I Am Jack's Life Ch. 04

Author's note and acknowledgements

This story has sat on my hard drive for four years now.

I wrote it, all twenty chapters and 95,000 words of it in eight days of a frenzied, near trance-like state, sitting on my couch with my wife's laptop. She would occasionally have to remind me to eat.

When the dust settled, and I looked up, I realized a couple of things: one, I had just written a fucking novel in a week, whoa. Two, it seemed to be pretty damn good, double whoa. And three, what the hell was I going to do with it?

I tried editing it, I even enlisted the help of a Lit-Editor, who was invaluable for early editing, and confirming it was in fact, pretty good, or readable at least. I spent several months then, editing, unashamedly forcing it on writer friends to read, regular friends to read, and total strangers on writer boards. Everyone had different opinions of course, as people do, but all of them seemed to think it was pretty good, and I should probably try to do something with it.

So I spent another year trying to sell it.

Well nothing happened.

And I can't blame them, agents and publishers. It's kind of a niche story, hard to market. It's got too much sex for a coming age story, too much teenage drama for adult fiction, and not a single word about vampires or bondage to make it work as erotic fiction.

So it's sat on my hard drive for four years. I'll occasionally open it up, tinker with a line, or try to figure out how to re-work it into something more marketable. I always end up wasting a weekend trying to figure out how to change it, without losing the essence of the thing which I, and several others, feel is, "pretty good."

So fuck it. Here you go Literotica. I just want people to read it. I want people to get to know Jack the way I did. Writing his life made me feel like I was a part of it. He's a pretty good guy, I wish I knew him in real life.

So NEXT, some disclaimers.

This is a coming of age story. Which means first it starts out when the characters are too young to have sex (on literotica.) So there's no sex for a couple chapters. I hope that's okay. Second, this is a novel length story, including the prologue and epilogue, there are twenty-one chapters in all. Some are longer than others, and there is not a sex scene in every one. (Though some have more than one.) More importantly, sex is a thing that happens, it's not written to be titillating, but rather just as events in Jack's life.

So there you go. It's a story with sex in it, not a story about sex. I think it's pretty good anyway.

If you have not read the first chapter, please click on my profile and pick the story up at the beginning, its better that way, trust me.

*****

The next morning, we were woken up to a knock on the bedroom door. Kimmy was still wrapped up around me, fully naked. I was still in just the borrowed sweat pants.

"Hello?" came Abby's voice from the other side of the door, perhaps the sound of a giggle too.

"Uhm, one second!" I yelled through the door.

Another giggle, "Okay, I brought you guys some clothes. I'm leaving them out here in the hall, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," I said through the door again. Kimmy was starting to stir as I gently extracted myself from her entangling limbs. "How's Anna?" I asked.

"She's home. And fine. Was just way too much booze. They had to call her parents though," Abby said, still from the other side of the door.

I winced.

"Oh crap," Kimmy said sleepily rubbing her face.

"No kidding," I agreed.

"Walking away now," Abby said. She was definitely laughing.

I blushed.

I looked back, and Kimmy had pulled the sheet up to her chest; she was as bright red as I felt.

"Oops," she said softly, "We kind of over-slept."

"Yeah, I guess so," I replied. I waited a few more seconds and then opened up the door. Just outside on the floor was a couple of tee-shirts and folded up pairs of jeans. I recognized my own clothes on the top and the other pair as Kimmy's. Abby must have stopped by our houses. Shit. What the fuck had she told my parents?

I pulled the clothes in and handed Kimmy hers. She accepted them without comment and headed into the bathroom to change. I was a little disappointed she covered herself with the sheet on the way in. But the light of day is different than the wee hours of the morning, so I guess she was a little more bashful than I thought.

Which was good I supposed; I didn't really feel super comfortable dressing in front of her myself yet. I noticed Abby had brought me a clean pair of boxers too, which made me blush again, or rather, deeper. I got dressed quickly.

I was just pulling my shirt over my head when Kimmy came out of the bathroom. She'd changed into the jeans and tank top (she wore a bra, I noticed) and she had her dress from last night draped over one arm. She smiled at me and walked over. On the way she lay her dress down on the end of the bed, and when she reached me, she slipped both of her arms around my neck.

"So, uhm," she said softly, "Good morning..." and then she kissed me softly.

"Good morning," I breathed in reply after the lengthy kiss.

"So, are we okay still? Not weird?" she asked tentatively.

I shook my head, "Not weird for me. You?"

She bit her lip, considering, "A little, I mean I guess. You're my best guy friend, but I've been sort of thinking about what it would be like to go out with you for a little while now."

"Really?" I was honestly a little surprised. I mean she'd mentioned something about it last night, but, that was last night. I was still reeling from a lot of things about last night.

She nodded. "Yeah, I mean, you've gotten awfully cute this last year."

Okay, dammit, enough with the blushing.

She grinned, "I've always liked your eyes. I've never seen a guy with green eyes as light as yours; it's pretty sexy. And I like that you're tall. Taller than I am. Most guys aren't."

I was pretty tall now- six foot even, maybe a little over now. She had to be at least five-ten, maybe eleven. We were very close. I didn't know what to make of the eyes thing though. I mean, being sexy was great, but, hell I dunno; I was grinning like an idiot and blushing what was probably a shade of purple.

She ran her fingers through my hair; that was very nice. She continued, "And you're super nice. Most guys are kind of jerks, especially the cute ones. And smart, I'd totally fail school without you, but you aren't a dweeb about it. I dunno. You make me laugh more than anyone except maybe Abby. I just..." she shrugged, "I like you. I like you as a friend a lot, but I think maybe I want more now."

The only response to that was to kiss her again, so I did. It was another long few moments before we spoke again.

"I like you a lot too. Honestly, I'm looking forward to getting to know you even better," I said after we broke apart again.

She smiled. "Now let's just hope everyone else is cool with us hooking up. I mean, none of us said specifically that we shouldn't date you, but sometimes I wasn't sure. Sometimes I think Beth is a little jealous of you."

"Well, Beth had plenty of chances. I'm done with waiting for her to make up her mind. She wants to just be friends? I'm cool with that. Just friends," I said.

Kimmy nodded.

I sighed, "Well, shall we go down stairs and starting getting them used to the idea of us together?"

She nodded, and pulled her arms back from around my neck. Her hand still slipped into mine though, and we walked downstairs.

The place was trashed. Seriously trashed; it looked as though a hundred people had rioted. Or that they'd had a huge party. Red plastic cups were everywhere, on every surface. A lot of them were still full of warm, flat beer. There were spills all over the place and more than one case of vomit in the corner. I winced; this was going to take all week to clean up.

Abby and Beth were downstairs in the kitchen. Both had showered and changed from the night before, and there was a bag of fast food sitting on the counter.

"Morning sleepy heads," said Abby in a sing song taunt.

"Yeah, yeah," I said. I was still holding on to Kimmy's hand as we walked up to the counter.

"So, are you two a thing now?" Abby asked as she took a swig from a bottle of water.

I glanced at Kimmy. I was going to let her say it; I wanted it to come from her not me. I was also just a tiny bit afraid she was going to deny it and brush it off, regardless of what we'd just said and done.

Kimmy nodded, "Yup."

"Cool," said Abby.

And that was that I guess.

I dug into the food bag and came out with a couple of breakfast sandwiches; I handed one of them to Kimmy, who thanked me and slid up onto a bar stool

I avoided making eye contact with Beth; she was apparently doing the same with me, which made it easier.

"So how is Anna?" I asked as I unwrapped my sandwich

Abby sighed, "Okay I guess. We checked her into the ER. She was blowing well over the limit, so they had to call her parents. I also told the nurse what had happened, so I think they did a rape kit on her, to see if, you know..." she trailed off.

I stopped chewing for a moment, only resuming when Abby shook her head no.

"Everything was fine, he hadn't gotten that far yet, and there were no drugs in her system besides the booze. Thank God," Abby said.

I nodded.

She shrugged, "Anyway, they released her to her parents a couple of hours ago, so Beth and I went home, showered and changed, then I swung by your guy's houses to pick up clothes and stuff for you."

I inwardly cringed but braced myself for impending parental wrath, "What did you tell my parents?"

Abby smirked, "The truth."

I blushed thinking immediately of Kimmy and what we'd done. That was silly of course, but hey, guilty conscious.

She rolled her eyes and continued, "That we'd partied pretty hard, Anna had got herself nearly date raped, you saved her, but she blew chunks all over your clothes, and that you were staying at my parent's beach house for me until I got back. And that you guys were going to help me clean up. Your dad was pretty cool about it actually. You're supposed to call him when you wake up."

Oh. Hey that didn't sound bad at all. You know, except for the cleaning part.

"Well, thanks for that. I'll call him when I'm done eating," I said.

Abby gave another smirk, "Well, I guess I did lie about one thing."

I arched an eyebrow. Kimmy give a little snort.

"There's no way I'm cleaning this place up. I called a house cleaning service; they should be here any minute," Abby said.

Well, I guess that's yet another benefit of your parents being rich. Your own credit card.

"Oh. Well. Awesome," I said with a little laugh. Kimmy giggled too, but Beth just rolled her eyes.

Abby grinned, "Hey, actually it was my mom's idea. There's no way the five... well, four of us could clean this place back up again to her standards, so she told me to call this place she knows after the party."

"Damn that was cool of her," I said, raising both my eyebrows.

Abby just shrugged, but the other two girls agreed with me.

"Now," she said, "Let's blow this Popsicle stand. We've got a day to blow while your parents think you're being my cleaning minions. I say, beach, shopping, and dinner out for the birthday kids."

All of us cheered.

That day was spent with me following the girls around shopping, which wasn't terribly unusual. Except this time, I got to do most of it holding hands with Kimmy (or holding her bags). We'd steal little kisses from each other when the other two weren't looking. She was very playful about it too. I mean, I'd always known she had a playful streak, but I'd never been on this end of her playful flirting before. It was, I gotta say, way more fun than the normal teasing-flirting-to-nowhere the girls usually did with me. For one thing I mean, Kimmy's sly promises and teases actually meant something now, which made me spend a good chunk of the day tingling with anticipation. But for another, I actually got to flirt back.

It's not that I'd never flirted with them before, but I'd always kept it on the lighter side of caution. Never daring to overstep my boundaries and offend one of them. But now, I got to unleash the full power of my wit and, not inconsiderable if I may humbly say, charm, on Kimmy. I had her blushing more than once, which was its own reward; but the kisses afterward were an even better sort. We stole kisses and touches whenever we could. By the end of the shopping trip, I'd even gotten over my self-consciousness about initiating those touches; slipping my arm around her waist, or playing with the back of her neck while we were sitting down waiting for something. I was on top of the world.

Also, Beth finally relaxed, at least, on the surface. After the first hour of awkwardness, she seemed to get over it and be back to her normal bubbly self. I did notice that she flirted with me far less than she had before, at least directly; after a while her flirts became suggestions for Kimmy, who then put them into action.

We went out for dinner that night, and Abby and Kimmy made the waiters sing happy birthday to Beth and I. It was like things were back to normal, which took a huge weight off my shoulders.

Except I had a girlfriend.

If it wouldn't have been so unmanly, I'd have been squealing from the rooftops. But I was squealing internally. In a manly sort of way obviously.

Anna, unsurprisingly, was on restriction for the rest of summer, which wasn't much longer at least. Worse though, she'd been barred from going out for the cheer squad again, which was devastating to not just her, but Beth and Kimmy as well.

Kimmy and I spent the rest of the summer joined at the lips. I spent every day with her, and as many evenings as I could get away with. We never got as far as we did that first night, but we came awfully close a few times. By the time school started two weeks later I was intimately familiar with the feel of her breasts in my hands, and the taste of her nipples in my mouth. She got her hands inside my boxers a few times, but never quite got me off again. I didn't care, it felt too good to just be with her to complain.

We did more than just make out though, we talked a lot as well. Kimmy had always been kind of an 'add-on' to the group to me I guess. Certainly a part of it, but my attentions had almost always been focused on Beth if she was around, or split evenly between the other three if she wasn't. Plus Kimmy wasn't nearly as talkative around her friends, she generally just went with the flow and was content to let other people take the lead. Once it was just the two of us though, it was like I was discovering this whole other person.

She was very funny. Not necessarily in a razor sharp wit kind of way, but just in general silliness. She wasn't afraid to make funny faces, or silly noises, or ridiculous voices to aid in joke telling. She often had me in stitches from just generally being a goofball; she really enjoyed making me laugh. Every time she'd get me going, she'd give me this bright beaming smile like she was super pleased with herself.

She was also surprisingly insightful. I guess being the non-talker of a group of five gave you a lot of time to watch people and figure stuff out by reading in between the lines. She was also bluntly honest when asked direct questions, so I learned a lot more about the other girls than maybe I thought I wanted to know. Either way, it was illuminating talking to her.

Mostly though, she was just fun to be around, even without the physical stuff (which was great fun too, and we did a lot of it, but it was more than that.) We cuddled a lot and watched movies. I'd become a huge movie buff over the last few years, and had expanded my interests from the geekdom cult classics I'd been a fan of when I met Beth, to a much wider range of genres. From some of the more modern contemporary stuff, to some pretty esoteric indie flicks. I fell in love with dialogue really. Good banter could give me chills. This had a side benefit of improving my own witty banter skills as I learned what worked by watching it on screen. Sometimes I'd have to explain the more out there stuff too her, but she never blanched at even the most esoteric art film or the old classic film noirs I'd want to watch. Though I think she got bored pretty quick with foreign films, because that's usually when the necking would start. Sometimes, I have to admit, that was deliberate on my part.

School started, and we continued to be a couple. I was nervous at first, I'm ashamed to admit. Summer flings are one thing, but back in the social hierarchy of school is a different story. The wee hours of the morning verses the light of day I suppose. But Kimmy didn't even flinch. I was her boyfriend, and she was proud of it.

Boyfriend.

It takes on a different perspective from thinking about it that way.

It's one thing to say, "I have a girlfriend!" Hell, that's a milestone, like running a marathon. You did it, you got the girlfriend achievement, congratulations.

It's really pretty one sided.

But being someone's boyfriend - that's a different story. That has responsibilities. You have to be there for her. You have to not just take pleasure in her company, you want her to take some in yours. I dunno, I think I was lucky to have figured this out this early on, I guess a lot of guys never do. Maybe it's because I was smart, maybe it's because I'd been friends with four girls who went through boyfriends like water, so I got to hear the aftermath of the whys and why nots.

Maybe it's just because I was stupid lucky.

I'm going with that.

I was a pretty good boyfriend I think. I went out of my way to brighten her day when she was down - which wasn't often, or encourage her when she got frustrated - which was all the time with school work. In fact, I'd gone to tutoring Kimmy in all of her classes. She was struggling pretty badly if the truth was to be told.

I myself was starting to have issues of my own. Between generally spending time with Kimmy, both helping her with her classes, and being lip locked with her, my own studies were starting to suffer for it. By the middle of the term, I was in serious danger of slipping to a B in my calculus course.

Oh no! You gasp in mocking derision, a B!

That was huge. I was still in the 4.0 club, a perfect GPA for my high school career, which meant I was in the running for Valedictorian, a prestigious award that I'd be able to put on a college application and scholarship forms. It was a big deal. Besides, I'd been working on it for three years now. I didn't want to lose it in my last year.

Previously, I'd been fortunate to be smart enough that any slippage of studies was made up for by my excellent test taking skills, and ability to cram a final project home in the last 72 hours. That didn't happen often, but it had happened. I was also generally pretty good at getting homework done before I'd even left school. Now, my free time at school was filled up with Kimmy, so homework started having to come home. Which was fine, until I started helping Kimmy out with all of hers, and mine got pushed until I got home late that night, and I had to finish mine in the wee hours of the morning, missing out on sleep.

To stop the hemorrhaging of lost time, I'd started just bringing my homework over to Kimmy's and while she worked on hers, I worked on mine. This helped some, but my courses this term were much harder than previously. I was in advanced placement for nearly every class; chemistry, calculus, advanced lit, and world history. My only 'free' period, I was a TA for my advanced lit teacher during her basic senior English course, and Kimmy was in that class. I got some work done there, but I spent most of it grading the papers and tests of students who probably should not have been in a senior English class, even the most basic one. Luckily, thanks to my help the previous two years, Kimmy wasn't one of those, but only just.