Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 03

"Anna," Chris asked, waited for her to smile at him, "did Jayne have a friend named Carole at the Uni?"

Chris watched Anna's face flit through a series of undecipherable responses, her green eyes darted a couple of times.

"No," she finally responded slowly, "she's never mentioned one. Why?"

"Just something I read somewhere, someone else," he said with a shrug, "but you're right, this is really good cake. Tell Jayne thanks for all of us!"

A round of 'yups' and 'uh huhs.'

"I'll let her know," Anna said.

"Oh," said Mel after another bite of cake, "what was Jayne's mom's name? That 'y' is kind of unusual. Was it after her?"

"It was Margaret," said Anna, she shrugged, "no, I've never thought to ask her why it's that way."

Not so Negative

Chris had just turned the 'Do Not Enter' sign off for the darkroom when there was a soft knock. The door opened and he saw a fall of dark hair followed by half of Maria's pretty face.

"Mind some company, nino," she asked, she returned his smile and obeyed his nod to enter.

"Thanks for letting me use the lab, Maria," he started, "I know we've not been..."

She put a finger on his lips and made a soft 'shh' sound.

"No aliens, no spaceships," her face slightly strained, "you said?"

"Some, um, wild Halloween costumes from last week," Chris answered, "and, oh..."

"X-rated ones?" The look of shocked outrage on her face worried Chris for a moment, then she laughed and grinned.

"Got you there," she worked in between laughs, "I heard about your world-famous costume stunt but missed the shows. I want copies! And a couple of the, you know those ones. To keep me warm while I'm alone these nights."

Then she threw her arms around his neck and pushed her mouth onto his, hard, her tongue aggressive. She pushed her jeans and sweater-clad body tight against his. He resisted for a count of two before he cradled her ass cheeks and pulled her tighter. He felt the top of her thigh find his suddenly-erect cock and rub against it.

After a minute that seemed eternal he slowly disentangled his tongue from hers, she didn't resist.

"If I'd done that to you back when I first had you in the lab course...," she said between puffy breaths, "we'd have been on the floor ripping clothes off of each other."

"And spilling chemicals all over...," Chris added, hoarse himself.

"And we wouldn't have noticed, or cared," she kissed his neck, "until we were dead from the fumes."

Chris couldn't deny that so just nudged her head a bit and kissed her forehead.

"Had my chance...," she turned her head to put it against his chest as he held her, "ten years younger... you ten years older... I'd lock myself and your demonio de cabello negro into a room, only one of us would come out."

She leaned back and smiled wickedly as she said that, but the glimmer in her eyes he could see were tears. She took a deep, slow breath then reached up and kissed him softly.

"Camping...," Chris started. She put her finger on his lips again.

"Oh, nino," she said sadly as she leaned against him again.

"I know she'll share this with me," she reached and slowly stroked his still-attentive cock.

"But...," she raised her hand to put it over his heart, "never this. I want both. I'll always treasure that weekend but I know who has this. Keep it safe."

"Now," she said as they released each other, "let's see how much of my advice you've ignored and if any of these are worth my time!"

Having made her choices, Maria helped Chris print those and all of his orders. They worked almost entirely in silence, an assembly line of photo production, an occasional single word enough to indicate each step.

"Dios mio," Maria exclaimed as she held up the 8x10 of Bobby the Barbarian and his pale, green-eyed Amazon, "who are these two?"

Chris's breath caught in his throat, remembered Maria's opening question to him when she entered the darkroom. Well, it's not like he could prove she hadn't been born on earth. Yet. And she did have a good story...

"The guy's a friend I've known since freshman year, Bobby, and that's his brand new girlfriend, Anna. She just arrived, new grad student."

"The babies...," Maria looked at Chris with an open-mouthed smile, " those two will have..."

"Everyone says that," Chris responded with his own smile and a slight shake of his head, not quite as amused as was Maria.

"Ah, here it is," she said with a rising inflection, "demonio, angel, what beauties!"

She held up another 8x10, the recreation of Chris sandwiched between his succubus and would-be rescuing angel.

"You said in the darkroom Mel worked up these costumes," Maria said as she bit her lower lip slightly and stared at the picture, "none of you saw her until she came out?"

"Yeah," said Chris, "not even Sam, the angel."

"She had the spirits looking over her shoulder making these," Maria said, her face lost a degree of its brightness, "but I don't know which spirits!"

A short pause.

"And this redhead, she's the one you turned into a lesbian?"

"I didn't turn her...," he saw raised eyebrows and a toothy smile.

"Good thing I didn't jump you, who knows what might've happened to me. At least Sam escaped unlike that poor Kelly..."

Chris squinted at her, laughed through his nose and shook his head. Maria laughed silently.

As they separated the pictures into their various sets and added up the cost for the work, Chris decided to ask.

"Maria," he said a bit shyly, "do you have plans for Thanksgiving?"

"Oh?" She tilted her head as she looked at him.

"Well, I'll say this poorly," he shrugged, "my mom wants me to gather any 'strays' and bring them. You're more than welcome. I know, well, if you have plans, it's no problem."

Her smile went very soft and her eyes again glimmered. She stepped and hugged him, but less erotically than before.

"It's a date," she said, then she kissed him on the cheek and released him, "the demon will be there, of course?"

"Oh yeah," Chris said with a chuckle, "and for Christmas she's, ahem, well, we're going to North Dakota! Well, it's that or a death in which my suffering would be long and beyond what words can convey, as you've noticed, she knows dark arts!"

Maria's clear laugh was the best thing Chris had heard all afternoon. She put one hand on the table to brace herself.

"Ah, yeah, I believe you," she said, took a deep breath, "driving?"

Chris nodded.

"Want to take my Blazer? Four wheel drive! And lots newer than your rust bucket."

"Huh? Hey, there's no rust...," Chris said haltingly, "why?"

"My ex-husband. I'm going to Costa Rica, what's left of my family fled there from Honduras," a dark cloud passed over her face, she waved her arm to dismiss any enquiries on the subject, "I'll be gone a month. The Blazer is mine, in my name, I paid for it. But, well, I'd just as soon it wasn't where he might, um, find it, get my drift?"

Chris nodded.

"If it's in North Dakota, I don't think he'll find it. You guys leaving before the 19th?"

"No, around that, but depends on the weather forecast. Mel has her last final early that day anyway, lucky her."

"Good. I don't leave until that night. You two can drive me to the airport, well, you drive, me and Mel will make out in the back seat. Very noisily. You guys can take it from there. I come back on January 17th, come get me? I'll leave you phone numbers."

"Better believe it."

"Good. Now pony up some cash for the pictures or I'll have to kick your ass for wasting my chemicals..."

Thanksgiving

"Your hometown team's losing," Chris said to Dave as they watched the Thanksgiving football game, "you ever go to any of the games growing up in Denver?"

"A couple, back in high school," Dave said, "whichever parent wanted to show up the other by begging tickets off of someone, almost all season tickets so can't just walk up and buy one. Football never really my sport though. Not your soccer either."

"Roger told me you were all state in baseball," Chris said, "not bad."

"Honorable mention," Dave laughed, "nothing I was ever going to do pro. By the way, thanks again for inviting me."

"Sure, kinda surprised you weren't going back to Denver? Not that long a drive even if you don't want to fight airports."

"Up through high school I always alternated, one year at mom's, next at dad's. They each got remarried, so then I had little half-siblings. Once I came here, went back first couple years, but had to rush between the two. So I just told 'em 'I'll see you for Christmas!' Neither can get insulted. Peter and I did our own thing that Thanksgiving before he disappeared, that was fun, he could cook! Then I did a couple with Roger and Jeanie and their families but they're getting ready for the baby."

A bout of laughter in the kitchen and Chris saw Mel leave Maria in the kitchen and walk jauntily into the living room, she slid her left arm around his right and kissed him on the cheek. Her horns stuck out of her mop of black hair and her devil's tail swung a couple of times before it settled. Having heeded Chris's warning that his parent's thermostat would be set high she'd worn jeans and a thin but as usual too small black button down blouse which offered plenty of cleavage created by the matching black bra.

"Dave," she said brightly, "how come you've never introduced this new girlfriend of yours to us? If Roger hadn't spilled the beans to Chris it would still be your big secret. This girl have hit men after her or something? And why didn't she come today?"

"Nothing like that," Dave laughed quickly, "dunno, just no good opportunity. But you've already met her."

"Oh?" Stereo.

"Halloween. She was the pirate."

Chris squinted his eyes as he replayed his brain's memories but Mel was quicker.

"Oh, the girl with the gold eye! Her? She was with a guy, they had awesome costumes."

"That's her twin brother. She's Asha and he's Aron. Their parents are dead, they went to LA to deal with some sort of estate issue. Be back for school Monday. Aron's dating some sorority girl."

"They disappeared," Mel's face flexed as she reviewed her brain tape, "before the pizza. Didn't even say goodbye."

"Asha told me they'd promised to drop by another party and were running late," he glanced toward the doorway into the kitchen and its indistinct voices, he lowered his voice as he looked at Mel, his smile strained, "she said she lost track of time because she was too busy staring at the sweetest twat she'd ever seen. They had to rush off."

"I've seen it, too," slightly accented English, Dave's jaw dropped and he reddened, Mel's smile grew even broader, as Maria joined them and entwined her right arm with Chris's left, giving him pretty, dark-haired bookends, "and it IS pretty sweet!"

Chris looked left, then right, two smiles, shrugged as he looked back at Dave. Maria had finally removed the grey blazer that matched her grey, mid-thigh fitted skirt, with dark hose and over the calf boots. Her snug white blouse flirted with translucence in the right light.

'You young people can be slobs,' she'd said when she'd arrived at their place to ride with them to dinner, 'but it's Thanksgiving.'

"She's really pretty, Dave," Mel said, "although we just said a couple of words to each other. Glad she enjoyed things while they were there."

"And she plays D&D, according to Roger," Chris added, "your perfect woman."

"Hard to argue," Dave nodded, "oh, Mel, she has some friends in math and they all call you 'devil girl' over there, although they're too scared of you to do it to your face."

"Whatever gets me that 'A' in calculus," was her response, Chris and Maria both chuckled, "what's Asha studying?"

"Accounting. Says she's going to get rich by keeping books for mobsters."

Three surprised expressions at that, then light laughter.

"Accounting and D&D," Mel said, "she's definitely the best looking geek girl on campus!"

Dave turned toward the television, his face still slightly red. The other three turned slightly to check out the small table in the corner that held Chris's dad's latest jigsaw puzzle in progress.

"Hey!" Dave's voice, surprised.

"What?" Chris said, he and the two women turned.

"Where's the remote?" Dave asked, "It's her, I know it!"

Chris separated himself and grabbed the remote from the coffee table and unmuted the sound.

"...do NOT try to deep fry your turkey unless you know what you're doing."

"That's Cat's voice," said Chris, "from Halloween."

Maria's eyes darkened, then she mouthed 'aah' as she recalled the story Chris had told her, she hadn't seen any of the broadcasts. Cat wasn't masked now. She was tall, slender, wore a thick but snugly-fitted dark blue sweater that did nothing to minimise her impressive bust. Her hair was dark, parted from the left and fell in soft waves over her shoulders. Her face was thin, lightly tanned skin, lovely dark eyes. Her expression was grim as the scene behind her was of a burned out home, firemen doused the last few hot spots. Behind and to the reporter's left were what looked like multiple families, parents, small children, a couple of teens, wrapped with blankets.

"Fortunately no one was injured but as you can all see," she turned as the camera shifted slightly to focus on the smouldering husk behind her, "the house is a total loss. It's the hot oil and the open flame, don't let it overflow. This is Jayne Jacobs with this special live report for KPUD TV News. Back now, to the game."

"That's her," Dave said firmly, "she was the one who delivered doughnuts with Carole. Her face is thinner, hair's longer, bit darker, but, um, her chest is the same. I was pretty drunk at the Halloween party so when I heard her voice that night I figured I was just horny and imagined I'd heard it before."

Chris noted that the graphic at the bottom of the screen as she finished correctly spelled her first name, with the 'y.' The broadcast switched back to the football game.

"She's friends with Anna," Mel said, she and Chris caught each other's eyes, "Maria, you saw Anna's pictures? The tall Amazon from the party?"

"No way I could forget her," Maria answered, "and this is the reporter who came to your party?"

"She had a mask on," Mel said, "haven't seen her face before. But, yes, it's her. And, she was with Carole..."

Mel trailed off as Chris squinted at her, his eyes darted to Maria then back to Mel as Maria and Dave stared at the screen. Mel nodded.

"So why aren't Bobby and Anna here," Maria asked Chris, no more interested in the restored football broadcast as they'd been, "they go to one of their families?"

"Anna said she doesn't have one, parents dead, Bobby's are way in Virginia," Chris answered, "but Anna has some connections. They're in Las Vegas, somehow she got them a room at the grand opening for that new Arista place. Bobby was happy to go, says flying cross-country around Thanksgiving sucks."

"Wow, that place is super fancy, they've got this awesome glass dome, one of the biggest in the world apparently," Maria's eyes widened, "I saw pictures in a magazine, that's all kinds of celebrities and whatever going there. How the hell did she do that?"

Chris shrugged, raised his hands with palms out and up, the universal 'no idea' gesture.

"I've lived here all of my life and know exactly zero TV personalities," he said, "but Anna says she's known this Jayne a few years and has hardly lived here. So, she gets around."

"Going to lose your little boy for Christmas, Mrs. Bajevich," Maria said a bit later as she was the middle of the dish brigade and passed them to Chris to set the table, "Mel taking him to North Dakota."

"Please, Maria, just Pat," said Chris's mother as she pulled the last two Thanksgiving dishes from their storage spot. His dad had taken Dave and Mel to the garage to view his collection of shellacked jigsaw puzzles he used as wallpaper.

"Our daughter and her family will be here for Christmas and we get this one today," Pat said to Maria as she stood and they watched Chris finish the table, "and Mel's so good for him. Not like that sweet girl Jess he saw in high school."

"Say what?" Chris's question, a wary expression.

"Sure," Pat looked at Maria, "Mel's a much better fit, could tell first time she came to visit, and the Halloween news clip sealed it. That Jess was too nice a girl for my pervert son."

Chris's jaw dropped. Maria's shock left her speechless. Pat looked kindly at her son then at Maria.

"Who do you think washed and changed his sheets when he was in high school?"

Maria's shock broke and she grabbed the countertop to avoid falling to the floor as she laughed uncontrollably. Chris's eyes blinked rapidly and his mouth worked wordlessly.

His mother smiled at both of them.

Chris put his empty coffee mug next to the sink, most of the dishes were cleaned and selected leftovers packaged and waited in the fridge for them to take. He looked around, didn't see Mel or Maria, Dave and his dad watched the final few minutes of the last football game of the day, his mom finished a few tasks in the kitchen no one else was allowed to do.

Oh. He looked down the hall and noticed the door to his old bedroom was closed. Suddenly his discussion with Maria back at the lab came into his mind. He took a few soft steps to the door, thought he heard voices. Laughter?

'Only one of us would come out...' ran through his mind. Then the door opened and he saw them, broad smiles on both faces, Mel's left arm across the shorter woman's shoulders, Maria's right around Mel's waist. Chris registered Maria's now bare legs in the gap above and below her knees between the bottom of her skirt and the tops of her boots.

"You two ok?" Chris asked.

"Very ok," was the answer, in stereo. Two sets of eyes bored into him.

Goodbyes said, Chris deposited a couple of packages of leftovers and additional ones of homemade candies in the trunk, some to pass onto Maria later. They stood in the dim light of widely placed streetlights and waved goodbye as Dave drove out of the church parking lot that had conveniently been built across the street from his family home. Ironically, the church wasn't a denomination any in his family were interested in. Even though not so vital today, on really big days like the Fourth it offered easy and ample parking for guests.

"Give me the keys," Mel said to him as he pushed the trunk closed, "you're too drunk to drive."

"I had two glasses of wine with dinner," he said, "that was, um, hours ago."

"No," said Maria as she stepped next to his left side, "you should let her drive, ride home in the back seat."

He glanced quickly at Maria, back at Mel, tried to read their poker faces in the dim light. He felt something, a hand that snaked into his left pocket. It was Maria, she fished around, pushed the cloth of the pocket inwards, his suddenly alert cock met it halfway, unencumbered by underwear at Mel's direction.

"That's the wrong pocket," Mel said huskily, her tail swung and her horns alongside his head now as she pushed her hand into his right pocket, pulled out his keys, tossed them to her right hand, shoved her left hand back in and he felt two pieces of cloth press his erect flesh.

"Says you, nina," Maria said, her voice a clean near-soprano but her accent heavy, "seems like the right pocket to me."

The two women looked at each other, then at him, his cock felt the embraces of cotton fabric.

"I might not be drunk," he said, a slight hitch in his voice, "but my brain has no blood going to it so I'll ride in the back seat."

One mouth kissed him on each cheek, Mel walked around them to unlock the doors and hopped into the driver's seat. Maria pushed him into the back seat and slid in alongside him.