Waiting in Line for the New iPad

He tried to change the subject, if anything to distract himself from all the confused feelings he had, to calm himself down and prevent himself from misunderstanding this situation.

He said: "So are you actually excited about this new iPad?"

She gave him a blank look, and nearly dropped his hand.

"Only, I'm sitting there in the line trying to mind my own business…"

"And not doing so great at that, huh?" she flashed him a grin.

He shrugged, "Kind of hard to keep my ears to myself when you're talking about vibrators and stuff like that."

"I guess it must be. Pervert."

"Hey, it wasn't me talking about sex toys in a queue for the new iPad." She smiled and rolled her eyes, and he said: "The emos sitting behind me in the line were talking about iPads the whole time - you can't blame me for trying to distract myself from that."

She laughed. "That doesn't get you horny, talking about 4G and Retina display?"

He couldn't quite tell whether it was going to turn her off that he wasn't completely obsessed with Apple products like his sister, or whether it was a good thing.

"Well, I mean they're handy to have…"

She laughed, "You're worried we're all geeky girls and I'll find you boring because you're not in the waiting list to work on the Genius Bar?"

To be honest, he'd never thought any of them might be termed 'geeky'.

She said: "It's Chrissy. She's a total tech geek. And she has to have the latest new anything the minute it's out."

"Oh, right, I see. My sister's just the same."

"Only it kind of sucks waiting in line on your own all night - so we all came along for the ride."

"That's very nice of you."

"Hey - it's the summer. Not like we have to do anything else tomorrow," she said. "Your friends didn't feel the same way, then?"

"I didn't really tell them. Don't think they'd be quite so understanding about the whole sitting around all night for an iPad kind of thing."

"You're very sweet to do it for your sister."

"If it gets me in her good books for a few weeks, it's a price worth paying."

"Hey," she said, as came to a halt between two SUVs. There weren't too many cars in the parking lot, but Noelle had pulled them over to a cluster that he'd assumed belonged to her and her friends.

She stopped him, pulling him back to her.

"Are you still up for letting me tell you what to do?"

"Letting you?" he joked. "I don't think you get how to do this."

She rolled her eyes again, but then she said: "Fine. Then I'll just tell you."

"Sure."

"Kiss me. Now."

Something like a small hand grenade went off inside his upper chest. He couldn't hear it, but the burst of intense heat and shock from the blast was quite clearly detectable.

What did she just say?

But he hardly had a moment to process what she'd demanded of him as she pushed him back against the black four-by-four vehicle, launching herself at him. Complete surprise and overwhelming confusion made him putty in her hands.

"Okay…" he said as she pulled him down to her level, placing her hands on his chest.

His chest filled with her sweet perfume, and his whole body trembled with pent up desire and shock. She was so close to him, he could see her individual freckles, even in this low light. Her eyes, highlighted by mascara and eyeliner, were astonishingly beautiful - so bright and sparkling with intelligence.

Then suddenly he felt the heat of her face on his, and her soft breath dancing on his skin, and then her lips were nudging against his, so he could feel the slight waxy texture of her lipstick.

She was kissing him. The most attractive girl he'd ever met. Kissing. Him.

It wasn't quite his first kiss, but it might as well have been.

She sucked gently on his lips, and then he found his hands moving up to hold her head, almost checking to see if she was real, solid, not some kind of wonderful dream as he lay sleeping crumpled in a queue outside the Apple store.

More than a little insecure in his inexperience, he took his cues from her, he tried to learn from her, he mirrored her moves, gently sucking on her sweet lips, nudging his nose against hers, reveling in the velvet softness of her cheeks against his, inhaling her tantalizing scent with every fathomless breath.

Time just seemed to slow down and stop, as they entered a little world of their own.

Noelle smiled at him even while they continued kissing, and it sent his temperature skyrocketing. He felt her press against him, and to his horror realized she must be able to feel the massive erection that her incredible attention was causing. Yet she didn't seem horrified by it - she actively pressed herself tighter against him, and suddenly as her kiss lingered, he felt her tongue delving between his lips - oh God, she was so hot.

"Oh my God…" she said, breathless like she'd just run the 100 metres in the Olympics, her eyes flickering all over his, her brow creased as though in confusion. "How did you learn to kiss like that?"

She didn't give him a chance to answer - thankfully, since he didn't know what exactly to say. Probably not a good idea to tell her he'd only really ever learned anything from her. She was kissing him, pressing herself up against him, her tongue sliding inside his mouth, now, not holding back.

He tried to give as good as he got, but her passionate energy was intense, and like lying under a refreshing waterfall, he just had to let the incredible power flow over him.

As she kissed him, he found he did really enjoy her taking control. Ever since his blundering fumblings in eighth grade, the few times he'd been lucky enough to find another girl interested in a little smooching, the girl had always pretty much opened her mouth and sat there.

This was electric. And now as he found himself sucking on her tongue, Noelle was grabbing his hands, and forcing them up her chest, demanding he touch her breasts.

"Just there…" she breathed as his fingers closed around the sensational shape of her cleavage.

Oh God in Heaven, he was actually holding her beautiful round breasts, and she actually wanted him to. He could feel the stiffness of her nipples, even through her bra and top.

Dylan took direction from her, and at first she seemed to find it strange, leading him. Putting his hands where she wanted them, guiding the speed and intensity of their kiss. For a moment, she looked at him, her eyes open, trying to figure him out. Perhaps check whether he was only allowing her to lead as some kind of lame follow-up to his earlier suggestions, all one long strategy to get her interested in him.

But he could see her come to believe that this was wonderful for him - he didn't feel any sleight against his masculinity, how could he? He was entangled in the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

He touched her tenderly, and she seemed to respond to his gentle coaxing of her sensationally soft breasts, writhing and emitting the sexiest moans. But with the incredible sweetness of her kiss, he found himself slipping into a strange kind of dream state, lulled into a strange calm by the exquisite dance of the senses, and somehow he was losing himself in her.

When he realized her shirt had ridden up, and her bra had slipped down, and his hands were sprawling over her smooth, soft bare flesh, grazing over her hard nipples without hindrance, he was surprised and a touch confused about how they'd got to that state. Noelle appeared ecstatic that he was touching her like that, however.

"Kiss me down here," she said softly, almost a whisper, and he found himself kissing down her soft neck, breathing in the gentle sweet scent from her skin as he moved down.

And then he was taking her nipple inside his hot mouth, tasting her soft flesh, brushing his tongue over her sensitive bud, drawing out a deep long sigh as he began sucking on her.

"Oh, that's it… just like that…"

Caressing her hot flesh with his lips, teasing her with his tongue, sucking with increasing intensity, her sighs turned to moans, and Dylan found that confirmation of her pleasure the hottest thing he could remember.

"Oh, don't stop…"

Why should it somehow demean a guy's manhood to make the girl's pleasure his priority? Surely succeeding in achieving this genuine delight should be taken as demonstrating real and proven manhood.

After a while, her moans were almost yelps, and Noelle furiously pulled his face to hers, kissing him with wild abandon, her hands closing over his to force him to virtually crush her cleavage in his fingers.

At last, she let out a big long groan, her body seeming to shudder as he held her, as though someone had switched on an electric current to flow through her shapely frame.

"Oh my God," she said, completely struggling for breath. "Oh. My. God."

"Are you okay?" he asked her, a little confused at the apparent look of shock in her face. Had he hurt her somehow? Had he gone too far?

Was he in trouble for touching her breasts like that?

God, all those warnings from his teachers at St Josephs came flooding back - he heard the words of some imagined judge somewhere: inappropriate touching, forcing himself upon her, non-consensual molestation…

But then her pretty face broke out into the most enchanting smile, her big blue eyes so wide and filled with joy, and she looked at him as though he'd just given her the most amazing gift ever.

"That's not supposed to happen," she breathed, her voice full of wonder.

"I'm sorry…" he said, still not understanding.

She shook her head. "It's a myth, an urban myth," she said. "You're not supposed to actually be able to do that."

"I kind of got carried away, I guess…" he said, beginning to see that he wasn't in trouble, even finding it amusing how apparently slow his brain was being after being so doped up on the extraordinary experience of kissing Noelle.

"I mean, I never did that before, not with a guy," she said, then kissed his lips briefly again. "And you did it just by kissing me and touching me."

He felt incredibly warm inside. And how was it that making this girl feel this way felt more of a satisfying achievement to him than getting into Stanford?

"We should get back to the line," Noelle said, pulling up her bra and pulling down her top. "They'll all be talking about us, I bet."

"We haven't been gone that long," he said, but fishing his iPhone out of his pocket was rather startled to find they'd been gone nearly an hour.

"I wish we could, but I will never live it down if those guys knew you just made me come, and we haven't even had a first date yet."

Oh wow. He felt himself blush all the shades of scarlet as she took his hand and showed him over to where her car was parked. The undeniable confirmation he'd made her come seemed to set off fireworks inside his whole body - and her use of the word 'yet', suggesting that they would be having a first date at some point in the near future, that just made him fizz all over.

He was vaguely disappointed that they couldn't just abandon the whole idea of waiting in line for an iPad. Go off and try a little more kissing, a little more touching. Only his mother knew he was there at the Apple store anyway - he'd just tell her the competition for iPads had been so intense, there hadn't even been enough for all the people in the queue.

He'd think of an alternative present for his sister - sure it wouldn't be as great, but hey.

He knew that was a selfish feeling, and his head was able to override his heart even before Noelle grabbed his hand and led him on to a tiny little beaten-up Volkswagen that seemed like a very down-to-earth car for a girl as hot as Noelle to drive.

"It's my baby," she said, proudly patting the roof. "Say 'hi' to Rowena."

"Hi, Rowena," he said, and made her giggle.

"The others tease me about her," she said. "But she's the most reliable old girl you've ever seen."

"Reliability's so much more important than anything else," he said, being nice about her car.

"Completely. Having something that'll do what I want is so much better than something flashy that conks out after two minutes," she grinned, and he wasn't sure she was talking about her car any more.

*

Walking back, Dylan already felt better - and not only because of the most incredible kiss of his life. Holding those blankets made him feel so much better about how the rest of the night was going - it was getting seriously cold by now.

They stopped off at the McDonalds on the way back to use the bathrooms, thankful the place was open 24 hours.

Back in the queue, almost nobody was awake. Dylan found himself feeling a little down-hearted all of a sudden. They were going to find their places in the queue again, and then most likely get some sleep - and that would be it for the night.

"That's horsecrap - guys don't like doing it."

"Some do. I read about it in a magazine."

"What, like you read about Sasquatch being seen in Tempersfield?"

As they found their places, although Ellie and Sasha were still asleep, it was hard to miss the fact that Chrissy and Marie were still awake - Chrissy because she was so excited about getting hold of the new iPad, Marie because Chrissy couldn't shut up.

"It was in New Look."

"Well I think it would be weird. I'm not sure I want them that close up."

"Are you kidding? It's supposed to be amazing."

Heavens knew what the two girls were talking about, but they brightened as soon as they saw Noelle and Dylan making a return.

"Hey, you two!" Chrissy said, quietly, although it didn't look as though even shouting was going to wake up Ellie and Sasha.

"What are you guys talking about?" Noelle said, affecting a tone of mock-exasperation as she set about laying out the blankets for Dylan directly alongside her sleeping bag - one for him to sleep on, two to go over him.

Marie nudged Chrissy, and the two of them giggled, then the blonde said: "So Dylan, Chrissy really wants to know if St Josephs girls give head."

"Marie!" Chrissy and Noelle hissed in unison.

Marie only chuckled.

Dylan tried his utmost not to look embarrassed. "Sure," he said.

"No!" Chrissy and Marie said together. Noelle busied herself getting into her sleeping bag.

Marie said: "They don't really, do they? Nobody I know has ever been with a guy that did. Guys don't do it until they're married and they have to."

That made him laugh. He wasn't particularly experienced, but there was no way if he had the choice in the matter that he'd refuse it until marriage.

He said: "Why should we wait until marriage?"

"Because you don't like doing it," Marie said.

"That's not true,' Dylan said categorically, and then suddenly felt rather embarrassed, having opened up a little too much in front of the girl he was hoping might agree to a first date. And it wasn't as though he was opening up about his own experience.

He caught Marie flashing a look of - what, envy? surprise? congratulations? - directed at Noelle, who rolled her eyes, but then cast a curious glance Dylan's way.

"So why don't guys just do it?" Marie asked.

"Half of them think they're probably not allowed to, because girls have so many hang-ups about it."

"There are some guys that don't like doing it."

"Sure, there probably are."

"You like it?"

"Chrissy!" That was Noelle, chiding her friend, but now looking at Dylan with the kind of expression that stated clearly she wanted him to answer.

"What could be better?" he said simply.

Noelle seemed to catch her breath, but Dylan tried not to look at her, worried he'd be caught out in another half-truth. He wasn't telling a lie that he would be very keen to try it, but hinting that he enjoyed it was getting ahead of himself - he wanted to enjoy it. The idea of going down on a girl was so sexy, it made him tremble with lust. But he'd never had first hand experience.

Chrissy gave a loud yawn that made them all laugh, and seemed to suitably distract from the awkward zone the conversation was heading toward. Telling the others that she was going to rest her eyes for a little while, she asked Dylan: "Have you got any gorgeous friends that are just like you, Dylan? Can you give them my number?"

Noelle grinned at him, seemingly with pride. It made his ears burn a little, but in a good way.

"Night!"

"Night!"

"Night, Dylan!"

"Night, Chrissy."

He made himself comfortable, and tried his best to relax enough to allow sleep to overcome him. He could hope that when the morning came, he might get Noelle's number, and perhaps the most unlikely of nights would lead to the most unlikely of first dates for an ordinary guy from the other end of town.

But maybe when the Apple Store opened its doors, and the line surged ahead, he'd lose track of her in the scramble - and that would be it.

*

It was a little later that he heard the whisper: "You awake?"

He hadn't been able to get to sleep - not even slightly. He was so incredibly buzzed by his evening with Noelle - and could not get that kiss out of his head. He'd just been lying there on his back, staring up at the stars.

Now he could detect her perfume again, and then he was startled by a hand snaking over his chest.

"Yeah, I'm awake," he said.

"Come here," she said.

He was a little unsure what she meant - she was right there, after all, right next to him. It wasn't as though he had to walk anywhere to be with him.

But then her arm was across his chest, and she was pulling him over toward her sleeping bag - which was unfastened to allow him entry, the cold air kept out by the way she appeared to have draped the blanket over them both now. When had that happened?

He found his hand brushing over a sensationally smooth thigh, and the apparent fact she wasn't wearing her skirt any more made his heart-rate soar.

It was much darker here in the line than it had been in the flood-lit parking lot, but the mall's stream lamps were still enough to shed light on her pretty face as she pulled him in for another powerful kiss.

Oh how incredible she was - he felt he could have been happy just to be allowed to kiss her for the rest of his life, it was so exhilarating.

"You'll wake the others," he warned as they eventually came up for air, concerned that her little sighs as they kissed would become louder as she lost herself in their embrace.

"I won't," she said. "Promise."

Then as they continued taking it in turns to gently suck on each others' lips, and tangle their tongues together, Noelle brought the hand that wasn't cradling her head up underneath her top once again, brushing over her smooth stomach, and then gliding up over the scintillating slopes of her bare breasts - she'd removed her bra, and now he was completely free to caress her shapely breasts, tease her hard nipples between thumb and fingers, drawing out soft little moans despite her promise to be silent.

"Will you really do whatever I want you to?" she whispered as they came up for air again.

"Anything."

"Even… what we were talking about with Chrissy and Marie?"

"Your wish is my command."

She flashed her eyes at him, a little shocked, a little hopeful, a little disbelieving.

"Do it," she said with a devilish grin. He felt a fireball overcome his insides.

It was warm beneath the sleeping bag, but felt safe from the outside - he was concealed from prying eyes, secure to pursue the dream of kissing his way down her chest, her top pushed up and then gone entirely, leaving this divine nymph in nothing but a pair of panties, lying there for him and only him.

Taking her nipples inside his mouth for a moment or two, before he felt her writhe, her breathing so deep it made her entire body rise and fall like the surface of the ocean, he tried to pause, calm himself, though everything inside him felt as though it was alight.

He needed to calm himself - his heart was pounding in his chest, he was going to drop dead if he wasn't careful. He couldn't believe she actually wanted him to go down on her.