Chapter 5

I hurried to the cafeteria, almost trampling my way through the thickening corridor crowds, heading for my usual table. I didn't want Melanie to get there first. Buying two lunches, I occupied the space, waving to people and watching for Alice.

Lars got there first, occupying one of the chairs next to me, and I started to wave Terry away from the chair to my left, then gave it up as a lost cause. Alice would just have to sit on me.

"Why two lunches?" Terry asked. "You swimming today?" He added without letting me answer the first one.

"I've got a new girl, and yes, I intend to. How are you this fine day? Enjoy the weekend?"

"Oh, the usual," Terry adjusted his glasses and started eating. In the pool he's a real demon, but in the baggy clothing he habitually wore, Terry looked like a beanpole. He acted like a classic absent-minded nerd, but he was also the school bookie, handling all the bets on baseball, basketball and football. Terry set the odds and had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports. I tried to never get him going, because when sports talk began, Terry never stopped. It was frightening, in a way, the intensity he acquired, becoming almost a different person.

"So, who is she?" Lars pressed. "Hey, watch out, here comes your ex."

Despite telling myself that I didn't care, despite my focus on Alice, my stomach lurched and my heart fluttered when I looked at her. Looking her best, in a flattering top that displayed her large breasts to advantage and cutoff jeans that looked to be painted on her skin, Melanie was a vision. Three of her friends were walking by her side, coming over to our table. So was Jack, and I sighed in relief as Alice walked in with Janine and Aaron by her side, speaking animatedly. Alice scanned the room and we nodded, almost comically in unison, when our eyes met. She said something to Janine and Aaron, who went over to buy their lunches, then Alice walked towards me. Unfortunately, Melanie would get to me first.

Marla, Melanie's most outwardly clueless friend, was the first to speak, just as Jack sat down, "So, how was your weekend, guys?"

"The best ever," I looked her in the eyes and smile brightly and genuinely. "Twenty hours of sex out of forty eight hours qualifies as 'Excellent'," I stopped to take a drink from my coke to a pregnant silence.

Marla broke the freeze, setting her lunch on the table and sitting down. A blonde doll who took the stereotypes just a bit too much to heart, Marla seemed to enjoy living a joke. I liked her, superficially at least, because she didn't let anyone see beyond the dumb blonde. I'd seen enough of her test scores to know better.

"So," Melanie spoke up, "how much did she cost?"

"Almost twenty thousand dollars," Alice spoke up behind her.

"What?!" Melanie spun.

"I said, almost twenty thousand dollars. I really need to thank you, Melanie, I owe it all to you. Look at what he bought me," Alice raised her arm to show her bracelet, her other hand playing with her silver necklace. "He also got me a whole new wardrobe and wants to get me yet another, and we spent hours at the beauty salon. Would you believe he actually put on my makeup? The attendant thought it was so romantic, she actually went out to tell everyone there. Two college girls came up to help and actually had the temerity to try to give him their phone numbers. I don't think I need to tell you that Mark gives the most incredible massages. But that's nothing, nothing, next to the sex. He's a god, a sex god. I thought he killed me, the first time I fainted. The second time I lost consciousness was almost better."

"Uh," Melanie gaped at her. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Alice."

"Alice?" Melanie said, obviously confused.

"Alice Mueller," I contributed. "You remember convincing me how I needed her help with math? She's been very helpful."

"Alice... ," Melanie looked from me to Alice and back. I didn't want to look at her, my eyes on Alice. I crooked a finger and she came over, sliding past Lars to sit on my lap.

"Like I said," Alice's tone was deceptively sweet, "I owe you. I'll discharge that obligation by warning you to stay away from him, or I'll destroy you. I believe most of the football players sit over there," she pointed.

"He doesn't have five thousand to spend, let alone twenty," Melanie's voice hardened.

"You never told her?" Alice turned to look at me. I could see, in my peripheral vision, people looking at us.

"It was instinct, at first, never telling anyone," I explained, bringing up a fork and feeding Alice a bite. "It was a while before I saw how materialistic Melanie actually is, for all her talk about art. So I made up to be poor. You and your parents are not the only ones worried about gold-diggers."

Alice chewed and swallowed, turning back to face Melanie. "My dad's the bank president, you know, so he automatically checked Mark up before allowing him in the house. You know how protective daddies can be," Alice twisted the knife. "Turns out," she stopped for another bite from my fork, chewing deliberately, "that he had his first million when he was fifteen. Second, third and fourth, too. I think it's fifth, possibly sixth by now, but I'm not sure. Most of it is in a trust, of course, but we've been playing with a hundred thousand on the markets for the last seven weeks. Doing quite well, too."

"I suppose I didn't really trust you," I told Melanie as I continued to feed Alice. I noticed Janine and Aaron standing nearby, hesitating, and motioned for them to sit. I also noticed that the hand which wasn't holding the fork, knowing my thoughts better than I did, was openly cradling Alice's left breast, fingers tweaking her nipple.

I could see Melanie searching for something, anything to say. Her mouth opened and closed, her face flushed with anger.

"Don't bother saying you were just doing it to make him jealous," Ellen cut in, "I don't think it'll get you anywhere, Mel."

"Just take a few steps, if not up, then away," I said.

"Go join your copper boy," Alice added.

"Copper?" Janine asked, confused.

"Well, I checked him out myself, he's far from golden. He might be a star in this school, but we're not exactly a football powerhouse. The scouts haven't been flocking, to say the least," Alice informed her. I was dumbfounded, learning that Alice actually followed school football. Stereotyping, this time on my side.

"You're not even going to give me a chance, are you?" Melanie tried.

"I gave you quite a few. You always said no, which I respected. I have the best in my hands," I gave an extra squeeze to Alice's breast, "why would I ever settle for less?"

"Ha," Melanie sneered. "She'll dump your ass soon enough. We'll see who's begging for chances then," she flounced away, having had the last word. Surprisingly, only one of her friends went after her. I looked at Ellen and Marla questioningly, throwing a significant glance at Melanie's backside.

"We're not going to sit there, silly," Marla did her golden laugh. "It's not comfortable, with all the pinching. They've got rough hands, not like you," her eyes locked on Alice's tit for a moment.

"Oh, and how do you know about his hands?" Alice said teasingly.

"Mark used to be free with those massages, before Mel put a stop to it," Ellen answered her.

"What about Alex?" Lars asked. I got an inkling that he had a crush on her.

"Oh, she thinks Mel's shit doesn't stink. Just like Mel, actually," Ellen sniffed theatrically.

"How in hell did you two get together?" Jack asked. Alice started feeding me back, and by the time I had my mouth empty, the two empty chairs were filled by Ron Harkin and Lisa Jones, the school paper's editor and gossip column snitch, respectively. Lisa was a real harpy, but if you didn't give her something she kept digging or just made something up. Both of them stared raptly at my pawing of Alice.

Between bites, I repeated the official line, that Alice tutored me in math, so we got to know each other, and after Melanie was nice enough to dump me I went after her. Lisa congratulated Alice on her makeover, then went after me.

"So aren't you afraid of being inadequate, next to her?"

"Actually," Alice intercepted the question, "I'm the one feeling inadequate. You wouldn't believe how he's pampered me. Have you ever had anyone wash your hair, brush it and dry it? Or put on your makeup for you? Feed you and wash you? Buy you a whole wardrobe and bring you breakfast in bed? Wake you up with a, well, I'm sure you can imagine."

"So is the sex any good?" Lisa went for the jugular.

"Have you ever fainted from an orgasm you knew was going to kill you? Reached the point where pleasure becomes pain, because it's too much? Cum so much your stomach muscles cramped?"

"Don't be shy, Alice, give her the details," Ellen egged her on. Or was she being sarcastic? I used to be wary of Ellen, because even thick headed as I tend to be, I managed to figure out that she'd tried to steal me from Melanie. Nowadays, I felt a lot more charitable. Dark haired and eyes, she was trim and slim, shorter than Alice, with a sharp tongue and a temper.

Apparently Alice was talking just a bit too loudly, because everyone in sight was staring at us. I was getting a bit uncomfortable with all the attention. "Alice," I whispered in her ear, "if you keep telling everyone how good our sex is, you're going to get more competition. Enough bragging, I don't want to be ripped apart by the claws of a horde of would-be female rapists."

Ron and Lisa were crimson and Aaron, judging by the way the vein in his forehead was pulsing, was close to a coronary. Alice leaned back against me, telling them that, "Oh, right, Mark reminded me. I have some serious competition for him, whereas he doesn't have any. Truth, I think I actually need some help. I'm always fainting or too sore or something, leaving him frustrated. He's been a good sport about it, really. Are you up for a threesome?" She asked Lisa winsomely.

Ron shook his head, grabbed Lisa's shoulder and just about dragged her away. A couple of seconds later, red faced, they came back for their lunch trays.

Janine started laughing, setting us all off. "That intonation, you took it from me, right?"

"So I did," Alice said primly, sitting straight.

"So you were just bullshitting her, right?" Ellen asked, her eyes a bit wide. Disbelief?

"You answer that," Alice shook a fork at me.

I finished the bite, thought for another moment, then said, "If anything, Alice has been remarkably reserved and concise, understating things. Everything she said was not merely true, it was utterly accurate. Which is how she always speaks, actually."

"Come on," Lars started an elbow in my direction, stopping just before he hit me, "don't play the grand stud. It sounds like bullshit, porn and not sex."

Ellen and Marla nodded in response.

"It is simple fact," Alice said coldly, in her old voice, bringing everyone up. "I wasn't kidding about the threesome, either," her tone was softer and she looked at Marla and Ellen. "I could use some help. It's..."

I cut her off, "We'll see how you survive two weeks with me, first. There's already someone on our schedule, remember?"

I cupped her chin and held her still, keeping her from turning and looking at Janine. "I wasn't joking to her," I whispered to Alice, "but if she chickens out, we'll find someone else. Don't go inviting people to our bed without asking me first, in private."

"I have been duly rebuked," Alice announced before I shut her up with more food.

The remainder of my most exciting lunch period ever was pure annoyance. Everyone except Janine and Aaron tried to find out who our threesome partner was. Not looking at Janine, except when I normally would, about gave me a crick in the neck.