Scarlett's Challenge

The meeting was adjourned and the students began walking back out the back door. Tori was gathering her things at the podium and I saw my chance. I decided on this challenge, I had absolutely no choice but to lie. I would likely get the shit kicked out of me by a group of Christian soldiers if I admitted that I was gay right away. So I approached the podium acting a bit shy and trying to put on the face of a college freshman.

"Hello," I said in a timid voice. Tori looked surprised for a moment and then smiled down at me and extended her hand. She could call me a degenerate any day if she just smiled at me like that. I guess that does say very much about my moral fiber, but I really don't care.

"Hi there," she said, "My name is Tori Miller and I am the president of CBAC. Are you a new member?"

"Well, I was hoping to be," I told her.

"Here is the sign-up sheet," she said, handing me a clipboard and a pen. I signed up and handed it back. I wondered if I was somehow betraying my "people" in some way. I almost laughed to myself, but the thought was a little too close to home to ignore completely.

"So what events are coming up?" I asked. This was not a short-term project. This was going to take time.

"Well we have four events this month. This Sunday we are going to protest at the abortion clinic on Sycamore St. Next week we are going to a rally for Mayor Cantwell's re-election campaign, the week after that we are going to protest the campus women's organizations yearly safe-sex clinic, and then a couple days after that we are going to protest the campus bookstore because some transsexual author in to sign books," she explained. All of those things sounded horrible to me, but I plastered a smile on my face. I also wondered why some controversial author was at the campus bookstore and not at mine. I'd have to make some calls.

"Oh my Go...odness," I said, wondering if I was caught almost using God as a swear, "Can I sign up for all of them?" Tori looked pleasantly surprised.

"Usually I have to twist arms to get someone else to come with me to these things. It is nice to know there is someone else out there who is up to the challenge," she explained.

"Believe, if it weren't for the Challenge I wouldn't be here," I explained, and then felt really weird about telling a joke to myself that no one else on earth would get, "I guess what I mean is that, as a Christian soldier, I can't just pick and choose what stuff I want to do and what I don't want to do. If the Lord asks me to be at an abortion clinic, I will be at an abortion clinic. If he wants me to be at a safe-sex clinic, I'll be there."

"Thank you!" she said, sounding relieved, "Someone else who gets it. You know if God wanted life to be easy he would do it. Life is supposed to be difficult and you are supposed to have to make tough choices, I feel like this secular society has told us that if we just do what feels good everything will work out. Well that isn't the real world and it certainly isn't God's world." I realized now what drew me to her. It wasn't what she said but the passionate way in which said that got through to me. Her ugly words melted because she said it so earnestly. Passion is a single quality, but it can exhibit itself in a million different ways. Someone who is passionate about one thing can shift that passion to something else if they want to. I was hoping that I could guide Tori's undeniable passion in a more pleasant direction.

"Well I have to go over to my boyfriend's house to watch the mayoral debate. But I'll see you Sunday right?" she said and I nodded. A boyfriend. This was really going to be a challenge. But as I walked out to my car, I realized that it was a challenge I could very well achieve.

The rest of the week went by in the general routine. I had a lot of work to catch up on and I found myself in my shop several hours a day after hours going through inventory and doing the books. Kegan came with me a few nights and helped me out. Sometimes she would come over and just do homework while I did my work, like a little study group. It was with Kegan's help that I decided to undertake a major mission I had been putting off for years. The shop was only on the first floor. On the top floor there were four small rooms and they were filled from bottom to top with older degrading books and personal effects of the old man. I had been considering cleaning it out for a long time, but I never had the will to do it. But Kegan said she'd help. So we slowly started combing through the items. Finding some interesting books and saving them and trashing lots of old stuff.

Before I knew the week had passed and it was Sunday. I got up early and headed over to campus. I had arranged to go with Tori because I had absolutely no idea where the abortion clinic was located. I got to her dormitory and she ran out and got in my car. She had the directions and the protest signs and I was going to be the wheelwoman.

"Hey Scarlett!" she said as she bounded into the car. I was surprised by how cheerful she could be while we were heading to yell at young girls with nowhere else to turn and she was shoving hateful signs into the back seat of my car.

"Hey Tori!" I said, "So are you ready to go?"

"Absolutely," she replied, "I made two signs. I am going to carry the one that says 'It's A Child Not A Choice,' and you are going to carry the one that says 'Abortion is Murder.'"

"Great!" I said, "Who else is going to be coming?"

"Well, that's the thing. I couldn't get anyone else to come. All the guys are watching football today and the other girls all say they have homework. So it is just going to be me and you. But that is better. If we are going to just have a small group, it should only be the hardcore members," she said.

"You think I am hardcore?" I asked, stupefied but trying to act flattered.

"Oh yeah, next year you should run for vice-president. Just the stuff you said when we signed up and then what we talked about on the phone this past week lets me know that you are serious," she said, looking at me with her beautiful eyes while I drove. That passion was unbelievable. I couldn't even remember what it was we had talked about on the phone, but apparently my anti-abortion bullshit was really exciting her.

We got to the clinic a few minutes later. It was quiet and looked like the kind of place kids went when they had sore throats. I saw a doctor in a white coat walking up to the front door and I couldn't believe that this was the kind of place that someone would want to protest. It just looked so wholesome.

"Okay Scarlett, let's do this," Tori said like we were about to jump out of a helicopter into a rice paddy in Da Nang. She grabbed the signs and we got out of the car. There was a chalk line near the front of the clinic and it was obvious that they were used to protestors. We were allowed to stand behind that line, but couldn't get any closer. I had wanted to bring lawn chairs because we were going to be there for 6 hours, but Tori said that soldiers had to march on their feet.

We stood in front of the clinic for a long time, just waiting. It gave us the opportunity to talk to one another. I was shocked to find that if you were able to get Tori off the subject of Jesus, she was actually quite pleasant. Something I found very ironic. We talked about her family and her home back in Kentucky. She apparently had a horse back home which she loved. It was nice to see a sweeter side of her. She was also incredibly sympathetic when I told her about getting kicked out of my house, omitting the lesbian stuff. Although, on that subject, just after yelling something at a terrified teen girl, Tori said something that was at least a little promising.

"You know there's that group out there, the 'God Hates Fags' people. I mean, I definitely think that God thinks that gays are doing something wrong, but I don't think God hates anything. I think that we shouldn't ever purposefully hurt other people because that's not the way to convince them not to be gay and to become Christian," she said. It wasn't much, but it was a small sign of moderation on her part. However, when it came to abortion, she was very adament.

We only had three girls go into the clinic the entire day and Tori led the two of us in chants and threw out statistics like a census tabulator trying to convince the girls to turn around and give birth. She was very forceful and overbearing but the girls didn't budge. Each girl went inside and came back out awhile later to face a cold shoulder from Tori. She took each loss very, very personally. When the clinic finally closed she was almost in tears.

"I just don't understand," she said, "How can they do that to those unborn babies?" I was tempted to give a lengthy discussion on the different moral aspects that attached to both sides of the abortion debate and offer some nuanced views on the fact that there was essentially no right answer and that if it was an evil to get an abortion it was also an evil to prevent them and that as a result it was probably something that couldn't be solved in by policy changes but instead only by technological changes that would prevent contraception with 100% efficiency. But I didn't say these things. I went with a simpler approach.

"We can't understand God's plan. He must have a reason for this, maybe he is setting us all up for a big lesson," I offered. It didn't make much sense, but it sounded like the things Tori said.

"Yeah I guess you're right," she said, bucking up a bit, "You know Scarlett, you stayed calm out there today. I think we make a good team. I have the fire and you have the ice. I can't wait for next week. We are make a splash at the rally." With that we were back at the dorm and I almost leaned over to give her a kiss as she opened the door, but caught myself.

Kegan laughed at me all night when I got back home. She figured I was stuck now for sure and she said she couldn't help giggling every time she pictured me yelling about fags and abortions to people passing on the street. I figured I could get the last laugh.

The next few weeks went by in a blur and with a sort of split personality feel. On the one hand I was going to Republican Rally's and protesting free condom giveaways at the local university and getting to know Tori. She had taken to calling me the Vice President regardless of my lack of an actual title and I even had to give a speech at the Campus Women's Organization protest. On the other hand I was quietly running my store and cleaning out the attic with a girl that I was pretty sure I was in love with.

About three days before the protest at the bookstore, Kegan and I finished work on the second story of my store. I had found a number of expensive books and uncovered an unknown bathroom up there. I realized immediately that my attic had the makings of something great.

"So Kegan I have been thinking about something," I said.

"What's that?" she asked as she finished scrubbing the walls of the bathroom with a damp sponge. She had her hair tied back and a bandana wrapped around her head. She was wearing a flannel shirt and old holey jeans. She looked so cute in her cleaning clothes.

"Well this floor here is at least a couple of dozen square feet larger than our little apartment across the way. I was thinking about maybe getting someone to come in here and install some kitchen stuff in that room over there with the tile and making the move over to here. Save a little money and cut my commute in half. What do you think?" I asked.

"Be a home owner huh?" She asked and I giggled.

"Sort of, yeah," I said.

"Would I have a spot in this new home of yours?" she asked. It felt good to know that she wanted to come with me, even if it was just for a place to sleep. Although, I was pretty sure it was more than that.

"Of course," I said, walking over to her. She put her arms around me and gave me a kiss on the lips. It felt good to feel her around me, to feel a little love. I was starting to believe maybe I was a degenerate.

"Let's do it," she said and kissed me again.

I made the arrangements and before long there were a handful of burly carpenters and plumbers swearing and working around my little shop. I wanted to be there to help them plan things out and ensure that it fit my specifications, but I had a protest to go to that night. I left Kegan in charge as the foreman and I am sure the carpenters were pissed, but I like the idea of sweet, skinny Kegan bossing around men twice her age and three times her girth.

The campus bookstore was hosting a book signing the next day in which a transgender author was going to promote her new memoir. The author was going to arrive sometime early in the morning and so Tori had thought it would be best if we camped out in front of the store to ensure that when she (or he as Tori referred to her) arrived, we would be there to let her know that she was not welcome.

I arrived outside of the bookstore just a few minutes before Tori. It was already nine o'clock at night and the campus was sort of dead. Most of the parties were held at the fraternity houses or off-campus and this little corner of the school was completely abandoned.

Tori arrived and pulled asked me to help her get the tent out of her trunk. We managed to get it out and then set it up. It was definitely big enough for the two of us and we laid blankets down inside and threw our pillows inside. Then we set up lawn chairs outside of the tents, ate some chips and dip and talked.

It was actually very pleasant, more like a camp-out and sleepover than a bivouac before battle. We even had a pizza delivered to our little campground and discussed classes. I had to make things up, but she seemed to really enjoy college, despite its liberal bias.

"I have a bunch of really cute professors too," she offered.

"Oh yeah, same here," I said, she then began telling me about the various aspects she enjoyed about several men and I struggled to offer something along the same lines, but was not very successful. She quickly grew bored of this and then looked at her watch.

"Well if this is really going to go down early in the morning, we might as well jump into the tent and get to sleep. I am going to set this little sensor next to the walkway. When someone walks past it will set off a little alarm and then we will know when he gets here," she said and I agreed.

I climbed into the tent while Tori set the alarm and then zipped it closed when she climbed in after me. It was actually pretty cozy inside. We had a thick blanket on the bottom to soften the ground and then a lighter blanket under than which we could both get under. It was nice. We were moving pillows and getting the tent situated when we realized that it was incredibly hot inside of the tent.

"It is only like 78 degrees outside, but its like a sauna in here," I observed.

"Yeah I think this is supposed to be used in winter or something. Like it is specially designed to hold in our body heat to make sure we don't freeze to death. But it's the only tent I have," she explained, waving her hand at her face in a desperate attempt to cool herself down, but probably doing more harm than good.

"Well I am going to get undressed a little then," I said. I slipped my sweatpants off and threw them to the base of the tent. Next I removed my t-shirt and threw it as well. I was sitting in the tent now wearing only my thin white tank-top and red panties. I wasn't wearing a bra and I am sure my nipples were clearly visible through the white shirt. I could tell Tori was curious and looking at me, but she shook her head and looked away when she thought I wasn't looking.

"Does it feel better like that?" she asked and I told that it was. She slowly took off her shorts and then removed her sweatshirt. She too was wearing red panties but she was wearing a tight pink t-shirt under her sweatshirt. She too was not wearing a bra and I was impressed by how perky her little breasts were even without the help of a bra. She too looked more comfortable. But suddenly a horrified looked appeared on her face as she looked over at me

"What is it?" I asked, terrified that there was some sort of gigantic bug on my leg or something.

"You have a tattoo?!" she asked in a horrified voice. I was surprised for a second and then realized that she wasn't joking. I looked down at my left hipbone and there was a ying-yang symbol I had gotten when I turned 16 with a fake ID to piss my mother off. I thought it looked cute, even if it was a stupid tattoo.

"Oh yeah," I said.

"You really shouldn't mark up the body that God gave you. If he had intended for you to have ink and stuff inside of your body he would've put it there. I don't really feel good about the bellybutton ring either, but I guess I have my ears pierced," she replied. I wanted to comment on her obviously waxed legs and inform her that he did intend for her to have leg hair, but I realized that this wouldn't help me out.

"I know, I got this tattoo before I found the Lord," I explained. Which was true, I got the tattoo and I still hadn't found the Lord. If I got a tattoo tomorrow, I would still have been telling the truth.

"Oh I see," she said, relaxing a little bit now.

"I have another one too," I explained.

"Really? Where is it? What is it?" she asked, she was curious now and no longer angry so I decided to show her my other tattoo. I quickly slipped off my tank-top and sat in front of Tori wearing nothing but my panties. Her eyes got huge and she just stared at my tits with her mouth opened.

"See its this rose that is on the underside of my left breast," I explained. I had gotten that one after I had gained full ownership of my store. I remember being a bit drunk at the time.

"Goodness Scarlett, put your shirt on!" Tori finally managed to stammer.

"It is so Hot!" I exclaimed, "Plus, it is just us girls here and I am going to get under the blanket. What do you think of the other tattoo. I mean I wouldn't ever get another one now, but I sort of like this one don't you?"

"I suppose if you had to get a tattoo, that isn't a bad one," she said. My nipples were hard now, just the thought of repressed Tori staring at me was getting me very excited. She was obviously quite uncomfortable with her interest in my body.

"I think so too," I said.

"Let's go to bed," she said abruptly. She quickly got underneath of the covers and put her head on the pillow. She turned away from me and clicked off the flashlight. I smiled to myself and got under the covers as well.

"Good night," I said.

"Good night," she replied in a shaking voice. She then continued a bit stronger, "God Bless." I rolled in the bed so that I was lying facing her back. I scooted up next to her so that we were spooning. She didn't say anything but I felt her get tense.

"Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, even when I am safe in my house. Do you mind if I sleep close to you? For strength?" I said and I felt her relax a little bit.

"Ask God for strength and lay close to me," she said, feeling good about her charitable deed. I scoot in closer and put my arm around her waist. Her skin was hot and I could feel the tension running through her body as she felt my fingers on her stomach. I could tell she was feeling my nipples against her back. For a while I think she thought I had been coming onto her, but the longer we lay there, I think she convinced herself that I was just a little naïve and that we would fall asleep like this and wake up the next morning no worse for the wear.

I lay silently behind her, holding her close for well over and hour before her breathing became deep and even and her body lost all of its pent up tension. I waited still another half hour while her sleep became deeper and more peaceful. Slowly, I moved my hand up from her smooth, flat stomach, gently moving it underneath of her shirt. I felt the mild slope of the bottom of her breasts and rested my palm there, testing her reactions and finding that she was in a deep and complete sleep.