School Love

Brenda sat on the stairs, sobbing her eyes out. She had never been this alone in her life, never been this separated from the crowd. “Why did I ever tell on those stupid kids?” she asked herself between sobs.

The kids in question were her former circle of friends, one of who had been her “devoted” boyfriend and Head Quarterback, Ace. At the beginning of the school year, all of them had signed up for the same class to be together. But near the end of one of the grading periods, the teacher assigned them a test that would be worth most of their grade. Brenda had heard about a group of players on the football team that had found the test and made a copy to circulate. She became distressed and told the teacher, who immediately made a different test for the class. When the test came up, it was no surprise that most of the class failed it. The big surprise was that all of Brenda’s friends and even the supposedly honest Quarterback Ace failed as well.

Since Brenda was one of the only two students to pass the test, the blame for revealing the cheat sheet was assured because she knew to study everything, not just what was on the old test. When the formerly excellent team lost a pivotal game big time because of failures, the student’s anger turned against the “self-righteous” bitch that had tattled. Brenda went from a straight-A popular student to an ostracized pariah. But the biggest blow came not from the populace, but from her Ace. He bitterly told her he held no love for her and was only with her for social respectability. In reality, he would rather be with her supposedly best friend, Rita.

“At least she gives me blow jobs,” he stated, bitterly.

“Don’t you love me?” she sobbed.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t put out,” he sneered, “You’re an ice queen.”

That last comment hurt her more than anything else. Since they had been together, she had believed that he loved her and would wait for the right time to get intimate. That he had gone behind her back was enough, but only because he wanted sex hurt her even more. She had been humiliated in the eyes of her peers and rejected because of her honor.

While the new status as a reject hurt her socially, it did have unexpected, yet somehow ineffectual, benefits. With more diverted from such social things as hanging out with friends and dating, Brenda was able to focus more thoroughly on schoolwork. Her grades and class standing improved from the already excellent plateau they had hung at for quite some time. But this meager reward was not enough for her ordeal and she spent most of her time crying in lonely places.

During one of these sob sessions, Brenda was on the main stairwell of her school an hour after school had let out. She was crying so hard that she didn’t even notice the lanky kid walk slowly towards her until he was right next to her and she could feel his heat.

“Tissue?” he politely questioned. As he observed her, he added, “You definitely need a few.”

As his kind words soaked in, Brenda began to feel less despondent and began to slightly cheer up. “Thank you,” she said shakily, her voice recovering from sadness.

He smiled. She didn’t know why, but that smile somehow assured her that everything would be alright and she took heart. “So why would a pretty girl like you,” he queried, sitting down beside her, “Be sobbing in a stairwell after school?”

For all her years, Brenda had believed that unloading secrets to a stranger wasn’t the right thing to do, but a feeling came from deep down that this stranger could be trusted. She started telling her story, sniffling all the way through. Rather than grow disgusted at the fact he was beside a rat, the boy seemed to grow more attentive and caring as she talked. At the end of her tale, she felt a great weight lifted off of her because of the kindness of the boy.

“So you’re Brenda Thompson,” the boy said. Brenda’s confusion must have shown through the tears because the boy laughed and explained, “I’ve heard about you through the rumors, but didn’t know what you looked like.”

The boy stood, dusting off his pants. “I don’t like leaving people in suspense,” he said helping her up, “I’m Daniel Portman.”

Brenda thought she remembered the name from somewhere when she felt something slam against her back. She heard Daniel’s footfalls thunder up the steps as the shout echoed through the halls, “RAT BITCH!”

She reached back to feel the goop left on her back, only red paint. “At least it’s not rat blood,” she thought, relieved that a stench would not be following her.

The thunder down the steps brought Brenda back to reality. “I didn’t get them,” Daniel said, “Sorry about your shirt.”

“It’s okay,” Brenda sighed, “I’ve found a way to get out red paint.” She looked down at her watch and gasped, “Oh no, it’s 6 o’clock!”

“Is that bad?” Daniel asked, confused.

“Yes,” Brenda cried, “My apartment building changes their gate code at 6 o’clock and I don’t know what the new one is.”

“Well that’s not too bad,” Daniel said, comfortingly.

“What do you mean?” Brenda replied, sniffling.

“Well,” Daniel started, “You could spend the night over at my place.”

“You have your own place?” Brenda asked, shocked.

“Well mine and some roomies,” Daniel said, “But they won’t mind one overnight guest.”

“Maybe we can do a little bit of studying while we’re at it,” Brenda agreed.

“If you’re up to it,” Daniel said, grinning.

Brenda was smiling all the way out to the car. This guy was kind, funny and handsome. He wore his clothes so baggy that it was difficult to tell, but Brenda had felt his tone body as he held her close during her cry session. His face was smooth and well shaped, but his eyes were the main feature. The pair seemed to have some rocky inner glint, almost like diamonds in the rough.

She sat next to him in the car, back stinging from the humiliating attack, and listened as he mused about certain things. She could tell from the way he talked that he definitely had an opinion about many things, but held back for some reason. Maybe it was a sense of decency that made him refrain from launching into a rant on her situation, to make at least this time be free from the constant problems of her new status. But what she really wanted to believe is that he cared for her enough to stay away from talking about it. As the drive progressed, she thought less and less of the ambush and began to lose herself in the easy conversation about the advantages of cold pizza over warmed up pizza for breakfast.

As Brenda began to mount a stunning counterpoint for warm pizza, Daniel slowed and turned into a driveway. The house was moderately large, an old house that looked as if it had been repaired recently. The second story was swept back from one of the largest porches she had seen. A female sat reading on a rocking bench near one of the corners, but the shadow of the late day sun concealed her. “We arrive,” he quipped as he looked up on the porch and yelled, “Hello Tran!”

The pretty, young Asian woman stood and looked over. She let out a little squeak of joy as she began to run down the stairs to him. When she reached him, she leapt into his arms and sighed, “It’s so nice having my man back.”

“Are you two dating?” Brenda inquired, strangely disappointed about it.

“No,” Tran moaned, leaping lightly out of Daniel’s arms, “Sadly not. Why do you ask and who are you?”

Taken aback by her sudden defensiveness, Brenda was faintly happy when Daniel replied, “Her name is Brenda Thompson, a person I know from school, and through a series of interconnected events she has to stay over here tonight.” Daniel announced, grinning, “Might I add she is a nice lady who has been through an ordeal recently and deserves some respite from questioning.”

Tran gave Daniel a look of curiosity and Brenda could tell that Tran had just been playing around. Daniel stared at her for a second and Brenda suddenly felt alone with these two people off in another world. All of a sudden, Daniel came back and slapped his forehead. “Stupid me!” he exclaimed, “Tran, Brenda’s clothes were ruined by a cowardly rogue. You look about her size, do you have something for her to wear while I get her other clothes clean?”

Tran looked Brenda up and down, smiled and said, “Why yes I do. I’ll take her up to my room and get her fixed up while you go take care of it.”

Brenda smiled faintly and went with Tran into the house. The petite Japanese girl almost glided through the medium-sized living room and practically lept up the staircase. Having a difficult time keeping up with the little pixie, Brenda let out a sigh of relief as the pair reached a small room at the end of a hallway. “Here is my humble abode of privacy,” the cherubic tart sighed, a wry smile crossing her face. “This is where I can do whatever I want,” she said, the wry smile growing bigger, “Sometimes I even have an audience.”

Brenda let out a shy giggle, which aroused the Tran’s eyebrow like blood to a shark. “So I see we have a prude in our midst,” she laughed, a slight eyebrow arch joining her grin, “No wonder Dan likes you.”

For some reason this hit Brenda differently than she expected. “What do you mean by that?” she queried. Tran cocked her head, almost taken aback by what she thought was a silly question, “Can’t you tell?”

With Brenda still possessed the deer in the headlights look, Tran shook her head letting her hair roll over her shoulders. “Well if you don’t know, I shouldn’t mess around in it,” she said, rifling through some dresses lying around the room, picking out a slim black dress that seemed to be more fit for a Barbie doll than a living person.

“Am I supposed to fit into that?” Brenda asked, a faint hint of distrust in her voice.

“It stretches,” Tran replied, her monotone voice implying that this was common knowledge.

Brenda gazed at the tiny garment and noticed that Tran did not seem to be preparing to leave. If anything, she seemed to be getting comfortable for some sort of show. “May I get some privacy, please?” she asked the other girl.

Tran looked at the girl as if the concept of privacy while changing was a foreign concept to her. After receiving a disapproving glare from Brenda, she shuffled out of the room muttering, “Prude.”

With the other girl gone Brenda focused on changing, quickly slipping out of her clothes that she had been wearing and into the tight dress supplied by Tran. When she finished Brenda stood over by a full-length mirror, giggling nervously thinking about what else this mirror had seen with the extroverted Asian as an owner. As Brenda looked in the mirror, she realized something about herself that she had truly never noticed before. She was beautiful. All her life she had worn baggy clothes just to be comfortable and it seemed the world was only nice to her because of her standing next to Ace. Her mother always chided her for not dressing as a girl should dress, saying no self respecting boy would really wish to start a relationship with a Tomboy.

But as she looked into the mirror, she realized that she really was beautiful. The black material wrapped around her as if a second skin, holding her closely as a tender lover would. It accentuated her body’s smooth terrain and gave her curves a beautiful look, seemingly bringing her into maturity through recognition. Brenda ran her small hands over the material, for the purpose of smoothing out the miniscule wrinkles. However she guiltily knew she was also enjoying the feel of someone’s hands, even though they were her own.

Brenda felt a great heat building up inside of her, stoked like a fire by her hands as she neared her love nest. Her eyes closed involuntarily as she felt a glorious sensation build up in her body, as if her body was melting. Brenda swooned as her knees wobbled, opening her eyes out of fear and catching sight of herself in the mirror. If she had been beautiful before, she was even more so now. Her face glowed with a brightness that had not been there before and her skin shone a faint pink like a sunset. Brenda felt captivated by the image in the mirror.

A sudden knock at the door awoke Brenda from her reverie. “Are you alright in there?” Daniel’s voice came in, disrupting the air in the room. Hurriedly she got readjusted as the door opened and Daniel walked in, a puzzled explanation on his face. “Is something wrong?” he asked, a worried expression on his face, “You’ve been in here a while.”

“I’m just fine,” Brenda said, quickly, “Just looking around a bit.”

Daniel gave her a brief look over, “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little bit flustered.”

Brenda realized that he caught her in the afterglow of the moment and grew even more anxious. “Well it is a little hot up here,” she said, bristling in defense. Noticing his reaction, she added, “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m a little nervous.”

Brenda gained a slight bit of relief as she saw Daniel nodding his head, understanding her plight. “Okay,” he said, “I’ve warmed up some leftover lasagna in the oven for some dinner if you’d like some.”

“That would be nice,” Brenda said, grinning like a Cheshire cat and then noticing his face, “What are you grinning at?”

Daniel jerked as if hit with cold water. “The dress you’re wearing. It’s well suited to you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Brenda asked coyly, “Does it accentuate certain things?”

Daniel looked down as he blushed slightly. “Yes,” he said in a muted sort of voice, “But it also reveals your inner beauty. You always would wear those baggy, preppy sort of clothes and it just didn’t feel right.”

“You actually noticed me before?” Brenda said in a disbelieving way, “Why didn’t you come over and talk to me.”

“Well,” Daniel said in a shy voice, “You were always around your friends. I could never really get close enough to ask.”

Biting her lip, Brenda walked up close to him and reached out to touch his face. “So you really like me?” she asked him breathlessly. Feeling her hand on his face, all Daniel could to do to answer was nod. “Well I find you to be kind, warm, generous and overall a great guy for a boyfriend,” Brenda began to lower his mouth to hers, “And to prove it…” She closed her eyes and connected to him, opening her mouth to his. She felt Daniel stiffen up at first, probably from the shock of her being so open with him. Instead of stopping, she just kept up her assault on his mouth and he eventually gave into her. When Daniel began kissing back, Brenda felt the familiar tingle return. He was running his hands up and down her back lightly, touching her in all the right places, playing with her hair, treating her like a queen. Brenda’s skin began to grow hotter, getting pink with desire. She couldn’t help but think about was how different this was from when she would make out with Ace. How he’d treat it as a grope session, not even caring about her wants or needs. Now she truly felt like someone was fulfilling her needs and actually caring about her. As the two broke the kiss, Brenda looked into Daniel’s eyes. She saw his smile, felt his warmth transcend into her body and couldn’t help but let a smile out.

A sudden knocking on the door interrupted the calm reverie. Brenda broke apart from Daniel, greatly saddened by the loss of his warmth. Looking over at Daniel, she saw he felt the same. “Are the both of you okay in here?” a young brunette asked as she walked in.

“Just fine Alice,” Daniel said in a bored sort of voice, “Tran sent you in here I take it?”

Alice grinned. “How could you tell?”

“Reasons…” Daniel said in a singsong voice.

Alice gave a little wave and walked out. When the door closed, Brenda walked over to Daniel. “How did you know Tran sent her up here?” she asked.

“Tran has always had a bizarre sense of humor,” he explained, looking at Brenda while chuckling, “Alice never had a good sense of timing.”

Brenda looked down and had a little giggle. “Come on,” Daniel begged, “We’d better get downstairs before those animals finish off the lasagna.”

Brenda laughed and joined him outside the door, starting down the stairs to the kitchen. When they reached the kitchen, Brenda saw the two girls she had met before in addition to a thirty-something black woman reading the newspaper and a teenage Hispanic boy playing a video game. The black woman looked up, arched a well-kept eyebrow and sighed, “Another tenant? Unless we kick out Ernesto we’re going to be filled up to the gills.”

The boy put down the game and rubbed at his eyes, “Well Gina, at least I don’t burden the budget with scented bath pearls, like some people.”

“Don’t begrudge me my pearls,” Gina shot back, a slight grin on her lips.

“The amount you spend on those things could buy a whole new game a month,” Ernesto shot back, “And I’d really like a couple of new flavors.”

Tran looked up from the sink at which she was standing, “You already buy at least two games a month. How much more flavor do you need?”

Ernesto gave a slight grin and returned to the game he was playing, removing himself from the conversation. Gina turned to Daniel, “The house payment is coming up and you’d better pony up the dough. I wouldn’t like to, but I will break your legs.”

“Just let me have some time,” Daniel explained, holding his hands up, “Trust me, I’m good for the money.”

Gina gave out a short laugh, then noticed Brenda huddled behind Daniel out of confusion among the strangers. “Who’s the girl?” she asked, “Unusual for you to bring anyone back here.”

Brenda stepped forward; “Hi I’m Brenda Thompson, a friend of Daniel’s from school.”

“More than just a friend I’d be willing to wager,” Tran spoke out, “They were up in my room for longer than necessary to just change clothes.”

Brenda caught Daniel glaring daggers at Tran. “Maybe my personal life shouldn’t be such a problem for the others.”

Tran stifled a giggle and went back to washing the dishes at the sink. Brenda went back behind Daniel, mostly out of embarrassment from being revealed for some sort of harlot. With slight expression on his face, Daniel sat down at the table and motioned for Brenda to sit beside him. “The lasagna ready yet?” he asked once Brenda sat in her seat.

“Yup,” Alice sang out, “It should be nice and piping hot by now.”

Gina rubbed her hands together in anticipation, “Good, I’m starving.” Alice served the steaming dish and the entire table dug in to their plates. Brenda enjoyed the tasty leftover thoroughly, but was confused by the lack of conversation around the table. She finally reached a point where she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Why aren’t any of you talking?” Brenda asked the table. The effect was spontaneous. Alice looked at her like she was crazy. Tran and Ernesto looked at each other and stifled a giggle. Gina looked at Brenda and muttered under her breath, “It’s always the newbies.” Daniel had the most subdued reaction of the bunch, just a simple sigh between gulps of lasagna and water. Brenda, confused as she was, could only stutter out, “What did I do?”

Daniel finished his plate and went to replenish the lasagna, “It’s a tradition that the first person to speak has to wash the kitchen. Don’t worry, I’ll help.”

Gina let out a short laugh, “Like I said, it’s always the newbies.”

Brenda blushed, “But how do you decide who washes regularly?”

“Simple,” Daniel said as he finished eating and washed his dish, “They poke each other until one of them speak out and that person washes. It’s really a pathetic spectacle.”

“Say that while washing the dishes, Rag Boy,” Tran jibed from the table.

Brenda finished off her plate and walked over to the sink, “Ready to help.” Daniel gave her a short look, grinning slightly and Brenda felt her knees get weak. “Well if you two have everything wrapped up down here, we’ll head up to bed,” Tran yawned grabbing Ernesto as she walked towards the door, “Come on boy, I’ve got some designs for you.”