Chapter 30

"Hey!" Little Steve caught up with me after my art class, just as I was getting ready to ride my bike over to the high school for shop.

"Hi," I smiled at him, stopping and leaning up against a locker as kids walked by on their way to their next classes.

"I missed you during lunch," he leaned up against the lockers too.

"Yeah, I took the morning off," I laughed. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight? Have dinner at my house or something?" He was wearing his little round wire rim glasses and he pushed them up his nose. I think he did that when he was nervous.

"Um, I got football practice 'til about six," I shrugged.

"That's okay, we eat late anyway. Uh ... My dad said he can give you a ride if you want." Steve didn't really look too sure that he wanted to say that and I had a funny feeling, like maybe it was Steve's dad who was really asking me to come over. But that seemed sorta silly, so I pushed it out of my head.

"Where do you guys live? I got my bike," I said, scooting out of the way cause some kid needed to get in his locker and I was leaning on it.

"Out by the orchard," Steve told me. "You know where that is? It's out by..."

"Duh," I laughed at him. "I was born here, dude."

"Oh, yeah, anyway..." Steve made a little face, feeling stupid maybe, although he shouldn't have.

"Yeah, sure," I nodded. "I gotta check with my dad though. Just find me after school."

"Okay, um..." The bell was ringing and he had to get going and so did I. "Where?"

"The girls locker room," I grinned. "Knock three times!" Then we were going in opposite direction.

One good thing about shop class was I could come late, not really late, but a little late and it didn't matter to Mr. Wetland a whole lot, because he knew I had to ride my bike to get there. Plus he didn't really want to be mad at me or my brothers, since we always made him look good with the class projects. He got mad at Mark anyway, but that was mostly just Mark being a jerk. My brother didn't have a lot of patience with Mr. Wetland, or with anyone else in that class really.

"Are you stupid?" Mark was talking to Waldo Kline, whose name really is Waldo. Nobody would ever deserve a nickname like that. Even high school kids weren't that cruel. "Why don't you put some rice in the radiator while you're at it? Maybe some sugar in the gas tank?"

"What's going on?" I put my bike inside, since the garage door was open. It was a pretty nice day outside.

Waldo was standing there with his head down, looking like my brothers looked when my dad was giving them a good talking too. All guilty and unhappy. I felt sorta bad for him. He was tall and skinny, with kind of a beer belly like you don't see on too many eighteen year olds. Waldo was like the proof that people grow into their names, some of them. He looked like a Waldo.

"Dopey here dropped some bolts in the carburetor," Mark looked at me. "Where you been?"

"School," I looked at Waldo. "How many?"

"Two," he mumbled. "Or maybe three or four."

"He doesn't know," Mark shook his head and that was why he was mad.

It was one thing to drop something in the carb, everyone did that once and then you learned really, really good and forever why you didn't wanna do that. Cause you had to take it apart and find whatever you dropped or your car pretty much self-destructed. But the key was knowing exactly how many somethings you dropped, because you had to find them all and not knowing was like going on a snipe hunt. You could spend the rest of your life looking for something that wasn't there, or ... Assume you found everything and find out later that you didn't. Either way, you were screwed.

"Just bolts?" I looked at Waldo. "No washers or anything? Little nuts? Just bolts?"

"Yeah, just bolts," he spread his thumb and index finger a little, "About this big."

Waldo was at least looking at me, his big brown eyes hopeful. He was a senior but he sorta acted like he was in grade school usually and he was a serious momma's boy too. In fact the car was his mom's, an old Impala station wagon, the one with the 350 in it. Not a bad motor, but damn that was an ugly car. Sort of mud yellow like you see by the river when it's low, with fake wood trim and whitewall tires. It wasn't his fault his mom had an ugly car though.

"Just bolts, dude," I slapped my brother on the shoulder. "Give him a break."

Bolts were a lot easier to find than washers, which liked to tumble all the way down to the pistons sometimes and that was a serious boo-boo. Bolts shouldn't go too far. If he was lucky.

"Yeah," Mark looked at me. "Easy for you to say, you don't have to tear it down and put it back together in..." he looked at his watch, "... 40 minutes."

"If anyone can do it, bro..." I laughed over my shoulder as I went to use the phone.

Another good thing about shop class was that it had its own telephone, so we could call the parts store, or an ambulance maybe if someone got hurt, which was always possible. Only one guy I'd ever heard of had needed an ambulance though and that had been a kid who'd started his pants on fire with a torch. It hadn't been real bad, not like third degree burns or anything, but he'd given his balls quite a scare I bet. That was why I was pretty much the only one that did any cutting, but not cause I didn't have balls! I mean, I did it cause I knew what I was doing. David and Mark did too, obviously, but they always bitched about it. I sorta liked cutting stuff.

Anyway, I got my dad on the phone after about 30 rings, which meant he was probably under that Merc and wasn't gonna be happy getting out from under it just so I could tell him I was gonna have dinner at Little Steve's house. He didn't remember Steve, but he did remember the Cuda, so it was okay with him. He wanted the inside dope on what the guy had in his garage anyway. Not like Daddy was worried about competition or anything, but there were a lot of guys with hot cars that hadn't paid for them with honest to God blood, sweat, and tears. Daddy hated poseurs.

After that I figured I'd give Mark a hand with that carburetor. Not that he needed help, he didn't, and really there wasn't much room for more than two hands anyway. I just didn't want to see him beating up on Waldo any more than he already had and besides, Thursday was sort of a kick around day for me anyway and it was either give Mark some moral support, or work on somebody's lawnmower or something and I wasn't feeling much like that.

David was working on the Olds, that 442 that him and Mark were building for next year's SEMA. It was hot as hell and it would show good, but it wouldn't win anything. But that wasn't why they were building it anyway, my brothers just really liked the car and there weren't a lot of 442's out there that looked good. It was their first real build for the two of them by themselves and they wanted to make a little statement, that's all, that a couple high school kids could create something totally kick ass. But everybody already knew that about us anyway.

"Hey, Ann," Josh surprised me just as I was coming out of Mr. Wetland's office. He wasn't in shop class and that was probably too bad because Josh could have used it, I thought.

"Hi, Josh. What's up?" I smiled at him. I liked Josh a lot, even though my brothers didn't. I thought he was a good guy.

"My truck died," he made a face. "I was gonna see if I could get somebody to look at it."

"Again?" I laughed at him. Josh's pickup truck was always dying and I spent a lot of time under the hood of that thing. "Hold on a sec."

I went to find Mr. Wetland, telling him that I was gonna go look at Josh's truck. He was cool with that. We had kids coming in all the time looking for help. Usually a jump, but sometimes more. Teachers too, since they were always leaving their headlights on, and being teachers, well, nobody told them usually. I grabbed an 8" crescent hammer and a 10" flathead on our way out since they were about the most useful tools ever invented by man. I could fix anything with those in my pocket. Almost.

"How's that water heater?" I asked Josh as we walked towards the student parking lot.

"Works great," Josh said. "Grams keeps asking when you're gonna come over for some more dinner."

"Me? Or Scott?" I laughed.

"Well," Josh grinned at me. "You know. She's old."

"Yeah, she's cool though. Gimme your keys," I told Josh, since just trying to start a motor will usually tell you where to start looking. I cranked it and there wasn't anything, not even a click, not even dummy lights.

"That's bad, right?" Josh looked like he was ready to wince.

"Nah. This is good," I smiled at Josh and popped the hood release and the older boy relaxed noticeably. He stressed way too much over that truck.

"Hey, um, I wanted to tell you..." Josh was leaning against the truck while I opened it up. "I called my cousin the other day."

"Sandy?" I looked at him. "How's she doin'?"

"She's good, real good," he nodded. "She, uh ... She asked about you. Said she's comin' up at the end of the month maybe, spend a weekend again."

"Oh yeah?" I sorta stopped what I was doing and looked at him.

"Yeah, um, anyway I told her about me. I mean what you told me and everything."

I cringed a little, thinking I never should have given Josh advice like I had. I hoped she'd let him down easy.

"What did you say to her?" I asked, checking his battery connections, not cause they were bad, they weren't, but they were handy and if one was loose ... I tapped the positive on his battery with my screwdriver and it was dead. But I knew that wasn't his real problem. Something else had killed his battery.

"Just like you said," Josh said slowly. "That I really, um, like her and I guess I told her I wished we weren't cousins because I'd, uh ... I'd like to ask her out and stuff."

"Okay," I glanced at him.

"Yeah, anyway she told me she liked me too, but um..." Josh shrugged. "She's totally lesbian, dude."

"That's what she said?" I gave him a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, well, not like that exactly, but that's what she meant," Josh took a deep breath. "But she said she liked me," he smiled, just a little. "That's good, right?" his voice was tinged with excitement.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged. "She is your cousin though, Josh. She's supposed to like you."

"Oh, yeah, I know," his excitement dropped a little.

I pulled the distributor, prying it off with my screwdriver and that was his problem. It was fried, black and dusty inside, like I knew it would be. It had shorted out somewhere and I could see a lot of exposed copper where some of the rubber was eaten away, so that was why his battery was dead too, although it was seriously weird. I checked the rest of his wires and looked at the alternator, but without removing it I wasn't gonna be able to tell much. Half his plugs were definitely fried though and I just wondered how long Josh had been driving around on like three cylinders.

"Distributor?" Josh stared it. "What's that cost?"

"Don't worry about it. I can find one in the shop," I told him. "We gotta gank your battery though. Here ... Good experience for ya."

"What? Oh ... You want me to do it?" Josh took my crescent wrench and I nodded, watching as he started undoing the bolts for his battery connections.

"Remind yourself to bring a wire brush when we come back out here, clean those cables up," I said. "You gotta take care of your truck, dude."

"Yeah, I know..." he frowned.

"Righty tighty..." I giggled, " ... Lefty loosey."

"If uh, I mean, are you gonna see her? When she comes up?" Josh asked me as he was working on getting the battery out.

"Who? Sandy?" I looked at him. "I guess, maybe. If she wants to see me again. Why?"

"Oh yeah, she does," Josh nodded. "I was wondering if I could um, I dunno..." he was looking down suddenly, his face turning red. "Never mind."

"Never mind what?" I laughed a little, leaning back against his truck. "Come on, dude, what?"

"Nothing, forget it."

"I can't forget it now," I really did laugh then and normally I woulda let it go, but he had me curious. "Tell me."

"I was wondering if you and her got together and, you know, did it..." he took a breath and looked at me. "I was wondering if I could watch."

"Huh?" I stood up, my eyes going wide as I stared at him.

"See? Never mind. It's a dumb idea," Josh was looking down again, his face all red.

"You want to watch me and Sandy having sex?" I shook my head a little and then laughed with disbelief. "Josh, even if I did, I don't think..."

"Yeah, I know. I told you, it's dumb. Sorry," he was decidedly unhappy right then and I didn't see where anything I might have said or done would have made it better.

Josh was just totally in love with his cousin. Infatuated with her, I guess, and he was willing to love her through me or something. I mean what else could it be? He knew I'd had sex with her already and I suppose he'd figured out that we'd do it again when Sandy came up from Pullman. It probably didn't seem very fair to him, being in love with her like that and then being friends with me. I figured he probably didn't like me very much, at least sometimes, and I felt bad for him.

We didn't say a whole lot going back to the shop. I carried the distributor and Josh hefted the battery. I didn't know what I was supposed to say or do. I was the one fucking the girl he loved. I think the fact that he wasn't pissed at me, at least outwardly, sort of impressed me. I'd have been pretty upset I think, if Julie had dumped me for another guy, or a guy I should say, since I was a girl sorta. But a guy too for her, I thought. But that was getting off track and anyway, you know what I mean. Josh was being mature about it, or so it seemed, and it impressed me a little and I was liking him even more than I usually did,

"Now what? You turn on the radio, Hoskins?" Mark was there and grinned when he saw us, which really pissed me off all of a sudden.

"Leave him alone, Mark," I told him, sort of getting in his face. "He ain't bothering you anyway."

"Jeeeze ... Sorry," Mark said sarcastically, but he turned around and went back to the carb he was working on.

I showed Josh where the battery charger was and told him how to use it, hoping it wasn't too hard for him. He really wasn't much use with his hands, but that was hard to screw up unless he got the cables backwards and that thought bugged me so I went ahead and watched over his shoulder anyway.

"What'cha got?" David asked me. He was sweeping up cause class was almost over.

"Bad distributor, musta shorted out," I handed it to him so he could look. "Ever see that before?"

"Nope. That's weird," David shrugged. "You check the rest of the wires?"

"Yeah, everything else looked okay," I nodded. "Josh just has weird luck." I smiled, just a little cause it was true.

"I guess," David laughed. "Like it got hit by lightning or something." He gave the distributor back to me. "There's a couple old ones in the back, in one of the boxes."

"Yeah, I seen 'em," I started towards the little parts room we had.

"Hey, is he okay?" Dave nodded towards Josh who was just sort of standing in the middle of the place, hands in his pockets and looking like a lost puppy.

"I don't know," I frowned. "He's got girl trouble."

"Girl trouble?" Dave started laughing, but when he saw I was serious he stopped and decided he'd better keep sweeping.

"Hey, uh, don't you have class or something?" Josh asked me a while later.

I was just getting a used but serviceable distributor back in his truck when the high school bell was ringing, announcing last classes for the day. The bell at my school would be ringing too, only I wasn't there to hear it.

"It's okay, I'll skip out of it. Besides, we need to give that battery some more time." It really wasn't gonna take all that long to charge the battery enough to use it, and once Josh was driving it would take a charge anyway, but that was a good excuse. We ended up just sitting in the back of his pickup, since it was nice outside and we didn't have anything better to do.

"Are you mad at me, Josh?" I finally decided to ask him, cause I was worried about it. "I mean about Sandy?"

"No," Josh looked at me with real surprise on his face. "Why would I be? It isn't your fault she's queer."

"You're not jealous or anything?" I let myself relax, just a little and Josh laughed at me.

"You didn't ask if I was jealous," he grinned. "But I guess I ain't too jealous either."

"You're so cool, Josh," I smiled and really did relax then, cause I believed him. I put my arms around his shoulders, turning my body as we sat there, just because I felt like giving him a hug.

"Really?" he didn't move hardly at all, he just looked at me.

"Yeah, really cool," I giggled at him. "Anybody else I know would be totally pissed."

"Well, I don't know..." he was smiling and blushing a little and I just, I don't know, I liked it for some reason.

There's no real explaining. He was my friend, and a real one too, although that wasn't really obvious to anyone, even ourselves maybe, but I think we both knew it. And I wasn't attracted to him like the way I was to Brian, for example, but Brian was an ass. If Josh had Brian's looks, I thought, I'd probably marry him. And right then, sitting there, I don't know why I did it, but I kissed Josh.

I wasn't supposed to and if I'd thought about it I wouldn't have ever done it. It was just impulsive, like the perfect thing to do at the perfect time to do it. I kissed him on the lips, just a little one, and I think it surprised us both. I didn't get all shocked the way Josh did though. I just sat back with a smile on my face watching as his hazel eyes got big and his mouth opened, and he stared at me like I'd just grown another head or something.

"Why'd you do that?" he finally asked.

"I don't know!" I giggled and I could feel myself excited, but not like I got with Jane or Lisa, or even like I had with Steve. This was more like, I don't know, reckless excitement. Like I knew I shouldn't be doing it but I didn't care and not caring was the thing that was turning me on the most. It was like ... There was no obligation, you know? I didn't owe him anything and most especially, Josh wasn't asking me for anything. I needed that.

I kissed him again without saying anything else, just because I wanted to. And he kissed me back too. He wasn't really good at kissing, but that was okay, it only made it better. I felt like a kid, I mean really. I didn't feel any pressure, you know? I didn't have to think or worry, or tell Josh I loved him 50 times, because I didn't. I liked him a lot and I wanted to kiss him, that's all. It was fun, not serious, not romantic. Just crazy fun like running through sprinklers in the front yard, except better because my tummy was doing the cartwheels.

Josh was feeling my breasts and I didn't stop him, even though my nipples were really tender. The piercings were still a ways from healing and he was squeezing me hard, but even that felt sorta okay. I was feeling his penis, just a big lump in his pants really, not very distinct, and we were kissing a lot. Well, I was giggling a lot and Josh was smiling because he didn't know why I was laughing, but in between we were kissing.

"Have you ever had a blowjob?" I finally asked him, catching my breath and using both hands to open his pants slowly.

"N-No..." Josh licked his lips and then looked around the parking lot, but it was deserted. Everyone was in class.

"You want one?" I wiggled my eyebrows at him playfully.

"Uhhh ... Yeah..." he swallowed hard. "Wha ... What if someone sees us though?"

"Shhh ... Keep a lookout!" I giggled again and lowered my mouth to his cock, which was big and heavy and hot, throbbing in my hands.

Josh wasn't a bad looking guy, not at all. He had soft hazel eyes, and brown hair with a little red in it, like chestnut I guess. A smooth, fair face and a nice smile. It was just his personality, his confidence or something, that made him seem less than handsome, and that was too bad. But it made him vulnerable too and right then I think I was finding it attractive for some reason I didn't understand. Maybe I was tired of confident, beautiful people, you know? That sounds dumb, but it isn't, because they all wanted something more from me it seemed.

Anyway, Josh had a nice dick too. Not really long, and not too fat, but nice and super hard. Some guys get hard and it's not really all that hard. Like maybe they jerk off too much or something, I dunno. Low blood pressure maybe. But Josh was like steel, stainless steel, except it was dark and ruddy. He was uncircumcised too, which I liked a lot. I loved the way I could pull the foreskin back and see the lightly colored head of his penis, shiny and wet with precum.

I took him in my mouth, tasting a flavor that was all Josh, all natural, and I liked that as well. Sort of musky, a little sour maybe, but only because it was afternoon and he'd been running around all day, not lounging in a bathtub or something. I enjoyed that, the way a guy smelled and tasted even if he hadn't had a shower since that morning, or maybe even the night before. I don't know.

I sucked Josh slowly, washing his cock with my tongue as I took him gradually deeper, able to get half of him in my small mouth before I'd back off again. I had my lips tight around the shaft, and my fingers squeezed and pulled at that part of his cock I didn't get in my mouth. I moved up and down, finally feeling Josh's hands in my short hair as he pushed me down a little harder, a little faster. I didn't mind, he was getting close, I knew. It was his first blowjob ever and it was a good one, I thought, really good. He wasn't gonna last very long.

My own sex was humming nice and I squeezed my thighs together, sort of rubbing them a little like I could almost get some friction on my clit, but even though I didn't it was still okay. My tummy was rockin' and rollin' and my breasts ached, like they were growing. My nipples throbbed painfully, being so tender and sensitive, and I imagined I could feel those rings stretching my flesh a little.

"Oh God ... Annie ... God..." Josh was breathing hard, staring down at me as I took my mouth away briefly, running my lips up and down the shaft as I looked up at him. His cock was sliding across my face and I was smiling, just a little as it jerked, just once, and a big drop of clear precum appeared, running down the shaft until I licked it up.

"Are you gonna cum, Josh?" I asked softly and he nodded. "Mmmm ... What did you do with Jane's panties?" I teased him, licking around the swollen head slowly.

"W-What?" he looked at me.

"Jane's panties? The ones she gave you?" I giggled and kissed the base of his cock and then his balls, licking them as I squeezed his cock in my hand.

"I, uh ... Oh shit ... I took them home..." he was giving little gasps of pleasure as I took his balls in my mouth one at a time, working them gently with my tongue before spitting them out all wet with saliva.

"And then what?" I grinned, sucking the head with my pursed lips like I was giving him a hickey.

"And I ... I ... Jerked off..." he admitted and his cock throbbed again in my hand, he was so close I couldn't even squeeze him or he'd cum I thought.

"You jerked off in her panties?" I sighed. "That's so sweet Josh."

"It ... It is?" he smiled weakly, but most of him was trying to keep from cumming. His body was tight and tense and his eyes were fixed on my hands.