Mike & Karen Ch. 16

Enraged, the gay community as a whole began marching, and lobbying for laws to finally change and allow gays and lesbians to live their lives free of scrutiny or harassment. The bathhouses may have been gone, but gay and lesbian-centered activities began to flourish elsewhere, openly. Not the least of these were student houses at the universities.

One of these houses had held a party for lesbians on-campus, and Karen had made sure she and Lisa got an invite. To Lisa's amazement, it wasn't simple tawdry debauchery. She had no reason to think it would be, but there she was, amazed all the same. Sure, some of the girls were the stereotypical dykes that had always intimidated her, yes, but other girls were far more ... normal, like herself. She'd even seen a woman professor there, although everyone was tacitly mum about it.

And she's been a big hit at the party -- lots of girls welcomed her, and they celebrated her 'coming out', even though she'd been gay for some time, not to mention dating Karen. She'd made new friends, been hit on regularly over the course of the evening, and generally had a good time, even if she was the quiet and mousy one.

"I ... I gotta admit, Kar, I'm kinda surprised at how you got treated," she said as they made it to the far side of the lawn. "I thought they'd be all over you, but most of them were, well ... bitchy, and kinda catty to you."

"I'm not surprised," Karen replied, shrugging. "They know I'm not gay, I'm bi, and that's not quite acceptable to most of them yet. It means I'm still fraternizing sometimes with the enemy."

Lisa giggled: "Y'mean men."

"I mean men," Karen confirmed, nodding. "I expected it, because I'm the wealthy, privileged bi girl. But I also intimidate them, so I was tolerated. And in being so catty toward me, it made you look extra yummy and desirable, methinks."

"Oh, so you're trying to get me eaten by a bunch of cannibal lesbians?" Lisa teased, knowing what her friend and lover meant. "I had a good time, but ... it was a little much, y'know? I'm glad to be back here, just the two of us."

"You tuckered out?"

"No, the exact opposite, I'm ... really hyped," Lisa exclaimed as they made it to their dorm and went in the front door. "I've got a lot of energy now."

"Still feel like celebrating, Red?" Karen asked, smiling at her roomie.

"Depends, whatcha got in mind?" Lisa wondered.

"Well, we both still have the reek of smoke from the party clinging to us, so we can't go back to our room yet," Karen pointed out. "So we'll have to wait a bit before indulging in any intimacies privately..."

She led Lisa down the hall on the first floor, toward one of the larger study rooms. She pushed the wooden door open and led Lisa inside by the hand. The room was dark, unused at two in the morning. She slipped off her camel leather boots and put them aside, now clad only in socks.

"Shoes off and hit the lights, please," Karen instructed as she made her way across the floor. This was one of her favourite study rooms, since it was older and had a sprung wood floor, recently refinished and sealed. It felt quaint and venerable. While Lisa flipped on the lights, she made her way over to the far wall, where a huge fireplace and ornate mantle stood. The fireplace was strictly ornamental at this point, of course, but it gave the room a lovely charm she quite enjoyed.

"Excellent, the sound system I donated to the room hasn't walked yet," Karen announced as she walked up to a large, black boombox that sat on a sturdy table next to the mantle. Lisa walked into the room while Karen fiddled with switches, buttons and controls on the Sony FH-7. The bulky device blinked and came to life while Karen found a CD from a small selection and slotted it in place on top.

Seconds later, trumpets sounded, and a famous tune from the late Fifties echoed through the room.

"Well, lookabell, lookabell, lookabell, lookabell, oooooh-weeeeee!
Lookabell, lookabell, lookabell, oooooh-weeeeee!
Ooh, ah, ooh, ah, oooooh-weeee!"

"C'mon, Red!" Karen said gaily, twist-dancing in the middle of the room now in her socks, her golden-amber eyes full of mirth as she held out her hand. "Let's dance this energy of yours away. I know the Twist dance by the Midnighters didn't come out until the following year, but I figure this song still fits the theme!"

"Ohhh, I can't dance like you, Kar," Lisa whined, moving closer slowly, trying to protest. "I'll look silly!"

"Isn't that what dancing is all about?" Karen replied, twirling, her arms over her head. "Besides, I've caught you in much more embarrassing positions than this, young lady. Need I remind you of the brussels sprout fiasco?"

"Dorky dancing it is!" Lisa said hastily, preferring to not let Karen bring up her digestive tract's failed war on cruciferous vegetables. She joined the bronze-haired girl in the middle of the room and began trying to twist like Karen, failing miserably.

"Well, she's so fine, fine, fine,

She's so fine, fa-fa-fine,
She's so fi-ii-ii-ii-ine,

She's so fine, fine, fine,
She's really sweet,

The finest girl you ever wanna meet!

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh-oh, oh, oh, oh
Rrrrrrrrrr-Reet Petite,

The finest girl you ever wanna meet!"

The girls laughed as they danced around the room together, the Jackie Wilson anthem accompanying them. And Lisa had to admit, she was really enjoying herself, no matter how dorky she looked. Karen didn't care, she was just happy to have Lisa dancing with her.

And Lisa realized that this was what she cherished most about her friend. She didn't need to be in love with her. Right here, this was ... perfection. Karen gave her courage, gave her support, and yes, gave her love, but it braced Lisa and convinced her that she could face the world, and she would leave her mark and make a difference one day.

Thank you so much, Karen, my love ...

She laughed gaily as she spun through and under Karen's arm.

***

Elsewhere on campus ...

The four men were sitting in the lab, struggling over their equations before turning to the powerful computers and charged laser apparatus that dominated the space. The light overhead was decidedly bright and bleak, giving Ping a headache.

"We cannot complete this math," he complained, rubbing at his eyes. "We are stuck in a circle! We need the math to feed into the computers, but the computers are what can do the math, which would make the experiment possible."

"We can do the math, Ping," Mike said from his place nearby, towering over everyone as he scribbled endless sheets of equations, progressing as quickly as he could. "We have to do the math. If we don't, Mathematics department gets involved, meaning You-Know-Who gets involved, and there goes our badly needed funding and lab time. So we will get this done. Take a drink of water and stay focused."

"Could we at least turn down the lights?" Indur asked, looking up from his calculator. "Ping, he's right, the light is giving me a headache."

"Sure, you guys go ahead and continue here while I strip the switches out of the walls and ceiling and install dimmers for the next six hours," Mike snorted. "We absolutely have time for that. I know this is hard, guys, but we volunteered for this. Osborne didn't put a gun to our heads, we walked right into it willingly."

"A kínkeserves kutyaúristenit!" Gergo spat as he slammed his pencil down on the desk he was sitting at. His Hungarian temper was getting the better of him, his brown eyes red-rimmed from stress, and his curly hair damp with stale sweat. "But we are still stuck in this loop where no one part can move until the others move first, Mike!"

"That's not true, Ger, it just feels that way," Mike pointed out. "The answer is here somewhere, we just need to find it. Now, back three steps, gents ... why can't we get the measurements of the folded dimensions correct?"

Indur sighed and shook his head. They'd been over this twelve times already. "Because the symmetry between the left and right particles is retained on paper, but not in a natural state. It violates the weak nuclear force rule."

"So we're not carrying a two somewhere," Mike muttered. "It could be that simple. The problem is that coordinating our numbers is proving difficult, since the computer won't read our input as a gestalt ... Gergo, have you narrowed down which string calculation will allow for the three particle states and holes?"

"Teljesen," grumbled the Hungarian, shaking his head. "I have narrowed it down to six thousand possible models. Shall we began calculating through them one-by-one?"

Mike sighed and paused in his relentless calculations. His fellow students were tired, and he had pushed them hard for days, all of them running on little sleep. Bright as they were, though, they were not his equal in endurance of mind or body. Sometimes, a good leader had to know when his troops were taxed and it was time to call for a break.

Even Alexander the Great had turned back at the Hyphasis River, no matter how much he personally might have wanted to go on.

"Guys, I think you're right, it's time for a break," he said heavily, standing up straight and stretching, feeling the weariness is his muscles. "Believe it or not, we've done good work, and we're quite a bit closer than we were. Yeah, we're not there yet, but it's only a matter of time. Go back to your rooms and rest up, tomorrow's another day."

Sighing and mumbling, the three foreign students gathered up their notes and plunked them down in front of Mike before exiting the room. They all knew he had no intention of leaving yet and was resolved to stay and keep working. Maybe their scrawled math and observations would help him in some way. Beyond that, they were all so sick of calculations and Calabi-Yau Manifolds that they wanted to be as far from them as possible at this point.

Mike sat down in a chair and exhaled deeply, his hands steepled in front of his face. Perhaps he was wearier than he wanted to admit. Eugenio Calabi and Shing-Tung Yao certainly had made his life difficult of late. It didn't help that they were both mathematicians who dabbled in physics. Their work opening up Kahler Manifolds was brilliant, opening up endless lanes of possibility, and endless problems.

He could really have used Gordon's help, if for no other reason than to speed up the calculations involved.

"Hi, Janet," he said aloud, not turning to face the door.

"And how did you know it was me, big man?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"When you stop in a doorway, you draw one foot into a raised pose, and I heard the sound of the sole of your shoe brushing on the tile," Mike answered.

Janet looked down, frowning as she noticed that she did indeed have one foot pulled into a cute toe pose. "Count on your brain to take the sexy out of mystery. Couldn't you have lied and said you recognized my perfume or something romantic?"

"I'm not big on lying," he replied, turning around in his chair to look at her now.

"Well, that's about the only way you're not big then, sport," she quipped as she closed the door behind her and then came into the room, looking up at the light and grimacing. "Man, you eggheads really need some dimmers in these labs of yours. You should look into that."

"So I've been told," he said, watching as she approached him with a sassy smile. "So what's up with you?"

"Well, Mona's gone to some indigenous art display at the AGO, Freckles and the Princess have gone to some lesbo party off campus ..."

She settled down into his lap and put her arms around his neck. "As for me, I was in need of a good fucking, and you look like you could use a good fucking from something that isn't a bunch of numbers. Tell me I'm wrong."

Mike said nothing.

"Look, you're tired and you're stressed," she said, putting her fingers on his chin to keep his attention. "You know I'm not a china doll, I can handle it. I kinda love it when you're stressed and getting it out on me, in fact. We both get a dopamine rush, you get refocused for tomorrow, and I have new trophy sex bruises to show off. Win-win, right?"

Clearly she didn't care if they got caught, because she slid off his lap now and down between his legs. She pulled them apart by the knees and began undoing his belt and the button on his jeans. Seconds later, she'd tossed his pants and boxers aside, and was kissing and tonguing his cock slowly, smiling up at him.

She was right, no doubt. He could indeed use a break, and a dopamine rush to help get him to sleep so that he could focus better for the next round. Janet was a 'no strings attached' kind of girl. They liked one another, but they were not a couple. At one point, they'd sort of been dating, mostly on her behalf, but she was also the one that called it off. Not that Mike really minded. The distraction of an actual girlfriend was something he didn't need right now.

As he allowed himself to relax, he felt her wet lips encircling his head, tongue swirling slowly and moaning quietly. He closed his eyes and simply let go, his fingers running through her long brown hair. Her hand was clasped on the base of his shaft, slowly stroking up and down, following her mouth. Janet seemed to be enjoying herself, so he just let her do her thing. His turn to reciprocate would come soon enough.

"Mmmmm, think anyone can see us through those open windows, stud?" she asked, popping her mouth off his cock long enough to speak. Her hand kept gently stroking his swelling member while she looked over at the windows, and the campus at night beyond.

"Hm, doubt it," he replied, turning his head to look over casually. "Not in our current position, anyway."

"Well, maybe we'll fuck in the window, put on a show for any night owls out there," she purred, enjoying herself. She knew he was still lost in his little physics world, his massive cranium flooded with equations, but she also knew that he'd willingly leave that behind for good sex. She'd be patient. He'd had a long day, after all, and she knew how reticent she could be about sex when she was in a mood.

Fortunately, that was very rare with her.

She pushed her mouth down on him again, humming around his shaft, a technique she'd actually heard about from Karen. Well, not directly from Karen, but from Lisa, who had been told about it by Karen. Humming vibrated her lips around a man's cock, and was an added stimulation that they loved. She used it to great effect on other men, and was keen to see the effect it had on DeBourne, who was a monster (in a pleasing way) in bed. The orgasms he gave her never failed to turn her legs to jelly for at least two days after. It was hard not to be addicted, but ... she couldn't afford to be in love with this man, she'd never live her own life if that happened.

He was too big for her to get all the way in her mouth and throat, no matter how hard she tried. She'd even practiced on large dildos, but she still hadn't managed it. He didn't seem to object, however, and he was probably used to never being deep-throated. If Janet couldn't do it, she doubted anyone short of a porn star could, and Ginger Lynn was nowhere to be seen, was she?

Her free hand wandered up his massive, muscular torso, feeling chiseled and hard to her touch. His build intimidated a lot of women, who felt threatened by his raw power and masculinity, but Janet loved it. Her fingernails grazed over the taut skin, tracing the grooves between his striated muscles. He was just big all over, and it thrilled her no end.

It was weird to think about, because he looked like some crazy bodybuilder, like a jock; but his mind, the muscle between his ears, was every bit as powerful. She couldn't believe what this man knew, what he retained. He could tell her things about her own field of study, law, simply by having listened to her talk casually about it. His insights were annoyingly useful, so she tried not to talk about it around him. She didn't want to credit her graduation and future career successes to a guy she balled in university.

Only person as annoying as DeBourne for that sort of thing was Karen. How on earth did she get stuck between the two of them? What had she done wrong?

She shrugged as she continued sucking on him, pleased that he was now erect, his member throbbing in her mouth. She smiled up at him and winked. "Up for a little quid pro quo, to resort to legalese?"

Mike almost mentioned that the term quid pro quo was not exactly just a legal term, having considerable common usage, but decided that now was not the moment, especially since his dick was in her mouth, and she had teeth. He simply nodded instead.

Janet let his cock out of her mouth and stood up, taking his hand and leading him over to one of the desks not covered in papers. She giggled as she allowed him to lift her up and put her on the surface, then gently pushing her down to lie on her back. Without delay, he had pulled her slacks off, somehow leaving her pumps on. It felt sexy to her. She took off her shirt and her bra, tossing them aside as well.

Her scant panties followed half a second later, discarded on the floor with her pants and leaving her naked except for her heels. Then he pulled her legs apart with his powerful hands, exposing her neatly trimmed pussy and making her blush in delight. She shivered and whimpered as his tongue snaked around her already slick lips, and then flicked against her clit.

Janet moaned shamelessly as he pushed his tongue deep inside her, the powerful muscle lashing her walls and making her writhe, still pinned by his hands. Mere seconds had passed before she bit her lip and squealed, the first of what was no doubt many orgasms crashing through her. She never felt the need to hold back, because he could make her cum twelve times in a night, or until she passed out, whichever happened first. Not that she minded.

Her breath caught in her throat as one of his massive fingers slid inside her, his tongue now snaking around her pulsing clit. She bucked and thrashed beneath his onslaught, trying not to scream and alert the entire campus to the fact that she was having sex in one of the labs.

Janet's eyes snapped open and she forgot how to breathe as a second finger pushed inside her, along with the first, the pair crooking up and sliding along her front wall in a 'come here' motion. She clamped her hands tight over her face and screeched into them, her whole body shaking as another orgasm battered her senses. She thrashed wildly, certain she would black out. She shouldn't have been surprised; he always did this to her, even before he put that massive cock inside her somewhere.

"Gnnn, fuck me," she wheezed, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling now, her chest heaving. "Jesus, fuck me now, before you kill me, you bastard!"

Mike rose, pulling his fingers out of her and standing between her legs. He held her by the ankles, watching as she squirmed desperately, her glazed eyes pleading with him. Her fingers reached down and pulled her thick netherlips apart, opening her shamelessly and inviting him in ...

Janet groaned in relief as his huge cockhead pushed through her and then slid deep inside, filling her in seconds. It felt like he was in her thorax, and she was gasping as he bottomed out in her. She gripped his wrists tightly as he took hold of her waist, her legs now resting over the side of the table.

"Just remember," she said breathlessly, trying to compose herself so she could contribute. "I'm close to -- gnnnnnn -- my time, and we're not using a condom, so ... make sure you don't cum in me ..."