Chapter 10: Falling Roses

SPRING (April 2003)

"Uhm ... hmmm..." The low moan was guttural in tone and partially muffled. Fitting, since my dick was blocking her windpipe a bit.

Maria's eyes fluttered as she seemingly wavered at the verge of unconsciousness before regaining control of her senses. Finally, my deflating cock slipped out of her mouth, followed by a line of semen that trickled down her chin.

My eyes swiveled across the bed to Amber, who just grinned and shook her head in disbelief. I'd never seen a girl cum without anyone really stimulating her erogenous zones before. Maria had just done it without even frigging herself. There's a first for everything.

Amber and I had just recently woken up in our bedroom and were cuddling when the door opened and a naked Maria slipped inside. She and Nataliya had been spooned up to Eric in the guest bedroom all night but I rightly guessed that Maria wanted to join Amber and me for an encore.

I lay back against the headrest while Maria knelt between my legs and blew me. Amber had pulled on the younger blonde's arms and pinned them back, so that Maria's movement was restricted and she had only her mouth to pleasure me. Meanwhile, Amber had started spanking the sexy Russian, much to both girls' delight.

Somehow, between the light bondage, me spurting my cum into her throat, and Amber spanking her ass, Maria actually had an orgasm.

The world needed more women like Maria in it.

But before we could move on to new play, the sudden, loud sound of something breakable shattering against a wall jerked all three of our heads around. This was quickly followed by heated shouting that carried quite well down the hallway.

My instincts immediately had me on high alert and I got out of bed and quickly slipped on my shorts as I headed for the door. I pulled it open just in time to see Jeff hurry by me towards the stairs as E-Beth stood in the doorway to her bedroom yelling at the top of her lungs, "FUCK YOU you stupid, ungrateful MOTHERFUCKER!"

Alert tension for violence gave way to shocked stillness as I realized there was no immediate danger to anyone. Well, unless E-Beth got something new in her hands to throw at Jeff.

Amber was soon behind me, clad in a bathrobe. Maria had nothing to wear but she was right behind my girlfriend as we peered into the hallway. The other doors opened and now everyone was looking towards the enraged brunette.

E-Beth just glared at everyone and then went back into her bedroom, slamming the door shut. Amber immediately cinched her robe around her and went to her best friend's door, knocking and then entering E-Beth's room before closing the door behind her.

Well ... THAT was a mood killer.

Diane and I were chilling out in the living room mindlessly watching TV. Maria, Nataliya, and Eric had already said their goodbyes. We were just waiting for our roommates to come down.

Eventually, Amber came down in her comfortable weekend clothes. My girlfriend raised her eyebrows at me in a hopeful expression that things would be okay and then she came around to join me on the couch.

E-Beth was right behind her, taking up a spot next to Diane and then sighing loudly. "Well THAT was a fucking waste of a whole year."

"What happened?" Diane's question was both soft out of sympathetic consideration and rushed from being overcurious.

"He fucking broke up with me!" E-Beth's voice jumped a few decibels before she calmed down again. "After everything I did for him, he fucking broke up with me." This time, her tone was a little more forlorn.

"Maybe last night was a mistake," Amber said glumly.

"What? No!" Diane protested. "I soooo needed to get laid."

"No, the party was fine. The mistake was me bringing HIM," E-Beth spat. "Ungrateful, egotistical moron."

"Huh?" I wasn't tracking.

"So I start dating the asshole late Junior year and he's sweet and considerate and he's a nice guy. Yeah, he's a little dorky, but I'm thinking I can help with that and the asshole would make good boyfriend material." E-Beth threw her hands up.

"We start dating and we're both going to the city for internships over the summer. I start cleaning up his wardrobe and fix his hair and talk him into contacts. He even starts coming to the gym with me, and after a year of hard work turning him to a cute, confident guy, what does the asshole do? He says 'thanks for all the help and now I'm going to go find a hotter girl than you!'"

Diane sat up, "He did NOT."

Amber nodded an affirmative, having already heard this by now.

E-Beth nearly started crying. "I did it to myself. I brought him to the party and let him fuck Amber and Maria and all these girls prettier than me! I put the idea into his head that he could trade me up!"

She was quickly becoming hysterical and I went over to hug her. E-Beth's self- confidence had always been a fragile thing. From chunky outcast in high school, she'd worked really hard to improve her body and raise her own self-image. I thought for the last few years she'd finally accepted she was a hot babe after having a string of good-looking dates and having an entire campus drooling over her tits.

But to have your boyfriend say he's dumping you because he wants to find a better looking girl? That threatened to undo everything she had gained.

Unfortunately, E-Beth refused to let me hug her. She took one look at me and started bawling, shrinking away from me, much to mine and Amber's confusion. She pulled back, right into Diane's grasp and let the diminutive Asian girl pull her into an embrace.

"E-Beth, what's wrong?" I asked softly.

"Don't you see?" she whined through her tears. "I'm getting what I deserve. I did it to you and now karma's coming back to me."

"What?"

"You helped transform me from ugly duckling into beautiful swan. And how did I repay you? I broke up with you. I'm the fucking asshole who broke up with you to try out other guys."

I held my hands out to her. "Do I look like I'm mad at you? What you felt was honest and I accepted that. And we both know that breaking up turned out best for us."

"Not for me. I made a mistake. I had the greatest guy in the world and I pushed you away." Her eyes swiveled to Amber and she started sobbing even harder. "You even ended up with my prettier best friend! How fucking ironic is that!"

Okay, E-Beth had now crossed the line to hysteria. She was laughing maniacally and shuddering in pain as she cried uncontrollably all the while. Diane couldn't hold onto her and this time, when I went to wrap her in my arms, she didn't have the control to pull away.

I simply bear-hugged her and pulled her head to mine as I rocked slowly and did my best to calm her down. "You are beautiful Elizabeth..." I soothed. "You are beautiful. Don't you ever forget that."

She hiccupped and asked, "Don't you think Amber is more beautiful than me?"

How I hated these trap questions. "You are both beautiful."

"But is she prettier than me?"

I glanced at Amber, who just nodded encouragingly. "Why should it matter one way or the other?"

E-Beth quivered in my arms. "Because I have to know. Did you not want to come back to me because you thought you'd gotten the prettier roommate?"

"That had nothing to do with it, Elizabeth," I answered firmly as I turned her face to mine.

"Then why didn't you come back to me?"

"Did you really want me to?"

The tears had stopped rolling and E-Beth turned her eyes to search mine. She didn't say anything for a long time, and all was silent without being awkward.

But then E-Beth breathed again as she said, "No. I guess not. I was really happy for you and Amber." E-Beth reached out her other arm and pulled her blonde roommate in for a hug on the other side.

The distraught brunette sighed in our grasp and then turned her teary gaze to me. "Still, it would have been an ego-boost if you wanted me back. And I have to admit, in the back of my head I was thinking that if neither of us were seeing people when we turned 30, we'd marry each other."

I had to smile at that. E-Beth just sighed as she looked back and forth between me and Amber. "But I look at the two of you and I know deep down, you two belong together. Everyone can see that."

And with that, E-Beth brought my hand together with Amber's. For a moment, I just grinned at my girlfriend. But then E-Beth's latest sigh was a mixture of hopelessness and pitiful jealousy. "I guess I'm just not pretty enough to deserve something like that."

The warm, fuzzy feelings in my heart disappeared as I heard E-Beth start back in on the self-deprecating remarks. This was going to be a long day.

After a few hours of unsuccessful verbal arguments, Amber and Diane decided a live experiment would have to do the convincing. I was banished to go hang out with Kevin and Jen for the Sunday afternoon while the three girls went into a bathroom.

Amber filled me in on the story later, which basically went like this: They spent an hour and a half getting E-Beth all dolled up and wearing a slinky outfit designed to attract the male eye. Then the three of them went for a walk around the campus.

As a trio, the girls got plenty of attention and lots of whistles from an appreciative public. But on more than one occasion, the girls would send E-Beth ahead and follow at a discreet distance to prove that the sexy brunette was fully capable of turning heads on her own.

Their plan was nearly undone when a saucy redhead walked by in the opposite direction, drawing away some of the attention. But the problem solved itself when a cute guy literally walked up to E-Beth to strike up a conversation out of the blue.

Now all of this wasn't explained to me until Monday.

That's because on Sunday night, Amber called and ordered me to return home immediately. I was sent directly to E-Beth's room where she was stripped down to lingerie that did wonders for pressing her tits together in amazing cleavage. Her dark hair was up save for long, loose tendrils that fell by her cheeks. Her eye makeup was intense and penetrating, her gaze upon me electrifyingly sensual. E-Beth was kneeling on the bed and absolutely vibrating with sexual energy.

Amber tugged my jeans down to my ankles and made me step out of them. Then she spanked my ass to propel me into E-Beth's bedroom and closed the door behind me.

E-Beth got a wicked smile on her face and she shook her breasts at me. And then I showed her just how much her body could still turn me on.

Even as one relationship had come apart in the fallout of our private little orgy, another relationship was rising in new bloom.

Eric was positively giddy that Maria called him not two days after the party. By the next Saturday E-Beth was already complaining that her little brother could not shut up about how fantastic the sex was with his new blonde girlfriend.

"Don't want to hear about it!" became a common refrain from the annoyed brunette.

It didn't help when she went to his dorm room to deliver a package their parents had sent, only to walk in on Eric and Maria doing their best to splinter a closet door from overaggressive fucking.

"Ha! Finally gotcha!"

"What?" I exclaimed in dismay and looked over. Brianna proudly showed me her paper and beamed. I shook my head in disgust and put my pencil down.

After I taught her the game, Brianna had found the Sudoku puzzles appealing and gotten to be pretty good at solving them. So starting a few months ago, I would photocopy identical puzzles for us to solve at the same time in what she called our weekly Sudoku showdown.

Today was the first day she actually beat me.

Her green eyes danced as she practically hopped up and down in her chair, giggling like a happy four-year-old. I just nodded acceptance of my defeat and said, "Congratulations."

Brianna squealed and then wrapped me up in a tight hug.

"Get a room you guys," Kathy deadpanned as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Brianna and I immediately pulled apart, blushing slightly.

I cursed myself for blushing. I hadn't done anything wrong, had I?

"C'mon, Bree," Kathy hoisted her coffee. "Your boss is looking for you."

"Until next time," Brianna said as she stood and joined her friend to head back towards the Admin/Accounting side of the building. I collected up the Sudoku papers, staring in wonder at the puzzle she'd completed with perfect-looking, pretty numbers. The competitive fire inside me burned.

I promised myself that she would not beat me again.

I got home and walked into the living room to find Amber and E-Beth in deep conversation. Both women went dead silent as they saw me, and E-Beth gave me an odd look before getting up and walking towards me.

She paused just long enough to give me a brave smile and pat my shoulder before she passed me and went to the stairs.

"Baby, what's going on?" I asked Amber in a concerned voice.

Amber folded her hands over a thick envelope in her lap, and then gave me a brave smile of her own. "I should be happy," she said in a strained voice. "It's what I always wanted."

After realizing that she wasn't angry with me for something, I quickly walked across the living room and joined my girlfriend on the couch. "What is it?"

Amber bit her lip and then held up a single sheet of paper from the stack in her lap. I recognized the cardinal red logo on the letterhead. She smiled at me despite the moisture in her eyes and said, "I got it. I got into Stanford Medical School."

My first instinct was elation. My eyes danced up and a grin spread across my face as happiness for Amber leapt into my heart. My girlfriend was going to be a doctor, just like she'd always dreamed. True, she'd already been accepted to our University's graduate medical program, but Stanford had been that golden fantasy that never seemed quite possible.

Even when it came time for her to fill out applications, she almost wasn't even going to apply. It was just such a longshot given her good, but not great, GPA and test scores.

I was ready to thrust my arms into the air in celebration and wrap her up in a happy hug. But my arms suddenly went dead as my brain caught up to the real world implications.

Stanford Medical School was pretty far away from here.

Amber's eyes leaped up with mine and she was ready to jump into my hug as I made those first reactive moves. But when she saw my hesitation, her face fell as she watched the implications she'd already thought through finally register to me.

No discussion was needed. We both already knew.

"You're going, aren't you?" I asked quietly, dreading the inevitability of her answer.

"Yes." Her shoulders sagged as she looked into my eyes and saw the truth, her own hopes fading away. "You're not coming with me, are you?"

"I..." My mind was reeling. I hadn't been expecting a life-changing decision like this. "I want to..."

"But..." she questioned, a plea in her eyes.

"California? Wow ... I, uh..." I thought of the little restaurants I knew nearby. I thought of my little makeout places. I thought of everything familiar.

I thought of my family. True, it wasn't like I was joined at the hip to my parents, but Danielle was here, and Cherys. Kevin, Jen, all my other friends. My job was here. True, it'd only been a year, but I loved my job, I loved my company, and I really liked my coworkers. I was doing well, getting good reviews, and I could see myself even retiring with the company. This was home.

As much as I wanted to cast all aside for romantic love, it wasn't practical. This was HOME.

The only thing for me at Stanford would be Amber.

It was a POWERFUL allure. But the fact was, I was a year removed from college. We were young ... was I ready to settle down? I felt like getting married would be an easier decision than picking up my life and moving just for her. We'd been together for almost two and a half years and I was madly in love with her. But deep down I knew it wasn't enough.

I was scared. I wanted to be with Amber ... but I didn't want to move. As I looked at her, she read it in my eyes and I read it in hers. She wanted to go. Could I really try to talk her out of it? Were we really about to break up?

I closed my eyes, my eyelids pushing out a rolling tear from the moisture that had already begun to buildup over my irises. Amber's hand went up to catch my tear and I grabbed her wrist, holding her palm to my cheek as I blinked my eyes open and looked deep into hers. The sky blue irises were as beautiful as a morning sky. And I would miss them.

"Congratulations," I managed to croak, before I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. Then with more force and honest sincerity, I said again, "Congratulations."

She managed a smile before she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. The current school year wasn't done yet. The start of her medical school was far off in the distance, many months away. And yet I couldn't help but feel like this was our last kiss.

There was always a possibility that Amber and I would not be forever. But being aware of the possibility is very different from KNOWING that one day soon, you won't be together with someone you're in love with. My heart was breaking, and Amber could feel it in my soul.

She broke the kiss without pulling her lips away from me, muttering through her teeth, "We're not OVER." She blinked away her own tears and her hands urgently ran over my head and through my hair as she clutched me to her.

I clenched my teeth together, trying to will away the pain as I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut in tension. And when I forced my eyes open I looked at her with longing. "This is April. We have a long way still to go. Besides ... it's only four years."

She nodded rapidly, trying so hard to show her agreement, and then she kissed me again. "I love you, David."

"I love you too, Amber."

She planted another fierce kiss on me and then pulled back, blinking constantly in the rainfall pouring down her cheeks. "I'm not going to ask you wait for me. It wouldn't be fair."

"But you WILL come back, won't you?" I pleaded.

"Of course. This won't be a real break-up. It'll just be a break." Amber nodded. "Some time to grow up and do our own thing for a little bit."

"A pause. And we'll find each other again, right?"

"Right. Even in September, I'm not saying goodbye," she insisted. "I'm not ever saying goodbye."

I just nodded and winced in emotional anguish as we came together for another kiss, this one seeming to last for hours.

When we finally broke for air, Amber quickly stood and took my hand. She needed me; I could feel it. And I needed her.

She quickly led us upstairs and into our bedroom. Our clothes were quickly scattered on the floor before we found ourselves entwined in the sheets.

I spent a long time running my hands across Amber's body. My fingertips just softly grazed her bare skin as I slowly moved over every square inch of her. I wasn't trying to titillate her. I just wanted to record it all for memory in the depressing belief that one day soon, I would never be able to touch her again.

Intentions or not, me lightly running my fingertips all over her seemed to set Amber on fire. By the time I got my face into her trimmed blonde pussy, she was primed and ready to go. Not ten seconds after my tongue touched her clit, her hips bucked up so hard she nearly snapped my neck as she came, dumping a load of girlish honey into my face.

Her next moan nearly shattered what was left of my heart. "Oh, damn ... I'm going to miss that..."

It was the wrong thing to say. The next moment, my erection was gone and I was curled into a fetal position, crying into the sheets.

Amber quickly realized her mistake and then she was immediately holding me, apologizing and caressing me at the same time. After a few minutes, my head was against her chest and I was nursing at her breasts while she stroked my penis in her hand.

Eventually, she got me comfortably situated on my back as her nimble fingers spelled out their apologies to my cock and then introduced her tongue into the mix. Whatever else was going on in my head, my prick had no concept of anything beyond the immediate and it was responding eagerly to her advances.

I thickened and grew in Amber's lavish love, and she began to lick it from base to the tip in slow, soothing caresses as I rose to my full height.

"I love you, David" she said to my cock and then she swallowed the head into her mouth.

"Oh, Amber," I groaned as she pulled me to the back of her throat, and my entire body was once again responding and trembling with eagerness. She placed her hands on my thighs and waited until I was fully calm again. And only then did she rise onto all fours and begin taking my shaft deeper and deeper down her throat.

When she got all the way to the bottom, my hairs tickled her nose and I could feel the massaging vibration of her humming with half my cock embedded in her esophagus. She stayed for a good ten seconds, doing her humming thing, then pulled back to breathe. And then she did it again, this time holding for fifteen seconds.

I watched her act of complete submission, her nostrils flared as she breathed shallowly, her sky blue eyes searching into mine. Even when she pulled me out of her throat, she wrapped her lips tightly around my shaft and sucked powerfully, making it clear that she wanted my cum. Amber bobbed her head up and down me, stroked me with a corkscrew motion, and cupped my balls while squeezing to draw it out of me.

And just when I thought I'd gotten used to those sensations, she'd deep throat me for another ten or fifteen seconds.

After a few minutes of this treatment, I felt like my eyes were going to roll back into my head as I collapsed into a puddle of jello. Only the tingle in my balls kept me awake.

The next time she deep throated me, Amber got her cum. I couldn't help it; I arched my back and thrust my hips up, sending another half-inch into her throat which she wasn't totally prepared for. She gagged and pulled me out until just the first two inches were in her mouth while her hand went back to stroking me. And then the sperm came.

Thick ropes of hot, white jism began spitting into her sucking mouth. My balls squeezed over and again, sending wave after wave through my shaft and giving her more to swallow down. I could feel the pressure of her tongue against my shaft with each pulse as it flew out of me.

And when my deflating cock stopped shooting, Amber wiped her mouth and returned to my arms to cuddle.

I held her body and stroked her spine as we lay there with our thoughts. I gazed down over Amber's wonderful body. She was tall, lithe, and so curvy. Her face was a work of art and her eyes enchanted me. Her breasts were so large and so enticing. Her flat tummy and curving hips led down to simply gorgeous legs. And on top of all her physical beauty was a mind and soul I had come to cherish.

Even after being intimately familiar with her body for so long, I still got a rise just looking at her naked. She was quite simply, taking into account the whole package, the most attractive woman I'd ever known. And even if I couldn't have her forever, I'd take whatever I could get for as long as I could have it.

She smiled happily as I rolled her over and nudged my new erection between her thighs. And as I slid deep into the depths of her womanhood, all I could think about was how much I loved this woman.

But despite the pleasure, the sexual healing, when we were done, I couldn't help but feel like there were only a finite number of times we had left together. In my mind's eye, there were a few dozen single-stem roses in crystal vases all in a row. And feeling inexorable pain, I reached out and knocked one over, sending it to shatter on the ground.

That was one less rose remaining.

SUMMER (June 2003)

Amber and I held together. We just loved each other too much to be apart unless we had to be.

On some level, I wanted to spend every day for the entire summer convincing her to stay with me. But my conscience wouldn't let me. I wanted her to be happy, and I couldn't sabotage her dreams.

Just like I had to let go of E-Beth so many years before, I had to let Amber go as well. If we were meant to be together, we'd find a way.

The night before graduation turned into an impromptu repeat of our private orgy. Diane, E-Beth, and Amber were already determined to get shitfaced as it was. Eric and Maria just happened to stop by to visit and offer their congratulations privately before the big formal ceremonies.

One thing led to another and then another and then all six of us were naked and thrusting away to our hearts' content. Why not? We had nothing to lose and in two days, almost everyone would be going in a different direction.

Diane was moving back to her hometown. A cousin was offering her a job that paid better than anything she could get entry-level around here.

E-Beth would be heading off to the big city. The company that she interned with for the past three summers was hiring her full-time.

Eric and Maria were each going back to their homes for the summer. I knew both would find summer flings and then come the new school year, probably start fucking again right where they left off.

Amber could have gone home for the summer. As usual, she had no plans except to enjoy her vacation before jumping into the four-year grind of medical school plus residency beyond. But given a choice between spending her last summer in an empty home with her servants or playing house with me, I was the obvious choice.

One of the few times Amber and I made the trip back home was for a wedding I had long seen coming.

They were soul mates. They belonged together. No matter how far apart life took them, they always managed to find each other again.

At 23, Nate and Monica were getting married.

Given everything that was going on between me and Amber, seeing my old best friend and my first girlfriend finding eternal happiness gave me a measure of hope. After all, Monica had gone off to Stanford of all places for college, and she and Nate still managed to end up together.

Nate was already in the NFL. A second-round draft pick, he had a nice bank account despite the fact he had yet to play a single snap. But his time would be coming soon.

Monica had excelled in her classes and left behind a string of short-term flings at Stanford before finally settling down with Nate during the past year. They'd managed to be an on-again, off-again couple throughout their four years of school, seeing other people and still coming through the other side. She'd moved to his new football city and already started work on her MBA. Even though Nate already had a multi-million dollar contract, the fiery petite redhead would always have her own personal drive for success.

But for this wedding, they both wanted to come home.

I took a couple of days off work to come home early and help with the planning. I was, after all, a groomsman and more importantly, I made it back in time for the bachelor party.

To be honest, it was kind of a sexual letdown. The strippers, while hot, couldn't compare to E-Beth or Amber. And more to the point, I wasn't even allowed to touch them. Still, everyone had a good time and we got Nate to bed safe and sound.

On the wedding day, I lined up with the other groomsmen and Nate outside the church. The best man was his left tackle in college and the big guy was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to make sure everything was perfect for his quarterback.

That left me to just chill out with Nate and keep him talking, keep him relaxed.

He was just starting to tense up when I sidled over and said, "What I wouldn't give for a coupla empty beer cans and a wide river to chuck them into."

Nate smiled and looked over at me. "Can't do it anymore. If some reporter caught me I'd be busted for littering." He shuffled his feet and looked down. "Those were good times."

"Yeah..."

Nate then stood up straight and really looked me in the eye. "You know, I don't think I ever said 'sorry'. And I need to before I go through with this."

I was confused. "Sorry for what?"

"For stealing your girlfriend."

"Huh? You didn't exactly steal her."

"Well, you had her and I wanted her. I'll always remember that day when I first had sex with her. And no matter how else I spin it, you two were still together then. Didn't The Code say something about not doing that?"

I chuckled. "Things were different back then. WE were different."

"Still..."

"Look, if it'll ease your conscience, your apology is accepted. And for the record, you make her happier than I ever could have."

"Thanks. That does mean a lot to me." Nate got introspective again and started staring off into the distance. I patiently waited him out. If ever a man was allowed to be alone with his thoughts, the final hour before getting married was certainly the time.