by Mia Archer
I was starting to wonder why so many people at the church had a stick up their ass about this sort of thing. It’s like they’d never been to a party or something and they were coming down on it anyways.
Something to think about.
“Here we go,” Robin said as something clicked in the lock and she pushed the door open.
We found ourselves in an office that looked a little better than all the rest. Except for some scraps of paper on the floor you could almost think the place hadn’t been abandoned. That some high management type who’d long since retired with a golden parachute after selling the factory could come in here the next morning and start working.
Only there were a couple of things that made it pretty obvious this office wasn’t in us for actual office work. Some melted candles on top of a dusty filing cabinet in one corner. A giant metal desk that had a pad on top of it instead of a computer and pens and paper.
I shivered again looking at that pad. I guess this room didn’t have a mattress or a couch, but someone had been pretty resourceful regardless.
I walked over to another window that ran the length of the office and looked down on the factory floor giving me a view of the same party. Nothing much had changed down there though.
I was far more interested in the view up here. I turned and smiled uncertainly at Robin as she pulled herself up on the pad and patted a spot right next to her.
“Come here,” she said. “If we’re gonna do this we’re gonna do it right.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Wait and see,” she said.
Robin produced a lighter from somewhere and lit the joint she’d grabbed from her friend. I couldn’t be sure, but I got the feeling John was the muscle and Robin was the brains of the operation. I probably should’ve been annoyed that I was driving around with her when she had a very illegal amount of pot on her, but I was so caught up in all the naughty things I was already doing tonight that it felt like one more thrill on top of everything else.
She lit it and inhaled. I panicked as I realized she was going to pass it over to me in a moment. I’d never done something like this before. I’d never even smoked a cigarette, let alone a joint. I had no idea what I was doing.
Luckily for me it seemed Robin had a different idea about how she was going to give me my first experience with a “mind altering substance that I should stay away from at all costs” according to the busybodies at the church.
She leaned forward and I grinned as I realized what she was going for. Her lips pressed against mine and our mouths opened to one another and a moment later she was breathing into my mouth.
Then the coughing and spluttering did start. It might not be inhaling directly, but it was still a bunch of smoke and I still wasn’t used to doing that sort of thing. I pulled back and concentrated on breathing as the smoke exploded out with those coughs.
“You okay?” Robin asked.
She thwacked me on the back a couple of times. Like that was going to help get the smoke out of my system. My eyes watered and my lungs burned. If this is what this felt like getting it secondhand then I couldn’t imagine why people would do this for fun.
Then it hit me. An overwhelming feeling of… joy? Contentment? Happiness? I didn’t know how to describe it. Just that one moment I was coughing and spluttering and the next I felt pretty damn good.
“How are you feeling?” Robin asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s all so weird. How could someone tell you not to do this when it feels so good?”
I guess that was the only thing I could think of. It was a recurring theme tonight. So many things I’d been told were bad my whole life, and yet now here I was doing them and it didn’t seem all that bad at all.
I looked to Robin. Wondered if that could be true of every temptation on the table tonight.
“I think they say it’s bad because it feels so good,” Robin whispered.
“Who says it has to be bad?” I asked, putting a hand to her cheek.
“Mari,” Robin whispered. “There’s a lot out there you don’t understand. There’s a lot of danger out there. You’re having fun now, but it can be a bad world with bad people in it.”
“That’s what you say,” I said. “But so far everything that’s supposed to be so bad has turned out to be pretty fun. I’m starting to think those people at the church and my parents don’t know what they’re talking about.”
The joint was forgotten. Sure it was still down there in Robin’s hands smoldering and filling the room with its sweet smell, but I wasn’t interested in that.
No, there was another drug I was high on right now. The high had started back in her pickup truck when we enjoyed that forbidden embrace, and I was ready for so much more.
“Kiss me,” I whispered.
Robin licked her lips and leaned forward. Pressed her lips against mine. It was a little slice of heaven as our lips pressed together. So soft. So different from kissing a guy.
Different because of that softness, because of an almost hesitation, and because of the fire that raged through me with her lips pressing against my own.
Once more I was struck with how right all of this felt.
Then things started to happen really fast. So fast that I almost didn’t register, but it was so good.
Lying back on the massive desk with the pad on top that made it sort of comfortable. Robin’s mouth opening to mine. Her hands exploring my body more thoroughly than they had in the truck. Roaming all over. Her bare hands moving along my bare flesh leaving a trail of fire behind.
Kisses along my neck. Clothes flying everywhere with a silent rustle as the music from below could be heard faintly even up here through windows designed to keep out the noise of a factory floor.
Hands everywhere. Her mouth touching me in places no one had ever touched me before. My eyes squeezing shut. My hips rotating and pressing up and begging for more. Her hands squeezing mine as I threw my head back. As I gasped and screamed for more and didn’t care if they heard me down below.
A final cry. A feeling like nothing I’d ever experienced before. That fire exploding inside me. Coming down and resting against the pad. Robin’s face reappearing. Smiling down at me.
“Damn,” she said.
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything but stare up at the office ceiling and sing the praises of what had just happened. I felt like I’d just touched the divine. Nothing that felt that good could truly be wrong. Those old crones at the church didn’t know what the were talking about.
That or their husbands hadn’t been doing it right all these years and they didn’t have a basis of comparison because most of them had been married right out of high school. The poor old bitches.
“That was incredible,” I gasped.
Robin bit her lip and took in my body. I blushed as I thought about the state I was in. It had been hot when we were in the moment, but lying here with my shirt pulled up over my body, my bra tossed to the side, and my pants somewhere on the floor I was suddenly self-conscious.
“You’re beautiful,” Robin said.
She leaned down and kissed me. A kiss that was somehow different now. Then it hit me what was different. The taste was different. That was me.
I shivered. God that was fucking hot.
The kiss ended. I didn’t want it to end, but I suppose all good things had to come to an end eventually. Still, I knew this night was going to be something I remembered and cherished for the rest of my life. Things could go to shit with me and Robin and this night would still be the shining moment when I realized for sure who I was and what I wanted out of life.
I reached out and took her hand. Gave it a squeeze. “I think I’m falling for you.”
Robin’s reaction wasn’t quite what I expected. She looked me over again and sighed.
“That might be true, but you shouldn’t…”
I sat up and put a finger to her lips before she could say anything else. “What did I tell
you about judging people because you think they’re going to judge you? I said I want you. Take that for what it is.”
Robin held my gaze for a long moment before looking away and blushing. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I said. I pulled her back to look at me. “Be mine. Is that really too much to ask?”
Robin opened her mouth to say something. I shivered in anticipation. My mouth hung open and I was ready to hang on her every word.
It’s a pity flashing lights and a siren interrupted that. At first I thought it was a light from the party down below, but the way Robin’s eyes widened told me that wasn’t the case.
There was genuine fear there.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Nothing good,” Robin said.
She walked over to the window and looked down at the party below. Cursed at whatever she saw there.
“What’s going on Robin?” I asked.
“Cops,” she said. “Lots of them making their way through the factory floor from where we came in. They’ll be here in a few minutes at this rate.”
A chill ran through me down to the very core of my being. It put out the fires that had been burning there hoping that there might be a repeat performance of what just happened.
Cops. Shit. I couldn’t be arrested. Sure I had a free attorney in my dad, but using that free attorney would mean the end of life as I knew it. I might be graduated and on my way to college in the fall, but my mom wouldn’t hesitate to ground me into oblivion for the remainder of my time under her roof.
Not to mention that we were both over eighteen and we were in a room with illegal drugs. Shit. This was not happening.
“I’m going to lose my scholarship and get arrested and I won’t be able to…”
Something shook me. I blinked and looked at Robin. Robin was right in front of me. Robin looked determined. Robin looked like she was in control.
Like she’d dealt with this before.
“None of that is going to happen Mari,” she said. “We’re getting you the hell out of here. Now get dressed fast. We don’t have much time.”
13
Robin
I somehow managed to maintain a measure of calm on the outside. It amazed me that I was able to do it, because inside I was freaking the fuck out.
The whisper of clothes being pulled back on filled the room like a quiet thunder. I could still feel Mari on the tips of my fingers. Still feel her body pressed against mine.
She was so hot. So perfect. It had been the most perfect moment of my life. A moment when I thought I was finally getting everything I’d ever wanted.
Of course it would all be pulled away from me by cruel fate though.
Yeah, I might be projecting calm on the outside, but inside I wanted to scream in frustration. This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t supposed to happen right now, damn it. We were supposed to finish that joint, go down to the party, and have a good fucking time.
Well the joint was crushed and tossed in some old manager’s garbage bin that had been sitting here for over a decade after the factory closed. Now we needed to get out of here before the cops could connect that to us.
I was down low looking out over the factory floor below. Cops were rounding people up into huge crowds and then leading them out the front. Presumably they were going to process them out there. I saw town cops and the sheriff’s department down there.
Yeah, the town cops probably didn’t have the resources to bust a place this big without a little bit of help from the county mounties. Which might be a good thing. It might mean we had a chance to get the hell out of here.
They’d started at the front and were working their way back, after all.
“You almost done?” I asked.
Even as I asked it I saw John walk over and join one of the crowds that was being herded out of the factory. I didn’t see the backpack anywhere. With a little luck he found a place to hide the thing.
I didn’t even care if we lost the contents. That would be an expensive loss, but better an expensive loss than worrying about one of us going to jail for a long while because we were caught with a whole bunch of pot.
It might be just pot, but that wouldn’t stop the local cops from going crazy at the opportunity to crow about a bust.
“Ready,” Mari said.
I turned and had to pause for a moment. The girl took my breath away. She was gorgeous. It wasn’t fair that a mortal girl here on this world could be as beautiful as she was, and yet I was reminded of it every time I saw her.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking myself out of the momentary funk I found myself in every time I laid eyes on Mari. “Now come on. We need to get the hell out of here.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” she said.
I practically dragged her through the door and out to the stairway to heaven. Well it was the stairway to hell now, and the cops were the devils who were going to ruin our lives if they managed to catch us.
As we ran down the hall it also became increasingly obvious that the poor bastards in the other rooms had no idea that the cops were coming for them. This part of the factory seemed to be soundproofed.
I guess that made sense. If I was a management type who came here every day I wouldn’t want to be bothered by noise from the factory floor all day long. Now that soundproofing meant that everyone up here was going to be caught without realizing what was going on.
I paused at the top of the stairway to heaven. They really deserved a warning.
“Cops!” I shouted. “Cops busting up the main party!”
I heard people cursing and banging around in the rooms. Oh yeah. No one who came up here wanted their evening to be interrupted by the local constable. I’d seen more than a few of them doing some substances a lot worse than a little pot.
I didn’t want to think about who might be supplying that. It was a sign of how things were going downhill in this town. It was almost funny that I dealt a little pot and I was thinking about the decline and fall of our small town like I was one of those little old ladies Mari went on about, but there it was.
“That was good of you,” Mari said.
“Yeah, well it was also practical. If there are a lot of people running from back here then it means the cops are less likely to target us,” I said.
“You sound like you’ve done this before,” Mari said.
I couldn’t believe it. She sounded like she was actually enjoying the idea of running from the cops. I had to remind myself that she’d been sheltered. That the life she’d lived hadn’t had anything to do with the cops.
My life hadn’t had anything to do with the cops for a good long while, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Yeah, well let’s just say this isn’t my first time running from the boys in blue,” I said. “Now let’s get going. There’s a back entrance we might be able to get out of.”
We got to the bottom of the stairway to heaven and instead of turning right to go into the factory where the cops were waiting for us I turned left and went through an emergency exit. I prayed that the thing didn’t still have an operating alarm and breathed a relieved sigh when nothing happened.
I slammed the thing shut behind us. I might’ve given a warning to all the people up there, but that didn’t mean I wanted them all following me on my special escape route. I was just glad I’d explored this place a few times when I got bored sitting up on my abandoned rail bridge.
“Where does this go?” Mari asked.
“Around the back of the factory where it isn’t as easy to get a car. With a little luck we can get into the woods behind the factory before they realize what we’re doing,” I said.
“And if we’re not lucky?”
“We’re going to get lucky,” I said.
Of course I’d already gotten lucky once tonight. I hoped that hadn’t used up all of my luck in one incredible moment.
Even if it would be totally worth it.<
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We burst through the door and thankfully it was quiet on this end of the factory. I had a moment of terror gripping my heart when I saw the familiar red and blue flashing that meant there were cops out and about, but they were flashing off to the side.
Good. That meant there weren’t any cops over here. At least I hoped and prayed there weren’t any cops over here on this side.
The last thing Mari needed was to get caught at a party like this. Me getting caught at a thing like this? Well people expected that from me. I was a bad apple from a family that never made anything of themselves in this town.
It was part of the narrative. People would shake their heads and say “well what did you expect” and move on with their lives.
Mari, though? She’d be destroyed. She’d lose her scholarship. She’d lose her future. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Sure it’s not like we’d been hanging out for that long, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to let her destroy her life because she decided to get a little stupid for one night.
“Come on,” I said, grasping her hand and pulling her along. I ignored the way her hand felt in my own. It felt good. It felt distracting. It made me think of all the things she might be able to do to me with that hand.
Things I was probably never going to get a chance to experience after the cops were kind enough to interrupt our moment back there. No, I had a feeling there wasn’t going to be a second date after this one turned out to be such a disaster.
I could almost laugh. The night turned out to be one hell of a fucking disaster. Story of my life, right? Hey kid, we’re going to have you live with deadbeat parents who’d rather get drunk and high than deal with you. We’re going to give you one chance at happiness, but you can’t have that forever.
Story of my fucking life.
“Where are we going?” Mari asked. “Back to your truck?”
I barked out a laugh. “Not a chance of that. If these guys are any good, and there’s a fifty fifty chance of that happening, then that means they staked out all the areas around the party. Going back to my truck right now is as good as getting caught.”