with a kiss that tasted of Chablis.

"Hmmm," I said. "That wine is sweet. Or was that you?"

My Goddess ignored the compliment and picked up a smart outfit. "What do you think? Think the green matches Patty's hair?"

"Patty's hair is red, not green," I pointed out.

Kristen rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I need to get back to the kitchen and collect the popcorn," I said.

"Sure thing. You don't mind Patty trying on outfits, do you?"

"No. I have Cammy to keep me company," I said.

"Oh? Do you think I can trust you with Cammy?"

"I've been to Lake Shore Point with her already," I said. "She kisses nice, but she's not you."

Kristen smiled at me. "You're truly sweet. I promise we won't take too long."

"I trust you."

"How about this... I give you permission to snuggle with Cammy. I promise to make it fun for you."

Kristen was giving me permission to snuggle with Camille? "Um, that's not necessary..."

"Of course it is," Kristen said.

She bounded out of the room and I followed her.

Camille ripped open the top of the foil and took a handful of popcorn in her hand. So did Patty.

"Hey, Patty, Camille!" Kristen said happily. "Jim said you were here."

"Hi, Kristen," the two girls answered.

"You know how Jim here doesn't like fashion shows," Kristen said. "I suddenly got an idea to make it more interesting for him."

"How?" asked Patty.

"First, Cammy... can you keep Jim comfortable in the living room?"

"Of course," Camille said.

"I mean, really comfortable," Kristen said, giving Camille a look. "Almost to be point of being... uncomfortable?"

Camille looked surprised at Kristen and then a big smile grew on her face. "Of course, Kristen."

"Cool. Patty, I have some outfits in the bedroom. Come with me!"

I looked at Camille. I know that Kristen gave me permission to "snuggle" with Camille, and she just gave an even more open invitation to the blonde.

"Looks as if our job is to retire to the living room, Jim," Camille said.

"Cammy, you don't have to..."

"Oh, Jim, I'm not going to fuck you! I think Kristen just wants me to keep things interesting for you."

"All right, but if Kristen starts to act funny..."

"I know," Camille said. "I have no interest in losing her friendship, or yours."

"All right."

I have kissed Camille before, and I know that she is quite capable in the department. However, she seemed to have lowered her wattage in the living room. It was a romantic kiss, but I got much steamier kisses from her in the past, so I knew she wasn't really trying.

Kristen and Patty came into the living room to model what they were wearing.

Actually, the expression should be rewritten. They were modeling what they weren't wearing. Kristen wore a matching set of pink panties and a bra with embroidery hearts knit on it. Inside the hearts there was no material at all. Kristen's nipples stuck out of a couple of intentionally placed hearts in the bra cups, and the holes in her panties left no confusion as to whether she was a natural blonde.

Patty, for her part, was wearing an emerald green lingerie set. The panties looked like bikini bottoms, and the top was a camisole that covered most of her top, but left her belly button exposed.

"Wow!" was my reaction to the two of them.

"Killer outfits!" Camille said appreciatively. "Patty... you look good enough to eat!"

Patty blushed at Camille's compliment.

"I like those hearts on Kristen myself," I said, not wanting Kristen to go unappreciated.

"You see?" Kristen told Patty. "I told you they would like these!"

"Oogie like!" I said, trying my best to force my voice into a low register like the Hulk cartoon.

Patty and Kristen laughed, and both of them came over to me and gave me hugs and kisses.

The girls went back to the bedroom and put on their outfits. For two girls going to a Chinese restaurant, they were a bit overdressed. Do you think I minded?

At the Islander, I found myself distracted, remembering the lingerie show that Patty and Kristen gave me. The last time I was at the Islander, I recalled, I was distracted as well.

It was obvious that my women troubles were only just beginning.

Kristen and I drove Patty and Camille to their homes and made sure we were back at the apartment before midnight. We wanted to do a "before" and "after" session about Kristen turning eighteen, and we did so.

Instead of sucking me when we got into bed at a quarter after eleven at night, Kristen insisted on fucking me. I mentioned that this wasn't a big part of our nights together, mostly due to Kristen's addiction to my sperm, but that was what Kristen wanted.

I remembered the argument Kristen and I had the previous autumn, and also remembered her original ultimatum: to fulfill her fantasy before her eighteenth birthday. I didn't carry out her request, yet, and I felt a bit bad. I still couldn't decide whether or not whether or not I would comply with her request, and her deadline was approaching.

After I shot off into Kristen's womb, I immediately moved into a sixty-nine position and tried as much as I could to suck my own seed from Kristen. During the four and a half months we were dating, I had plenty of experience with having my own seed in my mouth, mostly from Kristen. I was going to do this for her. I looked at the alarm clock and noticed that it was five minutes until midnight. I moved back up to my darling and kissed her, giving her my seed, mixed with her own juices and my saliva.

It wasn't exactly what she demanded, but I gave her what I could.

Kristen's response was to pull my body so close to her that her breasts were flattened in between us. "Thank you, Jim!" Kristen breathed after a couple of minutes.

"Midnight, Goddess!" I said, noticing the time.

"I love you, Oogie!" Kristen cried.

The love of my life just cried and cried. Nothing I could do could stop her. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she continued to cry.

Oh, fuck. I thought that this would have been a good compromise.

I simple held Kristen in my arms until she calmed down. "I'm sorry, Oogie."

I figured it was time to respond, so I said, "I'm sorry, Kristen. I knew how important your request was, and I failed you."

"Huh?" Kristen asked, confused.

"I knew what you wanted before your birthday. I couldn't do it."

"But you did!" Kristen shouted. "I didn't get it from another girl, but I got it from you!"

"No..."

"Jim!" Kristen interrupted. "Don't make this another story. You did the right thing."

"Another story?" I asked, confused.

"Forget it," Kristen said. "You don't want to know."

"Story?"

Kristen didn't answer me. "I love you, Jim," she said.

"I love you, Kris."