Writer's dilemma

[ilikeitlikethat18]

After Jason and the girls had left Starbucks with warm goodbyes and hugs, Denis turned to Jenna with a sly grin. "Wanna get out of here?"

"I'd love to." she allowed him to take her arm and they walked out of the courtyard.

"Do you want to take my car or yours?" he asked as they walked through the busy, loud cafe.

"I'd rather take mine. Can I drive?" she answered, grinning.

"Totally. I like a girl in charge." he winked and pinched her waist. They crossed the street and headed to her car.
___________________________________________________

Jenna woke up Thursday morning with a headache. The nights' events slowly started to come back to her as she sat up and grabbed the glass of water sitting on her nightstand. Jenna and Denis had gone back to the club they'd met at and danced for hours. Then she remembered all of the drinks...and kissing. Lots of kissing. On the dance floor...in the car...in his house...

She slapped herself mentally. Had she slept with him? She remembered taking her shirt and bra off while they were making out, but after that everything was blurred. She picked up her phone and dialed his number.

The phone rang for three rings, and when he answered, he groaned. "Goddamn, I drank too much. Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, umm...did we...?"

"No. God. No. I wouldn't...uh, we..." he sighed. "You gave me head."

"Fuck! How drunk was I?"

"Really drunk...but not drunk enough that it wasn't good." he tried to lighten the mood, laughing awkwardly.

"Man, you must think I'm such a hussy. I gotta go. I'm sorry. Thanks for um..."

"No prob. I'm going back to bed." she hung up and dropped her phone on the bed next to her. She couldn't believe she had cheated on Scott! She looked at the clock. 8 AM. She'd missed school, and she didn't care. She made her way downstairs and got some juice and a piece of toast, sitting down at the TV.

She put in a movie and laid back with a blanket. Now all she needed was some peace and quiet.

"Hey, sis." her brother said, coming down the stairs, leaving for work. Then he backed up, "I mean, HEY SIS, what are you doing home right now?"

"I have a hangover. Please leave." she groaned, starting to cry a little bit.

"Oh, shit. Baby, I'm sorry." he softened, coming over to the couch and picking her up. She tried to protest, but he just cuddled her into a hug. "I'm sorry I've been such an ass lately. Is that why you've been acting up?" she just nodded and he stroked her hair, "It's okay, cry." she cried on his shoulder and he just rocked her.

"I think I cheated on Scott." she cried. She didn't know why she was crying. It was probably the combination of being hungover, having cheated on Scott, not even remembering it, and the fact that she'd been skipping school a lot lately. She loved school.

"I love you." she whispered, taking a deep breath and starting to calm down.

"I love you too, sweetie. But I need to get to work. You going to be okay?"

"Yeah."

"Call me if you need anything. I'll be home in a few hours. Want me to get you some soup?"

"That'd be great. And some more juice?"

"Sure, Jen. Love you." he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

 

[HermesVoice]

“Shall I just write the Tennyson paper off, Mr. Rush?”

Professor Notting’s part-question-part-prod stayed with Jason throughout his Thursday. At times he’d been irritated, at times simply resigned to the fact that he’d never get the damned thing finished. More than Notting’s remarks, being so jammed on a piece of writing was what bothered him most. He stared ruefully at the conclusion he’d begun more times than he could remember. He ground his teeth. He paced. In the end, it was the phone and his friend Alex who released him from the torture of the task.

“Dude: Iceland in an hour. It’s been, like, three weeks, and those assholes from Woodside want to play. I’m on my way over, and you’re not ditching this week.”

In truth the call couldn’t have come at a more perfect moment. The paper aside, Jason had been running on a constant high since the weekend, one that was paradoxically fed by an almost impossible sexual frustration. He’d gotten himself off, but Sara’s touch – the smooth coolness of her fingers on the flesh of his cock, the smell of her musk, the taste of her – these were the things he’d subsisted on since the sultry July afternoon they’d first made love two years earlier. Casting back through his memory as he threw his skates and pads into his bag, he couldn’t recall the last time they’d spent a week without the feel of each others’ touch.

“Good,” said Alex later as they drove together to the rink, Jason bemoaning the fact that he was essentially single at the moment. “Take it out on the them” - by which he meant the guys from Woodside. The neighborhood rivalry between Woodside and Strahle St. pre-dated Jason’s childhood, but its lineage only made the occasional scuffles more bitter. Hockey between them was endlessly chippy, and both groups of players had been barred from a rink for the violence of their play.

Alex and Jason had been fighting these wars since childhood, skating pee-wee hockey, then on various travel teams, finally playing through high school together. It was only at graduation that they’d parted ways: Alex opting for an apprenticeship in the steamfitters local while Jason went to college. The weekly pick-up games and three rounds at Jimmy’s afterwards never changed, though, and Jason confessed he’d relish the certain brutality of the tonight’s game. Only the beers afterwards would be better … Sara was meeting him there.

The game itself was as rewarding as he’d anticipated. Down by a goal with only ten minutes left of their ice time, Jason had – accidentally - plowed through Woodside’s goalie while Alex snapped a shot past them into the open net. The goal mattered less than the goalie, and it was only the intervention of several of Iceland’s managers that kept the post-goal shoving from becoming a fistfight. It was with the same angry enthusiasm the Jason plowed into corners and separated Woodside defenders from the puck, yapping incessantly as he did so. He’d never been a great skater anyway and when young had adopted the great Esa Tikkanen as his role model. Alex and another of their friends had taken to calling him “Trash” when they were all in middle school, and the name had stuck.

“Nice one, Trash!” Alex had laughed when the post-goal scrum was over.

And “nice one, Trash,” was the last thing Jason heard growled behind him just before he felt the hard length of a stick jammed into his shoulder blades, propelling him head-first into the boards as he dug for a puck, mere minutes before the night ended.

It was only later at the hospital, waiting for the results of several neuroscans, that he got the full tale of the crosscheck into boards, of crashing to the ice, of the stretcher ride out and the ambulance journey to Our Lady of Mercy. Jason remembered none of this, although the attending in the ER assured him, in a rich Lebanese accent, that he’d been semi-conscious the whole time.

“You’re concussed, Jayce,” Sara told him quietly when they were alone, her fingers stroking delicately through his hair. She’d bolted from her Tae Kwon Do practice when Alex had called her with news of the event, and she’d arrived at Our Lady only minutes after Jason had been rolled out from his CT scan. “They’re keeping you overnight to be sure you’re okay.”

He didn’t mind when she laid her head next to his on the pillow, and if the floor nurses had any objections, they did not express them, even when they entered the room later to find the small Asian girl in the karate gi curled in bed next to patient Jason P. Rush, grade four concussion.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna spent most of Thursday tossing and turning on the couch, the blanket pulled up to her neck. She got up a few times to take some asprin and another few to get some juice and more toast. The last time was to throw up in the kitchen sink. That was when she realized that she couldn't even keep toast down.

Sometime between the Matrix and American Pie, Jenna fell asleep. She woke up to her brother calling her name. She had been having an intense nightmare, and had started to sweat. She had thrown off her blanket and apparently removed the rest of her clothes besides her panties. She opened her eyes to see her brother shutting his tightly.

"I...uh.." his eyes blinked open and he put his hand over them. "I'm sorry...I came home...you were asleep...and naked...and...I..."

Jenna blushed bright red. "What time is it?" she pulled the blanket over herself.

"Five-thirty. You feeling better?" he asked as she sat up, adjusting her body on the couch.

"Yes, actually. I feel a lot better."

"Wanna go get something to eat?"

"I'd like that."

Jenna wrapped the blanket tightly around herself and made her way upstairs, taking a warm shower. She had only planned on taking a minute, but the spray on her back felt so good, she let out a whimper. Memories of the night before with Denis came back to her. She slid a hand down to her pussy, which was wet, and not just from the water. "Oh god."

Before she had only remembered things from before their clothes were off, but now she remembered...much more.Images flooded her brain of the night's events.

Jenna was bent over the bed, with Denis on his knees behind her, spreading her firm, perfect ass open. His mouth was against her pussy and one of his hands slid between her thighs to rub her clit as he slid a finger inside her pussy. Everyone in a 200-mile radius could have heard her moans, as far as Jenna was concerned. The pleasure Denis inflicted on her was incredible, she'd never felt anything like it. He must have had tons of practice, the way he ate her, and his fingers rubbed the inside of her tight pussy walls.

Jenna shuddered, her fingers moving in and out of her cunt as her back arched, one hand pressed against the shower wall. "Yes, oh yes, yes, yes." she whimpered, screaming out so loud, she was sure her brother could hear her downstairs. She bucked forwar as she came all over her fingers, her hips jerking and thrusting as her orgasm wracked through her body.

Once it was over, she groaned and sank to her knees, as she had so many times before, but this time more intense than the others. She finished washing up, and turned the water off as it turned cold.

She ran to her room naked, drying herself off and getting dressed quickly. She came down to see her brother sitting in the living room, looking a little uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?"

"Your...uh..." he pointed to her bra.

"Oh, sorry." she picked it up and threw it towards the stairs.

"You ready?"

The two siblings made their way out to his car and he smiled at her as he started it. "You really are a good sis, even if I'm a bit hellish sometimes."

"I love you too, Matt."
______________________________
Friday came and Jenna actually got up and went to school, going straight to see the principal and sweet talking her way out of all of the demerits and red marks on her student records. She was good at sweet talking, and everyone knew it.

A couple of people asked her to come to a party that night, but she declined. She didn't have any plans yet, but Denis was awful last minute, and she knew he'd be texting or calling sometime soon to invite her out. She saw Matthew in the parking lot after school and ran to see him. "Hey, you're picking me up?"

"Yeah, though't I'd be nice for a change." He grinned and started the short drive home.

 

[HermesVoice]

Whether by trick of the jarring his brain had taken or mere wishful thinking, he couldn’t tell. But hours later, sitting in his apartment, Jason still felt Sara’s lips on his own. He also wasn’t sure if it was relief or torture that the memory of the kiss at their parting wasn’t making him hard. The dawn light, pale in golds and roses, had been just washing down the city when they’d released him from the hospital (two prescriptions in hand). She’d slid her hands under his shirt, running them up the muscles of his chest as she raised her lips to his with a quiet, “See you tonight, champ.”

Memories like that and the promise implicit in her farewell normally had him running a low grade fever of anticipation for the rest of the day.

Today he slept.

Or took anti-nausea pills.

He considered picking at a story he’d been developing, but the light from his laptop made him feel like a ten-penny nail was being driven into the ridge above his left eye. So at noon Jason simply gave up and left the apartment wearing the darkest sunglasses he could find.

“Coffee, bitch,” he growled into his phone on his way to the shop.

“Geez! Thanks for the invite, Jayce!”

Amy was not his first choice for company, not least because even in her sarcasm she managed to sound too much like a cheerleader, but she was the only one free at midday, having no Friday classes. And her refusal to work – unlike her sister who held down two jobs – made sure the little blonde was always ready to accept offers for freebies. (Jason tried to recall if he’d seemed so clueless in undergrad school. The thought only made his head pound harder.) All that aside though, she was good company if you wanted to listen instead of talk. There was no gossip she wasn’t up on, and she genuinely loved sharing it out. It might be blather, but her enthusiasm for it could be infectious, and in his current condition, any material deeper than the latest Brangelina news would likely put him back in the hospital.

“Oh. My. GOD!” she called to him with a wave as she walked away from the counter, latte in hand. True to form she finished with, “Did you hear about Tiger WOODS?”

Contented that all was right with the world if not with his aching brain, Jason slouched back in his chair and let her talk.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna and Matt chatted the whole way home, and she was surprised at how mature her brother really was. It seemed he just gave her a hard time as his way of venting. He never got over their parents death, just like she hadn't.

Once he dropped her off, he told her he had a date with Stephanie. She shrugged, "Have fun. But if you try to fuck her, I'll kill you." she kissed his cheek and ran upstairs. She was sitting at her computer when she got a text from Scott,

"We need to talk. Can I come over?" she rolled her eyes,

"Yeah, sure."

"Five min." she was about to reply when she got another text. Denis. This put an instant scowl on her as she opened it.

"Dinner tonight? And a movie? A real date. I feel bad for letting you get so drunk. I really like you." She softened, a smile lighting her face up.

"I would really like that."

"It's four now, right? Pick you up at six thirty?"

"Sounds good. What should I wear?"

"You could wear a bag for all I care, and you'd look hot."

"Cute. Seriously."

"Something fancy-ish. Gotta go, see you soon beautiful." She set her phone down and went downstairs to sit on the front porch.

"Hi Scott."

"Hey..." he said, not sitting down next to her. His hands were shoved into his pockets and he wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Out with it."

"I slept with someone."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. And I feel so fucking guilty and stupid, I haven't called you or seen you and...I feel like shit, babe...I don't want us to...end...I...I love you, Jenna. You're the most amazing--."

"Are you SERIOUS?"

"I was drunk and she was all over me and afterwards she said she'd tell you if I don't. But I didn't know what to do, I felt so bad."

"I need to think."

"I don't want to break up."

"Well, we're not. But I need to think. I can't believe you couldn't wait!"

"I just..."

"NO! Go...just leave." She turned and went into the house, slamming the door so hard, it shook. Matt was getting ready for his date and poked his head down the stairs.

"Sweetie?"

"Scott fucked someone." she stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Thirty minutes later, she sat up, wiped her eyes and went to get ready for her date. She was still upset, but she knew going out and having fun would make her feel better, and she deserved it.

 

[HermesVoice]

“Well, folks,” Denis said, snapping closed his phone before leaning backward and stretching, “gotta’ go. Date with Jenna.”

Amy was the first to roll her eyes at his preening, but her sister was barely a second behind. For Jason it came as neither surprise nor disappointment. It was Denis being Denis, so Jason merely contented himself with dropping his sunglasses far enough to peer over the rims. “Got there already, didja’?”

He’d intended to have some fun with his friend, to embarrass him a bit, but Denis instead grinned broadly.

“Ooohh, you have NO idea, brother,” he replied, standing to slip on his jacket.

“Gross, Den. TMI,” Amy sniffed before glancing over to her sister for back-up. Claire, however, having first listened to the story of Jason’s concussion and all-nighter at Our Lady of Mercy, had been working studiously on several edits for Words-worth posters since she’d arrived with Denis a couple hours earlier. Having offered her one commentary on Denis’s announcement, she’d withdrawn back into her laptop and the website.

For his part, Jason was pretty certain that part of Denis’s current braggadocio was intended to lay firm claim to their new red-headed friend. Although nothing more was spoken of the events that caused them, Jason had a passing suspicion that some bizarre doubts lingered in his friend’s mind regarding Jenna and himself. Den was normally inclined to share his romantic attachments, but he generally kept the gory details between himself and Jason as “strictly guy talk.” His willingness to publicly suggest the intimate stuff between himself and Jenna was out of character, so much so that Jason was tempted to dig him again. On the other hand, Jason doubted his headache, teetering precariously at “barely extant,” would stay there if Denis decided to get genuinely angry, and he was pretty confident that the pain in his skull would move quite quickly from “throbbing” to “sledgehammer” once it got rolling.

Anyway, one never knew how Denis would read the teasing. Jason could well envision the scenario in which Denis would point accusingly at him, spilling coffee all over the floor as he tipped over the table while denouncing Jason “jealous of me and Jenna!” Besides, his friend was so damned happy at the moment, it would feel like kicking a puppy to further bait himm so instead he rose himself, reaching for his jacket.

“I’m out, too.” Glancing to Denis, now busily fishing through several pockets for his car keys, he added for good measure, “Sara’s coming over after work.”

“That’s early,” Claire offered, not looking up from her computer.

“It’s been awhile,” Jason responded, grinning wickedly as both sisters looked up.

“What IS it with you two today?” Amy shook her head, crinkling her nose, a remark that only brought guffaws, followed quickly by chest thumps and high fives, from the guys.

“C’mon, Jayce, I’ll give you a lift home.”

Jason smiled up at his friend. “Right. You even THINK about putting on the metal, though, and we’re gonna’ have trouble.”

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna was all dressed and ready to go, even if her mindset wasn't that you would expect of a pretty girl going on a date. She wore a blue bra that held up perfect tits and a blue dress that showed just a hint of her creamy cleavage. She went without panties, only because the dress was a little too short and a little too tight. She bent over the counter to look in the mirror as she fixed up her eyeliner and eyeshadow, blinking as she stood up.

Her phone rang and she answered after a few rings, "Hey."

"I'm outside, sweetheart."

"One minute." she hung up, slipping on her blue heels and grabbing her purse. She left the house, locking the door behind her. Denis had gotten out of the car and walked up the path towards her. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"You look gorgeous, Red." he slid his arm around her waist lightly and they walked together towards the car. He opened her door and waited until she got in, shutting it after her. Once he was in the car, he gave her a real kiss, pulling a short whimper from the back of her throat as he nibbled her lower lip, pulling away.

"Denis..." she whispered. He just grinned and patted her thigh.

"No worries, babe. We're just gonna have a good night, right?" He slid his hand up her smooth leg to the inside of her bare thigh, and noticing no panties, his eyes darkened, his hand pulling away, "Oh no. You're being a bad girl tonight, aren't you, Jenna?" she just grinned and batted her eyes at him.

 

[HermesVoice]

Jeff Buckley greeted him as he opened the door of his apartment, singing of longing , pearls, and a kiss.

Sara was already home.

“And just where have YOU been, Rush?” She had a fleece wrapped around her, its silky grey highlighting both the rich gloss of her hair and the toned firmness of her legs when she uncurled from his chair. “I figured you’d be home … in bed … maybe waiting … ?” She said it quietly, hinting a soft teasing pout as she moved to run one finger down his chest, stopping at the top of his jeans to smile up at him. As always in such moments, those when Sara offered herself in murmured smolder, Jason was tongue-tied. It was a power over him the small girl knew well and well knew how to play with. She let the blanket fall open just far enough to reveal how she’d been waiting.

Her panties and camisole, all she was wearing beneath the fleece, were virgin white, accenting her own gorgeous tones, the cami cut high to reveal the tight smoothness of her belly. A thin chain, one Jason had never seen, glittered around her slender waist, but when he moved one hand to touch it, to glide his finger around its length and pull her to him, Sara reached down to take his hand in both of hers. Bringing his fingers to her lips, she ran her tongue over each, all the time her dark gaze never leaving his own.

Jason groaned softly when she wrapped her lips around one finger, biting gently before sucking along its length. After more than a week, he’d grown instantly hard when he’d opened the door to find Sara already there; now his cock ached desperate, the throb echoing lightly in his head. As if sensing this, Sara reached one hand forward to run her fingers through his hair.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“Mmm-hm … can’t really talk …”

“S’okay,” she murmured. “You don’t need to.”

And with the words she slid his hand, still in hers, down her breasts and over her belly. Jason groaned again when she guided him to feel the silken wetness of her panties. “I was waiting like a good girl,” she breathed, “but you were taking so long …”

The words became a gasp when Jason pulled her roughly to him and then changed again to a softly mewled “oh my God” as he slid his fingers beneath her panties, running his middle finger with a single thrust into her slickness. Pumping slowly, grinding the heel of his palm against her clit with every push, Jason felt her begin to tremble. Her eyes were closed, her head rolled back, opening the line of her throat to him, but he shoved aside the urge to kiss her there and instead dragged her mouth to his. He tasted liquorice and green tea while somewhere behind him Buckley sang of coffee and lilac skin, the music a soft accompaniment to Sara’s whimper when he slid another finger into her.

Pressing her to the apartment door, Jason continued fucking her with his fingers until Sara cried out, her body collapsing into a single long shudder. As he fell into her relaxed bliss, Jason felt the shimmering edge of the throb in his head retire. It flickered again into uneasy life when he picked her up and carried her to his chair, but he couldn’t care: It’s been awhile, he recalled saying to Claire, and in the quiet of the apartment, Sara grinning with contented wickedness as he carried her in his arms, he felt every minute of their abstinence.

“Your turn,” she smiled long minutes later before sliding off the lounger to kneel before him. One small hand drifted up his thigh to unsnap his jeans, and with a single long pull, Sara dragged down his pants, finishing the gesture by running her hand up his cock, now straining desperately against his briefs. Jason inhaled sharply …

… and with the breath his head exploded.

“Ow! Oh Christ! Fuuuck!” He staggered backwards, unrealizing and barely able to focus for the roaring flashes that blared through his skull. When the back of his knees hit the chair, he simply collapsed into it with a long moan.

Sara was kneeling at his side, stroking his head, worry creasing the smoothness of her forehead. “Jayce! Jayce, baby, are you okay?” How many times she said it while he waited for the agony to subside, Jason couldn’t say. It was only left for him to nod and smile weakly at the end of it before croaking, “Not tonight, dear. I’ve got a headache.”

Later he had a vague memory of Sara helping him to bed, but beyond that he remembered no more.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna thought that Denis was just going to push her skirt up and start touching her, but instead, he kept his warm hand pressed firmly to her thigh, his strong fingers brushing small circles along her leg. When she breathed a sigh of relief, he shook his head, "You don't think that's all you're getting for this." he gestured to her bare pussy underneath her dress, brushing his thumb along the front of the hem, teasing her.

"Ah, but..."

"Sh." He grinned and pulled into the parking lot of a nice Italian restaurant. He parked the car and quickly walked around to her side of the car, opening the door and putting out his hand. She blushed bright red and grabbed her purse, taking his hand and getting out of the car. "You really are fantastic, huh?" he let his hand brush over her ass as he put his arm around her waist.

He opened the door to the restaurant for her, being a perfect gentleman as they were led to their booth. He ordered some wine, and she hoped that they wouldn't ask both of them for ID, as many places did. But the wine was brought to Denis, and poured.

"So." he said, meeting her eyes with his, causing her to blush yet again, as she felt his foot brush hers under the table. "I don't normally do this, you know...seducing another guy's girlfriend."

"Oh, you're not the bad one here. Plus..." she fiddled with the napkin in her lap, "He cheated on me."

"Man, did you dump the bastard?"

"Hey. I've been with him for a long time. He's a good guy. He...just..." she trailed off.

"What? Why would any guy be crazy enough to get it somewhere else?"

"Because he's not getting it from me, okay? I'm still a virgin." she looked down, not wanting to see his reaction.

 

[HermesVoice]

When he awoke, the world was still dark. There were great wads of cotton in his mouth, and for some reason the digital clock was fuzzy when he rolled over to check the time. He picked it up to shake it once, but the damn thing was obviously broken, refusing to respond to his abuse. His head, on the other hand, registered the jarring perfectly.

“Balls!” he groaned weakly, leaning back gently into his pillows. He couldn’t remember feeling worse in his life. God knew it wasn’t his first concussion; he’d suffered a handful in high school and college, but Jesus, nothing like this.

Laying quietly he hoped to fall back into the forgetfulness of sleep, and he seemed just on the verge of doing so when he was pulled back into his bedroom by the insistent buzzing whine of a huge mosquito. Rolling over, he tried to ignore it, but the damned thing wouldn’t stop, and it was only when he cracked one eyelid to peer around that he realized it was Sara’s phone, vibrating around on his nightstand. She’d gotten the idiotic mosquito ringtone from God-only-knew where because she thought it hilarious. Jason had never hated the fucking thing as he did at this moment, and he was just reaching for her phone with every intention of hurling it through the open window when Sara came scrambling in.

“God! I’m so sorry, sweetie! I was in the kitchen and forgot I left it in here.”

She snapped the phone up just before Jason’s own hand could reach it and sat down next to him, her fingers rubbing in small circles at one temple while she flicked the phone open.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Denis' eyes flashed as Jenna confessed to being a virgin, but she wasn't sure what the meaning behind them was. Was he turned on by this? Angered? Did he want to just end the date, as many guys had before she'd met Scott? She shook her head,

"Anyways...let's just enjoy our date, right?" she smiled sweetly and put her hand over his on the table, as the waiter came over to take their order. Denis wasn't even looking at her as the two ordered, the waiter took their menus and walked off towards the kitchen.

"That's intense. I've never...been with a virgin." he stuttered.

"Well..." she bit her lower lip, "And you might never be." she shrugged, "Honestly, whether I was or not, I don't think I'd cheat on Scott like that."

The two chatted for a few minutes, and the awkwardness faded. They were served their food, and ate mostly in silence, except for Denis' constant joking and Jenna's soft, inviting giggle. "You're absolutely hilarious." she said genuinely, as the two walked outside, shivering as the breeze hit her.

He put his arm around her shoulders, bringing her body close to his. "The movies is a five minute walk from here. Mind walking?" He looked at her in time to see her shrug, which he took as a "no". "Great. Let's go."

 

[HermesVoice]

It was only through the vaguest of hazes that Jason heard Sara’s responses on the phone. She’d been on only a minute, listening to the voice at the other end, but Jason could feel her body tense in excitement. He could also hear the smile in her voice when, with a gasped “really??” her fingers stopped stroking his hair.

Work. It could only be work.

And with the realization, Jason pulled the covers over his head, burrowing downward until his feet hung over the bottom of the mattress, shoved from under the blankets into the coolness of the room. He found he liked the chill on his toes. For some reason it made his head hurt less.

“Yep!” he heard and couldn’t help wincing at the brightness of Sara’s tone. “Yep! I have it together, Mr. Stevens … the team, too. Sure … sure. Tomorrow!”

She’s leaving town.

Jason knew it with sick certainty. He recalled her phone call earlier, recalled something about “Dallas.” And now he understood with a clarity that defied his jarred synapses, that Sara was going to Dallas. That her team had pulled off a minor miracle in the Franklin Industries IT bid, and she was going to their corporate headquarters in Dallas to finalize the deal and set up the services.

He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to groan or weep, but he managed a smile when Sara clicked shut the phone and whispered, “Jayce! Jayce, honey, I have some awesome news!”

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna and Denis walked to the movies, arm in arm, chatting about numerous pointless things. The difference between Denis and Jenna's boyfriend was that she could talk about plenty of intellectual things with Denis. They both shared the passion of writing, something that would often bore Scott.

When they finally ended their heated discussion about which poet they had read most throughout their childhood's, they realized they had been standing in front of the movie theatre for nearly twenty minutes. They giggled and stepped up to the ticket booth to choose a film.

Jenna's phone had been buzzing incessantly throughout her entire "date" with Denis, and she chose to ignore it, knowing it was likely Scott. Somehow she had convinced herself that she and Denis were just friends. But as his hand rested at her lower back and his lips brushed her ear, she knew she was lying to herself.

She pushed the negative thoughts from her mind, and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll be in there in a sec. Gotta stop by the lady's room!" she winked and watched as he walked off towards their movie. She entered the bathroom, looking down at her cellphone as she did.
"Jeeeesus Christ." 37 missed calls?

 

[HermesVoice]

Jason sipped gingerly at the Sambuca in front of him while Sara gushed on about Franklin Industries and IT design. They sat at the made-for-two kitchen table, Jason having crawled out from under the covers at her gleeful declaration regarding the bid. He’d poured himself the drink – an absolute necessity in his mind - within five minutes of sitting down to talk with her about trip. The peppery liquorice of the drink was a tonic, not just for the ache in his head, but for the notion that he’d be without her for a week. He was already planning to stockpile two more bottles on the way back from the airport tomorrow.

Survival strategy he thought to himself.

“Mark says he KNEW we had it as soon as he hung up with them after the presentation …”

Mark … Mark … Jason fumbled around for the name. Who was “Mark” in her office?

“… HUGE network set-up. We’re talking corporate-wide, Jayce! Their offices stretch from LA to …”

“Wait, baby. Who’s Mark?” he cut in, lightly rubbing his right temple.

Sara looked confused for a moment, her brow furrowing lightly before she burst into a sparkling grin of recognition. It was the same grin that had won Jason’s heart on their first date.

“Oh! Mr. Stevens! Mark Stevens! When we hung up, he told me I should call him ‘Mark’ from now on. Isn’t that COOL? So Mark said …” And she was off again while he looked down to circle his finger around the sad “O” his glass had made on the pine of the table.

Jason knew he couldn’t begrudge her this audience. He wanted her to succeed in her career, and he loved seeing her so ecstatic. And he also recognized that the tech talk – only about half of which he could now follow – was merely the equivalent of what Sara subjected herself to when she joined him on his Words-worth outings. These moments – quiet, intimate, bright – might even be the part of her job he liked best. So he knew it was only the context of her leaving, of being without her after already spending more than a week deprived her touch, was behind his half-hearted reception of her enthusiasm.

He took another drink and looked up. She'd just asked him something. He could tell by the small cock of her head and the way it made one strand of hair fall over her ear.

“Well?” she grinned. “Too tough to say you’ll miss me now that you’re all this 'concussed-up-hockey-guy'? You know, just ‘cause daddy finally likes you doesn’t mean …”

Jason cut her off again, this time by leaning across the wood of the table to kiss her firmly on the mouth. He felt more than heard her moan softly when his tongue glided over her lips, and when she sighed as he broke the kiss to lean back into his chair, Jason couldn’t help but feel ... well … pretty damned good, if rather dizzy.

“You have no idea, baby,” he murmured. “You have NO idea how much I'll miss you. C’mon. Let’s go to bed.”

He didn’t dare try to pick her up. Even if he felt like his head would stand it, he knew there was no way they’d be able to make love, and that was the inevitable conclusion whenever he carried her to bed. Instead, he took her hand and led her under the sheets, curling around the warmth of her, and keeping her fingers. As he drowsed into sleep, he felt the smooth hardness of her nails. Sara hated them long but she knew Jason loved the feel of their edges along his back, and so she was growing them. Simple as that.

Jason smiled at the thought and finished passing into sleep.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna quickly slid her phone into her purse and shook her head. If Scott hadn't cheated on her, she would definitely feel bad for ignoring him and going on a date with another guy. Circumstances were different, though. That's what she told herself, at least.

As she straightened her hair and looked at herself in the mirror, she thought back to the last few times she had spent time with Denis. It seemed that every time they'd been around Jason, she stuttered and felt somewhat awkward. When they were alone, she was quite the smooth talker and much herself. Did that mean anything? Was it coincidental? All she knew was that the thought of Jason sliding his hand up her leg instead of Denis made her shiver and get a little bit wet.

She shook that though out of her head, and found the theatre Denis and she would be seeing their movie in. Denis noticed her right away, of course, and motioned for her to come up and join him. She did, and made it her business to focus on the movie and her date.

As the lights dimmed and he put his arm around her shoulders, she felt herself more at ease. The movie was an action comedy, and they laughed and rolled their eyes at the corny jokes, but overall it was quite enjoyable. About an hour into it, she looked over at Denis, who was completely enthralled with the movie. Somehow her thoughts drifted off to the drunken hook up they had shared, and from there, she found herself thinking of what it would have been like to hook up with Jason, taken or not, instead of Denis. She shut her eyes tight, willing the picture to exit her head, before opening them again.

"You okay, doll?" Denis whispered, hugging her to his side,
"Yeah, fine." she replied, kissing his cheek softly. "Just... a little..." she trailed off, blushing.
"A little...OH!" he exclaimed, realizing what Jenna was trying to say, "You wanna get out of here?"
"YES!" she replied, a little too enthusiastically. Anything to get her mind off of her date's very sexy and very unavailable friend. It was wildly inappropriate and definitely not something she'd want Denis to know about. He'd definitely be hurt.

As they exited the theatre quietly, she whispered to him, "We should write together sometime."
"Yeah, definitely." he replied, half-heartedly. Normally, Denis would have been quite excited to discuss an opportunity like this, but all he could currently think about was getting Jenna naked. He suspected they wouldn't have sex, but anything he could get would make him happy. They walked through the parking lot, and he opened the door to his car for her.
"Thank you," she said, smiling.
"Of course!" he walked around the other side, getting in and starting the engine, "Is it cool if we go to my place...?" he really couldn't believe his luck. He'd hooked up and dated his fair share of women, but very few were this gorgeous and smart. Plus, she was kind of unavailable, which made it all the more appealing in some odd way.

 

[HermesVoice]

By Tuesday Jason felt physically human again and in some ways regretted it. Although he’d – thank Christ! - apparently shaken off the worst effects of the concussion by the time he returned home from driving Sara to the airport, her absence was only aggravated by his newfound ability to feel it. He couldn’t help but feel the irony that he might have fared better had she been out of town during the worst of his concussion.

“Sure, it would’ve sucked not having her around when I felt so shitty,” he’d declared to Claire earlier in the day, whispering to her while Professor Notting was droning on about some Arnold essay on poetry, “but I was asleep half the time anyway.”

Rather than reply, risking that Notting would look up at exactly the wrong moment, his friend jotted a fast note, sliding it to the edge of her lecture chair so that he could read it. Jason rolled his eyes at the high-school drama of her method but read the note anyway, leaning over precariously and thus making it ridiculously obvious to everyone that she had, indeed, written him a note. Claire turned her head enough to catch him with a glare she no doubt wished would freeze him, but Jason merely grinned broadly, shifting his eyes down to the note with great intent.

Isn’t it time you told her you love her? was scribbled halfway across the pad. For good measure his friend had underlined “love” three times.

“Honest to God, Jayce,” she insisted as they walked out of class thirty minutes later. “You’ve done everything BUT say it, and I know you feel like Sara has to be the first, but really … do you really think you’re going to scare her off at this point?”

It was with Claire’s question that he went through the routines of the rest of the day. That he mulled over dinner with a couple of beers. That he listened to Amos Lee while noodling about with a poem that didn’t seem ready to be born. That he waited for eleven for Sara to call.

Then twelve.

Then one.

It was with Claire’s words in his ears that he read Sara’s text at 1:45 – Jst got home from meet w/ Mark and team. Soooo sleepy. Call tmrrow?

And it was with Claire’s words in his ears that he signed off from Words-worth, slammed back a shot, and dropped into bed after turning off his phone.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna and Denis stumbled into his apartment and he kicked the door shut. "I have a roommate." he mumbled as they kissed. "He was gone last time, but he's here." he seemed annoyed, but Jenna just shrugged. "So we'll make him jealous." she grabbed his hand and let him lead her towards his room.

Once they were inside and the door was shut behind them (but not locked) Denis started to fumble with her clothes. "Why are you nervous?" she whispered, looking at him.
"Uh, I..." he trailed off. Why WAS he nervous? "I've never really been with a girl as beautiful as you. I guess in a way I'm still a little surprised that you want me, especially since you're taken."

Jenna grinned. This guy was such a charmer! She had no idea that he was being serious. "Cute." she kissed him deeply, sliding her hand into his back pocket and letting her other hand come around to the front to undo his jeans, zip the zipper down, and take his pants off all in one smooth motion. "Get on the bed." she whispered. She'd never really been "in charge" in the bedroom, and she wanted to try it out. Even if it wouldn't last long. Denis grinned broadly and as he took his shirt off, he laid back on the bed, arms behind his head to look at her.

She stripped down to her undies and joined him.
________________________________________________

The rest of the week went by quickly for Jenna, and it was already Thursday evening. She had an immense amount of homework to do, and Friday would be extremely busy. She had another club outing planned after school, though this time it wasn't a "date". After their escapade at Denis' house, the two hadn't spoken more than a few texts from Denis to Jenna. She was playing hard to get, in a way. He really wanted to see her again, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. All she knew was that it was getting harder and harder to see him around his friends because all she wanted to do was see what Jason would be like in bed.

Even those thoughts sounded crude to Jenna, but it was true. It was almost as bad as lusting after a married man, she felt. In the club setting, at least she would be around everyone in a more casual way, and she felt better about the upcoming situation.

 

[HermesVoice]

“Hell-OOO! Earth to JJ!”

Jason snapped his eyes up from his keyboard, startled but unsurprised. Without noting her, he’d twice heard Claire speak his name as he’d stared blankly at his laptop. For some reason he’d felt compelled to look up only when she’d switched to the half-assed username he assumed on most of his websites.

Meh, he sniffed to himself. Maybe it's not so strange at that.

Half a page of fiction glowed before him, the story roughly outlining a crime drama, written in the Hammell-esque prose of the pulps. At 2 A.M. having spoken briefly and - to his mind - wholly unsatisfactorily to Sara, he’d hung up and found some old noir film on TV. And while he wanted to forget much of the very limited conversation with his absent girlfriend, the language of the film chased around in his head, a scampering rodent that ran first through his dreams and then, annoyingly, his thinking throughout the rest of the morning.

He’d performed a running translation of Notting’s lecture earlier that day, infusing the the snarled drawl of a New York City gumshoe into the septuagenarian’s brittle New England tones.

He’d envisioned love triangles, poisonings, and strangulations, all in hard slashes of black and white.

Mostly he’d felt the ill-fated doom of the noir protagonist. Uncertain. Unsettled. Isolated.

Finally, he’d dragged Claire to the coffee shop in a desperate attempt to exercise the filthy vermin in all its scuttling darkness, and it was she who’d suggested he cast the creation onto the page. “Always worked for me,” she’d offered with a smile, a shrug, and the offer of a chai. “And you need to lay off the caffeine,” she’d gone on to observe when he smirked at the notion of drinking any kind of tea.

So he’d pecked away stolidly for an hour, the words finally abandoning him as they had so frequently of late, leaving him to gaze blindly at the screen: thinking of Dallas, and a conversation marked more by exhaustion and frustration than by the tenderness of absent lovers.

“You’re really missing her, huh?”

He didn’t bother to look up, nor even to respond. He knew Claire had known the answer before she’d even offered up the question. Her words had been a quiet consolation, one she now backed up with a gentle touch on his knee.

He also said nothing of the thing that had been scratching at him, of the words Sara spoke that chafed him unreasonably and out of all proportion to their importance. He said nothing to his friend of Sara’s seeming inability to speak of “the team” without perpetually mentioning “Mark.”

As if all the importance of the first lay in the second.

As if he defined the team for her.

As if he …

Of all this, Jason said nothing because there was nothing to say that would not bring ridicule – perhaps even rage – from Claire.

In their years of dating, Sara had given him no reason – none – to think that she was anything but faithful: that she loved him even though neither of them had yet uttered the words. And because of this, Jason knew that “Mark” wasn’t the phantom that stood behind him.

And, too, because he knew how to take the writer’s distance, to adopt the eye that separated subject and object in lines of clear resolution, Jason had to admit that in the end it could only concern her work … and his. That she was moving gracefully forward in her life, in powerful strokes that left him foundering desperately behind, caught in a mire of language and seemingly empty hopes. Could it be possible he resented her? That he was jealous of her success? The idea tasted of bile and he swallowed it back with a long drink of the tea, knowing that Claire watched him intently, and grateful as hell she'd told Amy to stay out of the coffeeshop for the rest of the day.

Jason knew – felt with the conviction of every breath – that he wanted Sara to be happy. That he wanted her to live and thrive and take the ecstasy from her work that he’d found at one time in the riddles of sound and letter. But now his own work …

“You know,” he said to Claire, without looking up, “There was a time I didn’t have a doubt in my mind I could be a writer. I felt good about that. And I felt good telling my folks about it … and Sara. Now I can’t even finish a fucking term paper for a Lit class.”

He felt her squeeze his knee in sympathy, heard her issue a refrain he’d offered himself on too many nights: “You’re too tight, Jayce. You HAVE to loosen up. Club tomorrow night, okay? Words-worth folks? We’ll all have a round and drink to the death of writer’s block.”

“Sure, Claire,” he gritted. “Easy. Death of writer’s block.”

He could feel the anger uncoiling out of the coals of his frustration, and with the corresponding inevitable tightening of his jaw muscles, he rose.

“Gotta’ go. See you tomorrow … and thanks for the tea.”

He wished he had a kinder word or at least a smile for his friend as he turned to go.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

The scene was typical for a teenager's room, come early evening: piles of homework all over her desk, clad in nothing but a tank top and shorts, she stared longingly out her window at the setting sun. She had barely touched her homework and all she could think about was sex. Sex and running. Since it was pretty clear she wouldn't be getting any sex, she might as well go running? Right?

She rolled her eyes at her own thought process and pulled on a hoodie and her running shoes, heading for the front door. As she did, she picked up her cell that had been on the table near the front door. Three missed calls from Scott, a couple of emails from Words-Worth, and two texts. She slid her finger over the unlock function to open her text inbox and changed her mind--heading straight outside.

The cool breeze hit her as soon as she started jogging down the block, against the wind. She loved running, and although her stamina wasn't the best, it was definitely a good workout. Her thoughts were muddled, and she needed some release form the mess. What was she getting herself into with this whole Words-Worth business? She'd been a pretty good girl, faithfulness wise, up until now. But now, all she could think about was Denis. Denis and Jason. Two guys she should have nothing to do with, beyond friendship.

Jenna thought back to Harry and Sally. It was so true, guys and girls could rarely be friends. Sometimes, yes. Rarely. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to focus. That's when the picture of the movie she'd seen with Denis popped into her head. Instead of the main hunky character, however, stood Jason. Shirtless and...

"GODDAMNIT." she yelled, out loud. "No fucking use!"

She turned around, jogging back towards her house. She entered and went straight upstairs to the shower. After she had stayed in there for so long, she thought she might melt, she turned the water off and dried herself. "Fucking homework." she muttered, wondering why she was suddenly in a bad mood.

She got right in bed after getting dressed, figuring she'd deal with it all later, forgetting once again about her Words-Worth messages and the next night's plans at the club.

 

[HermesVoice]

“Jayce? Still there?”

Jason glowered out the window of the taxi, crushing the phone in his hand with frustration. This – THIS? - had been the call he’d been looking forward to? One where his girlfriend tells him she’ll be gone another three days when he’d expected to have her home tomorrow? Where she tells him “most of the team” had been called home, but she was staying “to finalize things”? (And “with Mark.” Naturally.)

“What do you want me to say, Sara? That I’m happy?” he ground out. “Fine. I’m happy.”

He heard her blow out a short breath before answering. ”C’mon, Jayce, you know that’s not what I mean. I don’t like it either and I didn’t ask for this to happen. It’s not like I have a say in the - ”

“Sara,” he cut her off. “If they’d ASKED you, would you have said no?”

“I would have said yes, Jayce,” she admitted after a moment’s hesitation.

“Exactly … especially after the rest of the team went home, right?”

”Wait. What?” He heard the confusion in her voice but said nothing, waiting for her to read his thoughts across the miles, as he knew she would. They were thoughts he hated to speak even to himself, ones that spoke of possessive vexation. They felt oily to him. He cranked down the window of the taxi. He needed some of the coolness of the late-afternoon air.

”Hold it.” Jason could hear her beginning to grin over the line. ”Is this about MARK? Are you JEALOUS?”

He didn’t know what to feel about her giggle after saying this. It was honest. It was a naked dismissal of the whole idea of her and someone else. And in his head, riding in a taxi through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, he recognized the idea WAS ridiculous. But the laughter of day and the images that rolled through his head when alone at night were creatures not to be reconciled. When she’d called him late last night, slightly drunk because “the team” had gone out for drinks after work, he’d seen it all: Sara dancing with Mark. Laughing with him. The touch of hands and then briefly, in the quiet of his hotel room, lips … all before the quiet moans as she took him into her mouth. As he laid her on her back and slid himself into her, bringing her to the whimpered climax that Jason knew so well.

They were images not to be exorcised, even by the most natural of laughs.

”You’re adorable, Jason Rush. Do you know that?” She was still grinning.

He remained silent, glaring out at the rain setting in early tonight, sullen and spiteful. He glanced briefly at the taxi driver in front of him, but the man’s eyes were studiously ahead, watching the tangle of cars before them. He was headed for the club, but he had the sudden strong urge to say fuck the whole thing and go home.

C’mon, Jayce, don’t do this. Please? I don’t have much time so don’t make me beg you for a response. I really DON’T like it, but you can’t ask me to be sorry for loving my work as much as you love yours.”

Her words – “my work,” “love,” “your work” - were the tripwire for the detonation that blasted the words uncontrolled from him.

“Oh don’t worry, Sara,” he barked with a short, bitter laugh. “I don’t think anyone will ever accuse you of not loving your work. I think all of us know what it means to you and how much you value it and how much you’re willing to give for it.”

He could hear her short gasp of hurt like a hiccup, but even before she spoke, Jason knew she’d flashed to outrage, that her brow was furrowed downward, and her eyes glittered two shades darker. They were her father’s eyes, expressive of all her father’s Irish temper and will.

God dammit! That’s not fair, Jason! I busted my ass for everything I’ve gotten, and I deserve this moment! I’m sorry it’s not perfect and I wish it was, but for everything I’ve done with mine, I’ve always – ALWAYS – supported you in your own work! When you were – “

“Supported!” he hurled into the phone, not giving a damn if the cabbie heard. “What the fuck does that even mean, Sara? You come out to clubs with me? You’re willing to chat on the phone with my friends? You pat me on the head when I can’t think of a FUCKING thing to write? Or do you mean that YOU pay for everything? YOU support us? YOU – “

“Jesus H. Christ, Jason! What the hell are you TALKING about? What’s WRONG with you? I can’t – “ He could hear the tears welling up in her throat, a sound that harrowed him, twisting his stomach in sickened guilt and silencing the rolling anger of his words. She took a long shuddering breath. ”I have to go, Jason. I can’t … I can’t talk about this right now …”

In her hesitation, he knew she was desperate for him to say something - anything - to make it right, not to leave things in an agony of rage and frustration.

But for Jason, the anger felt better and more assured than the guilty insecurity of a confession.

“Fine. Later then,” he bit in cold fury, snapping shut the phone before she could complete her protested, ”Wait! Jaso –“

He was at the club anyway. Fuck it.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna decided she would come to the club by herself this time. She knew the guys she would be meeting up with, and it would give her a chance to spend more time with them one-on-one and get to know them. Bringing a friend was acceptable the first time, but she felt weird about bringing a friend after she'd spent time with the "gang" since the last club meet. When she got home from school, she dug instantly into her homework. Jenna couldn't believe she'd let the thought of two men she barely knew keep her from it. Her schoolwork was so important. Her grades meant her getting into college. Her future was at stake right now if she fucked up.

It was seven before Jenna realized it, and she was finally done with her homework. She'd had two yelling matches with Scott over the phone and almost broken up. She couldn't bring herself to do it. She cared about him too much, despite what he had done. She could deal with it later.

Jenna called a cab and jumped into the shower, trying to make it fast so she wouldn't be late to the club. She blow dried her hair with one hand as she dried off with the other. She looked at herself naked in the mirror, wondering why any guy would cheat on her. Just for a moment, she imagined being made love to by someone who really, really desired her... She shivered and turned off the blow-drier, making her way to the bedroom. Dressing in a sexy little black dress that showed off her tight body, she was almost ready. She donned a pair of black high heels, quickly did her make-up.

The cab beeped its horn out front. Jenna looked at herself once more in the mirror, before grabbing her jacket and purse. She locked the front door, and hurried to the cab, "Sorry to make you wait." When she finally arrived at the club and stepped out of the cab, there was a huge line out front. "Fuuuuuuck." she moaned. All of her new friends were probably inside already. This was gonna be a long night.

 

[HermesVoice]

He needed to find Denis. Having banged angrily through the doors of the club, the bouncer out front growling “watch it!” behind him, Jason peered through the semi-darkness of the happy hour crowd to find his friend. He spotted Jimmy first (his friend’s wheelchair always commanding attention) and recognized Amy standing next to him, a drink in hand. Jason was surprised to see her there, but mostly he was looking to avoid her ... at least until he’d washed away part of his fury with a drink or three.

Gotta’ find Den.

It had been the first thought that sprang to mind when he’d exited the cab and felt the buzz of the phone in his pocket. The vibration that signaled Sara trying to call him back.

He could unload on Denis and Denis would understand his anger. He’d get it that Jason needed a brother, not a friendly diplomat (like Jimmy), not a reconciler (like Claire).

And certainly not whatever the fuck Amy could possibly be he thought as he worked through the beginnings of a crowd, craning his neck. He glanced at Amy again, as always admiring the fine features and tightly toned body of Claire’s little sister, but looked away just as quickly. The crimson haze on the periphery of his vision, like the buzz of his phone, insuring that anything to do with women tonight mould most likely involve bitching about them.

With a brother.

“You look like shit, dude.”

Jason couldn’t help but smile as he turned. Denis already had a beer for him in one hand.

“Yeah? You don’t know the half of it, bro.”

********************

“That’s some fucked up shit, brotha,” Denis laughed. “I’d be pissed, too.” He glanced down at his cell, waiting for a text from Jenna, Jason guessed.

“Yeah, well … “ At the moment, this was the best Jason could summon up, having thrown back three tequilas along with the bottle of beer his friend had brought him. He’d spilled his rage out, shouting it past the increasing volume of the techno that pounded around them, waxing eloquent for an hour about Sara, her work, and her new best friend at work. (“Guy sounds like a total douche,” Denis had opined to Jason’s approval after the second Cuervo. “We should kick his ass.”)

“That’s pretty tough, Jayce,” offered Jimmy, signaling the bartender another couple of beers. He and several of the other “WW” crowd had gathered about as Jason had held forth. “Still, Sara doesn’t seem the type to me …”

Because he let the sentence trail off, because he didn’t push it, and because Jimmy was Jimmy, Jason let the comment go. He and Jimmy didn’t hang, so the guy couldn’t know that Jason neither needed nor wanted a defense of his girlfriend. He couldn’t know such a defense would only stoke the incandescence of his anger, which was only now beginning to burn cooler.

“I think it was a jerk move, Jason.” He turned slowly around to face Amy, standing behind him grinning broadly. He felt his face flush and could almost see Denis, behind him now, trying desperately to wave Amy into silence. “I think Sara’s really cool and you were being a real jerk.”

Jason picked up the bottle of beer that had just arrived and brought it to his lips, taking a drink from it, never letting his eyes leave the small girl’s. When her smile wavered, Jason put the bottle down carefully.

“If I want the opinion of some half-assed college wannabe,” he smiled coldly. “Or if I forget the name of this week’s American Idol winner, I’ll be sure to give you a call, blondie. In the meantime, why don’t you shut the fuck up, you stupid twat. When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.”

He heard several “whoas!” of protest from around him, but it was Claire who seized his attention as she pushed in front of her little sister protectively. “What the hell is your problem, Jason?” she shouted angrily. “She was only – “

“Oh, shut up, Claire!” He felt dizzy from rage and booze, and rather strangely, as if he were seeing it all on TV, he watched himself tear into his best friend. “’The dragon and his wrath,’ Claire, sweetie: stay the hell out of it … Now I know why I ditched you back in undergrad school,” he added as he began to turn back to the bar.

Then her hand was on his arm, pulling to turn him back to her, and he wheeled directly into her open hand across his cheek. Even through the increasing fog of his drunkenness he felt the acid heat of the slap. Her eyes were filled with tears as she whirled away from him toward the ladies’ room. Amy stayed long enough for a hissed, “You’re such an ASSHOLE, Jason,” before she pushed her way through the crowd after her sister.

“Shit, Jayce ‘ “ Denis began, putting one hand on his shoulder.

“Leave me alone, Den,” he snarled, shrugging off his friend’s hand. He slammed back the rest of the bottle of beer in a single long swallow and whirled toward the doors, banging out as gracelessly as he’d entered the place. There was a crowd now, and he was happy to see night was falling. He wanted the darkness. Wanted something to help mask whatever had just happened, because he could swear to God he hadn’t even known the sound of his own voice.

“Gotta’ smoke?” he asked a couple of girls standing in line. He thought he must look like drunken shit, but one of the girls, a short brunette, laughed lightly, glancing him up and down before producing a cigarette and lighting it between her own lips before giving it to him.

“See you inside?” she suggested. He felt like he should offer her something better than a grunted “thanks” before moving away from them, but he found nothing else to say.

He drew deeply from the cigarette, listening to the soft sizzle of the paper as it burned down. Looking up, he wished it was dark enough to see more than the first couple of stars whispering faintly above, struggling to express themselves past the light of the dying sun.

Star light, star bright … he began, before stopping with the sick realization that – at the moment – he had nothing to wish for.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

As Jenna oriented herself with her surroundings, she pushed through the mess of women dressed in tiny mini skirts and dresses, their asses and tits hanging out. They were plastered with makeup and looked like they were mostly underage. Fake ID's, she guessed. Jenna's mind was whirling. There were so many twists and turns in her life lately, romance wise. She really needed to concentrate on school and her friends--things that would get her far in life. Despite the fact that hanging out with writing friends was fun, it probably wasn't going to get her an internship or even a collaboration. It was just social bullshit. Fun bullshit, but still bullshit. Jenna needed to concentrate on things that would strengthen her chances for a good job, getting into college...everything she'd wanted for a long time. Even having a boyfriend stirring up drama in her life was driving her crazy and eating away the concentration she had left.

Her phone was buzzing in her purse. She looked down. One missed call, one new text. The text was from Denis, "Hey you! U coming? " she ignored it, looking at the call. Scott. She should call him. She walked a few steps to the side of the building, rolling her eyes once again at the long line of people, "Hey Scott." she said as he answered, "I don't really know what to say, except that I don't know if I can forgive you. I want you to stop calling me and give me some space, okay?"
"Baby, I'm so sorry. You know I love you. I miss you."
"Just leave me alone, okay? Please?"
"Okay, if that's really want you want. Call me when you know, ok?"
"Okay. Bye." she hung up, sighing. Her eyes flitted around the girls and guys trying to get into the club, as the sky darkened. She stared up at the few stars starting to light up in the sky, the sun just starting to set. She hoped that Scott would leave her alone to think and concentrate on other things.

Suddenly she saw Jason in the midst of the large crowd. He seemed to be smoking a cigarette, something that surprised her. She snuck up behind him, resting her hand on the side of his bicep, "Hey stranger." she said softly, waiting for him to turn around. "Hi! Been a while." she exclaimed, hugging him. She didn't notice how angry and annoyed he was, as she wrapped her arms around him in a friendly hug. "How are you?"

Jenna stepped back, looking up at Jason. Her heart thumped in her chest. God, but was he handsome. She'd never found a man so attractive before that she actually felt a physical reaction to his presence. Jenna really wondered at that point if she should just break up with her boyfriend. Not just because he cheated on her, but because their relationship was quite shallow. She might have the potential for something more with someone...if only she would give someone a chance. And not someone like Denis.

She felt a pang of guilt, thinking about Denis like that. He'd been really nice to her, especially for a guy who seemed like a bit of a player. He seemed to really like her. Maybe she was being a little judgemental...maybe there was more to Denis than she had seen so far. She touched her hair nervously, looking up at Jason. Her mind was whirling. Despite the fact that she was wearing tall highheels, Jason was still much taller than her. "You look like you could use a drink." she hesitated, "Or four." she giggled cutely, "I could use one too." She looked down at her dress, "And maybe some of those gross peanuts on the bar. Is everyone else inside?"

 

[HermesVoice]

Jason was startled out of his reflection by a touch on his arm, one light, almost hesitant. He turned and for the briefest of moments, his thoughts failed him. Alcohol. Surprise. The swim downward from his angry, morose meditation on the sky. It all slowed his brain for the moment while he groped to recognize the petite red-head who wrapped herself around him. More surprising yet was his own body’s flashed response, his cock twitching to life as she stepped away from him and he was able to devour her, standing there slender and warm, clad in a darkness deeper than that which was falling ever more quickly around them.

“Jenna!” he blurted in surprised recognition, immediately feeling stupidly, ridiculously drunk for what must be patently obvious to her: his surprised recognition … as if she was a stranger he’d not seen in years. Like a high school lover at a tenth reunion or something. But one who’d turned into a woman WAY more alluring than when –

“I didn’t … didn’t recognize you at first,” he spluttered, dropping the cigarette and crushing it out under his sneaker. He was scrambling for words or at least reasonably coherent thoughts that might be put into words, but when she brushed her hair back from her eyes, whatever might have been coming next splintered apart and he found himself glancing her up and down again.

“You look like you could use a drink … or four,” she said with a laugh, and he couldn’t help but crack a grin when she added another for herself. He wasn’t sure whether she was inviting herself to a drink on him, but at the moment he didn’t particularly care. Her arms had been warm around his waist, a feeling he’d forgotten and one he’d certainly not expected tonight – not with all the shit that had gone on in the taxi, in the club.

“Uuh, yeah, they’re all here,” he said uncertainly, placing his hand lightly on her back to guide her to the doors. The bouncer had seen him come out, so Jason expected they’d get in without a problem. He noted with a glance the brunette girl with the cigarette was still in line, looking back and forth at him and Jenna with a disappointed frown. As if he and Jenna were …

He thought of Denis and the little red head next to him as they entered the club. He could feel the heat of her through the light fabric of her dress, and in his easy intoxication, he couldn’t help wondering what she would be like if captured alone. What Denis had done with her and how she would look under his own hands. He dragged his mind’s eye away from such images when he saw his friend at the bar though, smiling broadly, at which them Jason couldn’t tell.

Probably Jenna, he thought. He knew who HE’D be happier to see if he were Denis.

“Look,” he shouted, taking Jenna’s hand so he could turn her to face him. “Den’s over there and I’m sure he wants to see you, and I gotta’ go talk to Claire if I can find her. But … ummmm … you came at a good moment … so thanks.” He pulled her into a quick embrace of gratitude, but one that left with him the contours of her body. He found that he wanted her to stay pressed to him for a moment longer, but he had to find Claire … and he needed another drink.

And holding her was playing with fire. Even through the tequila haze … or maybe because of it … he recognized the thought as true.

 

[ilikeitlikethat18]

Jenna could tell right away that Jason had been drinking, and it seemed like he'd had quite a lot. He seemed to have either forgotten her name or how to speak at all. Finally he had managed to get her name out, and she could tell how drunk he really was. He seemed surprised to see her. Probably because she hadn’t told anyone that she would be there. She had been silly to think he was hoping she would come. Of course he didn’t think of her in the same way she’d been thinking of him.

“How could you not recognize me? I’m easiest the classiest dressed woman here.” She winked at him, knowing his inability to recognize her had nothing to do with the way she looked. He was just a little too far gone right now. “But from the way you’re looking at me, I can tell you agree.”

When he finally smiled at her, she felt relieved. She’d felt like she was straining to make light of whatever situation he had going on, and he wasn’t having it. He has such a great smile…she thought, letting her eyes trail down his body. As usual, he was well dressed, looking very sharp. Her eyes flitted back up to his face. Jason may have had an excuse to check her out blatantly, but she didn’t. She hoped he hadn’t notice the way she bit her lower lip slightly as she’d taken him in.

As Jason told her everyone was already inside and started to lead her in, she couldn’t help but feel a small pang of disappointed. Part of her had wanted more than a couple of minutes alone with Jason, and she had definitely hoped he’d buy her a drink. She wouldn’t have had any trouble finding a guy to buy her one, but there was a certain allure to her unavailable and good looking friend offering to have one on him. He is really warm, she thought. Whether it was the alcohol or just his usual body heat, she wondered briefly. It didn’t matter. Simply standing next to him felt great, and she wasn’t going to be the first to pull away.

Denis seemed ecstatic to see her, which made her feel instantly guilty. She wasn’t as excited to see him, possibly even disappointed. She knew that if Jason had told her he wasn’t there, she wouldn’t have minded spending the evening with him, and possibly the girls.

As Jason pulled her into another hug, she wondered what he meant by telling her she came at a good time. He held her close, not letting go…not that she minded. She could feel his firm body beneath his clothes and wondered for a moment what he would feel and look like without them. She leaned up to his ear to whisper, hesitating at what she was about to say, “Don’t drink too much…you’re definitely going to have to explain what that means to me later. But if you insist on going back to the bar…feel free to get me something.” She giggled, and with that, she ended the hug with a tight squeeze of her arms around his waist and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

Jenna bounced off towards the girls and Denis, giving everyone a quick hug. If Jason had been watching, she would have seen that the hug she gave to Denis was much more short-lived than the two they had shared. “How is everyone? C’mon, gimme the dirt.” She said, hoping they would be a clue-in to what was going on with Jason.

Denis put his arm over her shoulders, seemingly unsure of how to treat her. “Uh, well…” he looked at the girls, hesitant to share what had apparently happened in the past minutes before she had arrived. “Jason just has a stick up his ass tonight. He came in here and immediately started bitching and turned on anyone who argued with him whatsoever.” He trailed off, and Amy and Claire took that as an opportunity to smile at Jenna,
“You really want to know? We’ll tell you. It’s not pretty.”

Over the next ten minutes, Denis, Amy and Claire all spat out their versions of what had happened when Jason arrived at the club. Even though it sounded like he had been a total asshole to his friends, she couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Jason. His friends had been wrong to defend Sara. It definitely appeared that she had been out of line and ruined his night by yelling at him. He had every right to be upset with it, and her…

For some weird reason, Jenna found herself thinking about what would have happened if it was herself, not Sara, who was Jason’s girlfriend. Would she have gotten upset with him? She smiled briefly. No way… She mentally smacked herself. She barely knew this man and she was fantazising about being his girlfriend? Bad Jenna, bad, you really do need a drink! Despite chastising herself, she couldn’t help but again think about Jason in a rather inappropriate way, wondering what it would have been like to spend some time between the sheets with him instead of Denis.

“Jesus, you scared me.”

Before she had much of a chance to think of saying or doing anything to Jason, Denis was pulling on her arm and he wanted to dance. It all made sense now, though: his weird behavior, the smoking and the drinking, and his comment to her as they parted ways. Jenna looked over towards the bar, hoping to see him and give him a smile. She didn’t know if she should tell him that she understood, she really wanted to hear the story from his side.