Emancipated Jackals Ch. 01

"Splat"..."Take that"..."No"...."Splat..."You take that"...."HA HA HA HA"....

Back and forth the two lovebirds went, flipping water from their bottles of Aquafina at each other as they laid side by side on the floor, helping each other study for finals.

Wendy Smith and her boyfriend of 3 years, and fiance of 8 months, Brad jossled and flirted incessantly with each other until Brad finally leaned over and softly kissed Wendy on the lips.

"UMMMM," she purred and smiled, loving the way her future Husband's warm mouth melted against her own, for that brief moment hating the fact that a loving kiss would be all they could share until after the marriage ceremony in four long months.

"DAARRNNN," Wendy groaned with real frustration, an unreachable itch gnawing at her loins as she inhaled Brad's cologne.

"Get back you Horndog," she giggled, before splashing a few more drops of cold water against her boyfriend's grinning face. "Cool youself down..you're not making it any easier to study."

"I guess this IS too much of a temptation...we haven't gotten anything done the last two nights... have we?" Brad sighed. "Good thing finals aren't until next week!"

A sudden hush of impending sadness washed through each soul as Brad stole a glance at his watch.

"Quarter past 10," he whispered. "I've got to open up the Chem Lab in the morning at 7:30.....guess...guess I better get going."

"....OK," Wendy somberly agreed as the two stared longingly into each other's eyes for nearly a minute, pondering just how good things would be in the near future when they were married and wouldn't have to slump back to their respective apartments for the night, when they could instead fall asleep in each other's arms the way any couple in love should have the right to do.

Each being staunchly dedicated to their Mormon unbringing however, Wendy and Brad bit their tongues and kissed each other one last time as Brad prepared to leave.

Having met during their Sophomore year at Brigham Young University, the two had immediatly hit it off and when Brad had proposed the Summer after their Junior year, Wendy had happily agreed to make a lifetime committment and start a family as soon as they each got a degree. So looking forward to the wedded bliss, they had already agreed on the names of their first two sons and daughters.

"Wanna get together tomorrow night and try this studying thing again?" Brad flirtatiously deadpanned.

"Yep..definatly," Wendy started to answer until a rush of disappointed angst crested in her brain.

"OH..SHOOT..wait a minute..tomorrow night's Thursday ...right....I think I have to do that tutoring session with my friend Tina for a couple of those football players tomorrow night," Wendy dejectedly replied. "I wish I had never signed up for that....the extra credit seemed nice at the time but its been such a burden....its such a rush this time of the year..I dont have enough time for my own schedule right now."

"Then how about Friday night Baby?" Brad politly offered, before placing another goodbye kiss on Wendy's waiting lips. "We can grab dinner..study a little and maybe rent a movie."

"OK," She brightly smiled as Brad slowly eased out the door.

__________________________________

Wendy sat on the living room floor of her apartment, dressed in a pair of baggy, baby blue sweatpants and a loose fitting teeshirt, her legs crossed Indian style by the coffee table as her and her friend Tina killed time, waiting for the two students they were scheduled to tutor to show up.

"Why in the heck are all these people they send over to study with us always late..its almost 9 o' clock," Tina groused, each of the girls then sighing as they aimlessly watched the hands of the clock tick by.

"I could have spent the evening with Brad," Wendy bemoaned.

"You're so lucky Wendy," Tina admitted to her friend. "My folks have been giving me so much grief lately about not being able to find a serious guy yet before I graduate. It's not like I haven't been trying...nothing just ever seems to click..there's just never a spark...but then..you and Brad..you can see the steam simmering everytime you two are together."

"Would you stop that Tina..Brad and I aren't that perfect, " Wendy tried to sooth her confidante's feelings, privatly knowing Tina was correct in her assessment of the chemistry between her and her future husband.

The two girls went back and forth for the next few minutes, reaffirming each other, until a sudden thudding series of knocks at the door startled them both.

"Guess they're finally here," Tina mumbled as she hopped up to let the two football players in.

____________________________________

Sheron Dillon was on the verge of finishing his second semester at BYU. Recruited to the school from a Junior College near his home in Southern California to be a reserve linebacker on the football team, Sheron had progressed surprisingly well, making it into 6 of the team's games the previous season, with assurances from his coaches that he'd play a significantly greater role next season, if his grades held up.

That was the main reason Sheron and one of his teammates, a Sophomore named Calvin Davis who was a 3rd string running back on the team were placed with tutors through the school's athletic department to help with Spring semester exams.

After a brief round of introductions, due to the late hour the foursome was getting their start, they split off into two pairs and went to seperate ends of the living room to crack open the books.

Both Political Science majors, Sheron paired off with Wendy while Calvin, who was struggling to tame a Literary Criticism class partnered up with Tina, who was an English major and aspiring teacher.

As the next hour or so unfolded, Calvin and Sheron did the best they could to focus on the task at hand. Knowing how important Finals were at a school like BYU, that didn't look past the grades of their athletes to keep them eligible, both young men did their best to keep their attention on what Tina and Wendy were trying to walk them through.

Every once in a while however, Calvin and Sheron would look up at the same moment and share a brief stare of spontanious enlightenment from across the room. Nodding to each other as the girls they were with read on and on, totally oblivious to the two players' silent interplay, both young men smiled in agreement from the temptation that presented itself on a daily basis around campus.

Eventhough each could have easily gone to a college where the sight of a black guy and a white girl together would have barely gotten a second look, in order to play football at a major college level, Sheron and Calvin's seperate paths had led them to Provo, Utah where there was an unspoken but implicit expectation in maintaining the purity of bloodlines.

"And there ain't a black girl within a hundred miles," Calvin's eyes seemed to gleam as he maintained eye contact with his slightly older teammate.

"And we still have to look at all these lily white pure and prudent girls every day around campus without a chance of even getting a Goddamn kiss," Sheron nodded in reply.

Eventhough each young man would have never admitted it to the other, without the outlet or opportunity for sex that most men their age had on a regular basis, Calvin and Sheron were forced the repress their natural urges, just as the preponderance of the single Mormon population surrounding them had to. And with more than 10,000 female students, faculty and locals for them to encounter on a steady basis, without any hope of every making an intimate connection, the natural build up of frustration on occassion became almost too much to bare.

___________________________________

Around an hour into the study session, Wendy called for a break so everyone could clear their heads and maybe get something to drink before cracking the books back open.

Allowing the two football players to chat with each other in the living room, Wendy and Tina slipped into the kitchen to fetch a couple of bottles of water and chat for a few seconds.

"How much longer do you think this is going to take?" Wendy offered up.

"Calvin and I are just about finished..he's got a paper due in the morning..so he wants to head out in a few minutes..How about you?" Tina replied.

"Probably another hour or so," Wendy guessed, sensing in her friend's body language and slight tremble of voice that Tina was feeling the same vague awkwardness that she was.

Nodding at each other when the shared uneasiness was evident on the other's face, Tina finally whispered, "Do you feel the way..the way they are looking at us?"

"AHH...No...," Wendy lied.

"You're just imagining that Tina...its just all those years where they never let female tutors work with male students here at school...guys are gonna look at girls..that's normal..you're just being self-conscious," Wendy muttered, not wanting to justify the same insecurities she was herself feeling.

The two girls returned to the living room and each felt their stomachs roll when they saw Calvin and Sheron look up and smile.

"What in the world were they talking about before Tina and I walked back into the room?" Wendy nervously wondered.

Looking briefly to her left, at Tina, Wendy could see her friend was awkwardly fidgeting with her hands as well.

"...Tina said you have a paper to work on for tomorrow Calvin," Wendy spoke up, desperate to break the brooding silence in the room.

"Yeah..Yeah I do," Calvin pleasantly replied. "I need a little time to work on it tonight..I think I'll probably head out."

Calvin smiled and thanked the two girls for their time before giving Sheron a handshake and a subtle wink goodbye.

"I'll stick around...if you want," Tina voice trailed off, leaving Wendy feeling awkwardly betwixst.

If she said, "Yes..please stay", she'd be keeping her friend there when Tina most certainly had other things to do, not to mention giving Sheron the clear impression that she was uncomfortable alone in his presense.

On the other hand, if she said "No..you can go..I'll be fine", Wendy would have to sit through the rest of the tutoring session with the football player, feeling uncomfortable in his presense.

"No...No....I'll be fine Tina," Wendy stuttered calmly. "Sheron and I should be done in 30 minutes or so....you go on home..I'll talk to you first thing in the morning."

"...O..K," Tina said unevenly, casting Sheron and Wendy one last look before excusing herself from the apartment.

As soon as the sound of the door closing behind Tina resonated inside of Sheron's head, he gazed over to Wendy standing to his right and realized he was alone with a female student for the first time since arriving on campus. His synapses buzzing from the novelty of the moment, Sheron seemed to daze out for several seconds as he watched the young Mormon girl's lips move without hearing what she was saying.

"Damn she's pretty hot," Sheron found himself thinking, allowing his eyes to slowly scan up and down Wendy's now seated frame without the fear of another person in the room catching him doing it.

"Fuck..its been since Christmas break back home since you got any pussy..most anything would look hot right now," Sheron internally brimmed, dropping both hands on top of his lap to conceal any visible traces of his steady arousal. "And you know she's a virgin..all these Goddamn girls here are virgins...no guy has probably ever even seen that tight cunt...I bet she doesn't even shave it...and that fat fuckin' ass...uummmm..those chunky legs and that sweet innocent face..and look at the way those heavy tits of hers are shaking and quivering inside that teeshirt everytime she exhales or moves around in the seat....DAMN!"

Shaking his head, trying to snap himself from the haze of sexual angst flowing through his mind and body, everytime Sheron tried to look down and re-focus his efforts on the text of the book Wendy was reading from, he couldn't help but fixate on the way the unsuspecting girl's hefty bosom swayed noticably under her teeshirt.

"Goddamn..I wonder what my cock would look like sandwiched between those things," Sheron privatly wondered, bringing a wide satisfied grin to his face, giving Wendy the misguided impression that he was catching on to the lesson she was trying to teach.

"You're getting the concept now, Sheron?" Wendy smiled proudly in return.

"If you only knew the half of it," The young football player thought wryly. "Oh Yeah...I'm getting it real good."

"I see a couple of different pairs of shoes by the door....I'm sure you dont have this whole big apartment all to yourself?" Sheron asked a few moments later, innocently trying to make conversation.

"Yeah," Wendy looked up and replied. "Two other girls..Nadine and Allison..Allison is down state right now visiting a sick relative and Nadine might be home later..she's over at a mutual friend's place planning a church mission this Summer...she crashes over there sometimes if she stays really late."

A brief sparkle shimmered in Sheron's dark brown eyes when he realized once again he was alone with Wendy, and could tell from the way she instantly dropped her eyes to the book in her lap as soon as she mentioned niether of her roommates might be home for a while, that the studious Mormon girl was sorry she had let that slip.

Several minutes of studying interrupted by occassional idle banter played out until Sheron's roving gaze locked onto the shiny diamond adorning Wendy's left ring finger.

"Engagement ring? " he asked incrediously.

"Y...Yes," Wendy replied, unsure where the conversation was headed.

"Engaged..WOW..But you're so young...don't you want to go out and see the world a little?" Sheron casually countered.

"Well I did do a mission to Peru last year..but I'm ready to settle down... I've met the right guy...and that's just the way they've always done things in the Culture here...get out of school and start a family," Wendy reflectivly pondered.

"Lucky guy," Sheron thought to himself.

"So when's the big date?" he asked.

"August 14th...that's a picture of Brad right there on the end table..he's a Senior here at school too... getting ready to graduate," Wendy proudly replied.

"Humm..Congratulations," Sheron politely added.

"Thanks," Wendy churped. "So...are you seeing anybody?"

For the second time in nearly 5 minutes, Wendy watched words leave her mouth that she wished she could have reached out and taken back. Knowing there wasn't a chance Sheron wasn't activly involved with any of the girls on BYU's campus, Wendy began to blush and stammer to try and cover her insensitive question.

"You..know...are you ...do you have a girlfriend back home in California?"

"Yeah...I got a few I'm seeing...nothing serious though...here's a picture of a few of them if you want," Sheron offered as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

Opening it up and extending his hand towards Wendy, Sheron casually shuffled through the deck of encassed photos, peeling them off one by one until he had shown the slightly stunned Mormon girl nearly a dozen of his female acquantinces.

Scanning each of the pictures as Sheron briskly shuffled through them, the pale skin of Wendy's cheeks began to blush vividly as she watched the litany of youthful, energetic and in some cases scantily clad, smiling women whiz by.

"Are all those...your ex-girlfriends?" Wendy cautiously asked, feeling the cushion of the seat underneath her suddenly become warm.

"No..most of them are just friends..like I said...nothing serious," Sheron smiled before closing the wallet and placing it on top of his opened backpack.

Clutching the edge of the textbook tightly in her hands at the same time she subtly pressed its rectangular mass down on top of her thighs, suddenly it was Wendy's turn to zone out while Sheron was asking a question.

"I kind of need to take a break...Where's the bathroom?" Sheron had to ask twice before Wendy finally snapped out of her brief daze.

"Its...Its down the hall...second door on the left."

"OK...Thanks," Sheron replied before hopping up from his seat and disappearing down the darkened corridor.

Hearing the 20 year old football player's heavy footsteps drift down the hall, Wendy closed the textbook on her lap and let out a huge sigh of relief when she finally heard Sheron close the bathroom door behind him.

"Its getting late," she told herself, looking over at the clock just to verify her thought.

In the process of checking the time however, Wendy couldn't help but see that Sheron's wallet had tumbled down off the top of his backpack and was laying partially opened between the chair and living room table.

Hearing the faint echo of the toilet seat being lifted up from down the hall, Wendy knew she had a moment to herself to catch her breathe. As soon as she tried to clear her mind however, a subliminal memory suddenly tripped inside her head.

"That had to be some sort of optical illusion...some kind of shadow or the way the sun was setting in the sky," Wendy found herself thinking as one of the photos Sheron showed her of him and several of his friends lounging around one of the beaches near his home, glittered strangly inside her head.

"Just mind your own business," her inner voice shouted convincingly, eventhough her hands continued to fidget between her thighs, fighting the urge to reach over and grab Sheron's wallet, just to re-examine the picture in question.

In the process of re-playing that sliver of a memory over and over, Wendy felt butterflies the size of pigeons flocking in her belly until the sound of the toilet flushing and the football's player's steady footsteps eased back up the hallway.

"So...are we done?" Sheron spoke up as he re-entered the living room.

"Ye..Yeah..I think so," Wendy garbled, trying her best to maintain her composure as Sheron slipped past her to gather his stuff.

Dropping the textbook they had been using back into his school bag, Sheron kept his eyes glued on Wendy as the two said their 'goodbyes'. Not looking down as he picked up his backpack however, Sheron didn't have a clue that his wallet had fallen on the floor until he was long out the door.

A neat freak about the way her apartment was kept, Wendy quickly went over to where Sheron was sitting and grabbed his half empty glass of water off the coffee table. Looking down on the floor before she turned to take it to the kitchen however, she saw that Sheron had neglected to pick up his billfold before he left.

Instinctually reaching down to pick up the discarded wallet, Wendy clutched it loosely in her hand as she went to the front door to call out to Sheron. By the time she took a step out on the front porch, she realized it was too late when she saw the red taillights of Sheron's car speed away.

"Shucks," Wendy cringed as she closed the door and walked back inside

Ever the good samaritan, Wendy's first reaction was to open the wallet hoping Sheron had placed his number somewhere inside of it in case it ever got lost.

Before she could open it up however, a loud voice inside her head yelled, "Stop".

Looking down at the leather bound billfold resting gingerly between her fingers, the wallet seemed to take on the properties of radioactive fallout as she stared down at it.

"But you wanted to see those pictures all over again..didn't you?" another inner voice chided.

Poking her index finger into the opening of the wallet with the same tentativness of a person trying to ease a dead mouse from a sprung trap, Wendy carefully opened the folds to peek inside.

"Eleven Dollars," she muttered, eventhough her eyes had quickly darted off the $10 and $1 in the cash slot to the plastic sleeve of pictures resting beside it.

"Stop being such a baby and sit down..they wont burn your skin," Wendy's inner voice once again chided.