The Reunion Ch. 03

Kelly climbed on top of me, her legs straddling my hips. She bent low to kiss me. I could not see what Jessica was doing, and I barely paid her any mind as my attention turned back to Kelly. Her soft chest pressed against mine. I heard Jessica rub something between her hands. Then a click. Then a whir.

Just as I began to register the familiar source of the thrumming, mechanical noise, I felt warm fingers between my legs. Then the soft, vibrating head of a bullet against my skin, slowly parting my pussy lips. I was so wet, it took almost no effort to slide the bullet in. Jessica's fingers gently pushed it deeper, until I could feel it pulsing deep inside me.

A moment later, another click and a whir and I felt Kelly flinch on top of me. She began to pant, and so did I. I clutched her thighs and began rocking my hips into her, our naked pussies grinding together. I ran my hand over her bottom and wrapped around until I found Kelly's slit. I had never touched a girl before. I noted with some satisfaction that she was every bit as wet as I was. I inserted a finger, but not very far. It was hard to reach, but I did what I could. I had masturbated plenty, so I knew very well how a vagina felt. Kelly's reaction was what made it great. She moaned each time my fingers slid in. One of her hands delved between us and began rubbing her clit.

As my finger slid in and out, I could feel the thrumming of the bullet inside her, which made me conscious of the one inside me, still buzzing.

Kelly broke away from me and sat up, still straddling me. I stopped fingering her long enough to look around for Jessica, who had been quietly watching from beside the bed, touching herself. When Kelly sat up, she moved in.

She climbed onto the bed and went first to Kelly. She kissed her, then guided her hand between my legs. At once, Kelly's fingers went to work. I gasped. The vibrations from the bullet mingled with the pressure from Kelly's delicate fingers was too much.

Jessica turned to me. She caressed my cheek. "How does that feel?"

I couldn't respond, only pant and rock harder against Kelly's fingers, my hands once more gripping her smooth thighs.

Jessica leaned down to kiss me. "Mmmm," she breathed. When she broke away, her eyes were glinting with mischief and desire. I knew mine were probably burning with animal-like hunger, as well. I could feel myself slowly losing control.

"I'm going to do something," she whispered, "and you tell me if you're not ready, ok?"

I nodded, barely hearing her above Kelly's moans, which grew louder every time her pussy ground against me.

Jessica raised up and swung a leg over me, so she straddled my face. She gripped the headboard with one hand to steady herself, then looked down at me. "Is this ok, love."

I nodded. I had never tasted pussy before. This was turning into a night of first. I closed my eyes and lifted my chin so my lips brushed her labia. She moaned. I opened my mouth, let my tongue rest gently against her skin for just a moment. Then I licked.

My hands left Kelly's thighs and closed around Jessica's buttocks. Mimicking what she had done to me, I let my tongue delve deep. Long and slow at first, then short and fast. Jessica ground her hips against my open mouth as a hand massaged one of her bouncing breasts.

The three of us were a panting, rocking tangle of skin and sweat. Finally, I could take it no more. I buried my open mouth against Jessica's clit, pressing her hard into me as Kelly's fingers and the vibrating bullet tipped me over the edge. I let out an actual scream as my vagina clenched around Kelly's fingers, throbbing and shooting raw snakes of pleasure throughout my body.

We continued on in this way until the dawn's first light crept through the open window. When we finally slept, we lay together in a tangle of naked skin.

* * * * *

Morning came too soon, and with it, a head-splitting hangover. It took several attempts to open my eyes. I blinked hard against the garish mid-day light and winced as each blink sent a pulse of pain through to the back of my head.

Water. I needed water, I thought as I struggled to lift myself up. The room rocked like the deck of a ship in a hurricane as I sat up, then it spun for a moment.

Beside me, Kelly snored quietly. Her naked body caught me momentarily off guard. She lay on top of the covers, face down, one leg hanging off the edge of the bed, as though there had been a struggle for space in the night. As I remembered the events of the night before, the three of our bodies tangling, rocking together, the heat of their mouths on my skin, I was surprised at how I felt. I'd had my share of hook-ups, and I knew well the morning-after sting of regret, shame, and disgust that accompanied some of the more impulsive romps, particularly ones with near-strangers. Miraculously, I felt none of that. The memories felt like a revelation, like the fulfillment of some deeply repressed dream or desire. I had sex with two girls. At the same time. And I liked it. I really liked it.

I did not have the energy or the will to untangle the inevitable so-what-does-that-make-me? question, and I frankly did not find it all that important. Interesting maybe, but not important. What was important in that moment was finding a bottle of water somewhere in Kelly's bare kitchen, but my thirst was so great that I would not have turned my nose up at the infamously questionable City tap water.

I left Kelly's room, pulling on scattered bits of clothing as I found them in the floor. My suitcase would be somewhere in the living room.

I was a little surprised - but not exceedingly so - to find Jessica sitting at the kitchen table. She held a half-eaten donut in one hand, and her phone in the other. She looked up when I entered the room, smiled.

"Well, good morning," she purred.

"Hi," I said, a little sheepishly.

"Come sit," she said. Then, nodding to an orange and white Dunkin box on the table, "I made breakfast."

"Thanks," I said. "But first water." I made my way to the fridge.

"Ah," she said. "None in there, but I picked up a few at the donut shop. And some coffee."

Sure enough, sitting out on the counter closest to the door were a couple large paper coffee cups and four perspiring bottles of water.

"You're an angel," I breathed.

"I don't know how that girl lives," Jessica mused, shaking her head so the ends of her wavy hair brushed the table. She scooped a few locks behind her ear, took a bite of donut. "No food. No water. No coffee?! It's like Auschwitz."

I laughed a little, wincing at the pain in my temples. I took a bottle and a coffee cup before joining her at the table. I pressed the cool bottle to my forehead. I closed my eyes, listened for a moment to the incessant throbbing in my ears.

"Hungover?"

"Mmmmmm," I replied.

"Well, you're on the right track. Drink up, eat something. I have some ibuprofen if you like."

I took some from her and thanked her, willing the meds and the water to kick in quickly. I nibbled part of a donut, but quickly found that my stomach was not quite up to the task yet.

"So we didn't get to talk much last night," Jessica said, before taking a sip of coffee. "Tell me what you've been up to since high school."

I was so sick of the question. Surely she would have heard my speech. Then again, maybe she didn't. Maybe she had been in the locker room. Selling drugs, I remember Kelly had said.

"Not much," I sighed. "Moved away, went to college, started working. The usual."

"No husband, huh?"

I shook my head. I saw her quickly scan my hand, probably looking for a ring or maybe the tell-tale indent a lot of divorcees - including Kelly - wore.

"Good for you!" she said. "And let me tell you, that's not 'usual.' Not around here."

She was right. I noted with some satisfaction that her tone suggested she was nearly as disenchanted with this town as I was. "No, ma'am. You and I, we're the exception. Sure, a fair amount of girls in our class went to college, about half I think. But ask how many are still paying student loans for degrees they didn't earn, and then ask the handful who did stick it out how their careers are going. Let's just say it's hard to put a Political Science degree to work when you're stuck at home juggling three kids."

I nodded in agreement, remembering Cody's words from the night before. The only thing I see different is that now you're a judgy, arrogant hypocrite who finally learned how to suck a dick.

"Yep," Jessica continued. "I can't tell you how many weddings I was in the year after we graduated. Six?" I thought back to Kelly's wedding, just four months after graduation. She'd had it at a family-owned barn near Birmingham. Very small. "I stopped keeping track, and eventually I stopped keeping in touch with everyone. You know how it is."

I nodded. I did. My head still throbbed. "I must say, though," Jessica added. "I had you pegged to march down the aisle before any of the rest of them. How long were you and James together? Three years?"

I felt my stomach lurch. My pulse began to race the way it always did on the rare occasions when someone brought him up. "Almost," I said through barely-parted lips.

"What happened there?" she asked.

I cleared my throat. "Didn't want to be tied down when I went off to college," I said. It was the same half-truth I gave anyone with balls enough to ask. I hoped that would be the end of it.

"I understand that," she chuckled. "He was a year ahead of us, right?"

Again I nodded. I picked at the barely-touched donut in front of me as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.

A long moment of silence passed where I could feel her eyes on me, observing me. A far-off buzz broke the silence. My phone.

I got up and dug around in the couch cushions until I found my phone. The battery was on its last, blinking gasps. I had 23 missed notifications from the company group chat. I hastily thumbed through them as I attached my phone to a power cord.

My fledgling company only had 8 employees, and my second-in-command was fairly capable of running things on the rare days when I took off. None of the notifications were anything urgent, just updates and a couple things that would need some attention on Monday.

Today was only Saturday, yet I felt an almost frantic desperation to get back to Atlanta and bury myself in my work again. I longed to return to the familiar cocoon of normalcy and routine where nobody knew or cared about my past, and relics from my teenage years didn't drag me into bed. I made a mental note to bring up this weekend at my next therapy session. I hadn't been in months, but my Lexapro scrip was getting a little low, and I was past due for a session anyway.

"That's work," I said. "Looks like I'll need to head out soon."

"Already?" Jessica asked, disappointment plain in her voice.

"Yeah," I sighed, feigning regret. "I only came into town for the reunion, and I have a lot to catch up on."

She nodded. "What about Kelly? Are you at least going to wait until she wakes up?"

I could do that. I didn't really want to get on the road until my hangover improved. Jessica and I sat at the table and made small talk about the weather, her practice, our college days. It was hard not to like her. I learned that she frequently made trips to Atlanta for conferences or vendor check-ins, one of whom occupied an office in the same complex where we rented space. I surprised myself a little by inviting her to stay at my place the next time she made the trip to Atlanta. Even more surprising was that I genuinely looked forward to seeing her again.

Kelly finally rolled out of bed at around noon, by which time I'd managed to tuck away a whole donut, two bottles of water, and about half of my coffee. Kelly didn't appear to be in much better shape than I was. I told her I needed to get on the road soon, but that I'd call this week to make plans for her next visit. I wouldn't let another three years pass this time. The more time I spent with her, the more I felt the sting of regret and shame for selfishly hiding away when she may have needed me close. I couldn't make myself offer to come back to Hapville, though. There were still ghosts lurking about that I couldn't bare to confront. Not even for Kelly. At least not yet.

*****

The drive out of town felt much longer than it had coming in. I caught the train on the way out and allowed myself to look around as the train puttered by at a glacial pace. A few people milled about in the center of town, lazily drifting from antique store to antique store. I noticed a few newer storefronts that hadn't been there when I was growing up: a law office and a new drug store. Down a side street, a new auto body shop had moved into the building that had once been a warehouse and storefront for athletic supplies.

The gazebo stood not twenty feet from the intersection. I looked at it. It didn't catch me by surprise this time, and I was ready for the memories that came trickling back.

James.

* * * * *

The night was warm and still. James sat in the driver's seat, his tux unbuttoned, bowtie loose around his collar. He smiled and talked about my graduation, then less than a week away. My exams were over, and we were looking forward to half a dozen things we had planned for the summer before I moved off to Auburn in August.

I remembered feeling beautiful in my dress, a $30 clearance find that I'd bought with my own money from working at McDonald's. My thick hair had taken hours to curl and style, and my nails sported my first ever professional manicure. A cluster of white roses adorned my wrist, matching the single rose pinned to James' lapel. I would later tuck the petals from that corsage between the pages of my journal.

The top of James' car was down. He drove slow through the empty streets so my hair wouldn't whip around my face. White Christmas lights still twinkled on every light pole down the main road. My head swam with happiness, giddiness from the dancing and music and laughter we'd shared at prom. Now the dance was over. It was almost one in the morning, and he was driving me home. I knew that my foster mom would be livid at the late hour, but I didn't care. I was too damn happy. Everything was ahead of me.

Without a word of warning, James stopped and parked the car in the road in front of the gazebo. I laughed and asked what he was doing, but he only flipped through the radio stations until he found one playing a low and slow Rascal Flatts song. He turned up the volume and got out of the car, ran around to my door and helped me out. Laughing all the way, I let him lead me up the gazebo steps.

We danced under the stars, his arms wrapped tight around my waist and mine draped around his neck. Our cheeks rested together as we swayed and listened to the crickets and the music drifting through the open air.

It hadn't lasted long, just until the end of the song. As the last notes faded, he whispered, "I love you" in my ear. Then he tilted my head up and kissed me. We had shared countless kisses in the years we'd dated, but that was the one I would always remember. I couldn't have known then that it would be our last, or I might never have let go.

As he kissed me, a single, inexplicable tear rolled down my cheek. It may possibly have been the only time I ever cried for happiness, but I later decided that it hadn't been happiness at all. Part of me knew, had to have known, that what we had wouldn't survive the move to college. His mom was sick. Bad sick. His dad made meager mechanic's wages, and James felt compelled to stay close and help. He would never leave, and I didn't know whether I would be content to live the rest of my life in Hapville. Even so, we would try to make it work as long as we could. We'd do the long distance thing, make the trips, plan every meeting and phone call far in advance until we figured out the next steps, whatever they might be.

We walked in silence back to the car, our arms entwined. He opened the door for me and I climbed in.

The drive to my house - my foster parents' house - took another ten minutes through side streets and narrow, unlit roads. He walked me to the porch. As he was about to kiss me goodnight, the screen door swung open and my foster dad, Chet, stood glowering down at us. "Boy," he spat. "You have any idea what time it is?"

"I'm sorry, Chet," James started to say. "We just-"

Chet cut him off, "You best be getting home before my wife wakes up and skins you both."

James nodded and passed an apologetic glance my way. I told him I'd call him the next day. I never did.

As James drove off, Chet grabbed ahold of my arm and pulled me inside. "You've done lost your mind, girl," he hissed. I tried not to meet his angry gaze. "It's damn near two o'clock! You know who stays out this late? Whores!" I winced, but said nothing. We'd been through this song and dance before. I pulled away and started to make my way to the back room. Normally, I shared the room with at least one other foster kid, but not at the moment. Maybe it was because I was now the only one - and because they would soon lose that check, too, that they cared so much about what I did.

"That's what you were doing, wasn't it?" he spat, grabbing me by the back of the neck.

"Ow!" I said. I feebly clawed at his hand.

"Hush!" he hissed, "You wake your momma and you'll be in for worse." I could feel his breath in my ear, and tears began prickling at my eyes. "You let that boy inside your britches, didn't you?"

Lost for words, I frantically shook my head "no."

"Lying bitch," he growled. "I'm not stupid. I know that's what you fast little girls are really up to. Want us to think you're all sweet and innocent and perfect, but I wasn't born yesterday. Girls don't get that gussied up to praise Jesus."

"Let me go," I pleaded, my voice barely a whisper.

His grip on my neck tightened.

"You may be going off to school in a few months, but I won't have you running around acting like a damn whore while you're under my roof," he spat. He let go of my neck then with a forceful push. I stumbled over the coffee table and landed on my hands and knees.

Chet unbuckled his belt and began pulling it out. "You just stay there," he said, folding the belt in half and gripping it with a white-knuckled fist. "And don't you make no noise and go waking your momma. You deserve this."

As he raised the belt, preparing to swing, I clamored to my feet. I ran, not for the room, which had no lock, but for the back door. He chased after me. I made it out the back door, slamming it behind me to slow him down. Within two seconds, I heard him yank it open. "Get back here, you slut!" he hollered from the doorway.

He had one bad knee, which caused him to limp a little, but I knew it wouldn't take long for him to catch me. I was still wearing high heels, and I couldn't kick them off. If I stopped to unlace them, he would catch up to me for sure. Kelly's house was just across the field. I knew that snakes and other vermin liked to hide in the waist-high grass, but I pushed that thought aside. I bunched my dress up around my thighs and ran, wincing as tall stalks of grass cut across my legs like switches. I heard Chet's footfalls lumbering heavily behind me.

I almost made it. Years later, I would sob on my therapist's couch as I thought of what could have been if I had only made it twenty yards further. How different my life might be.

As Kelly's back porch came into view, my right heel caught a snake hole and I fell. Before I could start to scramble back to my feet, Chet was on top of me.

"Fucking bitch!" he yelled, turning me over so I had to look up at him. I could smell alcohol sour on his breath. I tried curling myself into a ball, raised my arms to cover my face. I became momentarily aware that my dress had bunched up around my waist, exposing pink silk panties. Instinctively, I freed an arm to try to yank my dress back down, but he caught my wrist. "Trying to cover up your whore panties?" he grimaced. "Why bother? I bet half the town has seen what you've got down there. No need being modest with me!" He slapped me hard across the face.