The Keys to Jericho

by Ren Alexander

  Dropping her hand, she nods with a sigh. “I need to be a damn starfish.”

  “Kat, back there… I didn’t—”

  She cuts me off with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry for surprising you. Rio got my number from Dash and texted me. He said he wanted to surprise you by inviting me here. After last night, I shouldn’t have done this, but I…” She bites her lip and looks to the water. “Please, don’t hate me.”

  I promptly utter, “I don’t hate you.”

  “You have so many reasons to be mad at me.”

  I sadly look to the starfish in my hand. “Not…mad.”

  “Why do I feel like you’re not saying what you want to say?”

  I shrug as my finger traces the star shape. “Because I don’t know what I want to say.”

  When she doesn’t say more, I look up. Frowning, Kat squints at the water. “We should get out of the sun without wearing sunscreen or we’ll be fucking lobsters the entire weekend.”

  She pivots in the wet sand and walks over to her shoes. I follow, but keep a cautious distance from her. I regret the way I acted, but I’m still hurt from last night. That’s not going to disappear, but I committed to helping her get a driver’s license. I want to see it through.

  We say nothing on our way to the house. Once there, I grab her bags and lead her upstairs. There are four bedrooms, so I take her to the spare one, which is next to Duquesne’s room and around the corner from both Calder’s and mine.

  Kat looks around her yellow and floral room as she walks to the window. Too chipper for the three of us—even Dash—so it’s hardly ever used. Dash’s second stepmother had decorated most of the house and when she and Dave got divorced, he left it as-is, which is better than what he probably would do, most likely gluing playing cards and poker chips to the wall, have slot machines in every room, and a roulette wheel in the living room.

  Setting her brown suitcase on the bench at the end of the bed, I clear my throat. “The bathroom is across from Dash’s room, around the corner, but he also has one in his room if you need it. We all use it, even if he’s in the shower, so if you want to hear him squeal like a girl, make sure you flush the toilet when he’s in there. There’s also a bathroom with a shower downstairs, between the living room and kitchen.”

  She nods at the window, her purple and brown ponytail bobbing. “Okay. Thank you.”

  Feeling awkward and having a weird sense of been-there-done-that, as Hadley calls it, I say, “I’ll probably get the bonfire going soon, since I’m the designated fire starter.” I realize my comment is insensitive and I cringe. “Um, Dash brought hot dogs and marshmallows. We can make s’mores, too.”

  “Sounds fun,” she indifferently answers, which makes me think she’s not telling me what she wants to say now.

  Rubbing my eyelids, I sigh. “Okay. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

  I grasp the edge of the door as she shrugs and makes no move to turn around. “I’ll be fine. If I need something, I’ll ask Dash or Rio.”

  “Kat, I’m here, too.”

  “I know you are, Jared.” She finally turns from the window, only to dig into her purse, pulling out her phone. “I need to call my mom and tell her I’m here.”

  “Oh. Okay. Well, come outside when you’re done. We’ll all be out there.”

  She nods at her phone, but doesn’t agree, refuse, or say fuck you.

  I reluctantly back out of the room and when I close the door, I hear her sniffing and gasps. Fuck. I want to go in there and… Shit. I don’t know. I didn’t even know what to do the last time she cried.

  I mouth to the door, “Please forgive me, Kit Kat.” I lean my forehead against it, listening to her quiet sobs, feeling like the beast I’ve been told I’ve become.

  When her crying finally stops, I quietly step away from the door, go downstairs, grab the lighter I keep in a drawer here, and go out to the yard, where Rio and Dash intently watch my every step. Seeing the plastic bag containing the lighter fluid, a newspaper, and matches, I pick it up from the table where they’re sitting, and Dash asks, “Is she still at the beach?”

  I shake my head and Rio asks, “Does she want to leave?”

  I again shake my head and carry the bag down to the gigantic pit, the size being my idea that everyone agreed to. Walking around it, I notice one of the jackasses had thrown logs in haphazardly. There’s an art to starting a fire, and this isn’t it.

  I set the bag down and remove all the logs, replacing them with crumpled newspaper, and dried twigs. I open the lighter fluid and squeeze it over the small pile and taking the lighter out of my pocket, I ignite the newspaper and wait for the fire to take hold. I then pick up the two largest logs that have no business being in the pit and set them upright near the fire, to use as seats, tables, or to be split later.

  Dash brings over the plastic chairs, also setting them around the fire. I keep looking at the door to the deck, hoping I see Kat come through it, or looking up to her window, but I don’t see anything.

  Over the period of a few hours, Dash disappears twice, longer than the time it takes to piss, so I assume he’s talking to Kat, which dejects me even more. My reaction to her being here was uncalled for, at best, but it was a reflex to being played and looking like an idiot, and then setting off the bottled-up feelings of rejection left over from last night. I didn’t intend to say things to hurt Kat, but I couldn’t stop them once I started.

  I avoid asking Dash how she is doing because I don’t need more lectures or reminders of what an asshole I was to her. I also use the downstairs bathroom, circumventing the staircase altogether. Rio hasn’t said much to me, either, so it’s unusually quiet among the three of us. Between roasting something over the fire or me getting up to add kindling, I stare at the fire, while they both stay busy texting, sporadically insulting each other and calling each other names, or surfing the Internet on their phones.

  As the sun begins to set, I offhandedly look to the door to be surprised when Kat comes down the deck stairs. Suddenly uncomfortable, I get up and add more unnecessary fuel to the fire, just to keep myself busy and to not gawk at her.

  She says something to Dash and takes a seat on one of the wobbly logs, smiling and talking to him as she rocks it back and forth. Kat looks happier now than she did hours ago. From the other side of the pit, with the firelight on her face, she looks luminous, but it’s not from anything I did, which saddens me more.

  Kat and Dash continue to talk, but I still can’t make out what they’re saying because of Rio’s grating phone conversation with his keeper on the other side of me, and due to the crackling of the fire in front of me, yet I watch them like a hawk through the flames. Dash hands her a bottle of beer and she takes a long swig, and I’m again reminded of how her lips tasted. I haven’t told Dash or Rio about our kiss, but I don’t plan to tell them. They don’t need to know.

  I don’t know if it’s selfishness, the beers I’ve had, or how sexy she looks, but when Dash gets up from his seat to go into the house, I hastily grab another beer from the cooler, and walking over to his chair, I drag it with me, setting it behind Kat. She stops rocking and stiffens as I sit down, straddling her. Twisting to the side, I put my beer on the ground and reach for the bag of marshmallows.

  Leaning forward onto her back, I hold out the bag of marshmallows to Kat, but she shakes her head, her ponytail swishing against my chest. Keeping close to her, I sigh and drop the bag to the ground. Resting my hands on the tops of my thighs, I glance over at Rio, who is now poking at his phone, just as Dash returns. “Hey, Jericho. What’s with the chair stealing?”

  “Finders keepers.”

  He stares at the way I’m sitting with Kat, and in the diffuse light, I see the warning look he shoots me before taking a seat next to Rio. They both watch us, whispering something to each other, but then seem to lose interest. When they both go back to playing with their phones, I take the open opportunity. Lowering my head, reveling in her scent, my lips unintentionally swe
ep against her ear as I whisper, “I’m so sorry, Kit Kat.”

  Being so close to Kat, I hear her curtly inhale, but she doesn’t reply. However, she seems to relax because she starts gently rocking again, which rocks me with her, putting me on a fast track to a hard-on. I need to back away from her, but I can’t. I have already laid everything out to her, so to try and hide it now is just pointless, unless she gets up and leaves.

  But she doesn’t.

  Astonishing me, Kat puts her arms on my legs, using me to push closer and more firmly between my legs.

  Holy fuck. She’s encouraging my erection.

  Other than her quiet rocking, she doesn’t say anything or make it obvious what she’s doing to me. With each sway forward, her ass grinds into my cock. Keeping an eye on Dash and Rio, I brokenly sigh into her hair. She stays firmly against me, and for a moment, I wonder if she’s aware of what’s happening, but when she shifts her back, causing me to softly groan next to her ear, and she does it again, eliciting the same response from me, there’s no fucking doubt that she knows exactly what she’s doing.

  Realizing this, I scoot forward in my chair, pressing into Kat more, ever watching Dash and Rio, since she’s essentially jacking me off in front of them. Her fast heartbeat and breathing lifting her chest with mine is the only hint I have that she’s turned on. With their attention focused on their phones, I’m taking a risk here with Kat against me.

  Keeping my chest on her, I pull my hips back and Kat stops rocking, probably assuming I want her to stop. I reach down to my long, cotton shorts, and push down the front of my waistband, freeing my dick, which is thrumming from the friction. Still watching the other two sitting at a fair distance, perpendicular to us, I slide up Kat’s tank top, exposing her skin. Pulling my shirt to the side to cover me, I lean steadfastly onto her again. When my cock touches her back, I clamp my teeth on my bottom lip, while her responding gasp is loud. Dash looks over at us, but when he doesn’t see anything bothersome, he looks back to his phone.

  Kat slowly starts rocking us again, rubbing my cock up and down in a rhythm along her skin. I turn my head towards the house as my eyes close, and my mouth falls open, huffing quiet, discordant breaths over the back of her head. My cock leaves a slight, damp trail, slickening my movements over her.

  I thought I’d never feel her skin like this, and it’s too much. The closer I am to coming, the harder and faster I need to stroke, and my hands become fists as I struggle to not grab her tits and push her tighter to me still, but I have to remain aware of our audience. I can’t rock out of rhythm, and we can’t rock too much in a rhythm, either, or it will be evident what we’re doing. We. Amid my balls tightening and the deep tingling moving up my shaft, I still am in complete awe of her doing this to me.

  I clamp my lips closed and pant through my teeth as I feel my orgasm speeding forward. Before it reaches the head, I yank my waistband up and my dick jerks against Kat as I come in my underwear, instead of onto her, my shorts being the barrier between us to avoid the mess that would be hard to hide.

  Shifting back slightly, she thankfully stays, because I really don’t want to explain my still-existent hard-on to Dash and Rio. As I use my forearm to swipe the sweat from my forehead, Kat silently sits, not saying anything still, but then again, I don’t say anything to her in return. Aside from my apology, we haven’t said a word to each other since this afternoon.

  We sit together, while I slow my breathing, and until my hard-on subsides, but before I can stand, Kat does. She says to Rio and Dash, “I’m going to get a shower and go to bed. Can I take anything into the house before I go?”

  Dash says, “No, we’ll get it. Jared starts the fires, Rio puts them out, and I clean up.” Kind of symbolic in a way. “There are towels and anything else you might need in the bathroom closet.”

  “Okay. Night.” She waves at them, still avoiding looking directly at me. Christ. I just got off on her and she acts like nothing happened.

  I watch her go up the stairs and into the house in a hurry. I need to follow her, but not wanting to tip off Rio and Dash any more than I probably have, I gingerly sit back in the chair, putting my ankle over my knee. The stickiness of my orgasm clings to me, but compared to the horrible feelings I experienced this afternoon with Kat, I’ll take the cum she prompted from me sticking to my crotch any day.

  CHAPTER 17

  Rio looks from me to the door, and then skeptically eyes me again. “I take it you two made up?” I pick up my beer and shrug.

  As I take a drink, Dash apprehensively asks, “Did you apologize?”

  They both wait for my answer as my gaze falls to the bottle in my hand. “We talked.”

  Rio says, “Well, whatever you said to her must’ve worked.”

  Dash loudly sighs and stretches his arms over his head. “I’m glad.” As he gets comfortable, he hesitantly laughs. “You and Kat looked suddenly…cozy.”

  “We’re fine.” Shifting forward, I dangle my beer between my legs, staring at the fire.

  “So, you did talk?” Rio asks.

  Outwardly engrossed with the fire, I nod, idly spinning the mouth of the bottle with my fingers. They again wait for me to elaborate, but I don’t.

  Dash’s laugh is more assured this time around. “Well, I thought you were going to have sex with her in front of us.”

  I glance at him and bitterly grumble, “Shut the fuck up.”

  Setting his phone down, Dash jumps to his feet, and walking over, he grabs the bag of marshmallows on the ground, next to my chair. “Why is she going to bed so early? It’s not even 11:00.”

  “Rough day,” Rio replies, his blue-eyed gaze darting to me as he walks past us. “I’ll be back.” He heads up the stairs, leaving me to feel worse about my actions earlier, before and after I seemingly exploited Kat for a climax.

  Dash takes a roasting fork and spears three marshmallows, alternating watching his task and Rio going into the house, as do I. He says, “She didn’t even tell you goodnight. Are you sure she’s okay? You’re not hiding something, are you?” When I give him a piercing look, he appends, “I hope you’re telling us the truth and you are friends with Kat again.”

  I’m annoyed that he and Duquesne have noticed so much, and I tensely reply, “We are.” I would think her jerking me off would constitute as a peace treaty of sorts.

  Returning to his seat and leaning forward to roast his marshmallows, nearly mimicking how I’m sitting, he says, “I don’t know how much you talked, but she needs to tell you something. I doubt she already has.”

  Perplexed, my eyebrows pinch and I shake my head. “Tell me what?”

  He shakes his head back at me. “I can’t tell you that.”

  I frown at the mouth of my beer bottle before I take a drink. “Then why in the fuck did you mention it?”

  “Because you need to know.”

  Rapidly swallowing my beer, I impatiently spout, “Just tell me then!”

  Pulling out the metal stick, Dash inspects his marshmallows, but since they’re not charred and on fire, he shoves them back into the flames. “Nope. Kat has to be the one to tell you.”

  I grit my teeth and grip the neck of the bottle tighter. “You’re really pissing me off, Calder.”

  “I know.” Dash grins as my glower intensifies; however, he turns down the mirth when he says, “Jericho, I’m not joking, though. It’s why she was so upset earlier after your outburst.”

  I nod because I know what he’s referring to. “Yes, I’m still helping her get a license.”

  He blows on the marshmallows ablaze and laughs. “That’s not the reason why.”

  Watching him inspect the charred globs, I sigh and tug on the bill of my hat. “We’re still friends, too.” I hope so, and she didn’t think I was just using her for a cum opp.

  Dash pulls a bloated, black and silver puff off the stick. “Dude, you really don’t get it.”

  I lift my beer, swigging it back as I think of a reply to that. Kat wouldn’t keep an
ything major from me. She said no secrets. Not anymore, at least. Finishing off the bottle, I set it on the ground and reason, “If it were serious, she would’ve told me.”

  With a glutinous mouthful, he says, “If she had told you, I don’t think you’d be so calm about it, but it would explain this afternoon.” I frown at him for the jumbled reply. I guess that means he escaped seeing me not calm ten minutes ago. Did Kat tell him about her crush on me? If she didn’t, I’m not going to be the one enlightening him. I don’t want to open that up for Dash and Rio to pick apart.

  “Why? Is it going to piss me off?” Fuck. I’m going to be fixated on finding out what it is.

  Jostling the bag, Dash drops a marshmallow on the ground. Picking it up, he hurdles it into the fire with another laugh. “Piss you off? Not sure, but then again, I don’t know. Probably. You won’t know how to deal with it.”

  I nonchalantly shrug. “Maybe she told me and I’m fine with it.”

  He adamantly shakes his head. “Nope, because you would not want to be talking about it right now. You’d hide the hell out of that.”

  Beyond irritated, I demand, “Dash, if it’s serious, you’d better fucking tell me.”

  “I told you, I can’t.” He takes a drink of his beer and frowns. “I doubt if she’ll ever tell you now, but you still need to ask her. You only have so much time left in Annapolis.”

  I sneer, “So? Now, why are you being so fucking mysterious?”

  “I’m not. It’s just obvious to everyone, except you.”

  “What the hell is obvious?”

  “What I can’t tell you.”

  I impatiently snap, “Fuck. If it’s so obvious, does Duquesne know?”

  He casually shrugs as he eats marshmallows from the bag. “Yeah, he knows, but not because he was told.”

  “And that implies…?”

  Dash shakes his head between bites. “It means that he knows from watching you.”