The Cabin

It was Saturday morning and my wife, Colleen and I were on our way to a small remote cabin a friend of mine from high school had let me borrow for my anniversary. We had taken off the next two weeks to spend together with nothing to do but swim, hike, fish and make love.

I met my wife when I was in high school. Colleen Warner is 5ft 2 inches with natural red hair. When the light lands on her hair just right it almost looks like her hair is a living flame. She has c cup breasts and curves in all the right places. Colleen works at the same hospital I do, that's where we met up again after losing touch right after college. I work as an X-ray Technician. My name is David Miller and I couldn't be more average if I tried. I'm 6ft tall, weigh 150 pounds, brown hair and blue eyes. We've been married now for 10 happy years. We've been working on starting a family and unfortunately have not been successful but had fun trying. I work the night shift and it does make our sex life difficult at times. We have, what I believe, is an active sex life. Usually 3 to 4 times a week even after 10 years of marriage.

The cabin Keith had let me use sat by a lake hidden back in the green hills of the Pacific Northwest. It was a simple cabin consisting of a large living room with one wall holding the kitchen area. Off the living room ran a short hall leading to 2 comfortable bedrooms with a small bathroom in each. Outside was a small open shower fed by a rain barrel sitting slightly above and to the side.

I met Keith in high school when he came to my rescue. I was the typical nerd. I had the requisite pocket protector, wore button up shirts buttoned to the top, no glasses though. The day we met I was walking down the hallway of the school when suddenly all my books and papers went flying. The cause of this daily disaster was Mike Barrow, currently the biggest player on the high school team. I wasn't into sports so I had no clue what position he played or even what positions were what. All I knew was that Mike had made me a personal project of making my life as miserable as possible all because I wasn't a member of the school elite. I was a member of the lowest class in the school. I was so incredibly shy that I couldn't do anything but constantly apologize for every single mistake, real or imagined, that I committed.

As I scrambled to my feet, apologizing again, trying to grab up my belongings, Mike placed his large foot on my ass and pushed hard, sending me flying again.

"Hey little man" he snorted, "watch where you walk".

"I'm sorry" I squeaked.

"Yeah, you are sorry. Hey, you ever get that date with Mary Beth?" then burst into laughter with everyone joining in.

I had a major crush on the head cheerleader. Of course, any male with a pulse had a crush on Mary Beth. At 5" 5" with Blonde hair and blue eyes and the largest tits in the school, she was the textbook cheerleader. Every guy wanted her and every girl wanted to be her. I had written her a note professing my love for her and like an idiot I signed it then slid it into her locker. Of course after reading it and after recovering from her hysterical fit of laughing she immediately showed it to her friends who then spread the word. By the end of the day, there wasn't a person, student or staff that didn't know of my pathetic attempt to date the most popular girl in school.

Ignoring him, I again tried to pick up my things to make my escape.

"Hey, little man I'm talking to you." I don't know where it came from but I mustered all my courage and replied.

"But I'm not talking to you."

I wasn't fast enough to avoid the fist that crashed into the back of my head. I saw stars as I hit the floor.

"You say something little man?" roared Mike standing over me.

"Leave him alone Mike," said a voice coming from the crowd that had gathered to watch my humiliation.

"This don't involve you Keith," Mike said.

"You're twice his size and a lot stronger. So back off."

"Why are you worried about a little worm like him?"

"Because I'm tired of watching you and those like you terrorizing him and those like him. Now back off or you can try me." By now I was kneeling and looking up at THE most popular kid in school. At 6' tall and blonde and blue-eyed, he was the male version of Mary Beth. His parents owned several car lots in the area and were loaded. He also was a black belt at the local Karate dojo.

"He's not worth it. Go on little man. Scram." With that, he turned and stormed off.

"You ok?" Keith asked me holding out a hand to help me stand.

"Yeah, I'm used to it," I said as I picked up my things.

"Sorry about that. You shouldn't have any more trouble from him. In fact, sit with me at lunch, I need to talk to you about something."

"You sure you want to be seen with me? I don't want to cause you any trouble."

"You won't. As I said, I want to talk to you about something."

"Ok, thanks."

Entering the cafeteria, I got in line and filled my tray with the mystery food of the day. I glanced around the room and saw Keith sitting along the far wall. Sitting beside him was a pretty girl who seemed a little younger than Keith.

"Hi Keith," I said sitting down across from him and the girl.

"Hi, Dave. I let me introduce my friend Colleen this is Dave, Dave , Colleen."

I nodded my head and muttered "hi".

"Nice to meet you Dave." She smiled at me and that just made me feel all the worse. Colleen was a beautiful woman with flaming red hair that draped down past her shoulders, a little pixie nose and the greenest eyes I ever saw. Being shy, I had a hard time talking to people, add in them being female and attractive was almost too much for me. It would be extremely difficult just being in the same room as her let alone talking to her.

"I wanted to talk to you Dave to ask a favor of you," Keith said.

"A favor? From me? I'm the most unpopular kid in school. It's almost the kiss of death just to be seen with me."

"Yeah from you" he chuckled. "You have a 4.0 GPA don't you?"

"Yeah, so"

"I want you to tutor Colleen. She's failing a couple of classes and needs help."

"You want me to tutor her?" I asked, incredulous.

"Yeah. That a problem?"

"Well, sort of. Can I talk to you over there?" I asked pointing to the far end of the table.

"Sure."

Moving to the end I glanced back down to see Colleen who seemed to have a permanent grin fixed to her face.

"What's up?" Keith asked.

"I can't tutor her man" I gasped.

"Why not? She's not stupid, just needs help some."

"Look, I have a problem with shyness. If you hadn't helped me out earlier I wouldn't even have the guts to be talking with you now. Your Colleen is beautiful which makes it even worse."

"Look, Dave. I hear you OK? But you don't have anything to worry about. I told her you were shy. She's not going to bite nor is she going to ridicule or make fun of you. She needs help and I figured that with your smarts you could help her."

"Why don't you tutor her?"

"I've tried. I'm not too good at chemistry and you're acing it. Same with Biology. We need your help, please?'

"I don't know," I said, glancing back at Colleen. "I don't do good around girls. What if I said something wrong, you know? I don't want to say something that would hurt her, you know something insensitive or the like?"

"I told her that I didn't think you had many dealings with girls. She knows that you won't be insensitive. Just give her a chance. If it doesn't work than it doesn't work but at least you both have tried."

So I began meeting Colleen every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at her house. We sat at her dining room table that was big enough to seat the entire football team, at least it seemed that way to me. Colleen's problems were that she wasn't able to grasp what the class was trying to teach and translate that into how she thought. So I had to figure out a way that would allow her to do that. After a couple of months I was finally able to help her get through her problems, just as her finals were approaching. After spending as much time together as we had I felt that I was really falling for her. Of course, I had no experience with relationships but I really felt like we were becoming a couple.

I waited, nervously, for word on how Colleen had fared on her tests. I had finally gotten past my shyness with her and we had become close friends. I found myself in love. Or at least what I felt was love. I wanted to take her on a date and had finally worked up the nerve to ask her when my cell phone rang.

"Hello," I said answering it.

"Dave? I did it." Colleen shrieked into the phone.

"What?" I asked.

"I did it. I passed my finals. I just found out. I got a 93% on my Chemistry test and a 97% on my Biology test. I'm so excited."

"That's great," I said happy for her. "Hey, Why don't I take you out for pizza and some ice cream to celebrate?" I asked.

The silence on the phone was almost a living thing.

"Are you asking me out?" Colleen asked quietly.

"Ummm, well, I just thought, you know, uhh..." I stammered before finally falling silent.

"Dave, I loved to. How about Friday night? Pick me up at 7 OK?"

"Ummm sure. I mean if you're sure."

"Yes I'm sure" she giggled.

Friday finally came and I had borrowed my parents station wagon after some kind hearted ribbing from my parents, sisters and brother. I picked up Colleen and we headed for Little Italy Pizza parlor. We'd been there an hour when Colleen excused herself having to go the bathroom. I waited for 15 minutes and still no Colleen. I walked over to the bathrooms and stood outside not knowing what to do. After another 10 minutes, a middle aged woman came out.

"Excuse me mam but I was wondering if there was anyone else in there? I'm on a date and she left to use the bathroom and hasn't come back yet."

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but no, there's no one else in there. Maybe something came up and she had to leave." She said, the pity in her eyes almost made me cry.

"Yeah, maybe" I said heartbroken. I walked back to the table, shoulders hunched. I knew it was too good to be true. Someone like Colleen could never be interested in some loser like me. Paying the bill, I left and drove home. My family was surprised to see me so early and one look at me told them everything. Everybody tried to cheer me up but I just apologized and went to my room and cried until sleep finally took me.

Monday morning, I walked into school and opened my locker gathering my things for my first class.

"Colleen told me she almost aced her tests thanks to you." I heard Keith say.

"Yeah," I said dejectedly and started off for my first class.

"Hey wait," Keith said as he hurried up beside me. "What's going on? I thought you'd be happy she did so well."

"I am," I said.

"You don't sound happy."

"Let me ask you something. What did you do Friday night?"

"Well, I went to a movie at 6 and then headed over to a party at Mary Beth's house. Why?"

"Anyone else there that I would know?"

"Ummm, what's going on Dave?" Keith asked suspiciously.

"Was Colleen there, by chance?"

"Well, yeah. She showed up with Pete Anderson. She's always had a thing for him. So What?"

"Never mind. I have to get to class." I said and hurried off. I managed to avoid Colleen and Keith the rest of the day, and then I didn't.

Finished with my last class of the day, I was putting everything I didn't need into my locker when she showed up. "I'm sorry about Friday night," she said meekly.

"Whatever," I said closing my locker and walking away.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she said as she hurried to catch up to me, grabbing my arm.

"Well, you did. But don't worry about it. I'm the local loser and I wouldn't want your precious image tarnished because people saw you with me."

"You're not a loser. I screwed up, ok? Look, I ran into Pete outside the bathrooms and he invited me to Mary Beth's party. I wanted to come get you but Pete said he didn't have time to wait for me to use the bathroom and then go talk to you. I blew it and I'm sorry."

"No, you're not sorry. If you were sorry you would have told Pete that you were sorry but that you were with me for the night. But you didn't want to waste your time with someone like me when you could be with the man of your dreams." Her shocked expression told me I had hit the mark. "Yeah, I know you've always wanted to be with him. Now you can" I told her yanking my arm loose and storming off. If I thought I was clear of this mess I was sadly mistaken as I saw Keith waiting for me outside of school.

"So what's going on?" he asked falling into step with me.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said quietly.

"Tough! Listen, I like you and Colleen obviously likes you. Now, what's going on?"

"Obviously? You actually said obviously to me?" I almost screamed at him, losing my shyness in shock at his words.

"Hey, what the hell is going on? Either you tell me now or I plant you against one of these walls until you do."

"Look, it doesn't concern you alright? Just leave it be. It evidently meant nothing to her. She's only upset because she is evidently feeling guilty about what she did. You want me to say all is forgiven, fine tell her I said she's forgiven to just leave me alone." I told him, yanking my arm free and began to run away. I heard "What the hell" and then I was gone.

With only a couple of weeks left of school, I worked really hard to avoid both Colleen and Keith. I wasn't going to be the one to tell Keith what she had done and I sure as hell didn't want to listen to any of Colleen's empty apologies. Guys like me just didn't wind up with girls like her. She was way out of my league and the sooner I accepted that the better off I'd be.

So I spent my time at school constantly looking around to make sure I didn't run into them. My time outside of school I spent at home either watching TV or walking around in the woods close to my house with a pair of binoculars watching birds. I guess the bird watching added to my geek or loser status. But birds were safe for me. They didn't constantly belittle me or make me feel like I didn't belong. They just didn't care if I was there or not.

Finally, at the end of the day of the last day of school, I was making my way out of the building when I was grabbed from behind and shoved through a classroom door to my left and slammed into a wall just inside the door with my face pressing against the wall.

"So little man, nobody around to protect you now." I heard mike growl behind me.

"What do you want MIke? I'm not bothering you. I just want to go home and mind my own business."

"Yeah well, that isn't going to happen. You see you and I have a friend that wanted me to relay a message to you."

"Who?"

"Pete Anderson. Seems he doesn't like you sniffing after his girl. So he asked me to politely ask you to back off and leave her alone."

So saying he punched me in the right kidney and followed that up by spinning me around and punching me in my nose. Blood gushed as I heard it break and saw a bright flash of pain. Then I was doubled over as he hit me in my gut, knocking the wind out of me dropping me to my knees. Fisting my hair, Mike pulled my head back and blackened both of my eyes with two rapid fire punches.

I was almost unconscious when he let me go and I slumped to the floor.

"Stay away from Colleen Warner. Otherwise, this will only be a sample of what you have to look forward to" and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. I lay on the floor gasping for what seemed years until I got my breathing under control. I sat up with my back to the wall and Groaning with the pain, I stood up and made my way out of the room and into the now deserted hallway and then outside. I was staggering my way home when I heard a gasp and the sound of running feet. Then Colleen was there.

"Oh my god" she gasped, "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Leave me alone. You've done enough already"

"What does that mean?"

"This is a message. Seems your boyfriend to exception to my asking to us date. This was his way of letting me know to stay away from you"

" Mike Barrow told me in his special way that Pete Anderson didn't want me messing around with his girl." I managed to gasp out. "So I'll just save everyone some trouble and mind my own business. I'm leaving for college in a month I don't want to go in an ambulance."

Colleen just dropped her hand and watched in disbelief as I hobbled away.

I tried to sneak into my house and hide out in my room, not wanting my family to see me but I failed at that as well. I didn't notice my mom as I tried to creep through the kitchen.

"Dave, What the hell happened to you?" She cried rushing over to me.

"Got jumped at school. No big deal. I just want to lie down for a while." I told her, trying to make my way to my room.

"No way son, You're going to the hospital to get that nose and those eyes looked at.

So I went to the hospital ER. Nobody with any sense ever tried to go against my mom when she had her mind made up, especially when it involved kids.

Mom made me tell her the whole story from beginning to end.

Other than a broken nose, which hurt like hell when they set it, I had a bruised kidney. There was no bone damage to my eye sockets and in time I'd be good as new.

I spent all my time at home pretty much exiling myself to my room just waiting until it was time for me to leave for college. Colleen and Keith tried several times to talk to me, either calling or stopping by but I refused to talk to them. My parents were upset with me for being so rude but I didn't care. I just wanted out of there and away from them.

Finally, I made it to college. I worked hard to get the best grades I could. I went out to eat several times until one night I caught a glimpse of Keith and Colleen sitting in a secluded booth. I quickly left praying they didn't see me. After that I basically became a hermit. I went to class and then stayed in my dorm room. I know I was a coward. But for someone like me what she did to me was really traumatic. That's how I spent the next four years. I still loved Colleen but her having so easily forgotten me so she could go to a party with her dream guy just killed me. I would see her and Keith around but I'd just hurry away hoping they didn't see me.

Two days before graduation my luck ran out and I ran into Keith at 7/11.

"Can I talk with you Dave?" Keith had seen me and came up behind me.

"What's the point Keith?"

"Please, Dave? Just a few minutes at the park across the street. Please ".

"Fine."

I finished paying for my drink and followed Keith across the street to a picnic table.

"What do you want Keith?"

"I want to know what happened to my friends. It's been 4 years Dave."

"What has Colleen told you?"

"Nothing. She just says that what she did was unforgivable."

I sat there for several minutes just staring at him, undecided. Finally, I told him of how I managed to get up the courage to ask her out, our dating, how I fell in love and then about how she just left me that night.

It felt good to finally get it out. I had pushed all that pain and humiliation down and it into a box.

Keith sat and listened only asking a question here and there for clarification.

"Wow, Dave" Keith said. " I can see why you'd be hurt but to hold that inside all these years? That just lets it fester and grow man."

"I know but I really loved her. Hell, I still love her. I'm not as shy as I was and I guess I might have been able to get a date now and then. I just can't get past what she did to me."

"Well if there's any way I can help please let me know. "

"I will. Thanks. "

"So we good?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, we're good".

Graduation came and went. And I found myself working at Grace Memorial Hospital and life seemed good. Then I saw her. Colleen sat behind the admitting desk checking a patient into the Emergency room. It had been 2 years since college and she still looked stunningly beautiful. I let myself stop and get lost in her beauty. Then, I was looking into those incredible eyes. Shaking myself mentally I hurried back to my department.