by Jamie Knight
“Yeah, if it were me and any of my dad's friends, he would be through the roof. I would probably be disowned and forced to move in with you.”
“And what a tragedy that would be,” I joked. One of my favorite things about Grace was her sense of humor. No matter what was going on, she and I could find ways to laugh about just about anything.
“No, but seriously, I get that you don't want to upset your dad or mess up the relationship that he has with his friend, but when do you get to have your life? When do you get to just be a girl and do things that make you happy?”
She had a wild look in her eye, one that told me that, while she was talking about what was going on with me and Bradley, she wished that she could say the same thing for herself.
The words that she had for me she felt were also true for her. I nodded, knowing that her words had some truth to them. And, honestly, despite the possible outcome of things, I still wanted Bradley. He was incredibly sexy and I loved being around him. I knew that I had a small window of time to try to make things happen, since my dad would be coming home soon.
“So, what do I do?” I asked her. Grace thought for a moment, twirling a piece of her dark brown hair around her finger.
“Why don't you just tell him what you want?” she asked.
“There's no way that that will work,” I said, shaking my head. “He's too much of a gentlemen for that. Even if he wants me like I want him, his conscience will kick in and make him feel terrible. I can tell he has a strong moral code and would put being loyal to his friend and doing the right thing even over his own desires. It's one of the things that makes me really like him. There aren't too many guys these days who even care about things like that. But, it's something that he lives by. I can tell.”
“I don't know any guys who would pass up the chance to be with a hot chick, especially if she was basically serving herself on a platter,” said Grace, scratching her head. “But, if you say so.”
I could only hope that Grace ended up being right. Because I really, really wanted Bradley to take me for my very first time.
Chapter 16 - Natalia
By that time, we had made it to the food court. We walked up to the smoothie bar and ordered our drinks.
Grace got her normal green smoothie while I got a simple strawberry-banana one. We found a table and sat down.
“You remember that time we snuck into the movies and saw that foreign film?” said Grace, leaning in like she was telling me a secret.
I remembered that night vividly. Grace had invited me over for a sleep over and after playing board games with her parents all night and raiding the house for snacks, we decided that we were bored and wanted to find something to do.
“There is nothing to do in here,” said Grace. She was lying on the floor in her bedroom with her legs up on the wall.
“I know,” I said. “Maybe we should go out somewhere.”
I was half-joking when I made the suggestion. We were fifteen years old and neither one of us drove, so there really weren't a whole lot of places where we could go.
“Let's go to the movies,” said Grace. I laughed, assuming that she was joking. The movies were about two miles away and it was well after midnight. There probably wouldn't be any movies playing that late, anyway.
But, we decided to go anyway. At the very least, I thought, it will give us a chance to get out and get some fresh air instead of being cooped up in the boring house. Grace put on all black like she was a ninja. She packed a bag of snacks, a rope, a knife, and tape.
“What's the tape for?” I asked her.
“You never know,” she shrugged.
We climbed out of her bedroom window out onto the roof of the garage. There was a decorative ladder with vines on the side of her house that we climbed down. I went first and then Grace.
Right as Grace got ready to jump down, the ladder broke. We both looked up in shock, listening to see if we heard any footsteps. I remember holding my breath, thinking that her parents would come barreling around the corner, scolding us for trying to sneak out of the house. When no footsteps came, we made a run for it. We ran for about three blocks, stopping as soon as the house was out of sight.
We stood catching our breath, gasping for air.
“Is anyone following us?” asked Grace, craning her neck to look behind us. It was dark despite the scattered light from the lights lining the street.
“No,” I said, between breathes. “I don't see anyone.”
We kept walking. We talked and laughed the whole way. Before I knew it, we had made it to the theater. To my surprise, there was a movie showing.
It was a sexy foreign movie. I don't even remember the title of it.
We walked up to the ticket window. The guy standing at the window was a thin man with thin, blonde hair and thick glasses. He took them off, cleaned them, and put them back on, looking at the two of us very confused.
“Sir, I'm so sorry,” said Grace, sounding panicked. “My friend and I are a million miles away from home and lost and I don't have a phone and I'm on my period and... I just need to use the bathroom for a few minutes. Can I please do that?”
The guy opened and closed his mouth a few times, blinking so many times that I thought that his eyeballs were going to roll out his head. After about a minute, he came from behind the booth and opened the door for us.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “We're going to be in and out.”
We went into the bathroom and waited until he wasn't watching anymore. As soon as we had the chance, we made a run for the theater where the movie was being played. There were only a few people there. Some people were even sleeping. We crawled across the floor so that no one would see us.
“Let's go over to the exit,” Grace whispered to me.
I nodded, but I doubted that she saw me in the dark. We crawled like ninjas over to the door on the opposite side of the theater. Grace pushed it open and propped it open with her shoe. We crawled back out the door toward the lobby and the bathroom. We headed for the front door where the ticket booth was.
“Thank you so much,” said Grace again. “You have no idea how much that helped.”
“No problem,” said the guy, grinning. “Do you need to use a phone to call your parents?”
Grace looked confused for a minute and then remembered the story that she had told him.
“Oh, no that's okay,” she said. “I found my cell. I called them and they're going to come and get us soon.”
“Okay, well, if you want to wait inside, you can wait here in the lobby,” he said.
“No, that's okay,” she said, walking out the door. “We're going to go to the restaurant around the corner. I'm not sure how my parents would feel knowing that we were here considering the type of movie that's played this time of night.”
The guy's cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment.
“Uh...well... you ladies have a good night,” he said, turning to busy himself with something on the counter.
Grace and I walked out, trying to keep our composure. After the door closed, we burst out laughing. We laughed so hard that tears came out of our eyes.
“I can't believe that actually worked,” I told Grace, wiping the tears away.
“Well, it did,” she said, proudly. “Guys never know how to react when you mention anything about periods. Now, let's go around back to the door and watch our movie.”
We went back to the door that she had propped open, retrieved her shoe, and sneaked inside. We were slinking low so no one would notice us and found seats near the back.
The movie was very interesting. It was a story about a French man and a waitress. The man was such a gentleman that no matter how hard the waitress tried to get his attention, nothing ever worked.
Every time he came in, she made sure to make her interest known. But he was always very polite and professional. She figured that it was probably because he didn't want to seem forward at her pla
ce of work. So, she invited him over for coffee to her apartment that was nearby.
While at the apartment, she tried all types of things to try to seduce him and it seemed like nothing was working. So, she spilled coffee all over herself on purpose. It was funny how she hopped around jumping. It caught the guy off guard. She told him that she had to take a shower and asked if he would wait to make sure that she would be okay.
In true, gentleman-like fashion, he agreed, waiting nervously in the living room for her. She kept making noises like she was in pain. At one point, she called out to him to bring her some ice from the freezer. He ran hurriedly to grab it, almost slipping on an ice cube that had fallen onto the kitchen floor. He ran into the bathroom and caught an eyeful of her nakedness.
At first he turned away, trying not to look. But then, she told him to look at her. He started to really look at her and got horny. They ended up making love right there in the shower. It made me wonder what it would be like to make love for my very first time. I couldn’t wait. I still couldn’t, to this day—even more so now that I had found the guy to do it with: Bradley.
“My parents hadn't even realized that we were gone,” said Grace now, smiling at the memory. “My mom did ask a few weeks later how the ladder had gotten broken. I told her one of the neighbors must have done it. And she believed it because she had this theory for years that the neighbors secretly hated her.”
“That was the first time that I'd ever seen a movie like that,” I told her.
“Me, too,” she said. “But, it actually gave me an idea that might be helpful for you to seduce Bradley. Why don't you take a shower and make sure that he knows that you're taking a shower? Try to find a way to get him to see you naked. Leave the door open or walk out naked and go past his door. Maybe if he sees you naked, he will get so turned on, that he will throw out any bit of conscience that he may have and things will really get hot between you. You said that he kissed you back, right? If he wasn't attracted to you, he wouldn't have kissed you back. So, maybe this is just the encouragement that he needs to take things to the next level.”
She raised her eyebrows, giving me a playful look.
“I guess it's worth a try,” I said, thinking things over.
I wasn't really sure that it would work, but I remembered that scene in the movie. It was burned in my brain. The way that he let his passion overtake him, overriding anything that might have held him back, was mesmerizing.
The moans and screams of ecstasy from the waitress as he spread her legs, leaned her over, and plunged his hard dick into her wet pussy, not caring that the water was soaking his clothes, made me so aroused. I remembered that after returning home, I had fingered myself secretly in the dark as I thought about it. It had been the start of my fantasies about being fulfilled by the perfect man—and now, I had found him.
“Yeah, it is,” said Grace, smiling like the cat who ate the canary. “Just make sure that you don't spare any details about what happens. If he sees you naked, I'm almost sure that he won't be able to resist.”
Grace was so sure that it would work, it gave me hope—maybe it would.
Grace and I hung out a little while longer before we went our separate ways. On my drive home, I gripped the steering wheel hard, nervous about how things would go.
What if my plan was crossing the line so much that Bradley didn't even want to stay at the house anymore? How would I explain that to my dad? The thoughts were racing, along with my heart, and I almost decided to give up on the whole plan.
But, then I remembered that scene in the movie.
I could be the waitress. I wanted to be the waitress.
Chapter 17 - Natalia
I took a deep breath and walked into the house. Bradley was still sitting in the same spot in the living room. He had turned on the TV and was watching an old western.
“How did it go?” he asked, turning his attention to me as I walked in the room.
“It went really well,” I said, walking past him. “I'm just going to take a shower and head off to bed. I'm pretty worn out now.”
“Okay,” he said. “Well, good night. I'll probably be heading off to bed soon myself.”
“Good night,” I said, walking toward the bathroom. I just hoped that he would stay awake long enough for the plan to happen.
After getting settled, I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I got the water as hot as I could get it and the steam started to fill the air. I pushed the door closed, making sure to keep it open about a foot. I tried to peek around the corner, to see where Bradley was, but through the cloud of smoke and the darkness of the hallway, I couldn’t see anything.
Well, I could only hope that I put on enough of a show that he will be curious and come take a peek, I thought. I peeled off my clothes one piece at a time, being deliberate with each motion.
After I had taken off each article of clothing and had thrown them across the room, I put my ear to the door to see if I could hear anything. If he was standing out there, he was as still as a statue because I couldn’t hear a sound.
I sighed, frustrated that I didn’t know if my plan was working or not, but I decided to keep with it and see what would happen. I got into the shower and let the hot water cascade down my body.
The water felt glorious as it soaked me from head to toe. I put my head under the shower, feeling the hot stream covering my face. I peeked through the sheer shower curtain to see if I could see a shadow or a body standing in the doorway.
Still nothing.
I tried to think of what I could possibly do to get his attention. He might have already fallen asleep. My heart sunk thinking that he had. But I had already come too far to turn back.
I did the only thing that I could think to do. I started singing loudly. I was not a very good singer and I knew it.
In fact, I had had the terrible experience of having that confirmed at a very young age by a very candid classmate in middle school. I was at an age when puberty was not playing very nice. I was self-conscious about everything. My appearance. My personality. Everything. So, when our music class was preparing a show for a local nursing home, I thought that my voice would blend in enough with the rest of the class that my bad singing would go unnoticed.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
We hadn't even gotten through the first stanza of You Are My Sunshine before Ricky, the class clown, who conveniently had been standing next to me, turned toward me and gave me a look of complete disgust, like I had puked on his shoulder or something.
“Oh, man! Your voice stinks!” he yelled loudly, plugging up his nose with his fingers and waving his hand back and forth as if he were fanning the air in front of him.
Everyone broke out in loud and obnoxious laughter. I remember being surrounded in a sea of laughing faces and feeling mortified. I ran out of the music classroom and hid in the bathroom.
On the day that we were supposed to go sing at the nursing home, I pretended to be sick and stayed home. I didn't want a repeat of that music class. After that, I made it a point not to sing in public anymore.
And yet, there I was, standing naked in the shower, with the door slightly opened, belting out loud, in hopes that my terrible voice would make Bradley round the corner, wondering what breed of animal might have been dying in the bathroom.
I sang about four songs, peeking out to check if I had acquired an audience. I still didn't see him. I was very disappointed that my plan didn't work. I felt kind of silly thinking that it would have worked in the first place. There was a reason why that waitress movie was a work of fiction. Because the characters in the story acted according to the will of the writer, not the way that they would in real life.
I walked out of the bathroom, completely naked, in the direction of my bedroom, in one last ditch effort to see if I could run into Bradley. I didn't, though. I could hear the drone of the TV blaring loudly from the living room.
I thought back on w
hat I remembered of the movie. I kept going over and over what I remembered, to see if there was something that I missed.
Was it because I wasn't a waitress? Or maybe I was just too young to be trying to seduce someone like I was an experienced sexy woman? Maybe Bradley was on the phone right at that moment with my father telling him what his little girl was up to, and letting him know that he was on his way to the nearest hotel.
My mind raced and my heart beat fast as I turned over all the possibilities of what could have happened. Either way, I had to find out for sure somehow.
I found a sheer yellow dress with red polka dots that I had used as a bathing suit cover up and slipped it on, over my naked body. I didn't bother putting on any underwear.
I made my way to the living room, thinking that maybe I had been overreacting and that Bradley had just fallen asleep in front of the TV.
I almost had a heart attack when I walked around the corner into the living room and found him sitting there, wide awake, staring at the TV with his eyes wide open.
I screamed.
He jumped.
“I know that I must look scary, but sheesh,” said Bradley, clutching his chest. I could tell that he was joking, though. I forced out a laugh as I struggled to calm down myself.
“No, I just thought that you were sleeping and I came in here to turn off the TV,” I said.
“Nope, still up,” he said, looking at me and then back at the TV.
“Anything good on?” I said.
“Just a movie,” he said shrugging.
“Mind if I join you?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said.
He seemed very tense. I hoped that maybe watching a movie would help to lighten the mood, maybe bring back that same happy feeling that I felt when we were cooking and enjoying dinner together.