A Ruined Life Ch. 01

Bored, I moved over to the school piano and flipped back the cover. An old Weber upright, it could do with a tuning, but then they always could. Sitting down, I started to play, mostly to amuse myself and pass the time. I had been working on the Pirates of the Caribbean theme for the last month and, with the empty room to give me back the sounds, I finally began to get it right. Yep, I got it.

Just in time for the whole Drama class, plus the teacher to show up. Of course, I didn't know that. I was just playing away my eyes half-closed, my fingers flying over the keys. I also didn't know they opened the auditorium doors and let the piano music fill the hallway and that attracted everyone walking past. Including the principle, of course.

When I hit the last heavy, clashing note the applause was thunderous and scared the living crap out of me.

And that would be the story of how I ended up playing the piano in every school play, as well as trying to act a role and dance my toes off once Sandy put her two cents worth in.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

My senior year would also be the year that my two hulking brothers would be on the SEC Championship team. All my past football trophies had long been relegated to a box in the garage. When they won ... it was as if part of me lost. I mean don't get me wrong, I was happy as hell for them, but at the same time ... I felt lower than I had in a long time.

Dad had the brilliant idea that my eighteenth birthday would be the perfect day to call in all the family to celebrate his two winning sons who heading towards the BCS National Championship.

Ever been to a party you wanted to leave from the moment you walked in the door, but you don't want to be rude to the host. Now imagine you're the host and you'll see where I was.

"Denis?"

Turning from my bedroom window, I looked over my shoulder and saw Sandy. I gave her a smile I wasn't feeling.

"Are you Okay?" she asked softly and I nodded that I was. Then I saw her smile and shake her head. "You can't lie to me Denis, you know that. We took drama together. I know how to read faces."

Sandy walked over to beside me and looked out the window into our backyard. My dad, my uncles, my brothers, my cousins. All playing football in the backyard. Hell, I even think I've got a second cousin down there as well. There were probably a half-dozen Championship rings in my backyard.

"Lord, all your family ever seems to think about is football," she said with a shake of her head. "I guess I'm one to talk, though. All my family ever does is dance."

"Well, all your family looks good in tights." At her look, I chuckled. "That's what I was doing when you came in. Trying to imagine them in tights and tutu. Can't you just see my dad doing a ballonne?"

Sandy bursts into giggles. "About as much as I can see my dad going out for a pass."

The image of her father in football pads, dancing his way across the end zone almost puts me in tears.

She looked back down into the backyard watching my family, almost like she was observing a group of alien creatures. Her hair took on a golden glow from the light coming in through the window. I could smell a scent that I knew was from her. A soft mixture of the perfume I gave her recently and the other that she always wore. A soft scent permeating her clothes. How I ended up with my hands on her hips and my face pressed into her hair, breathing in those scents, I don't know. It just happened.

How I ended up kissing her? Well, she turned around.

My hands, of course, had been on her many times over the years. Lifting her. Holding her aloft, as I turned us in slow circles across a stage or a dance floor. But never like this.

Our lips gently caress one another till ever so slowly I begin to feel the tip of her tongue brushing my lips. She was warm up against me, soft in my arms. My fingers moved from her hips up the small of her back. I could feel the lithe muscles move under my fingertips as she lifted herself closer to my lips.

Suddenly puzzled, I stopped. I realized it at that moment. I was looking a bit down at her.

"What?" she asked looking at my face.

"When did I get taller than you?" I asked.

She smiled at me. "You haven't noticed that? In the last two months or so. Why thinking of going out for football now that you're getting taller?" She tilted her head and I saw the ghost of a smile on those sweet lips. "Wanting to go out back and play with your family?"

Through the window, I heard a loud scramble and all kinds of yelling and, for a second, I kind of do wish I was out there. Then I looked into those deep green eyes that have held a thousand memories that, only now, I could see.

"I wouldn't leave your arm's to go out there and play for anything in the world," I told her looking at her beautiful face.

"That proves you're smarter than your dad and brothers ever thought of being," my mom said from behind me.

Turning, I saw her standing at the door to my bedroom. I started to let go of Sandy then stopped. If anything I pulled her in tighter.

"Did you give him the news?" she asked Sandy.

"No, ma'am, I was waiting till he got finished kissing me," she answered back, smiling.

My mom grinned. "Well if you do that he'll never hear."

Unable to believe I was seeing her do it, I watched my Mom reached in and turned the lock on my bedroom door. Just as she was about to close the door she gave me a knowing smile. "Not too loud you two, there's family too young to know better here. Now ... go back to kissing the girl."

My bedroom door closed with a click. I stood there stunned. I cannot believe what my Mom just did. I felt Sandy's fingers on my jaw and I let her turn my head be back to face her.

"News or kissing? Which you want first?" she asks me grinning.

I smiled. Okay, call it what it is. A shit eating grin.

"Kisses of course."

She gave me a short one then pulled away.

"Dad called in a talent scout he knows. We will be doing the winter show in front of a man scouting for a Broadway play this spring."

She closes my jaw with her fingers. Then kissed me again. Under that kiss, I felt her lips join mine in a smile. After a few minutes, again she slowly pulled away. Then I saw her eyes go to the locked door.

"That was kind of your mom giving us permission to do whatever we want, wasn't it?" she asked me with a nervous look.

I nodded. "That was how I took it."

She nodded then looked down at my chest and blushed. "I'm ... a virgin," she said softly. When her eyes looked back up at mine I gave her a gentle smile. "Part of me wants to ... do it ... but I'm scared."

I pulled Sandy to me, holding her tight to my chest. I felt the soft bumps of her breast against me as I leaned in beside her ear.

"So am I," I confessed. "I've never done it either."

Her face was alive with surprise.

"Really? But you're like the most eligible senior."

"What?"

"Oh god, I wasn't supposed to let you know that," she said, grimacing. "The yearbook staff was working on the layout, you were voted the most eligible."

"Me?" I asked shocked.

"Why not?" At my expression, she rolled her eyes. "You're handsome, you can dance, sing, and at least half the school thinks you're the best piano player they have ever heard. All the girls say you're more charming than anyone they know. You can hold a conversation with any of them. Hell, most of their boyfriends can't stand you. All they can talk about is cars, sports, and cars." At the still look of disbelief on my face, she sighed. "What perfume am I wearing?"

I paused a second started by the question and by her leaning in closer to me. "Ah, the Eternity I gave you and a little White Diamond," I told her after a moment of smelling the air.

"Who made White Diamond?" she asked me quickly

"Elisabeth Taylor."

"And Eternity?" She leaned into me a bit more and the hint of musk, near her neck, sent a shiver through me.

"Calvin Klein."

She looked at me and nodded. "A woman is having her hair dyed and highlighted. Her hair is pulled through?"

"A plastic cap, of course."

"And the foil is for?" she asked, a smile building.

"It creates heat." I shrugged. "Makes the dye set better."

"How does it do that?"

"It opens up the cuticle of the hair," I said.

She was grinning at me. "Denis you know more about women than some women. Let me clue you in ... we love that about a man. It means you're the type who will pay attention to us." She caressed her fingers across my chest. Her carefully clipped short nails pass between the buttons to the bare skin. "We are all creatures that crave attention. It's like air and candy for us."

Distracted by her touch, I thought about what she's telling me. When I looked up I was still skeptical.

"Oh, good lord!" She rolled her eyes, exasperated. "You took my sister to the prom when you were a junior. Do you know how many boys had asked her? Almost every senior, including your brother Mark. She turned them all down. Why? She said they were too ... immature" I smile as Sandy mimics her sister perfectly. "So who did she take? A man a year younger than herself. I heard from every girl at school the next day how you were the lord of the dance floor all night. You made the other guys look like fumble-footed idiots! Maria said you were one of the best she had ever danced with!"

"If all these boyfriends don't like me, then why haven't some of them come spoken to me? If all these girls think I'm so eligible why haven't I been asked out in the four years I've been at school?"

She smiled.

"You dropped three senior class football players in a handful of seconds, without breaking a sweat or breathing hard. The guys are scared to death of you." Her smile added to her beauty. "Same for the girls, in a way. You intimidate them. They feel you're just so perfect they couldn't ask you out."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." She grinned and leaned in and gave me a long kiss. When we parted she licked her lips like she was savoring the taste of me as we part. "I'm just lucky enough to know you, or I would be the same way."

"You?" I looked from her green eyes to those sweet lips. I was craving more kisses from her. "You're beautiful. You could have any boy in the whole school."

"No, I'm not! I'm a skinny mini with tiny tits." She quirked a self-deprecating smile then shook her chest a bit. Her breasts didn't really move. "I will also spend ninety percent of my life on a dance floor and probably always will. That goal driven dedication is not what most guys are looking for."

"Then most guys are fools."

I pulled Sandy to me and our lips meet again, like old friends. I felt her undoing the buttons of my shirt and her hands slipped around my bare ribs when she undid the last one.

Hesitantly, I slid my hand under the back of her blouse, feeling the warm heat of her skin.

There was a loud shout from outside that distracted us. I looked down into her eyes as it grew quiet.

"Denis ... I want to be your first. I want you to be mine." She cut her eyes toward the window. "But not here ... please?"

I nodded and smiled. "We don't need a cheering section, right?"

She shook her head. "No, we don't."

I held her to my naked chest.

"Where then?" I asked after several minutes.

She slowly brought her eyes up to my face. Her hand followed to caress my cheek, running across the downy stubble. "My Mom and Dad are going to New York to visit relative this Christmas. I told them I didn't want to go. I'll have the house to myself for the whole weekend."

"I would like that. We can go out for your birthday, then open Christmas presents together." I grinned. "Then I can unwrap you."

She blushed. "You're all I want for my eighteenth birthday." Her lips brushed mine.

"Well, that's too bad I already bought you something," I said, grinning, my mouth teasing her lips.

She laughed and kissed me again.

I started to button myself back up. "Come on let's go get some of my birthday cake. Before they eat it all!" I took her hand in mine.

"Or use it as a football," she said nodding.

Laughing, I unlocked the door.