Summer College Surprises

Ziri was relieved by Mr. Driscoll's invitation. It gave her something to plan, which got her at least partway above her hormonal storm. In her room, she carefully pulled basted stitches to separate the towel from the seat cushions. Then she took the towel to the basement, with a pile of her clothes. There she started a load in the washing machine. Then she took a bucket and mop to her room, and cleaned the floor, which needed it even before the previous night. When she returned the mop and bucket to the basement, she moved the laundry load to the dryer.

Again in her room, she inspected The Neat Seat for damage. She was not surprised to see a few pinholes, and two small rips, in the cushion plastic where it had rested, and scraped, on the hardwood floor. There was a wrinkle in the felt, but no holes. It's only a mockup, she reminded herself, applying glue in a few places. A real prototype would be made of better stuff.

When she brought up the load up from the dryer, she found that the towel was again fluffy, and didn't smell like what had been on it. Satisfied, she sewed it back on the cushions, covering the logos of the Tri-City Tornado. She zipped the seat shut, donned it, and ventured to Mr. Driscoll's office in something like a proud march.

She demonstrated it as she had on the porch. She didn't think about why he was interested. This was just another demo, this time with an audience that wasn't angry or derisive. Mr. Driscoll sat calmly behind a large desk, and watched.

When she finished, he asked, "Ziri, have you thought about what you want to do with this?"

"It'll be my project in Product Marketing, this summer," she said, smug about being so far ahead in a class that hadn't started yet.

"What about for the real world?"

"Well, sure. After the course." She expected that much of her classwork would involve exploring the nudist goods market.

"Would you consider pitching this on Piranha Pool?"

Ziri was about to say something in the same conversational vein, but this caught her off guard. "Uhh...the TV show?"

He nodded. "I think this is something that the venture capital 'piranhas' would consider. Even if they don't invest, it would be excellent exposure."

The thought of facing the high-rolling celebrity financiers excited Ziri even more than the prospect of real sex.

Yet facing them as her dumpy, partly-autistic self, set off alarm bells in her already-crowded brain.

"I don't know," she said in a way she almost never was: Hesitant.

"Well, I'd like you to think about it," said Mr. Driscoll with a smile. "Good luck."

"Uh, thanks."

He looked at her for a few seconds, apparently expecting something. Then he said. "I have some work to do now."

"Oh. Okay." After a balky exchange of nods, a wave, his "See you soon," and her "At dinner, right," she exited.

She had hoped this pitch would settle her down with an accomplished task, but Mr. Driscoll's suggestion created yet another task. Ziri didn't get closure, which she wanted desperately, even on minor matters, because of the way she was. I need to close something else, she thought as she put The Neat Seat on her desk.

The 'something else' that nagged at her made her hesitant again. A few seconds of standing still, and doing nothing, annoyed her into action.

As she walked to the drugstore, she resolved to reach a decision by the time she got back to the house.

***

It was late afternoon. By staying holed up in his room, Eldon had made some headway. The first two chapters of one book now made sense to him, and that continued for him early in Chapter Three.

There was a rapid knock.

The image of Ziri's lips enclosing her nipple took over his entire brain.

He opened the door, mainly angry, though finding no way to blame her. "What is it now?"

Ziri asked, "Is there any reason why you wouldn't do sex with me?"

"Whh--whaaaat?"

"Am I ugly? Do I smell bad? I think you liked seeing me naked."

Eldon leaned past her to see if anyone was in the hall, or if other doors were open. He muttered, "How can you talk like that out in public?"

"Let me in and it'll be private."

Exasperated, he stepped back and waved her in.

"Just tell me," she said as she sat on his bed.

"Wait, are you...asking me to have sex with you?"

"I would, unless you refuse."

To his horror, he found himself enjoying the sight of her, in a t-shirt and cargoes, on his bed!

Some of the content of his new Psych book had stayed with him. He shelved his relief over this achievement by his brain, and said slowly, "Ziri, you ought to know that...someone, wanting to do that with you, would have to be really sure that you consent." He took a breath. "And that you're competent to give informed consent."

She folded her arms, but didn't seem upset. "I'm of legal age. I'm trusted to live on my own, and look after myself. I've never been in a relationship, by my own choice. And, I guess, the choice of other people. Do you think I'm not competent?"

To Eldon, she seemed to take this as a debate topic.

He was erecting. Quickly he sat at his desk, where she could see him only from the chest up.

"Why do you want to do this?" he asked, curious and excited and unable to believe this was real.

Her reserve crumbled. She looked desperately at this jittery, dark-haired young man. "My mind is a mess! I never knew this could happen. Last night, seeing you, doing that, and me, naked, and doing that--" She took a deep breath. It didn't calm her. "I hope that if I do this, then I can be the person I was before, again. Or at least not be so obsessed by this."

"So, you think, it would only be once?" He wondered which answer from her he'd want.

"Can you please answer my first question?" she said. "Do you not want to do sex with me?"

"Um..." He demanded to himself, Must! Choose! Words! Carefully! "There is nothing about you that makes me unable, or unwilling, to have sex with you."

She nodded. "So. Because you're a man, will you please do that now?" From a cargo pocket she pulled a box of condoms.

He almost jizzed. "What about s-specific acts? Wh, what won't you let me do?"

She thought for a second, then giggled. "We, uh, you can touch me with your hands--" Then, she imagined that happening. She flopped on her back, almost swooning. In a rush she said, "Put on a condom and enter my vagina! Then maybe other stuff, but that first!"

She had her t-shirt and bra off by the time he got to the bed. His hands tried to grope her breasts and yank down his jeans at the same time. Lower-half garments got hung up with shoes.

Eldon McMurray, experiencer of partner sex four times, had never been smooth in this process. He might have been at his most awkward now. By the time he had yanked away his still-laced shoes, and shoved off his inside-outed jeans and shorts, he remembered about the condoms. And couldn't find the box.

"Where are they?" he hissed, looking around as he knee-stood, prick waving like a baton.

Eldon and Ziri dropped to the floor on either side of the bed. The box was in her reach. She grabbed it, and as she returned to the bed she tore it open. As he pressed next to her he stuck his fingers in the box, pulled out a snake of six skins, and tore away foil. He had the sheath rolled on by the time she was flat on her back with legs spread.

He shoved his trunk towards hers. With his cock unguided, it didn't enter, sliding up her labia and past her clit hood. "Uh, lift up, uh, yourself," he babbled, shifting his knees to keep balance while putting a hand around his shlong.

"What?" she said, hiking up her torso.

"No, there, move up, uh, your butt."

Now she took the lead in awkwardness, shifting her spine and then her legs, finally getting her quim at an angle for better access.

"Okay now hold still," said Eldon, dreading a moving target. Ziri complied, and he pushed his glans past her vulva.

In the heat of her loins and the pressure of the latex, he was sure that he'd blast at once. That had happened in all of his other trysts, with women who later denied him second chances. But the delay in entering Ziri had taken him back from the brink. Pleasure surged through him as his shaft advanced into her quim, but didn't overwhelm him. He got to a rhythmic drive after the first four pushes, and was able to set his legs more steadily between hers.

Ziri's hands clawed at the bedspread. She felt like she was moving, somehow, but her shoulder blades held still, pressing down. There was no pain, only a strange, warm pressure in her belly. Not fingers! she thought. Not a carrot! She recalled her favorite example of that vegetable. Ultimately she had chosen not to eat it.

It registered on Eldon that Ziri's eyes and mouth were wide open, and her breasts were, yes, heaving, with little jiggles at each apex and nadir as they heaved. As fleshy as much of her body was, Eldon saw that her face showed no excess. Is this working for her? he thought, putz feeling even thicker. Will she cum? Don't ruin this Eldon!

He asked, "Are you okay?"

"I...I...yeah?" came from her.

"Should I stop?"

"NOOO!" She grabbed his butt so hard his chin smacked into hers.

"Th-then, I'll keep going. But I might, y'know, cum."

"Uh, yeah," she said, staring at him.

After several gasps, still staring, she said, "Yeah, that's good. That's going to be something. That's--"

Mouth gaping even more, she reached behind her head, grabbed a pillow, and mashed it onto her face. She felt her trunk squeezing on what wasn't a carrot, sending throughout her a hot thrill on each rapid heartbeat. Brain chemicals dizzied her, far beyond what she'd felt from them before. She chomped on the pillow as she howled into it.

Eldon was launched into long, almost painful spurts by her jerks and spasms, He was vaguely aware, as ecstasy zoomed through him, of drooling on the pillow that muffled her voice.

He pulled back to exit her, his knees trembling. He leaned to lie beside her, clumsily in the narrow space on the twin bed. "That was great," he said, to himself as much as to her. Then he looked her way, lifted the pillow, and said, "Thanks." Then he giggled. "For asking."

"Why did you leave?" she slurred. Her glasses were fogged.

"I had to get out. I came."

"I did too. You felt so good in there." She pulled away her glasses and looked at the ceiling. "Oh no, am I gonna want men all the time now?"

He had only an instant of pride for his first-ever sexual success. Now worry surged through him. "You said it'd be only once." Then he remembered that she'd never answered that.

She looked his way, also worried. "Maybe."

He couldn't tell if this responded to what he'd said, or what she'd said just before. Only now did he see that her eyes were green.

"But, now, are you done?" he asked. "With me?"

"I..." She let the pillow slide to the floor, and ran her hands over her body. "Not..." she said. "This feels..."

"What?" He got a flash of fear. Despite all the consent talk, did she feel violated?

She extended an arm over his body. "Can we, uh, hug?"

He was also afraid of that, but didn't know why. "Uh...I guess?" He lifted the arm that wasn't pinned down by his torso.

The hug started as awkwardly as the coupling, but less frantically. She shifted to lie on her side, and he got his body all the way onto the bed. They eventually coordinated their bottom arms. When their hands pressed the other person's back, the meeting of their chests made both lovers gasp.

Ziri winced as she asked, "Do we have to kiss?"

"Umm, no." Then, suddenly, he wanted to.

After a second she nodded. His bottom arm made his hug more complete, and she exhaled calmly. "Okay." She smiled. "This feels good."

"It does," he said. Then he wished he hadn't.

She set her top leg across his, and he started their next round of awkwardness. "Uh, I have to get rid of, uh..."

"Yeah," she said, jerking away her top leg and arm.

Each of them dressed for a solo trip to the bathroom. When finished, Ziri returned to Eldon's room.

"Thanks I think that helped," she said quickly, nodding. "I'm still okay that we did that. So, my consent was informed."

"Good," he said, also nodding.

Their silence was, of course, awkward.

"I should go," she said at last. But she wanted more naked hugging.

"It's almost dinnertime," he said, feeling drowsy.

"Yeah!" she said, with a relieved smile. "I'll, uh, see you downstairs."

"Yeah."

A minute later, in separate rooms, each thought something like:

Now what?

***

Tess Bartkowski was surprised at dinner. Ziri Klefstadt took a chair next to her. Arch sat on Tess's other side, as she expected, but Tess had hoped to chat also with Dennis Driscoll, who had finished with his road repair gig and would reside for a while in the dormer. Ziri's attention interfered with that.

Ziri asked Tess, "Are the towels okay?"

Tess looked at her. "Uh, yeah. Thanks. Except, I shouldn't thank you, because--"

"I apologize, I shouldn't have done it, I'll never do it again."

To Tess, that sounded rehearsed.

"So, they're okay towels?"

Tess thought they might have been smaller and cheaper than the one Ziri took, but she wanted this to be over with. "They're fine."

Food platters were moving between them, family-style, counter-clockwise. Ziri was scooping macaroni salad onto her plate when she asked, "How much do you know about brain chemistry?"

Tess was taken aback, and took the platter before saying, "I haven't had it in course work yet." She hadn't known Ziri was aware that Tess majored in Chemistry.

"So you can't say which stimuli are likely to release dopamine or oxytocin?"

Tess lost her grip on the platter, which didn't break, but spilled a little on the tablecloth. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to say that," Tess said quickly. "There could be lots of, um, stimuli."

Tess gathered bits of macaroni and celery in her napkin, while Mrs. Driscoll said, "I'll get to that later." Tess had a vague recollection of hearing squeaks an hour earlier. She wondered, Bed springs?

Tess passed the platter to Arch, cocking an eyebrow at him. He returned one of his standard blank looks.

Leaning to see past Ziri, Tess said to Dennis, "How long will you be with us?"

"Couple days," said Dennis with a toothy smile. His civil engineering degree dovetailed with supervisory work on the roads. "Don't worry, I'll keep the headphones on. Gotta let you study."

"The bass boost vibrates the ceiling," said Arch.

Tess smiled. She was okay having sex with Arch, although what she liked most was playing with his naked body, which was fit for the cover of a romance novel. He even had the face for it, darkly brooding, but Tess had learned that this arose from him being self-centered and humorless.

"Sorry, my man," Dennis said to Arch, still smiling. "Don't want to deprive the lacrosse star of his beauty sleep."

Eldon laughed at that, which covered Tess's chuckle. Her glance at Arch confirmed that he took offense, but wouldn't do anything about it. Arch fancied himself a writer, and nominally majored in Literature, but he hung on at school on a lacrosse scholarship. Tess mainly let him put on his airs, but she was getting tired of Arch taking Tess's willingness as the proper entitlement for a serious ar-teeste.

Eldon, meanwhile, savored Arch's comeuppance. But did his envy of Arch still amount to anything? With Tess and Ziri sitting together, Eldon was perplexed by how his horniness had been refocused. Tess was still the willowy blonde for whom he had yearned hopelessly. Yet thick, bespectacled Ziri, who occupied the other half of Eldon's gazing two-shot, seemed now to have a greater effect on his heartbeat.

"Son," said Mr. Driscoll, "have you seen the chores listed for you on the bulletin board?"

"Sure have, Pop," said Dennis, unfazed. "I'll get started as soon as I show my respect for Mom's cooking."

"Go on with you," said Mrs. Driscoll, unable to hide a smile.

This distracted Eldon. He wondered why Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll put in the effort to feed and house so many people, when they could live off his materials patents and her design consulting. COVID-19 had forced them to stop taking in boarders. With lockdown over, why had they brought them in again? Did they need the money to help their moved-out kids?

Tess tossed her head with a smile, the straight flaxen hair fluttering behind her shoulders. "I think it's great," she said to Dennis, "that you know what your responsibilities are, and show appreciation for what other people do for you."

Ziri asked Tess, "So, now you're using Dennis against Arch, right?"

Eldon gagged on a mouthful of sweet potato.

Ziri looked at Eldon. "What? I need to learn about these things."

Quickly Mrs. Driscoll said, "Why don't I get out the ice cream maker?"

"Yeah!" Dennis cheered, applauding.

To Eldon's immeasurable relief, there was nothing more said on Ziri's sudden interest in womanly wiles.

***

There was music, heavy on the violins. She walked at a leisurely pace, through a verdant meadow, enjoying the breeze that feathered her hair and subtly caressed her body. She was nude, free of restraints, save for The Neat Seat strapped on her back.

Puffs of fog in the distance dispersed, revealing to her a man, also nude, striding towards her. His body was lean, tautly muscled. His erect member pointed at her. The only things about him that seemed familiar were his expression, anxious and desperate, and The Neat Seat on his back.

They embraced in a cascade of passion. Quickly and deftly, they shed their Neat Seats and opened them. They undulated their bodies together on the comforting softness. Then their faces drew back in alarm.

"You don't have condoms?" he shrilled.

"No!"

Ziri's panicked stare carried over to the sight of her darkened bedroom. Relief began with the confirmation that she was alone. A lift of her phone informed even her glassless eyes that it was 3:51 a.m.

Her hope of returning to sleep was dashed by a thought:

The Neat Seat isn't enough!

Light, glasses, note pad, pencil. Lists, scribbled drawings.

Digging through stuff piled in a corner assured her that she still had the rest of Arch's old backpack.

Dawn was spreading when Ziri left her room.

Mrs. Driscoll was making breakfast when Ziri hurried into the kitchen and asked, "Can I use your sewing machine?"

The landlady gave her a stern look while tending to a skillet of corned beef hash. "Have you been pilfering again?"

"No, everything is what I already have, um, I already made it up to Arch, I'll only--"

"All right, yes, but later. I'll need to watch you learn the machine's programming. Then, you may use it, if you also sew my mending backlog."

Ziri nodded. "It's a deal."

Mrs. Driscoll gave her a little smile. "Are you too eager to wait?"

By then Ziri became aware of what she'd been inhaling. "Um, no. After breakfast. Definitely."

***

Archer Rosecrans was in the fourth mile of his run when his phone chimed for a text. He continued the run without checking the phone. The first three critiques of his novelette by the online writers' group had confirmed to him that these people were envious poseurs who deserved none of his attention. He had no doubt that this latest diatribe would reveal someone else to cross off his list of Those Worthy Of Respect. Best to wait until his body's demand for exertion had been fulfilled.

During his walkoff, however, he found that the text was from his landlord:

<<House meeting tonight 8 pm>>

Another waste of my time! he raged silently. Classes had begun. Tess's lab course had kept her on campus most of the previous night. Upon her return, he had graciously accepted her preference for sleep alone over passion together, but he expected that they would redress that situation tonight. This evening, however, could be rent asunder by some humdrum concern over excessive use of hot water.