The Mix-Up Ch. 03

Only the occasional meandering janitor or mall walker broke the stillness of the darkening mall. It was that strange time of dusk when lively restaurants turned off their lights and their cheeriness faded into the darkness, looking more like a horror movie set than where mallgoers happily spent their days. The lights in the mall clicked off one by one, its artificial sun setting at 8 PM for the thousandth straight day. The staff in Luby's stacked chairs next to Gary's LARP group, clearing their throats and checking their phones. The waifish pharmacist barely filled his seat, which pointed away from his group toward another table. Brushing his scraggly hair from his eyes, Gary pushed a salad around his plate.

His heart pounded as he opened the well-worn spine of The Kingdom of Arenth.

From her lofty throne, the elf princess gazed upon a menacing mountain of sinew and arrogance: her suitor.

His fists clenched. Chapter 7 always enraged him. She was his. His hands trembled as he turned the page and grabbed the hilt of the grass-stained plastic sword on his hip. His LARP buddies nudged him.

"Earth to Gary. Earth to Gary!"

He set his book aside. "Guys, you won't even let me read!"

"He's alive."

"Now he wants to fight!"

"We needed you back there, dude. All for one, one for all."

He pulled out his phone. "Whatever, Neil." The truth was he'd been distracted all day, even during their monthly battle royale against rival clans at the soccer fields. His distraction all came back to work. With his manager returning to the pharmacy, his workload fell dramatically, allowing him to browse his phone for hours on end.

During the long shifts, he gazed uneasily out of the drive through window at the functional stoplight's continual shifts as his manager perused the records of the last few days. It was all correct, but one. And how could he forget his one mistake? Every time his manager called on him, his heart pounded, his mind flashing to the day she'd walked in. Her dark leather jacket, that little skirt, how her generous rack wobbled ever so slightly as she strummed the counter. Before long, his gazes at the stoplight turned to daydreaming of his first real conversation with Taryn, and how her eyes would linger on his LOTR replica sword. He pulled up her contact information from their files, including her address and he'd saved her phone number in his phone as 'Queen.' His breathing quickened when thinking about actually texting her.

She still hadn't accepted His Facebook friend request. Surely it was because there were a million things to do in Chicago, where he learned she was by spending several hours perusing her Instagram photos.

He scrolled down her page. His cock twitched at the sight of one of her recent posts of her with a pretty Asian girl. It was sinful someone could look as good as Taryn. Or just unfair. Her sparkling black dress wrapped her curves like a present, contouring the ride from her hips to her thin waist. What men even dated girls like her? Generous amounts of her tanned, smooth skin lay exposed by the slit of her dress.

Her long blonde hair twisted down her bare shoulders, and her red lipstick hinted at a smile. But the smile didn't reach her eyes. She shook him. He never expected to find a girl - he forgave her for not being an elf - as stunning as he imagined the princess in his book. In the afternoon glint off the Bean, Taryn's smile dazzled even brighter.

After saying his goodbyes, except to Neil, he passed his usual turnoff and continued by the river for a couple miles, his headlights cutting through twisting fog. I just want to make sure no one's messing with her stuff, he thought.

Laughter and music floated from the apartments of the living and well-adjusted. The dark side of the night was colored stark by the waning moon, its shadows cast in silent stillness. He fumbled his glasses as he tried to clean them, his hands slick with sweat. He blamed the oppressive August heat.

He reached a gate which had been propped open - probably by college aged partiers, he figured. But where was 204? Her modern apartment complex wasn't his scene. His stomach rumbled as he briskly walked around the pool. He crouched behind a bush that oversaw the hot tub, light glinting off his big glasses' frames which were mostly obscured by leaves.

"Just knew you were like me," a voice cackled behind him. Gary whipped around. Basking in the moonlight, Lester Burns leaned against a fence, which strained at an obscene angle under the weight. His bare stomach wobbled as he spoke.

"I've always been able to read a man by his eyes, and yours ain't right."

Gary straightened. "I'm - I'm waiting for my friends."

"Reckon you don't got many of those," Lester said. "Now Garrett, what are you doing watchin' people from the bushes? Seems to me you're peeping."

Gary sneered. He was fine without giving out his real name to the big oaf in front of him. His grasped his sweaty hands in his pockets.

"Like I said -"

"So you live here?" A hint of amusement twinkled in Lester's beady eyes.

"I said I'm waiting on someone. Why are you here?"

Lester wiped crumbs from his chin. "Used to work here - as supervisor."

"Okay, but why are you here - half naked. I don't see any food orders?"

"And I don't see your friends. Standing out here like a sore thumb..." Lester said. "To check out broads, you gotta be smooth... like me." He ran his hand through his greying hair and ducked behind the brush closer to Gary. Spicy body odor ripped through the smaller man's nose, as if Lester fell in a vat of Indian food. Peering through the heavy cover, Lester reached into his pocket, not for binoculars as Gary expected, but a melted candy bar. He smushed it into his mouth and shoved the wrapper in the pharmacist's pocket.

"Garrett, you kinda remind me of my brother. He was a peeper - like you - thing is, he loved to fake heart attacks around lookers - just like them girls," he said, nodding toward the hot tub. "Only problem was I called for the nastiest old sod around an' pushed the ladies out the way. Getting mouth-to-mouth from a man - he never forgave me for that!" Lester wiped his eyes. "'Course I ain't seen Leon since."

"Heartwarming story. Really. I'm leaving —"

"Without seeing your friends? Well, besides me. Figure we're friends now, even with you being 80 lbs. Here, take this an' give it back when I'm done warshing in the pool. Don't worry - ain't no man's room, that's for sure. But I haven't seen her in a few days."

"Seen who?"

"Tara, I think. Makes them girls look like dogs. She's the type you'd like." Lester winked. "Trust me. I did." Lester dropped the key into the smaller man's hand and trudged off, not noticing his tiny bar of soap falling from his plastic bag into the mulch below.

204 was scratched hastily into the metal. Gary's jaw dropped. Why would Lester have it?

"Uhhh - dude how'd you get this?" He repeated himself until the hot tub girls turned in his direction. Maybe Lester's story of working there wasn't complete bullshit like every other word spewing from his mouth.

Taryn was classy. The kind of girl who petted the older dogs and cats at animal shelters (from her July Instagram stories) and brought homemade cookies to all her friend's birthdays. He'd spent hours poring over her photos at home too, even not playing his usual nightly video games, formulating their first real conversation. Imagining her perfection in the same room with Lester's man boobs sent bile rising through Gary's throat.

The least he could do was check out her place and make sure there were no bad characters around. Like Lester. Squinting through his thick glasses, the number 209 or 200 faintly hung on a door past the hot tub. Adrenaline pumped through his stick thin body as he recognized the dark brick of her apartment building from her photos. With steps as uneven as a game of hopscotch, he passed 202, 203, and reached the green door of Apartment 204.

~~~~~

Taryn plopped gratefully onto her bed in the Waldorf Astoria. Beyond her red painted toes, flames rippled in the lavish brick fireplace, the heat soothing her sore feet. The curtain fluttered from the balcony overlooking Lake Michigan. She closed her eyes and wrapped the covers over her bare legs. It'd been a long three days.

It was a question of what she hadn't seen. She smiled thinking of the baby gorillas stumbling at the Lincoln Park Zoo and the beautiful flowers at the Conservatory. The skyline of Chicago rose like dark spires, severe in their height and casting streaking reflections on the water below. As much as she loved the city, how her poor feet suffered! And the work - she was earning every cent of her contract - waking up at 4:30 AM, hair and makeup for two hours, and shoots lasting 6 to 8 hours.

And after all that, she ate nightly dinners with the British agency rep, Mr. Redding, and the rest of the girls. He sat next to her and with a hint of pride told her Addington was an English name. She tossed the tag from a souvenir coffee mug into the trash on top of Plan B packaging. As she drifted to sleep, her phone buzzed. She reached blindly for it, only rising when Amy's shrill voice jolted her awake.

"Taryn. There's a guy in your apartment!"

Taryn had debated giving Amy the password for the security cameras she had installed the day she left. The obvious details of why she needed such a camera, to deter Lester, were a purposeful omission. She blinked a couple times and pulled up the app on her phone. That fucking slob, back at it again. GOD that was a mistake. One she still couldn't even begin to explain.

"Wait - when--?"

"Right fucking now!"

Steeling herself to see Lester's sagging folds once more, Taryn hesitantly squinted at the bright light of her phone. But it wasn't Lester at all. Her eyes widened as a thin man peeked his unkempt head into her apartment and glanced back into the hallway. His silhouette was backlit by the hallway until he groped along the wall for the light switch.

He eased into the apartment and locked the door behind him, stumbling over a lamp cord. A new buy. It ripped out the wall and shattered. A smooth criminal, he was not.

Her breathing quickened. "The fucking nerve..." What right did he have to be in her place, snooping around her things? She'd forgotten Amy's breathless commentary on the line.

"T, who the fuck is this little creep? Do you know him?"

The blonde squinted again. "Uh - is that a sword?"

His hair, a jumble of ill-advised self-scissor cuts, covered his glasses. His cheap jacket looked like it came free with something. From the angle of the camera, placed on top the fridge, the faint beginning of a bald spot reflected softly.

"Call the cops," Taryn said.

"I did two minutes ago."

Gary held his ear against the wall, carefully listening for any neighbors. He cursed under his breath - the bulb from the lamp sprayed glass all over the floor. He'd never been in a girl's apartment in his forty-one years, and it struck him how different it was from his studio. While he was content with his gaming console and mattress on the floor, her place was covered in rugs and candles and plushness. And lamps, but one less now.

His face flushed. The last thing he wanted was to attract attention. He peered out of the window, spotting Lester splashing his feet in the distant pool. He seemed to be scrubbing between his toes every few seconds. Below her kitchen window, her daily pills sat by the sink. He picked it up - it was awfully light. Holy shit, how many had she been taking?

His eyes scanned the label, and he realized in his haste that fateful day, he'd not only given her the wrong medication, but prescribed her vastly too high of a dose. It's a wonder she's not fucking everyone who moves. She's taking a month's worth of hormones every damn day! Not even back in his days of pharmacy school had he ever heard of anyone taking such dosages of estrogen. The amount of hormones pumping in her veins was unreal...

Lester's comment bugged him. What'd he mean he'd enjoyed her? The taste of bile rose again from his throat. No, it couldn't be... Not her, his dream girl. He's so full of shit. The day he even talks to her is the day I use the Force.

He wandered into her bedroom and stepped past odd streaks that looked like sweat rings on the dark wooden floors. A picture of Taryn in a pretty sundress hugging her father rested on her dresser. Their eyes bored into him as drops of sweat soaked his armpits. He flipped it so it faced the wall.

The top drawer squeaked as he struggled to pull it out. His thin biceps flexed, and with all his might, the drawer tumbled out, spilling carefully folded workout shirts and shorts onto the floor. Peeping down into the second drawer, it caught his breath. Her underwear drawer shone like a goldmine to the creep. The variety - sheer, cute bows, all delicate fabrics, many little more than strings - sent his heart pounding even harder in his small chest.

But they weren't just pieces of fabric. They were the panties of the hottest girl he'd ever seen. His future queen. She'd worn one of them under her slinky knockout gown at Katsuya. But which pair? Heat rushed to his face as he set down the drawer he'd forgot he was holding. His sweaty, trembling hands reached into the dresser. His glasses fogged as he hyperventilated.

Taryn's eyes were transfixed on her phone. "Is he - oh no, tell me he isn't..."

"Oh, what the fuck," Amy said. "What. The. Fuck."

The little creep pulled out a pair of sheer purple panties and brought them to his nose, sniffing deeply and catching them on his fogged glasses. Taryn wished for a moment she hadn't bought the higher end security system as his moans reached her ears in hi-def.

"Oh, dear sweet heavens... Mmm, mmm..." he said, running his nose up and down the crotch. Taryn's brow furrowed. Those were an expensive pair from the agency even the usually reserved Mr. Redding had to gush over. Gary's head would've exploded seeing the picture she'd taken in them for fitting, how her cheeky ass filled them, the sheer fabric teasing what lay beneath. The pervert unzipped his pants and worked his hand into his boxers.

"I'm not watching any more of this," Amy said. "Just disgusting. The cops will be there any minute."

A second later his cock sprang out of his pants. Unlike Lester's, his throbbed well past his pumping fist. Had he ever been with a woman, he'd know to be proud of his size. But a lifetime of fixation and fantasy left him at 41 years old alone and jerking off into a teen's panties.

Clear droplets seeped into the former cheerleader's panties with every stroke.

"Queen... I- I can't wait to meet you. You're so freaking beautiful!" His whole being, every ounce of him yearned for her. He lived to meet her. He stuffed them in his pocket and dropped to his knees, scooping the heap of underwear and shoveling it toward his face, inhaling as deeply as he could. His glasses slipped into her pile.

A smile crossed his face. They're all mine.

Outside, Lester tossed a paper towel on the ground as he left the bathroom by the pool. He'd ripped open his plastic bag searching for his soap from Pizza Hut, so he smeared thick blobs of hand soap from the bathroom on his chest until the gooey morass coated his chest hair like honey. He froze as he stepped into the pool. Far to his left an unmarked police car barricaded the entrance he'd propped open earlier. Two policemen bent down and chatted with the girls in the hot tub, who hurriedly jumped out and covered themselves with their towels.

"Oh shit... get outta there buddy." Another patrol car eased forward by the gate. Lester slipped on the greasy concrete and not caring to get seen, he huffed to another exit.

Gary wrapped the delicate fabric of a black thong around his straining cock, pumping it as he craned his neck to the ceiling.

"Ahh, ahh hell..." his thin arm sped into an excited blur. Stroking his cock with the panties of a prom queen wasn't what he'd woken up that morning expecting to do. Five minutes ago, he'd never touched a girl's underwear, now he'd rubbed his long cock along twenty. The Victoria's Secret tag scratched his dick, he could only wonder how she wore them all day. He'd talk to her about that later.

He meandered through her place, his stomach rumbling again. Had he been paying any attention, he would have noticed the blinking camera on top of the fridge. Instead, he opened it up and began crunching on some celery sticks. The peanut butter had gluten - hard pass.

Even so, a smile returned to his face as he munched. God, he was proud of her. Her success, her diet, her beauty, her giving soul. Visions of meeting her swirled through his mind - he'd introduce her to his LARP group, maybe as Taryn, maybe as Princess Eowewlyn. He'd picked the name out from his book. They'd have so much to talk about, especially since he'd already visited her place and protected her from shady characters.

Cold air hit his scrawny frame as he pulled out a homemade protein shake. Quickly shutting the door, his heart jumped. On the glass were perfect outlines of red lipstick. Her lips. One hand stroked his thick, veiny cock with her skimpy underwear and the other brought the glass closer to his mouth. Time slowed as he closed his eyes and puckered his lips. His first kiss with his queen...

Forty seconds of sloppy licking and tongue waggling later, her lip imprints were a smeared mess of his saliva. His eyes rose to the ceiling as he lowered the glass to the floor and envisioned her big breasts bouncing in his face, her pink nipples begging to be sucked, slurped on, mouthed.

Taryn stared on in confusion, unable to see what was happening, besides that the fridge was ajar, its light blinking. He is like the worst criminal ever. Why isn't he robbing anything?

"Maybe a creep drug dealer? He was looking at my pills."

"Yeah, like BC is hot right now, T... Come on, he's probably a homeless perv, stealing your food. Just look at that jacket."

At that moment, Gary emptied his balls in her protein shake, thick ropes of cum splattering inside the mixture. His small frame sagged against the fridge for a moment. He waited for his breathing to catch up. With trembling hands, he set the shake back to its spot.

The door slammed to the floor in a burst of splinters and testosterone, and two police officers pulled their guns from their holsters.

"Freeze! Put your hands up!"

Gary's cock bobbed with Taryn's panties still on them before they slid onto the floor with a splat. He raised his hands meekly. The cops looked at each other and burst out laughing.

As the white lines of the road whizzed by in unending monotony, Gary's glasses slipped down his nose. He pushed them up with his handcuffed wrists and returned to stare out the window. His eyes bulged. For the briefest moment, deep in the forest, moonlight gleamed off Lester's syrupy chest. A cavalcade of dark brush erased him from view.

"Stop the car! There he is - I swear, officers please! Please! He was right—" The cop in the passenger seat banged the metal barrier behind him.

"Shut it, perv." He stared down at his feet, not caring to look up at the cops in the front seat.

"Trespassing, petty theft, ahem panty theft..."

"Come on Richards, can't believe you pulled your gun on a perv."

"Oh yeah - don't forget the weapons charge."

"You call that a weapon? It's a nerd sword!"

Gary sniffled. "It's a saber." The voices from the front seat chirped on.

"Was. Trashed it."

"This your first time doing this?"

His head dropped into his hands. "Yes."

"You sure, that floor looked pretty used."

"Don't forget lewd conduct."