23: Enforcement

The first test of our group dating was that Friday night. We all went to the football game, including Candace. We'd managed a good conversation after school and she drove me home.

"Thank you for including me in the group. I don't know any of the others well, but the guys all seem nice and this is a great idea for dating. I hope you know, though, that I won't be spending all my time with our dating group."

"I don't expect anyone to spend all his or her time with the group," I said.

"Well, I would if I was a freshman. But I'm a senior and I've got a bunch of other friends. I might even get asked on a date occasionally. Our rules, though, are pretty much what I've always done. Except ... well, the 'no penetration' thing is new, but I really haven't done much of that."

"Candace, you just gave me a hard-on with one sentence."

"Oh, poor boy. Does thinking of me naked with my legs spread and a hard dick pumping into my tight little pussy give you an erection?"

"Well, that sure as hell didn't make it better." We laughed, but the truth was evident in my lap. I readjusted my seatbelt.

"There'll be the shows, too," Candace said. "Theater people are ... a little more open about showing affection when they are working on a show together. I promise, though, that I'll abide by the rules, even though I might not be with the rest of you."

"I think that's all we're asking," I said. "And if you find someone you like and want to ... take to another level, you can resign from the dating group and still be our friend."

"Well, I don't know about that," she said, pulling into my driveway. "I do want to know one little thing, though."

"What's that?"

"Can I kiss you now?"

The struggle over the armrest was difficult, but we got our mouths together. Oh, hell yes.

"Um ... would you like to come in and stay for dinner?" I asked. "Mom and Dad will be home in about an hour and I'm making spaghetti."

"They wouldn't mind?"

"You've met my mom. My dad is pretty easy-going, too, and I expect to invite every one of my dates over for dinner at least once. Even the guys."

"Can I help cook?"

We had a lot of fun cooking, interspersed with some great kissing. We didn't go any further than kisses, but some of them left both of us breathless. After we cleaned up dinner dishes and Candace had entertained my parents with funny stories, we headed for the game.

Things were a little awkward at first. We were all out together and there was a little jostling for position when we got to the bleachers. Candace actually brought me to the game, so she claimed my left side. Whitney claimed the right as "fairy queen." It wasn't all boy-girl, boy-girl. Carl and Doug were sandwiched between Brenda and Rachel, but I noticed that at halftime, the girls switched places. This would be interesting. Lionel was spending a lot of time courting Denise, but Liz was right with them the entire evening. Rhonda, Sugar, and Samantha were having a great time and basically ignoring the sexual tensions in the row in front of them. Rose sat with them behind me and somehow I ended the evening leaning against her legs with her hands on my shoulders. Candace and Whitney each kept one of my hands busy with theirs.

Things were actually easier at the dance afterward. Mostly we all just danced together in a group when the fast music was playing. Partners changed for every slow song and if they had no male partner and the girls wanted to dance, they danced together and occasionally accepted dances from other guys who asked them. Each dance was prefaced by an abbreviated version of the rules, though. I wasn't really expecting that.

Our poor quarterback, the handsome Chad, had a rough night of it on the field. He suddenly found out what it was like to be holding the ball without last year's senior front five there to protect him. He came up to our table with Renee, one of the varsity cheerleaders that I knew from last year.

"I'm not trying to pull anything, folks," Chad said when they got to us. "I just thought that if I brought Renee over as a trade, maybe I'd be able to have a dance with one of our JV cheerleaders." He was looking at Brenda, but Rose stood up and went to them.

"We'll be happy to dance, but you both have to abide by the rules."

"What rules?" Renee asked. She definitely was eying me.

"Number one, you don't make any moves or passes without getting explicit permission from your partner."

"Explicit? You mean if I want to put my arm around you to dance I have to ask?"

"Yep. And your hand better not move to my ass unless I've told you it's okay. If I say no, that's final."

"Sheesh!"

"What else?" Renee asked. She looked at me. "You have permission to hold my hand, put your arm around me while we dance, and if I kiss you to let your hand slide to my ass. Does that cover everything?"

"As long as you get my permission, too. Rule two is that you treat everyone here in our group with equal fairness and respect."

"And that you don't get jealous of anyone if they do something with someone else and not with you."

"You guys have a lot of rules. Can't we just dance?" Chad said.

"Yeah. We can do that."

I did dance with Renee. She had a little respect for me anyway since I made her fiery hoop trick work last fall. She wanted to know if I'd set it up for homecoming again this year and I agreed. We held hands and I had my arm around her while we danced a slow number that kept us pressed tightly together, but we didn't kiss or fondle anyone's ass. When I led her back to the table, Chad had switched to Brenda and Candace was explaining the rules to another guy who had approached the table.

"But Candace, we've done a lot more than that already." I didn't like him.

"Doesn't make a difference, Joe. These are my boyfriends and girlfriends. It's the way we roll."

"Have fun," he snorted and turned to leave.

"You guys are serious about this, aren't you?" Renee asked.

"Deadly," I said.

"I like it. Hey, Stretch," she said to Lionel. "Want to dance?" Lionel looked up at her a little puzzled.

"Hi, Renee. Uh ... I'm kinda paying special attention to Denise and Liz tonight. Maybe we can dance at the next one." Renee plopped down next to me.

"Wow." She looked at me just as we heard a scuffle behind us and saw Chad reach for Brenda as she stormed off the dance floor. He grabbed her arm and when he spun her around she slapped him hard in the face. I was on my feet, but Lionel was a step ahead of me.

"You bitch!"

"You agreed to the rules, Chad. Feeling me up was not part of what I agreed to."

"You're just a prick tease."

"And you're a loser," Lionel said as he stepped between Chad and Brenda. "As was evidenced by the game tonight. Now that you know you're a loser, get lost."

"You only think you and your big brother can protect this little clique," Chad said. "You want to play ball on the team you better hope you stay healthy."

"Are you making a threat against my buddy?" I growled next to Chad. Carl and Doug had just stepped up behind Chad from where they'd been dancing. I looked for the rest of the football team, but when I spotted them they were all sitting and Lamar and three others were standing at their table.

"Yeah. What are you going to do about it, prick?"

"Oh, nothing," I said smiling at him. "I don't think I'll have to. The way your front line leaks defenders, I don't figure you'll last another game. You might not even make it to the next one if they're like that in practice." Chad spun on his heel and came face to face with Carl. Carl was pissed. I grabbed his hand as he raised his fist. "Let it go, Carl," I said softly. "Chad doesn't really know who's on his team and who isn't."

"Renee!" Chad barked. "Let's go. I'm leaving."

"You go ahead and go, Chad. I'm not done dancing with these guys," she called. She'd never moved from our table and Brenda was in her arms. "Go home and use your Pocket Pussy tonight." Chad turned to go get her, but Jackson, Derek, and an upperclassman I knew as Paul from chemistry last year had joined the other four of us to block the way. Chad didn't even bother to go back to his table. He headed for the gym doors and left.

The other guys returned to their dates and the dance went on uninterrupted. Lionel and I returned to the table. Brenda was there, still holding onto Renee, but I discovered it was Renee who was crying.

"I'm so sorry, you guys," she sputtered. "He's such an asshole. I hate him."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault," I said.

"Yes, it was. I agreed to come to your table as a piece offering. As in piece of ass. I thought I loved him. I'd do anything for him."

"You can't let him walk all over you," Brenda said.

"I always have. He took my cherry in seventh grade. I thought it was forever. He was the football quarterback and I was the cheerleader girlfriend. He said I'd always be his first and favorite. Then he popped two more cheerleader cherries the next night. I kept saying that I was always his first and favorite. We dated and were public about being a couple. But the only time he ever wanted me was when he struck out with someone else. Which wasn't often. Then it was call good-old-spread-em-anytime Renee. 'Hey Renee, go screw the freshman geek so I can pop the cheerleaders' cherries.' I'm such a slut. I'm sorry." She finally ran down and Brenda kept holding her while she sobbed.

"That bastard. I can't believe he'd order his girlfriend to screw someone else," I said.

"It's not the first time. And he's had it out for you ever since that incident with Kirby last spring."

"He was a friend of Kirby?" I found that hard to believe.

"Oh, hell no. Kirby was the lowest kind of pond scum. But he was Chad's drug connection. I don't think he's had a good smoke since Kirby went to jail. Maybe he's got a new connection, though. He said he was going to get you two so high tonight you wouldn't even know you'd been fucked. Of course, you probably wouldn't know anyway. He's such a pencil dick." That did it. We looked at each other and everyone at the table busted out laughing. Fortunately Rose wasn't drinking anything at the moment. She covered her nose anyway. Brenda stood up and walked around to where Lionel was cuddled with Denise and Liz.

"Lionel. And I guess tonight I need to ask Denise and Liz, too. Anyway. May I have permission to kiss my hero of the night?" Lionel didn't move, but Denise and Liz grinned and nodded. They moved back.

"Brenda, I really—I mean, really—would like to kiss your pretty lips, but don't you ever feel like you owe me something for what happened out there. My brother made it really clear to me that part of being on the team was that if my buddies need me, I get my ass out of the chair and help. And nobody," he growled fiercely, "messes up my girlfriend. Any of them."

"It's not because I owe you, Lionel," Brenda responded. "It's because I'm your girlfriend and you really got me turned on out there!" Carl, Samantha, Doug, and Rhonda all returned from the dance floor just then. I held my breath a little. Lionel held out his arms and Brenda was in his lap and on his lips in a flash. I could see the sense in staying seated. That foot-and-a-half difference in height must make it hard to kiss standing up. I'd have to keep that in mind when I kissed Whitney. Shit! Why'd I think of that? The kiss kept going and going. I glanced at Carl and saw his fist rising in the air. Then I saw his grin as he looked at each of us and we raised our fists. Then with a pull downward we all yelled.

"Choo! Choo!"

Brenda about fell off Lionel's lap and the whole table busted up laughing. Renee looked at us like we were crazy, then Carl turned to her and asked her to dance. At ten, Rhonda's sister Donna came to the table.

"Ready to go, Sis?"

"Yeah. I'm about asleep."

"Do you have to go?" Samantha asked.

"I have to get up at four to deliver papers in the morning," Rhonda said. "I've won carrier of the month twice already! I'm going to this cool dude ranch in October." She turned to me. "Want to ride collections with me tomorrow so I don't fall asleep?"