Gary and the Goth Girl

It was a fairly normal Friday. Gary decided that he needed to visit a couple of the art stores and replenish some of his supplies. Nothing out of the ordinary there, he typically did a run at least once a month and he preferred to spend his money locally rather than order everything online. Not to say he didn't keep a good eye on the pricing and occasionally stock up on something that was on a good online sale, but most of the usual stuff was available at decent prices on the shelves. There was just something about shelves full of art supplies and bins full of pencils that made him happy. And, he admitted to himself, it actually forced him to interact with real people. It wasn't that he didn't like people, but he had gotten so out of the habit, It was almost as if his brain didn't want to make the effort anymore. And he knew he had to get a lot better at it and soon.

There were certain items that he would get at the big hobby stores and there was usually a sale on some item or another that was good. He had to drive to get to them, they weren't located downtown.

But he always made the local art store his last stop, he could walk there from his studio. It was close to the art school, so there were always students there, picking up the materials for their latest assignment. And because there were students as regular patrons, picking up known supplies for specific classes, the store would often have package deals with all the items needed for a particular class. And Gary would often pick up one or two of those when they matched his media needs.

Today he was hoping they had some ink sticks in stock. It was a hit or miss type item not required for any of the main classes and only used by students taking an elective or working on a special project. And never carried by the big stores.

He came around the corner to find the aisle occupied by a young woman. Well, he assumed she was young from her outfit, the woman part was quite obvious. She was wearing tall black boots with chunky soles. Black stockings with bats climbed her legs and disappeared under a black and white schoolgirl plaid skirt. That was topped by a white blouse peeping out from behind a short black leather like jacket. Straight black hair fell just below her shoulders and she was wearing black fingerless gloves in leather, with spikes across the back. She was probably average height, the boots adding a couple inches. She was perusing the inks.

Gary moved to that area, as that was where he had found the ink sticks before. He was looking across the shelves, looking for the small boxes they normally were found in. He was about to give up and resign himself to buying a small bottle of the pre-mixed ink and order the sticks online when he spotted a handful of the small boxes behind the pint size bottles of ink.

Reaching behind the bottles he extracted the boxes and looked at them. There were two brands there, the price difference between them was almost $2 a stick. He opened the box of the cheaper one and took a big whiff.

The sound caught the attention of the girl and she looked at him puzzled. After taking a good smell, Gary made a face. Then he opened the more expensive box, repeating the process, only this time he smiled.

"What are you doing?" Gary was startled, he had sort of forgotten someone else was there.

"I'm smelling the ink." He looked at her and found himself looking at a pair of light brown eyes, they were almost gold. The white face with the black eye liner, black lipstick and black eyebrows completed the picture of a typical goth and it was underlined with a black choker with some rather nasty looking spikes. There was a single piercing on one of her eyebrows, a simple gold bar over her right eye.

"Does it make a difference what it smells like?" He caught a flash of gold in her mouth, probably a tongue stud.

"Well of course it does! Here, close your eyes and smell this." He placed the first box under her nose. "What do you smell?"

"Um, it sort of smells like exhaust."

"Exactly! Now smell this one!"

She took a big whiff from the second box and opened her eyes in surprise. The smile that came with it seemed contrary to every statement her outfit was making. "Pine! That smells like pine!"

"It does! The cheap ones are made with the cheapest materials they can find. In this case, they probably burned old car tires to create the soot, mix with a binder and press it into sticks. The pine one was made using pine wood and pitch to create the soot. I'll always take pine over exhaust fumes!"

"So how do you use them?"

"I use it for sumi-e, you probably touched on it in one of your first year classes. Traditional Chinese and Japanese art form? You use an ink stone to grind the stick with water and make black ink. And you want the pine because the aroma is part of the centering process of making the ink. Apply it with a brush to traditional rice/mulberry paper."

Now that she was facing him, he could see that she was pretty cute. The white blouse was tied in a knot to reveal her belly button, complete with a jewel encrusted bat. It also emphasized her cleavage, which was certainly above average.

"So, you do sumi-e paintings?"

"Well, I've learned most of the traditional topics, the four gentlemen and the seasons. I'm still trying to find something a bit new and different."

"Me, too! Well, for my senior project, I have to come up with some original art, something I have envisioned and created. I like the idea of ink on paper, but just haven't found something that hits me. Do you think you could teach me some sumi-e?"

Gary looked at her. She was certainly out of his league when it came to looks, and Goth Girls weren't typically interested in the artsy types, but she was an artist. He decided to go for broke.

"I can certainly show you how it works and you can look over my portfolio to see if it gives you any ideas. How about we go up the street and get a cup of coffee? If you're finished here!"

"I'd like that!" The smile broke through again, dispelling a lot of the dark side.

"Let me cash out here and we'll go!"

Gary floated to the cash register. He'd actually asked a girl out for coffee and she said yes! If she was looking at her senior project, she was probably only a couple years younger than he was. He wouldn't describe himself as good looking, but he was in good shape. After making his purchase they walked up the street together.

"I'm Gary, by the way!"

"Oh, yeah, hi, Gary! I'm Crystal!"

It didn't take long before they were sitting at a hightop at the coffee shop with a beverage and huddled over Gary's phone. He showed her some of his portfolio of sumi-e paintings. He didn't know at that point that their conversation was probably the longest she had been a part of for years. Despite the Goth look, she was quite pleasant to talk with and she was scrolling through his pictures with her black nails. One of them had a bat in the design. And it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Oh, I have an idea for you!"

"What?"

"Okay, you can see from the examples that a large part of sumi-e is what isn't there. It's almost as if you are painting the shadows and letting the imagination fill in the rest! Well, what if you did something like this?" He pulled up a picture and went into edit mode. After a series of changes and adjustments, he showed her the image.

"What if instead of black on white, you did it white on black?"

Crystal seemed to freeze. Gary knew the look and knew that her mind was racing away at light speed evaluating all the possibilities. He was even blown away about the things that could be done that way and the opportunities.

She eventually came back to reality and looked at him with her mouth open. "That is brilliant! I am so glad that I met you today! I can't even see the end of this. I'm going to be able to provide my ideas to the professor without a problem. I owe you big time!"

"If I hadn't met you today, I would never have come up with it! But if I do anything along these lines, I will keep it entirely under wraps until you have presented your project."

"Why?"

"Well, um, I do know a lot of the faculty at your school."

"Really? Wait, are you a graduate?"

"Not from here, but a similar school in Detroit. And I've been talking with a lot of the folks at your school."

"Care to elaborate, or do I have to interrogate you?"

"Okay, okay, but you've gotta keep it quiet! Promise?"

"Promise!" Her eager face made her seem more like a schoolgirl than the Goth chick she was dressed as.

"Okay, so you know Professor Jamison?"

"Yeah, I had him for Intro to Media, first year."

"Have you heard that he's retiring at the end of this year?"

"Sure, at least that's the rumor going around."

He didn't say anything and she looked at him. It didn't take too long for her to piece it together. "You?"

"Me. They let me know last month and I've been learning the ropes. I'm learning the admin side of things right now as well as sitting in Jamison's class. I'll teach my first class next semester. Then in the Fall I'll be teaching Intro to Media."

"Wow. Um, so how old are you? You hardly seem old enough to be a professor."

"Technically, I've been hired as an associate professor. When I finish my masters from the university at the end of this semester I'll be promoted to assistant professor. Then it will take some time to make full professor with tenure. Oh, and I just turned 25."

"So what class are you teaching next semester?"

"I think you could guess!"

"Really? You're going to teach a class on Sumi-e? Hmm, I think I need to take that!"

Gary swallowed hard, he quickly thought about the information he knew and decided to go for broke. "Um, I wish you wouldn't."

"What! Why not?"

"Because a professor isn't allowed to date a student."

Crystal went completely silent, staring at the phone screen sitting on the table. She felt the wall of her social anxiety starting to close in on her. Finally she said "You would go out with a Goth Girl?"

"My primary qualification to ask someone out is that I think they are pretty. You easily meet the qualification for pretty. The second is that we have identified some common interest. And we do seem to share some of the same interests. You are a few years younger than me, I know you have to be at least 20, but I'd say probably 22 or 23, you seem a bit more mature than most college girls, though you do have a streak of childish glee in you when something really resonates."

Crystal looked over at him checking him out up and down as she chewed on her lip. He was a good height and had a healthy build. Even though he was wearing a rather loose jungle shirt, it was tight enough she could see he wasn't overweight. The forearms looked pretty strong and he hadn't gotten winded as they walked up the hill to the coffee shop. Brown hair, brown eyes and a nice smile seemed to top things off. And he was still sporting a nice tan a month into the fall semester.

She'd gotten into the Goth culture in high school as a group she felt she could fit into, it helped avoid a lot of the complications of just being a high school student, she could appear to be outside the norms without totally alienating the rest of the world. It was a coping mechanism for her social anxiety that seemed to work. By the time she started college she was comfortable with the persona she had created and just kept it going, but every once in a while when she was comfortable with the person she was talking to she would slip and drop it.

"I owe you! So I will take you out to dinner this evening as a thank you. Do I need to come pick you up someplace?"

"Hey, I asked you out!"

"Um no, you didn't, let me replay that, no, no, you mentioned dating, you correctly identified some common interests we have, you put out an estimated age on me, I'm 22 by the way, but nope, no invitation for dinner or any sort of date. So I beat you to it!" Gary liked the touch of sarcasm in her voice, everything she had said indicated a pretty smart individual.

He laughed, "Okay, you win! I'm slow and not too sure of things when talking with pretty ladies, so don't be too hard on me! I have a combination studio and apartment in The Lofts just down the street."

She picked up his phone and added herself to the contact list before sending herself a text and the picture he had manipulated. "There. Text me your address and I'll meet you there at 6:30 and we can walk to dinner. Any type of food you don't like or are allergic to?"

"I'm good with pretty much anything."

"I gotta go, but I will see you this evening!" And she was gone, popping off the stool and was gone before he could even say yes. In one respect he was glad, as he never could figure out how to end conversations, particularly with women. But he did admire the way her skirt flipped around her butt as she swirled out the door.

--------------------------

She felt sick to her stomach as she almost ran back to the dorm. Crystal was one of the few seniors that still lived in the single large dorm on campus. It was just so much easier to get to class on time and it avoided having to deal with transportation. No roommates to worry about. And there was a lot less partying going on in the dorms, so less pressure to deal with.

But when she got to the dorm and took the elevator to her floor she just sort of collapsed in the lounge with her face buried in her hands. She was excited about the ideas running through her head for the senior project, but a bit overwhelmed with the idea of going on a date. Most of her social interactions had been as part of a group. And her few sexual encounters had all been rather hazy experiences with lots of alcohol involved.

Marlene came through the lounge, "Hey, Goth Girl, are you okay?"

Crystal jumped. "Oh, yeah, I suppose so."

"What's the matter?"

"Well, um, I have a date tonight! I have no idea what you do on a date! I've always gone out with a group of people, never one on one!"

"Wow! Never gone out on a date? So who asked you out, do I know them?"

Crystal moaned, "I asked him out! I don't know what I was thinking! But he was so nice!"

"Well that answers that question. Alright, let's figure this out. Look, it really doesn't matter, but, are you experienced sexually?"

She shrugged, "I've had sex. It just usually involves a lot of alcohol and splitting off from the group for a bit."

"Let me get some of the other girls out here, we can help you with this!"

It didn't take long for a dozen girls to surround Crystal. They asked lots of questions, including finding out her real name, about where they were going, what brought the two of them together, and how did she see the evening ending. Before she knew it they had her in the bathroom, using a depilatory on her legs, helping to wash her hair and getting her all cleaned up.

The biggest question was what was she going to wear? Her date had only seen her in Goth, so half the group was all for staying with that, maybe he was into that. The other half was looking at a softer sort of look. They opened her room and started selecting things. Eventually they agreed that she should stay with the Goth outfits, but include something more colorful such as a blouse and a color palette for her make-up, definitely not black lipstick and go much lighter on the eyeliner. The shoes selected were black ankle boots. The stockings were sheer black with a nice geometric design on them. A leather miniskirt with a nice chain belt was topped by a red blouse, opened to show off her cleavage with hints of the black bra in a supporting role. Several of the girls helped her with her makeup, using a dark red lipstick rather than something bright, keeping with the Goth scene. They softened her eyebrows a bit with a brown pencil rather than black, used a light eyeliner with some hints of red in it and just a touch of blush. They added some curls to her hair to give a softer look. When done they all agreed that she looked amazing and any guy that didn't like it didn't deserve her. No gloves this time and they tied a thin red ribbon around her throat instead of a choker.

During the whole time they carried on a running commentary, about things to talk about, subjects she should probably avoid, and don't drink too much. A couple of them decided that they were going to go to the restaurant and sit at the bar and have a couple drinks, so there was a safety net she could run to if she panicked or things went really badly.

Crystal looked at herself in the mirror. There was no question it was her. She liked the look, it was certainly different from her normal self, but it was a special occasion and the changes seemed to reflect it properly without going to extremes. They had ruled out anything with spikes. Only the red blouse seemed to conflict with her normal wear and the ankle boots were her usual class wear, though usually with black jeans and someone appeared to have polished them up. When Gary had texted his address to her, all the girls had jumped on the phone, but were disappointed that there were no pictures involved.

Several of the girls added their contact information to her phone and told her to call or text if she needed help. They even double checked that her phone was charged, the lipstick was in her small over the shoulder purse and went so far as to slip a couple of condoms in and double checked that her ID and credit cards were there. Crystal was overwhelmed by how nice all the girls were being to her. They hardly knew who she was, but were spending their time helping her out. And weren't judging her at all, just doing what they could to help.

She nervously walked the three blocks to the apartment building. Part of the way Bella and Sheryl were with her, peeling off to head to the restaurant bar if she needed them. In the apartment lobby she pushed the button for his apartment and the door to the elevator lobby buzzed open. She arrived at his door and after taking a deep breath, she knocked.

Gary had been waiting with some anticipation. He hoped she wouldn't back out, while there was a part of him that wouldn't have minded. When the buzzer went he quickly pushed the release button and checked himself out in the mirror. He had decided to go with a darker theme, to match a bit better with her Goth style. He had a light gray shirt and a dark gray jacket. After a great deal of debate with himself, he had finally put on a dark blue tie. Black pants with his black boots and he was set. He had to hold himself back and not run to the door when he heard the knock. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and froze.

It took a few moments before either one of them moved.

"Wow!"

She actually blushed. She wasn't used to being looked at this way, not as the freaky Goth, but it was quite obvious that he liked what he was seeing.

A few moments more of staring at each other and he finally moved. "Oh, please, come in! I think I want to make one change before we leave!"

He held the door open for her. "Just wait here a minute!" He dashed to the bedroom and returned quickly, holding a couple of red ties. He held them up next to her blouse and took the one that most closely matched. A couple of quick flips and the blue tie joined the others on the counter and a few motions and he settled the red tie under his neck. "There, better?"

She smiled and straightened the tie a bit. "Better!"

And as if drawn by a magnet, they kissed. It wasn't a hard passionate tonsil dive or even a quick peck. It was a nice gentle connection and they were both smiling when they pulled away.

"I think not being able to take your class is going to be a good trade off!"

"I think you are right!"

They went down the elevator and hit the streets, Crystal setting the direction. And after a bit of silence she pulled one of the suggested questions up in her brain, "So, you've seen me in two outfits, which do you like best?"