by N R Brooks
I went on. “Haha, okay. Well, not to go into the girlfriend bit, but after we broke up, I just kind of grew withdrawn with everybody and everything.”
“Did she do something to you?” She asked with one eyebrow raised.
“No, it was me. I was a real asshole and eventually drove her away. She did nothing wrong.” I admitted.
“How could you do such a thing? I can’t even imagine you being an asshole, well, at least not to me.”
“It took some punishment, but I straightened myself out. I promise I am a much different person than I was back then. I would never do anything to drive you away.” I said looking right into her eyes.
“I know you wouldn’t.”
“Anyways, after that, I just kept to myself. Just before my sixteenth birthday, my parents were killed in a car accident. That was the hardest day of my life.” I stopped talking after bringing up my parents. I could feel my throat tightening at the thought of it.
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to go on. I know how it feels.” She put her hand on my face and looked at me with an expression of worry.
“No, it’s okay. I’ve come to terms with it.” I didn’t want to tell her that I had actually had to go through the death of my parents twice in my life.
“Yeah, but you never stop missing them. I lost both of my parents when I was younger too. I was raised by my grandmother in my teens.”
“The one that gave you that book you were reading the night I made that guy leave you alone?” I asked.
“Yeah. Wait, how did you know that?” She asked with her eyebrow up again.
Shit. “I...uh...I saw the sticker inside the front cover when you were in the shower. It was on the counter when I got myself some coffee.” I felt relieved for remembering that.
“Oh. Yeah, she is Japanese and knew I had an interest in history, especially my own. She was put in one of the internment camps after Pearl Harbor, you know.” I was half tempted to tell her that unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the last time our country would pull such a dick move under the guise of ‘national security.’ I knew this was neither the time nor the place for that—plus I couldn’t just blurt out facts that haven’t taken place yet.
“I’m sorry she had to deal with that. One of those camps was not far from where I lived. That was definitely a stain on our history though. How did you lose your parents, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“My father died when I was just a baby so I never really knew him. Car accident, like your parents. He was an officer in the Air Force so they moved around a lot before I was born and for a short time after, at least until he was killed in that accident. My mother died when I was in my teens from cancer. I loved my mother. I still miss her.” She said looking incredibly sad.
“I’m sorry for asking. Since your parents moved around a lot, does that mean you weren’t born here in the city?”
“You’re right. I was actually born in Guam. My father was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base at the time. Shortly after I was born, we moved to Norton Air Force Base in California and that is where he got in his car accident. After that, my mom moved back here with me because that is where my Grandma lives. And the rest…well, I’ve been here ever since.
“You never really stop missing them. I know I haven’t. It has been twenty years and it still feels like I just lost them yesterday.”
“Yeah. Sadly, I can’t say the same about my dad because I never really knew him, but I miss my mom every single day.” The last few words trailed off in a weak sound as if her voice was giving out on her.
She looked at me, and I could see that her eyes had begun to water. I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. She didn’t back away from me or try to reject my advance. Instead, she leaned into my kiss and opened her mouth for me to taste her. Her soft lips were like candy to me. Her tongue slid up and down on my own, and I was feeling the hormones rushing through my body.
When we finally parted our lips from each other, I looked at her, and her eyes were still closed for a moment. When she finally opened them and looked at me, she began to smile and leaned back in to hug me tightly.
“I love you, Stan.” She said as I felt her breath on my neck.
“…I love you too, Keiko.” I whispered into her ear.
At that moment, I felt as though I was king of the world. We still had a lot to learn about each other, but I felt we had a deep connection that could not easily be broken. We sat there nestled into each other’s arms for a while until she reached down and put her hand between my legs. She knew I was excited and confirmed it by feeling my rock hard erection in my pants.
“I am ready to go back home, how about you?” She asked with a smile that I could hear in her voice.
“I am as ready as I will ever be,” I replied.
“I am burning up down there, I hope you are ready.”
I couldn’t speak. Hearing her say that nearly made me mess myself. I was ready to get it on right then and there, I didn’t care who saw. But I didn’t want anyone else getting a sight that was meant for my eyes only. I wanted her all to myself. She allowed me to adjust myself so I wasn’t flashing my excitement to the entire world. We got up and walked back to SoHo as quickly as we could. We were both ready and couldn’t wait to get back home.
When we arrived back at her studio apartment, we rushed through the door and didn’t even bother locking it. We immediately began kissing each other while struggling to remove our clothing. I was so hard that it was almost painful to take my pants off. It had been such a long time since I had been in this situation that I knew it was going to have a humiliating first round. But I didn’t care. I would be more than ready to go again.
“Do you have any condoms?” I asked.
“No need. I am on the pill.” She instantly replied.
“Oh, man. Well, I am just warning you now, it has been a very long time for me. So don’t laugh if I finish kind of quick.”
“Hahaha. I promise I won’t. It has been a while for me too.” She admitted with a smile.
When we were both completely naked, our clothes flung every which way, I picked up her petite frame and walked over to gently lay her down on the bed. When I set her down, I stared at her perfect body. I got down next to her and felt her nakedness with my hands.
“I have been waiting for this day my whole life,” I said in her ear.
“Please be gentle…” She whispered back.
I kissed her and propped myself above her. She grabbed my cock and guided it between her legs where I could feel the wet warmth of her body. As I slid inside gently, she sunk her fingernails into my back and released once I was inside of her as far as I could go. Once I was sure she was relaxed enough I began thrusting in and out at increasing intervals. No more than ten seconds later I could no longer hold out, and I released everything I had inside of her. Soon after, I could feel her wetness spasming on my cock.
“I told you it wouldn’t take long,” I said, half laughing at myself.
“I didn’t last long either.”
“Trust me, it is the biggest compliment you can receive.”
“Haha, I am honored. Are you good to go again?” She asked right away.
“Do you even have to ask?”
She got up for a moment to clean up the mess I made inside of her, so it didn’t make an even bigger mess during our next few rounds. Once we got back into it, we went until we were both completely exhausted. When we finally rolled over, struggling for breath and covered in sweat, it was dark outside. I looked over at her, and she was all smiles, the same as me. Today was the perfect day.
She looked over at me and noticed that I was just smiling at her. She looked away, and her smile slowly receded.
“You should move in here with me.” She said in a suddenly serious tone. “If you want to, that is.”
I looked over at her with shock at the abrupt change of mood. “Are you sure? You don’t think it is too soon?”
“Stan, I told you I love y
ou. I meant it.” She said now looking directly in my eyes.
“Oh, I do too! I just don’t want to impose on you. I don’t want to do something you aren’t ready for.” I said, running my fingers through her hair. “I mean, it would sure beat the hell out of sleeping in my car every night. I can only imagine how it is going to be in the winter.”
She sat up and looked down at me. “You are living in your car?!”
“Well yeah. I just picked up and left. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision. I had just enough money for gas and food.”
“That is terrible! Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“I didn’t think living out of a car would have been something you looked for in a guy. That isn’t exactly a common fetish.”
“I’m serious.” She said with an equally serious expression.
“So am I! I was afraid you would have thought less of me.”
“Of course not. Stan, I don’t know what it is, but when I am around you, I feel like it is what I was supposed to be doing all along. Like, it feels right. Does that make sense?”
It made perfect sense. I felt the exact same way. “Yes, it does. I know the feeling very well.”
“So you will stay here with me? I don’t want to be alone anymore.” She said almost looking ashamed.
“If that is what you want, then of course. I want you to be happy. And just being with you makes me the happiest guy in this entire city.” I said and gave her a peck on the lips.
“It would make me the happiest girl in this whole city.” She said and laid her head on my chest.
We laid there until we both fell asleep from exhaustion. And that is how I came to live with Keiko in her tiny studio apartment in Manhattan.
Chapter 13
Time flew by living with Keiko. I no longer had any need for my car except for drives out of the city which were typically just my trips to the gym two or three times a week. It remained parked across the street at the pizzeria. Pops didn’t mind. I still turned it on and gave it a quick drive since it was getting colder outside, and I wanted to keep the battery charged. Other than that, I just walked anywhere I needed to go on the island.
Despite Keiko’s wishes, I insisted on helping out with the bills. Even though my pay was only a fraction of what she brought home, I helped out in any way I could. I explained that I wouldn’t accept being a freeloader and that I would do my share. It took some convincing, but she finally acquiesced.
Over the next month, we got to know more intimate details of each other. I explained to her more about the chronic migraines I have had most of my life and the diagnosis I received just before moving here. She didn’t ask why I didn’t have it removed which I was thankful for. I didn’t yet have an explanation for that. I made a mental note to invent one in case someone else asked.
While explaining it to her, I had realized that I had not had a single migraine since she and I started seeing each other. Again, they were such a normal part of my life I would sometimes forget all about them. Even pain can become something you get accustomed to. When I brought this up to her, she gave me that beautiful smile I never got tired of seeing.
I learned that when she was a teenager, she was considered an outcast and received a good share of teasing and bullying. This was inconceivable to me. How could anyone want to tease or bully someone as perfect as her? She explained that she has always had to wear glasses, but when she was younger, she didn’t have ‘cute’ classes like she does now. She also apparently had braces as well as acne problems. However you would never know this by looking at her now. She had perfect skin and teeth. She insisted this came at a very steep cost. It didn’t matter to me. I told her I would love her all the same even with thick glasses, braces, and acne. I had a much harder time convincing her of this though.
I described the house I owned back in Idaho—though if we ever traveled there, I hadn’t thought about how I would get around the whole ‘double-me’ dilemma. I figure with everything I had to do here on the east, it would be quite a while before we ventured that far west.
We learned about the interests we shared outside of history and ‘nerdy’ stuff as we both referred to it as. I brought up my love for planes and all things aviation as well as space and astronomy. I discovered she is quite the avid gamer. As if she couldn’t get any more amazing. I pointed out to her that we would definitely have to hit up some arcades. I could only imagine what amazing places New York City had to offer for the gamers in all of us. My only regret was that I was back in the 32-bit gaming era—not that it was terrible, it was probably my favorite era of gaming. If only I could show Keiko some of the amazing games developers would come out with in my time. I wasn’t sure if she could handle such a leap in graphics and immersion all at once. Needless to say, the two of us spent many hours playing on her original PlayStation.
By mid-December, she was finally on a permanent schedule since her training phase had concluded. This limited the time we got to spend together as I was still working evenings and she was now going to work at 8am. She still continued to see me at the pizzeria when she got off work to make up for our lost time. It was probably for the better. Relationships where the couple is constantly together with few breaks don’t tend to last as long. It just made it that much better when we did see each other. Although, to be honest, I never got tired of being around her.
For Christmas, we completely spoiled each other. It was a Christmas I would never forget. I hadn’t been this happy since…well Christmas of last year—but in my original timeline. We both went all out on gifts. We knew each other so well that it was easy to get everything the other person wanted and more. At times, I was alone, and she was at work, I would occasionally get sad. I wished I could call my parents and tell them about how much my life had turned around and how happy I was that I found my perfect mate. But I had no family to call. Instead, I would talk Pops’ ear off when I worked with him. He would listen and offer advice just like a Dad would.
“I’m proud of ya, m’boy. You take good care of dat girl, ya hear? She is a keeper.” He would say to me on more than one occasion. He knew that she meant the world to me and then some. I think he just wanted to keep up the fatherly role as he knew that was one thing I missed the most in my life.
The New Year’s celebration was a blast. Keiko and I stayed up on New Year’s Eve and took part in the drop of the ball in Times Square. We stood out in the cold until midnight and counted down the last ten seconds of the millennium. When we got to zero, I was amazed at just how much paper confetti was blasted from cannons in the square. There had to have been tons of the stuff.
The walk home was a whole different story. It seems like New Year’s incidents might become a common occurrence for me. Not only do these incidents seem to happen on New Years, but they draw a few other parallels as well.
Once we grew tired from the New Year’s celebration, we decided to head home from Times Square by walking directly down 7th Ave until we got to Spring St. The first part of 7th Ave runs through the eastern side of the Garment District which has somewhat of a reputation for being dangerous. We figured since so many people were out for the celebration that we had nothing to worry about.
We were both tired since it was the middle of the night and we had been standing for hours waiting for the ball to drop at midnight. As we were walking through the Garment District, we passed by many rather dark alleys and passageways between the many high rise buildings. After passing one particular alley, I heard the shuffling of feet behind us, and I felt a dull whack on the back of my head. I must have only been out for a second or two because the next thing I knew, I was laying on the sidewalk, face first. I heard two people struggling and the sound of a woman yelling my name. When I looked up, I saw Keiko being held in a headlock by another person.
I got up to my feet, and when I was able to see the face of the man holding her, I instantly recognized him.
“Hey there, pizza boy. Long time no see! I told you to watch your ba
ck; it looks like you didn’t listen very well.” The man said to me.
I saw a gun in his hand, and he was pointing it directly at me. It was the douchebag from the pizzeria, and he brought a pal with him this time. He must have pistol-whipped me after we walked past.
“Let her go, and we will leave,” I said, not feeling so tough this time around.
“Oh no, not this time. This little princess is coming with me.”
I wanted to rip his head from his shoulders with my bare hands, but I couldn’t do anything with him pointing the gun at me. His buddy was just standing there laughing at us. Luckily he was not packing any weapons.
“Let me go, you motherfucker!” Keiko screamed while struggling to breathe.
“You keep your mouth shut! Better yet, let me shut it for you.”
The douchebag tried to turn Keiko around so he could stick his tongue in her mouth but she was not as helpless as some might think. She is not a big girl by any means. She is quite petite which means things like knees and elbows tend to be small and bony. This worked to her advantage because when the douche tried to turn her around so she was facing him for his unwanted sexual advance, she was able to break free of his headlock just enough to lift her tiny bony knee and jam it as hard as she could into his crotch. The odds of serious physical damage to his junk was very high as rather than yell, he let out a short high pitched squeak. But before he could cup his balls and fall to the ground in agony, Keiko was able to get another thrust of the knee in for good measure. Mr. Douche would not be having any children of his own any time in the near future.
The douchebag immediately fell to his knees, holding his crotch and wailing in misery until he vomited whatever he had consumed prior to our encounter. Taking advantage of him in his weakened state, I ripped the gun from his hand and pointed it at his buddy. I had no intention of shooting him—killing just wasn’t my style—but he didn’t have to know that.
“You going to make a move, asshole? Or are you going to get the fuck out of here?” I said to him while pointing the gun at his face.