Streak - 42. Chapter 42

December 7, 2002

Goodwell, VA

JJ

I looked at the digital clock, the glowing numbers telling me that it was 12:01am. We were officially a minute into my seventeenth birthday, and Alex wasn’t here. He’d vanished to go fuck Mary Ellen four hours ago, and he still wasn’t back. I lay there in bed, fuming. I was pissed at Alex for blowing me off to be with Mary Ellen, and I had hyper-charged that by having a pity party for myself since it was my birthday. That let me conjure up a self-righteous amount of rage that this, my special day, was already ruined and defiled. That probably sounded really childish, but that was just too fucking bad. Of Darius, Will, and I, I was easily the one who was most obsessed with my birthday. I liked having a day where I was the acknowledged focal point, and where people would do nice things for me. It was probably more important to me since my family usually just ignored me.

I thought about that, then shook my head emphatically. Who was I kidding? This was typical of my birthdays, where I’d expect everyone to pay attention to me, and they wouldn’t. Shit, Will and Darius would probably call me late tonight, when it was past my birthday Boston time. They’d call me in sequence, with the one who remembered calling me first, then reminding the other one to call after that. I was supposed to act like that was some major sacrifice on their part, them taking two minutes for a phone call. Darius would hardly talk at all, while Will would babble on endlessly. I tried to decide which one was worse. I put that pity party on hold and switched back to Alex and Mary Ellen.

I was really mad at Mary Ellen, that fucking cunt. She had played Alex and me perfectly, worming her way into our relationship then freezing me out. This had to have been her plan all along. She’d work her way into our good graces, my guard would be down, and then she’d move in and slice me right out of the picture. I shouldn’t have expected anything better from that conniving whore.

But most of all, I was pissed off at myself, not that anyone would figure that out, since I’d just direct that anger at someone else. I knew Mary Ellen was a scheming slut, but I’d been oblivious to the risks, and I’d just rolled along and let her totally manipulate me. She couldn’t have predicted how much I’d enjoy having sex with a woman, but she’d picked up on it really fast, and then she’d pivoted and used that to piss Alex off. He was down there, fucking her, probably convinced that I didn’t like him. Then after they were done, he’d probably be lying there, snuggled up to her, feeling good about the fact that she was going to be his wife. She’d tell him that he was the first man she’d been with who could tame her and make her faithful. She’d play on his ego, and she’d do that effectively enough that I’d be sidelined, in the best case, and totally dumped, in the worst scenario.

I realized that I’d already been sidelined. I was here, lying in bed on my birthday, all alone, while the guy I was into was down the hall fucking the bitch who had stolen him away from me. I let myself dive into a total abyss of sadness, indulging in my ability to focus completely on feeling sorry for myself. I did that for a while, torturing myself for an hour, and then I pulled myself out of it and began to strategize. I had to pull Alex back in, and away from Mary Ellen. I had to make him think she was the one who had seduced me, not the other way around. I had to play this off, and remind him that she was the slut, and I was the virgin. I thought about it, and thought about it, until the perfect plan germinated in my brain.

It was 1:30am now, and that really upset me. It would be impossible to put my plan into effect if Alex didn’t come back. What if he came back and told me that he and Mary Ellen had changed their minds, and that they were going to be exclusive? What if he told me that meant he and I were through? He’d offer to be my friend, but that would be lame, because the intimacy would be gone. Would he do that on my birthday? How raw would that be? I was probably lucky, because he wouldn’t be that cruel, and that gave me the chance to launch my plan. I felt that outrage again, at having him piss an hour and a half of my birthday away by blowing me off. My emotions railed from one extreme to another, until they settled on something really depressing.

My mind flashed back to birthdays past, and that just pissed me off. My brothers, my whole family, barely acknowledged it. Here I thought it was my special day, when it really wasn’t any more exciting than a typical Tuesday. I’d told Wade that I wanted to celebrate my birthday in Boston, so we were due to fly out in the morning. At least they were willing to do that for me on my birthday. I guess putting hundreds of miles between me and Mary Ellen was a pretty good present. But all this thinking about birthdays reminded me of the one that was the most special, the most memorable. It was the big fete Robbie had thrown for me a couple of years ago. He’d hired a band, had a huge fireworks display, and let me invite damn near the whole school and my friends at the ice rink. My tears turned to sobs when I thought about Robbie, and missed him for the zillionth time.

I’d just rolled over and buried my face in the pillow when I heard the door open. Shit. Talk about bad timing. But I forced my mind past the grief, trying to turn this to my advantage. “Jays, are you alright?” Alex asked.

I rolled over and looked at him, even as tears continued to pour out of my eyes. “You’re back,” I said cheerfully, and then got sad again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked me in a caring way, even as he sat on the bed and ran his hand across my cheek.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was just lying here, all by myself, and memories of past birthdays popped into my brain. The best one was the party Robbie had for me two years ago, when I turned fifteen. I thought of him, and I missed him, and it made me sad.”

“That has to be really tough for you,” he said sympathetically.

I nodded. “Thanks for being here. It’s better now.”

“I’m sorry I was gone,” he said, and looked a little guilty. Good. “As Mary Ellen is going back to school tomorrow, I thought it was appropriate that I spend time with her.”

“I understand,” I lied.

“You weren’t around, so I couldn’t drag you with me,” he said, smiling.

“That’s OK,” I said. “I actually like it better when it’s just you and me.”

He looked at me, puzzled. “You seemed to be very attracted to her, something both of us picked up on.”

“I liked having sex with a woman. It was different and exciting, and I guess I let that override my brain,” I said. “It was just all so new to me.”

“That’s understandable,” he said soothingly.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” I asked, acting more horrified than I was.

“I am not mad at you.” He stood up and took off his clothes, and was about to climb into bed with me, but then stopped. “I need to take a shower.”

That could have set me off, since the reason for that was that when I sucked his dick, I wouldn’t smell her pussy on it, but I was determined not to be a drama queen and drive him away. Instead, I’d be a drama queen and drive her away. “I’ll join you.” I had an ulterior motive, but I didn’t tell him that. We took a nice shower, one that was sensual, with lots of touching, but not erotic. That was probably because he’d fucked her so many times, he was tired; but I forced myself to look beyond that.

We lay in bed afterward, intertwined with each other. We’d be that way until we fell asleep, or close to it, then we’d move apart. “I was worried you were mad at me for being with Mary Ellen,” he said.

“I’m not mad at you,” I said, which was a lie, but he didn’t know that. “If I’m mad at anyone, it’s Mary Ellen.”

“Why are you mad at her?”

“I feel like she totally played me,” I said. “She asked me to walk her to her room, when you were with your grandfather, and she all but threw herself at me.”

“You didn’t have fun?”

“No,” I said. “Not afterward. I just felt so cheap, and so awful.”

“Jays, we agreed that it was OK for us to sleep with each other,” he said in his calm voice. I knew then that I was getting through to him.

“Yeah, but I like being with you, and if I’m going to be with her, I’d rather you were with me. I tried to tell her that, but I guess I just gave into the desire,” I said. “I guess I’m not even that mad at Mary Ellen. I’m mad at myself for being so weak.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, so quit beating yourself up about this,” he said.

“She’s not coming down here tonight, is she?” I asked.

“I don’t believe so,” he said.

“Good. I want to spend my birthday with you, just with you,” I said.

“I will be happy to oblige you,” he said. “I hope you won’t bear Mary Ellen any malice.”

“It’s hard to relate to her,” I said. “She’s such a, well, I shouldn’t say it.”

“You’re going to talk about what a loose woman she is.”

“I’m not going to say anything about that,” I said firmly, which all but confirmed what he said. “And in the future, I only want to be with her if you’re there. Period. And I’m going to be strong enough to do that.”

“That is fine with me, as long as you realize that’s your decision, and that I haven’t put that constraint on you,” he said.

I snuggled up to him, letting that whole topic pass. “I know what I want you to give me for my birthday.”

“You’re too late,” he said, and kissed my forehead. “I already got you a gift.”

“You can’t give me another one?” I asked coquettishly.

“I guess that depends on what it is.”

“I want you to make love to me,” I said. His eyes bulged at that, and I could almost feel the desire flow through his body.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to feel like you have to do that to make me happy,” he said.

“I’m sure. I want you to make love to me. I couldn’t let anyone else do that.”

“That’s very flattering,” he said.

“My entire life, when I’ve thought about doing that, I’ve always been kind of repulsed by it, because I just couldn’t imagine letting another guy do that to me. I didn’t understand why I felt that way, but now I do.”

“Why did you feel that way?”

“I think my mind and my body was shutting itself down, refusing to let me do that, until I found the right guy. And when I met you, I found the right guy.” He gave me a huge smile when I said that. “And now when I think about it, it just excites me.”

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t dream about that,” he said, and gave me a loving kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

That annoyed me, until I saw what he was doing. He went over and locked the door, then came back to bed. “Making sure we aren’t interrupted?” I joked.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m not letting anyone in, and we’re not leaving unless this house is burning down,” he swore.

“Even then…” I said, getting a chuckle from him. But then he kissed me again, and this time, he was on a mission, a mission to fuck me.

He made out with me for a long time, fueling my desire, then he worked his way down my body with his mouth, nuzzling my tummy to make me giggle, at least until he inhaled my cock. Damn was he good at sucking dick. But he only did that long enough to really fire me up, then he pushed my legs back, and now his mouth was on my balls, sucking on them. I just rolled my head back, surrendering to the pleasure. I felt his chin brushing against my taint, and then, as he moved lower still, it brushed against my hole. I whimpered, I couldn’t help it, but that was nothing compared to the loud moan I emitted when he started rimming me.

I was in heaven, as he worked my ass with his mouth, and that was the main reason I’d joined him in the shower, to make sure I was nice and clean. He was really taking his time, and I just instinctively surrendered to him. He replaced his mouth with his fingers, and began to probe me first with one, then with two. Based on what Matt had said, I thought it would hurt, or at least be uncomfortable, but it really wasn’t. Still, I made sure to tense up, so he thought it was. I wanted him to know he was getting my cherry.

He put lube on my ass, making sure I was slick, and then put some on his dick. “Are you ready?”

“I want you so bad,” I told him. “I’ve never wanted anything this badly.”

He lined his dick up and started to push in. “This may hurt a bit.” I knew about that. When my coach was molesting me, he’d tried to fuck me, and it had hurt like a motherfucker. I’d made him stop before he could go very far. I was bracing myself for the pain, and I knew it was going to hurt.

Only it didn’t. Our eyes met, and locked onto each other, even as he pushed into me. I felt him filling me up, but I didn’t feel pain. When he was all the way in, he looked at me, amazed. “Do you know why that was so easy?”

“Why?” he asked as he moaned, enjoying the feel of being inside me.

“Because I want you so much, and this is so right, my body just opened up for you,” I said.

He slowly began to piston in and out of me, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my body. “You told me you wanted me to make love to you. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

My eyes shot open as I stared at him, incredulous at what he was saying. “You are?”

“I love you, Jays. I really do.” I felt my feelings for him surge, even as a huge smile broke out across my face.

“I love you, Alex,” I said, and then I totally surrendered to him, wholly and completely. He began to really fuck me, and as he did, and as I reveled in the feel of him inside me, his cock began to rub against my prostate. The feeling of his big dick sliding in and out of me, stretching me out, that was intense enough, but when he hit my prostate, I lost my mind. I became unhinged, pulling him in, moving back into him, demanding more of him. I briefly thought about curbing my reactions, to try and seem virginal, but I couldn’t do that. This was impacting me at too base of a level. It was like a primitive drive, and there was no fighting it. On and on he went, taking me from one plateau of bliss up to the next one, until finally I could hold off no more. I reached up, grabbed my dick, stroked it three times, and then exploded with the orgasm of my life. Holy shit. I screamed, literally screamed, as I came, and Alex shot almost when I did, letting out a much more masculine howl.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I came down from the nirvana that was this sexual experience. As the rush from my orgasm faded, it was replaced by a state of euphoria, the likes of which I’d never felt before. I felt so whole, so complete, and so vital. Nothing, not winning a gold medal at Sectionals, nothing had been as exciting as that. I was aware that I was shaking, even as Alex slowly pulled out of me. “Are you OK, Jays?”

“I am, I, uh, I am,” I stammered, getting a smile from him. “That was amazing.”

“I have to agree with you,” he said with his cute grin.

“I never thought being with you would be that good,” I said. “Not that I didn’t think you would be amazing,” I added hastily. “I didn’t mean that.”

“You seemed to like it,” he said playfully, even as he kissed me.

“Did you?” I asked; suddenly concerned that I hadn’t been a good lay.

“That was the most meaningful sexual experience of my life,” he said.

“Really?” I had a hard time believing that.

“Really,” he said. “I would much rather top than bottom. And I have never topped someone who was so pure, yet so vital.”

“Thanks,” I said, blushing. “I didn’t know you didn’t like to bottom. I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it, I said I preferred topping,” he corrected.

“I am totally fine with that,” I said emphatically. “Totally fine.”

He chuckled. “I never expected that to be so easy for you.”

That made me nervous. It was like he was challenging my virginity because I’d been so into it. “Alex, in the heat of passion, I told you that I love you. I meant it.”

He smiled broadly. “I meant it too. I love you Jays.”

“It was only easy because it was you, because I wanted you so badly, and because I trusted you so much. I willed my body to open for you, and it did.”

“It is your birthday, yet you have given me an amazing gift,” he said.

We were both so satisfied, we actually fell asleep intertwined with each other, and didn’t bother to wake up and move apart. We’d lie like that until one of us would wake up, then he’d made love to me again. It was magical. Absolutely magical.

And unlike how we normally did, the next morning found us still molded together. I actually woke up before he did, which was unusual. I watched him sleeping. He was so cute. He looked so peaceful, and so angelic. That made me giggle, and that woke him up. “You are staring at me,” he accused, smiling at me.

“I am,” I told him, as I kept looking at him. We’d had sex three times last night, and he seemed like he was still pretty tired, but I wasn’t. I was ready to go again. I had never been this fired up.

“You are going to wear me out,” he said, pretending to be annoyed.

“I’ll bet I don’t. I’ll bet you can keep up with me just fine,” I said. He smiled at me, then he kissed me, then he made love to me again. It was incredible. The physical aspect of it was just unbelievable. I had never done anything with my body that had excited me that much before. Nothing. But that was only part of the deal. Being with Alex, with this guy that I loved, and knowing that he loved me back, just put me on cloud nine.

But there was no time to lie around afterward and think about it. “We must get going if we’re to see everyone off,” he said, being task oriented.

“Fine,” I grumbled. We took a quick shower, packed up our bags and left them by the door, then went downstairs for breakfast. The staff would put our suitcases in the limo.

I glanced in the mirror as we walked toward the kitchen and it looked like I was glowing. “I’ll meet you in there,” I told Alex. I detoured to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face, trying to force myself not to look like a complete idiot. I wasn’t sure that I’d actually accomplished that until I walked into the kitchen and saw Mary Ellen. That made me bitchy enough to pop my euphoric bubble. “Good morning,” I said formally to everyone.

“I thought I was going to have to come up and wake you up,” Mary Ellen said, teasing me. She was such a two-faced skank.

“Nope. I’ve actually been up for a while,” I said. It was funny to watch her get annoyed by that, even though she hid it very well.

“Well I’m glad you did,” she said. “I’ve got to get going.” She proceeded to say goodbye in what was an incredibly long-winded way, chatting about her plans to go to London on Wednesday, plans which she’d already told us about at least ten times now. “Alex, would you help me carry my bag out to the car?”

“Of course,” he said gallantly. I watched him walk out of the room, even as I seethed with jealousy. I even looked at the clock, so I’d know exactly how long he was gone. In the end, it only turned out to be seven minutes. Alex came back in and sat down, squeezing my leg slightly to spark a smile from me.

We heard the helicopter blades, and that prompted the rest of us to get up and say goodbye to the Duke of Suffolk. I expected Alex to walk him to the jet copter, but Nana did it instead. Wade, Alex, and I managed to restrain ourselves from laughing at how cute they were, although Matt couldn’t completely pull it off, and ended up giggling until Wade gave him a nasty look. We watched as Nana and the Duke hugged each other, then as the helicopter began to rev up its blades, Nana walked back toward us, looking like she had tears in her eyes. “Damn things kick up dust,” Nana grumbled, pretending that she’d gotten something in her eye.

“We have to leave too,” Wade announced. That prompted another long and annoying series of goodbyes. I was so glad that Will, Darius, and I had gotten over that. And then we were finally able to get into the limo and escape from Goodwell.

The flight started off nicely, with us just relaxing and enjoying ourselves, until Wade decided that he had to bring up the fucking wedding and destroy my whole mood. “Where do you think you’ll have it?” Wade asked Alex.

“One possibility is at Bridgemont, but I suspect everyone will opt for London instead. That will be easier for guests to attend, and easier for transit,” Alex said.

“Westminster Abbey?” Wade asked. He was joking, since that was presumably the ultimate place to have a wedding.

“I would suspect that we’ll have it at St. Paul’s Cathedral,” Alex said drily, which made me want to laugh my ass off at how he basically stumped Wade; until I remembered we were talking about his wedding.

“What about the reception?” Wade asked. Alex began to go into a long description of what the entire day would be like, and that was simply more than I could deal with.

“Excuse me,” I said, and went to the bathroom. I sat there for a few minutes, compartmentalizing all of these emotions that were surging through me. I’d had the most amazing experience of my life last night. I should be on a total high, yet here I was, letting all these little bullshit details get me down. I resolved to do better, and was about to go back to my seat when there was a knock at the door.

I opened it to find Alex there, and he pushed his way past me, not that I was trying to stop him. “I thought I’d induct you into the mile-high club,” he said, and then he kissed me. And all of my bitchiness, all of my internal whining, all of that flew out of my body as he made love to me yet again.

We straightened ourselves up afterward, both of us looking very flushed and very sheepish, as we went back to sit in our seats. Matt smirked at me, so I glared back at him, but it was hard to maintain my irritated pose. “Maybe we are like an old married couple,” he said to Wade.

“Whatever,” I quipped. I was so not in the mood to deal with their teasing. The plane landed smoothly in Boston, and I instinctively looked at my phone, noting with a frown that none of my relatives had bothered to call me. Why should that surprise me? It wasn’t midnight in California yet. I almost started to get bitchy again, and then I stopped myself. This was ridiculous. I looked up, my eyes locked with Alex, and none of that mattered. He was with me on my birthday, and he’d taken me to a whole new world. The rest of them could just bite me.

“Rosa is making dinner for you,” Wade said. I guess that was to preclude us from stopping on our way home, not that that was my plan.

“Sounds good,” I said pleasantly. We drove up to the house and I hopped out first. It was my birthday after all.

I went through the front door, and heard a cacophony of voices shout “Happy Birthday!” I felt my face break into a huge smile as I surveyed the scene in front of me. Rosa, Tiffany, and the two brats were there, but next to them stood Grand, Stef, Will, and Darius. I actually got kind of embarrassed, because I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it when people did really nice things for me.

“Thanks,” I said, as gracefully as I could. Then of course we had to have this big physical bonding, where we all hugged each other. Fortunately, Grand and Darius weren’t big on that, and I was used to Will and Stef. Wade, Matt, and Alex had to endure versions of that same greeting.

“Dad said to tell you he’s sorry he couldn’t make it,” Will said. It was no surprise that he’d be the one to speak for my father in his absence, but when I looked at his eyes, I could see how irritated he was.

“Marc had an important showing in the City,” Stef augmented.

“And even though it was last night, it was a bit too much for them to make it here,” Will snipped. Stef gave him a dirty look.

“That’s OK,” I said. “The people who are the most important to me are here in this room.”

“I understand congratulations are in order,” Grand said to Alex, referring to his engagement. I frowned at him, and then stopped myself. Was this how my life was going to be, where every fucking conversation revolved around the fucking wedding?

“You want to go up to your room before we eat?” Will asked, offering me an escape route.

“That’s probably a good idea,” I said. I was hoping for some solitude, but he followed me. I sighed. It was his way.

“I’m really sorry about Dad,” he said as soon as the elevator doors closed.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said nonchalantly. “And do not make this an issue.” I said that last sentence more forcefully.

“I won’t,” he said. “It’s just that he and Marc are all into each other.”

“It’s a new relationship,” I said to explain it, sounding like a sage. Somehow, the fact that he was annoyed that they weren’t here made it a non-event for me.

“So how was your threesome?” he asked me with a leer. He could be so uncouth at times.

“It was fun,” I said dismissively. “Mary Ellen is playing me.”

“What?” I told him the whole story, while he just got pissed. “Alex will figure her out,” he concluded.

“He fucked me,” I said, grinning.

“Dude, you bottomed?” I nodded. “How was it?”

“Unbelievable,” I said, as my grin exploded to encompass my whole face. He smiled and high-fived me. “No wonder you’re such a slut.”

“Not anymore,” he said. I was actually happy for him, that he and Zach were so into each other.

“We need to get back down there,” I said. We went downstairs and I had a great time. Rosa made a fantastic dinner, and then I made her sit down and eat with us, something that surprised everyone. I guess they couldn’t envision that I’d deign to let the staff dine with us, but Rosa was different. She was part of our family.

I opened my presents, and got a lot of cool stuff, but nothing was as slick as the gift Alex got me. I opened up a box and found a necklace of sorts. It was a medallion hung on a gold chain. The medallion looked really old, and was unique. It had a solid stone in the center, which looked like a ruby, ringed by metalwork that was ornate in a masculine way. What was so odd about it was that, despite the stone, it was very thin. “This is really cool.”

“What is it?” Will asked.

“It is an amulet,” Alex said. “It was worn by Lieutenant Colonel William Stuart at the Battle of Waterloo. He commanded the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards.”

“Wow,” I said, impressed as I put it around my neck, but continued to hold onto it and look at it.

“He claimed that this amulet was his good luck charm,” Alex said. “As he survived that battle, his assertion has some validation.” He was so cute when he talked like Grand.

“This is the coolest present,” I said. It was cool, but it was really special because Alex got it for me.

“I was thinking that there will inevitably be competitions you are in that I won’t be able to attend. This way, you’ll have a good luck charm, and you’ll know that I’m with you in spirit.”

I tried not to think about him not being there, and just appreciated his gift. “That’s really nice, but I know you’re with me in spirit even without this.” He grinned back at me, and I caught Darius and Will smirking at me for being so mushy. I interrupted my happy moment to glare at them briefly.

“We have to fly out tomorrow,” Grand said, once again being a buzz kill.

“And as you are not known to get up early, we are worried we will not see you before we leave,” Stef said, giving me shit.

“Thank you all for coming out here,” I said. “This has been the best birthday of my life.” They grinned, happy that they’d made me happy, while I winked at Alex to tell him that he was the primary reason for my joy.