The Humper Game Pt. 04 Ch. 03

When we got there, Kelly wasn't in sight, so after stretching briefly I just started running. I hadn't finished two laps before she came in. She joined me a lap later. This time she gave my arm a quick squeeze as she caught up and matched me. After a minute, she said, "In that class, had you already covered yesterday's material in your high school? Your questions kind of sounded like you already knew it."

"No. But they impressed on us, very early, that you get more out of a class if you go over the material before the class. It really was necessary there, if you wanted to keep up. Over a weekend or especially a break, you normally would wind up going through everything at least twice to make sure you were ready.

"I gather that this is kind of unusual here, but it seems pretty wasteful to have the professor spend so much time just presenting the material that's in the book. Our instructors, well, some of them could get pretty sarcastic if you weren't ready for discussion in class. And they mostly didn't summarize the material in the texts, they asked questions about it. If you seemed to be hanging back from the discussion, they called on you with questions, too."

"I see. I think if I'm having trouble understanding something, or with a paper, I'll be coming to you with questions. I hope you won't mind. And that Ellen won't."

"I suppose whether I mind will depend on what the questions are. I doubt it will be a problem, though. But why would Ellen mind?"

She looked at me in surprise. "Wouldn't she feel that I was taking time you owe her?"

"I can't imagine that, unless it seemed like you were just using it as an excuse to get time with me.

"At school, people often studied together, but a lot of the time that just meant sitting together in the cafeteria or somewhere with someone but working mostly alone. Boys might study together in someone's room, likewise for girls. And there were tables you could use, in sort of common lounges in the boys' wing or the girls' wing. That's unless you were assigned a joint project with someone, of course, then you had to talk about it together. But if it was a mixed pair or group, you were in the cafeteria or library, and you had to talk fairly quietly for the most part. In the cafeteria you could be louder, as long as you didn't disturb others.

"Senior year, when we were allowed to be in each other's rooms—in the other sex's wings, um, dormitory areas—more people studied together there. You could only manage four or five in a group, the rooms were small.

"But once the gym game got started, Jenny and I studied in her room, and there usually were five of us. And we very quickly started really working together, even when we weren't in the same classes, and we found pretty often studying actually took less time. We'd get help, mostly just hints—'watch out for this, it had me confused, until I realized I had to look at that to see why'—that kind of thing. Most of the time, Ellen was one of the five, and she mostly was in different classes from the rest of us. That was really to our benefit, mostly, if we were all stuck she could usually help. We also just shared interesting things we found, which often were eventually helpful even when we weren't in the same classes.

"Um. In our case it was me and four girls. And we weren't so busy that we had to study every minute, anyway, and studying together really did make us more productive, so we often managed to squeeze in some time for studying biology, hands on." Kelly laughed. "Well, we were being cute, describing it that way. That had the mixed advantage and disadvantage that when we got to the week-long practical sex ed week, we'd already figured out a lot of that material, too. Not always quite the best way, that was the disadvantage."

"You mean you, um, practiced—if that's the term I want—with these other girls watching?"

"That's right. But remember, we didn't start that until the game in gym was underway—though it's quite likely a few had jumped the gun, on their own—and that was all pretty much in public. If you caught your partner, you left the course, which was marked by ropes at the edges. A lot of people just went over or under the ropes and a few more feet. I usually went outside the area where the grass was mowed—you weren't really private in the high grass, but it felt more private. And of course, most of your potential audience was focused on running, not on what you were doing. As far as taking turns with the forfeits, well, besides other guys waiting in line, there was usually an audience. It was specifically allowed, and there wasn't much else to do at that point.

"I was pretty much the only one, I think, but if there wasn't anyone waiting, I almost always tried to make it be be lovemaking, taking some time, talking, at least a little kissing. If anyone was waiting, the rules specified that you didn't waste time, so that others got their chance."

She didn't say anything to that. We ran on for a while. I finally said, "I don't know what's happened to me. Most of that was stuff I shouldn't have talked about, for a lot of reasons. Please don't spread it around. And really, I used to be able to keep my mouth shut better."

Kelly said, "I promise I won't pass it on. I'm afraid I kind of envy those girls, though."

"I was lucky, and I think the girls I studied with thought they were, too. For studying, it really was a good system. We really did have as much theoretically free time as class time, and we had to use almost all of it for hard studying. And we were all kind of surprised at how much more productive studying together proved to be. I mean, not working together on a project, but just all studying in the same place, with some interaction. Of course, by that time we had all learned to study effectively."

We talked about Kelly's other classes for the rest of our run.

Wednesday's classes were similar to Tuesday's—seemingly taken awfully slowly, as if no work would be expected of us which wasn't specifically assigned. Thursday's and Friday's were about like Tuesday's and Wednesday's. This wasn't at all surprising, since most of my classes met Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday, in the same time slots. I had one which was only Mondays and Wednesdays, namely Philosophy of Mind.

Ellen and I couldn't eat lunch together on Wednesdays, or on Mondays, but at least in terms of schedule conflicts we were OK on other days. I wished I could talk to her about how I'd run on to Kelly. I studied during lunch, instead.

I asked some people, and did a little research, while Ellen was in a class. There was a branch post office just off campus, apparently intended for the benefit of the campus. During that break I hurried to the framing shop, where as I'd expected I found mailing tubes suitable for the copies of Sam's drawings, and a box for the framed one. I made it home, and got the drawings into the mailing tubes and the addresses on them. I tied them together, since I was fairly sure I couldn't get them mailed and still be on time for class. No time even to think about getting the Goodfriends' copy framed, and I really trusted Ellen's taste more than my own, anyway.

After that class, I collected Ellen, and we went to the post office and mailed them. I'd gotten a couple of extra mailing tubes, so when we got home I got the remaining copies into one, to protect them.

I had had plans for dinner, then realized that we still had leftovers from two days. I was proving to be very forgetful and bad at managing on my own. For dinners, I made up on a piece of paper a brief meal plan for the week, showing ingredients needed each day—that was to make it easy to verify that I had what we would need—and rough prep time. For the moment I just left it on a counter by the fridge. Add to lists: whiteboard (magnetic back) and markers, and some refrigerator magnets. I wanted the whiteboard and markers to be new. Used whiteboards usually had had their surfaces damaged, so that they didn't erase easily, and used markers were iffy.

That week, of course, it was already Wednesday, and a leftover was heating. I made a salad, too, and cooked some frozen vegetables. For Thursday, leftover spaghetti, and I thought I'd make garlic toast to go along, and another salad. Friday we were eating with Kelly at her place. So Saturday and Sunday would get what I had gotten thinking of Wednesday and Thursday.

That evening, I called Jenny. With Ellen there, of course, and she was in on it. Jenny was busy with classwork, but like me—and Ellen too—she found it slow-paced and found the expectations low. She was feeling kind of lonely, missing all of us.

I wanted to call Sam, too, but I was afraid it would run on too long. We needed to study. We buckled down to it. Mostly I just needed to review my notes from Tuesday's classes and look ahead at what we were likely to be doing in those classes the next day. Ellen had more work to do.

When she was done, I told her about my conversation with Kelly while running. We agreed that it probably was OK, but that I needed to start censoring these things somehow.

"One thing I'm a little worried about," I said. "Or maybe two. Kelly's mention of envying, well, my girls, um, I'm a little afraid she's getting attracted to me. And the maybe two is that I'm finding her attractive that way, too, some. Maybe a lot. And a lot of that is my own fault. I deliberately took advantage of the opportunity to screw almost as many girls from our class as I could. I think it warped my thinking. Honestly. I look at a woman, and what I see is her body. Breasts, pussy, hips, all outlined by her clothes and the way she moves. And I can't help thinking what it would be like to screw her. I can only hope that if I behave differently my thoughts will eventually fall in line.

"But I offer you a promise. I won't pursue sex with Kelly. I will try hard not to do anything that could be viewed as flirting. If she asks me to screw her, I'll try to be gentle about it, but I will turn her down. If she, well, hints in some way, I'll try to be clear that I'm off limits to her. And if there's anything like that, I'll make sure I tell you. Promise. And not just Kelly, anyone—it's only Kelly right now, but who knows, down the line? June, pursuing me for my cooking?"

Ellen laughed at the last bit, but said, "Thank you. I love you, and for the moment I've got you all to myself. Exclusive, unless Jenny or Sam visits. Or just maybe if Ellen, or Deedee, or Claire, or Barbara, or Barbara, or one of a dozen or two others comes calling I'll have to lend you out."

"If one of that list comes, we'll talk to her and decide then. I'll promise you on that, too: if you're firmly against it, I won't. Jenny or Sam, they've got a right, but the rest, no. I admit that several of that list would be seriously tempting, but I won't without your permission, and I mean not begrudged."

She kind of flew into my arms. Well, into my lap first. "Phil, what did I do to deserve you? Not enough!"

She hesitated. "I have a confession to make. Dearest."

I was pretty sure it couldn't be anything serious. I knew Ellen that well. I just waited expectantly.

After a moment, she said, "I've heard you now quite a few times describe that time in the serving area, when you asked me if was OK to tell your friends about our first time. And one part of your description, um, you gave me way too much credit, every time. And I need to tell you, and maybe everyone you've ever told it to.

"I thanked you, using your first name, and you thought I was telling you to go on that basis with me, and you viewed it as a tremendous honor. I'm glad you did, because it was so rude of me, you might have been mad at me instead.

"But let me tell you about it from my side. Yes, I let you catch me, for all the reasons I told you when you asked. And I was aroused some from the situation, from thinking about it, but you worked to help me be ready, and you wanted to do more than you did, even. So I was really ready. From what I now know, a year later, I'm pretty sure that if I had ever masturbated and had an orgasm or two, I would have come right away, with you. The only thing missing was knowing how, and I mean body not brain, really. Though the brain was kind of ignorant, too.

"But you made it really good for me in spite of that lack. And I thought about it and thought about it, how really considerate you had been and how good it was, and looking back I'm kind of surprised I didn't come in the shower, soaping myself. But I was still really, really wet and turned on when you stopped me and asked me that. Honestly, if we hadn't both been standing there with food in our hands and needing to go eat, I probably would have asked you to take a walk outside with me and do it again, then and there!

"And I was so, well, giddy that when I thanked you, I used your first name. Without meaning to.

"And you looked shocked, but rapturously happy, and called me Ellen. So I kept my mouth shut and didn't apologize. And I tried to deserve that look you gave me, the next day. That, I did mean to do. When I kissed you on the cheek and told everybody how nice you had been.

"So please, remember that it's not that I felt superior and entitled to take liberties. It's that I was falling in love with you, walking on air, on cloud nine, whatever metaphor you want, and I made a big mistake. And somehow it turned out to be the right thing to do after all. But falling in love with you was totally natural and totally right. And thank you for that, with no apologies at all."

Well, there she was in my lap, so what could I do but kiss her? I still wondered what was wrong with all the other guys from our class, that so few had been careful and considerate. It seemed that from the very first day I was getting that reputation.

We finished cleaning up and got ready for bed about as quickly as we could.

Friday evening, after our last classes, we took things home and studied until it was time, and then went off to Kelly's. When we ran on Thursday, I had asked her whether we should bring anything, and she had said not to. When we got there, she was looking pretty flustered when she answered the door.

"I'm really glad you're here, but things aren't going well with getting dinner. Please come on in my kitchen."

It turned out that something had boiled over and made a mess, just before we got there. We helped her by kind of taking over for a minute, while she calmed down. Ellen took the pan to the sink and got the outside cleaned off, while I did a quick wipe at the burner and filled an empty pan with water and got it on there to help the burner cool down. We got her pan on another burner and heating as I stirred it. It was a homemade chicken-noodle soup. It didn't seem to be burned or anything.

It took Kelly a few minutes to calm down. "I knew I wouldn't have things ready before you got here," she said. "I guess I was trying to do too many things at once, and didn't turn that down soon enough, and it happened so fast!"

I checked that the other burner was cooled enough, and turned the job of stirring back over to Kelly. I pulled the element out, still kind of warm, and set it aside, then got the drip pan out and into the sink to soak. I cleaned up the soup that had gotten past it into the stovetop, then got the drip pan clean. There were a few spots where something was burned on, probably not new, so I soaked it some more and did the best I could with them.

Then I worked carefully on the element. I didn't have any real experience with cleaning something like that, so I tried to be very careful, using little water and keeping away from the connectors. I dried it carefully and plugged it back in. I tested to make sure it got hot, putting that pan of water back on to make sure no one would touch it and get burned, and to help it cool down.

I asked Kelly what else needed to be done. There were some rolls that needed to go into the oven and some asparagus to prepare and cook. Ellen took over the rolls, since I had done asparagus often enough to know what to do. I got the spears really clean and snapped off the ends, then put butter and a little oil in a skillet. Kelly didn't have garlic, so I just sauteed the asparagus until it was done, adding a little salt and pepper along the way and turning it a lot. I sprinkled on just a little lemon juice, too, when it was done.

Kelly dished everything up and we sat down to eat. She seemed a little nervous. Sometimes she would start to say something and stop herself. Finally she said, "I'm sorry. I've got to ask you this. Phil, would you please take me to bed? And see, I'm asking you now, not some morning, so I'm not going behind Ellen's back. She's seen you with other women, you said. Will you please make love to me?"

I looked at Ellen, and then back at Kelly. "Kelly, I'm sorry. I was afraid this was coming. I'm going to have to say no, and I really mean it. You need to understand that it's not that you're not attractive to me. It's that our situation, Ellen's and mine, has changed.

"At school, everything was temporary and, um, fluid. We had the game in gym, and partners were assigned by lot, so no one could have an exclusive relationship. Then in the sex ed week, we had both our instructors and our partners, plus we had that one exercise where we were told off to switch partners, but we were mostly supposed to stick to our own partners. After that was over, we were free to choose whomever we wanted, or nobody, except that the gym game was going again. At that point, no one knew where we would be this year, so planning for permanence didn't make much sense."

Ellen said, "Jim and Helen, well, you know they were as exclusive as they could be, after they got together. He wanted stability, and she offered that, but she was kind of jealous, and he accepted it. She accepted that they'd screw whomever they were partnered with in the game, if it came to that, but she wouldn't let him take turns with any of the forfeits. The once she was forfeit, it was really hard on both of them. Now they're far apart, and they agreed to be faithful and be together when they can, but I think they're going to find it hard."

I said to her, "I didn't know you knew either of them that well! I didn't get a chance to ask Jim where he was going, much less Iliothi. Helen. I should give him a call sometime. He really was my best friend, for three years, after all! And Kelly, there were some others who were pretty thoroughly partnered but who were going to wait and see, hoping to keep things alive this year and next but not trying to make hard and fast commitments. And I hope they do make it, the ones we really know well.

"Anyway, though, we're not in that kind of situation any more. Ellen and Sam and Jenny and I have something strong, which none of us is ready to just throw away. So I had two weeks with Sam just before I came here, and now I'm with Ellen here, and both of those are because things worked out to make it possible. But Ellen and I have agreed that we're not going for anyone new. Period. That could conceivably change, say if Sam and Jenny both found new guys where they are—and there are some other possibilities, especially for Sam—and then if, say, Ellen and I quarreled so bitterly that we broke up. I'm counting on that not happening, but I guess it could. In the meantime, the other two are as much my partners as Ellen is, they're just out of reach at the moment.

"I hope it's OK to keep being running partners, and to be the kinds of friends who sometimes do things together. Because I really am attracted to you, I'd generally prefer to have Ellen included when it makes sense. But I'm not turning you down because I wouldn't like to, but because I'm trying for something more. I hope you can understand, and I hope it doesn't hurt."