Three days, three nights. I spent a lot of that time in shorts, gazing at my wicked little tattoo. The scorpion gave me no hints for guiding my life from that point on. I began to wonder if I'd finally and forever lost my ever-loving mind. There was another way to approach the whole thing. Pretend it never happened. It had been too fantastic a situation to really believe. Would my friend Jackie believe me if I told her that after fucking Scott (almost under her nose).
I could hardly believe it myself. Especially that grand finale where we all ended up fucking and sucking in the same queen-sized bed.
Time tick-tocked away. Customers came and went, some buying, most not. Then on the morning of my fourth day alone in the shop my period started. At least I didn't have that to drive me half nutty anymore. My luck was holding…
I wondered idly about Warren. It was funny how he had to disappear for a while after that last wild night. Probably had a million confusing thoughts in his head, and wanted to commune with nature for a while to see what Mother Nature thought.
After the local preacher stopped by to invite me to join his flock I knew that nothing had leaked. I was still straight in everyone's eyes. And with this out of the way, I could start thinking about sex again. But no one came, no boys that is. I was getting desperate. Even my tampax was starting to look pretty good on Thursday, but there's nothing particularly sexy about putting a tampax into my cunt. Don't know why, there just isn't.
It was getting to be afternoon when Lorrie came in, looked both ways and ducked through the door.
"Hiya."
"Everything cool?" I asked.
"Sure. My mom gets fits of trying to act like a mother. It wasn't anything much." She sat down and kicked off her sandals. "It's really getting to be summer. Hot as shit!"
I got a couple of Cokes from the kitchen. We sipped and talked about nothing much for a minute or two. Then Lorrie looked at me seriously.
"You know the other night when you were letting Keith and Warren fuck me?"
"Yeah." She sipped her Coke. "Didn't you worry about getting knocked up?" My cool didn't out cool my red face.
"I messed that one up. But I was lucky." Big smile. "I started today."
"Wow, I'm glad." There was a moment of silence, a knowing girl look between us. "I thought you were probably on the pill."
"So do most boys." I rubbed the back of my hand against my mouth. I began to think of fucking again. "I can't take the pill."
"I've just been lucky myself. When a guy has a rubber, well that's better." She puckered her mouth to the Coke.
"You've been fucking a year now?"
"Off and on." We both laughed.
Lorrie chewed the corner of her nail. "I remember when I went out one time with this guy I was crazy to fuck. He didn't have a rubber and wouldn't drive to Carsbury to buy one. So I went in Wilson's market and bought a baggie." She shrugged, laughed. "He said it wasn't worth a damn, but I think I musta come three times that night."
"Not on the same baggie…"
Lorrie giggled, almost spilled her Coke.
The quiet of the store fell around us. I was eyeing her, she looking at me. Lorrie rubbed her tan nose.
"You ever fuck during your period?"
I hesitated to answer, embarrassed by the prejudice I'd picked up from my Victorian mother. "I never have, but I'm starting to get pretty horny these past days." Lorrie laughed. "Do you?"
"I don't care one way or the other. Sometimes it really excites a guy to fuck me during my period, so then I dig it like he does." Lorrie finished her Coke.
"You have the right idea. That's really the cool way to look at things." Lorrie took the compliment grandly.
"There was this guy I used to go with, Wendel Purdy. He liked to watch me change my tampax, stuff like that. He would write me dirty notes in class saying how bad he wanted to fuck me and I'd get so damn hot I'd have to take care of myself… right in class."
I was curious, and Lorrie's conversation had warmed my loins. With no boys around, it was cheap entertainment.
"That sounds hard to do."
"Easy!" Lorrie raised her eyebrows, tilted her head. "I got a way of crossing my legs and jigging them with the corner of a book jammed down against my cunt." She showed me by patting the center of her cuntmound. "Works every time. One time the teacher asked me to get up and recite though, and I'd just had my come. That was a little scary. I couldn't talk very good and my knees weren't too strong."
Lorrie got up and walked lazily to the door. "I guess I'd better be going. Oh yeah, Keith has been dying to come up and see you, but he's still scared somebody might think…" She tilted her head cutely, "…you and him."
I chuckled. "I think we could walk down the main street holding hands and no one would even turn. I was weirded out at first, but not anymore. I mean, I'm old enough to…"
"…to be his mother," Lorrie finished. She wrinkled her nose in an impudent way. "Some mother!" And she trotted down the steps, sandals flung over one shoulder.
On Friday, business was nothing. I stayed open until three and then locked up and sauntered downtown to do some shopping. I strung it out as long as I could, knowing that when I got back, there'd only be that empty shop, the kitchen and a bedroom or two to rattle around in. I even thought of walking up to the end of town where the Tylers' house was, but I thought better of it. I'd been lucky as hell the first time. No sense in making anything obvious. Let the good times come to you… and all that sort of thing.
When I returned to the shop, the front door was open. I suspected Warren, but found Todd, his feet up on the kitchen table, pack leaned against the wall.
"Hey, you got some beer!"
"What happened to Warren?"
"Left him up the mountain. I think he's lovesick."
I popped my beer, listened to him dig another out of the carton. The old guessing game. And how much did Todd know?
"Didn't you hear me," he needled. "I said he was lovesick."
"Oh?" I gulped beer without appearing to gulp it. It wasn't easy to look someone in the eyes and play dumb.
"What happened down here anyway while I was up on the mountain?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary." I was afraid I'd made it sound too ordinary. Todd looked ready to jump at anything.
"You know what I think?" Todd seemed smug. It made me nervous. So I looked at him blankly, as if I was only being polite to listen. "I think he wanted to fuck you and you wouldn't go along with that, so now he's up in the woods brooding." He examined a fingernail with measured cool. "Warren's a funny kid. Quiet, but underneath…"
Todd clapped his hands. "See, he daydreams a lot. He must have daydreamed about you until he thought he was really fucking you. Then you shut off his water." Big smile.
"How do you think up things like that?" I was peering over the top of my beer can. "I mean it's really far out come on. I'm fight, aren't I?" He looked at his beer, at me. By the tone of his voice, I knew he wasn't positive. Just a ballsy guesser, that was Todd.
"You're wrong." I opened the refrigerator to put away my groceries.
Todd stewed. "Whadaya mean, I'm wrong?" His chair grated. I sensed him standing behind me. Uppity young stud. Know-it-all bastard. All I could think of was slapping Todd Lomax in the face with a wet towel. But I had something better.
"You're wrong about Warren just wanting to fuck me." I thought I actually heard him swallow. And it wasn't beer. "Hey, you sound dry." I closed the refrigerator, turned. "Better have some more beer." Todd's mouth was open.
"That little bastard didn't get in your pants… I know he didn't." He pushed his long black hair out of his eyes. I heard the beer can crinkle. Todd gulped from it, almost choked on foam.
"No, he didn't get in my pants." I finished my beer, pried another from the carton. "I took them off first." Todd's face crumbled like a condemned building getting the ax. He was having one hell of a time keeping up his macho cocksman facade.
"I… don't believe…" This time he spilled his beer down the front of his shirt. He wiped awkwardly. "Naw… not that little fuckin' fart."
I took my beer and headed out the back door. Todd hurried out behind me. I went to an old canvas lawn chair and fell into it. Todd strutted nervously before me.
"You're kidding, huh?" His smile was very, very thin.
"Look, I'm not trying to convince you of anything. It's a free country."
Todd stalked back and forth along the crumbling brick walk.
"You won't find any wild asparagus here."
"What?" His look said I was crazy.
"You're stalking. I thought you might be looking for a wild asparagus." I smothered my laugher with the beer. Didn't want to rile him too much.
"You're really funny. You just tear me up." Pissed off.
I watched him disappear through the back gate and trudge away towards town. After a while I went back in the house and washed up the dishes. It started to get dark, a storm moving over the mountains around Holdenville. I stayed outside until the rain started, then went in to fix some supper.
I was in bed with a book when I heard Todd come in. He fooled around the kitchen, opened another bear. He wanted to make sure I knew he was available. I giggled to myself, rolled over and turned off the light so I could listen to the rain on the roof.
I wondered about Warren, somewhere in a tent. A tent that didn't leak, I hoped. Warren was sweet. Todd had pegged him right when he'd said he was shy, but there was that wildness underneath. Not like Keith who was a crazy cowboy on the make.
I wondered what the boys thought about fucking me together that night. I moved my hips, rocked them. The reverie was getting to me. I tilted my cuntmound up, brushed my fingers over the silk of my panty-crotch. Wow.
The rain was steady and sometimes a gust would blow hard against the window.
Knock, knock on my door. "Yes?"
"It's Todd. I wondered if you wanted to talk?"
"Not tonight, Todd. Goodnight." I buried my laugh in a pillow. In a moment his steps sounded back down the hall.
I listened to the rain until I was sleepy. Just before I drifted off I remembered how horny I was, thought of the sweet, young bodies that had satisfied me the past week. But I was proud of my will power. It did you good to go without cocks or fingers sometimes. I didn't fuck when I was on the rag anyway, but it would have been so easy to play games with myself. Nice little finger games. I yawned and dozed away to a streamlined dreamland.
It must have been after one in the morning when I woke up having to piss. That damned beer. It wasn't raining anymore and the clouds had parted for the moon. I scrambled around for my glasses, found them and started down the hall. No need to turn on the lights. Just going to piss. I slipped on a T-shirt.
Todd caught me as I was coming out of the john. I hollered plenty loud since I had no idea who it was.
"Jesus, you want to see me have a heart attack?"
His arms brushed mine, fingers against the outward swell of my hips. I wished I'd put my robe on.
"I was thinking about you. Couldn't sleep." He smiled in the darkness. I could just make out the lust on his face.
"Go back to bed."
"I want to talk."
"You don't want to talk, you want to fuck." I pushed his hands away. "I'm on the rag. Even if I did want to fuck, I wouldn't want to." He touched me again, stronger this time. "Todd, would you move out of the way!"
I took my time going down the hall. His footsteps were close behind, but I didn't want to let him see me running. Aroused the old hunter instinct. Those who flee are pursued… something like that. I had a latch on my door. If I could close it… Todd put his foot in.
"Todd, I'm going to bed…" The door was forced open, and I staggered back, catching my heel on the legal the bed. "…damn you!"
"You're so fine." Hands on my shoulders.
I could see his black hair swinging forward off his shoulders. I was falling backwards, slumped onto the bed. Todd was over me, heavy, pressing down. My tits were flattened by his hands. His hand dug at my panties, inched the elastic down. I laughed out loud. Todd stopped, looked at me in the gloom.
"What's so funny?"
"If you think you're going to rape me…" I laughed again.
"Maybe I should."
"Rape isn't any fun." I shoved my hand down his belly, plunged under his shorts and circled the weight of his cock with my fingers. Its size shocked me a little, but I held on, moving the skin up and down slowly. I figured I could fight fire with fire this time. I knew Todd was a pushover, not half as much the cocksman as he pretended. I'd work his prick so I had him in the palm of my hand… like I did now. Both hands. Then I'd tell him I had to go get rid of my tampax and… zip, into the other bedroom, lock the door and back to sleep.
"Jesus, that feels…" I smiled, nodded.
"Like it?"
"I knew you really wanted to…" He slid over, let me sit up. I massaged the skin around his balls until they hung loose in their sac. Todd was hairier than his half-brother, hairier than Warren and Keith put together. A kinky, thick pubic thatch that tickled my hand when I jacked his cock. His foreskin was heavier, longer too. Even now the shiny-wet crown was not fully exposed. If I could get away with it, I could milk his prick dry with my hand and then run him back to bed. Through the dregs of my grass high, through my sleepiness I felt a tingle in the hot pit of my cunt. But I didn't let it do anything else but tinge. I tried hard to think of antique chairs, stoves, picture frames.
"Hey… that's enough."
"Ssshhhh." I cupped his big balls in my other hand and increased the tempo of my jacking movement. His cock throbbed. The come tube on the undershaft bulged as it swelled open to accept the hot stuff which would soon shoot through. Todd's muscled chest heaved. I could still see the child in him. The fierce, rough-edged emotions not yet quite civilized, the artless way he moved his body on the bed. A wanton, pleasure seeking animal. But there was the man there too. He was stronger, strong enough to make me afraid. I knew that if he wanted, Todd might indeed be able to take me… rape me. I trembled. His cock jumped in my hand.
"You're gonna… ohhh…" He pulled his hips back, grabbed my shoulders and started to pull me down beside him. I licked my lips and kissed him wetly. A little pretend to get me out of his reach for a minute. That's all I'd need to get to the other room.
"Hey, kiss me again…" I did. The kiss was good. Todd's tongue became more educated, more eager. I felt my breath falter, break. I was panting as I jerked my lips away from the nibbling sharpness of his biting.
"Let me run down the hall and get rid of my tampax." I kissed his nose, stood up. He looked at me in the darkness. I wasn't sure of his expression but I went quickly out the door. The floor was cold on my bare feet. I rounded the corner of the hall… just a few more steps. Through the kitchen. Feet coming behind me. Hurry… I had to hurry! He knew what I was doing, maybe read it in my voice. I would never make it all the way across the kitchen and into the other bedroom. Todd would be to the door before I had a chance to get the latch across.
"Damn!" My foot had grazed a chair leg, my shoulder bumped the refrigerator. The gaping darkness of the doorway to the shop! I ducked through, crouched behind a large bookshelf and choked off my panting breath.
"Shelby?" Todd walked by me, stopped near a cast-iron stove. "I'll leave you alone if that's what you want."
Like hell he would. I held my breath, hands curled around ankles until he moved out of sight. I heard him near the counter. Being careful not to step on a creaky board, I tiptoed behind two chests and then crawled on hands and knees towards the front door.
Todd was making enough noise looking for me to cover my small sounds. Once he came very near, but I was in the shadow of a huge old chest of drawers and he passed on by. I waited until he went into a side room where he kept old chairs and tables. I was out the front door without him even knowing. I guess Todd realized how I'd tricked him when he heard my Volkswagen start up. He was looking through the glassed front as I pulled around the shop and turned down Main Street. I waved back.
Driving through the sleepy village, I was mad and laughing all at the same time. I wasn't used to being pushed around, and hadn't been since I'd gotten away from Bruce. But though I was ten years older than Todd, he'd won really. Oh, he hadn't gotten his hot piece of ass, but he had run me out. If only there was a way to tell his father… And blow the whole thing. My summer in an antique shop, my pretty boys, everything. Maybe it would be down the drain anyway.
At two in the morning there's not many places you can go in a town like Holdenville. I had on my T-shirt, a pair of pale blue panties and that was it. Now that the heater was working I wasn't so uncomfortable, but I couldn't get out or stop the engine. Another funky fact occurred to me. The needle of my gas gauge was maybe one cockhair away from empty.
I drove out to the west side of town, heading as if by a magnet towards the Tyler place. My lights flicked past a big mail box. Tyler. I turned and went down a long, rutted drive. There was no car out front. I shut off the engine and sat, wondering what to do next. I still couldn't know for sure whether Keith and Lorrie's old lady was home or not. Just walk up in my panties and knock.
A light went on in the house. I reached for the key. It might be trouble. But then I recognized Lorrie's broad, tan face peering out a window. When she recognized the car, she opened the door and thumped down the steps, her nightgown flowing behind.
"What are you doing here?" Her eyes scanned my bare legs. "Hey, is something wrong?"
"Just Todd I guess." She looked so sweet, so sleepy-headed.
"I was afraid something weird was going on," Lorrie said. "Warren came over here this afternoon to see if he could stay the night. He told Keith that his brother wouldn't let him come back to the shop." She frowned, wrinkled her nose. "Todd can get funny all right. Did he try anything?" I didn't feel like going into it.
"So Warren came over here?"
"…and since my mom called from a honky tank and said she wouldn't be home tonight, I figured it'd be all right. He said he'd cut out in the morning and go on down to the antique shop." A half-smile glimmered on her sunkissed lips, disappeared. I wondered if the kids had been up to any fun and games.
"Maybe if I could get some rest…"
"Sure!"
"…then I could drive Warren down to the shop in the morning."
I followed Lorrie up the steps to the house. Inside things were pretty messy. Dust on the tables, dirty dishes on the table. Mrs. Tyler wasn't much of a housekeeper, nor was Lorrie.
"Come on. You can sleep in my room." Lorrie pulled me after her. The room was even messier than the rest of the house, but I fell across the bed and pulled a sheet up. I was feeling burned out from everything. I wished I had a glass of wine to knock off the rough edges in my head. Lorrie watched me skin my T-shirt.
"Hope I have nice tits like that some day."
"Yours are nice just the way they are."
She cast her eyes down, examined a blemish on the back of her hand. "But guys like bigger nipples. I think they dig to suck on them."
"Yours'll get bigger," I said sleepily, closed my eyes.
With the lights out, my mind began to swim wound the edges of my fatigue. I couldn't force out the thoughts, couldn't bring myself to forget how much of an asshole Todd had been. Maybe I wasn't cut out to run that damned antique shop. I sighed. Finally my thoughts were far too thick to deal with, too muddied with maybes and ifs. I closed my eyes and slept.