The Wilson Mooney Box Set

by Gretchen de La O

  Wilson had made it to class, breathing heavily, as if she’d sprinted from across campus. Her magical, blue eyes darted around the room. I noticed she paused on Cindy and Jacky before shifting to Joanie. Finally, her eyes tracked the tile floor and she seduced me slowly with her expression. She pulled the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth as she preoccupied herself with making her way to her seat. Her backpack skimmed her shoulders as she pulled it off and slid it under her desk. Her white shirt was unbuttoned just enough for me to see the exposed swell of her breasts, teasing the pounding pressure in my pants. I’d better not stand up.

  “I think it’s your turn now, Mr. Goldstein; why don’t you tell us what was so nice about your weekend?” Cindy smirked. I hope nobody noticed how hard I swallowed before I looked at Cindy then dropped my eyes to the tile floor.

  “Well—” I said before I cleared the frog in my throat, “I spent the weekend in Aspen hanging out with my family and friends.”

  I looked right at Cindy to make sure she knew that was the end of my story. Her eyes narrowed, conveying the idea that she wasn’t done with pushing me to answer the question. I guess Jacky felt the same way—she gave a wicked smile before she leaned over to Cindy and whispered into her ear.

  “So you didn’t do anything else?” Cindy prodded as she glared at me and pushed Jacky away.

  I felt a surging heat ripple across my skin. I knew she was challenging me, squeezing to get me to admit I’d been at her cabin over the weekend. Cindy’s sneaky, conniving plot to blackmail me into giving her an “A” in my class had begun. Well, I wasn’t going to let her win.

  “No, nope, that was pretty much it,” I replied as I stood up from my desk. The excitement below my belt had disappeared and instantly I knew this was going to be an assault I was going to have to redirect.

  “Oh, because who would go to Aspen for the weekend and not at least go skiing? You had to have done something more than hang out. Come on, Mr. Goldstein, give us some details. You’re always telling us to be clear, concise, and detailed.” Cindy smirked as she turned and looked at Wilson.

  Voices rumbled as some students chanted in agreement, while others groaned in frustration. Cindy had taken the first shot, but I’d already decided I wasn’t going to engage.

  My body sank into the seat and it felt like an elephant had sat on my lap; the muscles in my neck fought to swallow, and my stomach twisted with excitement as Max clutched my hand. It felt like forever before the weighty animal decided to haul its big ass off my body. Finally, a month later, we were in the air and on our way back to Aspen. But this time it was just Max and me; his family had invited us to their cabin for winter break. His mom had asked us the weekend Cindy, my roommate, took me to Aspen to learn how to ski. But instead of skiing, I’d tanked it down a bunny slope and cracked my head open.

  That was also the weekend I discovered how Max truly felt about me. I’ll just call it “The Weekend of Firsts.” Our first kiss, our first make-out session, and my first love. It was also at the end of that weekend that Cindy and I got into our first huge fight. Okay, well, it was probably totally wrong of me to drop the F-bomb on her, but I had reached the end of my rope with her trying to pressure me into admitting that I had a crush on Max. Believe me, she was the school’s Rumor Miller, and the absolute last thing I needed was her big fat mouth broadcasting anything about me and my government teacher.

  Take that first Monday back from Aspen—you know, the day she was in our dorm room with my cell phone and a text from Max on the screen? I really don’t know if she’d seen my phone, but from the moment I walked into Max’s classroom, daggers shot from her eyes. I literally felt like I had to duck to avoid being maimed. There are days when she rolls her eyes so far up in her head she looks like she is suffering from a seizure. She is so conniving, I can never tell if she knows something or not. Some days she looks right through me like she sees exactly what Max and I are doing and other days she can be flat out vacant, like I’m not even there.

  I glanced over at Max in the seat next to me; he turned my way and his onyx-black hair fell across his forehead. The pointy ends tangled in his eyelashes before he pushed them back out of his face. His mythical green eyes commanded the butterflies low in my body to respond, and like always, they obeyed. His smile stretched invitingly across his white teeth, making me lose my breath. He was unbelievably good at getting me with just a look. He leaned into me and we both tasted the excitement of a trip together where we weren’t going to have to sneak around.

  “Happy Birthday, Wilson,” he whispered against my lips. “Sorry we had to fly out on Christmas morning.” He abandoned my mouth and his eyes danced with mine. Mmm, he’s soooo hot.

  His apology was an acknowledgement that this was my first Christmas without my grandparents; he knew it was going to be hard for me. But honestly, for the first time in my life I wouldn’t have to compete with Jesus Christ; and Max claimed he finally had a reason to celebrate December twenty-fifth. Because you have to admit: if it came down to a popular vote, Jesus would win.

  I understood the hugely lopsided scale of popularity. Christ saved the entire human race from hell and damnation, and well, me—I saved my virginity until my eighteenth birthday. I couldn’t compete with that. Luckily I didn’t have to; the only person I had to win over was Max. Fortunately, it didn’t take a burning bush or turning water into wine to sway him. A slight smile from where I sat was enough.

  “I told you last night, I don’t mind; besides, I am with you. That’s all I want,” I whispered, pressing my hand against his chest. His heart pounded fast.

  “Well, that’s not all you want.” He smirked, causing his eyes to glisten with steaminess. Helloooo, he could say that over and over again to me. He’s totally right, it’s not all I want.

  Today was my eighteenth birthday and we had agreed to wait to go “all the way” until I became a legal adult. Funny, I didn’t feel any older than I was a month ago, but who was I to argue? Max was a gentleman, something most guys my age weren’t. It wasn’t like he was an older, creepy guy; he was only twenty-two. Four years was nothing in the realm of today’s dating. He still wanted me to go to college and have all the experiences he’d had. Of course, with the death of my grandparents and after all the legal stuff, I was hoping I’d be left with enough funds to go to a local community college and hang onto my grandparents’ house.

  “I love my present.” I pulled up my sweater sleeve and brushed my fingers across the amazing Baume & Mercier Swiss watch he’d given me. The soft black leather strap anchored a perfectly set stainless steel casing with a pure white face and silver numbers scattered between coupled lines.

  “Now we can make sure you are never late to meet me. I still can’t believe you didn’t wake up this morning when I put the watch on your wrist, or when I kissed up the inside of your arm.” His eyes sparkled with contentment and my butterflies swarmed.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty easy to be sneaky with someone who’s exhausted. By the way—you snore.” I grabbed his hand and we locked fingers. I loved the way he smiled at me.

  “’Well, the only time I snore is after you and I fool around.” He pulled my hand up to his lips and I felt my cheeks flush red.

  “So what you’re saying is that I wear you out? How are you gonna keep up with me when you give me my other birthday present? Don’t think I forgot.”

  “I know you haven’t forgotten. So why didn’t you wake me up at 12:01?” He lowered his eyes, snaring me in his look. My heart rolled. God, why didn’t I wake him up again? Oh yeah, Calvin.

  “I got up for some water when Calvin came home. He looked like he needed to talk to someone; you were asleep, so I sat down and listened. Oh man, he’s really upset about the fight he had with your dad.” I could feel the corners of my mouth sway south.

  Calvin was Max’s younger brother. First impressions left a lot to be desired. Between him getting blasted drunk, screwing up my name, and making a total fool of himself in front of
his red-headed one night stand, I didn’t really like him. He didn’t make it easy to see any of his redeeming qualities. But by the end of my first trip to Aspen, several weeks ago, he’d turned it around and started to grow on me. Maybe it was when he’d given me the necklace from Max, or when he covered for Max and me in front of Cindy. Either way, Calvin had found a soft spot to rest in my heart.

  “Yeah, when I picked him up he spent the entire ride spewing about all the crap our dad did,” Max said.

  “He told me that their argument was pretty gnarly.” I watched Max stare at the blinking ‘fasten seatbelt’ light.

  “Yeah, bad enough to get him to jump on a plane and fly out to California,” he mumbled.

  Max bounced his hand on my thigh, pulling my thoughts away from the spiraling sadness I felt for Calvin. “I’m sorry I missed you at the winter dance. You looked so hot in the picture you texted me,” he said as he tilted his head and flashed me his crooked smile. I got light-headed.

  “Well, it was J’s idea. Thank her. I just sent it to tease you.”

  “It worked. I couldn’t stop visualizing you in that dress and fantasizing about how I wanted to kiss you out of it. You’re so beautiful.”

  “Yeah, well, you missed the boat on that one, Max. But don’t worry, I know where to find that dress.” I yawned. I couldn’t stop the muscles in my throat from forcing me take a deep breath. My cheeks rose and squeezed my eyes, causing them to water.

  “Well maybe you’re going to have to keep up with me now,” Max whispered. His nose pressed just above the curve of my ear; I felt his hot breath tickle down across my earlobe and swim across my neck.

  “It was your snoring and Calvin’s need to talk—and maybe us playing a little.”

  “Well, it’s your birthday today and it is a short flight; maybe you should close your eyes.” Max brushed my hand. I really wanted to stay awake, but my eyelids floated shut. My eyes rolled back in my head, and my mind slipped into a rerun from several days ago.

  I was in Max’s classroom and Joanie was sitting next to me, across the aisle. I could smell the lavender wafting into his room from the open window.

  “What’s so funny?” Joanie leaned over and whispered.

  Her dark brown hair swerved against her milky skin. I didn’t realize I had giggled through my smile.

  “Just thinking about my birthday; I can’t wait,” I whispered back.

  Joanie was my BFF. She was my family, the only I had. No, we weren’t related by blood or marriage; it was more precise than that. We’d chosen each other on purpose. I never knew my sperm donor (the guy that knocked up my incubator after a one-night stand), and the woman who birthed me decided that being a junkie ho was more important than raising me. So she dropped me off at my grandparents’ and drove away. After my grandparents died, it was just Joanie and me.

  “He’s taking you to his cabin in Aspen, right?” she pressed.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t really know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know? It’s, like, in less than three days,” she chided. She had a point; my eighteenth birthday was only three days away.

  “His parents are going to be at the cabin; that’s going to put a kink in our plans.” I watched the wheels spin in her head. She was always good at figuring out how to work around situations that created problems that needed to be solved. We leaned into the space between our desks.

  “What if you got a hotel room?” she whispered.

  “Eeww, no, I wanted it to be somewhere special, meaningful.”

  “It couldn’t be any worse than a bathroom in Cindy’s cabin.”

  Oh man, just stick a knife in the gaping hole and twist it, why don’t you? Cindy was a sore subject for me. It had been almost a month since I’d dropped the F-bomb on her and she was definitely clutching a grudge for me; watering it, making sure to weed and feed it, and pruning it to be the most impressive grudge anyone would ever see. I knew Cindy well enough to know she was waiting for the perfect time to cause collateral damage. The only thing I could do was prepare myself for the worst knockdown, drag-out fight between us. She had the financial backing to go global with her revenge and I had, well, J.

  Joanie burst into my thoughts, “I got it! Take him to your grandparents’ house. You’ll definitely get privacy there.”

  The pit of my stomach burned with a blistering fire that climbed through my heart and up into the back of my throat. That house was a convenience that was only available because my grandparents were dead and I hadn’t had the gumption to deal with what they’d left behind. I never realized how much red tape and legal crap there was when people died. Wow, salt the knife wound. Go ahead and pour it right in there. Hope it’s kosher.

  “I don’t know, J; isn’t that kinda morbid? I’m going to go up there and deal with my dead grandparents’ estate and conveniently use the opportunity to lose my virginity?”

  “Just think of it as killing two birds with one stone. Sorry, Wilson, that didn’t come out right. It’s just that the place is vacant and you always told me how much you liked going back there.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” I mumbled.

  Joanie had a good point. I really loved being at my grandparents’ house, and I was relieved that Max had gone with me this last time. It made it easier to be there, without them. Finally I’d had a chance to say goodbye; but I still didn’t think I could go up there to lose my virginity.

  Just then, Jacky Burlington purposely cleared her throat in the next aisle over. I noticed her and Cindy glaring at us. I guess they were really focused on what Max—Mr. Goldstein—was saying. Jacky motioned her head to the front of the class; I turned and saw Max staring right at us.

  “Glad you two decided to join the discussion. Wilson, see me after class,” Max demanded. Everyone let out the expected ‘oh, you’re so busted’ hum. His eyes burned through me. He is so hot. I hoped he wasn’t really that mad at me for talking during his lecture.

  “Sorry, Mr. Goldstein,” I mumbled.

  “Okay, everyone, let’s get back to the topic at hand—governmental spending in times of war.” The room settled down as he walked over to the whiteboard, grabbed the green dry erase marker and began writing words. I liked when he wrote his words in green. They looked so sexy, masculine, and level; I couldn’t wait to erase them today after school.

  Max started talking again, and immediately, I tuned him out. My mind tilted and drifted to thoughts about what he was going to do with me after class. In my daydream I imagined him locking the door to his room, his hands strong against the beige metal. I went to him; he tickled his fingers across my thigh and up under my skirt before slipping his fingers behind the front panel of my panties. I widened my stance and my body began to respond to his delicate caress. I was nervous someone might see us, but that faded once he kissed me. His tongue tangled wildly with mine and I tasted his familiar, sweet aroma. I dragged my hand from around his waist and pressed my fingers against the swell in his Levi’s. He was so hard and I could feel the heat exude through his pants. I pulled open the first couple of buttons and slipped my hand down inside. He was blazing hot and unyieldingly rigid. I stroked steadily along his silky length; he growled cavernously as his hips answered, thrusting until he erupted. His fingers still danced relentlessly between my legs and his beastly sounds hurled me over the edge as I swayed my hips to his rhythm; losing my breath I exploded against his fingers. My body vibrated and went weak. He caught me between his strong hands as they cradled either side of my neck, below my ears, warming my cheeks. He kissed me feverishly, as if he couldn’t get enough of me, before he pulled away, slowly opening his eyes as the bell rang.

  The thwack of books closing and the shuffle of chairs pulled me out of my fantasy. I took a huge needed breath as I came back to the room. When I looked up, Joanie was standing over me.

  “I’ll wait for you outside.”

  “J, it’s better if you just get to class. You know Mr. Swanks.”

  Mr.
Swanks was our trigonometry teacher, fifth period. He despised people who showed up late to his class. It was better for Joanie to show up on time than to wait for me. Max would give me a pass, so Mr. Swanks would only be half as mad about my tardiness.

  Joanie flipped her backpack over her shoulder and gave me a “thumbs up” as she left Max’s class. I smiled and waved her on. Pulling my backpack from the floor, I put it on my chair. I made sure Max looked up from his paperwork before I walked really slowly over to him, swaying my hips. Maybe I should tell him about my fantasy. We stood across from each other, his hands planted strongly into the top of his desk. On the other side, I mirrored his stance.

  His eyes studied mine as he spoke softly, “I wanted to tell you I won’t be at the dance tonight. Calvin called me today. He and my dad got into it a huge fight and so Calvin is flying in at six-thirty. I’m really sorry.” His midnight black hair curtained his eyes. I craved it—I wanted to knot my fingers into the stray pieces and drag them back away from his face, but I didn’t.

  “Oh that’s a bummer. Is he okay?”

  “Yeah, he’ll be fine. I guess he bought an open-ended ticket. So who knows how long he’s going to stay?” Max scowled and cocked his head.

  “It must’ve been a pretty bad fight,” I told him as the space between us became thin and nonexistent.

  “I guess so. But listen, I still want you to go to the dance,” he said.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yeah, and don’t worry, we’ll have your birthday. I promise,” he added.

  Call me crazy, but I didn’t think he would want me to go to the dance without him; and maybe it’s selfish, but I was still in the dark about where we were going to spend my birthday. So like always, and before I could filter the words that shot from my mouth, I blurted out my undercooked, raw, thought about spending a couple of days up the coast in my dead grandparents’ house.