Changes to Come

This is my final story on Literotica. All characters participating in sex are at least eighteen years old.

***

Tears streamed from Rachel Fisher's normally twinkling blue eyes and rolled down her flawless skin as she viewed the troubling text message on her cell phone. Her mind blazed angrily, as she dashed through the halls of Hayward High School, sending her long brown hair dancing.

One of the few remaining students approached her as she searched the nearly-empty school.

"Rachel, I hope Keith's ready for tonight. He better come out as the best in North Carolina. I bet everything I own on this championship game," David said, joking. Then he noticed her worried eyes. "What's wrong? You okay?" he asked in his, solemn, reassuring tone.

His gray eyes looked into her blue pupils, while he tried to embrace her with his five-foot-eleven frame. An attempt she rejected.

"Not right now, David!"

"Can I help? What's wrong?"

"I said leave me alone. I'm okay. Just not now. I mean it," Rachel said, storming past David, who'd been her friend since preschool.

He stood thinking for a moment, and then followed her seconds later. Her shapely body disappeared from view as she walked under a giant banner that read, "Senior Class Prom is May 18, 2000. Buy your tickets today. LAST CHANCE!"

Making a sharp turn past the banner, Rachel entered a restricted room. By the time David turned the corner, she was gone. He brushed his fingers through his brown hair and then rubbed his chin, wondering which door she'd entered. He called her cell, but there was no answer, so he left for his part-time job.

Rachel thundered into the senior boys' changing room, ignoring all but one of the members of the basketball team in all manner of undress. She stopped, staring into the unsympathetic dark eyes of her boyfriend. At six foot four, he stood nearly a foot taller than her five foot five. He ran the towel over his drenched golden hair and solid abs, his hefty package making an inspiring outline in his boxer briefs. All around, his teammates began covering up, dressing, and leaving.

"Keith, is this a joke?" Rachel said, holding up her phone and showing him his text.

"This is the guys' changing room, Rachel. I have a championship trophy to win," Keith said dismissively as the last of his teammates left the room.

"You're breaking up with me because I won't have sex with you?"

"I didn't start dating you senior year so I could go back to being a virgin. Your mouth won't cut it anymore and prom is supposed to be a sure thing."

"So, you're breaking up with me a week before prom?"

Keith began throwing on his shorts and jersey saying, "Don't blame me. You're the one that's being a prude! You're eighteen and still a virgin. I've invested too much in you as it is. I'm going with Stacey Miller," Keith said, turning and heading for the door.

"′Invested′! You've never been to any of my plays! I've been to every single one of your games." Breathing erratically and gesturing with her hands, Rachel continued. "From day one, all you've cared about is one thing. If you showed even the slightest interest in me as a person—"

"You think just because you're hot you're something special."

"I'm not having sex with a child. If you acted like you were eighteen, and not a kindergartner, the lies you tell your friends would've become reality long ago."

Ignoring her, Keith continued putting his uniform on. Turning, he finally spoke.

"Goodbye, Rachel. I hope you find a date. I gave you a week. If you change your mind about being a prude, let me know."

"You and your cheerleader can go to hell!" Rachel screamed. Keith just smiled and left.

Rachel found a bench and sat for a minute to compose herself. After deleting Keith's number from her cell, she found David's urgent messages. While reading them, her best friend Chloe called.

"Hey Rach! Come and sleep over at my house after the game. I can help you with your lines for the "Wizard of Oz play," and in the morning, we can go shopping for my prom dress."

"He dumped me," Rachel said, with trickles of distress falling from her bowed head.

"Rachel, are you crying—NO! Keith wouldn't do that. Prom's a week from Saturday."

"The asshole texted me in the middle of final period saying it's over because I won't put out for prom."

"What a fucking asshole! I so wish I could hug you right now," Chloe said comfortingly. "Wait—what? You never told him you planned on losing your virginity to him on prom night?"

"I kept telling him I wouldn't. I was going to surprise him," Rachel said, her tears once more finding their vigor. "I'm even on the pill... You know what, I'm glad this happened."

"He clearly wasn't worth it. What an asshole."

"I can't believe I thought I loved him. I'm an idiot, Chloe. I'm so stupid, how couldn't I see this coming, how?"

"Are you kidding? You're talented, smart, and sexy! Forget that asshole! You'll find another date an infinity times better. You, Ryan, Mitchell, Andrea, and I will have a great time at the prom," Chloe offered.

"I think I'll just hang out at home on prom night," Rachel said, fighting down more sobs.

"Alone?" Chloe paused. "But you've been planning that night for months. Besides, only loners skip out on prom."

Rachel laughed. "That isn't true. David's not going to prom, and he's not a loner. He played varsity football his freshman and sophomore years. He's also more social than... Keith."

"We both know David's different. He saved his own money to volunteer in Africa for the last two summers. No one else does stuff like that. He's working at the radio station on prom night, so it's not like he'll be alone," Chloe added.

Sighing, Rachel said, "You don't need to tell me he's unique. I know. God, I was mean to him earlier. I should apologize, and he's left me a bunch of messages asking if I'm okay," she said. She ended the conversation with Chloe, sighed, rose and exited what now felt like a prison cell.

The school's halls were still mostly empty, which would change in two hours when fans of the Southside Giants arrived to roar against Hayward High's Eagles, in the end of year championship game.

Rachel grabbed her bag and threw it onto the front seat of her silver Acura TL. After driving past the wooded lots between Hayward High and the downtown core of Hayward Township, she parked outside the red-stone WAZG FM building and went inside.

She walked past reception and towards the broadcast studio where she sat watching David through the large glass window as he picked out songs. He soon saw her and headed her way.

He moved to an open seat beside Rachel. "I'm sorry about what happened, Rach. He's an idiot. I'll go on air right now and tell the entire county that Keith Harper has herpes, a tiny penis, or both. You tell me, and I'll say it." David spoke in his deep, soothing tone, calling Rachel by the nickname he'd first given her fifteen years ago.

"Chloe told you?"

"Right after you told her," David admitted.

"She's got a big mouth."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to apologize. I treated you like crap earlier."

"Forget that. How are you? I can get someone to cover for me so we can hang for a while."

"I don't need a shoulder to cry on. Go back to work, Mr. DJ. I'll talk to you later."

"You sure, Rach?"

"Yes," she said, standing up.

After rising Rachel turned towards David. He knew what was coming and extended his arms as she fell into them.

Ignoring her insistence that he stay at the station, David left early that night and spent the rest of the evening in Rachel's living room watching the black and white classics they both loved. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher had left for the basketball game wondering about Rachel not being at the game, but said nothing, and she refrained from telling them since both of her parents, especially Mr. Fisher, liked Keith.

David bolstered Rachel's confidence as she rested her head on his shoulder while they watched "Citizen Kane." Midway through the movie, Rachel's doorbell rang. Chloe, with her short strawberry-blonde hair, wet from the drizzling rain, stood waiting outside the Fisher house.

All three friends spent the rest of the night sitting together chatting, laughing, and ignoring the breakup.

Rachel's parents came home later that night with the sad news that Southside High had won the championship game. A shamefully joyous grin grew ever wider along Rachel's face.

After Chloe and David left that Friday night Rachel felt more confident. She removed the non-returnable regal gold and white prom dress that was draped across her bed and hung it in her closet. Unable to sleep, she turned to Messenger looking for Andrea, Chloe, and Michelle, her best girlfriends.

Failing to find them, she saw David was online. She trusted him as much as any of her girlfriends, so she admitted to him she was thinking of fixing things with Keith, which David assured her would be the worst thing she could do. He reassured her that she wasn't alone, typing a Charlie Brown quote to make his point.

"Are you upset, little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don't worry... I'm here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you."

Sudden goose bumps were followed by warming nostalgia. Rachel thanked David, turned Messenger off, and closed the lid on her laptop. She smiled, looking up at the Charlie Brown poster on her wall. "He always knows what to say, if only." She thought out loud while finishing off the thought in her head. Her cheeks brightened up and her eyelids soon closed, her mind still thinking about David. "If only Keith was more like David."

Rachel woke up Saturday morning tired and saddened, David's words of encouragement forgotten.

Knowing Rachel, David woke up early and went to his parents' garage. Taking down two kayaks from the overhead hangers, he packed them on the roof of his old, hard-earned Volvo and drove straight to Rachel's house.

With no warning before arriving, he rang the doorbell. Bleary-eyed Rachel in a purple robe and pajamas opened the door to a grinning David, clad in a wetsuit. "Get dressed. We're going to the lake."

"No."

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do."

"Ugh, DJ boy, don't quote Mark Twain to me."

"Then get dressed, actress girl."

"You're not going to stop, are you?"

David raised his eyebrows, smiling with an expression that said, "You know me."

Rachel sighed. "I'll change. Give me a minute," she said, turning to go up to her room.

David made himself at home and headed to the kitchen to help himself to a bowl of Cheerios.

When Rachel walked in, David tried to look her in the eye and not at her tight-fitting wetsuit. Her full C-cup breasts, firm ass, and shapely body called to him, raising thoughts that challenged his lifelong loyalty. He poured her a bowl of Fruit Loops. In a matter of minutes, they finished and were off in David's beat-up Volvo.

"I was thinking we could hang together on prom night—movies, pizza, and your favorite Blenheim ginger ale," Rachel said.

"You're not going?" David asked, surprised.

"Chloe wants me to find a date and go with her, Ryan, and everyone."

"That's a big move right after a break up, especially prom."

"See, you understand."

"I'm working Saturday, but you should come to the station. We'll listen to music all night, and definitely bring the ginger ale."

They were met by the freeing scent of the purifying pool as the Volvo came to a rolling stop beside the lake.

Getting out of the car into the bright sunlight, David and Rachel took the kayaks off the roof of the car and put them on the water and then paddled off together.

"Do you think Stacey Miller's hot?" Rachel asked David.

Pursing his lips together he shrugged. "She's not my type."

"Platinum blonde hair and D-cups, not your thing... really?"

"This is about Stacey going out with Keith, so let's not go down that road, Rach, okay."

"It's not about that asshole. I heard she asked you to the prom first, but you said no."

"You've got to love rumors."

"She's the cheerleading captain; it was bound to get out... Why didn't you tell me?"

"Yeah, Stacey asked me, but I like girls with substance and she has none. Let's end it there, Rach."

Rachel couldn't hide her approving smile as she continued to press her luck. "But you didn't tell me. We tell each other everything. I feel lied too, betrayed, back-stabbed and bamboozled. I don't even know you anymore," she joked with her acting in hyper drive.

David responded by using his double-sided paddle to splash fresh lake water at Rachel.

"You did not just do that!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Afraid to get your hair wet? Man up, Fisher!" David taunted. Laughing, he paddled off northward as Rachel pursued.

She soon caught up to him and drenched him in cold, clear water. They volleyed gallons of water at each other before kayaking for three hours. Sweating, splashing, and laughing, David accomplished what he had set out to do. Rachel was happy.

They pulled their kayaks up onto the grass and fell to the ground together, drained, but smiling.

"Thanks," she said.

"This is what friends do," David said as Rachel's wet hair brushed against his face, inducing an embarrassing hard-on that he hid well.

Back in the car and driving through the older part of Hayward Township, Rachel looked out the window just as Hayward Mansion appeared. The aged stone manor was the premier banquet hall in town. She sighed thinking of the prom that was to be held behind its giant doors and the asshole who had rejected her.

David took notice and made a quick decision to drive to a local ice-cream shop. Once seated inside, he attempted to keep Rachel's mind busy.

"How are preparations for the 'Wizard of Oz' going? You ready to perform on Thursday?"

"What? Oh—my play. It's going fine. Rehearsals have been okay...I guess," Rachel mumbled.

"Are you really going to let someone as insignificant as Keith Harper keep you down?"

"I'm not," Rachel said, trying to sound firm.

"Good. Let's go study the lines, and remind you of what you truly love."

"I wrote it. I'm more than sure I know it."

"Practice still makes perfect."

"You're a smartass, David Grace. You know that, right?"

"I've been told that, yes," he said, laughing along with Rachel as they left the ice-cream shop and walked to the Volvo.

Back at Rachel's house, David joined her family for supper and then spent the evening with Rachel in her room reading lines with her as she performed a perfect Dorothy.

Several hours later, David's eyes glanced away from Rachel's beauty and pitch-perfect delivery to a letter on her desk.

"I totally forgot you're going all the way to the University of Southern California after the summer," David lamented.

"Yeah, it's weird, but exciting. For the first time in my life, I'll be away from Hayward."

They took a break from the lines and sat on Rachel's bed. "I sure wish I was going to Los Angeles to study theatre," David said.

"Hah, I envy you. While I have to wait until September to do what I love, you'll be a CNN intern in Atlanta the whole summer, even before starting at Northwestern. Some CNN exec will notice you the first day, and Bernard Shaw will be jobless the next." Rachel cleared her throat, deepening her voice to a commanding, mimicking pitch. "Hi, I'm David Grace and here's the news."

David burst out laughing. "Seriously, is that supposed to be me?"

"Who else?"

"First off, being generic is not honest."

David attempted to make his deep voice squeaky to mock Rachel, but failed. Instead, he decided to tickle her senseless. She laughed uncontrollably, with David eventually landing atop her, his face an inch from hers.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry!" David said seconds later.

"It was an accident. It's okay, David, calm down."

David paused, thought, and then replied, "I'm a little tired. Plus you have a handle on the script."

"We did do a lot today. Thanks."

"I'll probably see you tomorrow, Rach," he lied, leaving the Fisher house.

The next day, Sunday, David locked himself in his room to study and write to distract himself from his newborn feelings for Rachel. But his emerging thoughts wouldn't leave him be. That evening he devised a decision-making process, starting with a pros and cons list. However, all too soon after starting on it, he was called down for supper.

David's parents and little sister were deep in conversation about the new pool to be built in the backyard. Philip Grace, David's dad, soon noticed his son's silence. "I can't tell if you're observing us or if you're just somewhere else."

"I'm just listening," David lied.

"Huh!" Philip Grace admonished, giving David a sidelong glance that did nothing to disguise his now keen focus on his son.

"In a few weeks, I'm leaving for Atlanta, and then Northwestern a couple months later. It's a big change," David said, giving his dad a plausible excuse for his absent-minded mood.

"Do you have to brag?" asked Victoria, David's sixteen-year-old sister.

"You'll be fine. God, after all the documentaries you forced us into, you'd better be the next Walter Cronkite!" Philip said, joking affectionately.

"We had fun helping you, and we'll always be just a call away. But you've always been independent. I'm sure you won't need us," Diane said.

"And, I'll come visit you in Illinois and check out Northwestern," Victoria added.

David laughed, looking for an excuse to escape the table. "Hah, no, you're not."

A half an hour later while David studied in his room, Ryan, David's friend and Chloe's boyfriend, knocked at David's bedroom door. "Dude, stop jacking off," Ryan said just before entering.

"My parents let you in?"

"No, Victoria did. Are we hitting the PlayStation or what?"

Sitting at his desk, David replied. "Yeah, I just need to put this final thought on paper."

Minutes later, restlessness had Ryan rummaging around David's room, and he eventually discovered the pros and cons list.

"Pros to asking Rach to Prom," Ryan read aloud, followed by David's standing up.

"Cons: it might ruin our friendship," Ryan continued.

"Ryan, what the hell? Why are you going through my stuff?"

"Who the fuck is Rach?" Ryan asked.

David pulled the paper away and closed his bedroom door, looking straight at Ryan in silence.

Ryan's eyes suddenly widened. "Rachel Fisher? The girl that's like a sister to you?"

"Ryan, you'd better not tell Chloe!" David said, clenching his fist.

"Calm down, I won't tell anyone."

"That's a lie! Both you and Chloe couldn't keep a secret to save the world."

"Are you going to tell Rachel?"

"No. Listen, it was purely theoretical."

"What?"

"I was just thinking on paper."

Minutes of back and forth continued and Ryan almost convinced David to do it. "You'll always wonder if you don't."

"I'm happy having her as a friend."

"Then why write it?"

Denied his PlayStation time, Ryan left expeditiously. Before going to bed, David kept replaying Ryan's words in his mind: "Then why write it?"

Monday morning arrived and David drove to school with Victoria as usual. He enjoyed her endless nagging for once as it stopped him from having to deal with the Rachel issue. It was only at the end of the school day that he'd had a chance to talk to Rachel when he ran into her in the emptying halls.

"I expected you to come over yesterday," she admitted.

"The parents kept me busy..." David said leaving his lips open as if to say more.

"What is it?"

He inhaled, clearing his throat. "Would you be open to going to prom if someone asked?"

"God, eight different guys I don't even know asked me this morning, three from Keith's team."