The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 08

*Thanks to Alwaysready64 for editing and contributing some snippets of this story, and PASTMASTER for his beta reading.

*All sex described in this story will be between adults, 18 or over.

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Chapter 8 Girlfriends?

Before I started the school year, I was a loner. Being alone, with no social interactions, didn't bother me. Now that I had friends, being alone sucked and being cooped up in my home, recovering was making me go stir crazy. I missed volunteering at the soup kitchen with Simone, and even more I missed our daily conversations. I tried calling Simone, but, like Isabella's father, her mother didn't want her to have anything to do with me.

Back then, cell phones didn't really exist unless you were a rich Miami Vice cop, so Simone rarely had the opportunity to call me. I did get a call once in a blue moon from her when she'd visit one of her friends. Other than that, we rarely spoke. Then, I got a knock on the door. I wasn't expecting anyone, and since it was the middle of the school day, I didn't expect any of my friends to come by.

I limped over to the door, since I was trying to function without the use of a cane.

"Hey, Mike..." Simone said, sheepishly.

I think my face must have spoken volumes because she suddenly brightened.

"Simi!" I blurted. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Simi? Since when do you call me Simi?" she asked, as if it were terribly important. One thing about Simone, she didn't let me get away with anything.

"I, I kind of like it... ever since I heard someone calling you that at Lillian's."

"I'm just messing with you... Can I come in?"

I wasn't expecting company so I wasn't dressed to impress, wearing shorts and a tank top, I was still sweaty from my work out.

"Um, sure... don't you have to be in school though?"

"What are you my parole officer? School's almost over, most of the teachers aren't even bothering to teach, they're just showing us videos and not taking role. The truant officers aren't bothering with us, and most of the kids are ditching, so I decided to ditch too... You got a problem with that?"

"OK, ok, I was only curious. I wasn't going to turn you in. Sheesh!"

She laughed and poked me in the ribs.

"So? What brings you here?" I asked, curious. She had never been to my house before.

"Can't a girl visit her friend?"

"You never have before..."

"Yeah, well you never almost died on me either..." she said, seriously.

"As you can see, I'm grand!" I said, indicating my sweaty state.

She seemed to know she wasn't getting anywhere with the small talk.

"I ... missed you. OK? I admit it."

"I missed you too," I said. I couldn't keep poking the bear, so I switched to friendly. "Do you want to come in? Watch a movie or something? We have a few, really horrible and cheesy flicks on VHS. Most of them are Disney movies though..." I said leaning in and whispering, "Stephanie," as if she was in the house and could hear us.

She looked hesitant, and so I thought maybe I went too far.

"Oh, sorry. Your mom, right?" I asked, thinking here we go again.

"No... I mean yes... Arrgh!"

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I'm an adult now and I'm graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA... and somehow they made me valedictorian. I figure Mom can just chill out, I've done everything she expected of me, OK?"

"OK..." I said, doing a jig in my head.

She leaned in and kissed me. I was surprised and didn't react right away. She must have thought I didn't reciprocate because she started to turn away in embarrassment, but I grabbed her about her waist and pulled her in for a kiss - a kiss I will always remember! It was amazing and the most passion I had ever felt to that point. I poured everything I could into that kiss, everything that Candy taught me, all the angst built up over that year.

I don't know how long we kissed; time seemed to have stopped. When it finally ended, I felt a great loss and yet excited for what was to come.

"Wow!" we both said, simultaneously.

She looked at me seriously, "You're MY boyfriend now, right?"

"Ummm, if you'll have me..." I said, not knowing what else to say to that declaration.

"Good, no more fucking 'Isabella', got it?" she demanded.

"Well..."

"Got it?"

"I got it, but I never slept with Isabella."

"Well if she comes calling on you again, you tell her you're MY man, OK?"

"Hell yeah!" I said, pulling her into another kiss.

We made it as far as the couch, before we fell into a tangle of limbs, kissing, licking and petting. We were getting pretty hot and bothered and one thing was leading to another... Until Stephanie came home, and like a wet blanket put our fires out.

"Hey guys!" Stephanie declared as if seeing us together were the most normal thing ever.

I had a feeling Stephanie and Simone already had a secret conversation about our relationship.

We ended up watching a movie together, Stephanie put my favorite movie, 'War Games', in and Simone leaned into me laying her head on my left shoulder, then Stephanie surprised me and did the same thing on the other side. I looked over at Simone and she wasn't bothered in the least, so I just leaned back and enjoyed it.

Later, I offered to give Simone a ride home, (with my sister's help).

"That would be great, I've never ridden in your car!"

With Stephanie with us, there was no more hanky-panky (that's what Stephanie teasingly called what she saw us doing), but I did walk her to her door.

Before she entered her home, she turned and looked at me concerned, "I have to tell you something, and I hope you are OK with this but... I'm not a virgin..." she whispered.

"That's OK. I'm not in love with you because you're a virgin. Your past is your past."

"I love you, and I want us to be together forever... But," she paused.

I looked at here quizzically, "What?"

"I've had sex with a few guys, and the sex was horrible... I almost swore guys off altogether because of it."

"OK..." I said, not knowing where she was going with this. "Do you want to wait or something because I'll wait..."

"No... I don't want to wait anymore, but I also don't want our first experience to be bad."

"I'm a virgin, Simi. I have no idea how good or bad I'll be."

"I know and that's why before we do it, you are going to get some lessons on how to do it right. I'm not all that experienced myself, so I want you to be able to show me... what you learned," she grinned.

"So, you want me to visit a prostitute or something?"

"No, nothing that vulgar... I have an even better idea... but you may not like it," she stated, hesitantly.

"Out with it, then. I'm not a mind reader. What's your big idea?"

"Do you remember Gloria Lundell?"

"You mean the pretty, older neighbor that you had me help move her husband's things out of her house?"

Gloria was probably my mom's age. She was in her late thirties/early forties and wasn't too bad on the eyes. She had a ten-year-old son whom she had half of the time after her divorce.

"Yeah, she was really grateful for what you did," she hinted to me. "And I've seen the way she looks at you."

"I didn't do anything. I just helped her pack up some boxes," I said. "Her husband didn't even come for his things until a week later."

"Yeah, but if he would've, he might've gotten violent. She knew that with you around she didn't have anything to fear. Knowing that you were around if she needed you, gave her courage to move forward. She didn't need to live in fear of her abusive husband."

"I'm glad I had such an effect on her. But I doubt I deserve that much gratitude."

"Regardless, she is VERY grateful, and I'll just bet that she wouldn't mind showing you the ropes."

"How do you KNOW? That's a very big ask," I said.

"Leave that up to me, but if I can get her to 'help out'... Will you do it... For me?"

"I don't know... I mean I DO love you, but I kind of wanted my first time to be with you..." I said, reluctantly.

"I know baby, but just think of this as practice for the real thing."

"Fine... But, don't get mad at me for it, after all it's your idea."

"Goodie," she said, clapping her hands like a child.

I didn't know what I was getting into.

"Hey, are you coming to graduation?" she said, changing the conversation.

It took me a minute to process what she was saying, my head was in a cloud from the implications of what she wanted me to do. I can't say I wasn't excited also; I've had a few masturbatory fantasies starring Gloria.

"Probably not," I said, and she looked at me dumbfounded. "It's not like I don't want to. The administration doesn't want me there. They don't want the press there, nor do they want the Johnny fanatics causing problems."

"Since when do you care what the administration thinks?" she asked.

"Look, they didn't say I couldn't go. The principal begged me not to go. He's been great to me since I got out of a coma. He got my teachers to work with me remotely, he sent staff to my home to proctor my exams so I could finish out my school year. I feel like I owe it to them."

"They just don't want to see you there next year."

"Yeah, but 'I' don't want to be there either."

"You won't see me graduate though," she pouted.

"I will just not live anyway. I bought a Camcorder and Stephanie is going to tape the whole ceremony. She'll bring it to me to watch right after the ceremony. So, I'll watch you, I promise."

*

By the time of graduation, I was finally recovered enough to walk without assistance, although I did have a bit of a leftover limp. I was also able to drive again, which did my heart good because I loved my car. I called up Dan a few times since I got out of the hospital just to thank him for the car. The first time I called, he apologized about his dad, and let me know that Isabella had nothing to do with her not seeing me.

Fortunately for me, she was leaving for Paris for the summer, so I wouldn't be tempted to meet up with her. I knew that even if I just met her platonically and Simone found out, there would be hell to pay.

The weird thing about Simone was that she was jealous about certain girls only, for example, she knew about the mutual attraction between me and Candy, and she practically encouraged us to be together.

I watched the graduation on VHS; it mostly consisted of kids being called up and handed their diploma so I was able to fast forward through most of it. Simone was the valedictorian and she made an impassioned speech about how sick she felt knowing that women were still being abused in a supposed civil society. Other than her controversial speech, graduation went smoothly. I was sad to see that Candy didn't go to graduation and I felt guilty because I think she would have gone if I went with her. That being said, she did receive her diploma and was even planning on going to city college next semester.

I convinced Candy to at least come celebrate with us and she happily agreed. We ended up filling a Red Lobster with cheerleaders and their parents and family. Red Lobster wasn't the swankiest of places, but it was a place that most people could afford (and a place that would put up with a rowdy bunch of "kids" excited that they were done with high school).

I invited Delilah to come with us since I felt like she was part of my family again. Although she made up some excuses as to why she couldn't come, I knew it was because she didn't want to face the condemnation of the cheerleaders. I had a feeling that the cheerleaders would take it easy on her, but I didn't know that for sure, after all there were a lot of feelings of betrayal involved, so I told her we'd miss her being there and I congratulated her on her own graduation.

I was never a fan of Red Lobster; I thought their food was so-so and overpriced for what it was. However, like everyone else, I thought their cheesy bread was to die for. Since I didn't go to the graduation and Red Lobster doesn't take reservations, I got there an hour early to wait in line. I got a list of all the people expected to come and put five groups of us in their queue. Not everyone got there at the same time, but it didn't matter because we still ended up waiting another hour before they started calling our groups in.

While we waited, a lot of the cheerleaders were hanging out together as their kind of last hurrah. A lot of them that were graduating were going to schools in other states. Half of the squad would still be in high school next year and were just there to see their comrades off. There were a lot of gossipy conversations going on, a couple of the seniors were passing on their knowledge to their Padawans as they went through one more time the technical details of doing their specialty moves. I was treated to a lot of 'cheers' and exhausting chanting, but they did do some awesomely sexy moves, seemingly right in front of me. Like bending over, keeping their back straight and legs spread so that their asses would stick up more. Or something simple like the splits. Either way it was getting me 'agitated' and I had to do my best to hide my erection.

Simone noticed my predicament and was amused.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," I whispered.

"You look so cute when you're uncomfortable," she grinned even wider.

"You want to perform some Chinese water torture on me too, while you're at it? Or how about bamboo under my fingernails?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't think I'll have to resort to that, you are way too easy to break," she said, knowingly.

Most of us were seated outside or standing. Simone and I were seated, and although I offered my seat to one of the girls, Simone would have nothing to do with it and insisted we sit next to each other. She looked at me mischievously and got up off her seat and gave the girl her seat, then sat her ass in my lap squashing my cock into my gut and making it even harder.

"No, fair!" I said, as she slowly ground into me. "If you keep that up, I'll have to go home," I said, warning her. I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I'll cum in my pants!"

She burst out laughing, and although only we knew why, the laughter was infectious, and everyone started laughing with us.

"Oh, by the way, I got you a graduation present. I don't know if you'll like it but with you going away for the summer..." I said and brought out a small box.

"Oh, my god! That's not what I think it is, is it?" she asked, turning pale.

I put two and two together and quickly said, "Oh, NO! I mean, not that I haven't thought of it... we just started dating! It's NOT that! Just open it, you'll see."

I guessed that she thought I was going too fast and was proposing to her. But judging by the reaction after she unwrapped her box, I got the right present for her - a beeper.

Now for those of you that didn't live in the early nineties, cell phones didn't come into wide use until the mid to late nineties. Before cell phones, were beepers. Beepers were like early caveman like texting systems. You could call someone's beeper number and send them a four-digit code. The beeper was a small device with a text screen on it that would receive 'beeps'. The beeper would either beep or buzz, then the display would show both the number of who beeped you and a numerical up to four-digit code that they sent. Quickly, just like in instant messaging shorthand, there were codes that universally meant something. If you wanted to tell your sweetheart you loved them, you could beep code 143. You could send several beeps in a chain to cobble together a message, but most of the time someone beeped you to tell you to call them. The cool thing about beepers is that you could cheaply send messages to people you knew who weren't home.

"It's so we can keep in touch while you're away doing your charity work over the summer."

"I can't afford this..."

"Don't worry about it, it's actually fairly cheap when I bundled it with my phone bill. Each beeper was just ten dollars a month. I'm paying for it so it won't cost you anything... Annnd I verified that your beeper service will work in the town you'll be staying in, in Costa Rica. And you can cheaply send me a beep rather than make a long-distance phone call, so it will save you a ton of money."

She started to tear up, "You're the best! Around!..." she started singing, before she started kissing me passionately.

When we finally went inside, it was chaos. It took over a half hour just to order all our food. If not for the cheesy bread, I felt like I would have starved. It was so loud in there you had to add to the noise by shouting just to be heard. I gave up trying to have a conversation and just did my best to nod my head and focus on one person at a time.

After we were done eating, I looked around and saw that everyone else was finishing up their meals, so I stood up and shouted for everyone to quiet down. Surprising to me, they did just that.

"I just wanted to say that although this school year is marred by the barbaric acts of few, I will look back fondly and remember this year as one of the best years I've ever had. One of my best friends was hurt this year..." I gestured to Candy then looked around to everyone seated around us. "And the guys who did it will pay!... But that's the thing isn't it. She IS one of my best friends and she still is. Our friendship survived, because it's that strong..." I said and had to pause because I got a little choked up.

"A year ago, I had no friends, other than my family. I was a pariah, something despicable to everyone at school... It wasn't your fault. I didn't know how to treat people and since most of my peers were two to three years older than me, it just made it that much harder to find anyone that'd give me a chance. So, I had to protect myself by being an asshole!" I looked around, seeing the moms and quickly correct myself, "Sorry, Language!"

I looked at my mom and she looked a little embarrassed but the other parents just laughed.

"As for me, I consider myself the luckiest man alive, because somehow I met all of you and got to know each and every one of you."

I looked around at each one of them to make my point, "I know things about each one of you that you only tell your closest friend... Don't worry, if it's a secret my lips are sealed," I paused.

Walking over to a beautiful raven-haired cheerleader. "Katrina here, wants to be a Neurosurgeon!"

Everyone looked surprised, and she blushed.

"I thought it would be a great idea, she's smart enough AND has the steadiest hands I've ever seen."

I walked over to another table and continued, "Paulette, wants to work with children. Some of you already know that, but did you know she wants to specifically help those with ALS like her brother..." she blushed but everyone just nodded.

She must have realized that she had nothing to be embarrassed about because she welled up with pride.

"One of my clients... Yeah I have clients," I clarified and quickly continued, "was a doctor who now works for the Kaiser Permanente Neurology Department. I told him all about you and he wanted me to relay an internship offer with his department in L.A... If you're interested."

"Oh my god, really? I'll be going to USC, that hospital is close by, that would be perfect!"

I smiled and handed her a card, then continued before she could say any more.

I went around the room, round robin style and Let everyone of my new friends know the little details about them that I observed. A few of them were very sentimental and started crying, which of course got the waterworks flowing with half the people around us.

I went to Simone last and said, "Now this girl, is amazing, as you all know. And honestly the only thing that I know about her that you don't - ARE secret - unfortunately I can't go there. But I would like to say how proud I am of her," I gushed.