Chapter 30: Searching for Truths and Lies

The soccer team returned home triumphant, and the recruiters started calling. Pick called on Monday, too, and told me that he had been at the championship game.

"Helluva stop, son, on that corner," he said.

"The kid who took the shot is a really good player," I said. "All- State selection the past two years."

"You mean that Spencer Goldman fella? I know, Sean. He's on my list to call on, too."

"Really? He'd be a great addition to your team, Coach."

Pick went on to let me know that the paperwork was in motion for his offer, and if my parents or I had any questions, to call him at any time.

"Now, I really mean that, son," he reiterated.

"I know you do, Coach, and I appreciate it. I've got your number, right here on the kitchen bulletin board."

"Okay, then," he said. "You take care, Sean. I'll be talking to you in just a few weeks."

"So long, Coach, and thanks for everything."

Trent, Eric, Jorge, and I were soccer heroes for a few weeks, just as Tiny and Alex Simmons, our senior quarterback, were the football heroes for the moment. We could all bask in the glory until basketball season started, and then it would be somebody else's turn, in this case Sam Loggins, our 6'5" sophomore phenom, to be the athletic Big Man On Campus. Personally, as much as I enjoyed the attention for a little while, I was just as glad to sink back into relative anonymity again, once the winter sports began.

By Christmas break, Kayla and I had become one of the student body Official Couples, and we had fallen into a general routine of doing homework, either at my house or hers, and then going for a run afterwards, time permitting. On the weekends, we would meet up with friends and go to the school basketball games, or perhaps head over to Mike's Pizza. We would have occasional make-out sessions in the car on the way back home, but nothing more serious than the kissing and petting we had experimented with before. The arrangement seemed to work well. I purposely didn't put any pressure on Kayla to go any further than she was willing to go, and yet she was happy to help me with my particular needs as the occasion arose, you should pardon the pun. She took our relationship seriously, and I so did I. Maybe I was finally learning from past mistakes. I hoped so.

While Molly certainly didn't enter a convent, neither did she get nutty again. She and I talked often, usually during school, but occasionally one or the other of us would call, and we would spend an hour or so on the telephone. At first, Kayla was a little concerned about these calls, wondering if Molly had an ulterior motive, but after watching the trusting friendship that Molly and I were developing, she wisely said nothing.

For Molly's part, it took her a long time, and a lot of gut- wrenching conversations with me, with Josh, with Tessa, and with her sister Heather, to regain her spirit and her positive outlook. It helped that Joey and Vinnie were still serving detention every afternoon. With no leader to hold them together, the Bulls were pretty much finished. They had been a pretty rag-tag group to begin with, even considering the trouble they had managed to stir up over the past couple of years, so it wasn't really much of a surprise they couldn't hold together without a Del Toro in their midst. Harold and Pammy had both dropped out of school and gotten low-paying jobs after tiring of serving out a few weeks of their daily detention. A rumor flashed through school sometime before Christmas break that Pammy was pregnant and had gotten kicked out of her mother's house, that she had moved in with Harold, living in the basement of the Barnes house with him. A few days later, Jen Davies came to school and let her friends know that she had run into Pammy at a doughnut shop where she spent her days mixing dough, and it was all supposedly true.

Richie Del Toro was still in the pokey, and little brother Jilly was still in reform school. The Del Toro family was watched pretty carefully by our local law enforcement community, just in case.

One day, just a few days after Thanksgiving, I got an invitation in the mail from the Wilkinsons, about an open house holiday party that Lori was hosting. There was a handwritten note paperclipped to the invitation:

Dearest Sean,

Davey, Kip, and I would love to see you at our open house. Many of the parents and boys from the team will be here. Please come, and please bring a guest if you'd like!

Love, Lori

The date for the party was on a Saturday afternoon and evening. I assumed that the kids would probably be there during the afternoon, and the evening would be mostly for adults. I called Kayla and told her about it, and we made a date.

The Saturday of Lori's party was unseasonably warm, almost a throwback to October weather. I had on casual pants and a short- sleeve shirt, and I took along a light jacket, for when it cooled off after the sun went down. I drove over to pick up Luscious, who came skipping out her front door as soon as I pulled into the driveway. She had on baggy green cotton pants, and a light green sweater. She had pinned a little gold Rudolph pin, with a tiny garnet for his nose, to her sweater, for a holiday accessory. She wore her pale, almost white hair down and loose, and it cascaded over her shoulders and fluttered in the breeze as she ran to the car. She was so lovely, my heart nearly stopped as I watched her.

As she opened the door, she tossed a backpack into the rear seat, and then sat down and shimmied over to sit close to me.

"What's in the pack?" I asked, but she just looked at me, a small smile on her face. Her only answer was to kiss me on the cheek before settling back into the seat.

There were a lot of cars parked in the driveway and in the street, and I had to go around the corner to find a parking spot. Kay and I walked up the sidewalk to Lori's house. The front door was open, and there was quite a bit of noise coming from the house as we turned up the driveway to the sidewalk, skirting the cars parked in the driveway.

I opened the storm door for Kayla, and as soon as we stepped into the house, I was bombarded by two bolts of lightning.

"Sean! You came to our party!"

"Mom! Sean's here!"

Kip looked up at Kayla, her silky blonde hair backlit by the sunlight streaming in through the glass of the door, a look of awe on his face.

"Are you an angel?" he asked breathlessly.

Kayla burst out laughing, and then knelt down and gave Kip a big hug.

"No, I'm not an angel. I'm just a girl," she said. "But thank you anyway, sweetie."

I bent down close to Kip's ear.

"She's fibbing, pal. She really is an angel. My angel."

She glanced at me, her eyes happy and shining.

Lori came out of the family room, and Kay and I hurriedly stood up to say hello. She gave me a hug, and when I introduced her to Kayla, she surprised her by giving her a big hug, too.

Lori held her for just a moment, looking into Kayla's eyes.

"Do you know how special this boy is?" she asked.

Kayla smiled, her eyes softening. "Oh, yes, I do," she replied.

Lori cocked her head critically. "Yes, I believe you do," she said seriously. She suddenly grinned. "Come on," she said, taking us each by an arm. "I should introduce you around." And she led us into the living room, where a lot of the soccer parents were standing or sitting in little pockets of conversation.

I knew most of them, having met one or both parents at one time or another over the course of the last couple of seasons, so we did the rounds, saying a few words to each as I introduced Kayla, and accepting congratulations from them for the team's season and for my individual awards.

We were holding hands as we walked toward the kitchen, hoping to find a soft drink. There was a big, booming voice echoing from the family room, and from the sounds of it, the owner of that voice had quite a crowd in there he was entertaining, because there was a lot of laughter and chatter coming from there. There were a couple of cooks and servers in the kitchen, caterers preparing little snacks and hors d'oeuvres, and one of them directed us toward the dining room, where a temporary bar was set up on the sideboard. We found plastic cups, ice, and sodas in there, along with liquor, beer and wine. We poured Cokes into cups for ourselves. I looked around, making sure nobody was watching us. I picked up an open bottle of rum, and splashed just a little into each of our glasses. Kayla watched me silently, her face solemn but her eyes dancing. We stirred our drinks, and walked hand in hand toward the family room.

Lori sprang up from her seat on a footstool next to the big man with the big voice, the same man she had been with at the soccer game.

"Sean, you remember David?" She turned to David. "Dave, this is Kayla Lehigh. Kayla, this is David McMasters."

Kay's small hand was lost as it was completely engulfed in David's big hand. He was very gentle, however, as he bent down and greeted her. He motioned to the chair he had just vacated.

"Such a lovely creature should not have to stand," he said. "Please, Kayla, sit here. Mr. P., and how are you?" He shook my hand with appreciably more vigor. "That was a great game you played that Lori took me to see. I really enjoyed it. Can't say I really know much about soccer, but Lori's boys are teaching me all the time. Here, sit, right here next to your companion," he continued, indicating the footstool.

"No, thank you, I'd prefer to stand," I said. "Lori? Please sit and relax." I glanced around, and, to my surprise, sitting together on the couch were Molly and her twin brother Josh. Josh was grinning at me, and Molly looked like she was struggling to hold back a bellyful of laughter.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked in surprise.

Now Molly did laugh out loud. "What, you're the only high school kid Lori knows? I've known her longer than you have."

I felt properly dressed down. "You're right, I'm sorry," I confessed. I stepped over toward them. Molly stood and hugged me fiercely. Even though she was one of my best friends, and our time together was past, my hormonally frenzied brain still recognized the weight of her breasts as they mashed against me.

Don't think about it, don't think about it, you are such a pervert, I repeated over and over in my head. Which, of course, made me focus even more on the feel of her body, to the point that I was reluctant to let her go, for fear of showing my awareness of her to the rest of the room, and particularly to Kayla.

Molly sat back down, and I sort of crouched over to the footrest next to Kay. She just glanced at me, a hint of amusement in her eye.

"Is Sean behaving, Kayla?" asked Molly.

"Oh, he's trying," she answered. "He still needs some work, though."

"It doesn't change much, even when they get older," said Lori with a small laugh, sitting in a stuffed chair next to me. David was standing behind her, arms resting on the back of the chair.

"Nope," said David in a booming voice. "Men want women to never change, almost from the moment they meet them. Women, on the other hand, seem to see men as a work in progress, with a finished project barely in sight." He laughed at his own joke, and it was so infectious and loud that you couldn't help but join in.

Kay and I finally left about three hours later, stuffed to the gills with goodies that seemed to pour nonstop from the staff working in the kitchen. Josh and Molly had left just a little before us. It took us awhile to make our way through the house, saying our goodbyes and wishing everybody a happy holiday season. Lori and David met us at the front door.

"Thank you so much for coming," said Lori.

"Oh, thank you for inviting us," said Kayla. They seemed to have struck up a friendship over the course of the party. I hoped they didn't go in for too much in the way of intimate girl talk.

"You know, Sean, you don't need an invitation to come over," said Lori, looking at me seriously. "The boys and I welcome you anytime. You and Kayla, both."

"Well, thank you," I said. "I appreciate it. And thanks for inviting us tonight. It was great seeing all the kids and their parents again." I shook David's hand, and Lori hugged me as David wrapped Kayla up in his long arms and hugged her. Lori gave me a surreptitious kiss on the cheek as she whispered softly in my ear, "She's wonderful, Sean. I'm so happy for both of you."

Her eyes were glistening when we finally separated. I nodded to her, unable to say a word. I knew how lucky I was.

It was still a relatively warm night, and still early for us. Kayla and I strolled down the sidewalk to the corner, holding hands and swinging our arms in step.

We got into the car, and I just naturally started driving out of town, back out toward Gallagher's barn, which was rapidly becoming known to us as Our Special Place.

I pulled into the empty parking area and shut off the lights. It was warm enough in the car, and not too cold outside, so I killed the engine, turning the key back so that the radio would play softly. Luscious Kayla was sitting tucked up next to me, her head on my shoulder, and my arm was around her, holding her close. We stayed that way for a long time, just gazing out the window at the darkness, and listening to the music floating out of the speakers.

Finally, Kayla lifted her head up to me, and I leaned down and softly kissed her. No fooling around this time, she closed her eyes and gave herself up to the sensation of my lips pressing and melding together with hers as we kissed gently, unhurriedly.

She broke the kiss first, and began to nibble and nudge at my bottom lip with her lips, and bringing her wet tongue into play. Each nibble she took upped the ante just a little, creating an additional spark that added itself to the previous spark, until there was a pleasant heated tension surrounding us. My blood was circulating now, keeping me warm, and I could feel heat radiating from Kayla, too, as I put my left arm around her waist and she turned more toward me. She pressed herself harder against me, pushing me back a little until I was slightly jammed between the seat and the car door. I stayed that way, content to let her lead as her kisses got more insistent, ranging now from my throat to my lips, but always returning, homing in on my lower lip as she nibbled and tasted from corner to corner, hesitating only to explore the scar that was barely perceptible, except to her. She loved to concentrate on that spot, and I loved to feel her focus.

She sat up suddenly, her pale hair gleaming in the dim light of the moon.

"Come on," she said, as she vaulted herself over the back of the seat. She hitched herself up into a sitting position in the back seat, and opened the zipper of her backpack.

She looked at me, a look that made my heart skip a beat. "Well?" was all she said.

It was enough to put me in motion. I clambered over the seat and landed next to her as she pulled out a thin blanket and began to cover the vinyl seat, shoving me out of the way so she could scrunch it underneath me and tuck it in.

"The seat's too cold otherwise," she said with a smile. She reached down and grasped the hem of her sweater and pulled it partway up and off her. Before she pulled it up over her eyes, she paused, watching me looking at her. The naked skin of her flat stomach was flawless, and looked dark compared to the small white bra she was wearing. I really wanted to stroke that soft skin, but I restrained myself. She smiled even bigger, and pulled the sweater the rest of the way off, tossing it into the front seat, and then reached back behind her and unfastened her bra, and sent it over the back of the seat, too. She settled back and crossed her arms beneath her small, delectable breasts.

"Your turn," she said, looking like she was ready to enjoy a show.

I almost tore the buttons off my shirt in my haste to shed it. I yanked it out of my pants and unbuttoned it as fast as I could, and flung it over the seat.

She almost imperceptibly nodded in satisfaction, and opened her arms to me. I accepted her invitation, and leaned over her to kiss her, my hands finally making contact with the soft skin on her tummy, and then running up from her narrow waist to her fleshy boobs. Her nipples were puckered in the cooler air, and they expanded even further as my thumbs played over them. She opened her mouth, inviting my tongue to explore, and tilted her head so that our lips formed a better seal. She inhaled through her mouth, drawing my breath from me, throwing fuel onto the fire that was already burning hot within me. We stayed connected like that until the heat being generated forced us to break the kiss, both of us panting. I started feasting on the tender skin of her throat, working my way down while drawing out the tension that was building ever tighter in both of us, as I got closer to my goal.

I loved playing with her boobs, and could have died happy the moment I took her nipple into my mouth. She arched her back in pleasure, and I reciprocated by opening my mouth a little wider and sucking in as much of her breast as I could. The locker-room talk about girls seemed always to revolve around how big their breasts were, with many guys declaring that the bigger they were, the better. On the other side were the guys who proclaimed that more than a mouthful was a waste. While I didn't necessarily agree that more than what I could fit into my mouth was wasted, I also was willing to admit that I tended to be more appreciative of willing, soft female flesh that fit nicely in the palm of my hand. More than a mouthful, less than the mountainous kinds some guys seemed to drool over. And Kayla's fit well in my hand, a fact I was just then appreciating, as I caressed one boob while I nursed at the other, occasionally switching positions in the interest of fairness.