Dana's Side Ch. 05

"Can I ask you why you are being so nice about this? What about 'I always want you to choose me'?" he asked.

"Jack, I really like you, and I'm really attracted to you, I think you know that," I started, putting on my sunglasses as I began to feel tears welling up, "and I think that our relationship has moved from just a sex for physics deal to a real friendship. I have had too many asshole boyfriends already and when I met you, I realized I really wanted a hot guy who was also nice to me, like you. I intend to keep looking until I find that guy. That's why I thought I made it clear that I wanted you to choose me over another girl who you just wanted to sleep with, but I expected that you would find someone that you had a special connection with. That is why I encouraged you to pursue Natalie, and told you I thought that Gina was a better choice for you. And why I continued to see other people. I figured, if one of us thought we found that special person, then we would know it, and I see that you have with Gina. I know that you are attracted to me but if you have feelings for Gina strong enough for you to actually tell me that you won't see me anymore, then I am getting out of your way, because you deserve to see if she really is that one for you. And you have shown incredible class telling me to my face. I respect and appreciate that. I'll always be there for you, if you need a friendly face to talk to, or someone to vent to."

I said it, and I kind of even meant it. But I couldn't do this anymore. I took another long sip of the coffee, stood up, kissed him on the top of his head and walked out before he could say anything. He sat there, and I was kind of hoping he was watching my ass, and thinking about how he had chosen not to see it any more. I got into my car and started driving away, but had to pull over into a parking lot because I started to cry really hard. When it passed, I drove home.

Ariel and Nigel were waiting for me. I'm sure they could tell I had been crying.

"How'd it go?" Ariel asked.

"O.K., I guess. I took the high road."

"Good," she said, and Nigel agreed.

"If you like the guy, there is no reason to burn bridges," he said.

I went upstairs and called Lisa. I needed to vent to someone else, and she proved to be a good and sympathetic listener. When I was done, I felt a little better. I went downstairs, and Ariel and Nigel were gone. I grabbed a beer and watched TV, allowing myself to get engrossed in the show.

Mom came home later that night, smiling and looking great. She said that Mr. Davis was really a great guy, and they had a lot of fun at the lake house. She said that they would probably be seeing each other more, which sounded great to me. I told her about Jack, and tried to put a positive spin on it, but started to cry again. Mom consoled me and asked if I wanted her not to see Jack's father. I told her that was crazy, that one thing was unrelated to the other, and that she should enjoy herself. I said that Jack was a good person, and that if anyone was to blame for this situation, it was me. She didn't respond, but said that she was exhausted from the weekend, and was going to sleep because the next day was a work day. She suggested that I go to bed, too, but I stayed up late, watching crappy TV shows.

Monday

Monday was a dull day. I had a long afternoon shift at Angelo's, and when I got there, Tanya asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing," I said.

"Bullshit," she said. "You got dumped by that guy. I can see it in your face."

"Not exactly," I said, "but sort of."

"What does that mean?" she asked. "Either you're doing it or you're not."

"Then I guess we're not."

"Don't let it get to you," she said. "You'll find someone else to scratch that itch."

Tanya was one randy old broad, and I laughed, and got to work.

Afterwards, my feet were killing me, but I had no one to rub them. The girls wanted to go out and try to drown my sorrows, but I just wanted to go home, which they respected. I did the cliché thing and ate ice cream while watching sad movies and crying. It felt great, and I went to bed early.

Tuesday

Graduation day was here. I got up, and checked Facebook. Dennis, a guy in our class with a big party house, was having a big party that night, and I decided to go. I saw that a bunch of my friends, including Emily had RSVP'd, so I did the same. I also wanted to show Jack that there were no hard feelings, so I texted him, "Hey, hope all is good with G. Big party tonight at Dennis' house. You guys should come. Starts at 10."

Jack texted back, "will check with G, F and E. Thanks."

I responded, "E and F coming. Hope you can, too. Looking forward to your speech tonight."

Mom was already at work, and Ariel was asleep, so I made myself some coffee and breakfast and turned on the TV. At 11ish, Mom called me and said, "I hope this isn't awkward, but Mark invited us to their house after graduation for dinner."

It was going to be awkward, but I was determined not to act petty and ruin Mom's chances with Mark, as I guess I was going to call him, and my potential future chances with Jack, so I said, "no problem at all. I bet it will be fun."

"Great," she said, I'll let him know."

Jack must have known about this, so I was sure it would be fine.

I killed the day doing nothing. When it was time, I showered, put on a nice dress, did my makeup and went to school. Mom and Ariel were going to come later. There was much hugging and kissing as we put on our caps and gowns, in the gym, as we realized that this really was the end of high school. I knew I would never forget this place, but was ready to move on. I could see Jack with the other people who had to sit on stage, talking to the principal. Gina, looking cute, was standing next to him and occasionally brushing against his arm.

When he turned around to scan the crowd, I gave him a quick wave, and he smiled and gave me a quick wave. Gina shot me a perfunctory wave, then grabbed Jack's arm in what was clearly a territorial move. Which she was entitled to. After 4 years of me being on top and she being on the bottom, she got Jack and I didn't. It didn't really change our status at school; I was surrounded by the most popular kids in school, and she was, as best I could tell, without any friends other than Jack and Fred, who was preoccupied with Emily.

Eventually, we lined up, and went into the auditorium. I could see Mom and Ariel in the audience sitting with Jack's dad, Sarah, and what I guessed was Jack's family. Jack and Gina were sitting on stage with the principal, some teachers, the school board, Fred and another kid who I didn't recognize at all. I looked at the program, and saw that his name was Jerry Landers, and he was third in the class. I literally had never seen him before.

Gina's speech was, as I expected, kind of shrill and angry. I had kind of hoped that finally having sex (which I assumed she and Jack were doing) would make her less obnoxious, but maybe it was too soon. I thought I noticed her staring at me during some of the worst parts of the speech, but I could have been imagining that. Jack's speech was awesome. He was the Jack I had come to know, funny, smart and charming, not the shy nerd that I used to think he was. At one point, he mentioned that he had become close with some of his former antagonists, and a lot of the guys started to hoot and look at me, and when he mentioned that he had missed something that was right in front of him, he looked at Gina, and there were some "aaahs" from some of the girls, and more hooting from the boys. When he was done, it was nice hearing applause for Jack from the students who had, in part because of me, ignored him for almost all of his time at North.

When the ceremony was over, and I had my diploma, we all went into the school lobby. I could see that Mom and Mark were together with Ariel, and Jack made his way over to them. I walked over and kissed Mom and hugged Ariel and Jack, then Jack hugged Ariel, and I thought I saw her give his ass a little pinch. I was amused. Jack then worked his way across the room to where Gina was. I saw him meet her family, give her a kiss and head back to the gym. The parents and families started to leave, and Mom and Ariel headed out with Jack's family. There were more goodbyes as my friends headed off in different directions, and promises to see each other at Dennis' party and to hang out over the summer. Finally, I headed out to Jack's house for what I hoped wouldn't be an uncomfortable dinner.

Somehow, I beat Jack to his house, and was introduced to everyone. I started to talk to Jack and Sarah's cousin Brooke, who was a couple of years older than me, and very pretty, and we hit it off. Jack came in and seemed a little surprised to see me and my family there, and I could see him having some sharp sounding words with Sarah, before he got on his phone and made a call, I guessed to Gina. I assumed that he figured that she would be pissed off if she found out that I was at Jack's and he didn't tell her. Dinner went well, and I spent most of my time with Sarah, Brooke and Ariel, while Jack stayed with the grownups.

Jack got a text and said that Gina was outside, and he invited her in and introduced her around. She looked very hot, wearing a tight dress and displaying a much better body than I thought she had.

"You look great," I told her, sincerely, and asked if she would drive me to the party.

She agreed, and we got into her car. I used every social skill I had ever developed to keep the conversation alive, since I didn't want the awkward silence that I expected. When we got to Dennis' house, the party was going strong, and the lawn was packed. We parked a little way down the road and started to walk toward the house. I realized that this was my last real high school party, and I was still the queen bee, so I walked in like I owned the place, as the crowd parted before me. I really wasn't that girl any more, but it felt good anyway. I looked around, and Jack and Gina were gone. I got myself a beer, and looked around.

I found Jennifer and Lisa, and we hugged. They looked great, and were already a little drunk, so I finished my beer and had another to catch up. We scoped out the party for some likely prospects, and then just kind of wandered around, exchanging congratulations, and hugs, and drinking until I really felt good. We went outside, and I thought I saw Jack and Gina, but wasn't sure. Lisa reached into her purse and pulled out a joint and lighter, and we shared it, and my head felt pleasantly fuzzy. I was having fun, and as far as I was concerned, Gina could have Jack. I was free and the hottest girl at the party. I started to dance with some guy, who began to paw me, so I told him to go fuck himself and walked away.

I ended up sitting on a couch, listening to the pounding music and sipping a beer. Some guy sat down next to me and introduced himself as Kevin, and reminded me that he had graduated a couple of years ago and had worked briefly with me at Orlando's. He was cute and we started to talk. He went to college in Texas, and we talked about that for a while. He was funny and smart. We talked about my plans at college, and he told me about an interesting summer trip he took to Mexico to work at a school for kids orphaned due to the drug wars.

Basically, I liked him, and he seemed to like me. After a while, I found myself sitting with his arm around me. He turned to me and said, "Dana, I remember you as a cute sophomore, but you have turned into a truly beautiful woman."

I smiled at him, and he leaned in for a kiss, and I kissed him back. We made out a little on the couch, and he said, "Would you like to get out of here? We can go to my house—I have an apartment above my parents' garage with its own entrance."

"Sure," I said, feeling like I could use some fun and probably meaningless sex tonight.

We drove to his house and went up the stairs to his "apartment," which was a bedroom, bathroom and tiny kitchen above the garage. The bedroom had a double bed, couch, dresser and desk, and a small TV. As soon as we entered the bedroom, Kevin took me in his arms and started to kiss me. I let him take my dress off, and he stared at me in my underwear while he hurriedly removed his shirt and pants.

He was hairier than I usually liked, but not terribly so. I could see that he was aroused, and from the look of the bulge in his boxers, he was averagely endowed. I took off my bra and stepped out of my panties as he removed his boxers. As expected, his cock was hard, and of average length and width. He stepped toward me and said, "you are gorgeous," before kissing me and pressing his hairy chest against me. His cock rubbed against my pussy.

He was a pretty good kisser, and he started to rub my back and caress my tits, as he led me to the bed. He was partially on top of me, and he began to kiss my neck, which was great, and then moved to my tits. He was very appreciative of them, and treated them well, although he was a bit rougher than Jack ever was. I was feeling tingly, and started to get wet. Kevin reached down and began to finger me. It felt good, although again, for an older guy, I would have expected a little more sophisticated technique. But I can't deny that I was enjoying the feeling.

After a few minutes of this, I could tell that Kevin was about to try to enter me with his cock.

"Kevin, do you have a condom?" I panted to him.

He stopped fingering me and reached into his night table and removed a condom. I took it from his hand and said, "let me," with a smile. He lay back, his cock sticking straight up, as I opened the package and removed the rubber, placing it on his tip and slowly rolled it down the shaft. I then lay back on the bed and spread my legs. He climbed on top of me, and I guided his cock into my wet pussy. He moaned with pleasure, and I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him deeper into me. He started to thrust faster and faster until I felt him shudder and come into the condom.

I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't come, but was gratified by the fact that he rolled off of me and began rubbing my clit until I began to buck my hips and climaxed. He then removed the condom and lay next to me, and we cuddled. It was far from amazing sex, but it felt good, and he wasn't totally selfish and seemed like a good guy. I figured he was entitled to another date. But I wasn't prepared to sleep over with him, so I asked for a ride home. We cleaned up and dressed, and he drove me home. His radio was playing pretty good music, and we made small talk as he drove. When we got to my house, I leaned over and gave him a kiss and said, "Thanks."

"No, thank you," he said. "You are amazing. Can I see you again?"

I gave him a big smile and said, "Sure, call me." I took out my phone and asked for his number, which I keyed in and called. I heard his phone ring, and I hung up.

He leaned over and gave me another kiss, and said, "I definitely will call. And say hi to Ariel for me."

I got out of the car and walked into the house. It was about 2 a.m. and the house was quiet.

I got into bed and realized it had been a pretty good day. I graduated from high school, handled an awkward dinner with Jack and his family, had a good time at the party, even with Jack and Gina there, met a nice guy and had pretty good sex. It could have been much worse.