109: Now and Forever

It was more of the same and all different. Our team went to semi-state last year and fell to the Concord powerhouse. Of course, most of Concord's varsity had graduated and they were eliminated in their Sectional this year. Give them another year or two, though, and they'd be back.

Last year, I'd been new on the varsity at playoffs, a lot like Brent and Trent—the sophomore twin forwards who had been called up from JV—were this year. It was exciting, sure. But aside from being used as a tackling dummy at Regionals, I didn't have time to really feel the excitement of being on a team that was going places. Even three years ago when the team went to the State Championships—the last year that everyone played in the same class—we didn't have the record that we had this year.

By some miracle, Logansport had made it out of the Northwest Regional and we'd play them at Warsaw on Saturday. Before that, I had to get through classes both at St. Joe Valley and at IUSB. I'd managed to stay awake through the entirety of James Joyce's Ulysses that we had to read for Ms. Hammer's English Lit. I had to admit, that last sentence of 4,000-some words with no punctuation or capitals was a real challenge. But then Nicki got hold of me and read the whole section aloud, adjusting that slight English accent that she'd showed me years ago to an Irish brogue. She was really good at accents. There was a certain lilt and rhythm to her voice that just really brought it to life. 'Yes' will mean something ... more to me now, I think. Especially since Nicki insisted that I suck on her nipples while she was reading.

Then I sucked elsewhere and she kept yelling, "Yes! Yes!"

"I hope you are choosing a good poem for the state competition this year," Ms. Streeter said when she caught me in the hall.

"I hadn't thought about entering this year," I said.

"Don't worry about it. I already submitted your entry. Just find something good. Talk to your muse." She was off and gone before I could protest. I didn't think much about it. I had basketball to think about first.

"Look at this, gentlemen," Coach said as he sat us all in a classroom. This was strange. We were dressed for practice Wednesday, but he had us go to his government classroom. He had a projector set up and turned off the lights. He started showing a film.

It didn't take long for us to figure it out. We'd never watched film of an opponent before. Here was Logansport in their Regional championship game. We all thought it was a fluke that they won their Regional. The film showed otherwise. These guys had started their season slow, but they'd come into the tournament just as they really hit their stride. We all saw ourselves when we watched the film. They were using our strategy. New players came onto the floor at every buzzer. They shifted their offense and defense smoothly. Like liquid. We were going to play ourselves on Saturday.

Friday night I got home to find Whitney waiting for me. I was beat. Coach let us out of practice early so we wouldn't be too tired on Saturday, but the whole week had been exhausting.

"My cónyuge," I said. I reached to kiss her and she wasn't there. She just slipped to the side and slapped me on the back of the head. "Whitney, honey, I'm tired. I've already worked out twice today. Do we have to work out again?" She didn't answer. She was walking toward the back yard. I guessed my evening wasn't over yet. I dropped my bag and followed her.

She gave me about half a second to prepare and then came at me with a flurry of punches and kicks that mostly glanced off as I slid past her and responded with my own attacks. We'd been working on our water techniques ever since coach introduced them to us. In a way, it was almost like dancing and sometimes it was flat-out erotic. This time it was earnest. If Whitney actually landed some of those punches, I'd be bruised and sore before the game tomorrow.

I started taking the sparring to her more aggressively. Whitney was still better than me. She was devoted to the art. For me, it was meditation and fitness. For Whitney, it was life and survival. She'd been training now for ten years and teaching me for nearly four years. I fully expected her to put me on my back pretty soon.

I wasn't expecting how it happened.

We'd been flowing past each other with punches and kicks that seldom made contact. I knew she'd pulled a few of her punches when I failed to block or evade her. She came at me with a roundhouse kick and as I slid under it, I saw an opening and punched straight out at her stomach. I bounced off and landed on my butt. Whitney stepped back and bowed to me. I got back to my feet and returned her gesture.

Then she kissed me.

"As much as I'd like to strip you and make love right here on the grass, my feet are cold," she said. Northern Indiana in mid- to late-March was pretty much cold and sloppy and my feet were freezing, too.

"Then let's go get a shower and warm each other up while you tell me what that was all about," I suggested as we walked back to the house with our arms around each other.

Of course, it wasn't possible to do that just now. Anna had dinner on the table. Rhonda, Jen, and Court all had questions about school. Samantha wanted to know if I thought it would be okay to take the horses out in the morning. Rose just wanted to sit on my lap. Mom and Dad wanted to know if we could please eat now because they were hungry. Anna had made a huge pot of beef stew with tons of root vegetables. So that was why she wanted me to make a double batch of country-style bread this morning! We broke off hunks of bread and dipped it in the rich meaty broth.

With ten of us crowded around the table eating like we hadn't seen food in a month, you can imagine it was a pretty lively gathering. There weren't enough chairs, so Rose stayed on my lap and when Anna finished putting the food on the table she perched on Dad's knee as they shared a bowl. Suddenly, there were inexplicable tears in my eyes.

This was my family. They weren't all here, but I had such a warm feeling of love surrounding me that I knew this was the way life was meant to be. We had ups and downs and little squabbles, but we loved each other.

Dad caught my eye and I could see that he'd felt the same wash of love I had. He pulled Mom and Anna closer to him and just sat back to bask in the glow.

Whitney and I finally got our shower—helped by a dozen hands—and then we were left alone for a little while to finish what our foreplay had started. I thought that was a little strange at first since none of us thought a thing about making love with the others present. I'd even been sitting at my desk studying while Jennifer, Courtney, and Sam got tangled in such a knot I was afraid we'd need a magician to untie them. But it was nice to have quiet while Whitney and I kissed and I slid into her. My first lover. Every time it was still a mystical experience.

"What lesson were you teaching me this afternoon?" I asked as we basked in the afterglow. "You knocked me on my butt without touching me."

"Water breaking on the shore," she said. "I found out that Coach Hancock and Coach Phillips of Logansport served together in the Marines."

"How did you find that out?"

"There are still some advantages a girl has when dealing with men," Whitney grinned. "Even after watching us and teaching us, Coach still thinks of me as a girl first. And when I plopped down in his office after our workout this morning, it didn't take long for him to open up to my little questions. I also asked my coach at MHS a couple questions about Coach Phillips. She was even more willing to give me the scoop on a couple fairly new coaches at the varsity level."

"So what is 'water breaking on the shore' supposed to mean?"

"Both teams have been using the flowing water style of shuffling players and avoiding contact. The advantage you have had all year is going to go away. They're good. It took longer to develop them this season because Phillips wasn't their JV coach and hadn't worked with them for years like Coach Hancock did with us," she said. "Water meets water. No advantage. But you have an advantage. You can also be rock. If you are always rock, they'll just flow around you like you do with teams like Warsaw. But if they are expecting you to play the same game, you can surprise them by not moving. You are water until the last moment, and then you become rock and let them break against you."

"Like you were. I was expecting you to slide around my punch and instead you were so solid I knocked myself back on the ground. Water breaking on the shore," I said.

"Yes," she said. "Now don't think about that anymore. A rock has risen and I have an ocean waiting for it." She rolled another condom on my reawakened cock and mounted me. I will never get tired of lying on my back looking up at Whitney's muscular torso and tiny breasts as she throws her head back in orgasm. Just stroking up and down her chest and stomach is a sensual experience without a comparison. Apparently Rose felt the same way as I saw her hands join mine. Whitney allowed herself to become lost in the sensations as Rose and I stroked her and loved her. Before we finished, the other girls were finishing in the bathroom and Nicki, Liz, and Mary had arrived.

"Whitney, I love you," I said as I came in her. There was a sigh that reverberated throughout the room.

About ten, Josh and Cassie arrived. After Whitney and I had made love, we'd moved to the floor with the other girls and this was a night that found all of us on the foam mats and no one in the bed.

Whitney had correctly predicted the shape of the game. With both teams shuffling players in at every buzzer, neither team had an advantage in the confusion. Both teams were stealing the ball effectively. But our offense wasn't getting shots. Neither was theirs. The first quarter ended in a single digit tie. I don't think I'd ever heard of that in tournament play. At this level, we were supposed to be the best.

It broke in the second period. They broke. On the rock.

They'd become so used to us flowing around them as they flowed around us that when the guy guarding me met me coming down the court to try to steal the ball, he slammed right into me. I got a foul shot. Every couple of minutes, I'd shift from water to rock and someone would foul me. I started calling plays as we went down court that we hadn't used in a while, giving a solid pick to Josh as he came around me to sink a three.

I kept expecting to hear my name as I was replaced at a buzzer, but Coach left me at the point. Fourteen other guys were shifting in and out around me, but I was a rock. The Logansport team started avoiding me and that left me open to take a couple top-of-the-key shots that gave us a solid lead at the half.

"Don't get over-confident out there," Coach said in the locker room. "Our play has adapted, thanks to Frost. I see what you are doing out there, and it's working. But they are capable of adapting, too. We're going to keep doing what we're doing until it doesn't work anymore. Just watch for rocks in the stream, guys. Now let's go win this championship!"

"Trojans!"

They did adapt. But they did it poorly and too late. Their team just didn't have the experience of playing any other style and their defense fell apart. We were sinking shots from all over the court. We were up by twenty as we went into the last five minutes and Coach finally pulled me. The rest of the team brought it home.

When there were no class divisions, semi-state was where the sweet sixteen became the final four. With the new class structure, each game was the deciding factor in who would play for the championship the next week. There would be four games at Market Square Arena next weekend, but each one would determine the State Champion for a division. In class 3A, we were going to play Evansville Central.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

It wasn't like the students at Evansville Central High School had personally caused the pain that Rhonda still carried. The 'boyfriend' who abused her had dropped out of the school soon after he and Rhonda first started dating. I'm sure the rest of the kids there were very nice or something. But why didn't anyone see the new girl and reach out to her? Why did they leave her to be abused when she was alone and isolated?

I was carrying a grudge all week and was ready to start taking players out as soon as we got to Indianapolis. I guess I'd been a little vocal about it with my family and girlfriends. I'd gotten a few rolled eyes. Still, it was a surprise when nobody came to my room Friday night. I was afraid I'd offended my girlfriends and started to go back downstairs when I met Rhonda coming up.

"You need rest before you go to Indy and do battle tomorrow," she said simply, pushing me back toward the bed. "It was determined that I was the one most likely to let you rest." She went to the far side of the bed and dropped her robe. "Is this okay, Brian?"

Okay? Yeah. She might think she was the one most likely to let me rest, but I was pretty sure I'd lie awake all night just to hold her. I just nodded my head and crawled into bed next to her. She cuddled up next to me with her hand on my chest and her mouth next to my ear.

"Do you remember in seventh grade when you were rushing down the hall and knocked my books out of my hand? You said, 'Sorry. I didn't see you.' You picked up my books and handed them to me and then rushed on down the hall."

"Um ... Huh? We didn't meet until eighth grade."

"No. You just didn't notice until eighth grade. That really happened in seventh grade. I was really happy because you'd actually spoken to me and gave me back my books. It was the third week of school and you were the first person at St. Joe Valley to speak to me."

"Oh, no. Oh, no. Rhonda, I'm so sorry. How could I be so stupid? That must have been terrible for you."

"Seventh grade was pretty bad. But then I discovered that if I wanted to have friends I needed to do something and Donna told me the first week of school the next year to ask you, so I did. You became my boyfriend that night."

"I've never regretted that, precious."

"Me, either. But when I moved to Evansville, I didn't want any friends. There might have been some kids that would have accepted me if I'd given them a chance. I didn't."

"You're telling me it wasn't their fault."

"I'm telling you to focus on playing the game tomorrow and don't think every player is Tommy Westerling," she whispered. "Brian, I know what you think about me not needing to be punished, but I was overwhelmed with guilt. I ... chose the life I had in Evansville. Nobody forced it on me. Oh, my parents forced me to go there, but they didn't force me to isolate myself and take up with a boy I already knew by reputation wasn't nice or smart. It wasn't the basketball team that beat me up, Brian. You already took care of that bastard. Just play ball tomorrow."

I shifted and rolled toward Rhonda slightly so I could hold her in my arms. Holding any naked teenaged girl in my arms had predictable results, but with Rhonda's soft breasts pressed against my chest and her lips near mine, it was almost more than I could take.

"I don't think I'm ready to ... do it, yet," she whispered. "I will be one day, I promise. But can I just ... um ... touch you with my hand? I really do want you to get a good night's sleep tonight."

"Rhonda, you are my loving girlfriend. I know we haven't made any statements like that to anyone or to each other. We haven't declared openly that we are compañera but I love you and I still don't want to just use you for my own gratification. I can make it through the night."

"But that's just it, Brian. I want to do it for me, too. I want to feel you and know that even though we didn't make love, I brought you pleasure. It's really for my gratification. See?"

How do you answer that? I wanted to make her happy but for me that meant pleasuring her. Did she seriously just want me to lie there and let her jack me off?

"Um ... you could kiss me while I do this," she said softly—almost shyly. "And touch me a little, too."

That was the encouragement I needed. As her hand wrapped around my cock, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. As we kissed and she manipulated me, I explored her body with my hands. She made little purring sounds, humming into my mouth as her tongue touched mine. I held her breasts and touched her little nipples. Eventually, I strayed to her pussy. She stiffened a little, but let me part the sparse hair and touch her. She was a little moist, but I could tell she was nowhere near as turned on as I was. I decided to just pet her fur and not to try to manipulate her button. As soon as my finger moved to her outer lips she relaxed and before long, I came in her hand.

We didn't get up to clean up. She wiped most of my spend up with a tissue and just rubbed the rest into her skin. We held each other as we drifted off to sleep.

My eyes came open at four-thirty and I was inordinately pleased that Rhonda's opened a few seconds after mine. She smiled and shifted, grimacing slightly.