Message-ID: <14972eli$9809030534@qz.little-neck.ny.us>
X-Archived-At: <URL:http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/Year98/14972.txt>
From: MichaelD38@aol.com
Subject: {MichaelD} "Orange County Babylon" Part 6 (2/3) (mfff, teen, rom)
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Path: qz!not-for-mail
Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam
Approved: <usenet-approval@qz.little-neck.ny.us>
X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded <story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us>
X-Story-Submission: <story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us>
X-Original-Message-ID: <4112d915.35ed966f@aol.com>
XXXI.
Finals, the football playoffs, and Christmas all seemed to arrive at once.
Somehow, Jack found the time to devote enough attention to each. Sacred Heart
played Estancia High in the quarterfinals, and after a tough game that was
mainly a defensive battle, Sacred Heart prevailed 14-10. He completed his
finals the next week, and felt good enough about them not to worry any more
than he had to (since this was the last semester grades the Academy would
see). Friday, he went Christmas shopping, getting a 14k gold heart-shaped
locket for Summer, a charm bracelet for Becky, and a similar pair of earrings
for Karen. He wanted to get them more, but anything more serious would raise
questions. He just hoped they understood.
That weekend, Sacred Heart went up against Irvine Woodbridge in the
semifinals, and fell behind 14-7 at the half. The coach gave them another
mid-game rant during halftime, and Jack helped lead the comeback with two
second-half interceptions. The game ended 21-14, setting up a match in the
finals with the defending Division IX champions, Santa Margarita.
That Saturday was the Christmas Formal. They had decided amongst themselves
that another three-way date like the Homecoming Dance would raise too many
eyebrows, so Becky and Karen had accepted date requests from a couple of guys
in their class, boys they were friendly enough with, but not so friendly that
the dates would signify anything relationship-wise. They had all agreed to
meet together before the dance to go out to dinner.
Jack rented a tuxedo and arrived at Summer's house with a corsage and the
locket.
Her father let him in.
"Jack, come in. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, sir."
"You look very spiffy. Summer will be impressed."
"Thank you, sir."
"So you boys are playing in the State Championship, huh?"
"Yes, sir. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a tough
game."
"Well, we'll all be out rooting for you. I'm sure you will boys will win."
"I hope so, sir."
Summer's mother came down the stairs.
"Oh, don't you look just darling." She kissed him on the cheek. "Summer
will be down in a moment. Let me go get the camera."
She went off into the kitchen, and her father waved him into the living room.
"Jack, have a seat. Any word from the Academy yet?"
"No, sir. I probably won't hear for a couple of months."
"I can't tell you how excited I am for you. That's such a great
opportunity."
"I'm just hoping Summer gets admitted to Georgetown too."
"Well, so am I, but what's meant to be, will be. God knows what's best for
us even we don't always know ourselves."
"Yes, sir."
Summer's mother came out with the camera, then called upstairs.
"All right, honey, we're ready."
Jack stood and looked up the stairs. Summer emerged from her room. She wore
a long black velvet dress that hugged her from top to bottom. Though the
fabric was thick enough not to expose too much, it was a more revealing dress
than he would have expected her mother to tolerate. Her hair was straight,
falling around her face. Watching her descend the stairs made him dizzy. She
couldn't possibly be that beautiful.
"Hi."
She kissed him on the cheek.
"Hi. You look great."
"Thanks. So do you."
He took out the corsage and pinned it to her chest.
"Oh, you two look just wonderful," her mother said.
He took a breath and handed her the box with the locket in it.
"Merry Christmas."
She looked at him and her parents nervously.
"Should I open it now?"
"Oh, go ahead and open it, honey," her mother said.
"Yeah. Open it now."
"Okay."
She tore off the wrapping paper and took the top off the cardboard box under
it. When she saw the velvet box inside, she gasped slightly. She took it out
carefully, glancing at him, and opened it.
"Oh, honey, that's beautiful."
Her eyes began to water up, and she hugged him tightly.
"Thank you," she squeaked.
She let go of him and looked back the box, realizing then that it was a
locket and not just a charm. She opened it with her thumbnail, seeing the two
little pictures he had put inside. She gasped again and hugged him.
"I love you," she whispered in his ear.
"Why don't you put it on," her father said.
"Oh, yes, let's see how it looks."
She took it out and gave it to Jack. She lifted her hair and let him put it
around her neck.
"Oh, that is just gorgeous," her mother said.
Summer laughed in embarrassment and wiped her eyes.
"Let me get you a tissue," her mother said. "We don't want to ruin your
makeup."
She came back a moment later and fixed the damage. Then she had them pose
around the room and shot off a roll of film. Only then did she let them go.
Once out in the car, Summer hugged him again.
"This is so beautiful. I hope it wasn't expensive."
"You're worth it."
"Oh, God. I got you something but nothing as nice as this."
"It's all right. You're all the present I need."
She pulled down the passenger side mirror and admired it again.
"What did you get Karen and Becky?"
"A bracelet for Becky and earrings for Karen. They look sort of the same. A
necklace would have been too much like a boyfriend present."
"Yeah. You're not going to give them to them tonight, though?"
"No. I told them how I was going to do it. I'd give you that tonight, and
then theirs later this weekend. I can't give them anything tonight."
"Yeah. Their dates probably wouldn't like that."
In truth, he was more worried about how Karen and Becky would react to
Summer's gift. Karen could probably deal with it, but it was just the sort of
thing that would trigger Becky's feelings of inferiority. He had called her
the night before and spent an hour talking it over with her, assuring her that
this date arrangement was a painful necessity, but that it didn't mean
anything about how he felt about her. She professed to understand, but he
wasn't convinced.
They met the other two couples at a restaurant in Newport Beach. He noticed,
though they tried to be discreet, jealous glances at Summer's necklace. There
was nothing he could do at that point, so he tried to make sure he didn't
ignore Karen and Becky during dinner.
At the dance, he of necessity spent most of his time with Summer, although he
danced with Karen and Becky several times.
"Are you okay?" he asked Becky in between songs.
"Yeah. This is hard, though."
"I know. I'm sorry. You know I love you as much as her."
"Yeah. I just wish everyone else could know it too. That's the problem."
Karen was handling it better.
"I'll live," she told him. "But you owe me big time when we get home
tonight."
He discreetly laid a hand on her butt. Per usual, she had no panties on.
Summer came up to him a few minutes later.
"I saw you grabbing Karen's butt."
"It was a muscle spasm."
"So you had to massage it out of her butt?"
He stifled a laugh.
"They're doing all right. Karen better than Becky, though."
"This is going to happen again, at the Prom if not some other time."
"I know."
"Maybe we could break up, and you could be Becky's boyfriend for a while."
He glanced at her, startled.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, it would be hard for me, but I could deal with it. I mean, it would
only be for appearance's sake."
He thought about that for a second.
"Your folks won't like it."
"Well, the hell with them. And we could get back together later. I guess we
could draw straws to see who gets to go to the Prom with you."
He stared into her eyes, not believing what he was hearing.
"Are you really serious about this? You would do that for her?"
"I love her. I hate what this is doing to her."
He sighed.
"You have to be the most selfless person I have ever known. If you thought I
loved you before, it's nothing compared to now."
Her eyes began to water, and he hugged her.
"Should we do it now? We could take advantage of those tears."
She laughed softly.
"Okay. Let me work myself up a second." She took a deep breath. "Get
ready. We're about to break up."
She held him for a few seconds. Then she pushed herself sharply away from
him.
"What?" she cried out loud. "How can you say that to me?"
Heads all around them shot around to stare. Her face was contorted by
feigned grief, and tears were running down her face.
"Summer-"
"Oh, God!"
She turned and ran away from him, sobbing. He watched her running out of the
room and tried to look upset. It wasn't hard.
Karen came running up to him a second later, grabbing his arm tightly.
"What the hell?"
He leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"It's a ploy. Just play along with it. She's fine. Go after her."
She glanced over to the door, then back to him. Then she ran out the door
after Summer. He saw Becky looking at him in utter confusion, and then she
went after Karen.
He stood there for a few seconds looking conflicted, and then walked over to
the refreshment table. Randy came up to him a few seconds later.
"Dude, what happened?"
"I think we may be breaking up."
His eyebrows went up.
"You and Summer? No way!"
"Way. I don't want to get into it."
"Oh, shit, man, that sucks."
"Tell me about it."
He milled around, not talking to anyone, waiting to see what would happen.
He wasn't surprised when Becky came back into the room about ten minutes
later. The torn look on her face didn't seem faked. She stopped to whisper
something to her date, then walked over to Jack. He tried to appear upset and
walked with her out another door of the ballroom. When they had the hall to
themselves, he looked down at her and smiled.
"Merry Christmas."
"Oh, my God."
She threw herself at him, hugging him tightly for close to a minute, crying
against his shoulder.
"I was as stunned as you are when Summer suggested this."
"She's so wonderful. Oh, God, I can't believe this is happening. I thought
you guys were really having a fight. I feel so bad about it now, but I
actually hoped you were."
"We didn't plan it. This evening just kind of precipitated it."
He untangled himself from her arms.
"We can't move quite this fast, though."
"I know. I know. I'm going to being comforting you this week, then by next
weekend, we'll go out somewhere. Summer and I aren't going to be friends for
the next month or so, but then we'll make up. Let everyone gossip. I don't
care."
Summer went home by herself, and Jack rode home with Karen and her date.
"So when do I get to be your girlfriend?" she asked him when they were
inside.
"One day. Don't get greedy."
"I'm kidding. We should have thought of this before."
"Can you call Summer? I can't do it now, and I just want to touch base with
her."
"Sure."
She dialed Summer's number and talked to her for a few minutes, then gave him
the phone.
"Hi," she said.
"I love you."
"I know. I love you, too. I wasn't faking all my tears tonight. This is
going to be hard for me. But Becky had to do it, so I can survive, too."
"How did your folks take it?"
"My mom cried, can you believe that? She wants me to try to make up with
you. I'm going to have to be careful not to make you look too bad so they
don't end up hating you for hurting me."
"This is going to be quite a charade."
"I know. But it will be fun. Becky and I can be witchy to each other for a
month and then laugh about it when no one is around. But it's going to mean
you and I can't see each other unless we're really, really careful."
"The Three Mouseketeers are broken up for the time being."
"Right. But we worked it out so Karen will be the peacemaker. She'll play
the middle, and publicly convince us all to be friends again."
"What are you going to do if someone asks you out?"
"Oh, you'd like to know, wouldn't you?"
She giggled.
"I'm just going to tell them I'm too heartbroken for now. Then when we're
friends again, it will be back to normal."
"Okay. I know I said this, but I'll say it again. You're most wonderful
person I know for doing this."
"Thanks. I wish you were here to hug me. It does hurt. Now I understand
what Becky was going through."
"I'm sorry."
"I'll be okay. I know you love me."
"I do."
"Okay. Goodnight. Don't let Karen keep you up too late."
Marcia came into his room a few minutes later.
"Jack?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"I'm so sorry. Karen told me what happened."
"I'll be okay."
She came up and hugged him.
"This is probably just a little lover's spat. Everyone goes through it."
"I don't know. We said some pretty nasty things to each other tonight."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm just thinking, and I told her this, that it might be time for a break."
She leaned back to look up at him.
"Well, that's not necessarily bad. You're pretty young to have gotten this
deep with her. Maybe a little time apart will make you appreciate each other
more."
"Maybe. I'm tired, though."
"I'll let you get to bed."
"Goodnight."
--
+----------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `--------------+
| <story-submit@qz.little-neck.ny.us> | <story-admin@qz.little-neck.ny.us> |
| Archive site +----------------------+--------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ |
<http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/>----<http://www.qz.to/erotica/assm/faq.html>