by Jenna Payne
As soon as the bliss had crashed over me, I spun Ricky around until I was on top, wanting to make this as amazing for him as it was for me. As I grinded onto him, enveloping him and showing him my nakedness in it’s entirely, he groaned and lost himself. I held him tight. That moment felt more right than anything else ever had, and I never wanted it to end.
*****
Ricky
As the pleasure erupted from my body, I found myself feeling a rush of love from Talia. I’d never felt so connected to anyone before, I’d never wanted anyone so badly, and I’d never been so keen to keep someone by my side.
I’d dated Cassie for almost eight months, and at the time it had felt like love. I didn’t like it when we’d been forced to break up because she was going travelling, but now I was glad. What I’d had with her was nice enough, but with Cassie I felt none of the intensity that I had with Talia. There was this connection I had with Talia. She was like my soul mate. I’d always thought I liked racing so much because it made me feel centered and whole. Almost like it was a spiritual thing. Cassie had never made me feel that way, but Talia did, and in a way which made me feel almost dizzy just thinking about it. She made me feel like the best version of myself, and she made me want to be a better person. I no longer wanted to be the slacker who did nothing more than raced on his bike. Where I used to think I couldn’t live without my bike, now it felt like I couldn’t live without Talia.
As I watched her sleep, I made the decision to myself that we would make this thing work no matter what. Yes there would be complications, but we would have to get through that. I needed to be with Talia, and not just in a sexual way, I needed to be with her properly. I really liked her. I loved her.
I felt my skin buzz and my heart race just to think those words. Was I rushing? Probably, but... no, fuck it, I loved her!
I eventually forced myself to tear away from Talia to sneak back into my own bedroom, to ensure that we didn’t get caught. We would deal with this in our own time, when we were ready.
But as I slid out of the door, and clicked it shut behind me, I found myself faced with a very stern, confused-looking Norm.
“What are you doing?” he gasped, observing my state of undress. I hadn’t thought to get myself fully dressed because I never normally slept in my clothes. “What the hell is going on here?”
I could see his brain trying to add together two and two, and not wanting to see the answer, while I stood there silently like an idiot. I just didn’t know what to do. I assumed that the best thing that I could do was to deny it, but that felt impossible given how he’d found me. Plus, I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to deny something that we would then have to admit later on. I glanced back towards Talia’s room, but quickly realized that waking her up would be the wrong thing to do here.
“Are you…?” he started to ask, before changing his mind. “Just… go back to bed. We’ll have a family discussion about this in the morning when your mother is awake.”
As he stalked away from me, I could see his literally shaking with rage, which made me very anxious about what was to come.
*****
Talia
I was happy when I woke up in the morning, excited to see what was to come, but I could already hear the yelling before I even went down the stairs. I could only pick out a few words, but it was enough to strike a cold terror into my heart. It was enough for me to know that somehow, Ricky and I had been found out.
It was only when I heard him shouting back, defending himself, that I raced down to join him. I was as much a part of this as he was. It wasn’t fair to leave him to tackle it alone.
“Wait…” I cried out. “Wait a moment…”
“I will get to you,” my dad snapped. “Your little tryst has wrecked everything!”
The shouting went on for ages. We had absolutely everything thrown at us that cried, hard. I’d known the aftermath of sleeping with Ricky wasn’t going to be smooth, but I hadn’t quite expected it to get this bad.
“Anyway,” Marie finally said, shooting a glance at my dad. “We made a decision last night. Because of this, we are not going to go through with the wedding. We’re going to break up,” I shot her a knowing look, certain that there was much more to their break up than me and Ricky, but she gave me such an evil glare that I kept it to myself. “Ricky, you and I are going to return to our old home, where we lived before here.”
“In Raymont?” he yelled.
“Why not?” she insisted. “You’ve finished school now. There’s no reason for us to remain.” I could sense that he wanted to look at me, but neither of us was brave enough to follow through on that desire.
“…and Talia,” Dad intervened “You need to go back to boarding school today. I can see that you’ve already packed your bags, and I’ve contacted the school. They are willing to accommodate you now.”
I tried to argue, but he was having none of it. As the rest of the rant continued, I felt my heart fall into my shoes. I’d been so looking forward to the future, not that long ago, now it had been taken away from me. There was no chance for me and Ricky if he was being taken miles away me, and I was being sent back to school.
We would have to break up. Sure, we could keep trying, keep doing the long distance thing, but if we weren’t together, it would never last. We’d only been together a short while, not long enough to have built any solid foundations, and things would only go from bad to worse with us. It could never end up successful – there was just too much stacked against us.
My heart shattered into a million pieces, as I realized that I was losing everything.
*****
Ricky
I insisted on dropping Talia off at the train station. Everyone argued against it, but I was going to do it anyway. Her dad came along too, but he had given us just a short time alone, which I used to kiss her and make all the promises in the world.
“I’ll wait for you,” I insisted. “We’ll be in touch all the time. I’ll come and see you at weekends…”
“No,” she shook her head, with tears in her eyes. “We can’t. It won’t work. We always knew that this was a short term thing.” She was saying things to push me away, hoping that I would agree, just to make things easier for us both. She didn’t mean a word of it, I could tell by her expression, but before I could argue anymore, her dad was back by her side, ushering her on the train. “This is goodbye,” she whispered, as if that was the conclusion to it all.
I waved to her sadly as the train pulled out from the station, knowing that life was never going to be the same for either of us again. But I also knew that I wouldn’t sit back and let her slip through my fingers. As soon as she found out how dedicated I was to her, she would come around too, I just knew it.
We would make this work. We had to. I was in love with Talia and I couldn’t let her go.
*****
Epilogue
Talia
One year later…
The last year had been hard at first, but things were finally settling down now. I felt defeated and destroyed when I had returned to boarding school alone, but Ricky had soon made it clear that he wasn’t letting me go, and his endless pursuit of me had gone on to make me the happiest girl alive.
He’d moved away from his mom almost right away and rented a small apartment near me, starting up his own business running a bike shop. It had been a struggle for him at first, but now he was very successful, and getting better. His reputation had followed him, and people were keen to buy from the bad ass king of the racetrack Ricky – even if he was nothing like that version of himself anymore.
I had tried to resist Ricky at first, to do the right thing, but when it became clear that our parents were never getting back together, I gave in and allowed the both of us to be happy. They had both moved on with other people now, and were very contented about it. They were almost pleased for us too – if not a little scared that it might all go wrong. We’d both been given a warning about our relationship,
but that didn’t matter to either of us. We had each other, and that was all that mattered.
We were perfect for one another. We would go the distance, I was confident of that. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought.
I was doing well for myself too – about to start a college education, working towards becoming a doctor. Things were looking up, and life was great.
Most importantly, we had each other, and we had love. It had been complicated, but we got there in the end. Soon I would become his wife, then we would have children. I imagined us with a big brood of smiling kids, in a house with plenty of love.
The future looked very bright indeed.
THE END
Bonus Story 37 of 40
After the Party
The first day of college is always the scariest. That’s what Logan Peters’ dad told him the night before he arrived at Roth University. Logan’s dad was an alumnus of Roth and could not have been prouder when his son was admitted. The Peters children had been going to Roth since its establishment. It had become a tradition and Logan was just as proud to share in it.
As a ‘legacy kid’, Logan was set up with a pretty sizeable scholarship, but his true prize was the huge football scholarship he had been awarded. While other Peters men had gotten into Roth based on their scholastic achievements, Logan was the first to gain acceptance through his skill on the field. He was amazing. There was not a quarterback in his school district that could match him. Since his sophomore year of high school, he was the talk of the town as a future NFL star.
His family, however, would never allow him to pursue a career in football without a college degree. And so, he was at college.
It was Logan’s first day, and he sat in his dorm throwing his football in the air. Suddenly, the door opened as a young man in a blue polo and khaki shorts entered his room.
Logan sat up and looked at the newcomer; smiling. “Kevin?” he asked. The young man smiled and nodded.
“You must be Logan!” he said. “Nice to meet you.” The two young men shook hands as Kevin proceeded to bring in his luggage.
“How long you been here?” he asked.
Logan shrugged. “Probably around two hours or so,” he said. “I claimed the left side of the room. I hope that’s okay.”
Kevin chuckled. “It’s cool man,” he said. “Just as long as I get the spot closest to the window.” Logan raised an eyebrow, making Kevin laugh more. “Check outside.”
Curious, Logan moved towards the window and pulled down one of the blinds. What he saw was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. A bevy of coeds were laying on the lawn of the quad either playing games, gossiping or working on their tans.
“Whoa,” he said in awe.
Kevin smirked as he continued to put his clothes away. “I know, right?”
“Yeah,” said Logan as he moved away from the blinds. Logan had broken up with the girl he had been dating for three years, at his father’s suggestion. He told him that school was the most important thing and that he didn’t need a long distance relationship to distract from what was most important. Logan agreed, and now he was kind of glad he did. When he saw those girls out on the lawn, he saw a buffet ready to be devoured.
“Wipe the drool off your chin, bro,” said Kevin. Logan laughed. He could tell he was going to like Kevin very much. The continued their time getting to know one another. Kevin was a football player on the team as well and was a new wide receiver. Unlike Logan, Kevin’s grades in high school were enough to get him into Roth. Logan thought this was particularly good since Kevin was a math major and that happened to be his weakest area.
Once Kevin had unpacked, the two decided to go down to the student center together where they encountered many more students socializing and getting a feel for the campus. Different clubs, fraternities and sororities had already set up booths to try and recruit new members. Kevin nodded towards the fraternity booths.
“What do you think?” he asked. “You going to pledge?” Logan shrugged.
“Don’t know,” he said. “Kind of feels like I would miss out on the college experience if I didn’t though.” The two smirked as they approached the booths. In truth, Logan had every intention of pledging. Because of his low grades, Logan was at first not going to be accepted into Roth. However, a call to a man in admissions, who just so happened to be a brother in his father’s fraternity, was able to help seal the deal and get him in. If the fraternity could help him in other areas of his life, he was willing to pledge to whatever!
He saw the royal blue and white banner that encompassed Nu Epsilon Zeta. As he got close to the booth, however, he bumped into someone, knocking their brochures and papers onto the floor.
“Oh shit!” he cried. “I’m so sorry!” He went to the ground and began to try and help the stranger.
“Thanks,” she said. “It’s fine. Really! I should have been paying attention.” Logan looked up at the person he’d bumped into, and his eyes locked onto the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen. They were a light shade of brown and framed by stylish glasses. Her skin was a very dark complexion, but seemed so smooth and soft. Her lips were full and plump and her hair was cut extremely short. If she had not been curvy, Logan would have thought the girl before him was possibly a boy. This girl, however, was much too beautiful to EVER be thought of as a boy.
She smiled at him. “Thank you for your help,” she said, trying to take the final brochure from him.
Logan blinked and was taken out of his examination of her body. “I must be more tired than I thought,” he said. The girl snickered.
“Late night already?” she asked. “That’s no good. Classes haven’t even started yet.”
Logan laughed at her joke. “I like to set the pace early,” he said.
The girl nodded. “Well, take it easy,” she said. “Perhaps I can try to keep up with you at one of these parties tonight.” The girl winked playfully and walked away. Logan turned and watched her leave; her shapely buttocks shifting with each step she took. Logan had always preferred women with big breasts, but he was beginning to wonder if he could love a big ass as well.
“Hey, you there?” asked a voice behind him. Logan turned around and realized he must have been staring at her in front of the Nu Epsilon Zeta booth. A well-dressed young man chuckled and waved him over. For the next twenty minutes, Logan talked with the president of Nu Epsilon Zeta, whose name was Phillip. To his surprise, he soon realized that many of the football players pledged to Nu Epsilon. He felt at home with these boys, but his mind kept going back to the girl he’d bumped into earlier.
He regretted not talking to her more, but there was nothing he could do. The campus had grown so large that it was a known fact that unless you had classes together, it was very hard to coordinate time to meet someone new on a daily basis. Still, Roth University was not known for its minority student population. In a sea of white faces, how hard would it be to find the lovely black girl with natural hair?
“We’ve got a party tonight, actually,” said Phillip; snapping Logan from his daydream. “Why don’t you come by, see the house and meet some more of the brothers.”
Logan smiled. “That sounds awesome. Thanks man!” Logan took a business card with the address from Phillip and walked back into the sea of people to try and find Kevin, who had moved on to another fraternity. As he searched for his roommate, his eyes also tried to find the girl from earlier.
*****
When Logan arrived at the party, he was surprised at how many people were there. He knew that out of all of the fraternities and sororities, Nu Epsilon was the most popular and most exclusive, but he was not prepared for how popular they were. It was not just the house that was used for the party. It seemed that the adjacent houses, though clearly other frat houses, were being used to help with the party as well as most of the street!
Kevin, who had decided to see what all the fuss was about with Nu Epsilon, was floored by everything!
“They p
arty like this?!” he exclaimed over the sound of the DJ playing bass-heavy hip hop. “This is insane!” Logan nodded in agreement as they made their way deep into the party. Logan wasn’t sure if he would ever reconnect with the president of the fraternity, but he figured that tonight it didn’t matter. Tonight was about having fun and enjoying his first night of college. Logan bounced from keg to keg and from dance circle to dance circle as he met many freshmen who were just as floored about everything as he was.
He was in the middle of talking to a cute blonde number when he saw her: the black girl with the natural hair. His eyes immediately locked onto her as she approached the keg and poured herself a cup of beer. She stuck out like a sore thumb in this crowd and he had never been more thankful that someone looked different.
“Excuse me a second,” he told the blonde girl. “I’m going to grab another beer.” Logan knew he had been rude, but it didn’t matter to him. The blonde girl really wasn’t that interesting. Logan made his way to the keg next to the black girl, and nudged her.
“We meet again!” he yelled over the din. The girl smiled.
“Yes we do,” she said. “I’m starting to think you’re just trying to cop a feel.” Logan put up his hands in defense mockingly.
“You caught me!” he said playfully. “I guess I’ll leave you alone forever.”
The black girl nodded. “That’s probably for the best,” she said. Logan screwed up his face in confusion. The girl burst into laughter and pushed him gently. “I’m kidding!” Logan took a genuine sigh of relief as he refilled his beer.
“I thought you took me too seriously,” he said.
The girl shook her head. “I don’t take many people too seriously,” she said. Logan stared at her as the people milled around them and the bass from the song seemed to shake their souls.