I awoke to cool air on my skin and a feather soft kiss brushing my lips. I opened my eyes to Nadia’s cat-like gaze as she leaned over me, an inch from my face, staring with her freaky intensity. She had slipped in through the bedroom window I left unlocked.
“Holy shit! You scared the hell out of me!” My heart jumped up through my throat for a couple seconds. She grinned and flopped down on the bed next to me, propped up on one elbow, smiling.
“You don’t need to fear me, I’ll never harm you. I promise.”
“Yeah sure, you’re only gonna stalk me till the day I die, right?” She nodded shamelessly.
I’d been waiting for her to show up for days. She had disappeared for another week. It drove me nuts not knowing where to find her. I missed her. She brightened my dull existence with her strangeness. I felt an indefinable attraction to her. It wasn’t a boy-girl butterflies-in-the-stomach kinda thing. It was more a fascination, and a sense that we needed each other, in different ways and for different reasons, but it was the same. We needed one another.
My curiosity was piqued. She’d never slipped into my window like that before. “How’d you get all the way out here? It’s quite a walk.”
“I grabbed a ride. I can hitchhike anywhere. It’s easy catching rides. I don’t even have to put my thumb out most of the time.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Haven’t you heard of predators that hunt teenage girls out alone at night?”
“That’s so sweet! You’re worried about me!” She beamed. “How do you know it’s not the other way around? What if I’m the predator hunting for some unsuspecting sap to pick me up on the highway?”
“Well then I would say heaven help the poor man. Maybe you’ll stalk him for a while and give me a break.”
She giggled and pushed me. “You! Are you trying to get rid of me?”
I pecked her on the forehead with a tiny kiss. “No seriously, you’re welcome here anytime, I’ve gotten used to being stalked. It’s cute, in a freakish, creepy kinda way. I give you permission to stalk all you want, mi casa es su casa.”
“That’s good, ‘cause you’re not gonna be rid of me that easily. You’re stuck with me Misha. Better get used to it!” She gave me that intense stare again.
After a moment of serious staring, I chuckled. “I’m an American. Your Jedi mind tricks don’t work on me, only money. By the way, where are you getting all this money you keep leaving behind?”
“You said it. I’ve got Jedi mind tricks. The force is strong with this one. Weak minded people always give me what I want. I always get my way.” She maintained her serious demeanor. Her words were ridiculous, but she didn’t smile once.
“You are so odd. Has anyone ever told you that?” She shrugged, finally giving me the smile I’d been waiting for. Her good cheer was infectious. Impossible to sulk and wallow in self-pity when she smiled like that. “So what’s this Misha business? Is that some foreign curse word?”
She giggled, an enchanting little laugh. The only things missing were the wings and a sparkle of pixie dust. She had that Tinkerbell mischievous quality.
“No silly! It’s a nickname for Mikhail, Like Mike for Michael, it’s Russian.”
“You keep calling me this Mikhail-Misha, what’s up with that?”
“Like I said, you remind me of a boy I once knew. He was a special friend … kinda like you are.” She had a wistful, sad look.
“So what happened to him?”
She frowned. “He’s gone.” She shrugged then smiled. “But it’s okay. Now I have you.” She patted my chest. “Well, anyway, it’s late. You need your beauty sleep.” She pecked me on the nose and turned out the light to lie down at my side.
“Hey, you don’t get to just slip in here and crash without answers. I want to know where you go on the nights you’re not here.”
She slid over me, arms and legs hugging me, her face in my face. “I’ve been trying to stay away, but it’s too difficult. I can’t do it anymore. You’re stuck with me now. It’s late, get some sleep.”
I wasn’t hosed that easily. I knew she had avoided the question, and her answer created more questions, but I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. I fell right to sleep, her slight weight on my chest. No answers to be had this night.
And of course, I dreamed the sensual Nadia dreams like always. Those dreams were … awesome. It was the main reason I liked having her there throughout the night.
And then in the morning she was gone again.
* * * *
Chapter 9
Thursday, October 7th
“Hey Anita! Wait up!”
She’d been ignoring me for two days. I ran after her as she headed out to the school parking lot. She didn’t even look at me. So much for keeping my best friend.
When I caught up to her I recognized her friend Cleo, a dreadlocked girl from the skatepark crowd. They were headed to Cleo’s Volkswagen bug. Anita would latch onto the weirdest skate chick she could find (one of the only). I wondered what Anita was up to.
Cleo had a reputation as a major stoner. She smoked weed constantly. Not that it really mattered to me. But Anita hated the stench of cigarettes.
“Hey wait a minute, damnit!” I grabbed her arm.
She turned on me with an angry squint. I Thought she might hit me.
“What? What do you want from me?”
“I’ve been trying to talk to you all week. You’re avoiding me.”
“Well, aren’t you a genius.”
“Come on, I’ll give you a ride.” I pulled on her arm, taking her in the direction of my car.
“No! I’m going with Cleo!” Anita dug in to resist.
“If you want to sit around and get high that’s your business, but we need to talk. I’m not playing your game anymore. You’re coming with me, now!”
She had never made me feel like this before, so adamant, so angry. I hated this game. I just needed to talk to her, and she wouldn’t even give me a minute.
Cleo stood impatient with her passenger door open. “I’m not waiting all day.”
I just snapped. “Unless you two are going to homecoming together, she’s leaving with me right now!”
Anita’s face darkened with that barely discernible color change of a Mexican blush.
“Can you do this drama somewhere else?” Cleo blew a kiss to Anita. “I like you girl, but not that much. Sorry, I’m not into the pink, and I already have a date to homecoming. So it looks like you’re stuck with him.” She shut the door to her car, and left Anita behind.
“Sorry! I’ll text you later … Okay?” Anita apologized as I continued dragging her in my direction. Cleo blew her another kiss and flicked her tongue provocatively.
I hauled Anita to my car, flung open the passenger door and pushed her inside. She was smirking the whole way. Like this was all a big game to her.
I will never understand girls.
She rolled her eyes while I leaned over and clicked her seat belt in place.
“Mike, I don’t need your help ...” Her words trailed off when my hand brushed up along her thigh and across the swell of her generous breast – accidentally.
I didn’t really care about her seat belt, and I didn’t want to move from the passenger side now that I had her secured in my car.
A fruity, girly smell wafted in my face. My car was too small, and I was virtually on top of her. I wanted more of that scent, and I just couldn’t help but dip my nose in her hair to get another whiff.
Then I realized what I was doing. She smiled, with a strange look. Why would she be smiling? Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. Glossy, soft, lips.
And then I knew.
I wanted to kiss her, and I think she wanted me to. All that wonderful girl smell rolled off her as we stared at each other nose to nose, an inch apart.
I wasn’t sure what came over me, suddenly I felt extremely possessive, like she belonged to me. And if she was mine, then I should kiss her.
So
I did.
Her lips parted for me, warm and wet, pliable, with the sweet taste of fruity bubblegum. Her tongue flickered, dueling with mine, a wet tussle for territory. She let me win, and then her tongue surged forward into my mouth, taking it all back. She made these sweet little moaning sounds, and my pants grew really tight. Instaboner.
I needed more of her, her mouth, her golden, smooth curves, and she pulled me right down onto her. There was just so much to experience. Her wonderful little tongue game, and those big warm, inviting breasts, I couldn’t even get my hands around them they were so large.
Her mouth demanded more, pressing hard, and her tongue moved frantically. Her hands around my neck, she entrapped me in a wild explosion of pent up girl frustrations. It was like she couldn’t get enough of me.
And I couldn’t get enough of her.
Her hands attacked me, my shoulders, back, my ass (gulp), squeezing, stroking, sliding, massaging, pulling. I had kissed a couple girls before, even Rachelle, but never like this.
Nothing compared to this. Nothing could have prepared me for Anita.
I couldn’t taste enough of her lips and tongue and teeth, and her hands drove me wild with a need I’d never known. I swore I could have torn her clothes off. And then she started tearing off mine.
My whole body throbbed for her. My clothes were hot and stifling. I needed to feel her hands on my skin.
I’d opened a floodgate and drowned in a sea of overwhelming sensations. Anita blossomed into a ravenously hungry woman, driving me mad. She was a writhing, passionate creature beneath me. Her hands were everywhere – up my shirt, all over my chest, pulling on my ass, reaching into the waist of my pants, inside my boxer shorts.
I had never imagined in my wettest dreams what lay beneath Anita’s tough tomboy sarcasm. She had become an insatiable wildcat, and I was about to lose my virginity right there.
“Damn! You two need a room, and a condom!” Someone yelled in passing, laughing at us with their friends.
The spell broke.
I awoke from the kissing hysteria, breathing hard and ragged, the fly of my pants was undone and my shirt halfway off. Anita, also breathless, smiled at me half-lidded, a drugged expression. Her dark eyes had gone almost solid black with arousal. Her huge breasts heaved while she caught her breath.
She had damn near stripped me naked in the high school parking lot.
I stepped away and out the open passenger door to fasten my pants. Not so easy to button up blue jeans with a raging hard-on.
Talk about intense. My hands shook. I was in a daze as I went around to the driver’s side and got in. “Wow … that was … wow.”
Anita nodded, a huge smile on her face. She had that funny look. The same look she had just before we kissed.
I finally figured out what it meant. Adoration. She was looking at me with complete adoration.
“You wanted to talk to me?” She sat prim and proper, trying to still her shaking hands in her lap. The only evidence of our explosive encounter was her swollen lips. Looked like someone smacked her face where her lips had been crushed.
I tried to organize my chaotic thoughts and feelings towards Anita. She waited patiently for me. After some awkward silence I finally acquired the nerve.
“I guess I owe you a huge apology.” Though the scorching hot makeout implied forgiveness, she kept her mouth shut to let me grovel. I owed her some groveling. “I know it probably sounds stupid, and it is, but to tell you the truth I never saw this coming. You’ve always been more like a guy friend to me.”
Anita frowned, so I groveled harder. “The things that we talk about, the things we do together, it’s all guy stuff. We never watch chick flics, we never go to the girly areas of department stores, we never do anything that girls do. You know what I’m saying?”
She nodded tentatively. “Yeah.”
“I was starting to think you were into girls, and that’s cool cause I am too. I mean Justin and I were always talking about some girl’s ass or her short skirt, and you just … agreed.”
“Appreciating that a girl has a nice ass doesn’t mean I wanna get up on her.”
“I know.” I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m trying to explain my reasons for not seeing this … thing … between us earlier.” That seemed to calm her down a bit. My groveling skills were put to the test. “Really, I was thinking someday I might catch you in the middle of some lesbian action, a little girl on girl.”
Anita’s frown became a scowl. “Is that what you want? Are you saying you’re not into me because you think I’m a les?”
“No … no not at all. I’m just saying … but it’s all different now. What I mean is I don’t want you to change. I don’t want to lose my best friend who I can talk to about anything, even some girl’s ass or a short skirt that walks by.”
“So … do you want to hear me telling you about some guy’s ass or his package?”
“No!” My vehement answer surprised us both.
“Exactly. Nothing’s changed. I’m still your best friend. As long as you quit being such an idiot. I’m still me. But you can respect me enough not to talk about some girl’s ass.”
“Okay, asses are off-limits. What about tits?” I had it coming for that one, and she socked me good right in the arm. The girl could hit. “Okay! I get it. What about Rachelle? Me and Justin were always checking her out …”
I leaned far to my side of the car, as far out of her reach as possible. There must be something wrong with me. Sometimes I can’t get a grip on my mouth. But I was smiling, and she smiled too. Anita was back.
I still had my best friend.
“Definitely not Rachelle! Asshole. She’s way off limits. I hate her. I don’t know what you see in her. She treats you like dogshit on her shoe. I can’t believe you even look at her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one who bombed your locker.
And don’t talk to me about Justin. He’s such a dork! He’s always slobbering over some girl way out of his league, it’s hilarious. Remember how hard we laughed when that one girl smacked him?”
I did remember, and it was all too funny. “Oh yeah, he told her, ‘If you were a booger I’d pick you first.’ She left a mark on the side of his face for two days!”
It felt so good to laugh with her. I needed this. I needed her to be Anita, my best friend.
Anita chuckled. “God, that was hilarious. I don’t think Justin ever understood we were laughing at him, not with him.”
She looked at me, smiling, and that spark was there again. The spark that had damn near set me on fire. Her hand slid over my thigh towards my crotch.
I squeaked as her fingers found what they were looking for. “Right … ah … so … I guess it’s official, we’re going to homecoming together.”
I grabbed her hand, and held it. But it was different from the other times I had held her hand. Now that simple gesture had so much meaning behind it. Maybe that meaning had always been there, but I had refused to see it.
I squeezed her hand. “Um ... this is all new to me. I have to start looking at you differently. I need to adjust. Can we take it easy for a few days so I can get my head around this?” God she had me rock hard again. So hard it hurt. I was gonna have to buy some new jeans, something with more room in the crotch.
She leaned in, wrapped me in a hug, and tickled my ear with her lips when she whispered, “Sure, but after the settling period I get to have my way with you.”
And somehow, I got even harder. I didn’t know I could get that hard.
Struggling to adjust my crotch, I explained once more. “And I want you to know I am sorry I didn’t get it. You’ll have to be patient with me. I’m a little slow sometimes.”
“At the rate we’re going I think you’re gonna get it soon enough.” She reached down and squeezed me, and I began thinking about getting it right now.
But that was just a little too much for the moment. “Yeah, let’s get outa here.”
We cruised through downtow
n, Broadway and Pioneer Way, till it was late enough that Anita had to go home or risk getting in trouble with her father. I wished I had a Dad who cared half as much as Anita’s father. In her driveway we kissed again. It was short and sweet, a pleasant reminder of what hid beneath the surface.
Anita may have looked like a girl, but she didn’t kiss like one. She kissed like a woman ready to eat me alive. And I wanted to be eaten.
She pressed for more. “I can let you in my window a little later. My parents will be asleep by ten, you can sneak in.” She had her hands fisted in my shirt, not exactly ready to let go.
“I’d like to, really I would. You have no idea how much I want to … but.”
“There’s always a butt.” She grabbed my ass.
“Yeah ... give it some time Anita. We’ve had a great day today.”
She whispered, “okay,” in my ear, flicking her tongue to tease. Where do girls learn this shit? After another kiss I said goodbye. As she walked towards her front door, I yelled, “So hey, we’re going to homecoming right?”
“Of course.” She smiled over her shoulder.
“I can afford my tux, but I won’t have much money left. Can your parents get you a dress?”
“I already have one.” She winked.
“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll catch you later … Hey, what color is it?”
“Well duh? It’s black. You think I’d be caught dead in some frilly pink dress?”
I arrived home with a permagrin etched into my face and a head full of Anita. Dad was much more cheerful than usual. “Hey kid, how’s it goin’? You’re lookin’ awful happy.”
“I’m now officially going to homecoming with Anita. We’re going together.”
“Anita, hunh? She’s a nice girl. Make sure you take real good care of her. Her dad’s alright by me, but don’t get on the wrong side of him with his daughter.”
“I know, Dad, we’ve been best friends for how long now? I know her father. He’s cool with me.”
“You’re sure he’s okay with the two of you dating? Being friends is one thing, but going together is different.”
“It’s fine, Dad.” I couldn’t recall the last time my father gave a shit about anything to do with me, much less my situation with Anita’s father.