Deadly Chemistry
Part I: The Edge
1 Run!
I STOOD in the gravel parking lot and watched the moving van leave, followed by Rev. and Mrs. Gordon in their car. Hannah’s face was pressed against the passenger window of Sarah’s old Mercedes as the two slowly followed their parents. Tears were streaming from Hannah’s eyes and the window was fogging. Sarah was in no better shape as she wiped her eyes so she could see to pull out onto the highway.
It had been a week-and-a-half since we got the news they were moving. Hannah and I spent all the time we could together and with the rest of our girlfriends and boyfriends. I helped her pack. Everything we put in boxes was accompanied by a tear. When I looked into her eyes I saw desperation… maybe fear. Now she was leaving.
Leaving.
“Son, we’d better go now, too,” Dad said with his hand on my shoulder. We were just one of the many families who had come to give the Gordons a tearful send-off. Tears weren’t all. I couldn’t breathe. I kept taking short little gasps of air, not able to get enough air to fill my lungs. My whole body was trembling. I’d kissed both girls tenderly and hugged them to me.
“We’ll make it work somehow,” I’d said. I’d even believed my own words.
Now the powder blue Mercedes was out of sight and people were returning to their cars.
“No,” I whispered. “No! NO!” I screamed. I wrenched myself out from under Dad’s hand and started to run. I ran out of the parking lot and turned to follow them, knowing they were already a mile ahead of me. Something shifted in my mind and I stretched my legs as I yelled again. “No!”
Of course, there was no way I could catch them—nothing I could do if I did. Once I hit the highway, I didn’t even contemplate following them. I just had to run. I had to do something and it was the only thing I could do. I wasn’t thinking. My body was just doing.
When I saw the creek trail, I turned and headed down it along the path to the elementary school and the pond where Hannah had told me she loved me. I splashed through the water and hit the path on the other side, somehow avoiding the roots that stretched out across the path as my legs ate up the ground. Every few steps, I’d repeat again, “No.” Before long, my shirt was soaked and salt stung my eyes as sweat dripped into them. I shook my head, repeated my mantra and kept running. I turned left on Range Road, already more than a mile from the church and headed out on the country block where we’d ridden our bikes together.
Every step was filled with something funny she’d said. Every thought was of her challenge to race. I ran, my legs stretching out and my arms pumping as I kept gasping more air into my lungs. When I turned onto Mosquito, I cut through a freshly plowed field and headed back toward the woods. I stretched to run harder screaming out my frustration as I pounded through the furrows. No! No! No! I was aware of the old oak as I passed it and leaped over the tree across the trail where Hannah had lain in ambush for me on my treasure hunt. When I hit the other side, I pounded back along the trails where we’d ridden the horses together and all too soon I was running through the back pasture toward the barns, the startled horses turning to run with me.
As I came even with the barn I gave out. I was running and running and then my legs weren’t under me anymore and I was face-down in the pasture with the horses standing beside me snuffling as I tried to fill my lungs enough to cry some more.
Gone. She’s gone.
Mom and Dad saw me or heard me come out of the woods. Dad said later that he got a phone call from the neighbor whose field I ran through asking if I was training for cross-country this year and if I was all right. They were on the lookout for me and when I fell in the pasture, they came running with a bottle of water. I think Mom was ready to call for an ambulance. I wasn’t coherent when Dad picked me up and carried me to the guest room. He wasn’t going to climb the stairs with me. When I woke up and drank more water, Mom shoved me into the bathroom to take a shower and immediately stripped the sweat-soaked sheets off the guest room bed.
“I ran like that once,” Dad said when we sat down to dinner. Neither he nor Mom had said anything about my display. I’d spent a lot of time in the afternoon with the horses. Samantha had come over to work with them because she’d be house-sitting and caring for them while we were all gone this summer. It was supposed to be her and Hannah again. We were both quiet and only had a kiss and a hug before she went home.
“You never ran,” Mom laughed. “You didn’t even walk. You drove the tractor to come across the road to visit me.”
“No. There was the first time Pops tried to teach me to drive. You remember the old blue Falcon station wagon? Pops and I went to an auction over in Nappanee and he decided it was time to teach me to drive a stick shift. I figured what the heck. It must be just like driving the tractor. But it wasn’t. That car lurched and bucked and ground all the way back home with Pops sitting in the driver’s seat screaming at me. I killed the car turning in the driveway, jumped out and took off running and screaming at the top of my lungs. I probably didn’t run as far as you did, but I ended up under an apple tree out in Barone’s orchard.”
“How’d you learn to drive a stick?” I asked. It was kind of funny to hear Dad tell the story. He suddenly looked embarrassed.
“You probably don’t remember Mrs. Stackhouse,” Dad said. “She went to our church and was pushing seventy when I was a kid. I’m trying to think. She must have died ten years ago. Anyway, she asked if I’d be interested in a summer job mowing her lawn. Five dollars a week, which was big money in the sixties. I agreed, not thinking about how I was going to get to her place out by the lake. It was a good four miles away and I had to take the lawn mower.”
“What did you do?”
“I stole the truck,” Dad said. He laughed. “Pops was in the field cultivating the corn and I loaded the lawnmower and a gas can in the pickup, got the keys from the rack in the house, and drove it out to the lake.”
“You didn’t have a license yet!” Mom squealed.
“Yeah. There’s my dark criminal past. Auto theft and driving without a license.”
“But you weren’t caught?” I asked. “Got away with it?”
“Oh no. I was caught. Pop was waiting for me on the back porch when I pulled into the drive. He sat there chewing on that old cigar. You know, I don’t remember him ever smoking one of those. He’d just pull one out of his pocket and bite off a hunk. He waited until I’d put the mower away and cleaned it up. Then I went to face the music. In this instance, it was percussion. His belt on my ass for ten strokes.”
“I didn’t know Granddad beat you, Dad.”
“It was a different time back then. And it was the last time. He never said another word about it, but the next day he drove me, in the truck, to the license bureau to get my license.”
“I’m glad you didn’t try to teach me to drive,” I laughed.
“It wasn’t a bad summer after that,” Dad said. “You know that walnut headboard we have behind our bed. Of course, it doesn’t fit the king-size mattress, but I’ll never give that headboard up. I fastened it to the wall and just moved the bed up against it. Anyway, Mrs. Stackhouse gave that to me. Said it was all she had left of the bed she’d had when she was a girl. The rails had split and she’d given the footboard away but loved the headboard. It was in her basement and she said if I could get it out, I could have it. Spent most of the fall refinishing it.”
I don’t know how they did it, but just talking at the dinner table—something related but not related—helped me at least not be so sullen and desperate. I still hurt. I still cried myself to sleep while whispering words of love and comfort to Hannah hoping she’d just feel them. But I slept. I woke up in the morning at four-thirty, whispered a prayer for Hannah, and went out to run.
Running in the morning became my new routine. I didn’t run as far or as hard the next morning, but I put in a good three miles before I showered and fixed breakfast. Mom and Dad went to work and Sam showed up about ten. She gave me a big hug and we just went out and took care of the horses.
“Can we go for a ride?” she asked.
“It’s going to be your call when the horses get exercised,” I said. “I’m leaving Tuesday. It’s all up to you.”
“Brian…” I looked at her and saw the tears sparkling in her eyes. I held out my arms and she rushed into them.
“I’m sorry, Cutie. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m a little frayed around the edges.”
“We all are, Brian. I love her, too, and now I’m going to be alone here this summer to take care of the horses and I can’t even cook for your parents worth a damn. I’m afraid they’ll hate me and I’ll mess up and hurt the horses and burn the house down and wreck the truck. How am I going to survive without her and without you?” The words were out in a rush and Sam was silently crying against my shoulder.
“We’ll make it, sweetheart. Somehow, we’ll all survive this. I don’t know how. Somehow.” We saddled Rika and Jingo. Silk seemed content to head for the pasture to graze. Rika seemed to know that she was going to be Sam’s horse this summer.
“I’d invite someone to come stay with me,” Samantha said as we felt the comforting movement of the horses beneath us. “But even Liz isn’t that interested in the horses. My little sister keeps chanting how lucky I am and how unfair it is. I don’t feel lucky right now.” Rika side-stepped a little and Sam reached down to pat her neck. “Yes, sweet girl. I am lucky. You make everyone lucky.”
“Rika is calmer with you on her than anyone,” I said. “Have you been letting her snuffle your smooth, pretty legs?”
“You dog! I wouldn’t do… Hmm.” We laughed.
“Maybe you should invite Lexi to be here with you. Could you keep from killing your little sister?”
“Oh, we get along fine. She is so out there on the edge of girlie stuff. She’s really envious of the horses, though.”
“You’re kind of a girlie girl, too,” I said. “I can’t think of anyone else who would take the time and energy you do to be sure your legs are so soft and silky. And even today you put on makeup before you came out to the barn.”
“I didn’t think you noticed.”
“You were crying. There’s little black streaks on your cheeks.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” She started rubbing furiously at her cheeks.
“Hey.” I nudged Jingo over close to her reached out to stroke her cheek. “There are streaks on my cheeks, too. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I love you, Brian. I know it’s different from Hannah and you, but I still love you.”
“There’s nothing wrong with different. I love you, too.”
“Maybe I will invite Lexi to join me if it’s okay with Mama Marilyn.”
“Would it feel too much like babysitting if you invited Judy, too?” I asked with a sudden inspiration.
“She and Lexi are practically glued together at the hip these days,” Sam said. “Do you think she’d like taking care of the horses?”
“I’m not sure, but she can cook.”
We rode back to the barn, rubbed down our horses and put them out to pasture. I turned and Samantha was standing so close to me that I almost knocked her down. We didn’t need a special signal or permission this time. It started as just a friendly kiss and progressed to sweet and passionate.
“Sam, honey. I’m not ready to do anything more right now. You know?”
“I know, love. I know. But please don’t go so long you forget how sweet my honey is and how smooth my lips are.”
Saturday morning, Whitney was waiting for me when I got back from my run. She’d already been at basketball camp for a week but was back home for the holiday weekend.
“I’ll get a shower and fix breakfast,” I said.
“Don’t bother. You’re just going to get dirty again,” she said. She grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the pasture. Usually we just worked out on the cement, but she wanted to be out in nature, I guess. We stood side-by-side and did our forms for about twenty minutes, working on being in synch with each other. I hadn’t been doing them this week—well, ever since I started running. I’d forgotten how peaceful they made me feel. Whitney spun around to face me as we finished the last exercise. She bowed to me, which I ungracefully returned. “I’m going to attack,” she announced. “Defend yourself.”
I made the mistake of assuming that she was just going to go through the motions like we usually did. Her first blow to my chest knocked me on my ass.
“Hey!”
“Not much of a defense. Get up.” So that was how it was going to be. I jumped up, still rubbing where she’d hit me. I deflected the next two blows and stepped inside her kick to deliver a body punch myself. She’d gotten me mad and I didn’t hold it back. It was like hitting a brick wall. “I am a rock,” she said as she delivered another punch to my mid-section that knocked me down. If I was going to survive this latest batch of training, I needed to pay attention. I jumped to my feet and for the next ten minutes we were a blur of punches, kicks, and blocks. I don’t know when I saw the weakness, but there was something about Whitney’s stance when she blocked my hammer punch. I launched a series of them and while she blocked most, one hit and she stepped back. That was my cue. I stepped past her with my right foot and spun with my left rising to hit her in the chest. Whit went over my right leg and landed on the ground. She looked up at me and grinned. “Got any more of that arnica salve?”
I’d been reluctant at first, but Whitney got me in the shower with her and once I was there, my cock started to betray me as we washed each other. She smiled as she reached for it with her soapy hands.
“Whitney, I don’t think I’m ready,” I said as she closed the distance so our bodies were tight together.
“Unless you are taking back the permission you gave me to touch you in the shower, Brian, I’m not letting go. You should let go. It doesn’t mean you don’t love her. It just means you still love me.” She bent forward and kissed me and I kissed her back. “Let go, lover. Just relax and let it go.” I did. I didn’t think I’d ever be interested in sex again. I hadn’t so much as masturbated in two weeks. The session with Hannah in the hayloft wasn’t repeated, and even though we spent every possible moment together we could before she left, we hadn’t done more than kiss—deeply and intently. Whitney’s soapy hand on my cock coaxed two weeks’ worth of sperm from my balls and I sprayed all over her hand and stomach. She just kept kissing me until I was too sensitive to go on. We rinsed and toweled dry. Without bothering to dress she led me up to my room and lay on the bed. “Please rub some cream into my bruises,” she said.
I really looked at Whitney and was shocked at the number of black and blue marks on her body.
“God! Did I do all that to you? I’m not that bruised.”
“No. I’ve been sparring every day at camp. It’s brutal this year. We spend about as much time sparring as we do on the court. Ava is adamant that women know self-defense as well as they know basketball. I’ve trained for so long that I have an advantage over the other girls, but it’s still a good workout.”
“Ava?”
“Coach Christiansen. It’s pretty cool, Brian. There are only twelve of us girls in this camp—all juniors and seniors ready to play varsity. It’s just the twelve of us with two coaches. It’s a private camp and there are no men on the premises. You’d love the way we scrimmage.”
“I’d like to watch that.”
“You sure would. We play shirts and skins.”
“Whitney! That sounds awfully… uh… dangerous, you know.”
“It is. But we are all respectful of each other. If a girl says no to another girl, then that’s it. One of the things our coaches lectured us on was that we would never be able to tell another person no and mean it if we didn’t respect the term ourselves. I’ve had a couple naked kisses this week, but girls just don’t quite do for me what you do. Like how wet you’re making me between my legs.” I’d covered all the bruises and let my hand slip down across Whitney’s ripped stomach to her thick bush. She moaned as I pushed my finger down into the moistness.
“Oh my God! They’re naked!” a girl’s voice shouted from behind me.
“Aaack!” screamed a second. Their feet pounded down the stairs and I heard Sam laughing as she came up.
“Busted!” she said. “We called, but apparently you didn’t hear us. We can finish. They won’t come back up.”
“No. I’m finished now,” Whitney whimpered.
“Oh, girlfriend. I’m sorry,” Sam said. “I should have known you’d be together. Does this mean you’ll give me some loving tonight, too?”
“It will be difficult with the two kids in the room,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting them today.”
“They aren’t staying until Monday. Where are Jen and Court?”
“Not here yet. Probably not till after lunch. Mom and Dad are out buying groceries for all you guys for the next two weeks. I’d better go down and brief Judy on the kitchen. Are you sure you’re okay, love?” I asked Whitney.
“Yeah. For now. Don’t forget, though. There’s fireworks Monday night.”
In spite of the fact that Jennifer and Courtney were in bed with us, I was cuddled up to Samantha all Saturday night. Whitney, Lexi, and Judy all went home, although the two younger girls kept hinting that they were willing to be naked if that would get them an invitation for the night. Heaven help me!
Jennifer, Courtney, Sam, and I were probably the ones most affected by Hannah’s absence. It had been the five of us at the dude ranch nearly two years ago and whenever possible, we had been together since then. I think it was Courtney who began to tease Hannah out of her shell and into becoming a young woman. I still remember seeing that kiss in the bunkhouse. We were determined to care for each other and I had sort of promised Sam that I would make love with her before I took off. I hadn’t counted on the effect of having Courtney and Jennifer helping stimulate her. Sam liked to kiss the girls and touch their breasts but had never gone down on them. She screeched when she took me in her mouth and Jennifer touched Sam’s pleasure button. Courtney rode my face. It was a good thing her pussy was there to muffle my scream when Sam started whining her orgasm around my organ. That took Courtney over the edge as well. I was drained, but Court fell onto Jennifer and licked her to another climax as Samantha crawled up my body to hold me and kiss me. It was the third of July and the temperature was climbing to the mid-nineties with clear skies forecast. We didn’t cover ourselves and we didn’t let go of each other. By morning we were a very sweaty mess.
But when we settled down to sleep and I held Samantha in my arms as Jennifer and Courtney cuddled next to us, it was tears I wiped from her cheeks, not sweat.
I slid out from between Samantha and Courtney in the morning. Literally slid. There was so much sweat between us that our skins were slippery against each other. Samantha rolled to the spot I vacated and plastered her soaking body against Courtney, throwing an arm over her to hug Jennifer. I smiled at them. I couldn’t help myself. I reached over and rubbed Sam’s butt. All three of those perfect asses had been cuddled up next to me all night. I decided that as soon as I got a drink of water I’d rinse off and then go for a run so I didn’t bother to get dressed. I just grabbed my shorts and socks and went downstairs as quietly as possible. It was four-thirty in the morning so I knew I would be the only one awake.
Thought I would be.
I walked into the kitchen to get water and practically stumbled into Anna. She was looking out the kitchen window drinking a glass of water. Great minds, I guess. And…
“Anna! You’re naked!” She jumped and turned to face me.
“Oh! So are you! You startled me.” She didn’t make any move to cover herself up or to run away, so I got a glass and poured water. I was having a slight reaction. Jennifer was a good two inches taller than her mom now, but aside from that they both had the same fabulous build and full breasts. She looked me up and down frankly. “Hmm. Like father like son,” she said looking at my stiffening cock. “I can only assume that there are at least two if not three girls in similar attire in your bed, so why are you down here?”
“I was going to get some water then go for a run.”
“A run? In this? It’s four-thirty in the morning and the temperature is already over eighty.”
“Better to get it in now than wait until it gets hot,” I said. I was beginning to relax, but damn, Anna was just about as beautiful as her daughter.
“Well, you should at least put on a pair of shorts before you go. I think I’ll go find one of those that is… more accessible,” she said winking at me. She headed toward the kitchen door. Criminy, what an ass! “Oh, and Brian? It’s going to be a long hot summer. Get used to it.” I think she actually wiggled her ass at me a little before she disappeared. Maybe I should go back to bed.
I pulled my shorts and socks on and slipped into my running shoes at the door.
You wouldn’t believe what happened, I thought to Hannah as I ran. I wished she was with me. We’d be laughing about this encounter. What do you suppose she means that I should get used to it? Do you think they all plan to run around naked this summer? I don’t think I could ever get used to it. I dream about you at night, sweetheart. I dream about our morning together in the hayloft. Are you okay? You know I’d never hurt you. You can’t hear what I’m thinking, but I really need to talk to you sometimes.
I didn’t run quite as hard as I did when I took off after she left, but it was a good workout. Even in the thick humid air, I was running more easily, stretching my legs in the early morning half-light. I wondered why I never thought about running before. I guess because Hannah and I were always on our bikes. I sure hoped there was someplace near Anna’s house where I could run this summer. I was getting used to it.
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