“Does he know what your car looks like?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
The light ahead of them turned red. Charlie slowed and stopped. A car blaring loud rap music passed through the intersection in front of them.
“Do you want to eat lunch with me on Monday?” Charlie asked.
“At school?”
“Yeah. In the cafeteria, on Monday.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yeah. Or whatever. If anyone else sits with us, I wouldn’t make them leave.”
“Okay. I’ll eat lunch with you.” She grinned. “People will notice us, though.”
“I don’t mind. Do you?”
“No…”
When Charlie pulled into the parking lot of the train station, he recognized Michelle’s car sitting by itself at one end of the parking lot. A handful of other cars were parked closer to the station. He pulled into a spot near Michelle’s car.
“Thanks,” she said softly, looking at him expectantly.
After all they’d done that day, Charlie had no idea why his heart was pounding so much at the thought of giving her a simple good-night kiss. “Um… so.. good night. I hope you have a good weekend…” He started to lean towards her, but abruptly froze. “Ahh.. damn it!”
“What is it?”
“I forgot, your stuff is still at my house. You know… Hoppity? And some of your clothes.”
“Oh, right.” She grinned. “So awful. You know, if I keep leaving my clothes with you, I’m going to run out of things to wear.” She slipped her arms out of the straps of her dress and started to push it down her body.
“Michelle…” Charlie glanced out his window, making sure no one was nearby. Michelle pulled her legs out of her dress and tossed it into his backseat. She was naked, wearing only her boots and the black ribbon which remained tied around her neck.
“Where’s your underwear?”
She giggled. “Under your bed.”
“Wow. Okay.”
Michelle leaned forward. “Good night, Charlie.”
Charlie met her, pressing his lips against hers. His hand found her breast, squeezing it and stroking her hard nipple.
Michelle finally broke the long kiss, pulling back to her own seat. Still grinning mischievously, she pulled the door handle and pushed the door open.
“You have your car keys?” Charlie asked.
“Yes, I have them.” She jingled her keys.
“And you have a spare set of clothes in your car?”
Michelle just grinned. She set one foot and then the other outside the car door, letting her legs stick out into the night air. Taking a deep breath, she got to her feet. She stood there, naked, looking nervously around the parking lot.
Charlie watched her lovely ass sway back and forth as she walked the short distance to her car, and he felt his erection straining against the front of his pants. Would he ever get used to seeing that naked body? Would she ever get over the novelty of stripping in front of him? He watched her unlock her car and climb inside. Before closing her door, she smiled at him and waved.
He waited for her to start the engine. Her windows were tinted so he couldn’t see inside, but he hoped that she was pulling out a spare set of clothes from somewhere and getting dressed. Would her parents ask what had happened to the yellow dress she’d been wearing earlier? What would she tell them?
He’d ask her about it at lunch on Monday.
Actually, he had her phone number. He could just call her.
Michelle put on her reverse lights and pulled out of the space. Charlie put his own car in reverse. He followed her out of the train station parking lot, but then she turned right, and he turned left. He watched in his rear view mirror until her red tail lights disappeared from view.
***
Charlie came to school early on Monday feeling pretty good about himself. He thought he would take a look at the AV closet before the week started. Michael and Dinesh had used some of the equipment over the weekend and Charlie wanted to double-check that it was all checked in and stored properly.
He parked in the student parking and walked through the front door of the school. The halls were still quiet and mostly empty, with a handful of other early risers walking here and there. He walked to the Front Tee and turned left, following the hall towards the AV room. On the way, he stopped by the boy’s bathroom.
The bathroom was empty. Charlie entered one of the stalls and voided his bladder into the bowl. As he flushed the toilet, he heard the bathroom door open and a group of muttering boys entered. He heard one of them say, “Is he in here?”
Charlie opened the stall door to find Cody standing outside. Cody smiled grimly. “Ah, there he is. Charlie Brown.” Cody had two other boys with him, Ryan and Evan. They were both football players, both very large.
“Hey…” Charlie said.
“I need to talk to you,” Cody said. “You have a minute?”
“Okay.” Charlie waited to see what Cody would to say. A second later, something whacked Charlie hard in the side of the head. He stumbled sideways, his head ringing, and hit the wall. His legs wobbled and he slid halfway down the wall. Tiny stars shot around the edge of his vision, and at first he had trouble comprehending what had just happened. It slowly dawned on him that either Ryan or Evan had hit him.
Cody leaned over Charlie. “That was just to let you know I’m serious about what I’m about to tell you. Stay away from Michelle. I don’t want to see you with her ever again. She’s going out with Glenn Mack right now. I don’t know what you and her had before, and I don’t care. She’s with Glenn now.”
Charlie touched the side of his head where the blow had landed. It almost felt like he should feel a crack there. “She’s not his,” he muttered.
“Look, guy… he likes her. He’s liked her for years. I’m not going to let you fuck this up for him. Got it?” Cody had his phone in his hand. He shoved it toward’s Charlie face. Charlie saw the image clearly: Michelle, pressed against the pillar at the train station; Charlie pushing against her; their lips together.
“Glenn saw this?” Charlie asked.
Cody shook his head. “No. I’ve showed it to three people. These two guys, and one other. No, I’m not going to show it to Glenn. Glenn doesn’t need to know because I’m solving this problem right here.” Cody put his phone back in his pocket. “Stay away from her. That’s all I’m saying. You’re not going to end up with her. You know that. You’re not going to end up with her, and if you go on bothering her, and you make her unhappy, and you make Glenn unhappy… well, I promise you, I’ll make you the unhappiest of all.” He nodded. “Good talking to you, Charlie Brown.” He signaled Ryan and Evan, and the three boys walked out of the bathroom.
Charlie waited for the door to close. He pulled himself to his feet and went to the sink. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, rubbing his head where he’d been punched, then turned on the water and splashed some in his face.
What would Cody do when he saw Charlie sitting with Michelle in the middle of the cafeteria at lunchtime? Would he attack Charlie right there or wait until later? If anything, the attack had strengthened Charlie’s resolve to be seen with Michelle at the school. So Michelle was Glenn’s now? Did Glenn have two sets of her clothes at his house, plus her vibrator? Not only was her vibrator under Charlie’s bed, he was on a first-name basis with “Hoppity".
Cody Scolari could go ahead and pound on him. Michelle was worth the pain. Maybe when she saw what kind of friends Glenn had, she’d rethink being his prom date.
Charlie touched the side of his head again, grimacing. “Cheap hit,” he muttered. “Distracted me and swung at me from my blind side. Bunch of cheap cowards.” He stepped out of the bathroom, looking for the boys, but they were gone.
He only had ten minutes now before first bell, but he still wanted to stop by the AV room. He continued down the hall until he reached the
familiar door. He pushed it open.
Ronni waited for him there, sitting in the chair from the editing bay. She looked up at him, and he could see the angry hurt in her eyes. She was holding her phone.
Cody’s words came back to him: “I’ve showed it to three people. These two guys, and one other…”
Ronni held up her phone, showing him the screen. He could see the image of Michelle and himself kissing. “So, Charlie…” She spoke in a low voice. “You want to tell me what you did this weekend?”
CHAPTER 6
Ronni held her phone up to Charlie’s face like an accusation. Charlie gazed at the picture on her screen, and his first, completely inappropriate thought was, “Cody took a pretty good picture!”
Both his and Michelle’s faces showed in profile, clearly visible. Michelle had her back against the pillar at the train station, and Charlie pressed against her. Cody had captured the moment of their kiss, their eyes closed, their mouths pressed together. Not a chaste kiss, not a friendly kiss. This was a kiss with desire behind it.
He must have zoomed in on our faces, Charlie thought. How long did he have his camera on us, anyway?
“Cody sent you that picture?” he asked Ronni.
“Yes. Did you know he saw you?” Ronni pulled the phone back and stabbed at the screen with her finger. “So he took that picture on Saturday. That means while I was shopping for a prom dress, you were out with Michelle. Then I sent you a picture of the dress. Here’s your response.” She read from her phone: “Hey Ronni, looks great. You’re going to look amazing.” Ronni lifted her eyes, glaring at him. “Were you actually still with Michelle when you wrote this?”
Charlie felt a throb of pain from the side of his head. “I just saw Cody in the bathroom. He had one of his football buddies punch me in the head.”
“What?” The change of subject caught her by surprise. “Why? Because you kissed Michelle?”
“I think so…” Charlie leaned against a table and rubbed his head.
Ronni nodded. “Because she said she would go to the prom with Glenn. You were kissing Glenn’s date. So now, what? The whole football team is your enemy?”
“Maybe…”
“Charlie… please just be honest with me. I was glad that you asked me to the prom, and I thought it would be fun to go with you. But I can find someone else to go with. I really don’t want to find out a week before that you’re taking Michelle instead.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, Ronni.”
“You wouldn’t? What if she insisted? Do you really think she couldn’t get you to take her? You’d drop me in a minute.” Ronni shook her head. “What happened, Charlie? We talked about this before. You said you’d gone out with her a few times, but it was over. Then Cody sends me this picture, and it clearly isn’t over. What happened?” She looked up at him imploringly. “Just tell me, Charlie. I need the truth from you, okay?”
“The truth…” Charlie whispered under his breath.
“Please.”
Charlie glanced down at his hands, tangled together in front of him. For a moment, he wrestled with indecision. Then he met her gaze, her eyes watching him, waiting for him.
He gave her the truth.
He started with how he had glimpsed someone passing outside the AV room, on a Saturday when no one should have been there. Ronni’s eyes widened when Charlie described catching Michelle walking naked through the school. He tried to explain how Michelle’s initial embarrassment had turned into a peculiar companionship, how he had escorted her on her nude stroll through the school, how they’d even gone outside to the parking lot. He left out a lot of the details, in particular the sex, and Ronni seemed to notice the gaps in his story but didn’t press him.
How easily I tell Michelle’s secrets, Charlie thought with a surge of guilt, but he went on to describe the Second Michelle incident. How she’d appeared naked in the AV room, a few Saturdays later, after undressing by his car and sliding her clothes through his car window so she couldn’t get to them again. Again, he left out the sex, and kept Daryl’s role to a minimum. He skipped Third Michelle entirely, but tried to explain how his secret encounters with Michelle combined with the apparent social chasm between them at school had caused him to feel dissatisfied with his life, and that had prompted him to invite Ronni to the prom.
He described his conversation with Michelle on the bleachers, and his belief that it had ended things between them. But then he described how Michelle had come with him to Jefferson University for his film school interview, and how it had ended with her undressing in the train on the way back.
Ronni listened intently, asking few questions. The home room bell rang, but Charlie ignored it, and Ronni didn’t show any intention of leaving until he was done with his story. He reached the kiss in the train station, and how he had discovered Cody on the opposite platform, recording them with his phone.
“Cody isn’t going to show the picture to Glenn… but he did threaten me to stay away from Michelle. And Michelle told me she still wants to go to the prom with Glenn.” Charlie threw up his hands. “So… all that stuff that happened on Saturday, her taking off her clothes in the train, her kissing me in the train station… none of it has really changed anything.”
Ronni didn’t speak at first, but just sat quietly with her hands in her lap, a thoughtful look on her face. Charlie suddenly felt terrified that he’d just made a big mistake. He’d given up Michelle’s secret and now Ronni, feeling slighted, would tell everyone at the school.
“Ronni… he spoke urgently. “You can’t tell anyone any of this.”
“I won’t,” she said quickly. “It’s just… it’s not what I expected.” She looked up at Charlie with a sly grin on her face. It caught him by surprise.
“I know.” Charlie looked away, nervously pushing his fingers through his hair. “It’s a weird situation. Definitely. I mean… it was just by chance that I caught her that first time. She has this thing that turns her on… this fetish… and because I was the one who caught her doing it… and I’m the only one who knows about it… now I’m a part of it.”
“She likes the thrill of being naked out in public, and now she likes having you there to witness her do it,” Ronni murmured.
“Yeah. Right.”
“Because she knows you like to see her doing it. You like to watch her while she streaks.”
“Uh…”
“Oh, don’t pretend. Just about every boy in this school would like to see Michelle Santos naked. You’re no different.”
“I’m not pretending anything,” Charlie said. “I’m just not going to speak for Michelle. You’d have to ask her why she likes having me there.”
Ronni thought for a moment. “I know a place,” she murmured.
“What place?”
“A place where Michelle could be outside. Where you and her could walk around and no one would care.”
“Walk around?” Charlie struggled to understand what she was suggesting. “You mean where Michelle could… um…”
“Where she could walk around naked,” Ronni said matter-of-factly. “Outside. And you could take her there and be with her and Cody and Glenn would never know.”
“Where?”
“Have you ever been to Greenholt Gardens?”
“Yes…” Charlie said slowly. “We had a class picnic there in seventh grade.” He remembered green paths that wound through flower beds and groves of trees. A pond filled with koi. A wide green field where some of the boys had tossed around a football.
“My brother works there,” Ronni said. “He’s like the night watchman. There’s a restaurant there called The Shamrock, that’s open until 10 or 11, and after it closes, my brother says its just him. This big, beautiful garden, and it’s totally empty, all night long.”
“Except for your brother,” Charlie said.
“Right.” Ronni smiled. “But I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Charlie shoo
k his head. “Thanks for the thought. But I didn’t tell you all this looking for your help. I just felt like I owed you the truth of this thing I’m mixed up in with Michelle. If it’s too much, if you want to go with someone else to the prom, then I totally understand.”
Ronni leaned forward in her chair. “We’re going to the prom together as friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So that’s why I want to help you with Michelle. Because we’re friends.” Ronni gazed up at him.
“Okay. But you know, I can’t even tell her we had this conversation. It’s just between us, okay?”
“I know, Charlie.” Ronni pantomimed turning a key at the corner of her mouth, then smiled. “You can trust me.” She leaned back in her chair again and crossed her arms over her chest.
***
Charlie had trouble concentrating as lunch approached. He kept an eye out for Michelle in the halls but didn’t see her, and started to wonder if she hadn’t come to school that day. Maybe she’d skipped school for some reason. He thought about texting her, now that he had her number saved in his phone, but couldn’t think of what to say.
The lunch bell rang and he walked towards the cafeteria with grim expectations. She wouldn’t be there. He’d asked her to lunch spontaneously, after a long day, and she probably didn’t even remember she’d agreed to it. It made sense that she would forget. If she was even in school at all.
Charlie pushed through the doors into the cafeteria. He stepped to the side, out of the way of the steady stream of people entering behind him, and stood with his back against the wall. He scanned the cafeteria, and found Michelle immediately. She was sitting at a table by herself, almost in the center of cafeteria. He could only see the back of her head, but he knew it was her. His heart bounced in his chest.
This is it, he thought. I’m going to walk over and sit right in front of her, and everyone’s going to see us together, and everyone’s going to know that we’re a couple. Maybe in a weirder way than they can ever understand… but it’s the truth. Michelle Santos and I are a couple.
Saturday Night School 3: Naked Departures Page 3