Chapter 3

[Friday]

[Brian]

Friday was, well, Friday. Dad told me over breakfast that he probably wouldn't be available for a while. It's not something that you ask about, either before or after; you just keep on with your life and hope he rejoins you. Lisa caught my eye in the hall between English and History and gave me a brilliant smile. Damn, this might be a complication.

I had to piss and the boy's restroom really emphasized the differences with my old school. The mirror over the sinks was polished metal and the sinks had one faucet that required you to hold down the valve to get any water out. The paper towels came in a dispenser that would only unroll a short piece of brown paper at a time. This is why I carried my own soap and hand towel.

Civics was taught by an airhead named Miz Foster; yeah, she made a real point of being a Miz. I was usually able to let Miz Foster's blather during Civics class go in one ear and out the other until she said something so outrageous I was startled into responding. She'd rhapsodized over the free speech parts of the First Amendment, then said, "Now, everyone agrees that the Second Amendment is totally outdated in today's environment. The government should decide who needs dangerous weapons."

"Bullshit."

"What was that! Mr. Henderson, did you say something?"

I sighed, cursing myself. "Miz Foster, what part of 'shall not be abridged' do you not understand? Anything you have to ask permission for is no longer a right, it's a privilege that can be taken away at a whim."

"No one needs dangerous weapons in this day and age. We have police and courts for that."

"People who believe that are commonly known as victims, Miz Foster. Call for the cops and call for a pizza and guess who'll probably show up first."

"But guns are dangerous!"

I shrugged. "A weapon's just a thing. It's not going to hurt anyone."

"People are hurt and killed all the time."

"By other people."

"With guns! Guns should be banned except for police and soldiers."

"Lots more people are killed by cars. Let's ban cars except for taxicabs. Maybe race car drivers can own them, too. Bathtubs are dangerous, too"

"That's ridiculous."

"So is banning weapons. I've lived on Army bases surrounded by ten thousand people, a brigade of soldiers and their families. Probably fifty thousand civilian weapons of all types; maybe a hundred thousand. Not one of those weapons ever hurt anyone."

"I find it hard to believe that ten thousand people could have fifty thousand guns. Why that's, that's five for each of them."

Math not our strong point, is it? My mouth ran away with me again. "Well, I have a modern Springfield copy of the old Army M1911.45automatic and a .40 caliber Colt Combat Commander, a couple of .22 target pistols. A .38 special revolver and a lever-action .30-30 from my grandfather. Twelve-gauge pump from him, too. Had a 7.65mm Luger for a while but it's not much of a gun and I never fired it much so I sold it to a girl I knew." Let's not mention the exotic stuff.

"And your father lets you? What do you do with all those guns?"

I could almost smell her circuits burning as she tried to assimilate the concept. I shrugged. "He bought some of them and taught me to shoot. We go hunting, shoot skeet sometimes. There's no pistol team here but we go to the range every so often. Dad has more weapons than I do." Oh, does he ever.

She said primly, "Well, I'm so glad that we have security here at the school to keep guns out." She pronounced "guns" with the same intonation that she'd use for "syphilitic, suppurating pustules."

The security here is a joke and the only thing it'll do is ensure that we're unarmed when a kid with a real grudge shows up. I feel so much safer. "Yes, ma'am." Dumb, Henderson, real dumb. Keep your mouth shut and your head down. I suppressed a smile as I thought of the old rhyme "This is my rifle and this is my gun..." Gun control's a good idea, just not for the kind of gun that Miz Foster's thinking about.

When I got to Health class I found out why Lisa was smiling at me in the hall. Miss Carmichael announced, "Class, for this experiment we're going to the Chemistry lab to use one of their fume hoods. Please follow me."

Before I got to the door Lisa grabbed my arm. "Miss Carmichael, I really need relief bad." She was bouncing up and down on her toes, which caused quite interesting effects on her breasts. "Why don't you go ahead with the rest of the class and Brian and me'll catch up? Pleeeease?"

Miss Carmichael raised an eyebrow and I asked, "The lab's at the end of the corridor?" She nodded. "I'll be along."

She nodded again and led the class out. Lisa had been thinking about this. She pulled a thin blanket out of her ruck, draped it over the worktable we had used Thursday, then hopped up and looked at me expectantly. She held out her arms. "Brian, please?"

Ghu, those eyes. How could I resist them? I hugged her and kissed her forehead and cheeks. "Honey, this has to be the last time. Your week in The Program's over and you need to find somebody your own age."

"You're my age. At least close enough."

I tilted her chin up and kissed her mouth. "Honey, it ain't the birthdays, it's the mileage."

"But they're all just kids. They don't know anything."

You're just a kid yourself. "So teach them. Make it an educational experience." She giggled at that. "Pick a guy that you're friends with and train him. Try it with Don. If he won't listen, then he's not for you. Train two or three so you have a little variety but don't make it a cruel game with rewards and punishments. Don't play them off against one another. Maybe it'll turn into something more with one of them but even if it doesn't at least you won't be lonely on a Saturday night."

"Okay, Monday. Right now I need you bad."

Those eyes. Feeling those arms around me. I washed my hands, then put my hand behind her head and laid her back on the quilt-covered table. I kissed down her throat and across her collarbone, then kissed her nipples. She grabbed my head and pulled it into her breast. I backed off and told her, "Honey, I need to breathe."

She giggled. "Sorry, but it feels so good."

I squeezed one nipple between my lips and the other with my fingers as I ran the other hand down her body and up her thigh. As I slid a finger into her pussy she got her heels up on the table and started thrusting her pelvis up to meet me and started to moan.

I could feel the dew of perspiration forming on her chest as I kissed my way down her body. She was incredibly wet and already starting to tremble. I started to lick her clit and she arched her back and climaxed, screaming with each contraction. As I straightened up she was making little soft humming sounds with each aftershock, then rolled over on her side and curled up a little.

I wrapped the edges of the blanket around her. "Rest for a moment, honey," I whispered as I patted her.

I closed the door behind me as I left. Miss Carmichael had the Health class gathered around one of the Chemistry fume hoods. I rinsed my face and hands in a lab sink and dried them on my towel, then picked up a pair of goggles and a lab apron. She had just finished demonstrating the technique of wafting an odor toward her nose instead of taking a sniff right from the bottle when I arrived.

She raised an eyebrow at me and I replied with a small smile and a nod.

"Ah, our test subject is here. Janet is going to record what things we need to avoid."

We tested several perfumes before hitting a bad one. I flinched and turned away.

Miss Carmichael said, "That's evidently one you're allergic to. What does it smelll like?"

"It's like a sharp pain in my sinuses and my eyes sting. Has anyone ever smelled an ammonia capsule?"

Several of the students nodded.

"It's almost like that. It doesn't take more than a couple of breaths before I start to sneeze. And I can't stop. That's a mild reaction; a bad one and I start to wheeze. If it's really bad I turn blue and need an ambulance." I thought that mentioning my meds wouldn't be a good idea.

We continued to test things: good, good, good, bad, good, bad. At some point Lisa sidled into the group and we shared a wink. Good, good, bad, good...

Oh, Ghu, what was that? I shook my head and wafted more of it toward me. Before I realized it I started to weep. I was overcome with the image of warm, brown eyes and the feeling of strong, slim arms. The texture of her hair and the incredible smooth softness of her breasts...

Janet and Miss Carmichael got me to a chair at the side of the classroom. Janet handed me my towel and I don't know how long I wept into it. When I looked up Lisa and Janet were kneeling on either side of the chair and Miss Carmichael was in a chair facing mine. The rest of the kids were in an awed semicircle a couple of meters away.

Miss Carmichael asked, "Brian?"

I shook my head with embarrassment. "Sorry, sorry. It's not anything that anyone did; it's something that happened a while ago."

"Can you tell us anything about it?"

"Her name was Emanuelle but I called her Ella. We were in love. It was supposed to be safe there; they allowed dependents and everything. All I can remember is making a date to have lunch in a sidewalk café, then I woke up in the hospital and her family had already taken her body back to the States. It's called traumatic amnesia, where you lose the memories of what happened just before an accident or something."

"Oh, God; I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault. It's just, just that I never got to say goodbye or anything. First she was there, and then she was gone, she and her whole family, like they'd never been there at all. I guess I had a numb spot that I didn't know about. That was the perfume she was wearing the last time, the last time..."

I couldn't go on. Miss Carmichael leaned forward and touched my hand. "Is there anyone we can call?"

"No, it's just Dad and me, and he's unavailable right now." I answered her look of consternation, "Don't ask, but he's unavailable."

"Do you have a car here? Someone could drive you home."

Janet said, "I can do it; I can tell them it's for a website story."

Lisa said, "Hey, why not me? I can drive."

Miss Carmichael told her, "You can't leave unless you want to spend another week in The Program. I'd let you go but somebody would notice."

Before Lisa could respond I said, "Lisa, honey; no. You're lovely, you have her eyes but you're not her and it wouldn't be fair to either of us."

"But..."

"No. I'm sorry."

Lisa subsided and Janet took my arm. "Come on, Brian; let's get you home."

[Janet]

I got Brian out to his car, with Lisa tagging along with his backpack. Once we got him in his seat she leaned in and kissed him. "Thanks, Brian. Thanks for everything." He smiled weakly at her.

"Start looking for ones to train, you hear?"

She stuck a piece of notepaper in his shirt pocket. "Monday; I'll start Monday. I'm pretty sore right now but if you need anything this weekend, anything at all, just call me."

"Okay, honey."

Poor kid. She was probably fixated on him. I hoped that she didn't know where he lived or she'd show up on his doorstep.

Brian was pretty zoned out as I drove us to his place -- a townhouse with a two-car basement garage. After I pulled up to the door he roused himself. "Stay in the car while I go turn off the alarm. If I fuck up and the alarm goes off just stay in the car with your hands on the wheel." I guess my eyes got a little wide at that because he said, "The alarm company's a little jumpy these days."

"Be careful and don't fuck it up, then. I don't want to have to call my parents from a detention facility."

Once we were inside he was trying to be a good host, but I could see the little burst of energy fading. "Brian, go get in bed before you fall on your face and make me drag you there."

I hung around the living room for a while, idly looking at book titles -- a lot of everything: mysteries, history, science fiction, romance, poetry. After a bit I peeked into his bedroom and found him snugged down in his bed, so I did a little exploring. I was curious. I kinda expected a place with a couple of single guys living in it to have a kitchen that was either totally unused or totally crusted, a refrigerator full of beer and pizza and green mold, a crawling horror of a bathroom. What I found was surprising: the kitchen was clean but looked like it had been used, there was real food in the refrigerator and bathroom was about day-two-of-twice-a-week clean. Frankly, I was impressed.

I called my mom to let her know where I was and not to expect me any time soon.

"Do you have anything going with this Brian guy?"

"No, Mom. He's just a friend from school who's going through a rough spot."

"Why not? He seems pretty interesting, from what you told me about him and Lisa. He'd probably be a lot of fun. You need to get a little." Yes, I'd made the mistake of Saying Too Much.

"No, Mom. We were testing perfumes to see which ones he's allergic to. He got really freaked when he smelled the one his girlfriend wore last, before she got killed and he woke up in the hospital."

"Oh." There was a long pause. "Are you sure he's safe?"

"Yes, Mom. He just cried himself out and he's sleeping it off."

Another long pause. "Well, give us another call if you're going to be later than about noon tomorrow."

Mom's always wanting me to make more friends, get out more, get laid more. I hadn't let my virginity go past its best-used-by date, but I'd only actually gotten laid five times, twice by the same guy. There aren't that many guys that want a flabby Amazon, at least when they're not a little drunk.

I figured the best way to make sure I knew if Brian needed anything was to be there with him. I found a t-shirt in his dresser, stripped to my panties and spooned up behind him with my hand on his stomach. That was the position I liked best the one time I was able to spend the night with a guy.

I felt movement and I woke up a little from a pretty erotic dream. We'd shifted around in our sleep and I was lying on my back with Brian's head on my shoulder and one hand on a tit. My hand was around his erect dick, sticking out of his boxers. The movement I felt was him pulling away from my hand and I had grabbed it more tightly.

"Um, Janet, you need to let that go. I have to use it for something."

I let him go. The vestiges of the dream prompted me to reply, "So do I, so bring it back soon." Oh, God. Did I really say that? I he gonna be disgusted with me?

"Okay, back in just a few."

Yes, I did and no, he isn't. Wow. Maybe Mom has a point. I sat on the edge of the bed and started toward the bathroom as he came out. I caught a whiff of mint and asked, "Spare toothbrush?"

"Medicine cabinet."

"Thanks." This was just so strange, that we'd be this at ease with one another. I brushed my teeth and washed myself off. I decided to leave the panties there.

He raised the bedclothes for me to slip under, then tucked them around me. We were lying on our sides facing one another. He touched my face. "Why are you doing this, Janet? I appreciate the gesture but if this is just sympathy for this afternoon..."

I shook my head. "I'm not really sure why. It's not sympathy; I guess it's warmth and friendship, and this is the friendliest thing we can do."

"Okay, but I hope you don't have any expectations. It's been..."

I placed my fingers on his lips. "No expectations; this is for you. Getting me cranked up like you did Lisa would be a real chore; guys have told me I'm not very responsive. So we'll be warm and friendly and whatever happens will be just fine. I'm protected."

He captured the hand I had on his lips and kissed my palm. "Warm and friendly, hmm?" He kissed down the inside of my forearm to my elbow. He gave me a light kiss on the mouth. "I think this is one of the friendlier things you can do..."