Chapter 1

There is little to no sex in this story. If that is what you want I suggest you look at other stories. The people in this story are real and this is their story. More or less. I have taken some literary license and embellished some of the facts. Comments are requested and appreciated. Thanks and enjoy.

It's Saturday night at the bar and I am sitting here waiting to get my ass kicked, again. Wait, I hear the ass kicker coming in now. This will be the third time in seven weeks that it will happen and at the same bar. Why don't I change bars you ask? I will answer that question by telling you my story. Here goes.

My name is Jack (Jackson really, after my dad), I am 24, 6 feet 2 and about 220 pounds. I have a fairly buff body, but the muscles are from working, not the gym. Although I do run about 3 miles two times a week to help keep in shape. I am fairly good looking, no movie star but not too bad either. I work in a stocking warehouse, as assistant inventory manager. As a stocking warehouse we take deliveries from manufacturers and set up loads for shipping to their local customers as needed. I'm supposed to be at a desk, but there is always something on the floor that I have to help load and ship. My job is a lot more physical than the title implies.

Now, let me introduce you to Karen, my ex-fiancée, my significant other, my soul mate, and the reason I am getting my ass kicked on a regular basis. Karen is also 24 and tall for a woman at 5 feet 11; she is slender, not thin, and well endowed. (She has big boobs). She works for an insurance company as a claims adjuster.

At the time that the ass kicking began we had been dating, and then engaged, for 2 years. Karen and I met as freshmen in college and really didn't date until the last half of our senior year. We joined the same study group as freshmen. Our study group continued all through college, so we spent time together for 4 years. After our first semester in the group, we became friends as well as study partners. When the group paired off to study different subjects, Karen and I always seemed to be pushed together.

I didn't have any really close friends in college, just a few beer buddies. Guess I studied too much to become a full fledged member of the party pack. It wasn't that I was a stick in the mud or anything; it was just that my family and I had worked hard to be able to send me to school. I thought an education was more important than being a party animal. A few beers at the bar across from the campus were about the extent of my wild times in college.

However, the guy that I was closest to, or at least occasionally hung around with, was Chuck. According to Chuck, he is a ladies' man of great ability. I wouldn't know; I didn't spend that much time with him.

Karen and Chuck met at the beginning of our senior year and started to date, pretty much exclusively. After their dates, Chuck would tell the pack members and me about the wild sex they had that night. Every date was the same, a great sexual adventure. I didn't believe him, but it could be. Karen and I were study buddies and casual friends, but I didn't know her sexual preferences. Anyway it wasn't up to me to protect her reputation. Although I did warn Chuck about his ravings a couple of times; I explained to him there would be hell to pay if Karen found out he was talking about her.

Chuck, two of his cronies, and I was sitting at a table in the bar. He was regaling us with the latest episode of wild monkey sex. I glanced over his shoulder and saw a trio of girls headed our way. Something about the way they were walking didn't make me think they were going to party with us. Karen was leading the crew and she looked pissed.

"You rotten son of a bitch," Karen screamed at Chuck. "How dare you spread your lies?" She continued for about three minutes, never once stopping her harangue and never once giving Chuck a chance to answer. "If my brother was here, he would rip off your head and shit down your neck."

"I don't know what you are talking about Karen. I haven't said anything about us. Have I guys?" Chuck was looking at the three of us at the table. Both of his buddies shook their heads and agreed he had said nothing. That left me. Karen and her posse, Chuck and his pack, were now staring at me waiting for my answer. I was between a rock and a hard place; caught between two friends. One of the friends I was beginning to really like and the other was just a drinking buddy. You can probably figure out which is which.

This was a problem for me; you see I don't lie. I know what you are thinking, but it's true. It's not because of moral issues, well somewhat. Lying requires a lot of work and concentration to be good at it. You have to remember what you said, to whom you said it, and where you said it. Different people will have to have lies customized for them. See what I mean? It's a lot of work. I don't like to work any harder than I have to; so it is just better to tell the truth. Truth is usually the best policy; I know, an old adage, but valid just the same. In addition, my dad had instilled some old school ideas in my head. One of these ideas was that your word is your bond; another way to put it was don't lie.

"Well Chuck, you have told us about a couple of dates and mentioned spending the night at Karen's place."

Chuck looked at me in disbelief and said, "Some friend you are."

"If you don't want a truthful answer don't ask me the question," I replied.

Karen turned back to Chuck and yelled at him, "You piece of shit, you have never even been to my dorm room much less spent the night. I have never allowed you to touch me below the neck or above the knee. What other lies are you spreading?"

This time she jumped his ass for a good five minutes. Chuck sat there and tried to answer her, but all you heard from him was but, but, but, over and over. Finally Karen wound down, stepped up to Chuck and slapped him hard. I thought his head was going to come off. She turned to me smiled and she and the crew left the bar.

"Thanks a lot asshole," Chuck said to me, rubbing his cheek. "Why didn't you back me up?"

"I'm not the asshole here, Chuck. You're the one telling all the sex stories about Karen. In answer to your question, I don't lie about or to people, if I can help it. So don't put this shit on me, it's all on you and your big mouth."

Needless to say, Chuck and I didn't hang around together much after that. No big deal, we weren't that close to begin with.

The following week at the study group, Karen asked me to go for coffee afterwards. It wasn't unusual for the group to go for coffee or a beer after class. When I walked into the little diner that we normally went to, Karen was at a table alone with two cups of coffee in front of her. This was a little out of the ordinary; usually there was at least one of Karen's crew with her. I sat down, put a little sugar in the coffee and waited for Karen to say something.

"I wanted to thank you for not lying for Chuck last week," Karen told me. "It wasn't easy for you to go against your friend."

"You're welcome, but you don't owe me any thanks, I just told the truth," I replied.

"It would have been easier for you just to go along with the others. I know your actions may have cost you a friendship with Chuck and I appreciate what you did."

"Again, no thanks are necessary. I just did what I believed to be the right thing. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I didn't do it all for you; I did it because of what I believe. You see, my dad taught me and my brothers some old school ideas or virtues. Whatever you want to call them."

"Like what?" Karen seemed interested and not just making conversation.

"My dad, and the whole family for that matter, believes that you are responsible for your actions and their consequences; we believe you should accept our laws and authority, but not blindly; and to me, most importantly, take care of your own. That means not only your family but also your friends. I guess these ideas are old fashioned now, but my family still believes in them. That's what I meant when I said I didn't do it just for you. Also I consider you a friend and I couldn't let Chuck dump on you like that."

"I feel we are friends also and still believe I owe you one. Let me take you for pizza and beer tomorrow night as a thank you."

"I would like that."

"It's a date. Can you pick me up at 7:00?"

The next night at 7:00, I picked Karen up at her dorm in my old truck and we went to a little pizza place close to campus. Every college has at least a couple of pizza joints close to school, but this one was more a family type place instead of a college hang out. The food was good, the beer cold, and the company was excellent. I began to wonder if I wanted to be more than friends with Karen.

We had a really good pizza, some beers and great conversation. I don't remember anything of importance that was said but we got to know each other much better. The owner told us we had to go at 11:00, they were closing. We had spent the better part of three hours talking and laughing.

I drove Karen back to her dorm and walked her to her door. I thanked her for the pizza and the company. She gave me a kiss goodnight, just a little friendly peck. At least that's how it started. Time seemed to stop. I know it's an old mushy line, but it's the truth. I don't know how long that kiss was, but it didn't stay a friendly little peck for long. It developed a life of its own, turning into a tongue down your throat and check your tonsils type of kiss. By the time the kiss ended we were both breathing like we had ran a marathon.

Karen looked into my eyes and said, "Oh my god. I need to go. Good night."

With that she rushed into the dorm and I was left adjusting myself so I could walk back to my truck. What the hell just happened? As I walked back to my truck I answered my own question. I had stopped thinking of Karen as just a study buddy and began to realize what a wonderful woman she really was. In other words, I had fallen in love. Oh shit, what do I do now? Should I call her, should I wait for her to call me, what? Sounds like some love sick high school kid.

The next day was Saturday and I had no classes; I wouldn't have to see Karen until our class together on Tuesday and in the study group later on. All day, off and on, I thought about last night and Karen. Finally I decided on a plan of action. I would be friendly and act normal, but I would say nothing about the kiss. Let her bring up the subject if she wanted to. If not, I would act like it never happened. Other than that kiss, she had never indicated any romantic thoughts about me. My plan would keep either of us from being embarrassed.

There is an old saying, "Men plan and the gods laugh." They laughed like hyenas at my plan. Saturday night, I went to my little campus bar for a couple of beers. I was by myself and didn't expect to join anyone. Chuck and his pals were history and I had no one else to drink with. Didn't really need anybody else, I knew how to drink all on my own. I walked into the bar, got a beer and headed for the back and the game room. There right in front of me was Karen and a couple of other girls sitting at a table.

We saw each other at the same time, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Karen sat for just a few seconds, jumped up, ran to me and threw her arms around my neck. I was stunned; so much for all my planning. It is difficult to hold on to an armful of woman with a big draft beer in your hand, so I set the beer down and hugged her back. "Men plan and the gods laugh"; remember that.

That was the beginning of our romance. We were officially an item, a couple, dating, whatever. We weren't sexual for about a month; three and a half weeks to be exact. The first time we were intimate may have been the most perfect I had ever had. After that, sleeping with anyone else would have been a waste of time. Our times together were comfortable, exciting, hot, passionate, and almost life changing; and that was every time and I do mean every time. We couldn't spend enough time together, not just for sex, but for being with and talking to each other. I found myself liking her as well as being in love with her. I was working at a bar to help with college expenses, so our time was limited. We dated for the rest of our senior year and got engaged on graduation day.

We had decided on a fairly long engagement and planned to get married about a year and a half after graduation. This would give us time to put together a little nest egg. Karen was working at an insurance company and I had started at the warehouse. Things didn't work out quite that way.

About six weeks before our planned wedding, I went to a bachelor party for one of the guys in the old study group. I didn't consider him a close friend, but there were only going to be six or eight guys there. Not much of a turn out; so I went to the party to help him celebrate. The party was to take place at a hotel and start about 8:00. I thought a bar or strip club would have been better, but I was just a guest and not a very interested one at that. The first person I saw when I walked into the hotel room was my ex-friend Chuck. He was a close friend of the best man and it was him that had sent me the invitation to the party.

Chuck walked over to me and said, "Glad you came. Jerry (the groom) would have been sad if you didn't. I'm happy to see you too. I feel bad about what happened between us. Should have came to see you and apologized a long time ago. Guess my pride was stopping me, but anyway, I'm sorry. I hope we can be friends again."

"Okay Chuck, no big deal. We can let go of things in the past," I said. I had to say something, but I really didn't care if we were friends or not. I had the only friend I needed, Karen.

The bachelor party proceeded with the usual drinking, porn movies, bullshitting, and ragging on the groom to be. Around 10:00 Chuck answered a knock at the door and two young ladies entered the room. One look at them and the way they were dressed told you their occupation. STRIPPERS. They grabbed Jerry, put him in a chair in the middle of the room and began their act. You have all seen or heard about strippers at a bachelor party. These two didn't do anything new or outlandish.

I wasn't happy being there with strippers. Don't get me wrong, I like looking at the female form very much, and these two were worth looking at. I just didn't think Karen would appreciate me being there with these two young ladies. I had told her, that knowing Jerry, the most erotic thing would probably be some old porn movies.

The rest of the guys seemed determined to drink the county dry, but I had been nursing drinks all night. Just for the record, I had two, count them, two beers since I got there at 8:00. The one in my hand was number three and the last I intended to drink that night. About half an hour into the "show", I decided to leave, but I began to feel a little funny. I was having trouble focusing on things, trouble standing, and slurring my words. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was shit faced. I didn't have enough to be tipsy, much less drunk. Someone led me into one of the bedrooms in the suite and began to take off my clothes. I tried to stop them, but Chuck told me to relax. They were going to put me to bed so I could sleep it off before I went back home to Karen.