The Only Constant is Change Ch. 03

Author's Notes: Thank you once again for taking the time to read my story, and especially those of you who commented or favorited this story. This is a new hobby for me, and it's gratifying that what's in my head is somewhat interesting to others. I can see why people do this for a living.

About the story: After "sleeping" with Hannah in Ch. 02 and hearing the warnings regarding Jess, Jeremy has a lot to think about. But this is a story about change, and he would never have foreseen the curves coming his way.

All sexual activity is by persons 18+.

-- MB

The boys spent the afternoon stalking each other with paintballs. Since there were only a handful of kids in school who liked to play, not really enough to play team games like "Capture the Flag" or "Defend the Castle," they'd devised a game they called "Manhunt." The premise was simple: one player was a lone wolf terrorist suspected of plotting to bomb area targets. The remaining players were part of the task force designated to capture or kill the terrorist. Playing in the wooded grounds of the land Jeremy's family owned, the "terrorist" was given a 5-minute head start. The rest of the players would then spread out and attempt to eliminate the threat. Capture of the terrorist could only be accomplished if a member of the task force got the drop on the terrorist, who gave himself up. Of course, since capture means you don't get to shoot your buddy with a paint gun, most missions were treated as "shoot to kill." Theoretically, there was a 30-minute time limit. If the subject survived, he was considered to have eluded capture. He could also win by eliminating the members of the task force; that's the route most "terrorists" took.

Since they played on his home turf, Jeremy liked to be the first terrorist. He liked to listen to the sounds of the others moving through the woods and brush with his eyes closed, to see if he could figure out who was where. Hank was a pretty big boy, maybe 6' 2" -- 240 lbs., and he tended to walk with a heavy tread. Mark and Rob were both 5' 6" -- 5' 7" and closer to 160 lbs. They tended to be harder to track, but they hadn't grown up playing war games on army bases, and didn't appreciate how far the sound of a broken branch or rustling leaves could carry. AJ was right in the middle at about 5' 10", but he had two things working against him: he had almost no muscle tone and began breathing heavy with minimal exertion, and he was near-sighted, which meant that he often had trouble tracking the others if they were careful.

Surprisingly, the one person who liked to play with them that Jeremy found difficult to elude was Ava. She might live in the city, but her world revolved around the outdoors. Summers, and just about every break in school, meant time spent on her grandparents' farm, hunting and fishing with her father, brothers and cousins. They'd grown used to the pesky little girl as a fixture in all their activities; in truth, she was much more comfortable in the company of boys than other girls as a result. The skills she'd honed on the hunt translated very well over to their game.

Today, Jeremy had cheated a little bit. Knowing of the plans to come play, he'd visited the land over the weekend and built a perfect hiding place in the bend of a creek where a pile of debris had collected with the runoff from melting snow. He'd just settled into his hiding place when the whistle signaling the start of the hunt sounded.

Knowing he was unlikely to be disturbed for the next half hour, his thoughts turned to the "Jess and Hannah problem." He'd been undecided about his feelings for Jess already; hearing the way Hannah and her mom talked about Jess was a real concern. The events at the bowling alley, and her casual dismissal of his concerns, also were troubling. Still, he probably could have put all of that aside more easily if not for waking up with Hannah in his arms this morning.

He wasn't used to sleeping with other people touching him, but something about having her head resting against his chest and her arms wrapped around him felt so...right. Of course, it didn't hurt that he also felt the swell of her breasts against his stomach and luxuriated in the smells of strawberry in her hair and vanilla from her lotion. He'd woken as the sun rose, but finding Hannah still with him, he hadn't dared move. He'd waited long as humanly possible to take care of his morning needs, just for a few more minutes holding her in his arms. He'd longed to tuck her hair behind her ear and cradle her head as he gently kissed her lips.

"Don't move dirt-bag!" Jeremy was broken from his reminiscing by the harshly whispered notification that he was now covered. Cursing himself for not paying better attention to the game, he could see Ava sporting a smug smile and ready to fire at him.

"How'd you find me so quickly?" he asked. "I thought this was going to be an easy win."

Ava smirked. "You disturbed some ground climbing over the bank, so I was pretty sure that I knew where you were. It was harder to get into a good firing position without you knowing I was here than it was to find where you went."

"Oh. Well...that was stupid."

"Now, do you surrender, or do I take the shot?" She laughed and said, "Pleeaase make a run for it!"

"No, you got me fair and square. It's my fault for letting other stuff occupy my thoughts. If this were real, I'd already be dead."

"Anything I can help with?" she asked, lowering her weapon.

"Maybe. I think I could use a woman's perspective. But you might not think much of me if I tell you."

He could see that she was intrigued. Before he knew it, she was climbing into the brush pile with him. "I don't see any other women around, so if you need a woman's perspective, I guess it's mine you're getting."

"Thank you. The problem is..." He hesitated. "No, this is too embarrassing. Forget it."

He saw something flash in her eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Listen, I know we don't know each other very well. But I want to help you if I can. You're a really nice guy, strong, good-looking...I don't want to see you struggle." By now her face was getting red.

Jeremy was a little surprised to hear her thoughts. It was true that they didn't know each other well, having shared only one class since he'd moved here. She'd mostly been one of the guys, so to speak. But as he sat with her just a few feet away, he realized that she was a beautiful young woman. Really looking at her for the first time, he saw the femininity that she usually hid. She favored bulky sweatshirts and sweaters, even though he knew she had an athletic figure. She wasn't prone to wearing a lot of jewelry or makeup, either. She had beautiful, light-brown hair that was routinely pulled back in a pony-tail and tucked through the opening of a baseball cap. Her complexion was smooth and naturally tanned. She had big brown eyes with long lashes, and a smile that was just a little crooked.

"Well, are you going to say anything?" she asked.

He shook his head slightly, and then laid back against the bank with his hands behind his head, not sure how to proceed. "Honestly, I don't know. When you first sat down, I thought I had one problem. Now I may have another."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She followed his example, laying on her side and resting her head in her hand.

"What I'm thinking about deals with girls," he said, avoiding looking her way. "I, uh, I don't have a lot of experience, and I've kind of gotten mixed up in something...tricky. I'm not really sure what I want to do. But then you sat down here and I realized that you're a lot more than just one of the gang." He looked up at her. "You're very pretty. I guess I've never been this close to you, so I didn't realize just how pretty until now. I'm not sure I can tell you what's going on."

Jeremy watched as Ava digested what he'd just said with a stunned expression on her face. "You think I'm pretty?" she murmured. He simply nodded, waiting to see what she'd do.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Well, like I said, I kind of knew what you looked like, but I didn't know until just now. Now, I see your beautiful eyes, and that great smile, and I wonder why I didn't notice it before. I know I'm not the greatest looking guy, so I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. I'm just trying to be honest."

She'd been stunned before, but the look on her face was rapidly turning to anger. "Are you making fun of me?" she hissed. "I offer to help you with a problem and you laugh in my face? I can't believe you!" He could see her eyes welling up with tears.

For his part, Jeremy couldn't understand what had just happened. He hesitated, and then put his hand on her shoulder. "What are you getting mad about? I'm not teasing you. Why would you think that?"

She looked at him like he was from another planet. "How can I possibly take you seriously? You tell me I'm pretty in one breath, and in the very next you say you aren't very good looking."

Jeremy was still puzzled. "That's true. So what?"

"Do you swear you're not playing some cruel practical joke? You really don't know?"

Now Jeremy was starting to get a little defensive. "I swear on my honor that I am not playing a practical joke. What are you talking about?"

Ava was virtually speechless, but at least the tears had dried up. She moved in close to Jeremy and placed her hands on his cheeks, searching his face. How could he possibly not know how beautiful he was? "Jeremy, apparently this will come as a shock to you, but here goes. You say you're 'not the greatest looking guy' in school; that's just not true. You are the hottest man I've ever seen in person. It's not even close, and I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Now it was Jeremy's turn to lose the power of speech.

She sat back and giggled. "This is so ridiculous. I can't believe that you don't know how the girls at school feel about you. There isn't a girl in school you couldn't have if you wanted. Half the girls fantasize about dating you, and the other half want to lock you in a room and use you for their pleasure. I overheard Kelly Perkins and Lisa Goddard in study hall talking about showing up at your house to blow you together. Vicky Watson, Roberta McGee, and Joy Masters have made a pact that if any of them were able to get you to take their virginity, they'd try to convince you to do all three of them. Monica White told me she's never even considered seeing a white guy until you moved here, and now she sees you pretty much every night in her fantasies. Hell, even Ms. Baxter is not immune. Have you not noticed how her nipples get hard or the color creeps into her face when you stand close to ask her a question?"

Jeremy just shook his head in stunned silence.

"Jeremy, how it is possible that you don't know the effect you have on women?"

With his mind reeling from what Ava had said, he was pretty much drawing a blank. "I don't know. We've moved around a lot, and the last few years I went to an all-boys private school. I haven't really been around girls very much. The reality is that I don't pick up on social cues very well, so I've probably missed some signals or don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for. I've never even taken a girl out on a date until last Friday when Jess and I went to the movies."

Shaking her head, Ava said, "No, no, no...I call BS. There is no way that a man as beautiful as you doesn't realize that girls are drooling over him all the time. You could have your pick of girls to go on dates. You could..." Her eyes got wide. "If you haven't been on a date before, you probably haven't...are you telling me that you're a virgin?" she whispered.

The way she said it was so embarrassing, like he'd done something wrong. With his face burning, he said "I've done things with girls. I just haven't had what I'd call a formal 'date' before, like pick a girl up from her house and take her somewhere, instead of just meeting someplace. But it's true, I haven't had sex with anyone."

Ava just couldn't believe this. In her experience, every guy that was even average-looking tried to get in the pants of as many girls as possible. Yet here was the finest specimen of manhood that she had ever seen, and he had barely even been touched. It was like finding the largest diamond-in-the-rough in the history of diamonds. All that remained was to polish him up and make him shine. And, right now, Ava wanted nothing more than to polish up a certain part of him. She didn't consider herself a slut, or even that experienced. Still, since losing her virginity to a guy she barely knew a couple of years ago, she'd done some experimentation. The thought of Jeremy's untapped potential had her nipples tight and her pussy tingling. She needed to change the discussion or things could get out of hand in a hurry.

"As difficult as this is for me to believe, I'm going to take your word that it's the truth. Does what I told you help with your problem in any way?"

Jeremy stopped to consider. If what Ava said was true, both Jess and Hannah probably had genuine interest in him. But if that were the case, why would Jess even toy with Colby? If Hannah was really attracted to him, did he need to go through with the plan to tease her? Did he even really want to?

"I guess it might help simplify things a bit. It boils down to this: I took Jess Harper out a couple of times this weekend, but Colby Walters made a bit of a play for Jess, knowing that she was out with me. She didn't really handle it the way that I would have liked, so I'm confused. And the other thing is, AJ's sister and I have been flirting with each other for a few months. I didn't think she was all that serious, but he wants me to use her attraction to me to tease her a little bit; it's a long story. We connected on some level last night and, in light of what you said, maybe she's not just flirting with me to tease."

At the mention of Jess's name, Ava's face had darkened. "Jeremy, I already told you that you can have any girl in the school that you want. If you took me home right now, I'd do everything I could to blow your mind and make you mine. But from what I know of you, you would never do that while you're dating someone else. So, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic or catty, I just want to say that you need to be careful with Jess."

"Why does everyone keep warning me about Jess?" asked Jeremy. "You're the third female that's told me to be careful with her in the last 24 hours. Is she that bad?"

Ava pondered what to tell him. "Jess and I used to be really good friends. We did gymnastics and dance classes together. We always used to share everything. She was more like my sister than my friend. I only outgrew her by a few inches in height, but she was super jealous that my boobs came in bigger than hers. It's hard enough living in a house with Lanie, but Jess really took it hard when her chest didn't develop more and mine did.

She's still cute, and she's had plenty of boys ask her out, but she started to get a little wilder about the time that my boobs came in. She started doing things sexually before any of the rest of us, and she wasn't shy about oral for sure. Some of the other girls got to calling her 'Lil' O.J.' for 'Little Oral Jess.' I think she decided that if she didn't have the physical attributes that other girls had, she needed to go above and beyond elsewhere to compete.

Anyway, I was dating Todd Nelson last summer. My parents were out of town, and me and Jess were supposed to meet Todd and Danny Carver at my house to watch a movie and, well, do other stuff. Except Jess texted Todd and Danny and told them to come an hour earlier than she and I had agreed. I was helping my grandmother with some stuff at her house and wasn't supposed to be home until 5. But we finished up early, and I walked into my house at about 4:30. I heard some noise upstairs and went to check it out. I got to my room and Jess is on her knees and both guys have their pants around their ankles.

Apparently, Jess had decided that she and I were going to share the guys, and she got an early start. One little problem: she never asked me. I might have considered it if she hadn't gone behind my back. But I got so angry, I threw all of them out and I haven't spoken with her since. I realized that day that Jess does what Jess wants, and others can either go along or get left behind."

By the time Ava finished speaking, Jeremy was both speechless and hard as a rock. He was imagining Jess on her knees before him and the feel of her mouth on his cock. He might be a virgin, but in the age of internet porn, "virginity" did not equal "ignorance." More than the imagined images of Jess, what excited him was the frank, open sexuality of Ava. Jeremy hadn't heard many girls talking about tag-team blow jobs or even interest in losing their virginity. To have her describing what other girls apparently talked about, and essentially offering herself to him, was more than he could have ever imagined from his previous interactions with Ava. It was super-hot, and it made him look at her with new eyes.

While Jeremy was lost in his musings, Ava was cursing herself for how frank and sexual she'd been with him. He probably thought she was a slut, but she couldn't help herself. If only he wasn't so beautiful! From the first time she'd looked into his eyes she'd been lost in those emerald pools. He had this thick head of dark brown hair, but unlike so many of his classmates, he kept himself clean cut instead of having some unruly overgrown mop. He also had an easy smile that reached up to those gorgeous eyes, offset by a solid chin. Even the one blemish on his face, a small scar on his nose, added to his appeal, rather than detracted; it gave his face character. While he wasn't the tallest or most muscular guy in the world, he was far from soft. If pressed, Ava would simply say he had presence.

She and her friends had had more than one discussion about Jeremy, how cute his butt was, how muscular his thighs and calves were, and speculation about what was in his pants. But Ava thought that his best physical trait was the way he carried himself. Clearly, Jeremy had a confidence in himself that shone through. He carried his head held high, shoulders back...it was like watching someone who knew where he was going and knew he would get there. Compared to his classmates, Ava thought Jeremy was a man among boys.

"Brrrrrr!" The sound of the whistle signaling the end of the round snapped them both back in focus. Even though they'd only talked, there was a palpable tension between them. Jeremy looked at Ava, Ava looked at Jeremy, and without a word, their heads came together. As their lips met, it was as if a wave of nervous energy washed over them. The first timid kiss rapidly evolved into a frantic rush to taste each other, as Jeremy rolled over and pressed his body to hers. After only a minute, though, Jeremy slid his hand to her neck and eased off the kiss, resting his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You can't imagine how much I want to keep going, but I can't do this to Jess. We may not be serious, but I have to be honorable." He eased back, and smoothed her hair back. "You really are something special. I can't believe I didn't see it before." He hesitated. "You know, you did clear something up for me, though."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"I really didn't like the way Jess handled that thing with Colby the other night. It just rubbed me the wrong way, and I was waffling on whether to keep going out with her. I think I was a little afraid that if I didn't try to make things work, I'd have trouble finding another girl." He looked down at Ava and smiled. "But, I think I already found a beautiful girl that I really like. Well, technically, she found me." Ava giggled. "That is, if you're interested."