by Bryn Roar
Josie pointed to a space far from any other cars and Bud pulled into the lonely spot. Several moviegoers had come on foot, bringing with them beach chairs and/or blankets. Some even had mini grills with them, charring up hamburgers and hot dogs—something Grimes hadn’t allowed during his testy tenure here.
“You’ll barely be able to see the picture from back here!” Joel said, hopping off the back.
Josie leaned out her window. “Don’t you worry about it, Freckle Butt.”
“I know what you guys are gonna be doing,” he grinned, storing the information for later.
Josie held up a five-dollar bill. “Oh, yeah? And what’s that, you little rug rat?”
Joel snatched the hush-money out of her hand. “Watching the movie! What else?” And then he was off, sprinting across the lot like the Roadrunner.
Bud unfolded himself from the Jeep. He leaned in Josie’s window. “I’m going to the concessions stand for some grub and grog; can I get you anything, Red?”
“No thank you,” she said. She called out to him as he walked away. “Bud! Wait!” Bud turned and looked at her expectantly. “Bring me a small popcorn with butter...
“Um, better make that extra butter.”
“Theater butter? You hate that fake stuff, Joe.”
Josie smiled inscrutably. “Some napkins too, dear.”
When Bud started back with one large soda, a huge box of Raisinets, and a small buttered popcorn, the trailers were still running through. The closest car was Lester Noonan’s souped-up Dodge Duster. Thankfully it was more than fifty yards behind the Jeep. Bud did a double take as he walked alongside the Dodge. At first glance he thought Lester’s date, Tansy Wilky, was sitting on Noonan’s lap—then as Tansy began to bounce up and down, Bud realized what was really taking place in the creaking Dodge.
Tansy glanced up to see Bud gaping down at her. She smiled lasciviously. Not unlike that female chimp, earlier. Her fake breasts were exposed and barely jiggled, as she pistoned up and down on Lester’s dingus. There was a heart shaped mole underneath her left nipple that Bud at first mistook for a small tattoo. A teddy bear sat on the passenger seat, facing them. As if it was enjoying the show.
Because he had his face buried in silicone valley, Lester didn’t notice Bud standing there.
Bud didn’t stick around for the grand finale, and by the sounds ol’ Lester was making it wasn’t long in coming. Bud was on his way before Tansy could make an even bigger spectacle out of herself. He enjoyed seeing a naked chick as much as the next guy, but that weird looking scene had been a total turn-off. It had all the appeal of a hardened porn star getting it on with a shaved gorilla.
Bud turned his thoughts to more pleasant things. Like his newfound friend, Ralph Tolson.
Tubby Tolson had been cool, insisting that Bud take his stuff without paying. “Don’t worry, it’s okay with my dad. Besides, we all contribute; isn’t that right, Bud?”
Because it was true, all Bud could do was say thanks. His friends all had keys to the museum and hadn’t paid since the day they’d gotten to know one another; and of course, there was their private little pad on top of the roof. Rusty had contributed all of the second-hand electronics and appliances up in the clubhouse, bought from old man Cole, owner of the department store in town. Of the fourCreeps, Rusty had the best paying job. And Josie…Well, Josie contributed any way that she could. Quite frankly her presence was enough. She was the kind of friend you knew instinctively was one-in-a-million. Her capacity for love and compassion seemed to be boundless, and were, when you got right down to it, worth far more than she could ever hope to pay. Bud and Rusty refused to let her spend any of her hard-earned money on them, anyway. Even on their Tab at Peg Leg’s. They knew it went into the running of the O’Hara household. It was an unspoken thing. Josie was their unofficial den mother, and only an asshole would charge their mother club dues.
He slid into his bucket seat, tossed the napkins on the dash, and handed Josie her bag of popcorn, which she immediately rolled up and set on the floor beneath her seat. Bud rolled his eyes. Women. Who could figure them? She looked upset or nervous, and Bud thought of Tansy Wilky, parked half a football field away. “What’s wrong, Red? Did somebody say something to you?”
Josie smiled at him, those white teeth gleaming in the dark. Almost predatorily. Bud squirmed in his seat.
“Who could say something to me? You parked so far away, we’re nearly on the mainland.”
Bud choked on his root beer. “But you said—”
“Relax, tiger. I’m just teasing you.”
She placed her feet on the dashboard of the Jeep. There was something so sweetly erotic about that pose that Bud couldn’t look away. She noticed him staring. “Green flip flops. Not very nice for our first date, huh?” She let the flip-flops fall free, and put her bare feet back on the dash.
“Huh? Oh, it’s not that, Joe. It’s just I’ve never noticed how pretty your feet were before. How long have you been painting your toenails?”
“Thank you, darlin’’,” she said, wiggling her toes. “That just goes to show how un-observant you are. I’ve been painting me toenails since I was thirteen, and you were still picking your nose.”
“Oh,” he replied, not caring to admit he occasionally still indulged in that dirty habit.
He turned to watch the movie, which had just begun. Stand by Me. As Tubby had said the night before, one of the better Stephen King adaptations. Bud was looking forward to watching it on the big screen for the first time. He opened his box of Raisinets and poured himself a mouthful. Two boys on their bikes had just rolled by the narrator of the film, Richard Dreyfuss, when Bud realized Josie was staring at him.
He gulped down the massive wad of chocolate raisins. “You’re missing the show, Red.”
Josie leaned over in her seat until her face was an inch from his. The fresh scent of strawberries filled his senses. “I didn’t come here to watch a movie we’ve seen at least a dozen times before.”
Bud’s heart climbed into his throat. He’d intended on making his move halfway through the picture, to play it cool, but Josie once again was calling the shots. Well, at least this way he knew he wasn’t crossing over some hard-to-see line! Their lips collided and Josie’s tongue shoved its way into his mouth. She tasted the chocolate on his lips, his tongue, and his teeth, and sucked it back into her open mouth like a Hoover Deluxe. Before, their kissing had been a little tentative, more exploratory in nature. Now they kissed with total abandon, as if trying to climb down each other’s throats. Josie groaned, deep down in her gut.
Bud recognized it as a sign to go further. His hand crawled up the side of her shirt...
Josie broke off the kiss and leaned back in her seat, gasping for air. Her heart was beating hard, her desires getting ahead of her already. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took a deep breath. Bud hovered over her, transfixed by her breasts. They were lifting up and down, nearly out of Josie’s low cut blouse.
She felt like one of those swooning damsels on the cover of a romance novel. Heaving hooters and all.
Bud flopped back in his seat, squirming around like he had to pee. “I’m sorry, Josie.”
“Sorry for what, Buddy boy?”
“For, um… Hell, I don’t know. You seem upset, is all! I thought I’d taken it too far!”
“Well…”
“So I did go too far.”
“No, love. I just wanted to talk to you before things got too heated.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want to have sex. I’m not ready for that.”
Bud let out a sigh of relief. “Is that all?”
Josie frowned. “Och! Is that ALL? You act like you’re relieved or something!”
“If you mean, am I happy we’re not going to be having sex? Then no, of course not! Hell, I even brought a condom just in case. But I understand, Joe. Shit, we’re only 17 years old. Besides, this is our first date.”
“First date, fi
ftieth date…doesn’t make a difference. We’re not having sex for at least another year or two.”
“Okay,” he smiled, realizing Josie was also thinking of their relationship in terms of the future. It filled him with a sense of joy he never knew existed.
“Then what’s with that stupid grin again?” she said, exasperated. “This is not the reaction I expected from you!”
“Relax, Red. I just thought you were going to say things were going too fast; that we needed to slow down. You know…that we’d be better off as friends.”
“You thought that after tonight we’d just go back to the way we were? Best buds, and nothing more?”
Bud shrugged. “To be honest, I’ve kinda been waiting on it ever since you kissed me last night.”
“You idiot. Why would you think such a thing?”
Bud looked at her as if she was daft. “Because you can do a whole lot better than me, Joe. That’s why!”
Josie took Bud’s hand from his lap and held it. She smiled and laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, boyo. You, my future lover, are the finest man I know.”
Bud tried pulling his hand back to cover the evidence of his arousal. “Come on, Josie, let go…”
“Does it hurt?” she asked him, staring down at his lumpy jeans. It looked like he was hiding a rat in there.
Bud shook his head, too embarrassed to reply.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, love. I know how easy it is for a boy to become aroused.”
“You do?”
“Uh, huh. It’s not as if you can help it. The same way you can’t help staring at me tits.”
Bud reddened. “You’re right,” he admitted, finally wrenching his hand free to cover himself again. “You’re so beautiful, Joe. And…well…I just can’t help myself! It and my damn eyes do what they damn well please. I’m sorry.”
“Why do you keep apologizing? I mean, can you promise me you won’t get an erection every time we kiss?”
Bud made a wry face. “Yeah, right. I can pretty much guarantee I’ll get one every time.”
Josie giggled. “It does hurt a little, doesn’t it?”
Bud shrugged, wishing she’d talk about something else. “Not the erection itself, but my, um, my…”
“Balls?”
“Josie O’Hara!”
Bud looked so shocked that Josie had to laugh again. She saw him stare at her breasts, jiggling in her blouse, and this time she didn’t try to hide them; in fact, she leaned over further. The leather seat squeaked suggestively. “It’s called having a case of blue balls, am I right?”
“For the love of…where’d you hear that?”
“A little birdie told me. Listen, Buddy boy. I repeat: I don’t wanna have sex. But then again…I don’t want you walking around with a pair of big blue balls, either,” she snickered. “Not when that’s my doing, anyway. There are other things we can do, you know.” She waggled her auburn eyebrows suggestively.
Bud’s jaw unhinged.
Josie saw the look on his face and shot him down quick. “No! I’m not talking about that! Jeez alou! What’s with you boys and Blow Jobs?”
Bud could only blink at that. Hearing “Blow Job” out of Josie’s mouth was a surreal experience. She gently pulled his hand away from his pants. “Can I see it?” she asked him. Her voice was husky, deeper than Bud had ever heard it before. He nodded and Josie peeled his other hand away, too, allowing her fingers this time to brush against the straining denim. She pushed back on his chest, as stiff as the iron bar trapped in his pants. His breath came in hitches, his entire body trembling at her every touch. She felt like an older, more experienced woman, the way she was seizing control. Like Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Not the sexual neophyte she knew herself to be. She unbuckled his leather belt and laid both ends to either side. She pulled his shirt out of his pants and unbuttoned it all the way, letting her hands slide down his smooth chest, on down to his washboard abs, indulging in some long held fantasy come to life. His stomach looked so strong, so unyielding and yet it quivered like a frightened little animal, the muscles shivering underneath the taut skin.
“That tickles,” he said, shakily.
Josie reluctantly ceased her exploration and focused instead on his stubborn new blue jeans. After some difficulty with the waist button, it finally came undone. Josie looked up at Bud’s face. He was staring glassy eyed at her breasts again. The way she was leaning towards him, they were nearly spilling out of her peasant blouse.
“Would you like to touch them?” she asked him.
Bud searched her eyes and found their consent. When he made no further move, Josie stopped what she was doing and picked up his hand. She pulled it up to the swells of her breasts and left it there. She stayed that way, leaning towards Bud, her flesh available for his consideration, her face inches from his own. Their hot breath danced together. Ephemeral molecules of his cigarettes and citrus mouthwash consorting with the trace memories of her Close Up toothpaste and strawberry scented shampoo. She watched Bud stare down at his hand, lost in her soft curves, his fingertips slowly tracing her breasts. His feathery touch sent a shiver down Josie’s back. She had expected him to paw at her tits, like a hungry bear in a picnic basket. Hey, Boo-Boo! Look what I found!
Josie sighed. His tenderness was a sweet surprise.
“They’re so soft,” he said, sighing.
“Ohhh. That feels good, love.”
Bud acknowledged this with a childlike smile. His other hand landed on her bare knee, gently squeezing it. Josie trembled in anticipation. He may not have had any experience, but the boy was sure doing all the right things! Josie wondered if Bud had read Velma T. Larouche’s book, too. She was awash in tingly goosebumps. Her legs parted slightly, her loins aching for some untold friction. Bud’s hand dived between the warm crevice of her breasts, running slowly in and out of her cleavage, his fist making love to her cloistered tits. Josie’s breath was now the one coming in hitches. She gasped as Bud’s hand suddenly swooped to the front of her too-tight bra. The only man, other than Dr. Bidwell, to touch her there. His warm, callused palm cupped her nipple, so sensitive Josie gasped again, louder this time. Bud gazed in her eyes for a sign.
“Don’t stop now,” she implored him, her hand once more going to that fat rat in his jeans.
Bud felt Josie’s stiffened nipple expanding against his palm. Resistant and rubbery. In sharp contrast to the otherwise silky cushion in which it dwelt. The sensation of his zipper coming down, and the pressure against the tumescent head of his penis, while Josie fumbled around with his jeans, nearly caused an embarrassing incident. He distracted his libido while Josie tugged away at the denim. Mental diversions to forestall the inevitable flood. He lifted his ass a little to assist her, and suddenly there was cool air hitting his hot glans. Josie paused to stare down at Bud’s boxers. His penis was poking right out of the flap. As if it was a curious sailor, looking to see what all the fuss was topside. It was a thing of intimidating beauty, for it served only one purpose when so ponderous. Her own tender, traitorous flesh responded at the sight, preparing her for an act she had no intention of completing this night. Bud took a deep breath and pulled Josie’s bra aside. Her breasts spilled up and out. Even more beautiful than he’d imagined. He ran a hand over one, gently lifting it, weighing it in his wide, calloused palm; satisfying his boyish curiosity. He experimented with the swollen nipple, lightly rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger.
Josie whimpered. She grabbed Bud’s head and pulled it down to her breast, shoving the turgid nipple into his mouth. Letting him suckle her. “Gentle,” she quivered against him. “Oh, please be gentle!”