Across the Tracks Ch. 13

She wrapped her arms around Deacon and he buried his face into her shoulder and started crying. Nikki calmly rubbed his back and neck and tried to whisper words of encouragement to him.

After a while, they came out from under the table, Deacon had red eyes and was holding Nikki's hand, and Otis stood when they did.

"Man, I'm so sorry. I didn't think."

Deacon put his hand on his friends shoulder. That was all they needed. They said their goodbyes, and Deacon and Nikki left, followed shortly by Pappaw. Cole shook his head at Otis as they sat by the fire, their respective ladies sitting on their laps.

"Not how I saw the night turning out. You?"

Otis shook his head no. "No, and I feel like shit."

Ariel looked at him. Cole shook his head, but Trish was the one who spoke.

"Ain't your fault doll. You didn't know it'd happen. But know you do, and can work with it."

Otis nodded. "'Suppose so."

After a while, Cole and Trish told the kids good night, and Otis threw the last little bit of wood on the fire and opened up the last beer. As he sat down, Ariel climbed into his lap so she faced him.

"Are you gonna be okay? It's not your fault."

"I know baby. It just sucks. I feel like I've lost one friend, and might be losing another. I don't know what's going on with JB, and I don't know what'll help Deacon."

"I think Nikki can help him. If anything, she's the one that can keep him together."

Otis nodded. They sat there til the fire burnt down to coals, and then they decided it was time to go to the apartment. Otis didn't drink and drive, so Ariel drove the truck home. They walked up the stairs together, and Otis changed into his shorts and Ariel wore the sweat pants she had brought over and one of Otis's T-shirts. They lay down in the bed together, and Ariel started to kiss Otis. She'd been trying this for the last couple of weeks, and she wanted her man tonight.

Otis groaned when Ariel bit his lip. He was starting to think it was time. He just couldn't take it anymore. Every cell in his body burned with a need for her. He kissed her back and pulled her close to him.

"Baby... How far do you want to go tonight?"

Ariel smiled as she leaned back and took her shirt off. Kissing him deeply, she reached her hand down the front of his shorts and started to stroke him. She smiled as she felt him getting hard in the grip of her hand.

"Does that answer your question?"

Otis groaned as he kissed her, and gave no other answer except that. Ariel smiled and kissed him hard as she pulled his sweats the rest of the way down and took his cock in both hands. Ariel kissed him deeply and broke the kiss, smiling as she began to kiss down his chest. When she got to his hip, she gave him a smile bite and smiled as he jumped. Kissing further down, she started kissing up from the base until she got to his head. She engulfed it with her lips, sucking gently on it before she worked her way down a little before coming back up. She licked from the bottom of his shaft to the top, and then took him in her mouth again. She kept sucking for a few minutes, going as deeply as possible, and then she couldn't take it anymore. She wanted him inside of her. The whole time she had been sucking his cock, she had her hand down between her legs, tracing her clit and lips with her fingers. She was ready to go as far as she was concerned.

Otis groaned with every motion she made. When she stopped and started to stand over him, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to his face. She smelled so sweet, and she smelled like her. Even in the low light that bleed past his curtains from outside, he could see how wet she was.

"You got to taste me, I get to taste you."

Ariel gasped as his tongue touched her for the first time. Otis smiled and continued. He wanted her to buck and shake because of what he was doing to her. His older cousin had always told him to spell the alphabet on the clit, and you could never go wrong. He never went in order, but he would do it with the tip of his tongue, switching it with gently sucking on her clit. He felt her thighs tense up around his head, and if she squeezed he would repeat it. She was so wet. He loved tasting her like this. She tasted like summer and warmth. Whatever body washed she used accented her natural body smell, and it was some glorious combination that made his head spin. He kept licking and sucking and Ariel began to moan loudly.

"Otis. I'm going to -aaaah- cum..."

Otis stopped and looked up at her, his face glistening with her juices.

"That's a good thing baby girl."

Ariel lifted herself up and moved back down his body, gripping him in her hand.

"I want to make you cum too."

Otis almost did when she first engulfed him inside her. He managed to hold it inside, but only barely. It was like the hottest furnace he had ever felt, and the tightest of vices. He felt like he was engulfed in the core of the Earth, where it was nothing but heat and pressure. He had never felt anything like this in his entire life. He hadn't had a lot of sex, but nothing had ever compared to this feeling. The only thing close to it was the feeling of freedom he got from riding. Groaning, he grabbed her hips as she slid down fully and stopped for a moment.

Ariel closed her eyes and almost dug her nails into his chest. He filled her up, and it felt so good. When she had first seen it all the way hard, she had thought it would hurt like hell and feel like it was splitting her in half. Instead, it felt like he filled her all the way up, and it made her ache with how good it felt. The first time she lifted up a little bit, the feeling of not being full almost made her drop immediately back down. Instead, she slowly went up, until all that was left was his head inside her. Then she slowly slid back down onto him, letting herself feel that feeling of being full again. She started to move up and down on his shaft a little faster, rolling her hips. It felt so good.

Otis let Ariel set the pace. He knew it was her first time with a man, even though she had a broken her hymen when she was younger. He didn't want to hurry anything. It felt so good, that if she picked up the pace, he would probably explode inside her anyways. Until he could control himself, slow and steady would be just fine. He could enjoy the velvety slickness of her better and longer that way. She gripped him so tightly it was almost a pain. It was an exquisite pleasure, and it drew the line. Every time she slid down on him, she would dig her nails into his chest. It didn't take away from the pleasure; it grounded him from getting lost inside her and sent a thrill through him with every scratch.

They kept going. They lost all track of time, and completely lost themselves in each other's bodies. Every good thing must end, and at least this would end in pleasure. Ariel finally felt comfortable enough to pick up a face paced speed, and Otis felt his control start to slip when she did. She leaned down and kissed him, and Otis kissed her back hard, panting with desire and from the toll that the pleasure was taking on him. Otis grabbed her hips and began to thrust into her, taking control for the first time. He held Ariel in the air, thrusting inside her hard and fast, the only sounds in the room their moans and gasps and the sound of their bodies hitting each other. When it happened, Ariel screamed as the dam inside of her broke. Wave after wave of pleasure racked through her body, and she felt like she was being dropped onto the sun. Warmth and heat and fire and pleasure radiated from her pussy and swept her body up in wave after wave of pleasure. She felt her inner walls clamp down with the force of it, so tight she would have sworn she could feel every single bit of Otis inside her.

When she came, Otis felt the impossible tightness of her grip him even tighter and he rolled his hips, reaching a new height as his world came crashing down around him. It was like being lifted in the ocean and tossed about on waves he couldn't control. The ultimate freedom of slipping this world beneath you and flying high on just how it felt alone, never to come crashing down. He tried to say something, to move, to pull out, but he was so wrapped up in pleasure that he probably couldn't have moved his toes at that point. Otis screamed out her name as he came deep inside her, arching his hips straight up, almost bending double as he did.

Ariel collapsed on top of him, panting and smiling. Otis looked a little worried, and she felt horrible.

"Was I that bad baby?"

Otis shook his head. "God no baby. You were fantastic. But I came in you. You could get pregnant."

Ariel shook her head.

"I've been on birth control since we started dating. I didn't know when this moment would pop up."

Otis laughed. "You are entirely too smart for your own good."

- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _

It had been three months since they had sex for the first time. They had survived Christmas and the New Year together, and hadn't had a serious fight yet. They had a few arguments, but they always made up. Otis still hadn't heard from JB, and no one knew where to find him. Deacon had started seeing someone to help him, but he still hadn't made it official with Nikki.

Ariel pulled up outside the apartment and carried her last box up the stairs. Her parents were fine with her moving in; she just had to stay one night a week with them. She was perfectly fine with that. When she walked in, Otis was sitting at the kitchen table filling something out.

"Whatcha doing babe?"

"Filling out an application for the fire department."

Ariel stopped. "What?"

"I think it's time to carry on with what my dad would have wanted me to do."

Ariel placed the box down. "Baby, I think we need to talk."

Otis looked up. "About?"

Ariel sat down and looked at him. She slowly told the story of what had happened the night his father had passed away, and what his father had lost his life over. She watched his face, and then looked down when she finished the story. He probably hates me or blames me for what happened with his dad.... She thought.

When she looked up, he was gone. Ariel started crying, and then heard Otis walk back into the room. He sat down with a photo binder in his hands and turned to a page and showed it to her. It was from an anniversary article talking about his father, and it showed some high school picture of Ariel, and described the person his father had saved as happy and enjoying the life she received when his father lost his.

"I've know for a while. The first time I came home after we watched that movie. I was just waiting for you to tell me. What took so long?"

Ariel looked at him and tried to wipe away her tears.

"I thought you would hate me or blame me for it."

Otis stood and knelt at her side and hugged her.

"No baby. I love you. I would never hate you. My dad knew what he was doing even back then."

Ariel kissed him and he wiped away her tears.

"So can I join the fire department?"

She smiled. "Yes baby. Yes you can."

- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _

JB shook and cursed his fate as he lay beside a dumpster, curled in the fetal position. He had sworn on everything he would never find himself like this again. Ever. Now, here he sat one dirty needle away from HIV or death. Maybe it would be better. He couldn't stop shaking, and his teeth were chattering so much that they might as well break soon. The sky was even showing its disapproval. It had been raining for several hours, and didn't look like it was going to let up. He had nowhere to go. He had left home, partially to get away from his PO, and to get away from Otis. Otis would see the tracks in his arm and beat him half to death in a heartbeat.

JB tried to stand, but he was too weak. He sat in that same spot, he didn't know how long. He threw up everything in his stomach, and by the fifth time, he didn't even move his head anymore. He sat there with his vomit in his lap, down on the ground in the garbage and rain runoff, crying. There wasn't anything he could do. He couldn't stop himself; He would always just want one more hit, one more snort, and one more pill. Always. He was worthless, and it would be better for everyone if he died in this shit hole beside a dumpster. He hoped when they found him they wouldn't even identify him. He hadn't seen his father in 3 years, and his mother had been gone longer than that. All the family he had were a son that would be ashamed of who he was once he was old enough to understand, and Otis, who would be ashamed of him now. His friend could lie, but how could he ever be trusted. He would always be a junkie. Always someone to be looked at with pity and used as a warning for everyone.

JB finally managed to courage to stand up. He would die, but he would do it on his own terms. There was a bridge right down the road. He could float away on that rivers current and maybe find some peace somewhere. Maybe find absolution in whatever new hell awaited him for killing himself. He looked out from the railing, laughing and crying at the same time. Every kid wanted to grow up to be something. Few rarely wanted to grow up to be a junkie. His dad had told him his mother was a worthless pill head. Just like him. Maybe it was fated, he didn't know. But that cycle would end tonight. He closed his eyes and prepared to fall forward into oblivion...

- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _

Ashland tightened her shoe strings and began to bitch a mile a minute. She had become wrapped up in her work at the rescue, and the rain hadn't stopped. Now she and Brutus would have to run to the house in the rain. The giant freakazoid dog would surely love that, but she hated having to clean him up all the time. He knew it too. She sighed as she clipped the lead onto him and the bulldog started straining to the door. He was a big dog; easily able to put his paws on a six foot mans shoulders and weighing in at probably one hundred and ninety pounds. She still didn't understand what had possessed her to get such a large animal. Maybe it was the look of loneliness in his eyes when he had come into her shelter. He was big and scary looking, but he was also the world's biggest sweetheart. And chicken... she thought as she remembered what her cat had done to him his first week at her home. The dog ran from everything but thunder.

Before she locked up, she looked around with pride. Her clinic was one of the best in the state, and one of the only ones that accepted 'dangerous' breed dogs. Soon, her business with just those had almost pushed all her other practice out the door. People loved their animals, and if only one vet would see them, they went to that vet. People also dropped their animals off her, and she helped place them through rescues and programs. Ashland sighed and locked up, throwing her jacket hood over her head as she stood under the awning and prepared to run through the rain.

Before she had a chance, Brutus looked towards the bridge. The way he held himself was weird. She wouldn't describe it as tense, more like he was trying to pay close attention to something. Then he took off, almost jerking her arm from its socket as she desperately tried to keep up with him or get him to stop. He didn't pay her a lick of attention, just kept going. As they got closer to the bridge, she spotted what he had seen. Someone looked like they were going to jump from the bridge! Brutus finally succeeded in jerking the leash from her hand, and he jumped like his life depended on it. She couldn't tell what he grabbed the man by, maybe a shirt or a jacket, but her dog yanked him back over the railing, and the man started screaming in what she could only guess was fear. She ran the rest of the way to them, and took in the man.

He was skinny, almost malnourished looking. He wasn't wearing any shoes or socks, and his feet were black and blue from bruises and the ground. He looked and smelled like a dumpster, and like he had thrown up on himself. She grabbed Brutus by the collar and pulled out her cell phone to call the cops or the EMS.

The man on the ground opened his eyes.

"Mom... please.... help me. Please... kill... me."

Then he shut his eyes and passed out. From shock or excitement, maybe he hadn't slept. She didn't know which. But she had a good feeling that he was in trouble. And she had a knack for fixing broken things.

- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _

JB didn't know what had grabbed him, and he didn't know who the woman was staring down at him. Maybe Death had grabbed him. Maybe this was his Mom, and Death had grabbed her to. He asked her to only thing he had wanted for a long time. For someone to help him. Someone to kill him. He was ready to rest his head on stone pillows beneath the dark earth. He was a prisoner, and he wanted to be free...