Shelly Part 4 Celebration

Megan took the coat from her shoulders and draped it around me, then pulled me close to her. I clung to her warmth, letting the ache pour out of me in sobs. She patted and stroked my back as I cried.

“I hate her,” I gasped. “I hate her. So much. She tries so hard. To make me. Hate myself.”

“Ssh,” she whispered, rocking slowly. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You did the right thing.”

I took a deep breath and stood up straight. The top of my head came to just above Megan’s chin. “I think I’m alright now,” I said. Then I looked at the smear of mascara that came off on my fingers. “I must look pretty awful.”

Megan smiled. “Still my pretty little freshman. Come on, I’ll help you get cleaned up.” She held my arm as we walked back inside and on back to the restroom. She dabbed at my smeared makeup with a damp paper towel, then began mimicking the faces I was making until I nearly collapsed from laughter. I felt more relaxed and content being with her then than I had in weeks. I stopped thinking about what I was feeling and just felt it.

Megan frowned thoughtfully. “I was going to suggest that we go to Jason’s club so that most of us can get wasted, but if you just want to go home, I’ll take you back. I have to drive, so there’s no joy for me anyway.”

“No, I’ll go.” I wanted to do something rebellious. Getting drunk sounded like a perfect way to get back at my mother.

We climbed into two cars and parked at a garage, sneaking into the club in the same manner we had before, the only difference being that Rachel went around to the front this time. I began to feel pleasantly dizzy by the end of my second cocktail, a fruity concoction called a fuzzy navel. “Oh my God, there he is,” Rachel said. She had to shout to be heard over the music. “He actually came.” She stood up and hurried over to intercept the man who had just entered. It was the waiter she had been flirting with at the restaurant.

“Well that’s interesting,” Megan said, setting down her drink. “Excuse me, kids. I want to get a front row seat on this one.”

“Be nice,” Casey warned. Megan gave her a knowing smile as she walked away.

A strong hand on my shoulder made me look up at a ruggedly handsome black face and bullish neck and shoulders. “Mind if I sit down?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

I stared at the man for a moment. “You’re Jason, right?”

“Yeah. Megan told me you don’t remember everything so well from that night.”

“Go ahead,” I said, gesturing to the seat that Megan had just left. “I never got a chance to thank you.”

“There’s no need. I consider it my civic duty, giving scum like that a reason to think twice about hurting women. I’m just glad you’re alright. You’ve got to watch yourself.”

“Well,” I said, lowering my voice, “thanks for letting us in, anyway.”

“Hey, no problem. I used to do stupid stuff like that when I was your age, too. All part of being in college. I trust you won’t tell anyone. I could lose my job.”

“’Coursh not,” I assured him. I giggled at the sound of my words slurring. “I think I’m a little drunk.”

He pursed his lips and nodded as though I had said something portentous. “How many have you had?”

I sucked on my straw, making a slurping noise as the last of the pulpy juice disappeared. “That’s three,” I said, holding up my fingers.

Jason grinned. “You’re a real lightweight.”

“How’d you and Megan meet?” I asked, feeling delightfully uninhibited.

He shrugged. “I’m dating her sister.”

“Wow,” I said. “Sister.”

“Her name’s Denise. She’s twenty-three and she works in marketing for a company here in town. I’m surprised Megan never mentioned her.”

“She pretty?”

He nodded. “Beautiful, just like her younger sister.”

“Yeah, she’s incredible,” I agreed.

I glanced over at Jason, who was watching me from the corner of his eye. “So, you and Megan?” He tilted his head to suggest the rest of the question.

“Nope,” I answered. “It’s funny, though. Did you know she kissed me? Weird, huh?”

He leaned back. “Why is that?”

I waved my hands, trying to conjure up an answer that wouldn’t be in poor taste. “Oh, you know.”

Jason regarded me from the corner of his eye again. “She cares a lot about you. She talked to me about you a couple of times since that night. She seemed to think you like her, too. Megan’s got good instincts about that kind of thing anyway, but apparently you already told her you were in love with her.”

“That wasn’t how it happened,” I protested. “It was a mist, a misunderstanding.”

“So then you don’t want to be with her?”

I looked over my shoulder. Megan, sitting two stools down from Rachel and her date at the bar, caught my eye and winked. “I don’t know. I just wish things weren’t so complicated,” I sighed.

“Maybe you’re the one making it complicated,” Jason said. He pushed his chair back and stood up. “I’ll see you around, Shelly.”

I sat through two more drinks, despite my better judgment, and would have ordered another if Casey hadn’t interceded. I realized that she had been nursing a single beer for most of the evening, each of the drinks she had ordered being passed to Darren with the admonition that he must try it. I counted nearly a dozen cocktail and shot glasses upended on the table in front of him, with no ill effects apparent in his speech and mannerisms. I wondered idly whether I was witnessing another of her tactics gone wrong.

Megan returned to our table, flushed from the heat of the room but grinning. “She’s going home with him,” she announced. “And I’m only letting her get away with it because it’s her birthday. I think I’m ready to call it a night.”

The air outside felt bitingly cold, but a drowsy warmth still lingered in my belly. Sachiko was literally falling-down drunk and leaned on a giggling, swaying Laura for support. I was suddenly grateful that Casey had stopped me. I had already come close to making a fool of myself talking to Jason. I didn’t need to go all the way.

Megan took Sachiko home first, making sure that she was safely inside her dorm room. She dropped Laura off in Isla Vista, opening up the front seat for me. Watching the lights go by reminded me of the night a few days ago, of Megan driving me home after I had rejected her. I thought about what Jason had said and suddenly everything snapped into place. The fear. It wasn’t Megan that I had been afraid of. It was my mother. It had always been my mother. I had let her control me for all of my life, never daring to step out of line, to make my own choices. That phone conversation had done more than give me a vent for my anger. It had given me the chance to see that I was my own person, separate from the one that my mother wanted me to be. I didn’t need her approval to live my life.

I looked over at Megan. Her face glowed green in the light from the dashboard. A sudden outpouring of longing and anxious elation swept through me. “Stop the car,” I said, my voice breaking.

Megan glanced at me and slowed the car, pulling off into a parking lot. She put the car into park but left the engine on, then turned to look the other way. She must have thought I needed to throw up, I realized. Given the way my stomach was turning, that actually seemed like a very real possibility. I sucked in a deep breath to calm my nerves. “There’s something we need to talk about,” I said, letting my breath go so that I could gulp another one.

She turned to look at me. “Sure. Okay.”

I tried pressing my hands against my stomach, hoping to untie the knots it had put itself into. “I’ve been thinking about us, about the things that have happened between us. I’ve been thinking about when you kissed me.” A rush of heat ran up my neck as I said that. My hand felt like it was floating as I reached to touch her cheek. “I just realized why I’ve been afraid, and why that doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

Megan drew in a shuddering breath as my fingers traced down the side of her neck. She closed her eyes and accepted my caress, but then drew herself up straight and gazed at me. “What happened that night hurt me more than I care to admit,” she said. “I was so sure about you. I was angry with you, at first, but angrier with myself. I realize that you were just confused, but now I need to know that I can trust you.”

I swallowed, at a loss to find the words to convince her that I would never hurt her again. I finally said the only words that could come close to expressing how I felt. “I love you, Megan.”

The shell of doubt she had built around herself melted. I felt my heart soar at the spark of pure happiness in her eyes. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

“Do you think you could kiss me again?” I asked, trembling with need.

She unfastened her belt and twisted in her seat, her hand curving around the back of my head as her lips pressed firmly, hungrily, against my own. I kissed her back, clumsily at first, but quickly grasping the simple mechanics that served to pass on my feelings. Growing bolder, I kissed the edge of her jaw, then down and across her neck.

“Yes. I’ve wanted you so much,” Megan moaned, rolling her head back. She clambered over towards me, getting one knee into the seat between my thighs so that she was facing backwards. My skin burned and the tingling of desire awakened between my legs. I felt dizzy and strangely dislocated, as though I were just an observer watching things unfold. Megan reached behind my back and deftly tugged the zipper down, then began to peel my dress away towards the front.

“Wait, I’m on my period,” I protested, suddenly remembering.

Megan went on as though she hadn’t heard, reaching down to trace the curve of one breast as she softly bit my lip. I gasped at the ripples of pleasant warmth that rolled down my chest and settled into a spot deep inside of me. I trailed a hand slowly down Megan’s back as she nibbled at my neck and shoulders, her fingers still playing across the smooth, yielding flesh of my bosom. I slipped my hand beneath the back of her dress and settled upon the soft curve of her bottom.

The hand at my chest slipped down, sliding over fabric as it traced a path down the front of one leg. Upon reaching the hem, Megan slid her hand to the inside of my leg, then up across my stocking to bare thigh. I exhaled sharply at the touch, the tingling in my womb flaring even hotter. Her hand lingered there a moment, sweeping across my skin, almost but not quite tickling. I ached with the need to be touched.

“Oh God,” I breathed, my hips giving a sudden spasm as a pair of fingers brushed scintillating sparks of pleasure right through both fabric and padding. Megan moved her fingers in lazy circles across the outside of my panties, the feeling shockingly immediate to the sensitized lips of my sex. My head fell back against the seat as the world around me faded, then came suddenly back into focus as her lips found and caressed a nipple. The warm core of pleasure built up moment by moment, higher and higher until it suddenly poured forth, sweeping out and across my body in wave after wave.

I could hear the sound of my breathing, coarse and fast. I could feel warm skin pressing against my cheek. The sweet and acrid scent of perfume hung in the air, but there was another smell, an earthier, musky scent, peaceful and vibrant and eminently feminine. I thought to open my eyes and saw the smoothly curving shoulder of another woman as she held me against her. “Oh, wow,” I breathed, snuggling up tighter against Megan.

She laughed softly. “I’ll admit that’s a first for me. It only took you about a minute to orgasm.” She lifted my head for another kiss. “Nothing is going to be the same now, Shelly, my love.”