The Birthday Present

I guess all good stories start at the beginning by knowing who people are and what their story is. Me? At the time of this, it's just before my 18^th birthday, and I've just finished my exams for the first semester of college. My best friend and I took each other's virginity at 15, and decided we were too good as friends to screw it up by dating each other. After that, being the good Catholic school boy I was, I went about finding as many good Catholic school girls as I could to entertain for an evening or three. When you have the reputation of being willing to go down on a girl, and being good enough to bring her to an orgasm, one night stands aren't hard to find. Just make sure you don't get her pregnant or the hypocrites in charge of the school will throw you both out.

Physically, I'm 6'6 and 305 pounds (think offensive lineman for American football) in reasonably good shape. I don't have a six pack for a stomach, but there's nothing hanging down where it shouldn't be. Short curly brown hair, a round face and thick glasses hiding greenish-grey eyes. I was towards the bottom of the social ladder, which was fine with me. I had the people I liked and kept my distance from the people I didn't.

I met Katie my first semester in college. She's 31, used to be a model, now she runs a small modelling business.(a lot of the local business print ads, billboards etc...) She's in the process of a divorce, going for the college degree she wants and just filling out required classes like the rest of us freshmen. How her husband got her in the first place should be a Ripley's Believe it or Not episode, and to screw it up, he should be checked for a lobotomy. A free spirit at heart, I bet she would have been right at home in the '60's. No children for the sole reason, and I quote, "I was a model, and being pregnant gets you little work. At this point, there's no one I would want to father one, so why worry, it's not like I don't have time yet." She's great with her niece and nephew, and will make a great mother someday. She has a fair complexion, a little freckly around the bridge of her nose, and sharp blue eyes that will look right through any bullshit you put in front of them. I've seen her angry, and thankfully never caused it. We meet in the Intro to Journalism class and our teacher, who one of these days I should probably thank for this, is too lazy to pair people off in any way other than by last name. One karma point for me.

As a pair, our assignment for the class causes us to get together twice a week for about an hour to figure out our writing/photography work and format it in a form acceptable to be graded. I meet Cassie through Katie. Cassie is 19, a freshman like I am, and a client of Katie's who's in school to 'figure myself out and go from there'. She went to a different high school than anyone I knew in the area, so introductions were made. As we talk and get to know each other, I find out she's my polar opposite in almost every way. Even in simple jeans and blouse she looks put together, my t-shirts and sweatpants don't compare(I wore a shirt and tie for 4 years in high school, now that I'm free, I'm not dressing up). She's even easier to talk too than she is on the eyes, in very stark contrast to my aversion with talking to people. And where I happen to be really good at explaining algebra, she doesn't quite understand it. Which leads to the two of us spending an evening a week together. I swear, this girl could have been an interrogator for the FBI as much as she got me to talk while I'm tutoring her. So now comes the fun part, finals week, and Friday of the week happens to be my 18^th birthday.

Cassie has been slowly keeping up in Math with my help, Katie pitches in where she can, and between the three of us, she's got a C in the class, pass the final and she's good to go. We put in a long weekend and bright and early Monday morning (this is what you get for taking an 8am Math class) Cassie's off to her final. On Thursday, Katie and I do our final presentation, get the A we so richly deserve, and are just sharing a cup of coffee in the cafeteria while watching the first snowflakes of the year float down. From across the cafeteria...

"VINNIEEEEE!!" (oh, guess I forgot that part, I'm Vincenzo (want to guess my heritage? J ) and here comes Cassie, bounding across the room and jumping up into my arms as I stand up, wrapping her legs around my waist and giving me a very loud kiss on the cheek. Then she leans her head back, giggles a little and looks me in the eyes, "I got a B on the final, thankyouthankyouthankyou." And she goes back to hugging me tightly. Katie is about to fall out of her chair laughing, and the rest of the students who actually turn and look up from their books are just shaking their heads before going back to their own little world that Cassie's outburst has disturbed. I grab her by the waist and put her down on her feet so I can sit back down, she plops down across the table, and lights up the room with her smile.

"I owe you a lot Vinnie, if there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know."

Well Cassie, that kiss and hug was good enough for me, I'll just put that in the early birthday present category and we can go on from there.

Katie has to put her 2 cents in "early birthday huh, so when exactly is it?"

"Well, I turn 18 tomorrow, if you really must know."

The two women look at each other for a moment, you know the look, and almost in unison,

"Well then, I guess we're taking you out tomorrow night."

"Really, you don't have to do that. A nice relaxing day of no classes is good enough for me."

"Nope," Katie says, "We're taking you out, and I know exactly where we're going." Cassie giggles again, damn she's cute when she does that.

"Just wear something a little more decent than you do around here, jeans and a clean shirt, polo or button down, and meet us at my house about 6."

"Well Katie, I don't own any jeans." (I have thick thighs, jeans are uncomfortable as hell to me) "Your choices are cargo shorts, sweatpants, or a dressy version of khaki's, and if that doesn't work, guess I'm not going." (yes, after events played out, I realize this last statement makes me a complete moron, but at the time, I was looking for an excuse not to go, I'm not a "nightclub" kind of guy, and I knew that's where they wanted to drag me)

"Oh no Vincenzo," (full name, even from a friend, you're in trouble) "You're going, and I hope the shorts are clean, because it will be warm enough that you don't want to wear pants."

So now it's time, 5 minutes before 6 and I'm parking in Katie's driveway. My 10 year old car looks a little modest next to her almost new Audi, and I see Cassie's beat up little Honda sitting out on the street. I hope they're not going to take forever getting ready.

I get to the door, and there's a little note on it "come on in Vinnie, have a seat on the couch and we'll be down in a minute, just let us know you're here"

Being the nice guy that I am, I yell upstairs to them that I'm here, take my shoes off and have a seat next to the boxer puppy on the couch. She and I get acquainted until they come down the stairs. Hol-y crap! Who are these girls and where are the two that I know? Katie has on a calf length skirt, and heels that have laces going up around her legs, both in black. The slit on her skirt is almost to her hip, high enough to see the black garter holding up the black stockings she has on. She's wearing an almost skin-tight black top, and a long sleeve white blouse rolled up to her elbows and tied at her stomach. The outfit does everything possible to accentuate her almost six foot tall frame. Her blonde hair is 3 shades lighter than I remember, with a black headband holding it dead straight off of her face to finish the outfit.

Cassie has gone completely the other way. A pair of suede boots, just below the midpoint of her calves and a beige skirt resting just above her knees showing off her very well-toned legs. Her top is a peasant-style blouse in a hundred shades of blue and green. The blouse is designed to be loose, but it still stretches a little tight across her chest. She's got the same style of headband on, but the color matches her skirt. She's also wearing contacts instead of her normal glasses. Other than lipstick (red for Katie, bubblegum pink for Cassie) they wear no makeup. Once I pick my jaw up off the floor, Katie tosses me a black sleeping mask

"Okay Vinnie, at least you had the decency to wear a white shirt, and its oddly appropriate I believe," (There's Cassie giggling again, even now I get little goosebumps and a smile thinking about it) "Move your car then get in the back seat, put the mask on, I'm driving"

"Why the mask?"

"Well, if you get to see where we're going, it wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?" Guess that ends that conversation.

The nearest major city to us is 40-45 minute drive; Katie makes it in less than 30, and I'm glad I can't see what she's doing. The ladies have overcoats on so all you see is from the ankle down and the neck up. I'm just wearing a comfortable black jacket with a hood, nothing special. We get to the door of a giant building, a rusted plate overhead announces the place as "The Dockhouse" Interesting name, whatever. There's a man slightly smaller than me and a woman at the door, Cassie gets the bracelet marking her as underage, and the woman greets Katie with the kiss on the cheek and fake hug that women do. I dig my ID out and hand it to the man, he looks it over, smiles a little, wraps the bracelet on my wrist and says happy birthday to me on the way in. The woman at the door looks over at me as I pass,

"Your birthday huh?"

"Yes ma'am, 18 today." She gets this odd smile on her face.

"Nice manners, someone taught you well." As I go say thank you, she reaches out and gives me a not hard but not soft slap on the backside.

"Well, happy birthday, only 17 more to go tonight." I start to say something else and Katie just grabs my hand and pulls me inside, over to a giant room where they leave the overcoats. She grabs Cassie's ticket and puts all three of them in my hand.

"You have pockets, you keep them."

"Yes ma'am." That earned a raised eyebrow and a smirk from Katie.

We walk towards the main door, and it's a black theatre-style curtain, with two gaps, one in, one out. She stops right before we walk in, pulling me aside a little so others can go past, I notice I'm way under-dressed, but I don't have the wardrobe to fit in.

"Now Vinnie, there's some things in here that I know you've never seen before, hell, you've probably never even thought of them before. Just keep an open mind, relax, and if you ever feel uncomfortable with anything that's being done, let me know. If someone bothers you, just say no thanks, I'm with them and point to Cassie or I, and that will be the end of it, okay?"

What in the hell have I gotten myself into? "Alright Katie, I trust you that you're not going to put me in anything I can't handle, just you two hang close for a little while until I feel comfortable, please?"

"It's your birthday honey, we aren't going anywhere." She leans over and hugs me tightly, god she feels good, and whispers in my ear, "you'll get your present later." Her perfume is something different than she normally wears, the scent almost surrounding me even after she has let go.

We walk through the curtain into a giant warehouse space, concrete floor and a bar on either side of the room. All the windows have dark curtains over them, with dull white lights alternating with red shaded ones around the walls to light the room, the middle is almost pitch black. As we walk in, I'm just looking around a bit, and looking up startles me. Above me in something resembling a cage are two men, one bent over a sawhorse looking thing, genitals covered and a mask over his head, otherwise he's naked. The other is behind him wearing the same thing around his groin, holding what looks like a riding crop and occasionally using it. All you hear is the smack, nothing else from the recipient. I reach for Katie's hand and squeeze it a little hard, and she follows my eyes, then smiles.

"Told you you'd see things here hon, just relax, no one will do that to you, unless you want them too." And a smile I've never seen before, somewhere between loving and evil crosses her lips. She lets go of my hand and points my head above the bar. There is another cage looking thing, this one with two women in it. One has thigh high military looking boots, and something between a bathing suit and a corset on, also holding a crop. Her partner is on her knees, prostrate, and her head is moving around the left toe of the boot. She's wearing the same corset/bathing suit looking thing, but it's a thong in the back, or completely pulled up tight, and she's being swatted on the backside every once in a while by her partner.

The music is almost overpowering in volume, something between an orchestra and a heavy metal band, with an opera singer letting vocals go. If it were quieter, I would probably like it. Katie just grabs both Cassie and I, dragging us to the middle of the room which is a dance floor and just letting the music flow through her. Cassie might have been a gymnast, but Katie moved as fluidly as any I had ever seen, almost hypnotizing the both of us with her movements. There are a couple of hundred people around us, and we don't see anything, just the three of us together moving as one. Me on one side, moving as best i can to the music, Katie on the other, and Cassie facing me in between us, going back and forth between pressing up tight against me, to leaning back snugly against Katie, my hand on her hip the only thing connecting us. It's almost like being blind with every other sense growing stronger; the fabric of Cassie's skirt against my fingertips, the mixed smell of incense, sweat, perfume and alcohol soaking into me. There's air moving around the room from giant ceiling fans, giving anyone who's dancing or sweating goosebumps from it. Other than taking a break for some water, I don't think we moved more than 10 feet from where we had settled in, how long it was, I don't know. I don't ever wear a watch, and I don't think anyone else cared how much time passed, you just went with the flow of things in your own little world. Everyone around us was lost in their own trances, seemingly cognizant enough to not bump into each other, but paying attention to no one.

The music dies down, and a light shines from the other end of the room, it's pointed away from everyone, but through the darkness, it's still blinding and takes everyone a second to get used to it. There's a stage at the far end of the room, and there's a camera on a tripod pointing at the center. All that is on the stage is an Adirondack chair, another of the sawhorse looking things with padding over it, and a large wooden X with a chain around the middle, and straps on each end. Katie grabs us both and works us over off to the side, about 30 feet from the stage, opposite the camera so we have an unobstructed view. Well, Katie and I do, Cassie is kinda peeking around everyone to try and see what's going on, her short stature working against her at this moment. Katie pulls both our heads together, with hers in between, her breath tickling both of our ears.

"This is why we're here tonight, to see my friend Lauren perform."

I might be naïve, I'm not stupid. I can guess what's about to happen. A carnival barker's voice comes out, introducing us to Mistress Lauren and her pet. I guess pets don't get a name, or Pet is her name.

Lauren comes out, in a skintight leather suit that must have been sewn on to her, holding a leash and leading a naked young lady walking behind her, a collar around her neck and her head bowed low. Lauren's black hair shines almost purple under the lights, as she drags the young brunette along behind her over to the chair. I lose sight of them for a moment when Cassie grabs my shirt collar and pulls me down to her, asking if there is anything I can do to help her see better, the crowd being too thick for her to see through. I look around for a chair, stealing glances up on the stage as Lauren sits in the chair and gives a sharp tug on the leash, almost jerking the girl over to her, and down across her lap.

I don't see anything for Cassie to stand on, give up, and get down on one knee and motion to my back. She climbs up onto my shoulders, tucking her skirt in between herself and the back of my head. I stand back up, her legs tucking under my arms and locking her in place. Katie sees all the movement and shakes her head softly, smiling, then backs up against me, her head against the top of my chest as we silently watch. Katie grabs my left hand and wraps it around her body, my wrist resting against the knot in her shirt. Every now and then I can feel Cassie jump a little at a loud smack, or the goosebumps running up and down her legs under my arms. The place just gets quieter and quieter until the whimpers of the pet fill the room as loudly as the screams from the music once did.

Lauren works deliberately on her pet, from not-so-gentle swats with her hand, to using the crop on all her intimate parts; even tugging on something connected by a chain stretching from her chest to her groin. Each new movement brings little reaction other than oohs from the crowd, and no one is saying a word. You couldn't, it was just too much to interrupt the performance with mere words. After what seems like close to an hour, Lauren leans down, strokes the girl's hair, whispers in her ear, and the young lady screams and starts to shake.

A fountain erupts from between her legs, as the crowd in front scrambles around, some towards her, some away. It's a truly breathtaking sight, and I find myself almost shaking with her. Katie is so lost in the moment, I can see her hands rubbing against her skirt, and Cassie is trembling on top of me, grinding against my neck. A new smell fills my nose, and there's no doubt what it is, or where it is coming from. Lauren and her pet barely acknowledge the applause from everyone who has watched this, and just walk off the stage, Lauren giving a little tug on the leash to encourage the young lady to move faster on her obviously wobbly legs.

I kneel down and let Cassie put her feet on solid ground. She just clings against my side as we stand there. Katie looks at both of us, grabs my hand and tells us both its time to go. We collect our coats and head out to her car; she points to the backseat and tells us to climb in. Cassie grabs my arm, draping it around her shoulder, puts her head on my chest, and snuggles up as close as she possibly can. A gentle kiss on the top of her head is all I manage before Katie interrupts

"Well, what did you think?" Cassie and I just look at each other, and I'm quicker to find the words.

"I would have never thought anything like that existed, but it was so... intense. You feel a little bad for the pet, but you can see no movement of protest, even a word from her, and you're just trapped watching it." Cassie just closes her mouth and nods in agreement. I guess my words summed up her feelings.

"I know," Katie looks up and finds my eyes in the mirror. "The first time Lauren talked me into coming to see it, I was just as in shock, but now that I've seen it a few times, it is just awesome how she can handle people like that. And that just feels like the perfect place for something like that to happen."

I can still feel the energy from the show running through my system as we travel back to Katie's house, it is a euphoric feeling. Cassie's hand is just softly rubbing my chest, her eyes are closed, and I can feel her breath through my damp shirt. Katie keeps looking back at us, her smile getting bigger all the while, and I quietly tell her to keep her eyes on the road, which earns me a giggle and a smile from Cassie. I lean over to kiss the top of her head again, rubbing up and down her arm while giving a little squeeze to pull her closer.