Fantasy Man Pt. 01

"Was it that obvious?"

She nodded and led the way to the bar. He followed in her wake and she grabbed his cup out of his hand. "What are you drinking?"

"They gave me rum and pineapple juice last time."

"Did you try the punch?"

"I didn't even know there was any."

She grinned, and shouted to the blondes, "Two punches." She spotted someone, and twirled to Corbin. "Take mine. I gotta go talk to her. Relax, have fun. Dance. Let go!"

He nodded. One of the two blondes shouted, "Hey. Hey!" He turned, and two cups of red punch came at him fast. He grabbed them and slipped through the crowd, trying to catch up to Brooke. But she was already heading outside.

Though his spot on the couch was now occupied by a pair of stunning twins laughing at something another woman was saying, Corbin found an unoccupied corner of the room. He sipped at one of the cups of punch. It was mixed even harder than the rum and pineapple juice. He might have to get a ride home at this rate.

He thought about ditching the drinks entirely and just leaving, but Jessica was coming back through the herd again. If she'd been swaying before, now she was listing. Her cheeks and forehead glowed red, and she stumbled against a couple people as she headed in Corbin's general direction.

"Hey. You," she said. She had a hard time focusing on him, but he got the general idea she was, indeed, talking again to him.

"Um. Hi." He showed her his hand. "You already charged me."

"It's not that." She held the 's' for a long time. "I felt like a jerk for overcharging you. What's your name?"

"That's Corbin!" Kenny said. Corbin jumped. He hadn't seen Kenny sneak in at the edges, but there he was, grinning widely. "Corb, she doesn't have a drink. Be a gentleman. Give her one of yours."

Corbin thought maybe that was the last thing Jessica needed in that moment, but her eyes lit up and she made a gimme motion. He handed over a cup. She took a sip and stared blearily between them. "Where'sss Brooke?"

"She's out back," Kenny said conversationally. He wrapped an arm around Jessica's lower back, pulling her in tight. His hand rested on her ass and he squeezed, mouthing, "Wow" at Corbin. Corbin smiled weakly. Should Kenny really be doing that? "Party helping you get over your guy?"

Jessica sniffed. "I don't want to talk about Lionel." It came out more like Linnel.

"Okay," Kenny said.

"Do you want some water?" Corbin asked Jessica. She stared at him, blinking, and he thought he saw a note of confusion there.

"She's all right with that punch, aren't you?" Kenny asked.

"Maybe something to eat?" Corbin suggested. "There was still some-"

"Dude. Cool it," Kenny said, losing some of his smile. His hand came around Jessica's front, and he glanced around casually before sliding it into her waistband.

"What are you doooing?" Jessica whined. "Brooke's here."

"I don't really think you should, um, do that," Corbin said.

"Brooke's all right with it," Kenny said, now giving Corbin a death stare. Stay the fuck out of my business, that look said. Corbin felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to leave. He wanted to run from this place. Kenny pulled his fingers out and brought them to his lips, savoring her taste with a long suck. "God, that's good."

"I should sit down," Jessica said, leaning against Kenny. "I need to sit down."

"I'll take you upstairs," Kenny said. "We'll get you tucked in. Want to help, Corbin?" He winked.

"Stop it," Corbin said. Kenny ignored him, and turned Jessica towards the stairs. "I said, stop! You're not taking her upstairs, Kenny!"

"What the fuck did you say?" Kenny snarled.

"I said you're not doing this to her. She's too drunk."

"You little son of a bitch, I invited you here." Kenny let go of Jessica and shoved Corbin up against a wall. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't beat you to a fucking pulp right now."

"Us," one of the twins said pleasantly. "We're the good reason."

They stood right behind Kenny. He turned. "Hey, London. Dakota. Just, ah, going to take Jessica upstairs and, you know-"

"Naaah," one of them said. "We got this. We're going to make sure she's okay. Free of any assholes."

Kenny looked like he wanted to take a swing at something, but instead, he turned on Corbin and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "You're done for at the athletic complex. You'll be cleaning dishes by Monday, fuckhead."

"Then it means I won't have to see you," Corbin said, despite every nerve in his body shouting at him to run away.

Kenny held his gaze a moment longer, then stormed out back, shouting for Brooke. Corbin breathed a sigh of relief. The twins studied him curiously as they got their arms underneath Jessica. He said faintly, "I think I'm going to go out front and be sick. Please don't let her be alone with him. Or anyone else. Okay?"

They nodded, and he stumbled away. Outside, he stumbled down the stairs and made it halfway down the sidewalk before vomiting noisily on the grass. People laughed and he hurried away, sure his future at the college was now in cinders.

* * *

Jessica woke in one- and two-second montages of color and clinks. Her head throbbed too much to put conscious thoughts together for a long while, but somewhere in the hour-long soup of trying to come fully awake, she realized people must be downstairs cleaning up. Or maybe robbing her blind. She wasn't sure which.

She finally settled into a solid wakefulness wrapped tight under her thick comforter -- a present from Lionel, one she hated to love so much. At first she thought how warm and cozy she was, but a volcanic eruption deep in her guts made her shoot for the edge of the bed. Not gonna make it, she thought to herself frantically, but someone left a wastebasket next to the bed and she dropped her head towards it, pathetically grateful she wasn't puking all over the floor.

As Jessica heaved up God knew how many cocktails, she heard two voices on the stairwell. London. Dakota. Hot tears plinked into the mess she made and not just because of the vomiting. She vaguely remembered the twins showing up to her party last night. She loved them too much to be pissed, but she hadn't really wanted to see them either. Not for a long time. Because they were still and probably always would be part of his harem.

Fucking Lionel.

"There she is," London said, keeping her voice low.

"I puked," Jessica muttered, still staring into the damage she'd just done.

"We know, hon. I think they could hear you in the next county," Dakota said.

"Let's get you up and in the bathroom," London said.

Jessica was too weak to argue. They peeled the comforter off her. She was dressed in last night's panties and tee. Jessica felt no shyness around the twins. They had done things together before, lots of things. For Lionel, of course. She saw the twins in every position imaginable, together, apart, with her, without her. Jessica was one of the few who knew their secret, that they were as into each other as they were Lionel. More, maybe. Mad as Jessica might be at them and Lionel, it was a secret she would take with her to the grave. She was not so furious with them she'd ever wreck their love for each other or him.

The bathroom was surprisingly spotless given that there was a party last night. The toiletries were all brand-new and the room smelled of cleaners. It took Jessica a long minute to realize the twins must have been cleaning for quite some time.

"You picked up for me?"

Dakota said, "Yes. Everything's just about done. Now that you're awake, we'll vacuum and that should be about it."

"Someone stole your soundbar. And I think there are some DVDs missing," London said, leaning in to start up the shower.

Jessica grunted. "That's not as bad as I was expecting. Anything else happen last night?" The twins looked at each other, then at her. "What?"

"What do you remember before you passed out?" London asked carefully.

"I... was out back. I think we were trying to make a firepit for S'mores." Jessica was starting to worry. "Why? What happened?"

"You're okay. No one slept with you. But there was a fight, I guess you'd call it." London filled Jessica in on the details.

Jessica couldn't get into the shower fast enough, shivering despite the blisteringly hot water. As the twins finished the story, she held her face up to the water and checked herself gingerly with her fingers, just to make sure. Nothing felt bruised or tender, and there was no evidence that anyone had done anything but what the twins said happened.

"Fucking Kenny Kilton," Jessica breathed. "I told Brooke about his reputation."

Dakota nodded. "We didn't catch the guy's name who tried to look out for you."

"I don't remember it either, but he works with Kenny. Brooke will know. I'll go by sometime and say thank you."

"When you passed out, I stayed with you, just to be safe," London said. "I know you didn't want anything to do with us, but honey, I wasn't going to let you be alone like that."

"Thank you," Jessica murmured. "I'm sorry I've been a bitch. You must hate me for trying to... to take Lionel away from you."

"No. No one hates you. Love is love," Dakota said. "You took your shot. No one can blame you for being human and having those damn feeling things."

Jessica laughed shakily. "I'm not even really mad at Morgan. I should have told Lionel earlier. Then I wouldn't be so attached and none of this..."

She broke down. The sobs came out of her in great big ugly bursts, and she couldn't even see when they shut the water off and pulled her out of the shower, hugging her, letting her get it out. Eventually one of the two disappeared and came back with a glass of water. Jessica drank it down with a couple aspirin, and finally let herself be led back to the bedroom. She dressed in simple sweats while London started vacuuming downstairs. A quick check in her hidden book safe confirmed she'd at least been smart enough to lock away the cash from last night before she passed out. That was something. A quick count put it over a grand and a half. Not bad at all.

When she came down, the place looked far better off than even before the party. "You two are incredible, you know that?" Jessica asked.

Dakota wrapped her arm around her friend and kissed the top of her head. "Promise you're going to be okay? It's one thing to let it out with a party like this, but I don't want to see you getting blitzed every night."

"I promise. I'm hurting but I'm not going to go nuts. Lionel made his decision and I have to move on," Jessica said. She sighed. "I really should make an effort to track down that guy from the party last night. Let me call Brooke, see if she can't do breakfast with us."

As it turned out, Brooke was in just as bad a mood as Jessica, and spat out expletive after expletive when she picked up.

"That dumb dickless dipshit."

"Nice alliteration," Jessica said.

"God, I'm going to kill him. I'm so sorry, Jess. Are you okay?"

"I'm good. Dakota and London took care of me. Are you okay?"

"No. I didn't know anything happened until this morning. Ugh. I let that fucker talk me into a blowjob last night. If I'd known, I would have bit Kenny's dick off."

"I have no doubt," Jessica said. "You want to come over? I was going to make breakfast for all of us."

"Hell yes, but I'm buying. And no arguing. I feel the need to do something to make it up to you. So get your fine behinds down to, what, Surly's?"

"Ooh, I'm not going to say no to Surly's. See you soon."

Despite the name, Surly's was a bright, cheery place off one of the big downtown shopping centers in Agramonte. It was always packed, but enough servers whirred around to make it a short ten-minute wait. And it was worth it, too. Brooke, looking as bad as Jessica felt, damn near made good on her promise of ordering everything, and over heaping platter of biscuits, gravy, two kinds of potatoes, every breakfast meat on the menu, eggs, and a big freshly baked cinnamon roll they split between the four of them, they had enough food to feed a small country.

In between bites, Brooke took Jessica's phone from her and tapped out a name and a bonus -- CORBIN BLOCK, MASTERSON BLDNG RM. 302. "Thank Nia for the last name and the address," she said. Nia was a mutual friend at Student Services.

"I will. What do you know about him?"

"Corbin? Not a whole lot. He does work-study stuff for the athletic department. He and Kenny are friends. Well... were, I guess." Brooke winced. "That's going to be awkward. They see each other just about every day. Anyways, he seems like a nice guy. Awkward. I think he might be a virgin, you know. Just kinda get that vibe. He gets tongue-tied around a lot of girls. And someone's got to tell him to get a haircut and shave every other day. He'd look ten times handsomer if he wasn't so scruffy."

"Hm," Jessica said. "Okay, thanks."

"No problem."

They took their time and finished the meal. The twins had to duck out first. Jessica knew they were going to be busy for a couple weeks with Lionel and Morgan's imminent wedding, and hugged them fiercely one last time. After saying goodbye to Brooke too, she hopped in her car and headed for the college, still feeling the loss of Lionel in her life but determined to move on. And she thought she knew just how to work off a bit of that edge.

* * *

Corbin rested on his stomach, a controller in hand. His roommate Sam leaned forward on one of the small dorm room's padded wooden chairs, a piece of licorice hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Sam was always eating something, but maybe only ran a buck forty. Corbin envied him that. He really had to stop snacking and eating so much at the cafeteria, because unlike his roommate, he packed on pounds pretty easily.

Saturdays were the only day they really got to hang out much, which was a shame. Sam was weird, but in a really harmless, goofy way. He liked old eighties music and movies but hadn't seen or heard much made in the last twenty years, so the two of them were always educating each other on the things they loved.

One thing they did have in common though was video games. Corbin loved big RPGs and Sam was more of an action guy, but they both had a huge fondness for couch co-op games. Their current obsession was Ark, but they were talking about going halves on the newest Borderlands when it came up on sale.

As a dinosaur thundered in front of them on screen, making the walls shake with the sound, someone knocked. Sam set down his controller and hurried to get it. They had a few friends on the floor and Corbin didn't bother looking back until a woman said, "Corbin?"

He damn near fell off the bed in his haste to stand up. Jessica Nakamura, and even in sweats, she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She looked between the two roommates, and told Sam, "We're going to need... mm... two hours. Okay?"

"But we had a tame going and..." Sam trailed off and his eyes bulged. "Oh. Okay! Uh. Sure. Yeah. Two hours. I can go get something to eat."

He scuttled backwards, staring at Jessica as he felt for his flip flops with his feet. When he found them, he snatched up his wallet and his keys and hurried out, stopping just long enough to look back at Corbin and mouth, "Holy shit!" Corbin jerked his head sideways and Sam nodded frantically, slamming the door shut in his haste.

Jessica stared around the room, and Corbin blushed. The shelves on his side were loaded with action figures from his childhood, his game books were scattered all over his desk, and their Wall o' Snacks, as they called it, looked like it had been picked out by a fifth grader. He shoved his dirty laundry under his bed with his foot, and said, "Last night, I, I, I'm sorry if it wasn't my place, but I thought he was going to... well, try to do something horrible."

Jessica stopped looking around and focused on him. She lifted her sweater up and over her head. The only thing on underneath was a blue bra. Corbin's words escaped him as she reached behind her to lock the door.

"You weren't out of place. And this isn't a thank you, or a reward, or whatever. You don't get prizes for being a decent human being. This is because I've been having a really fucking shitty week and... I don't know why. Because I want to. Okay?"

"Okay," Corbin whispered. He cleared his throat. "Should I... should I get naked?"

"That's generally how these things start, isn't it?" she asked, sounding more amused than sarcastic. He looked away and began to strip down. "Corbin. Have you ever done this before?"

"Yeah. I had a girlfriend when I was sixteen. Well, she was kind of a summer thing and we only did it like five times but-"

"Okay," Jessica said, leaning against the door to pull off her shoes. "That's all I needed to know. And it's not 'doing it.' It's making love, having sex, or fucking. You fucked five times. Right?"

"Well... four," he said, blushing even harder. "One was just... um... mouth stuff."

"You mean you ate her pussy? Or did she suck your dick?"

"Both?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

He stopped with his hands on his jeans. "Are you mad at me or something? I don't want to do this if you don't want to."

Jessica came to him, still in her sweat bottoms and her bra. She looked down and helped him with the jeans. "No," she said quietly. "Well, I'm not mad at you. Just men in general. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to fuck for a while with a guy who isn't a complete asshole."

Corbin nodded, but hesitated. "I... broke up with her." Jessica looked up at him quizzically as she unzipped him. "She was really kind of, um, loud and opinionated, and I was... I could have been nicer about it."

"Okay? Why are you telling me that?"

"Because I'm kind of an asshole too?"

Her lips parted, and for some crazy reason, Jessica Nakamura leaned up and kissed him. Her lips were so soft and warm, and she tasted a little bit like grease and gravy. Taken completely by surprise, Corbin's hands shot up, then wavered in midair, trying to figure out what he should do with them. She sensed it, and pointed at her cheeks. Corbin grinned against her lips and brought his hands there, running his thumbs across her high cheekbones. It was an awkward kiss, but one of the best of his life, and he could have stayed like that forever, if his hard-on didn't betray him.

She must have felt it poke against her hip because she broke the kiss and glanced down. Her eyes widened, and she murmured, "Not bad, Corbin."

"Um. Thanks."

She guided him out of the rest of his clothes and stripped quickly out of hers. Corbin never felt so wildly self-conscious as that moment. He was soft -- not by a whole lot, not even all that fat, but with extra padding she definitely didn't carry. Jessica was... God, she was perfection. Perky. Tanned all over. Not a bit of fat to her. Where he covered his hard cock, she held no shyness, her shaven pussy his to stare down at with a tightening throat.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he croaked.

Jessica smiled faintly at that, and nudged him back towards the bed with three fingers on his chest. Corbin sat on the edge, reaching for her, but she shook her head. "Hand me a couple pillows."

"Okay."

"And tell me why you think I'm beautiful."

He grabbed the pillows and handed them to her. "You just... are."

She fluffed one and dropped it at his feet. "For what I'm about to do to you, Corbin, you need to try harder than that."

"Oh jeez," he whispered. "Um. Um. Your face. You've got this really, um, it's really sculpted. Like... some artist or something had the perfect vision for what a face should look like, and they made you."

That seemed to take her by surprise again, and Jessica leaned forward to kiss him. "Not bad," she breathed against his lips. "You'll get a kiss every time you score a point."