Amoeba (The Experiments)

by Jacqueline Druga

  Cal finished what was in her glass as she sat with Billy by the fireplace. She cleared her throat. “Another, please.”

  “I’m with you.” Billy, lying on his side before her, poured some Jack Daniels into her glass and filled his empty one as well.

  “I can’t warm up.” Cal, wearing Billy’s clothes, brought her legs close to her chest.

  Billy rolled some on his back and reached to the ledge by the fireplace where Cal’s clothes were drying. He touched them and said, “These are gonna take forever to dry, we were pretty soaked.”

  “Yep.”

  “So.” Billy sipped his drink. “My father was the Stasis?”

  Cal choked as she swallowed her bourbon. How calmly he said the words. She looked at him, downed her drink, and held out her glass. “Another, and yes, he was.”

  “Did you ever worry about me?” Billy poured her some more. “Did you ever worry that I was like my father?”

  “No. Never. I knew there was something, you know . . .” Cal shrugged then sipped. “Special about you.” She looked down to him as he leaned up to drink from his glass. “And uh . . .” She rubbed her eyes.

  “What? Did you drink too much too fast?” Billy snickered, and finished his drink with a gasp and set the glass down.

  “Who, me? Please. I can drink half a bottle without feeling anything.”

  “True. So what’s wrong? You feeling sick?” Billy asked

  “No.” Cal shook her head. “You look really cute when your hair is messed up like that.”

  Billy burst into laughter. “And you aren’t drunk?”

  “No.” Cal set down her glass. “But I better be going. Can I get my clothes tomorrow?”

  “Sure. Not like I won’t see you.” Billy stood up and extended his hand down to Cal. “I’ll help you.”

  “Thanks.” Cal took his hand and advantage of the leverage he gave her. “I’m glad we got this talk out of the way. I feel better now. And again, I’m sorry.”

  Billy looked down to the hand he still held. “Cal, just tell me you don’t feel awkward around me now.”

  “Why would I feel awkward around you.”

  “Well . . .” Nervously, Billy scratched the bridge of his nose. “I uh . . . I did sort of blurt out feelings I really, really wanted to keep hidden from you.”

  Cal smiled stepping closer to him giving him a deep stare. “I’m flattered.”

  “And I’m . . .” Billy leaned down. “ … glad.” He flashed a brief smile, brought his lips to her cheek, and lightly kissed her. Pulling back slowly, his eyes connected with Cal’s again, and he stopped moving. The silence rang around them in a second that seemed like an hour. Breathing. Staring. Quiet. And then Billy lowered his head again to her, this time in his reach to meet her lips, Cal’s met his.

  A quivering nervousness was in the first light touching of their mouths, followed by a slow parting of their lips. And like a vampire with blood, they tasted the kiss that hesitantly ensued, and with a wanting of more, their mouths widened, pressing harder and deeper against each other.

  The ache of a moan escaped from Billy’s chest as he grabbed onto Cal, pulling her tightly against him, and his hands moved with restlessness up and down her back. Her lips and every part of her mouth responded to him like he wanted. And every second that they kissed was a second of intensity that the moment increased.

  Cal’s fingers crept with a probing under his shirt, feeling the bareness of his back and the strong thumping of his heart beating against hers. Her fingers spread wide as he pressed his waist against hers, and in feeling his excitement, a tingling engulfed her entire body. She gripped Billy, and his hands moved with a rigidness up her back and to her shoulders.

  He gasped for air, pulling from the kiss but not moving his lips so far away that he couldn’t feel Cal’s rapid warm breaths hitting against his mouth. He couldn’t move his eyes from hers, and there was an emotional desperation in his voice as he spoke to her through his heavy breaths. “I can’t . . . I can’t stop. I don’t want to. Tell me to stop, Cal.” Billy closed his eyes. “Please, tell me to stop.”

  Cal’s body tensed up in his hold. She trembled, her mouth still open. Her eyes rolled slightly feeling his body against hers, and Cal gave him his answer, running her hands to his chest, grabbing his shirt and lifting it up over his head a split second before her lips connected to his again.

  Kissing Cal, Billy’s hands seemed to move with a rapidness down across the long shirt she had on, to the ‘too big’ shorts she wore. Under the shirt to her waist Billy touched her as he backed her up in the direction of the bed. He undid the button, then zipper, and as Cal bumped into the edge of the bed, her shorts fell to the floor and Billy dropped to his knees.

  His hands grazed up the outsides of her thighs lifting up the shirt not only his hands, but with the top of his head as his lips searched out her chest. He widened his mouth in a hunger, bringing his lips to her breast, and Billy lifted her up laying her down on the bed.

  Contact between the two of them was broken only for a moment, just long enough for Billy to step from his shorts, leaving only his boxers on. He joined Cal on the bed, his body finding a place between her parted legs, his mouth finding hers again, in a search for a feeling that seemed so close. Billy’s moved with a smooth firmness against Cal as his hand pulled on the shirt she still wore.

  Cal’s hands reached, so out of control to Billy’s thighs, widening her legs more, inviting him to press against her as she slipped her hands under the back waist of his boxer shorts pushing them off. She shook her head ‘no’ when she felt him pull from her mouth and his body slide down a little. Her lips searched for his when Billy left her, raising her shirt up as he kissed his way to her stomach.

  His one hand reached up feeling for her breast, as his other hand gripped tightly to the inside of her left thigh, pushing it out more as he bitingly inched his way down her across stomach.

  Cal felt the coolness of the air hit her as she flung off the shirt. She then felt the warmth surround her as Billy’s moist lips touched upon the inside of her thigh moving slowly, teasingly inward, spreading her legs wider until . . . he arrived. Cal’s eyes closed tightly as if in pain. And there was an ache of need that consumed her, taking over her thoughts, her reasoning, her entire body. As if she were feeding in starvation, she couldn’t pull away, and the second Billy’s soft touch intensified, Cal was gone. Her back arched, she gripped the sheets of the bed, and from her chest, deep, yet soft, rolled the sound of her escaping pleasure.

  Billy moaned, too, bringing his mouth from her, sliding his lips up her stomach and his hands under her back. And before his body met hers completely, Billy stopped.

  There was a long stare between them. Eyes connected, thoughts transferring, hesitation. The quest for permission that they sought from each other ended when their open mouths pressed in a passion filled kiss once again. And Billy, one hand digging deeply to Cal’s lower back, brought his body up and grabbed the edge of the bed as he not only entered into Cal, but entered into a state of ecstasy that overtook him like nothing he had ever felt. He could no longer kiss her, the feeling he felt in his body so overwhelming. He pulled at the bed, lifting the sheets as he clung to Cal, bringing her as tight as he could against him. Cal’s fingers twined themselves in the thick locks of his hair as her lips bit into his arched neck. With each passing moment, and intense movement their joined bodies made, their skin moistened more with sweat, and the room filled with not only their synchronized breathing, but their unison soft moans.

  Billy slid his hand up to Cal’s hair as he rolled some onto his side, lifting her head and looking at her. “Kiss me. Please kiss me.” He breathed outward, locking his lips to hers, kissing her as if he were trying to pull something from within her. And Billy stayed in that kiss until his body could no longer do anything else but hold Cal as tight as he could, and let out that one last gasping moan, and freeze to a dead stop.

  Caldwell Research Center - Los Angel
es, CA

  March 22nd - 9:30 p.m.

  The flame of Barb’s just lit lighter illuminated her face with an orange cast as she ignited her cigarette while sitting in her seat before the monitor. She let out the smoke, allowing her mouth to stay open, her eyes still glued to the screen of Billy’s room. What she thought was ‘an end’ actually only turned out to be a pause, and she watched as Cal and Billy, intertwined and covers pulled partly over them, began to kiss. Slowly, passionately and holding on tight.

  Barb tried to be unnoticeable, yet her body was tense. She crossed her legs tightly, and shifted in her chair slowly, reaching for her water, sniffing loudly, and clearing her throat. “Well . . .” She took a long sip and cleared her throat again, this time sitting back. She moved her eyes to Greg who sat in the chair next to her. “I guess we know they got a hold of the drug.”

  “What makes you say that?” Greg asked in a monotone, his eyes transfixed on the screen, watching Cal and Billy kiss.

  “Because from my experience with the last experiment, and with this one, I know Cal, and she won’t even walk across her room in a towel without blocking out the camera. Yet . . .” Barb’s hand pointed to the screen. “There they are. How long will they . . .”

  “Don’t know.” Greg shrugged. “We’re kind of looking at our case study now.” He pointed to her cigarette pack. “May I?”

  Barb handed him one. “I have to say, even though it was, well . . .” She cleared her throat. “I expected it to be, how can I put it . . . more hardcore or pornographic.”

  Greg stood up as he lit the cigarette. “Like I have said all along, we can help magnify sexual stimulation, but we can’t generate the types of feelings that start them. Point taken.” He indicated to the screen. “Let’s make a copy of that tape and send it down to editing to have them make some stills for Lt. Col Graison, just in case Cal doesn’t tell him inside a week.”

  “I’ll take . . .” Barb’s heart pounded in her throat when her eyes moved to Jake in the monitor, sitting on his bed, reading something, so unsuspecting. She closed her eyes to shake the ‘feel bad’ feeling that overwhelmed her at that second, vowing the second Greg left she was going to blur Jake’s monitor so she didn’t have to see him. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “I’ll be in my office. I have to call Aldo.” Smoking the cigarette, Greg proceeded to leave.

  After Greg was gone, Barb started to follow his instructions. First she blacked out Jake’s monitor, then with a touch of a button, she switched the live feed of Billy and Cal to a new tape recorder, and rewound the one that had captured them thus far. Hearing silence in the control room, and seeing that she was completely alone in there, Barb fed the tape through another monitor, viewing what had transpired between Billy and Cal all over again.

  ^^^^

  Nearly dropping the receiver from his hand, Aldo hung up the phone with a heavy look upon his face. He ran his hand over the bridge of his nose, took a deep breath, and folded his hands. He stole a moment to get his thoughts together and to think about what work he would need to take with him when he left for Los Angeles as soon as his private plane was ready. Aldo wanted to go there so he would not miss a single moment as Cal and Jake took on what would probably be their most difficult obstacle course. And despite Greg’s assurance that nothing would be happening with Aldo’s team for at least a week, Aldo knew better. Aldo knew Cal. And if his gut instincts were right, it wouldn’t take a week for Cal and Jake’s troubles to start.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  I-S.E. Thirteen - The Island

  March 22nd - 9:45 p.m.

  When did it happen? When did they realize the wrong that they had done? It wasn’t during the act that was upon them that they realized, an act that had taken them from any logical state. It was somewhere still lost in the moment, still feeling consumed by urge. It was somewhere in their slow kissing, touching, after-moment-continuance, that it hit them.

  BAM!

  At the same time, like they had been awakened from a dream, reality rumbled toward them, roaring like a wave of the ocean, knocking them over and snapping them out of a place they should have never gone.

  Reality . . . consciousness . . . guilt.

  ^^^^

  As soon as Cal saw the face of her watch, her face tensed up in anxiety when she realized how much time she had been in that room with Billy. By the fire, she grabbed her now dried shorts, and stepped into them. Like a trailer to a movie, visions of what happened between her and Billy flashed powerfully in her mind, almost as if even if she wanted to forget it, her conscious kept saying . . . remember. Remember. Remember. Arms wrapped tight. Kissing. Hands and lips touching her in places that only Jake had been for years, places that only Jake was supposed to be. Pulling the belt to her shorts tight, she could hear Billy in the bathroom, and with a shivering breath, she slowly moved there.

  Billy coughed one final time as he leaned over the toilet holding on to the seat. His trembling hand hovered over his mouth as he reached and flushed the commode. He shifted over to the sink, turning on the water full blast, rinsing his mouth, then splashing his face, not noticing the water that ran down his bare chest. It was in his tight grip of the sink’s edge, head hung low, that he saw Cal leaning in the bathroom archway.

  Cal was silent. Billy looked as bad as she felt. Raising his head with a lost look, saddened, needing so much to hear answers that weren’t there.

  “Cal.” Billy spoke to her, water still dripping from his face. “It’s not . . . don’t think . . . I don’t want you to think I’m sick because . . .”

  “I know.” Cal pulled the hand towel from the rack and handed it to him.

  Billy let out a single emotional sound as he buried his face in the towel. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Cal.” He shook his head. “I never wanted it to happen under these circumstances. I never . . .”

  “Stop it.” Cal reached up and grabbed his wrist bringing down the hand that held the towel. “Just stop it. I was there, too. I was with you.”

  “But I blame myself for this whole thing.”

  “How? Tell me how?” Cal spoke with passion. “I was right there with you. There wasn’t anything that transpired in that bed that I didn’t reciprocate or initiate just as much as you. We, Billy, we are both partners in crime here. There was no one thing that led to another. Plain and simple, we lost it.”

  “I never wanted it to be like this.” Billy reached behind him, lowered the lid to the commode and sat down. “And know I’m not feeling like this over you. If circumstances were different I would be basking in this night.” Billy clasped his hands. “I just can’t stop thinking about . . .”

  “Jake.”

  “Jake.”

  Cal let out a heavy sigh as she slid down the archway to the floor. “Jake.”

  “I like Jake, Cal. I really like Jake. And even if I thought there was a chance for us, I would have never said anything to you about how I feel because of him. Know that.”

  “I know that.” Cal ran her hand down her face, reached to the floor, and lifted herself up slowly. “Well . . . .” She looked helplessly at Billy. “It’s time to face the music.”

  Billy nodded and stood also. “I’ll grab a shirt.”

  Cal shook her head. “No, Billy.” She walked from the bathroom.

  “Cal, I’m going with you.” Billy followed her, grabbing his shirt off the floor. “I want to do this with you. I was wrong, I was there. I can’t let you face this alone.” He tossed on his shirt moving quickly to the door after her.

  “I have to be the one to do this, Billy, and I have to be alone with him.” Cal opened the door and paused, looking out into the steady falling rain. Then, with a deep breath, she stepped onto the porch.

  Billy stayed with her. “Cal.” He grabbed onto her shoulders turning her, feeling the shaking of her body. “Oh my God, you’re trembling. Don’t do this alone.”

  “I’m scared to death, Billy.” Cal looked over her shoulder at her bungalow, the li
ght still on. “And I should be scared. I should. Because I’m just about to crush the person I love most on the face of the planet.” She laid her hand over his, squeezing it for a little support. Her breath shook as she took it in. Then Cal turned slowly around - rain pouring down hard on her - and, heart beating from her chest, Cal moved to her bungalow.

  Her one hand grabbed the door knob as she laid her other hand flush against the door. She closed her eyes tightly as she turned the knob, dreading with everything she was that first moment that her eyes laid upon Jake. And as she opened the door and slowly walked inside what she imagined she would feel was wrong. It was a thousand times worse.

  “Hey.” Jake smiled, setting down his book and standing from his position on the bed. “Look at you.”

  Cal felt as if there was an earthquake beneath her. Her entire body vibrated at that moment as she tried to walk. Her lips quivered, trying to speak.

  Jake walked into the bathroom and came out with a towel. “You’re drenched. What did he do, have you out walking in the rain?” He moved to her.

  “Jake.” She said his name with a near whisper.

  “So how did it go?”

  “Jake.” His name whimpered from her. “Jake . . .” If it was possible, Cal’s body shook more. “Listen to me.” She sniffled loudly.

  “You’re shaking, babe. God, you must be freezing. Why don’t we get you out of . . .”

  “Jake.” Cal grabbed his hand that reached for her clothes. “Listen to me. I . . . I was with . . . .” She closed her eyes, three heavy breaths of courage were taken and exhaled. “I was with Billy.” She opened her eyes, she had to see it. Seeing the pain on his face was part of her punishment.

  “I know. And for a while, too.” Jake shook his head. “So did you guys get everything resolved? I really hope because . . .”

  “Jake, no, listen.”