Double Take
Chapter 19
“She had the kind of look that promised nothing good.”
—Nicholas Metelsky, Changing Masks
WE GOT A LOT DONE on our proposal working together. We were going to request one full week of recordings of all four lunch periods from all four cameras. We figured that at the usual resolution of security cameras—which we had to look up online—that we could get that amount on four DVDs. That would be twenty DVDs for the week. We could get a spindle of 50 DVDs for $25 on Amazon. That should be enough for the project, too. If not, I was pretty sure I could save up enough for another spindle. We’d already been working on the project proposal so we extracted our purpose and method sections to put in the proposal to get the security recordings.
When Pey got home she wanted to find out all about Beca. We had fun trying to explain to my eight-year-old sister about migration patterns. I think she actually got it. Beca’s mom picked her up right at five o’clock, so she was gone before Mom and Dad got home.
30 November 2018
I have such a mix of emotions when I wake up the morning after. My body feels great—alive—full of energy. I guess even my mind seems refreshed and I have a feeling of pride. I’m proud that she still wants me, even though I can handle myself now. But she’s not my lover now because I need her help. She’s my lover because she wants to be loved by me. That’s kind of wild.
I’m also proud that I can fulfill her desires. Me, a half-crippled freshman and her, a pregnant senior who didn’t really love or care for the guy who planted the baby. And she has desires to be fulfilled. She wants something different every time we’re together. I think she’s memorizing the book I gave her. A lot of the things she suggests, I don’t even remember from when I read it.
But in the back of my mind I feel a little guilty, too. First because even though I love her, we’re not in love, like for life or anything. She’s quick to confirm that is the case with her, too, though I see a little wistfulness in her eyes when she says that. Like it could be more if we weren’t in such strange positions. This is the absolute worst time to be three years apart in age. She knows her letter is coming in April. She’ll do her National Service while I’m still in school but then I’ll have to do mine. Everything is out of sync.
Worse than that, though, is that I feel a little guilty about having this kind of relationship with her. She seems so young and vulnerable when I hold her. It’s hard to imagine that I’m not sixty years older than she is.
I was pretty damn proud of myself as I approached our lunch table Friday, carrying my cafeteria tray in one hand with a crutch dangling from my arm while I used the other crutch to keep my balance. I was walking!
“Way to go!” Beca applauded as she took the tray and set it on the table. “Two more weeks and you’ll be dancing in the gym.”
“I promise I’ll be off these, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to dance. It’s not like I’m a great dancer anyway.”
“Now you tell me! How am I supposed to line up a great dancer between now and the Winter Dance? I’ll end up sitting around looking gorgeous and talking to my best friend instead of dancing the night away. You could have mentioned something.”
“Um… Beca? You never gave me a choice, you know?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I just… holy shit! Sit on this side of the table. This is your lucky day.”
“What?” I asked as I moved around beside her.
“Look at that.”
“Christ! Are those yoga pants or just pantyhose?” My eyes went straight to Joan, the shapely blonde who had a new boyfriend every week. I wondered if she could possibly live up to her advertising. Her Friday yoga pants were pretty much sheer. “Is she even wearing underwear?”
“Yeah. You can see the butt floss sticking out above her waistband in back.”
“I can’t believe anyone would wear something like that out in public. Does she know how much she’s showing?”
“Oh, yeah. She knows. She must have had a hard time landing this week’s boy toy. She’s showing him promise.” I watched as I shoveled my taco salad into my mouth, almost forgetting my lunch companion as I contemplated what it would be like to strip that bitch completely and find out if she could deliver on the promise.
“Um… Beca… I’m sorry I got distracted. I was…” I looked over at her and saw her absently lift a fork to her mouth as she stared at Joan’s display.
“God, she’s yummy,” Beca mumbled. “Uh… what was that?”
“You… uh… don’t ever dress like that, do you?”
“Hell no. I would if I had her body, though. Hey, guess what! You get off those crutches and when we go out in two weeks, you’ll be the first guy to see my legs in a year. I have such a cute dress. By the way, it’s navy blue so white or pink would be the best colors.”
“Colors?”
“For the flower you get me!”
“Oh, yeah! Of course! I was just imagining you in a navy blue dress. I can’t wait.”
I spent another weekend catching up on classes. The one thing different was that Sunday afternoon, Beca came over to study our Human Geography together. I had one more test to make up before I was officially caught up with the AP class. This test covered the Malthusian Theory that held population grew exponentially while food supply grew arithmetically. The theory proposed in 1798 and predicting a global catastrophe of starvation has never panned out.
We sat next to each other at the dining table and studied while we joked about what the world would be like if Malthus had been right. There were still people who held that the population of earth should be limited and even governments that had tried to enforce a one-child rule, much to the detriment of the population. Since female children had been disposed of, China now had three times the number of available males to females of marriageable age.
“That’s what’s going to happen here,” Em said as she walked by.
“We’re going to have more men than women?” I asked.
“Not exactly. We’re going to have a population cut when the new birth control law gets passed.”
“Isn’t that supposed to reduce the stress on people during their National Service?” Beca asked. I’d never heard of the proposed law so I was just listening.
“That’s the idea,” Em said. “But the law says that every child will be placed on birth control at puberty, defined as menses for a girl and twelve years old for a boy, and will remain on birth control until they have completed their National Service. This will cut down on the number of children separated from parents or in daycare while their parents complete their service.”
“That combats teen pregnancy, right?” I asked, thinking of Francie.
“Yeah. Here’s the rub. Teens account for nearly thirteen percent of childbirths each year. There’s a curve that shows where the most births occur but the point is that thirteen percent of childbirths are going to be delayed until the parents are in their twenties. That means population growth is going to take a ten-year dip.”
“How did you find all this out?” I asked.
“Our senior Constitutional Government class looks at a lot of what is going on today in government and how it relates to the constitution. They know that this one will be challenged in court as soon as it’s passed. I don’t know if it’s a good law or not but it’s a good idea. You should both get on birth control as soon as possible.”
“Both?” I had no idea there was birth control for men. Other than condoms. This was news.
“J, you can’t always expect the woman to be responsible for birth control. A child planted gets half its DNA from the father. Denying paternity like Collin did with Francie doesn’t change who the father is. It’s part of the new law, too. Having girls protected between puberty and twenty-one doesn’t stop boys from getting an older woman pregnant. What’s fair is fair.”
Monday, I got the treadmill up to two miles per hour for twenty minutes. It felt good. It was nice to watch Em getting help as Bill spotted her weight routines. Tony was spotting me and congratulated me on my progress.
“Don’t push it too hard. Is there any way you can come back in the afternoon for another session? Remember, repeated sets are better than increased stress.”
“I didn’t think of doing a second period.”
“If you could come in for the last half hour of the day, I’m in here getting equipment and tape ready for the big boys of football. I can take time to spot you for fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks, Tony. I might not be able to every day. I’ve got a standing appointment for Geometry on Wednesday and sometimes need to meet with another teacher. I’ll ask Jock for a pass for the other days.”
“Uh-oh. Somebody got shut down this weekend,” Beca said as we sat at our usual lunch table. I glanced the direction she was looking but didn’t see anything unusual until Joan turned around at her usual table. She was wearing baggy jeans and an IPFW sweatshirt. She was not trolling.
“You think that’s what it is? Maybe she got taken off the market.”
“I think she’d look happier about that, don’t you?”
“I don’t know. It’s a big change for her. Let’s wait and see if he sits beside her.” Nothing had happened yet when Beca let out another sigh.
“Uh-oh.”
“What now?”
“You are about to get trolled. And she’s using all the bait in her tackle box.”
It only took a moment for my eyes to fasten on Rachel as she came toward our table. Most other eyes in the room fastened on her as well. She was wearing a denim miniskirt with a frayed edge about six inches above the thigh-high black stockings. The top she wore didn’t meet up with the waist of the skirt and had a neck hole so big that it fell off one shoulder, exposing the strap of her black bra.
“Shit. Is that legal?”
“First amendment, freedom of expression. As long as she doesn’t expose the lower half of her boobs or nipples and doesn’t show the crotch in a normal walking or seated position,” Beca said. I snapped a look at her but didn’t ask why she knew what was covered by the first amendment before Rachel spoke.
“Hey. Can I join you? I think you’re the only person I know in this room,” she said as she set her tray on the table, not waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t know you had this lunch period,” I said.
“I got switched because my study hall is too crowded. I said I didn’t mind since I go straight from here to Geometry. Hi, I’m Rachel,” she said, holding out a hand to Beca. I though Beca sort of hung on to it a little longer than necessary.
“Rebeca. With one c,” Beca sighed.
Rachel sat opposite us.
“So, I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Jacob. What about…?” I scowled at her.
“We’re just friends,” Beca jumped in. “Jacob hasn’t been up to dating anyone since his accident. Our first will be the Winter Dance. Assuming he loses the crutches by then.”
“Oh. Um… I guess that shoots me down before I get started. I was going to ask if you had a date to the dance. It seems I’m going stag.”
“Yeah. I kind of committed to taking Beca the first day I was back.”
“Well, we can still be friends, can’t we? I won’t butt in but I was serious when I said I don’t know anyone else in this lunch period.”
“Yeah, hang out with us,” Beca said. I thought she jumped on that invitation pretty fast, but if she was okay with Rachel hanging out with us, I was okay. My afternoon boner was making an early appearance.
“Don’t you get cold with the weather outside like it is?” I blurted out. Rachel laughed at my discomfort.
“I have a nice long coat in my locker. But school is plenty warm. Don’t you think so, Rebeca with one c? How do you stand wearing flannel shirts?”
“You can call me Beca.” What? She almost went off the handle when I started calling her that.
“I bet you’re really cute under all those layers,” Rachel said. “You should show off your sweet little body.”
“Um… Maybe someday. I’m not comfortable with that yet.”
“Oh. Late bloomer just getting used to things, aren’t you? I spent my whole freshman year in baggy jeans and sweatshirts. Like that girl over there,” she said, nodding toward Joan. If only she knew. “Then I kind of got used to these and decided to show them off a little. Getting noticed can be a real ego boost.”
“Yeah. Maybe. How do you know Jacob?”
“Oh, we’re in the same Geometry class. We just met recently.”
“Is she why you worked so hard to get in that class?” Beca asked, nudging me in the ribs with her elbow. Thank God they’d healed up. That poke was less than gentle.
“I… uh… didn’t really meet Rachel until last week,” I mumbled. I stuffed another carrot stick from my lunch bag in my mouth.
“It’s nice you made a friend so quickly,” Beca said. “I was getting worried that you weren’t being very sociable.”
“I guess most of the people I know are in other classes,” I said as I crunched.
“But you made friends the first day he was back in school. That’s neat,” Rachel said. “We should have a party or something and get Jacob introduced to some more people.”
From that point on, I was pretty much out of the conversation as Beca and Rachel started talking like they’d known each other forever. I thought I’d been doing pretty good in the four weeks I’d been in school. I had Beca, Em, Francie, Bill, and Tony as friends. I guess I’ll never understand teenage girls. They were talking a language that I was sure had English words in it but I didn’t understand anything they were saying. The bell rang and we dumped our garbage to head to class.
“If you’re going to the dance stag, you’re welcome to hang with us,” Beca said. “I’m sure that even though Jacob will be off his crutches he won’t last long on the dancefloor. We can dance together.”
“You are so sweet, girlfriend! That would be cool.”
Rebeca turned to head to her class and Rachel and I turned toward ours. I hadn’t taken the time to shoulder my bookbag and it was bumping along beside me while I used one crutch and let the other hang from my left arm.
“Let me tow your bag for you so you can use both hands on you crutches,” Rachel said. “I don’t want to knock you off your feet again.” She took my roller from me and her hand lingered on mine for a minute. Damn. I was glad my jeans were stiff because I sure was.
I managed to keep my focus on Mrs. Stierwalt. And Rachel’s bra strap. It seemed to keep slipping of her shoulder. It was kind of a relief when class was over, but Rachel grabbed my roller and tagged along with me to the library. She took it all the way to my study carrel. Just before she turned to leave, she whispered to me.
“I’ve decided I want to find out. I won’t get between you and your friend. I can be very discreet.” The gentle breath in my ear revived my erection as I sat down. Then she was gone.
I racked my brain to see if I could remember anything more about V1’s Rachel. I needed to take a look in my old yearbook. Except, of course, I didn’t have my old yearbook. In this reality, I hadn’t lived then. Crap. I just didn’t remember Rachel being such a flirt. Or maybe she just hadn’t been a flirt with me. She did let her skirts ride up to her knees when she sat. I remembered looking at those shapely legs from across the room. Was she flirting with me then and I didn’t realize it?
For that matter, was she flirting with me in this life? She focused entirely on Rebeca during lunch. But she’d said she’d decided she wanted to find out. There was only one thing that could mean. It took the entire time I was in the library for my erection to go down.
At two o’clock, I presented my pass from Jock to Miss Lustig and headed for the gym. Tony was there, as promised, and I put in a solid fifteen minutes on the treadmill. I almost had this walking thing down.
Tuesday after school, Francie and I made love. That’s the only way I could describe it. She’d been active and demanding in our lovemaking ever since I gave her the Kama Sutra but this time she wanted slow and gentle. We undressed each other and I softly caressed her baby bump. She was only five months along, but it would be obvious to anyone who saw her now that she was pregnant.
I got a bottle of after-shower body lotion from the bathroom and smoothed it all over the firm rise of the baby in her tummy. And then I kissed all over it.
When my first wife was pregnant, I loved touching and holding the baby while it grew in her. Pregnant women just brought out the protective caring in me and I wanted to do whatever I could for them. My whole V1 life, I’d always jumped up to assist a pregnant woman, even if it wasn’t my wife. I’d give them my seat on the bus, offer to get them a refill of their drink, pull out their chairs, and just smile when I saw that life growing inside them. I’d even spent an entire bus ride standing in front of a young mother who nursed her baby so that she wasn’t in the direct line of sight from anyone else on the bus.
Francie was more beautiful now than she’d been before she was really showing two months ago and she gave me a hand job, even though I couldn’t move my arms and reciprocate. I progressed down between her legs and worshiped her pussy with my tongue until she’d sighed out a very satisfied climax. Then I knelt between her legs and let my cock slide in and out of her wet channel as we looked into each other’s eyes. It almost made me weep.
“We can’t do that very often,” she whispered as I cuddled her with one arm wrapped under her to hold her tender breast and the other continuing to stroke the bump. “It’s too much like being in love. I’m afraid I’d be devasted when I have to leave. You’re a special man, Jacob. I want to hold these memories in my heart forever.”
Em didn’t come in until it was time to hurry us into our clothes before Pey got home.
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