The Right Choice by Catharsis

“The Right Choice”
by “Allison Parker” (as told to Catharsis)

People say I’m a risk taker, or that I make crazy decisions on the spur of the moment. I’m really not that way. Honest. I just get this sense that things will work out all right, and I follow it. To tell the truth, I think the absolute best experiences you can possibly have in life all come from listening to that instinct, and I know I’m not the only person who believes that. In fact, my life story is proof of that.

Like most people, when I tell people how I got to be who I am, I always gloss over a bunch of details. Right now, though, I’m going to confess the whole thing. Those bits I normally leave out include the exact times when my life could have gone in different directions, but I made a choice. Maybe when you hear them they’ll help you understand how I recognized which choice to make each time. Until today, only two other human beings have known the full story, and I hope they won’t mind me telling the tale like this, because they both feature prominently in it. The knack for choosing the road to happiness is too good not to share.

Part 1

The first big fork in my life’s path happened my senior year of high school. My parents decided to visit some relatives they hadn’t seen in a couple years. They stuffed me and my older sister Caroline in the SUV and drove for four hours. They were buzzing happily in anticipation the whole way, and Caroline was excited because she’d get to hang out with her cousin Samantha who was the same age. I couldn’t have cared less about the whole deal. My aunt’s house wasn’t even in the small town we were going to. Her faded blue rambler sat on a slope practically in farm country. To top it off, we weren’t even going to be staying in a motel overnight.

“Aunt Miriam’s got plenty of room,” my mother said. As if.

My parents got the guest room, and Caroline and I were supposed to make ourselves comfortable in the basement, where they’d set up some military surplus cots. I asked my Dad if this was a joke.

“It’s just for one night,” he said, giving me a look that meant discussion was over. Like that made it any better. I didn’t want to spend one more minute in that funky-smelling, painted cinder block cellar than I had to. My sister and I dropped our luggage next to our cots and then joined everyone else for a late lunch out on the patio.

After we finished eating, the parents stayed there drinking wine and talking adult stuff. Samantha led Caroline and I through the house to show us her room. It was surprisingly large, but that was due to the fact it had been originally intended to be a den or office. The center of it was dominated by a queen-sized bed jutting from the middle of one wall, with Samantha’s desk and dresser in opposite corners.

We sat on the floor and had a pleasant conversation. Well, Samantha and Caroline did. I guess it was pleasant. They weren’t really including me. I started scanning the room for something to occupy myself with. There were no books, and no games, video or otherwise, either. Just sports stuff — a basketball, a bunch of softball gear, and trophies. Nothing that interested me. Just when I was thinking of going out to wander around the yard, a guest arrived.

In walked Brooke. Brooke Marx, Samantha’s next door neighbor. About an inch shorter than me, kinda skinny, with brown hair shaved close on the sides and back, and a big mop of it on top parted to the side. Wearing a black jacket over a black t-shirt for some band I didn’t know, beat up jeans, a wide belt with diamond-shaped silver studs on it, and what looked to me like hiking boots. Amber eyes, multiply-pierced ears, a stud through her nose, and a mouth that seemed a bit oversized for her face.

Samantha introduced us all, and to my relief the next hour or so of chatting involved all four of us. Brooke turned out to be eighteen as well, a few months older than I was, and much closer than the three year gap to my sister. She worked full time and occasionally on weekends, but had the day off that Saturday. She had a roughness to her voice, the kind that normally comes from regular smoking, but she said she didn’t and never had. Despite her punkish looks, she was really laid back and was genuinely interested in my and Caroline’s tales from the city we lived in.

During a slight pause in our chat and without any provocation, Samantha kicked her foot lightly into Caroline’s leg. “So, cousin,” she said, “When’re you going to tame that mane of yours?”

My sister’s blond hair at that time was rather long, about down to the middle of her back, with good amount of volume. She took a lot of time in the morning each day getting it all styled and sprayed. Samantha, by contrast, had shoulder-length blond hair which she kept straight and often bunched in a ponytail. Mine was as it always has been: black with red highlights, parted to one side, and collar length in the back.

Caroline drawled out her reply, “Soon as you learn what fashion sense is.”

I stared at the two of them. Were they being serious? Samantha was studying Caroline’s reaction, but my sister was staring casually at a vacant spot up on the wall. Brooke just raised an eyebrow.

“Fit is the new thin, Caroline dear.”

“Oh, did last year’s magazines finally get delivered out here?”

“Indeed, but it seems you still haven’t gotten the message.”

“Oh, I got it, cousin of mine.”

“Care to prove it?”

Now Caroline’s head turned towards Samantha. She nodded toward the shelf with all the trophies. “All that running around you do isn’t gonna help you for shit.”

Both women were sporting wicked grins. My heart started beating faster. They’d planned something before we’d arrived. I couldn’t for the life of me guess what it was.

“Take off your shoes, honey, you’re going down.”

Both began untying their laces, never dropping those unnerving smiles. To my utter surprise, Caroline looked right at me and said, “You, too.”

“What?” I said stupidly. My hands grabbed for my right sneaker out of the ingrained habit of following my older sister’s commands, but I paused, unsure whether to continue. Samantha flung her cross trainers under the bed and then hopped upon it on hands and knees.

“Oh, yeah!” Brooke said, figuring out what was going on way before I could, and began undoing her shoe laces.

Samantha sat back on her haunches and bellowed, “Queen of the Mountain!”

I sat there frozen on the floor with a complete WTF on my face. Samantha read it, and decided to be helpful.

“It’s a free for all. Last one still on the bed is the queen.”

That explanation was nice of her, but that wasn’t what my brain was trying to comprehend right then. My cousin wasn’t kidding, and neither was my sister who made short work of her tennis shoes. Dumping them under the bed, she threw me a look and barked, “C’mon!”.

Scrambling but still not fully thinking clearly, I kicked off my shoes without untying them and placed them at the foot of the bed. Brooke joined me soon after, and nudged both her and my pair underneath the bed with her toes. I remember that she was wearing a thick pair of tan socks. I had plain old thin white ankle socks, and wondered if they were going to be adequate.

“Everybody to a corner,” my sister ordered.

“Extra cushions over here,” said Samantha. Brooke and I passed a trio of small pillows over, and Caroline arranged them above the two full-size pillows to pad the wooden headboard. While she did that, Samantha jumped off the bed and closed the door. I looked over at my sister. She saw the worry painted on my face, but just pursed her lips and gave me a “don’t embarrass me” shake of her head.

Ashamed, I turned mine away. That caused me to look over to where Brooke was crouched. She’d taken her jacket off, and noticed a tattoo ringing her upper left arm just below the end of her short sleeves. She didn’t appear too awfully strong, but I figured that she and Samantha might have practiced this game with each other before. Brooke caught the direction of my attention, tilted her head slightly, and checked me out from head to toe with her eyes. When she was done, we stayed staring at each other silently.

Samantha climbed back on the bed, and started the proceedings. “Remember, no nails, no punches. You can push with your feet, but no kicking or kneeing.”

“Hair?” my sister asked.

Samantha looked over at Brooke and me. “You two don’t have to.” I shook no. Brooke shrugged her shoulders. Samantha pointed at Caroline. “OK, hair pulling is allowed between Miss Gorgeous here and I, but it’s off limits for the other two, giving and receiving.”

“Best of three rounds,” my sister announced. It suddenly clicked with me why she’d worn a comfortable dark grey top instead of a blouse like she normally did. It wasn’t just for the car trip.

Samantha started the count, and Caroline accompanied her midway through.

“Three. Two. One. Go!”

All four of us collided in the center of the bed like a multi-car pileup at a demolition derby. Hands were tugging at shirts and elbows bumped into heads and bodies. We teetered there for a few seconds, then Brooke broke off to move around the heap. Samantha had my sister’s head in her midsection. She was leaning over Caroline’s back with her arms surrounding my sister’s waist. I stood up on the mattress and tried to pull her off. One of Samantha’s arms came loose, but quickly dove back under Caroline. As I renewed my attack, my right leg flew out from under me. My chin hit Samantha’s back, and she must have loosened her grip, because my sister managed to raise herself up a few inches.

I tried to regain my balance, but found my foot didn’t want to move. Brooke was on her knees just behind me and had my pant leg firmly in her grasp. She was trying to haul me sideways and roll me off the bed. I held on even tighter. Samantha then let go of Caroline completely and tossed me aside. My sister got up from her crouch, cheeks already red, and brushed her hair out of her face. Brooke yanked her by the arm onto her side. Samantha pounced, pushing Caroline dangerously near the edge. I had barely sat back up when Brooke turned, lifted my feet up in the air, and sent me tumbling. I hit the floor and rolled to my knees in time to see Caroline slide off, pulling Samantha with her as she did so.

“Shit.” “Damn it.” the older pair cursed as they hit the ground. Brooke idled calmly on the bed. She’d done very little but ended up winning round one anyway.

We climbed back into our corners, ready for round two. I tried to read Caroline’s expression as she sat in the opposite corner, but she was looking at Brooke. To my left, I saw Samantha aimed at me. It didn’t take a military genius to figure out their strategies. Brooke and I must have made enough of a nuisance of ourselves that they both wanted us out of the picture first. I steeled myself to take on Samantha. I had a plan. I’d catch her shoulders as she charged and twist her off the side. It could work.

“Three. Two. One. Go!”

It didn’t work. Samantha caught my arms and lifted them straight above my head like I was a posable doll. Her body slammed into mine. I felt her small but quite firm breasts flatten my larger pair. “Think you and your sister can team up against me, huh, little girl?” Then, with a strong shove, I went flying. It was no consolation to see that Brooke landed a moment or two before I did, but there she was, having been bulldozed off the end of the bed by Caroline, who was adjusting her shirt and turning to confront Samantha.

I spent the next few minutes watching an extremely spirited battle between my older sister and her cousin. They would lock up shoulder to shoulder on their knees and sway back and forth for a time, topple sideways and quickly break up, then repeat. Both of them were slipping on the comforter, but neither were able to capitalize. Samantha’s pony tail had come undone, and Caroline had her hair in a tight grip. She retaliated, yanking on Caroline’s blond tresses.

“Rrrgh!” my sister groaned.

“Can’t take what you dish out, can you, missy?”

“You’re not going to be smiling like that much longer.”

Both were panting audibly now. Their muscles tensed as they poured all their strength into their private battle. Caroline’s leg slipped again, this time sending her foot right at Brooke. It stayed there for a moment as Samantha bore down, preventing her from getting back up. Brooke grabbed the extended foot and started pulling.

“Hey!” I shouted. Brooke ignored me. Caroline’s leg started sliding on the sheets.

I tackled Brooke, encircling her upper arms and chest with my hands. She yelled out, and started thrashing to get free. I constricted my tight hug and held her fast. The damage had been done, though. Caroline couldn’t leverage her leg back onto the bed, and soon her foot hit the floor followed by the rest of her.

“Yo! Off me.” growled Brooke. She shrugged my arms away to either side of her as I pulled myself backwards. As she did so, my fingers raked across her boobs. It was completely unintentional, but she fixed me with an evil glare as she spun around.

Brooke and I got back in our corners, never taking our eyes off each other. Samantha and Caroline took longer to recover, but eventually we were set for round three.

Caroline opened the bidding. “You’re goin’ down this time, Samantha dear.”

Her cousin raised. “If I win this time, I’m queen.”

My sister called. “If you lose, I am.”

“Never happen, ya spray-tanned hussy.”

“Redneck slut.”

“Street-walkin’ whore.”

“Honky-tonk floozie.”

Whether they were serious about the slurs they were hurling or not, I paid little attention. Throughout all their name calling, I kept my focus on Brooke, and she kept hers on me. She may not have been as strong as I was, but she had a keen edge to her. She had more experience using what she had than I did, and that made her dangerous. I stared her down, feeling an energy building inside of me. She was on her hands and knees. I could see right down the front of her shirt as it hung loosely on her. Her chest was expanding and contracting with heavier and heavier exhales as she prepared to launch herself into a fight with me and me alone.

Caroline and Samantha must have finished their playground war of words, because someone said “Go!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that they had paired up and were completely ignoring Brooke and me. That was good, because I needed all the concentration I could muster.

I flung myself at Brooke and met her halfway across the bed. Our arms collided, and her left hand swatted my face before it settled behind my head. She pushed my head down and lept on top of me. I twisted to my left and threw her to the center of the bed as she was already leaning that way. I pounced, pinning her shoulders to the soft covers. She brought her knees up and forced me away. Taking note of where the edge was, I reset myself. Brooke rolled to her knees and we clasped our bodies together. With one arm around the center of her back and another hanging on to the top of her jeans, I wrestled her towards the end of the bed, but she surged toward me and halted my effort.

We came to a standstill, huffing in each other’s ears, and mashing our evenly-matched tits as we struggled. “Come on, bitch, that the best you’ve got?” she hissed.

“You wanna go, huh?” I snarled back.

“Bring it.”

“My pleasure.”

With an animal yell I slammed my breasts hard into hers. She grunted. I chest bumped her again. Her left hand hit the mattress for balance and I attacked. Keeping myself toward the center of the bed, I reoriented myself so that I could push her onto her back and roll her off. She lept quicker than I anticipated and got me in a side headlock with her right arm. I tried to duck out of it, but ended up on my side. Brooke landed on top of me, grabbing at my wrists. Her legs snaked against mine. I dropped my left shoulder, sending her falling onto my chest, and rolled us towards the head of the bed.

This was away from the end, which was my intent, but it was occupied territory. Brooke and I tumbled against the vicious hairpulling knot that was Samantha and Caroline, with Brooke leaning into them. Out of room to move Brooke onto her back, I lashed my legs around one of hers to keep her from regaining the upper position. As one, the two older girls pushed with their elbows and knees at us to lift our weight off them. This gave Brooke the momentum she needed to rise above me. I pulled in the direction of her motion and swung her over to my right side. She batted my left hand away, closed her body with mine, and grabbed the exposed small of my back with her right hand. She tugged me towards her, and I rolled onto her, and then immediately off. Furious, I kept the two of us going. Once more over me, I thought, and she’d be headed for the floor.

We were too entangled, however. She and I sped up like a tire hurtling downhill, whipping each other over and over until there was nothing but air beneath us. We thudded into the carpet, still wrapped tightly together. She put her hand at the base of my neck and I shoved my palm into her chin. We fought like that for a few seconds, then she let go and retreated a few inches. Her hair was out of place, and she had this mean look on her face. I know I did, too. She leaned forward, pinning my shoulders to the ground.

“What’re you doing?” I demanded, trying to buck her off with my hips.

“Payback. You’re staying right here.”

“The fuck I am, bitch.” My fire was stoked. The brakes were off. Full steam ahead.

I bridged, nearly throwing her head over heels. When she settled back down, I had spun onto my right side. I nabbed the collar of her shirt and tore her off me. She hit the wall with a slam and a “Fuck!” and was back at me in an instant. Writhing and grinding our chests and legs in a seething mass, we rolled in a slow, laborious clinch back and forth across the floor.

The next few minutes were a blur. The two of us tumbled in a tight ball of hatred, ratcheting up the intensity with each attack. We grappled body to body, and hurled each other around the space between the bed and the door with increasingly fearsome violence. Cursing and grunting, we worked out bodies together into a close embrace, snarling and clawing each other like cats. I was not going to lose to her, if it was the last thing I did.

She clambered atop me, kneeing me in the side. I responded by throwing my right arm up towards her face. My hand slapped her cheek and my elbow dug into her left boob. She growled, yanking my left arm upwards, spinning me onto my right side. She lay down on me, going for a choking headlock. I flung my left arm around her lower back, grabbed hold of something, and yanked. Her panties wedged up into her crotch. Howling, she tried to tighten the hold her left arm had around my neck, and grabbed wildly on my back. Her fingers snagged my bra, pulling it, and I groaned with pain.

We remained in that position for some time, each wantonly inflicting as much agony as we could. In the back of my hearing, I caught Samantha exclaim, “Holy shit. They’re still going at it.” Damn fucking straight, we were. I was going to beat this bitch. It wasn’t anything personal. I just simply wasn’t going to lose. Besides, I was loving every second of it.

Brooke raised her hips, then sat hard on the side of my stomach. I lost my grip on her underwear. She sat on me again, flattening my back on the carpet. Releasing her headlock, she sat up and bounced a few more times. Suddenly, I couldn’t keep air in my lungs. I bridged, but she slid up my torso to just under my breasts. Brooke was panting hard, and sweat beaded on her forehead as she loomed over me.

Two minutes later, it was over. Brooke held my arms to the floor with my elbows under her knees, and schoolgirl pinned me. My face was flushed. We were both out of breath. I closed my eyes and sighed.

“Home team wins!” announced Samantha from her perch atop Caroline, who was face-down on the comforter and had been for quite some time. Brooke smiled and flexed her biceps. “Who’s up for an ice cream celebration?”

Pissed off at losing, I almost didn’t see that Brooke had extended a hand down toward me. She helped me up, and I almost pulled her off balance into me. She laughed once as she regained her balance, and held onto my hand.

Fixing me with a serious gaze, she asked, “No hard feelings, Allison?”

“Yeah, sure. Of course.” She let go of my hand, as if she’d just shaken it.

“Things got a little rough back there.”

“Kinda. Did I hurt you?”

“Nah. D’you have fun?”

“Oh, hell yeah.”

She smiled so warmly I could hardly believe it was the same person I was brawling with just a few moments ago. “Good.”

I returned her grin despite myself. “Oh, and… you can call me Allie.”

“Let’s go,” Samantha chimed in. I looked at the scene of our grand melee. The sheets were a mess. Pillows were everywhere. The mattress was askew. The air in the room was humid and stifling. My muscles had just been given more of a workout then they had in ages, but the blood pumping through me made me feel more alive and excited than any time I could remember. I’d been worried at the start that I would hate such a childish game of roughhousing. I emerged from it wanting to do it again.

Next time, of course, ending with a win.

The ice cream and the breeze out on the back patio did wonders to cool us off. Samantha and Caroline headed inside to talk to Aunt Miriam and my mom, and the dads left to go to the garage, leaving Brooke and I enjoying the late afternoon together. I learned a lot more about her. The family she was with next door wasn’t her mother and father; she was renting the basement from a retired couple until she’d saved enough to get her own apartment. I got enough sense from the way she avoided talking about her parents that I shouldn’t poke around that part of her history. Still, she was almost nineteen, and making a living on her own. I admired that, and told her so.

She asked me what my plans for the future were. I told her I wanted to go to college, but wasn’t sure if my grades or test scores were high enough. My grandparents were helping pay for Caroline’s undergraduate degree, and had made a similar offer if I could get in. I didn’t want to go to the same university as my sister, though, highly-regarded or not. I wanted to be free to chose my own direction in life. Getting away to the state college was my dream, but the number of applicants I was up against was depressing. Throughout my little tale of woe, Brooke kept her eyes on me and a slight smile on her lips. I decided that I really liked the angles of her face.

Samantha’s voice, blaring out as she swung open the screen door, interrupted our chat. “Sour grapes. Sour grapes!” She did a sassy dance down the two concrete steps to the patio. Caroline followed soon after.

“No, you’re totally full of shit, and you know it,” spat Caroline.

“Words of a sore loser,” Samantha sing-songed, placing an L on her forehead with her right hand upon reaching the end of her sentence.

“It’s that manure smell you huff all the time. You can’t notice your own bullshit.”

“Whatever. Let me know when you’re done whining.”

Caroline got right up her cousin’s face. “You’re just a coward.”

Brooke, who’d been watching the proceedings with amusement, whispered for my benefit, “Oh, that’ll do it.”

“I swear,” I said, “my sister does not know when to keep her mouth shut.”

Samantha drew herself up to her full height. “Come with me.” Just then, a cloud obscured the sun, bringing a sudden chill to the air.

Brooke got up hurriedly. I watched her in confusion. “Shoes!” she yelled.

I ran inside and jammed my feet into my shoes. Racing back outside, I saw Samantha and Caroline walking toward the woods at the back of the property. I waited for Brooke to finish lacing her boots, then we took off after them and caught up quickly.

After cresting the hill and skipping over a small creek on the other side, the ground leveled out. The trees thinned, and soon we were standing in the back corner of a corn field. Green stalks with golden heads seven feet high stood in perfect lines. Samantha darted down one row and we all followed. She sped up, dodging between rows, and soon we were whooping and hollering in pursuit.

The corn gave way to a puddle of water about twenty-five feet in diameter that filled a shallow depression that crops never grew in.

“Here we are, everybody. Site of the final rematch: Country Folk versus City Slickers.”

“Oh, hell no.” Caroline baulked.

“What’s the matter, ya pampered suburban tramp? Never gotten good and dirty before?”

“I’m not dressed for this.”

While they bickered, I tossed a pebble into the middle. It plipped softly, revealing that the water was barely an inch at most.

“Hey, Allie,” Brooke called out, having wandered to the opposite side. I think my sister noticed that she’d said the nickname I only let my friends use. “You and me.” I tested the depth of the mud with the toe of my shoe. “It’s not deep at all. You won’t drown when I pin you.”

I raised my eyes to hers. That snarky grin of hers made my decision easy. “You won’t pin me.”

“Oooooo!” hooted the duet of Samantha and Caroline. Samantha stuck her fingers in her mouth and started whistling.

We took off our shoes and socks. I stole a glance at my older sister. “Do it,” she mouthed silently.

Across the puddle, Brooke had removed her shirt, revealing a simple white bra encasing a pair of nice sized, jutting breasts that fit her frame well. I took my top off and tightened my bra straps. Then, that smirk from Brooke again. She undid her belt and shimmied out of her jeans. She dropped them casually onto her other clothes, daring me to follow her lead. ‘What the heck,’ I thought, ‘The water’s just going to soak through anyway.’ I unzipped my pants, pulled them down, and kicked them aside.

Wearing nothing but our underwear, Brooke and I waded in towards each other. The water quickly became clouded as we walked. The further we went, the thicker the mud was beneath the water. Our pace slowed. Several feet in, the mud was a good three or four inches deep, and sticky. I was almost giddy with glee. Another chance to wrestle against Brooke. This time, I’d show her. This time, I’d win.

We were still unsteady when we got close enough to reach each other. The muck would grab hold of our feet, making it hard to pull them back out, but we would slide sideways if we put too much weight down. The two of us caught our balances with our hands on each other’s upper arms. We both let out some nervous chuckles, then set to the task at hand. My sister’s encouragement seemed distant as I concentrated on the girl in front of me. Legs planted apart, arms alternately pushing and pulling, we tried to shove each other over. I listened to the intake of her breath and the force of her grunts to know the difference between her feints and real attacks. My eyes were fixed on watching her pelvis twist and weave, the sunlight glistening on her bare skin.

I pulled her off-balance first, yanking her left arm toward me. Her other arm flailed in a circle twice, then she fell head first into my stomach. The impact knocked me backwards, and we splatted in unison. The mud was cool and comfortable on my back, but the water that quickly soaked into my panties wasn’t. The audience was loving it, and the yelling doubled in volume when Brooke picked her mud-stained front out of the puddle. I tried to sit up and discovered another problem. No friction meant that I had nothing to push off against. I resorted to doing an ab crunch to raise myself up, but my feet dislodged themselves from the mire, pointed high in the sky, and I fell back again.

Brooke was having difficulty, too. Twice, her hands slipped in the muck as she tried to get into a crawling position. By the time she did, I had drawn my legs into my chest and rolled to my knees. Spinning around, I found myself within striking distance of my opponent’s back. My lunge wasn’t pretty, but it got me far enough. My arms slapped against Brooke, and I dragged myself closer. As she swung her arms to reach around my midsection, I slid off her, leaving muddy tracks down her back. Brooke ended up on top of me. I swiftly spun onto my side to defend against her grabbing hands. There was little need. I couldn’t hold onto her arms and she couldn’t hold onto mine. A change of tactics was in order.

Her fingers and mine intertwined. Locked together, we pitted strength against strength. She reared up, adjusted her hands, and leaned further down. Suddenly, her palms zipped right out of mine. Brooke arrested her fall by quickly putting her hands in front of her. They hit my breasts, fingers drawing lines across by bra cups, then vanished in the mud on either side of me. The rest of her collapsed on top of me with a wet smack.

I let her slither upright, and then attempted to bridge. I didn’t go nearly as high as I planned, but it was enough to cause her to slip right off me, her body rubbing roughly against my breasts and stomach as it went. I swung my right leg over top of her thighs, got what purchase I could on her neck with my right hand and mounted her, rolling her onto her back. She struggled valiantly. I smoothed her arms against her sides, but they snaked out of my hands. She twirled underneath me into a crawling position and bucked her rear end to throw me off. All that accomplished was tip me forward, where my boobs flattened against her shoulder blades. “Rrr! Get off me,” she spat.

She launched herself sideways. My hands lassoed the front of her chest in search of something to hold onto. I got her bra. She thrashed like a fish out of water, rolling us over and over in the slimy water. I held on as best I could, my fingers clawing Brooke’s tits and my palms abrading her nipples. After one particularly vicious twirl, I lost grip with one hand. I stopped dead on my back and she tumbled off next to me. She lurched up, adjusting her bra and gave that evil glare of hers.

“That how you want to play? Huh, you sleaze?”

“I’ll play it any way you want to, bitch.”

“You asked for it.”

“Let’s go.”

Brooke’s knees went out from under her as we set to each other again. I tried to collar her from behind, but she spun too fast. I plopped body to body against her, with one leg between hers. She locked her ankles and squeezed my trapped leg. As my hands went for her arms to pin her, pain erupted in my scalp. She’d grabbed a fistful of hair with her right hand and then used it to roll both of us over. Answering her escalation of hostilities, I dug my fingers into her mop of hair and twisted her head away to one side. We groaned, fighting the pain and each other’s slippery bodies. With something to hold onto, we yanked one another about our soggy arena. Our mud-soaked bodies sloshed back and forth, rolling and tumbling. Nothing existed for us but each other and the fierce contest we both fought our utmost to win.

Foul-tasting liquid splashed in our eyes and mouths. My slick skin slapped against hers again and again. We threw ourselves at each other, entwining arms and legs, writhing like eels and then slipping apart. I no longer felt the mud or the water. Only Brooke’s smooth feminine figure rippling against me. Her arms around my back, her legs slithering along my legs. Ten minutes passed, and still our battle raged just as fevered as before. Like a pair of breaching whales, we rose from the muck and slammed back down again, launching a wave of brown water. Brooke clambered to the top position, and I pushed her off. Her fingers tore at my bra cup, freeing one of my breasts. I barely registered it. Rolling to my knees, I attacked once more. My body flattened atop her, at right angles to hers. She struggled, and finally slid me off, giving me a few kicks for good measure.

“Ow, fucking skank!”

I pounced again. We ended up side by side on our hands and knees. My left arm went around her head and her right arm surrounded mine. We both squeezed with all our might. Wailing in exhaustion and agony, we strained against each other for countless minutes, neither willing to give up. Staggering like two drunks, we rose all the way up to our feet, still trapped in a mutual death grip. I jerked her head, seeking to throw her down. She resisted. She pulled on my neck, trying to drag me back into the mud where she could pin me.

She finally tried a desperate gamble: striking the back of my left knee with her right leg. Her standing leg slipped, and we hit the puddle with a mighty splash. Muscles aching and nearly winded, I hauled myself out of the mud and straddled her. She rolled, toppling me. I drew her body into a tight embrace and rolled with her. Ignoring the pain in my legs, I squeezed her midsection between my thighs. She moaned in tired frustration. Her hands slapped again and again into my legs, to no avail. She wriggled for a few minutes, working her stomach loose in my grip, but couldn’t get far once her rib cage and hips hit my thighs.

Hopelessly trapped, but still refusing to give up, Brooke swung her right arm at my head. I dodged, and her fingers curled around the center of the front of my bra. They tugged, and my boobs flopped out in the open air. She continued pulling, and I leaned towards her to lessen the pain of my bra digging into my back. Her left hand reached into my hair as I sat atop her. I grabbed her wrist and forced it out. Bearing down on her with both hands, I straddled her stomach. She bridged once, then again, but I kept myself from moving too far up her chest where I could fall off.

Brooke’s breath was ragged. Her expression told me it was only a matter of time before she gave up. I pressed harder, driving her hands down into the mud. My face hung over hers. My tits swayed in time with my labored panting. Our eyes met, holding a silent conversation. Brooke’s stomach wiggled back and forth between my thighs. A feeling unlike anything I’d ever experienced was building inside of me. The girl whose body I’d fought against with mine pushed and strained, driving contact between our exposed skin. My muscles answered every escape attempt, trapping her nearly naked form beneath me. There was a pause, and silence except for insects off in the distance.

“I give.” Brooke’s voice was almost a whisper, but I heard it clearly. She relaxed underneath me. I lifted my butt off of her to let her breathe freely. Caroline whooped in triumph, but I wasn’t listening to her right then. I was admiring the woman I’d just beaten. Her body was filthy and her hair a clump of mud, but something magnetic was drawing me to it.

I was still captivated by her lips when she broke me out of my reverie. “You mind helping me up?”

“Of course. You OK?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me.”

Like wounded soldiers staggering back from the front lines, we walked arm in arm on wobbly legs back to dry land.

“Un-fucking-believable.” Samantha crowed as we approached. “Eighteen and a half minutes!”

Sitting by the side of the puddle, it was surprisingly easy to get most of the muck off and clean a lot of the rest by splashing water on our legs, arms, backs, and chests. Brooke and I washed ourselves without talking as Caroline and Samantha strode out into the mud pit, trashing each other verbally as they went. I didn’t notice their match begin, and I had only just finished pulling my pants back on when Samantha declared victory after only three minutes of wrestling. My sister couldn’t go anywhere, but she still didn’t give up. Samantha piled handful after handful of mud into Caroline’s hair and smeared it in. Caroline howled her dismay, but finally broke down and submitted.

The four of us returned to the house wet and smelly to the horror of my parents and the riotous laughter of my aunt and uncle. Samantha got out the hose and rinsed us off while Aunt Miriam brought out towels. Brooke said, “See you all” and headed back home before I could give her a personal goodbye. Samantha sprayed Caroline’s hair real good, chatting up her defeated cousin. My sister stood there and took it. I’d never seen her brood quite like that.

As we went inside to hit the showers for a final wash and change of clothes, I touched Caroline on the shoulder. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine.”

“No, really. If you want someone to listen while you vent…”

Caroline paused, and her features softened. “Thanks. I just need some time, and I’ll be OK.”

“Alright,” I said, continuing down the hall.

“Allison,” she called. I stopped and turned. “You were… pretty amazing back there. Good job.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Later in the shower it dawned on me. That was one of the few times my sister had ever complimented me, and didn’t do it just because she had to.

At dinner, Samantha and Caroline were on speaking terms again, gossiping like old friends as if nothing had happened between them that afternoon. Aunt Miriam made some small talk with me, but otherwise I was back to being ignored. I felt like a side dish at Thanksgiving: one you bring out of habit but aren’t really interested in yourself. Nor is anybody else.

Night fell. We all played game of Trivial Pursuit, but after realizing the questions all dealt with people and events that happened before I was even born, I took Caroline and Samantha’s lead and left the parents to continue on their own. The three of us changed into pajamas. The older two went to Samantha’s room and I browsed Uncle Rob’s bookshelf. I brought some spy novel down to my cot in the basement but rapidly lost interest less than fifty pages in.

It had been a one heck of a day, and an unexpectedly enjoyable trip. I settled myself in to catch some well-earned rest. Sounds of far-off laughter and the clinking of wine glasses being refilled filtered through the closed basement door. Almost right above me, I heard my sister’s booming voice alternating with my cousin’s. Crickets chirped outside, providing constant background noise infrequently interrupted by other nocturnal animal calls. The half moon in the sky danced into and out of big, fluffy clouds, shining on and off through the window on the basement door like a child playing with a light switch. I closed my eyes, waiting for sleep.

Half and hour, maybe more, passed. I heard what sounded like scratching or shuffling in the darkened room. I got up, and turned on the light. Nothing. Something scraped at the back door. A raccoon or possum, I thought. I flicked the light switch next to the door. Suddenly illuminated in the glow of the dim bulb was Brooke. She was wearing a tight-fitting white tank top and shorts. She furtively looked around, then motioned for me to come out. I opened the door a crack slowly and quietly.

“What’s up?”

“You alone?”

“Yeah, I was getting ready for bed.”

“Aw, sleep’s for the weak. You really that tired?”

“No.”

“How about we do something, then?” I glanced back into the basement, then up the stairs. “Over at my place.” Now I looked down at my knee-length night shirt. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but…” I looked at Brooke. Our eyes met. A charge of excitement sizzled through me.

“Of course I want to.”

We dashed across the grass like robbers. Upon arriving at the back door to Brooke’s place, she admitted, “I’m not supposed to have late night visitors, but the old folks are so hard of hearing they don’t even notice the music I blast all the time.” When the door opened, the thudding drums and guttural vocals of heavy metal assaulted my ears. The two of us darted inside. Brooke waved her arm about the spartan space. “Here’s where I live.”

Half the basement had been paneled. A single, large rug covered most of the concrete slab floor. A couch and television sat on opposite sides of the long wall, and a bed was tucked into the back corner. “Got my own bathroom downstairs, but that’s about it.”

“How much does it cost?” She named an amount. “Wow, that’s half what a cheap single bedroom goes for where I live.”

“Benefits of being out in the boonies. But, it’s not for long. Another year, and I’m out of here.”

“To where?”

“Dunno. I need someplace with a lot of people. Get some variety in my life.” She sat cross-legged on the floor near the TV. I plunked myself down on the rug leaning against the front of the couch. Neither of us said anything for bit. Clumsily, we both decided to break the awkwardness at the same time.

“You know-“
“Wh-“

We laughed. Brooke said, “You go first.”

“I thought this trip was going to be so boring.” Nervously, I made circles in the rug fibers with my finger. “You made it fun. Thanks, Brooke.”

“It’s not over yet, is it?”

“We’re leaving tomorrow.”

“But that’s tomorrow.” She shifted, leaning on one arm and straightened her opposite leg. “What I was going to say was… well, I guess, the same thing. When Samantha invited me over, she mentioned that her younger cousin was was coming. But the way she talked, I was expecting some passive bookworm who rarely spoke. You really surprised me.”

We smiled. “Glad I didn’t turn out to be some shy little mouse.”

Brooke chuckled that rough laugh of hers. “More like a muddy panther.”

“I really enjoyed that.”

The room fell quiet for a second. Then, the next track on whatever deathgrind stream she had running through her speakers started up in a thunder of chugging guitars.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I continued.

“I told you back then you didn’t. I wasn’t kidding. Besides, it just made us even.”

I calculated mentally. “You count the score as one-one?”

“Don’t you?”

I nodded.

The frenetic music rumbled on. It was background noise to me now. We were regarding each other like two cats in the jungle trying to sniff out what kind of threat the other posed. I saw the answer in Brooke’s eyes.

“You wanna go best two out of three?” I heard myself ask.

“Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“You bet. Question is, why are you interested in a repeat of what happened back at the mud hole?”

“Oh, ho ho. Fat chance you’ll do that again.”

I pulled my feet underneath me and got to my knees. “You think so?”

Brooke curled into a crouch. “Well, then. Show me what a big-tittied slut from the city can do.”

My dander was up. We stood and began circling each other. “For that, I’m really gonna smother your ass, you little bitch.”

I knew now why my sister and Samantha did this before they went at it now.

“Try it, whore!”

With each filthy insult…

“Shut your mouth, you greasy punk.”

…my temperature rose….

“Make me, you cow!”

…my blood boiled…

“Fuck you, you cunt.”

…my juices flowed.

We met in a test of strength, palms together, fingers locked. Bending our wrists and twisting them side to side, we played Mercy for a minute or two. Inevitably, our legs powered us forward until our chests met. Our boobs mashed and mushroomed outward, but neither of us relented our pressure. Heads on each other’s shoulders, we grunted and strained. Again and again our tit flesh smacked and rubbed roughly through our tops. I twisted us to the left, and Brooke took a step back. She pushed into me hard, standing me upright, but I planted a foot and held my ground. She backed off, disengaging her fingers.

Our bodies collided once more. My breasts flattened painfully, and knew from Brooke’s groan that she felt the same agony. Her nipples poked deep into my braless orbs. My hands went around her body. I grabbed my wrists and squeezed. “Fuck,” Brooke panted into my ear. Her arms lassoed my waist and soon we were engaged in a grueling contest, each constricting the other’s ability to breathe. A guitar screamed in wild, high pitched abandon and speeding drums pounded us as we staggered about the room, locked in fierce combat. An entire song went by, and still the two of us gripped and spun around, neither able to gain advantage and throw the other to the ground.

We tumbled onto the couch at full speed. Face to face we snarled and hissed as our knees kicked into our legs. Getting my feet to the floor, leaped on top of her. Her knees hit my ribs, and she pushed me off. I landed on the rug and fell on my back. She pounced. I caught her in midair with my arms and legs and tossed her to the side. Scrambling to our knees, she and I waded into one another. Wrapping tightly together, we each grabbed a handful of hair. We teetered, body against body, heads pulled away from one another for a minute or more. Then Brooke got to her feet and forced me down.

Landing on our sides, we kept our grips on each other’s hair and wrestled the rest of ourselves into a tiny ball. My breath wheezed through clenched teeth. Brooke’s face was a mask of determination. Slowly, so slowly, I lifted my self with my free hand and rose to the top position. She threw her free arm around my neck and pulled my head into her chest. Her body writhed against mine in that knot for some time. Sweat was beginning to build inside my shirt. Her thighs were hot against my upper legs.

“Had enough?” I taunted.

“Just getting started, bitch. You?”

“Oh, I’m- oof!” Brooke counterattacked while I was delivering my retort, sending a knee into my solar plexus and driving the wind from my sails. I collapsed to my side, then rolled away quickly out of her reach.

We stood, swaying and cautiously eyeing one another. “You underhanded little twerp.”

“Talk is cheap, you heavy sow.” Brooke fixed the strap on her top that had falling off her shoulder. Her hair was a mess. Her breasts bobbled as she dodged and feinted.

The next ten or twelve minutes were a dizzying flurry of hard fighting. Again and again we wrestled together, gaining headlocks, tumbling to the ground, rolling this way and that. Every time one of us got close to pinning the other, victory was denied. She squirmed in my grasp, her slim waist and legs slipping through my arms time and again. Time and again I forced open her holds and escaped. We rose over and over to our feet separately, only to plummet to the rug in each other’s embrace moments later, where we grappled and churned.

After one particularly exhausting bout, I hurled her off my back, breaking her headlock, and we both stayed down. Panting hard, I rolled to the wall, sat up, and brushed wet hair from my forehead. “Oh, fuck.”

“Fuck you.” came the response from across the room.

I looked down ay my heaving chest and noticed I could see most of one of my boobs. “No, fuck you. I’ve lost a button.”

“You ripped my GWAR shirt earlier today. You expect me to give a shit?”

“No, you dumb asshole. But, I’m going to make you pay for it.”

Brooke gave me the middle finger. “Here you go. Cash on delivery. Sit and spin.”

I lumbered to my knees. “You’re gonna wish you hadn’t made that offer.”

“Oh, really?”

“Fuck but it’s hot in this.” I fanned the front of my pajamas, trying to cool my sweaty skin off.

“That’s not the best gear for fighting in, is it?”

“No shit.”

“Go ahead. Take it off. I’ll make things even.” At that, she removed her tank top, then her bra. Her tits wobbled side to side as she tossed her clothes in a pile before becoming still. “What are you waiting for?” I knew what I wanted, and her voice told me what she wanted. Our eyes met. That made up my mind.

“I’m waiting…” I said pulling my nightshirt over my head, and standing defiantly on my knees, hands on my hips, “…for you.”

Brooke shimmied out of her shorts. She rose to face me. We laced our fingers together. Our foreheads touched. Her eyes were watching the swaying of my pendulous breasts.

“Scared? They’re going to crush yours, baby.”

“If you think I’m frightened of another woman’s body, you know nothing about me.” Her voice was so close. Her lips inches from mine.

“Tough talk from someone who’s about to about to go down.”

“You can only win in a pig sty, ’cause that’s your natural element.”

“You think I can’t take you in your own bedroom?”

Brooke breathed hard a few times. “Keep dreaming, bitch.”

She surged. Our boobs touched. Rising to our feet, we grimaced and pressed out upper bodies into one another, grunting with exertion. My head rested against her right ear, and my right arm slung over her left shoulder. I grabbed her right arm with my left as her left hand clawed my waist. Our thighs met briefly, then I leaned back and hauled her off her feet maybe an inch in the air. I spun as I dropped her again, aiming to drive her into the couch. She twisted sideways, foiling my plan. Keeping my hold on her, I barreled towards her.

She’d just gotten her feet set and couldn’t withstand my charge. She chirped as the backs of her knees hit the metal side of the box springs. We toppled onto the unmade bed. Firm nipples dragged across bare skin. I landed face down next to her and immediately climbed back on her. She rolled us over, almost gaining the upper position. I rolled us in the reverse direction and got above her. I pinned her shoulders as hard as I could into the mattress. Brooke had pulled her left leg up defensively and now her knee was in my ribs just beneath my breasts. She was huffing and puffing, furiously attempting to throw me off. I redoubled my pressure. Brooke drove her shin between my legs, rubbing the crotch of my panties as she sought for leverage.

With strength I didn’t think she still had, Brooke lifted my lower half up and dumped me off the bed. My right hip bone hit painfully, and I clutched it for a few seconds. Brooke was on me by the time I regained my composure. She sat atop me going for a schoolgirl pin. I bucked her off toward my feet. Brooke grabbed my left leg and scissored my right with her thighs. I rolled us once completely over, trying to loosen her hold. She let go of my left leg, and I was able to get that foot on the floor and stand up.

The other girl stayed with her shoulder blades on the floor and her legs in the air crushing my right leg. I shook her to no avail. I twisted my leg, but it refused to budge. Then I sat towards Brooke. She bent, then straightened, flinging me to the rug. I held her right foot to keep it from kicking into my stomach. Locked leg against leg, we rocked back and forth. I grew more desperate as one, then two minutes passed and I still remained trapped. Brooke’s calf was grinding against my panties. I struggled to free myself, arching my back again and again to pull my leg out. Brooke’s grip was slipping. Just a few more tugs…

The orgasm took me by complete surprise. I shouted once, then groaned and crushed Brooke’s right leg between my own, twisting her foot. She yelped, and kicked my ass once to make me let go. I did, and we separated.

“Where did that come from?” I panted, wiping sweat from my brow.

“Oh, you mean you… Heh. It’s OK,” Brooke said. “Happens sometimes when you’re wrestling.” We paused to catch our breaths. “You good?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s not going to stop me.”

Several moments later, we were back at it. Our tits bashed repeatedly. Our bodies merged into a single writhing jumble of smooth skin. Each of us tried to pin the other, but we’d used up our best ideas long ago, and now we fought a battle of attrition. Finding ourselves on our sides, I looped my elbow under Brooke’s knee and lifted. She slithered atop me and enveloped my torso with her arms. I yanked on my trapped arm, dragging it against a very warm area deep between her thighs. She moaned, then grabbed my cheeks with both hands.

“You want to make this…” she panted, “a sexfight, do you?”

“Say what?”

“A sexfight. Two women… give each other orgasms… until one’s had enough.”

“You’ve done that?”

“No. Heard about it.”

“I’m just giving you payback for getting me off.”

“Fine, then. Don’t expect me to leave your little kitty alone.”

“If that’s the way you want to play…” We were staring into each other’s eyes, inches apart, pulses pounding. “I’ll fuck you into oblivion.”

Brooke’s blush reddened. I could tell she was taken aback by my forwardness. She didn’t know me, though. Get me started on something, and I carry it through to the end. No matter what.

The woman’s face above me hardened into a warrior’s glare. “Allie, I’m going to work your cunt until it’s fucking dry.”

“Yeah?” My knuckles started working against Brooke’s panties.

“Uh huh.” Her fingers slithered up my thigh and began tickling my pussy.

“Never happen.” I began rubbing her harder.

Her strokes grew in vigor. “You’re already so hot.”

“And you’re dripping wet.”

We masturbated each other like that for two or three minutes until Brooke pulled the crotch of my panties aside to expose my cunt. I slammed my legs closed reflexively and rolled us over. I grabbed her right wrist and pinned it to the rug as my thighs parted her legs. She gripped my hair with her other hand and grunted. I thrust against her like that in missionary position, rubbing her groin feverishly with my panty-covered mound. She squirmed a bit beneath me, but I held her fast.

“Gonna cum for me, bitch?”

Brooke only let out an exasperated groan, staring daggers at me. I humped her again and again. She leaned up and nibbled my ear, taking the bottom part of the lobe between her lips and tugging. That drove me to distraction. I flattened against her prone figure, nuzzling her neck with my nose. She rolled us suddenly, and made quick work of spreading my legs. Her tits rested on mine, then began dancing all over them, nipples scraping, as she started grinding my pussy with her in retaliation.

“You call that fucking?” she hissed in my ear. “I’ll give you fucking.”

I remember the sight of her, hands either side of my armpits, sweaty, naked skin glistening in the lamplight, howling vocals from the stereo roaring an encouragement to the girl gyrating between my thighs. I parted my legs further and rested my ankles on her lower back. I could feel the muscles in her ass as she pumped without stop for over a minute. I thrust back in time with her rhythm. The impacts came harder and harder.

All of a sudden, Brooke flopped her hot, sweaty body on top of mine. I squeezed her hips with my thighs. “Nnh. Fuck you,” she spat. I grabbed hold of the waistband of her panties and jerked them. “Ungh!” she cried, then rolled away.

The sudden lack of her warmth against me caused goose pimples.

“These have got to go,” Brooke said, yanking my panties down. I raised my legs so she could liberate them and pulled on hers. She sat back and flung them off while I sat up. She had a small, trimmed bush, whereas mine was merely cut not to show in a bikini.

“Ready for the next round?” I swear, she almost purred that question.

“If your pussy can handle it.”

“You want my cunt against yours?”

“I’ll take your whole body on.”

We scooted on our asses on the rug until we were intimately close. My left leg was under her right and my right rested on her left. My nipples teased hers, the four stiff nubs tickling and rubbing along our sensitive breasts. Without warning, she lightly grabbed a fistful of hair behind my head and thrust her lips onto mine. I returned the favor, keeping her head close to mine with fingers pressed against the base of her neck, and sucked her juicy lips into my mouth. Her tongue forced its way into mine, wrestling with my own tongue and probing hard. Down below, our hips began a rotating grind. Our pelvises clapped together. Our pubic mounds worked around and around and up and down faster and faster. Her kissing slowed, then stopped as Brooke’s breathing sped up.

The feeling rippling out from my vagina was intoxicating. I didn’t want it to end. On and on I matched my cunt lips against hers, grinding their slippery folds together. Brooke leaned back, placing both hands behind her. She pushed with her arms, increasing the intensity of her thrusts. I lost my balance, tumbling onto my elbows. With renewed vigor I fought back. The battle between my aroused womanhood and hers escalated. We both collapsed to our backs. Our hips raised into the air, cunts still mashed together. The room became filled with the smell of sex, the sounds of two women grunting and fucking each other beyond the point of all control mixed with the insanity of extreme music.

Brooke came. Her body fell to the ground, convulsing in ecstasy. I got up to a sitting position and reached with my fingers to finish her off. Her hands prevented me. Our fingers entwined. She shook her head, locked cunts with me once more and said, “Let’s go.”

I rode her pussy for another minute or two. She ran one hand up my body and across my tits. Then she pushed me backwards, scissored me and went on the offensive. We traded positions for what seemed like forever, never quite driving the other to climax.

We separated, worn out and frustrated, after several minutes. My whole body was on fire. Brooke lay there, shiny with sweat. Her naked body was so close, within reach of me tackling her, but I was nearing exhaustion. I couldn’t do it. My lower back hurt. I had to try something else.

The two of us crawled towards each other. We rose to our knees. Brooke put her hands on my breasts, massaging them firmly.

“You’re quite a handful.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

I cupped her tits, squeezing them gently. She ran her palms up my boobs, dragging my nipples painfully upward. I moaned in complaint and batted her arms away. She drew closer. I kissed her, softly at first, then more passionately. Brooke’s fingers felt the outer folds of my vagina. I ran my fingers up and down her cleft, then penetrated it. Brooke responded by embedding her entire middle finger inside me, then adding her index finger.

“So hot for me, aren’t you?”

“You’re so wet, you’re dripping.”

I stroked her pussy as our tongues met once again in our mouths. She fucked me deep and hard, working her fingers to pleasure me in ways I hadn’t known possible. I put my forehead on her shoulder and whimpered. This felt so unbelievably good. My body wanted to give in to the feeling, but my mind knew the only way I could win was to fuck this girl and fuck her without caring about my own desires.

“Gonna cum for me, baby? Huh? Gonna cum?” she teased.

I touched Brooke’s clitoris with the tip of my finger, and she began moaning. The knuckle of her thumb rubbed against my clit, sending waves of pleasure through me. I sped up, working her feminine rod mercilessly.

“Oh, yeah. I feel it,” I said. “You’re so ready…”

“Uh huh!”

“Hnnggh,” I groaned as she plunged over and over into the furnace of my cunt. “You want it?”

“Uh huh!”

“Feel how hard I’m doing you.”

“Yes, you bitch. Yes.” Nails scratched down my back. I couldn’t take any more. I kissed her incessantly: her shoulder, her cheek, her neck, her ear…

Brooke reached orgasm, her body rocking into mine as she hugged me tightly with her left arm. I came violently soon afterward. I vividly remember quivering against her naked body. We embraced for a few seconds, then sagged to the floor. We lay side by side, wallowing in a blissful, exhausted dream. Time passed. How long, I couldn’t say.

We were still recovering our senses when footsteps started descending the stairs.

“I keep tellin’ ya, young lady” an elderly voice shouted, “Try to keep the music down!”

It was like that ice bucket challenge all over again: an initial blast of cold, then a chill that sank into your bones. Brooke had a frightened look on her face. ‘Oh, shit,’ I thought, ‘I’m going to get her kicked out of her place.’

“You’ve got to go.” Brooke commanded needlessly.

All thoughts of our fight were lost in a flurry of rapid dressing. We each grabbed our underwear and threw them on. Brooke turned the volume knob way down then pulled her shorts on. I flung my nightshirt over my head and was about to dart through the door, seeking the safety of my aunt and uncle’s house, when I turned one last time toward Brooke. I watched her, standing sideways to me, as she pulled her tank top down over her body, sighing as she did so. Her aroused nipples poked out from the thin white fabric. She ruffled her hair back into place, then looked in my direction.

I memorized every single detail about her as she sauntered up to me.

“Go,” she said again. I ached, and not just from exertion.

The night breeze cooled me off somewhat. My breathing recovered by the time I crept back into my relative’s basement. Caroline wasn’t there, thank goodness. I heard her and Samantha still talking up above.

I nestled under the covers in my cot, stared at the ceiling, and passed out, with a certain girl’s face burnt into my vision.

The next morning, she wasn’t there. I went through the motions of eating breakfast and packing in a daze. When we were gathered on the front lawn getting ready to leave, my eyes kept wandering over to the neighbor’s house.

Samantha noticed and asked, “Looking for Brooke?”

I shrugged nonchalantly.

“What, do you want to roll around with her in the mud again?” she joked.

My glare must have been really off-putting, because Samantha backed away immediately, and dropped the subject like a hot coal.

My parents, my sister and I all said goodbye to our aunt, uncle, cousin, and the quiet little back road they lived on, and hit the highway home.

The rest of my family talked animatedly on the ride home. As usual, they ignored the ball of silence I inhabited. To them, it was completely normal. To me, it was a deeper silence than I’d experienced in many years. I guess that’s one of the benefit of being an oddball: lots of time to yourself to think.

And think I did.

I knew people who looked like Brooke, or who talked like her. But no one, no one matched the free-spirited attitude and openness towards sex that made Brooke Marx one of the most special and unique people I’d ever met. I was saddened to think I would probably never get to be with her, or someone like her, ever again.

Then, the following February, I got the letter.

Part 2

Freedom is truly a wonderful thing. Like most things, you really appreciate it right when you first experience it.

Going off to college was just such an occasion for me. No longer did I have my parents or my sister hovering over me and forcing me to walk the path they insisted I take. Only when I was on my own did I notice my habit of mentally looking over my shoulder to see what my family thought about what I was doing. It faded away within a month.

My mother had complained and pleaded with me when I showed her the acceptance letter, but I stood firm. Caroline thought I was dumb for picking a “lesser” school. My dad wished me well and was super helpful in moving me in. They all acted worried about me, but needn’t have.

I took to dorm life like a champ. The gang on the first floor of Agnes Hall were super nice, but I found they often needed my help. For instance, I heard shrieking one morning and raced out of my room to see what it was. A big black rat snake had crawled in through the door at the end of the hall someone had propped open to let a breeze run through the building. Everybody was howling and carrying on, backing away from the thing in a huddled mass.

I grabbed a mop from the bathroom and shoved it in the thing’s face. It reared back and struck at the mop twice, then darted under it right at me. I kicked its head with my shoe, making an audible impact, and started pushing its body down the hall with the mop. It retreated out the door and I walked back to return my weapon. Everyone seemed astonished that I was still calm.

“It’s not poisonous. Probably smelled a mouse or something,” I told them.

“But it still could have bit you!”

“Yeah? So?” They didn’t seem to understand. I was just doing what needed to be done. They insisted I had been brave. That’s probably why I got roped into being the one that crawled through the second story window.

Let me back up. We’d had a party one Friday night, and Melissa, a girl from upstairs, took offense at somebody. She called the campus police, claiming we had underage drinking going on. Totally killed the fun. She would have gotten away with it had she not laughed about it to one of her hallmates, who told Regina, whose room we’d been in. She got a bunch of us together and everybody started throwing out ideas for revenge. They settled on filling her pillow with whipped cream from a can. Problem was, how to get into her room?

“She always leaves her window cracked,” I offered. Me and my big mouth.

That’s how I found myself on tiptoes on a borrowed stepladder trying to lift myself in through a half-open window. I scraped my leg on the brickwork and found nothing to grab onto with my hands to pull myself in. As soon as I managed to wiggle most of my body in, the doorknob to her room rattled. Melissa had returned much earlier than expected. I reversed out the window but the ladder wasn’t there. The rest of the gang was following the plan to the letter. They were returning the ladder to the utility closet before anyone saw them or saw it missing, assuming that I would simply walk out Melissa’s door once I’d done the deed.

I fell nearly two stories and hit the ground hard. I rolled to my feet immediately and made my getaway past the horrified faces of our lookouts, who’d seen the whole thing. They’d sworn I’d broken my back. My tailbone hurt for days afterwards, but I was okay. I was happy that they treated me with so much respect.

Like the time when Monique lost her shit and started yelling at Naomi. I had my door open at the time and saw the whole thing get ugly. Naomi went racing into her room across the hall with Monique thudding right behind her. I peered out and heard Monique demand that Naomi return something she supposedly stole. I had never seen Monique angry like that before, let alone bullying a meek little girl like Naomi. I was out of my room and halfway to them when Monique took a swing.

I don’t know if she hit Naomi or not. I just grabbed both of Monique’s arms in mine and locked them behind her back. Monique kept hollering and moments later the resident advisor ran in. I let Monique go and then everybody was shouting.

When the campus police showed up, Naomi spun a story that I had barged in to attack her, too. To my relief, pretty much the entire hall vouched for me. The resident advisor had only seen me try to calm things down, so I didn’t get written up for being involved in a violent incident. Turns out, it was all a huge mess. The cops found pilfered items that matched stolen goods reports on campus in Naomi’s room, but nothing of Monique’s. The girl across the hall from Monique confessed, and both her and Naomi ended up in student court.

That evening, Monique came by my room.

“Thanks for sticking up for me with the cops. You could’ve gotten me in a lot of trouble if you’d wanted to.”

“Why would I do that? You’re a good person. I didn’t want to see you get a mark on your record.”

Monique thanked me again, and massaged her shoulder. “You know, you’re built like an ox. Do you wrestle?”

“Um, no.”

Only later did I notice that my first thought was whether Monique had been making me an offer. I shoved that out of my mind. I was blossoming into something new, becoming a little more outgoing and sociable and putting my moody, sullen high schooler attitude behind. Besides, being a good friend is what led to Monique inviting me to an off-campus party that weekend — one that would change my life forever.

The problem for me was I didn’t have much choice of what to wear. I typically wear t-shirts and jeans: comfortable clothes that are easy to wash. I’d almost forgot about the outfit my mother had picked out for me “in case someone special wants to take you to a fancy dinner.” I’d rolled my eyes at my mom back then, but the shiny red sleeveless blouse and knee-length black pencil skirt fit the bill perfectly for the evening. I even added a necklace and some simple bracelets. Barely recognized myself in the mirror.

“Oh, don’t you clean up real nice!” commented Monique, who had on a halter-topped dress that ended halfway up her thighs and exposed most of her back.

“Monique, I could never wear something like what you’ve got on.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, girl. You’ve got some looks on you. You just need to work them.” She stuck her head out the door and bellowed down the hall. “Jasmine, you ready yet?”

“I’ve BEEN ready. Waitin’ on YOU!”

Like at many universities, there were numerous houses just off campus that people bought as investments and rented out to students. One such cluster of them at my school was called The Hill. They ran up a slope that overlooked the flat plain the college had been built on. Each one could easily house four or five students, provided they weren’t freshmen like I was who had to spend their first year in the dorms.

The group I was with walked the six blocks to The Hill right around dusk and found a blue two-story house with lights blazing and music blaring. Inside, we split up. Monique and another girl met a friend of theirs right near the door and Jasmine headed off to look for someone else. I picked up a cup of soda and some pretzels and wandered around. Parties were never really my thing, and I felt more than a little awkward doing scarcely more than making eye contact with various strangers.

I saw through the kitchen window that a bunch of people were out in the back yard, and was curious what they were up to. A guy stopped me at the door. “ID?” he asked, after looking at my hand.

“Um.”

“21 and over only in the back.”

“Oh, OK. Sorry.” I turned around.

My heart, and the rest of me, stopped.

If anyone had asked me up to that moment what I thought about love at first sight, I’d have told them it was a load of bullshit, just some ordinary experience that people blew all out of proportion to make their lives feel more important. Oh, how wrong I was.

She was dressed in a stylish pink blouse and a long white skirt, pearl necklace and earrings and white pumps. Her platinum blonde hair parted in two waves on either side of her forehead and hung straight down in back to just below her shoulders. Eyes of purest blue gleamed above her porcelain smile. Her flawless skin caught the light as she glided so gracefully toward the drink table. She scanned the room, meeting my gaze for a long, drawn-out second, and then continued on her way.

Some force beyond those known to Physics set me in motion. We arrived at the table at the same time. She paused, seeing me. Her eyes quickly looked me over. She was about two inches shorter than me. She smelled heavenly.

“You first,” I offered.

“Thanks.”

I looked down and felt stupid. My cup was still half full. I reached for some more pretzels, then thought better of it. “My name’s Allison. Allison Parker.” I held out my hand.

“Hannah Johansson,” she replied. Hannah put her drink in her left hand and went to shake mine.

I’d extended my left hand, drink still glued in my other one. “Sorry,” I said, as we each tried rotating our hands to clasp them together. She laughed. Oh goodness, that laugh. Bubbly, innocent joy untarnished by any cynicism.

“That’s OK. I’m actually left handed, too. Just use my right out of habit. Do you live here in The Hill?”

“No, I’m here with some friends of mine. You?”

“I live just up the street.” A sophomore, then, at the least.

“How do you like it?”

“Quieter than campus.”

“Except when the neighbors throw a party.”

“Yeah, exactly. My parents actually own the house I’m in.”

“You’re from this area?”

“No, but my parents are in real estate. They did some deal with somebody. I don’t know. I just get to live there. So, tell me about yourself.”

I did. As we talked, we went out front and leaned against the bannister, then sat on the porch. The speakers inside were thumping out some top 40 pop band’s hit whose chorus involved a lot of “ohhh ohhh ohhhs”. I noticed Hannah humming it absent-mindedly.

“You like this song?”

“Oh, not really. I’m more into, well, it’s a kind of slow, trippy kind of genre.”

I offered the names of three artists I thought she might be talking about. She looked at me in shock.

“You did NOT just list my favorite bands… and in order!”

“I have all of the albums by the first one on my phone,” I admitted.

“And their debut EP?”/”And their debug EP.” we said simultaneously. She laughed again. I smiled, filled with conviction that the universe was truly a glorious place, just because it had Hannah in it.

Monique showed up, checking on me. I introduced Hannah and the two talked briefly about the friends Monique knew on The Hill. The music stopped abruptly, and then the booming bass notes of the latest hip hop thundered through the house. Jasmine appeared in the doorway. “Monique, get your ass in here.”

“I gotta go,” she said, and waddled in through the front door, shaking her prodigious rear end to the beat.

I pointed at the house and tried to say something, but the volume surged right then and my words were drowned out. Hannah shook her head and motioned for me to follow her. She sidled along the path to the street, swaying exaggeratedly with the rhythm. Her skirt twirled at her ankles. Her slim body curved and swung beneath her loose-fitting clothes. Damn, I could watch that all day.

Away from the deafening music, Hannah and I wandered the sidewalks of campus and continued cataloging our shared interests. Food, books, movies… we had identical tastes. Even our families were similar. Hannah had a sister two and a half years older than her, matching Caroline’s age, and a brother one year older than that. One was in Finance, the other studying Law.

On the wide steps in front of the main administration building, she told me that although she was aiming for business school, her true calling was to be a princess.

“How so?” I indulged her.

“Because a long time ago, I said I wanted to be one, and my mother said it was never going to happen. But no matter how much my parents try to organize my life or get me to follow my older sister’s example, I’m not going to give that dream up.”

“A wonderful dream it is.”

“Yes. It’s just missing one thing.”

“Oh?”

She cast me a happy little grin. “C’mon, let’s head across the Green. If we stay here too long, the campus police will think we’re up to something.”

We walked and talked, finally resting ourselves on benches outside the dining hall near my building. The night air was warm and thin gossamer clouds drifted upward toward the moon. Finally, at a pause in the conversation neither of us wanted to end, I yawned.

“Sorry,” I said as she yawned in echo.

“Oh gosh, it’s 2am,” she said, looking at her phone.

“Wow.” We both paused, the first lull between us in hours. “You OK to get back?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“It was really nice talking with you, Hannah.”

“Really nice meeting you, Allison.”

“Allie.”

“Allie.” She blushed. “See ya.”

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t gotten her phone number or address until I closed the door to my room.

I lay in bed, awake, until 4. My heart beat strong in my chest.

I stumbled out of bed the next morning at 9:30, eyes blinking against the glare of the sun through my window. I shut the shade and went down the hall to shower. On my way back, I saw someone talking to Monique down at the entrance to the common room. I got to my door before recognizing who it was. Monique pointed at me and waved. Hannah, standing next to her in a gauzy white blouse and dark crimson calf-length pleated skirt, turned toward me, gave me a wide smile, and waved. I, standing in blue pajama shorts, a white t-shirt from my high school, with a towel around my neck and toothbrush in my hand, felt embarrassed. Hannah took a few steps in my direction, then paused.

“I… can come back later… when…”

“No, no. It’s fine. Come on in.” I ushered her in and closed the door behind me out of habit. Hannah took in the room. Saturday was laundry day, so I had a big pile of clothes overflowing the basket. A half-eaten bag of potato chips sat open on my desk. If she noticed, or cared, she didn’t show it when she turned and faced me with a pleasant grin. She spun her purse off her shoulder and held it in front of her by its thin strap with both hands.

“Thanks for stopping by, Hannah. I forgot to get your contact information.”

“Oh, that’s true. I… hope you don’t mind me showing up unannounced.”

“Not at all. Sheesh. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Um, well…” The toe of one of her shoes dug into the rug, and the heel of the foot it was attached to began rocking side to side. “Have you had breakfast?”

“No. Have you?” Her eyes had been looking elsewhere, but they finally looked right into mine.

“Yes, but, I could still take you out to get something. I wouldn’t mind just sitting, and chatting… while you… What do you say?”

I paid no attention to her stammering lips. They were lovely, telling me what she wanted, and what she thought I might want. I dove instead into those deep, blue pools below her immaculate eyebrows. It was then that I knew what answer to give her. My fingers came to rest on her waist just above her hips. My head leaned forward slowly, but purposefully.

I kissed her, softly and tenderly. It didn’t last long, but it wasn’t short, either. I tugged her lips gently with mine and tasted her sweetness. Then I retreated to where I could see her entire face. Her eyes remained closed, as if focused on the sensations on her mouth. She exhaled and opened her eyes half way.

“That was… better than I imagined,” Hannah said, her soft voice barely above a whisper.

“I can do it again.”

Her face shone happily. “Yes, please. Oh yes, please.”

My palms slid up her sides and took a firm hold. Hannah’s arms circled behind my neck. Her purse hit the floor with a jangle of keys. She kicked it out of the way as our lips met again. We kissed with greater force. I enveloped her ardently, pressing her body into mine. She responded, tightening her embrace. We devoured each other’s mouths, satisfying a hunger neither of us could hide any longer. She relaxed, leaning backwards, and I pursued, maintaining our intimate contact and placing a strong hand on her back to keep her from falling. Her left leg slithered up the back of my right leg. My hand ran up it from knee to upper thigh, bunching the material of her skirt as it went. She moaned and drew upright.

We danced like drunks, kissing endlessly, spinning around each other, careening about the room with hands pulling at clothing, palms groping along our bodies and fingers plowing through each other’s hair. Hannah’s heel slipped and she swerved out of my arms and landed against the closet door. I was on her in a second, flattening myself against her, ravishing her entire body, not wanting any leave any part of her lacking from touch or pleasure. Her hands stroked the small of my back, then slid under the waistband of my shorts. Fingernails clawed lustfully on the top of my buttocks. I kissed her neck, followed by the hollow at the base of it, and continued down the open front of her blouse toward her cleavage. She pulled my shirt up in the back.

Hannah purred and pushed me off her bosom. Her fingers dribbled off my shoulders, casting a tickling rain down my breasts, teasing my fully aroused nipples. Suddenly she disengaged, slamming her palms and back into the door behind her, panting hard with her mouth wide open. Her face was flush, her hair mussed and wild. A look burned in her eyes of pure, unadulterated desire. No sight in my entire life had ever made my so horny.

“It’s too hot in here for these clothes,” Hannah said.

I went for the buttons on her blouse. She kissed my face passionately, helped me finish, then dragged my shirt off my head. Taking both of my naked tits in her hands, she distracted me completely from my attempts to remove her white lace bra. I unzipped her skirt. It landed in a puddle at her feet. Hannah steadied herself on my shoulder and kicked her heels off while I made short work of her bra clasp. She made to back away so she could take it off, but I prevented her, hugging her tightly. She looked at me, confused. My fingers dug in just below her rear end and lifted. She chirped and wrapped her legs around my waist.

With her still in my arms, I carried her to the bed and began toppling over. Hannah yelped, but I caught her descent and lay her gently upon the covers. After pulling her bra off her arms and flinging it carelessly aside, I joined her on the mattress. Her body undulated against mine as I lay atop her. I devoured her lips, and penetrated her mouth forcefully with my tongue. She moaned in response. Her hands clutched fervently, finding plenty of naked skin to grasp and clench. I pushed with my hands, lifting my torso up an inch or so, and dragged my breasts up over top of hers and back down gradually. She exhaled sharply. Her face broke out in a bright smile. Her hands tugged at the waistband of my panties, urging me to continue. My boobs slid against hers several more times until my nipples got so stimulated I had to stop. I collapsed atop her. She kept yanking at my underwear. I buried my head in the sheets next to her head. Feeling her legs part, I began working my hips in time with the waves her body was making beneath me.

Our panty-covered mounds met, grinding roughly. Slowly at first, savoring the erotic sensations, we moved in unison. My thrusts became more urgent and our pace accelerated. Hannah was breathing hard. Her nails were like claws on my ass, increasing the force of each impact between our moistening pussies. I wanted so desperately to pour back into her all of the overwhelming pleasure I was feeling, to unite our bodies in one ecstatic tremor of passion. My brain knew that it wasn’t going to happen, not in the current position we were in, but my body just didn’t want to stop the wonderful feeling of uniting itself with this gorgeous Scandinavian beauty whose groans of arousal were growing louder every second. I turned my head and kissed quickly up her neck until I reached her ear. I nibbled the lobe firmly, moaning in frustration.

Hannah squealed in utter delight. She rolled us onto our sides. Her face was giddy with rapture. She slid her panties down her legs. I sat up to pull them off, and made quick work of my own. Returning to her back, she draped one foot on my shoulder. Her tongue poked teasingly from one corner of her mouth. I took her leg in my hands, and kissed her foot. She sighed. Beginning with the toes, I kissed and licked and sucked my way along her foot, up her ankle, and down her raised leg to a point just shy of her hips. The smell of her sex was pungent. My fingers traced along her inner thigh, eager to satisfy the aching desire found within.

Hannah growled. “Come here you… You bandit, you rogue,… you beast!”

I lay down to one side of her. Our tongues met. Our tits mashed together. Her hand was between my legs and mine deep in hers. She penetrated me, first just the tip of one finger, then the entire digit. Her cunt was thoroughly wet and unbelievably hot.

“Unh, yes. I’m so ready,” she moaned.

“So am I.”

“Fuck me, Allie.”

“Nnnhhhh.”

“Fuck me!”

Less than a minute of vigorous fingering later, we both broke out in blissful orgasmic release. I felt a warm sensation ripple through my body, tingling every nerve ending. Hannah let out a short exultant shout and nestled herself against me. It gave me such a thrill to hear that. I wrapped her up in an all-encompassing embrace.

When our rapid panting had subsided somewhat, Hannah remarked, “And you say you’ve never had a girlfriend before?”

“I’m just doing what I think will get the best reaction out of you.”

“Oh,” she purred, “You were perfect.”

We lay there, caressing each other and cooling off in each other’s arms for a few minutes in silence. I couldn’t stop staring at Hannah. I could hardly believe that this was happening, that it all wasn’t some dream. She stroked my cheek gently. No dream was this real…

“You know… I have to say,” Hannah confessed, “I felt something really strong when I first saw you. Like, I just HAD to know more about you. I didn’t think it would lead to… THIS quite this quickly. But, this morning when I woke up, something in me really missed you. I wanted so bad to see you again. I was worried that I was overreacting and that you didn’t feel the same way, but then…” She cooed and gripped me in a strong hug.

When she relaxed, it was my turn. “The moment I saw you at the party, the first thing I thought was, ‘That is the most beautiful person in the entire world.’ The second thing was, ‘There’s no way she’s not with someone.’ But, I couldn’t stop myself. I knew that if I didn’t talk to you then, I’d probably never see you again and would always kick myself for letting the chance go. After I did, and we got to talking, I found out you were even more amazing than I could have imagined. I’ve never felt more comfortable being with someone than being with you last night.”

Hannah’s eyes got misty. She tapped me on the chest with one finger. “You know, I was this close to using a line on you last night, right before you went into your dorm.” I raised an eyebrow. “I was going to say… ” She giggled with embarrassment. “‘I’d really love to make you coffee tomorrow morning.'”

“Really?” I asked. Hannah positively glowed. I brushed my hands through her hair. “Hannah, how about I make you coffee in the morning from now on?”

Her eyes twinkled. “Allie, I’d love that.”

We kissed. Our bodies melted into one. We made love to each other more deliberately this time, lavishing plenty of attention on each part of one another’s anatomy. She enjoyed running her hands all over my full, round breasts and licking my nipples until they were taut and the electrical jolts her tonguing sent to my crotch made me squirm. I rolled her to her back. My mouth dove between her tits, kissing the warmth it found there. I kept going down her chest, tickling her tummy with tender pecks. Upon reaching the area between her legs, I shifted my position and began licking the folds around her vagina. Her fingers grabbed at my hair and dragged across my scalp.

I inserted my index and middle fingers together deep into her. Hannah moaned, rocking her hips languidly. I rotated my hand, working in and out of her wet cleft faster and faster. “Yes. Yes,” she insisted. I lowered my tongue just above where my fingers disappeared, searching, then finding the hard nub I sought to ravish. Hannah held her mouth closed, making more and more impassioned grunts.

Abruptly, Hannah shouted loud and long in ecstasy. I kept pumping deep inside her and licking her clitoris mercilessly until she finally tore my head away, hauled me forcefully against her, and squeezed me with all her might. Her cries of joy resounded off the walls of my room for some time before eventually subsiding. If anyone on the hall was still wondering if I was a lesbian or not, they definitely had their answer.

After about a minute, Hannah pushed me over to one side so she could breathe freely. She cupped one of my breasts and massaged it. A fingertip circled my areola. I shivered involuntarily. She giggled, slithered a leg over top of mine and began grinding her pelvis against my body.

“You want more?” I asked, a little incredulously.

“Mm hmm!” she nodded.

“You’re insatiable!”

Her face twisted in a devious grin. “Think you can keep up?” she challenged. My princess had a naughty streak. Delicious.

“What did you have in mind?” But Hannah was already moving to give me her answer.

She parted my legs and caressed my thighs and stomach. Dropping her head to my burning crotch, Hannah showed me what a tongue could really do to a woman. She’d told me that she’d had two “brief” relationships with girls when she was younger. What those had taught her she demonstrated fantastically on my quivering pussy. I went from calm to magnificent euphoria in less than two minutes. I reared up and looked down at her, but she wasn’t done. Hannah attacked my clit with skill. I had little time to marvel at her ability as my body awakened to an even higher state of arousal.

I came, a full arch-your-back, grip-the sheets, curl-your-toes, throw-back-your-head-and-scream rhapsody of an orgasm. Hannah crawled above me as I lay there, panting and speechless.

We looked lovingly into each other’s eyes for a long time. I was so happy I was close to tears. I was in paradise, with an angel for company.

My stomach growled, ruining the mood. Hannah laughed that beautiful laugh of hers.

“Shall we rejoin society?” she said, patting my tummy.

“If we have to…”

Hannah paused, admiring me once again. “God, Allie. Your eyes are so… intense. You have the most powerful gaze of anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I don’t want to miss the smallest detail… especially when I’m with you.”

“Don’t you get all mushy!” she chided, playfully slapping my side. My stomach gurgled again. Hannah chuckled. “Let’s get you fed.”

And feed me she did. Over the next five months and on into springtime, Hannah filled me with all the love and attention I could hold. I gave myself completely to her, visiting daily, walking with her to or from classes, and spending the weekends at her house. She introduced me to tennis, took me swimming, and even got me to start jogging.

I met her housemates Tamara and Chandra, who were very nice and didn’t tease us too badly when Hannah and I got cute around each other. Even after that one time when an early March storm dashed our plans for a hike around a nearby lake and Hannah and I spent the morning in bed exploring one another’s bodies incessantly. When we finally stumbled out of her room, clothes disheveled and hair sticking every which way, Tamara was sitting there in the kitchen shaking her head.

“Holy fucking shit, you two.” She held up her phone. I was still squinting after encountering the bright sunshine after the dimness of the bedroom. The numbers read 1:26. That clock had to be wrong. It wasn’t even close to noon yet. Then I noticed that she was showing us her phone’s stopwatch app. “And that’s not even counting the fifteen minutes you two were going at it before I started timing.”

“We’re really sorry, Tamara.” I said. “We just got ah… carried away.”

Hannah attempted a rescue. “Since we’re stuck inside, how about I make dinner for everyone tonight?”

Tamara saw an opening. “You make those Swedish meatballs of yours, we’re all good.”

The four of us saw movies together, held court together in the dining hall at the same table each lunchtime, or just hung out in the living room talking until late. It was a glorious time and I was probably the happiest I’d ever been up to that point in my life. During my second semester as the weather warmed, my grades started slipping. Hannah put a stop to that, insisting that I do my homework and even enlisted Chandra, a Journalism major, to help me with my essay writing.

It was on one Saturday upon returning to my building on campus at the end of one such afternoon completing homework at Hannah’s that I happened to pass someone wearing a red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up leaning against the light post near my dorm’s front door. I paid no attention when I heard someone say “Hey,” thinking it was for the group of girls approaching from the other direction. The voice spoke up again.

“Hey, Allie?”

I turned, unable to figure out who’d call me that other than one or two people on my hall. One of the people in my math class, maybe?

Standing there with her trademark smirk was Brooke. “What’s the matter, you don’t recognize me?”

I almost didn’t. She’d grown her hair out on the sides and in the back, and trimmed most of the height on top. She still had the stud in her nose, but nothing in her ears. Her shirt was tucked into her denim skirt and was open at the front, revealing a black tank top underneath. I noticed she had on the same heavy hiking boots from before.

“Wow. How’ve you been?”

“Not bad, not bad. How’s the college life?”

“Been great, really. I love it. Hey, come on in so I can set these books down.”

Brooke filled me in on her life as we went into my room and I arranged my desk chair for her to sit on. She’d moved out of the basement she’d been renting and was now in a city 140 miles away at a job paying her much better than the one she previously had. She’d explored the night life there in her free-spirited way, but found it less exciting than expected. After inquiring with Aunt Miriam what I was up to and finding me fairly close, she decided to surprise me.

“Sorry I didn’t call beforehand, but I didn’t have your number.”

“That’s OK. Um, I could show you around campus if you’d like. Was there anything in particular you wanted to do while you were out here?”

“Well…”

“Hmm?”

“There is something I wanted to remind you of.”

Brooke held up a small white disk. It looked like an oversized coin. Then I noticed its quartet of button holes. “We never actually finished our match, did we?” she said. A devious smile creeped across Brooke’s face.

In an instant, every fibre of my being awoke. I relived our riotously intense sexfight in a rapid flashback. My eyes stopped seeing the Brooke in front of me, but saw deep into her. She wasn’t just some woman standing there in my room. My muscles reflexively tensed, remembering the feel of fighting against her. My skin tingled in anticipation of what it knew she could do to it. My body replayed for me the sensation of being locked together with the feisty brunette, who right now was taunting me with the opportunity to make that experience vivid and real. A hunger I had forgotten I could have returned with a vengeance.

“You wanna continue it right now?”

Brooke nonchalantly replaced the button in the pocket of her skirt. “Got anything else to do?”

“No. My homework’s done.”

Brooke strode up, right into my face. “Then, how about I put you under me where you belong… BITCH?”

I pushed her away, shoving her shoulders. “You honestly think you can come in my room and call me that? Huh, SLUT?”

Palms up, she wiggled her curled fingers, daring me to come at her. “I call ’em like I see ’em. You gained that freshman fifteen yet?”

“Five at most. Hey!” I cursed at her laugh. “I’m so gonna enjoy wiping that stupid grin off your face.”

Brooke removed her shirt. “I ain’t no pushover, you sleaze bag.”

Oh yes…

“Shut your fucking mouth, cunt.”

…we were going to do it…

“Kiss my ass, you dirty whore.”

…holding nothing back.

Brooke and I collided in the middle of the room, hands grasping and arms swatting them aside. I caught her left wrist in my right hand and held fast. She barreled into me. I tried to stop her by pushing on her shoulder with my left hand, but she forced me into the wall. I escaped, spinning her as I dragged her with me. She lost her balance and went down. I was straddling her a few heartbeats later.

She twisted sideways, knocking my foot out from under me. I went down hard, missing her legs and landing on the floor. Brooke sat up and lunged, aiming for a headlock. I slipped under her attack and grabbed for a hold on her body. Managed to get three fingers around her belt, but couldn’t leverage her onto the ground. She untucked my t-shirt with all her furious tugging, then yanked the back of my bra with both hands. That pulled me onto my hands and knees, and I knew she was about to jump on top of me.

I launched myself with both feet at her, taking us both to the floor. Brooke and I grappled there for several minutes, flopping about in a fierce, slowly rolling ball. She rolled me off at one point, but I regained the top position after a grueling struggle.

“Quit pulling my fucking hair, you fucking bitch!”

“Get off me, you skank!” Brooke pushed with her knees. I avoided them and flattened myself against her now that they were out of the way. She tried to roll us, but I straddled her and went for a schoolgirl pin.

“No you don’t, you cunt.”

The pain in my scalp was infuriating. “Eat this, you lousy piece of shit!” I stopped pulling on the hand that was in my hair or grabbing the wrist on her other arm and clawed all my fingers into her boobs.

“Ow! You big tittied… rrrgh!” she cried, retaliating by sinking her nails into my breasts. In some ways, this pain was worse than the one she inflicted on my head, but I had the upper hand and was giving it everything I had. For a good minute or two, we twisted and mauled each other’s tits, hissing and spitting in agony. Eventually, it was too much for me. I threw myself off of her, shepherding my aching boobs as I got to my feet.

Brooke was hurt as well, I could see as she stood up. One strap of her tank top had come off her shoulder. Her hair was out of place and her cheeks shone from exertion. She reached up to fix her top, but decided not to. She took off her shirt instead, revealing a small black bra.

“You wanna test these, huh?” she taunted. “Think those fat bags of yours are all that?”

My shirt was off in an instant. “I’ll crush you, Brooke.”

She undid her bra, shaking her head. “These’ll beat your flabby tits any day.”

I thrust out my chest once it was out of my bra. My nipples were already stiff. “Never happen.” Damn, I wanted this so bad.

The first bearhug we threw ourselves into almost annihilated both of us. Brooke and I threw so much power into our demolishing embrace that neither could breathe for several seconds. The rough treatment my breasts went through paled in comparison to the pain my ribs encountered. We both exhaled forcefully afterwards, and were more tentative as we strained with arms wrapped about one another the next time. I leaned back, raising her off the floor. She cursed and kicked with both legs. I did it again, feeling her tits compress against mine. She reared her head back and pushed on my shoulders, breathing in short bursts.

“I’ve got you, don’t I?”

“Hnnggg.” She fought to break free, our naked skin writhing in sweaty contact.

I put her down, resetting my grip. “How about one more time?”

Brooke kicked at the back of my knee as I lifted her again. I didn’t lose my balance, but ended up not executing as firm a squeeze as I intended. I lowered her quickly, but only one of her feet hit the floor. It slipped out from under her. We fell as one, hitting the thin rug with an impact that knocked the air out of our lungs. I toppled to one side, and Brooke took advantage to get atop me. It wasn’t for long. I jerked her to my right and we went tumbling over and over until we smashed into the desk chair.

Grunting like wild animals, we spun our rolling ball of fury the other way. Knotted tightly together, we fought and wrestled for dominance for over five minutes. I was focused completely as I’d never been before. Brooke pushed me to my limits of strength, endurance, and strategy. I nearly had her pinned twice, only for a supreme effort on her part to wriggle a way free. She was finding me quite a challenge, I could tell. She wasn’t able to hold me down with just her arms and I was able to outlast her leg scissor holds and break out of them through brute force and persistence. She had to get on top of me with her entire body. I knew that, and prevented it every time she attempted it.

Finally, Brooke trapped my leg with hers. She mounted me, slamming her crotch into mine repeatedly. I retaliated, humping her right back and grabbing a fistful of her right tit. She groped one of my boobs and continued grinding me with her exposed white panties. Feeling myself getting more and more aroused, I pushed her chest with my foot. She landed on her back. I brought my thighs together on her groin as hard as I could. She thrust back, and we commenced banging into one another, ramping up the friction against our cunts. A sighing moan from her told me that my efforts weren’t in vain.

“Getting you hot, Brooke baby?” I only got an exasperated grunt in reply.

The two of us sped on, driving ourselves and each other out of our minds with erotic sensations. I pulled on Brooke’s leg, really pressing myself into her as close as I could go, and twisting my crotch against hers. “Fuck,” she panted. I did it again. “Fuck,” she repeated, then put on a mask of concentration. It did her no good. I’d aimed for her clit, and guessed I’d found it. Twenty seconds later, she threw her head back and groaned a good, long release. I took a minute to catch my breath. Brooke lay still save for the rising and falling of her conical tits. I waited for her to stir before reminding her I had the upper hand.

“Worn out yet, bitch?” I said, giving her another pump.

“Shut it. Your little pussy is going to be a fucking wreck when I’m done with it.” Brooke matched my rhythm. Fabric swished with increasing speed.

“That’s not what I’m hearing. You sound like your weak pussy is ready to cum again already.” I steeled myself to control my rising desire. Oh, how I was going to conquer Brooke, wear her down, pin her body firmly with mine, hear her submit…

“Hah! You don’t know the first thing about pleasing a woman.”

“Oh, I certainly do.” I leaned down to kiss her, then froze. Something was wrong. It was her lips. They were the wrong shape; they looked nothing like what I was used to…

The lightning bolt of sanity that struck me at that moment fried every nerve ending in my body, turned every bone to jelly and burnt my desire to ash. I snapped right out of the heated duel — one that I’d jumped headlong into without using a fucking shred of common sense — and realized with crystal clarity exactly what I was doing.

I scrambled away from the prone brunette I’d just humped to orgasm and sat against the wall with my knees up against my chest. Brooke sat up, looking around to find me. She startled at my panicked expression.

“Oh. Fucking. No,” I shuddered. “No, no, no no no.”

“What?”

“You… you need to get out,” I whimpered.

“Wait, what the fuck? Allie, what’s-“

“You need to get out of my room, RIGHT NOW!” There was a darkness descending. I could feel it. It was going to get me. Nothing was going to stop it.

“Allie?” Brooke asked, uncertainly. “At least tell me what’s going on.”

“I… I can’t!”

“Look, I’m sorry if I triggered some bad memory or something… I didn’t mean to. I just thought…” She smacked her hand into her head. “Oh, God. I fucked up. Dammit!”

‘No, no. It’s my fault. It’s always my fault,’ I wanted to say, but didn’t. I stayed in my self-imposed prison, a convicted felon awaiting the gallows. She collected her clothes and got dressed.

“I’m really sorry, OK?” Her voice was wavering. That just made things worse. I covered my head in my arms. “I thought we could pick up where we left off, and you seemed into it, but… now you’re freaking out. You’re freaking ME out.” She paused. “I left my number on your desk. Call me, alright?”

Receiving no response, she left. I listened to her boots clomp down the hall and vanish.

Questions. So many questions and no answers, no fucking answers anywhere. Why do I do this to myself every time? Why do I have the propensity to destroy everything and everyone around me? That’s the whole reason I walled myself off from everyone at high school. I didn’t mind being the loner weirdo. It meant that I couldn’t bring people suffering when I inevitably charge forward too hard, too fast, too far. If I let people get close to me, I will hurt them. Hurt the ones I care about most.

Oh, fuck. Hannah. Hannah Hannah Hannah.

What the hell am I going to do? Someone on the hall must’ve seen us coming in. Someone must’ve heard us. We were making too much noise for them not to. Word is going to get around.

What could I possibly say to Hannah? Nothing! Nothing that doesn’t sound like a lame excuse or worse: ‘We were just play fighting.’ ‘It’s not a sexual thing.’ ‘I was caught up in the moment.’ All terrible. I’m such a fuckup.

I was being slowly digested in the gut of a great, pitiless monster.

That night lasted eons. I didn’t eat dinner. I didn’t sleep. I woke up on the floor like discarded trash that had been trampled underfoot.

I met Hannah for lunch at our usual table at the dining hall. I had to, or she’d suspect something. She was bright and cheery and I quickly fell into joking around with her. She didn’t know. Of course she didn’t. Why would she? She’d never know. Life was fine. It was normal. We made plans to go out to the mall after lunch. Different surroundings, away from campus. Good times.

As was my habit, at the end of lunch I went to get soft serve cones from the machine. Vanilla/chocolate twist for both of us. I never took a bite out of either of them so that Hannah could pick which one she wanted. As I came around the last corner on my way back, I heard my name.

“…you know Allison Parker?”

“Yes, I’m a good friend of hers,” I heard Hannah say.

I stepped into view of our table and stopped dead. Someone was standing at my chair, leaning over towards Hannah. Smiling and shaking my girlfriend’s hand.

“I’m a good friend of hers, too. My name’s Brooke. Brooke Marx.”

Kill me now.

“Oh? She’s never mentioned you.”

Someone just fucking kill me now.

There are times when you know you are screwed, totally and utterly. In deep shit so far down that all is pitch black.

I stood there like a complete idiot, melting ice cream dripping over my clenched fingers, watching as the two people I’d never want to have meet introduced each other. I swayed like the victim of a construction site accident, head knocked dizzy by a falling girder, chest crushed and unable to breathe after being hit by a wrecking ball.

It got worse. They noticed me at the same time. Turning, they greeted me with pleasant looks on their faces. Like I was going to waltz over and clear up a silly little misunderstanding. Emotion washed through me like the prelude to throwing up. They noticed the pained look on my face, and the twin hot tears that I couldn’t stop from forming at the corners of my eyes.

“Allie? Sweetheart?” said Hannah, worriedly getting up.

I saw realization dawn on Brooke’s face. That did it. Everything was fucked. She knew. It was only a matter of time before Hannah saw Brooke’s look of dismay and started running through possible explanations in her mind. I didn’t want her to imagine any of them. Her beginning to doubt or distrust me was something I couldn’t bear, but there was no stopping the truth now. It sped like a spinning car on a wet road right toward a cliff. There was nothing I could do but take hold of the wheel and do my best to steer.

“I need some fresh air,” I said, managing to keep my voice from breaking. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

On a bench near a large oak tree, I regained my composure and faced Hannah.

“Hannah, I promised to always tell the truth to you, right? Well, what I’m about to tell you may sound crazy, but it really happened.” I swallowed a bite of soft serve and began. “Brooke lived next door to my cousin back when my family visited a year or so ago. She joined us during our get-together and hung out with us for the whole day. It was pretty memorable in that Caroline and my cousin Samantha decided it would be fun for the four of us to roughhouse as a group. We played ‘Queen of the Mountain’, which Samantha won, where we tried to push each other off this big queen-sized bed.”

Hannah snorted. I knew that this was far from her experience of growing up, and hoped she didn’t think I was exaggerating as I continued.

“Later, my cousin took us out to a field because Caroline had been shit-talking her, and we had a mud wrestling competition: Brooke versus me, and Caroline versus Samantha.” Hannah didn’t react visibly. “It was a blast, really. We got filthy dirty.” Hannah’s eyes narrowed in questioning disbelief.

“She beat me,” Brooke admitted. “Fair and square.” My poor girlfriend was trying to wrap her mind around what she was hearing. This was obviously something she couldn’t quite relate to.

“Despite that,” I said conspiratorially, “she challenged me to a rematch, and she and I fought again that evening. That one ended in a draw. We both really enjoyed that fight, and it lasted, what, almost an hour?”

“About that long,” Brooke nodded.

“You beat each other up?” Hannah asked incredulously.

“No, no. No fists or anything. It was wrestling, like WWE, but without the ring or bodyslams or stuff.”

“So it wasn’t really violent…”

“Oh, it was plenty violent alright,” I said. “We both seriously wanted to win. I was wrecked, totally worn out on the ride back home.” Brooke made a show of rubbing her shoulder to confirm the point. “And then,” I chose my words carefully, “yesterday she shows up out of the blue and asks for round three.”

Hannah studied my face. “And?”

“That ended in a draw.” I noticed Brooke had a small smirk on her face, reminding me that she knew exactly what I was leaving out of my story. “I hadn’t talked with her since my family get-together, and didn’t know until yesterday that she’d moved to Greenville.”

Hannah turned to Brooke. “You drove two and a half hours just to challenge Allie to fight you?”

Brooke gave my girlfriend that patented smile of hers. “I knew she’d be up for it.” I grinned sheepishly at this. “You see, finding someone who’s into fighting the way we do is so rare. And finding Allie is even rarer, because she’s a perfect match for me.”

Hannah, irritated, put her hand on my arm. “She IS rare, and she’s MY perfect match — but not the way you’re talking about.”

“No, I get it. So, you don’t share?”

“Hell no, I don’t!”

“Hannah and I are…” I began, but Hannah cut me off.

“If you try to get close to her again, you’ll have to go through me first!”

“Uh…” I was confused. Where did this come from?

“No offense,” Brooke said confidently, “but I’m pretty sure I can beat you fairly easily.”

I was tense in a microsecond. “You are not going to lay a single…”

Hannah, giving Brooke a stern glare, shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. You make the challenge, so I get to choose the weapons. You have to beat me at the sport of my choosing.”

“Like…?”

“Tennis. Swimming. That sort of thing.” I felt like a spectator at center court, my head darting back and forth between Hannah and Brooke. This was getting out of control. I had to…

“Alright. But, it has to be a different one each time. Otherwise, you’ll just keep picking one I have no chance of beating you at.”

“I don’t think…” I tried to interject.

“Fine,” Hannah agreed.

“Dammit, don’t I get a say in this?”

Hannah finally looked in my direction. “What? You got a better idea?”

“It’s just…” Shit, I wasn’t used to doing this sort of thing. “Hannah, you don’t have to do this to prove yourself to me. You know I love you absolutely, no matter what.”

“Sweetheart, I know I don’t have to prove myself to you. But I do to her. And I will.”

Brooke smiled mischievously. “Well, now. I’m going to be looking forward to the weekends in a serious way from now on.”

The way Hannah held herself imperiously let me know that I had no chance of altering the outcome of the deal. “Until then,” she demanded, “you have to stay away!”

Brooke nodded graciously, gave a little wave, and then departed. When she was out of sight, Hannah exhaled all the tension built up in her. Her hands shook like an old person’s. She breathed in and out forcefully. It took me nearly a minute to find any words to say.

“Hannah, I’m…”

“I did that, didn’t I?” She inhaled and exhaled, then faced me. “I did it. Thank you, Allie!” She kissed my cheek and gave me a hug.

“Hannah, I’m not sure that was the best idea.”

“You would have done the same thing for me, right?” I nodded. “Well, that’s how I got the courage to do it. I think that after a week or two of humiliating defeats, she’ll get the message. You have sworn fealty in my kingdom, have you not? You’re not some mercenary she can drop in and spar with. Knightly contests occur only upon royal decree!”

I held my tongue. Hannah’s eyes had a sheen to them, a fire I had never seen before. I was conflicted, suddenly unsure of what this newly revealed aspect of my girlfriend meant.

Next Saturday, Tennis racquets were in fact Hannah’s first choice of dueling implements. I sat in the stands, thinking of ways to send Brooke away in the event that she won. I needn’t have bothered. Brooke didn’t even own a pair of tennis shoes; she wore her hiking boots. She barely got the ball over the net during her first three times at serve. Hannah destroyed her 6-0, 6-0.

Brooke accepted defeat gracefully. Hannah nodded in response. Brooke advanced as if to offer to stick around for lunch, but Hannah shook her head and shooed her away. I caught Brooke’s expression as she met my gaze on her way off the court: a wry look that meant her resolve hadn’t withered. I joined Hannah in a celebratory kiss, but something in my stomach didn’t feel right.

For the week after that, Hannah picked swimming. She texted Brooke on Wednesday and showed me the reply: “You’re fucking serious?” Oh, she was, Brooke. She was. I was looking forward to this one. Not because I thought it was going to be a fair contest. I knew it wasn’t. Not because I wanted to see Brooke demolished yet again. I had a much more personal, and lewd, reason.

The sight of Hannah in that blue, one-piece racing swimsuit of hers is one of my ultimate turn-ons. The first few times we went to the university pool, I could barely keep my hands off of her before, during or after our swim. She stopped suggesting swimming as an activity, and I hadn’t seen her in that tight, sleek, high-legged outfit in months.

Hannah moved like a dolphin in the water, Brooke like a beachgoer contending with a riptide. I cheered Hannah’s victory. She emerged from the pool like Venus, perfectly formed and dripping wet. I watched her dry herself off until she threw the towel right in my face.

“Here,” she said, walking the direction of the locker room, “for your drool.”

Brooke paddled in and hung onto the side of the pool, panting hard. She looked at me in consternation. “Enjoying this?” she spat.

I shrugged. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hannah watching me at the locker room entrance. I took the hint and followed her.

Afterwards, she got in her car to return to her house and I trudged back to my dorm room. I generally agreed with the lesson Hannah was trying to teach Brooke, but was disturbed by the methods she was using. I couldn’t go and text Brooke directly, because then I would have to lie if Hannah ever asked me and that was a line I refused to cross. I wanted to make the situation better but felt helpless to do anything about it.

I’d thought about just admitting defeat, granting the final best two of three win to Brooke if she ever managed to beat Hannah at something. That deeply offended my sensibilities. It would hurt Brooke after all the effort she put in. Furthermore, it was be denying myself something. That thing that Brooke’s reappearance had awakened in me, and her presence near me each weekend reminded me of.

My thoughts were spiraling without conclusion when I walked in my building.

“He-ey, Alli-son!” said a chorus of girls standing in the hall in a unison sing-song voice. I gave them an “OK, whatever” look and unlocked my door.

Draped seductively against the back of my desk chair was Hannah, naked except for her swimsuit, her hair draped over one shoulder, eyeing me like a femme fatale.

How? Wait, what’s going- The spare key I’d given Hannah gleamed on the desk.

“Heard you were the handy type… for people who are in need.” Hannah was doing a pretty decent Lauren Bacall. “Y’see, I’m in a bit of a fix,” she said, indicating what she meant by languidly tugging the shoulder strap of her swimsuit.

“You figure I can get you out of it, do ya?” I took a few steps towards her slowly.

“It’s okay if you’re a little rough,” she purred, tossing her head and fixing me with a smokey stare. “I can take it.”

Hannah Johansson, I am yours.

For weeks, I got persistent ribbing from the girls on the hall for the noise we made that day.

The next weekend saw me caddy for Hannah on Brooke’s first eighteen holes of golf. Numerous triple bogeys later, Brooke shot Hannah a frustrated snarl. “You think you can get me to give up our little contest?”

“It seems to be getting to you,” snarked Hannah. Remaining impassive was becoming more and more difficult.

The Saturday after that brought a quandary. Brooke insisted that she be given another try, but I was going home for the weekend for my mother’s birthday celebration. Brooke was concerned that Hannah might tell me she’d won even if she lost and I’d believe her. My solution was for them to film their contest if I couldn’t be there. They both agreed.

The weekend was strange. I hadn’t really told my parents about Hannah, mainly because I hadn’t even come out to them yet. I felt that was something I wanted to do with Hannah by my side. My family didn’t seem disturbed by the image of their youngest member being an anti-social nerd, so I rolled with it.

Upon my return, Hannah had an SD card for me from her camera. I sat down at the computer and watched her play horseshoes against Brooke. Afterwards, I had nothing but praise for her.

“Great job! That was close! Brooke could have beaten you, but you ringed the post on the last toss.” She sat in my lap, straddling me. “I’m so glad you won.”

“With you, I can’t lose.”

I kissed her. “What was that conversation you and she had there at the end?”

“Oh, that? She’s becoming a sore loser. All part of the plan.” She kissed me sweetly. We sat in that position for a while.

“Are you going to let me up?”

“No,” she said, running her palms down my sides to my hips. “This is my victory lap.”

“That was really bad, Hannah.” She laughed. My heart soared. “And bad girls get punished.” I tickled her sides. She shrieked. The chair teetered. We barely got to our feet before it clattered to the floor. I held her close and we leaned into the desk. We made out for a few minutes, then Hannah remembered something.

“Did you work on your English term paper this weekend?”

“No,” I grudgingly admitted.

“So, you’re behind on it.”

I looked down at the papers on the desk she partially covered. “No, actually, you’re behind is on it.”

Hannah closed here eyes and giggled. “Now who’s the bad girl?”

“Alas, ’tis I. What’s the punishment to be, your highness?”

Hannah was serious. “You work on your paper this week. Here in your room. Do not come over to the house until its ready for Chandra to proofread.”

“Yes, my lady.” I curtsied using an invisible skirt. Hannah’s eyes softened.

“Sex first, though.”

I had a big test that week in math, too, so all thought of goofing around evaporated in the sweatshop that was my dorm room. I spent Friday night in the library photocopying and making notes, and all morning Saturday working on the conclusion and bibliography. I’d sent a draft of the first two sections to Chandra, and was happy to be able to deliver the full final draft that afternoon. She showed me her suggestions and corrections, and then went out with Tamara to an open air concert for the evening. I busily rewrote and reorganized paragraphs so that I could show Hannah when she got back from her trip to the mall.

When Hannah finally showed up late in the afternoon, I still had a few bits to do, but felt good about what I had. I’d done well, and was hoping she wouldn’t mind going out to dinner. I greeted her, and she said, “Hi” back. Her face was unreadable.

She walked up to me, glanced at the document on my laptop and the marked up printout next to it, then opened her palm. In it lay an SD card.

“Wait, did you and Brooke… And you didn’t tell… oh, you didn’t want to interrupt my English project, did you?”

Hannah’s voice was perfectly neutral. “Just watch it.”

“You won, right?” I couldn’t tell anything from her demeanor.

She offered her palm again. “Watch all of it.”

Part 3

I know that I have a problem with being bullheaded. Once my mind is made up, I do tend to charge forward without regard to my safety or that of those around me. It’s probably why I tend to be obedient, whether to a domineering sister or to the love of my life. I can tell myself that I was doing what I was supposed to. If something goes wrong, I can point to someone who said it was okay instead of owning the blame completely.

I hadn’t yet learned that that isn’t the absolute best way to approach life on the afternoon I put a little memory card into my laptop, and launched the movie file it contained.

The scene wobbled before someone steadied the camera. It was perched somewhere up high in what looked like a typical motel room: boring framed landscape pictures on the walls, beige carpet, a desk and reclining chair, and a king-sized bed across from a TV/dresser combo. Limbering up next to the bed was Hannah, dressed in that swimsuit of hers. I let out a small groan as she raised her arms over her head and stretched. The sight of those beautiful, full breasts of hers straining against the front of her suit…

Into view walked Brooke, satisfied that the camera was firmly hung from the curtain rod. She was wearing a hot little pink bikini. At first it surprised me because I didn’t think it was her style, but I found it showed off her slim body, perky boobs, and long legs quite nicely. She addressed the camera.

“The sport this time… is Wrestling!”

What the fuck? I wanted to look back at Hannah, but somehow couldn’t tear my eyes off the proceedings on-screen. The two girls climbed onto the mattress and faced off.

“You did agree to this,” Brooke said.

“Yes, I did,” Hannah replied.

“I didn’t force this on you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Even though I’m going to so enjoy paying you back for all the humiliation you put me through…”

“Keep flapping your lips and you’ll be out of breath before we’ve even started.”

“Confident enough to be catty, are ya, ya bitch?” My hands tensed into fists. “We’ll see who’s still talking after I smear your pretty ass all over this room.” I raised my right arm to punch a hole in the screen.

“Allie,” the Hannah behind me in real life cautioned. I huffed several strong breaths, calming myself a bit. I was worried for the Hannah in the video. I knew first-hand what Brooke could do, and didn’t think Hannah had the skill or strength to match her.

Their initial lock-up eased my fears a little. With hands on each other’s shoulders, they pushed and shoved hard. Hannah didn’t give an inch. Her face had that mask of stern concentration she got when playing tennis. They swayed side to side, but neither was able to tilt the other onto the bed.

Brooke backed up, forcing Hannah to disengage her hands. When the pair lunged towards each other again, Brooke batted Hannah’s arms away. She wrapped her left arm around Hannah’s waist and the other around her neck. In a flash, my girlfriend was driven to the bed. She struggled there for a few seconds, but eventually Brooke pushed her onto her back and tightened her grip.

Hannah wriggled and Brooke’s ass clenched underneath her pink bikini bottom. The difference in strength between her and her opponent was obvious. Even so, two and a half minutes later, Hannah managed to slide out of Brooke’s headlock and off the bed. She leaped back into the duel immediately. The two encircled each other with their arms and fell to the covers clasped body to body. Rocking back and forth, entwining their legs and sinking into a fierce mutual bearhug. The two wrestling women punished each other with a crushing embrace.

Their grunting and panting was audible now. Several times, Brooke gained the upper position. Hannah didn’t let her keep it for long. Once, my blonde bombshell managed to climb atop Brooke, giving me quite a view of her ass flexing beneath that form-fitting swimsuit. Brooke retaliated quickly, straightening Hannah’s legs and rolling the two of them across the mattress. A minute or two of heated grappling later and she pinned Hannah underneath her, grapevining her legs wide apart.

They struggled in that position for a bit, heads buried in each other’s shoulders, legs coiling around their opposite pair, bare feet locking together. Abruptly, Hannah chirped rather erotically and stopped fighting. Brooke lay there looking into her eyes.

“You up for it?” she grinned.

“You have no idea who you’re challenging.”

‘Wait. What the heck just happened?’ I wondered. I pulled my hands out of my hair, which I had been yanking without realizing it, jumped the video back a few seconds and payed close attention. There, right as Hannah let out that little shriek, Brooke had nibbled her ear. “You fucking bitch!” I shrieked.

It got worse. Brooke’s hips started pulsing, grinding her pink panties into Hannah’s crotch. My fingernails dug into my thighs. My breath hissed through clenched teeth. A few minutes went by, and still that horrible slut kept at it, tribbing my girlfriend and making both of them moan.

Finally, Hannah tossed Brooke off of her. “That the best you can do?” she taunted. ‘No, you crazy girl’ I wanted to tell her, ‘Don’t encourage her!’

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of moves to show you.” She grabbed one of Hannah’s legs, scissored her and began banging away at her pussy. I began swaying from side to side. A strange keening sound wailed from my lips. Behind me, I could hear real-life Hannah choking back sobs. That damned obedience of mine compelled me to keep watching.

Soon, Brooke was leaning over. Her groaning became more labored. Hannah was biting her lip and even reached out to stroke Brooke’s bouncing tits. A few seconds later Hannah arched, letting out a series of exultant shouts. That sent Brooke over the edge, and she, too, reached orgasm.

Hannah sat up. She gripped the back of Brooke’s neck and tried to pull her to her left. Brooke responded by slipping both straps off of Hannah’s shoulders and peeling the top of her swimsuit down. Hannah’s breasts popped out. Her brunette foe’s lips were on them in an instant. Hannah reacted with a purring moan. I reacted with a tortured growl.

“I will beat you, Brooke,” Hannah suddenly interjected. “I can do things that will turn you to jelly.”

“A bit cocky for your first sexfight, don’t you think?”

“No!” I shouted in real life. This couldn’t be happening… couldn’t have happened. Since when did the contest change? Just then, I noticed that the video went on for another sixteen minutes. Oh, Hell no…

The atrocities that assaulted my vision continued. Brooke and Hannah tumbling about topless, stripping each other naked. Bare boobs mashed together, firm nipples poked and dragged across supple flesh. Their tits fought an arduous, sensual duel, with Hannah’s perfectly round boobs repeatedly slapping back and forth against her foe’s firm, jutting pair. This lasted a few minutes until Brooke sat up suddenly, unable to take any more pleasure from Hannah’s wonderful orbs.

Hannah attacked, sending fingers pumping in and out of Brooke’s slick cunt. The brunette minx did the same. Faster and faster the two fucked and patted and slapped at their clits until both had cum once more.

Then Hannah went to use her tongue on Brooke’s labia. The pair ended up in a sixty-nine position with Hannah on bottom. I couldn’t tear myself away, no matter how much this was killing me. On and on they licked and sucked each other’s pussies, humming and moaning ever higher in pitch.

Brooke came, then spun around, sitting on Hannah’s stomach. She teased my girlfriend’s nipples, then kissed her passionately. My throat rumbled a tormented animal noise. Tears formed in my eyes. Behind me, Hannah was sniffling.

On video, Hannah lay there doing nothing. Brooke noticed this and released her lips’ hold on Hannah’s mouth. Hannah said, “I can’t do this.”

“You give up?” Brooke’s face was so close to Hannah’s. They were staring deeply into each other’s eyes.

“Yes.” Hannah replied so quietly I could barely hear it. She rolled away from the camera and lay still. Brooke got off her and sat on the edge of the bed to catch her breath. They stayed that way for several minutes.

Brooke Marx stood up, walked to the camera and looked right into it. “I got her, Allie. She’s amazing. Heck, I might just keep her. But next weekend, you’re mine.” She made a pistol with her hand, fired it into the lens with that smirk of hers on her face, and stopped the recording.

When I stood up from the chair I’d been sitting in, I was no longer Allison Parker. I had become Wrath incarnate.

Once, at the age of eight, I threw a royal tantrum. Tossed everything out of my dresser drawers around my room. Pulled the drawers themselves out. Tore the sheets off my bed. Upended the mattress. Yanked the curtains down. Shredded papers from school. Flung all the books on my shelf into the wall. I was about to start swinging my pole lamp at whatever I could find when my Dad burst in and stopped me. I had never felt as angry as that before, or since.

Until I watched that video.

In that moment, I vowed that the world wasn’t going to be so lucky as when I was young. I wasn’t going to stop with just the room I was standing in. There weren’t going to be any buildings left upright anywhere on campus. I would flatten every city on the entire continent. Civilization itself was going to be obliterated until nothing of human history was left but rubble and ash. I was going to rip every last molecule in the universe apart so that no atom could feel the happy embrace of another.

I stormed away from the laptop. Hannah stood, leaning back against one wall with her arms crossed in front of her, sobbing disconsolately. Normally, such a sight would have pierced my heart and stopped me cold in my tracks. Not this time.

“HOW COULD YOU?”

“Allie…” Her voice was a lost kitten’s. Mine, a tornado’s roar.

“Why did you agree when she suggested… that!”

“She didn’t. I did.”

I staggered back as if punched. “Wh- WHAT?”

“I wanted to know what it was like. What you enjoyed about it.” My vocal chords refused to function. “Now I know.”

“You let her have her way with you?”

“Did you even watch the video? I fought back!”

“I can’t believe she…”

“All I said was, ‘Fight me like you want to fight Allie’.”

I stomped down the hall pounding the wall with my fist as I went, turned, and thundered back. “You hid this from me because you knew I’d object, didn’t you? How the fuck could you-“

“You hid from me that what you and Brooke did was more than just wrestling.” Hannah swallowed, gaining composure. “Why didn’t YOU tell-“

“You should have never, EVER…”

“Wait.”

“No, YOU listen to me, Hannah. You-“

“Answer my question!”

“Shut your damn mouth! You do not go behind my back and-“

“YOU stop telling me what to do, goddammit!” Her face was full of fury. She pushed me away and took long, rapid strides down the hall.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going? We’re not done…” She spun and fixed me with a withering glare.

“Oh, yes we are, Allison Parker! You need to get a hold of yourself and become a human being again, before you go ruining some else’s life!” She grabbed stuff one after another off the table and stuffed them into her purse.

The rage drained from my body like water from a shattered fish tank. “Hannah, what are you doing?”

She didn’t look in my direction as she continued ranting. “You do not control my life, and you do not tell me what to do. I can make my own decisions, just as YOU have made YOURS.” Her voice was breaking, but anger overrode her tears and she kept herself together. Unlike my splintered heart. “Right now, I am taking my things, and I AM LEAVING. GOODBYE!”

The silence that followed the door slamming left me with nothing but my thoughts.

And I couldn’t take any of them.

My legs crumpled beneath me. I inhaled, but my lungs stopped working. My heart raced, desperate to pump what little oxygen remained in my body. Then the pain started, like a giant medieval sword piercing between my ribs. I howled the purest anguish, a deafening yell that went on and on, punctuated only briefly by quick breaths. The sword slid further into my chest, its razor sharp edges ripping through skin and slicing internal tissue as it went. I clawed at the phantom weapon, fingernails tearing at my shirt. Standing above me and wielding that dread blade I saw myself, casting a frown without any compassion. With one hand around the grip and the other pushing against the pommel, I skewered myself, slowly, slowly. The agony lasted five minutes, during which my screams never ceased.

When my ghostly tormentor finally vanished, I had nothing left. My breath wheezed through my tortured throat. My body rocked with hiccups. I had screwed up in the worst way I could imagine. Not just my first true girlfriend, but my soul mate. The One. I’d been given the opportunity to fall in love with her, and have her love me back. A once in a lifetime chance, and I’d fucking squandered it. The angel I had given my heart to had spread her wings and flown away, never to return. I rested my head on the floor in a pool of my own tears, awaiting oblivion.

That’s how Hannah found me moments later: a beached wreck. She knelt next to me, and spoke through her sniffles.

“Oh god, Allie. Allie… I’m so sorry.”

No, it wasn’t you.

“I thought you were going to come running after me, so I stayed just outside the door. I didn’t think…”

I’m such an idiot.

“Did you think I was leaving you for good?”

What else do I deserve?

“I could never do that. Never, ever.” She stroked my hair. “That noise you were making. That… frightened me. And when you went quiet, I was afraid something had happened, or you’d done something…”

I shook my head and sobbed.

“Shh. It’s OK. Everything’s going to be OK now.”

My voice croaked. “No, it…”

“Yes, it is. I forget that you’re… new to being in a relationship.” She took a deep breath. “Allie, we had an argument. Things got overheated, and we both have things we need to make right with each other. But not right now, okay? Right now, I need to spend some time. To process things.”

My eyes were too dry to cry. She kissed me on my forehead.

“I love you, Allie. Every crazy, wonderful, exasperating thing about you. And I know how much I mean to you. I heard that loud and clear.”

I reached one hand out, and she took it in hers. Then she stood and left.

After a bit, I cleaned myself up. I sat in various places in the house, or wandered around in a daze. In the evening, Tamara came by to pick up some stuff she’d left. She gave me a look like I was some kind of criminal. That told me who Hannah was with, and that eased my worries somewhat.

That Monday and Tuesday were like a fog. I went to class. Turned in my English paper. Ate food. Slept. Did a lot of lying in bed.

And thought. Mostly about Hannah. My perfect princess. I had to make everything up with her. There was no one else in the entire world that compared with her. I would become her white knight, her charming rogue, whatever she wanted just to be able to be with her again like we used to.

Brooke made the occasional appearance in the fairy tales in my head, too. She was the evil witch out to poison her, or a dragon out to steal her away. I steeled myself for the confrontation that was coming. I would teach her a lesson she’d never forget. Or die trying.

I wanted to see Hannah, to make sure she was alright, but didn’t want to risk pushing things and messing them up again. Never had I felt so directionless.

Unexpectedly, Hannah picked me up after class on Wednesday. We made small talk back to my dorm room. Stuff about classes, Tamara, and the latest news. Nothing about That Thing that had kept us apart. Then, once we’d closed the door, she brought it up. I remember her sitting in my desk chair. I sat on the edge of my bed several feet away, staring at the floor in front of her, unable to look her in the eye.

“When I found out what you and Brooke had done the day before I met her, it really hurt me.” Tears were in my eyes before I could blink. Hannah’s voice was already starting to waver. “I trusted you. Completely. I mean… I’d never met someone so loyal in all my life. I never occurred to me that you might…”

“I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”

“Please, just… I want to get this out. I don’t blame you fully for what you did. Brooke is a very liberating person to be around. She can make the most unusual thing seem natural. For my part, I am truly sorry for what I did, in letting her lead me down the path she did. I should have talked with you about it first.”

“I would have said ‘No’.”

“Yes, but at the same time, because I didn’t, I now understand a part of you that’s been kept pent up. You love being rough, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Competing with another woman, pitting yourself against her physically and sexually to see who gives up first? It’s thrilling, isn’t it? It’s okay to admit it.”

The words were hard to say, but they finally tumbled out. “I do enjoy that. A lot. Brooke was the only person I’d ever found with whom…”

“Never me?”

“You’re… you’re my girlfriend, Hannah. My one true love. I cherish you. I could never treat you with the meanness or the anger that makes that kind of competition exciting for me.”

“Not even if it’s pretend?”

“… I don’t think I’d ever want to act that way toward you, even just playing around.”

“Well, I appreciate that. Thank you for your honesty. This has been good.” She stood up to go. “I need to get back to the house now.”

“Hannah. I love you. I love you so very much.” I sounded so damn pitiful. Not the strong storybook suitor I wanted to be for her.

“I know, Allie. Sweetheart, I love you, too. More than anything.”

We hugged. I felt Hannah shudder once against me, and then she let go. “Friday. My house. Dinner, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Hannah left with a calm expression on her face. I still had a hollow place inside me, a yawning, Hannah-shaped chasm. The wind blew through it silent and cold.

Instead of the usual crowd, on Friday Hannah and I had the house to ourselves. Hannah made her famous Swedish meatballs with egg noodles. She was all smiles, as if nothing had ever happened, confusing the hell out of me. She asked about my classes, and how the gang on my dorm hall was doing. I answered in short sentences, my eyes pleading like those of a whipped dog for acknowledgement that she wasn’t still upset with me. Toward the end of dinner, after yet another half-mumbled response, she gave me a look of pity. We finished eating in silence.

After clearing our plates, she walked behind my chair and whispered in my ear.

“How about something hot and sweet for dessert?”

“Like what?” I turned my head to look in her eyes, but she was a few steps away. I got up and watched her tiptoe to the stairs. She twirled, spinning her dress about her knees, blew a kiss and giggled.

“What are you up to?” She climbed up several steps, then bent over, raising her hem and flashing her panties at me. “You tease!”

Her laughter was birdsong all the way up to the second floor. I walked quickly after her, following the direction of her discarded dress. I made my footsteps loud so that she could hear me coming. Her bra hung on the doorknob to her room. I could picture what I’d find beyond, but it took my breath away when I actually saw her. She’d thrown on a see-through negligee and was busy lighting candles. When he last one was lit, she looked me over and acted shocked.

“Oh! A brigand has invaded the princess’ bedchamber.” I walked with a determined stride until there was no space between us. I turned off the light switch. Her skin glowed in the flickering candle flames. “You ruffian,” she said to my face, “what is it you intend to do with me…” I gripped her arms, drew her close. “…me, who is so helpless, so defenseless…”

I ravished her. All the bottled-up desire, all the apologies I’d practiced in my head, all the emotion of the last week — I poured it all out on her in a thunderstorm of sensual pleasure. I kissed her passionately on her lips, her cheeks, her forehead, and her hair while my hands grabbed at her supple flesh and stroked her body up and down her sides and back. She stumbled backwards under my relentless assault, panting and moaning and urging me on to greater heights of lustful debauchery. I pursued her with ruthless intent, crushing her to me and lifting her off her feet. She wrapped her legs around me and we landed heavy on her mattress.

My mouth immediately went to work on her neck, then on down between her warm breasts. My hands caressed her tits, running up over them toward her shoulders. She grabbed my hands and forced them to massage her boobs roughly. Hannah groaned. I thrust my thigh between her legs and ground it against her crotch. I dove underneath her lingerie and kissed and playfully bit at her tummy. “Oh, fuck. Fuck me, Allie!” she panted. I tore her panties off and worked her moistened lips with my fingers. She whipped off my belt, yanked the front of my pants open, and hurriedly peeled them down my waist. I licked her pussy while shedding the rest of the clothing on my lower body, then pounced on her.

My cunt met hers with a wet smack. Kissing and clawing at each other, we fucked like there was no tomorrow. Only after she’d cried out in three lustful orgasms did I slow down and let her catch her breath. She sat up, and rolled me from my side onto my back. With a smile, she descended between my legs.

What happened next I can’t fully describe. She started doing something with her tongue that sent me into orbit almost immediately. It wasn’t long before I came, a shivering orgasm that lit my nerves on fire. Then, she brought me to ecstasy again, my whole body tingling like warm caramel was running through my veins. She changed what her tongue was doing, and my pussy felt the most intense sensations it had ever felt. I was rocking back and forth on the bed trying to control myself and begging her not to stop. Then, her tongue did something else entirely. To this day, I don’t know what it was. My clitoris experienced nirvana. I lost consciousness.

When I recovered, she was nestled against me lovingly.

“What… what the hell did you just do?”

“Gave you the best thing I could think of, because you always give me your best.”

“No, what was that thing called?”

“I haven’t given it a name yet.”

“How about the Triple Mind Fuck? That’s certainly what it felt like to me.”

She shook her head, chuckling softly. “I was thinking of something more poetic.”

“The Hannah Special.”

She clucked her tongue and picked up her discarded underwear. “It doesn’t need a name.” She put her panties back on, leaned on one hand, and looked at me lovingly. “You know, I think you’re rubbing off on me.”

“I like rubbing off on you.”

“No, you gutter-minded dolt. I mean… watching you do things in that fearless manner you have has given me the confidence to be who I am without worrying about what others might think.”

“In what way?”

“Well, for example, tomorrow.” She crawled above me, teasing my chest with her breasts.

“What about tomorrow?”

“I have a plan.”

“Tell me.”

“Not until ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Give me a hint at least.”

Hannah kissed my neck. Her hair sailed through the air as she shook it out of her eyes and fixed me with a saucy grin. “Fireworks.”

I woke up the next morning alone but ready to take on the world. The clock on the end table read just before 8am. Footsteps and muffled voices out in the hallway: Hannah seeing Tamara and Chandra off for the day. A few moments later, her head peeped in the doorway.

“Good. You’re awake.”

“Mmnph.”

“Out of bed. There’s bagels in the kitchen.”

“I’m not really hungry…”

“Out of bed.” Her tone didn’t leave room for dissension. I threw one of Hannah’s robes over my naked body and stumbled into the bathroom.

When I’d finished my shower, there was a pile of clothes sitting on the edge of the sink. They were really nice: a bright red v-neck top, short black skirt, and a matching red satin bra and panty set. I started picturing Hannah in them before I noticed the note. ‘Allie’s’ it said in Hannah’s handwriting.

I put the outfit on and went downstairs. Hannah ogled me as I entered the kitchen.

“Fits well?” she asked.

“Yes. You bought this for me?” Hannah nodded. “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome. Now, you need to stay down here for the next hour, okay? I’m going to be busy upstairs.”

“You know… the fact that you won’t tell me what’s going on is killing me.”

“Sorry. Has to be done.” She was wearing a simple white polo shirt and pleated skirt combo that drew attention to her round breasts and smooth, shapely legs. Last night’s passion lingered in my body. I wanted the real thing, not just the aftertaste in my mouth.

“Oh,” Hannah pointed at me as she went toward the stairs. “Do not answer the door, either.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Her laughter had an edge to it. “Glad you remember who rules here,” she teased.

Hannah didn’t come back down the stairs until right before ten o’clock. She barely had time to wave at me when the doorbell rang. I watched my girlfriend smile as she opened the front door to reveal the person I’d been waiting to sink my claws into for days.

Brooke was wearing a simple grey tank top with a low scooping U front and loose-fitting black exercise shorts. She’d been in the sun recently; the skin she was showing off had a nice bronze glow to it. Her mouth formed the word “Wow” silently as she scanned the interior of the house. She saw me, grinned and said “Hey!”

I returned her greetings with a less than polite stare.

“You ready?” Brooke taunted.

I stood up, but Hannah was at my side, putting one hand on my shoulder before I could take two steps.

“Brooke,” Hannah said, “Thank you so much for driving all this way.”

“Not at all. I’ve really been looking forward to this weekend in a big way.”

“Good, so have we. But, there’s something I need to do first the clear the air.” Hannah glanced at me, and then addressed our guest. “Brooke, if I left you and Allie alone, what would you try to do?”

Brooke’s face gave a quizzical look. “What we’ve done in the past, I guess. I’d try to pin her down and get her to submit…” With a sassy smirk, she added, “…by any means necessary.”

“And Allie, if I left you alone with Brooke, is that what you’d do?”

I tried not to let my burning anger char my response. “Not exactly.”

Brooke raised an eyebrow, disappointed.

“I didn’t think so,” Hannah said, taking firm control of the conversation. “You see, Brooke, I’ve been around this wonderful force of nature here for much longer than you have and I’m pretty sure I know what she’d do. As soon as you got close enough, she would start by breaking your nose with her fist. She’d then continue pounding you until until you were unconscious and I had to call an ambulance.”

“Wha-” Brooke sputtered. She searched my face, but I cast my gaze down at the floor in shame. Hannah knew me far too well. It hurt me to hear that blunt truth from her mouth.

“Holy shit! You’re fucking serious! Allie, I thought… Holy shit.”

“Brooke, you-” I began, my ire rising quickly. Hannah cut me off.

“Brooke, honey, you are such a free spirit and I fear that you’ve assumed that Allie’s the same way.”

“…I went over the line, didn’t I?”

“You certainly did.” Irritation was creeping back into my voice. I practically spat those words.

Hannah came to the rescue. “Which is why I have had to devise something special: something that will satisfy your sense of adventure, Brooke, Allie’s desire for revenge, both of your need for competition, and… my own little curiosity.” She withdrew a small pack of cards from her pocket and started fanning them in her hands. “If you both would follow me, please.”

The three of us ascended the stairs and down the hall to Hannah’s room. The bed had been moved to the center of the floor, and stripped of everything but a cream-colored satin fitted sheet.

“The game,” Hannah declared after striding to the opposite side of the bed from us, “is Queen of the Mountain…”

Say what? I opened my mouth to object.

“…but the winner,” Hannah continued, leaning on the bed with both hands and making her breasts swell between her arms, “will be the one who outdoes everyone sexually.” Brooke’s jaw dropped but her lips grinned. “We will be following the moves here in this deck.” She showed us the backs of the cards, which were black with two red hearts linked together. “These cards contain various activities normally meant for a couple. I’ve removed the ones that can’t be done by the three of us simultaneously.”

“Hannah?”

“Yes, Allie.” I almost said something, but the look in her eyes calmed me right down. She continued, “We go until two of us give up. If someone pauses without dropping out, the other two count to ten. If that person doesn’t continue before the others reach ten, they’re out.”

“So, what are the stakes?” Brooke asked.

“Well obviously,” Hannah replied, “the winner becomes Queen. And the Queen gets to make a pronouncement… which her subjects must obey.” My immediate thought was what mischief Brooke could pull if she won. I studied her face to figure out what her plans were. Hannah noticed this and interrupted me. “Oh, and Allie dear, don’t think I’m going to go easy on you at all. You might not like what I have planned for when I win.”

“Ho ho,” Brooke chuckled. My mind reeled. Several horrible fates flashed through me like waking nightmares.

“Why would you do anything like that?” I said, slightly hurt.

“All you have to do, sweetheart, is conquer the two of us to prevent that from happening.”

In the moment, I was completely blind to the fact that I was being manipulated like a frickin’ puppet. Chalk it up to trusting people a bit too much, I guess. Hannah’s challenge hit its mark. My mouth tightened into a straight line.

Hannah nodded at my change in attitude. “First, shoes off. Everybody take a seat on your knees where one of the pillows are.” I picked a place near the foot of the bed with Brooke to my left. Hannah sat to my right nearest the end table, which she opened. She took some strips of black cloth out and an egg timer. “OK,” she said, shivering nervously and flipping over the first card, “Blindfold the person to your left.”

Now I was the one getting nervous. Eyesight is the one sense I rely on most. My hands were shaking slightly as I picked up a piece of cloth. The three of us scooted to the center so that we each could reach our intended targets. Hannah covered my eyes before I’d gotten the blindfold over Brooke’s head. As it turned out, the black material didn’t completely block out everything. I could see two blobs that were Brooke and Hannah, but picking out details was nearly impossible.

“Next, join hands.” Hannah gave my right hand a squeeze. “Now caress the arm of the person to your right.” My fingers slid gently up Hannah’s smooth arm, and then back down. Brooke began by massaging my left hand between her thumb and fingers before working her way slowly up my arm. I shuddered as a warm sensation dribbled through my body.

Brooke whispered, “Feelin’ it already?”

“You just wait your turn,” I whispered back. The blindfolds were genius. They focused my senses on touch and sound. I could hear the other two breathing softly to either side of me. Our fingers traced up and down bare skin. The egg timer dinged. Two minutes had passed.

Taking her cue from us, Hannah lowered her voice and continued, “Massage the back of the person to your left.”

We had to get closer for this task. I put my left palm on Brooke’s upper back and slid it downwards. Reaching her belt, I slowly moved my hand in circles up her shirt, careful not to grind her bra strap into her skin. Hannah was clutching handfuls of my shirt and the flesh beneath it and releasing them before moving to another part of my back. When she got to my shoulders, I let out a moan to let her know I liked how that felt. Hannah started a low purr of her own. It took me a second to remember that it wasn’t my own hands that were eliciting that satisfaction. I stroked Brooke’s left shoulder blade and ran my hand up onto her shoulder. She leaned toward me as I massaged her with strong motions.

The egg timer dinged. Brooke whined, “Aw.”

“That was three minutes. These should be long enough feel good but not so long that they get boring. Next…” I heard her fumbling.

“Are you peeking?” I asked.

“Just to where I can read, then I’m putting it back on. Anyway, run your fingers through the hair of the person to your right.”

I went to lean to the right, but found that we were so close together I didn’t need to. I knew the scent of Hannah’s shampoo well. The smell wafted through the air as my fingers started at the base of her neck and invaded her roots before combing her hair when they drew back out. Brooke’s nails tickled the top of my scalp before brushing through my hair. “How does hair this thick stay so straight?” she complained.

Hannah laughed quietly. I began petting her like I loved to do after we’d had sex. My fingers traced the edges of her earlobes before diving in fully into that beautiful, straight mane. A wonderful tingling sensation trickled down my spine as Brooke firmly massaged the top and back of my head. We three were really getting into this. Each task ramped up the pleasure building in our bodies.

The timer signaled an end of our enjoyable caressing. I was fully committed to the contest now no matter where it was headed. “Remove the top of the person to your left.”

I lifted the hem of Brooke’s shirt, tickling her sides. She swiveled a little, then raised her hands over her head. I eased the front of her top in front of her boobs and slid it the rest of the way off.

“Allie taking the instructions literally,” Brooke said.

“Huh?”

Hannah showed me the error of my ways. Her motions were languid, her touch sensuous. She used my shirt as a weapon of erotic stimulation, teasing it gradually up my stomach before crawling up over my large breasts. It bunched up in back and paused there while Brooke pulled Hannah’s polo over her head and she drew her right arm out of the sleeve. Finally, Hannah’s fingers grabbed the front of my shirt. Her palm smoothly ran up my cleavage and completed the removal.

I exhaled, not realizing that I had held my breath. “I get it now.”

“Good. Something a little different now. Caress the breasts to either side of you.”

There was a bit of fumbling as we figured out how our arms were going to go. Once that was settled, I was treated to the luxurious feeling of hands fondling my boobs through the tantalizingly thin material of my bra, and at the same time running my thumbs around two erect nipples to my left and right. All of us wore some sort of satiny fabric. I discovered then that its lack of support was more than made up for by the way it teased my supple skin when someone rubbed against it.

The three of us were breathing audibly now. I drew in a sharp breath as Brooke bent my stiff nipple several times in rapid succession by rippling her fingers over it. “Sounds like someone’s getting a bit excited,” she whispered.

“I feel you pulling away when I’m barely touching you. Hannah and I are too much for you, aren’t we?

Hannah chuckled once. “I’m going to wipe both of you out if you two are aroused already.” She emitted a ticklish “Hnngh!” as Brooke and I fondled her breasts with renewed vigor, tugging and squeezing her supple flesh.

A few more minutes passed. We were all breathing heavily. The air filled with the sound of silky material swishing against our sensitive boobs. I discovered that I was biting one corner of my lip in an effort to stay in control.

Brooke exhaled strongly when the timer was up. Hannah moaned a little as her breasts stopped being touched. She nuzzled my shoulder once, then sat upright.

“Pull the two bra straps closest to you down and uncover both of your neighbor’s boobs.”

I knew to start slowly. Instead of tugging toward me immediately, I slithered my fingers underneath Brooke’s and Hannah’s bra straps and caressed their shoulders. I massaged the skin underneath down onto their backs and reversed all the way to the tops of their breasts. Hannah slid my right strap off my shoulder and pawed at my bare skin. Brooke paused for a while, lost in the moment, before dragging my left strap down my arm. I pulled their straps down and drew lines along their arms with my nails all the way to their hands.

Working together as if by telepathy, we took turns cooperating in pairs to free the third’s soft mounds. One by one each of us gained a belt on our waist and felt the cool air from the window fan blowing over our naked torsos.

Hannah wound the timer. “Press and rub your breasts together,” she said in a hushed voice. I leaned forward on my knees. Through the blindfold, I saw the two shadows on either side of me join into one.

Our tits met in a crush in the area between us. Mine ballooned up and to the side. I felt Hannah’s supple left orb compress against my right-hand one. To my left, Brooke’s firm nipple poked into me, but I could tell her boobs were getting forced together by the combined pressure coming from Hannah and me. Our heads were so close now. I could hear every little grunt my two opponents made. I wanted badly to pull Hannah’s lips to mine and devour her.

Undulating at first chaotically, but then more tactically, we bumped and slid our warm boobs against each other. I don’t know what it was about this sensual dance that almost drove me crazy, but this slow buildup had me boiling with passion. Something powerful in me wanted to skip right to vigorous fucking right then and there. Closing my eyes, I swam in the glorious sensations cascading across my breasts.

Up and down, side to side, pushing this way and then that, our boobs smacked and mushroomed again and again. I threw my arms around Hannah and Brooke and pulled us into a tight embrace. Mashed into a single cluster, our feminine flesh ached. Our overstimulated nipples made us whimper with pleasure. We were hot, our chests were beginning to sweat, and my pussy was tingling with wetness.

The timer dinged, but over a dozen seconds went by before we loosened our mutual hug and sat back on our heels.

“Ohhhhh….” Hannah moaned.

“Please,” Brooke begged, “next thing. Now.” Took the words right out of my mouth.

“Remove everything from the person to your left but their underwear.”

I yanked at Brooke’s shorts once I found them after sliding my hands blindly around her naked torso. She must have focused on undressing Hannah because my clothes came off last. There wasn’t much subtlety to our fumbling at that point. We were after speed.

“On hands and knees facing the rear end of the person to your right, use your fingers to touch any part of their underwear.”

We got into position, forming a triangle. My ass clenched involuntarily when Brooke took two big handfuls of my butt cheeks. I clawed at Hannah’s ass through her panties but it wasn’t long before I reached for what I really desired. Hannah moaned so damn sweetly as my fingers slid between her thighs, pressing the soft, thin satin into the hot folds of her vagina. I did it again and again, eliciting even more erotic noises from my girlfriend’s lips.

I wasn’t paying attention to what Brooke was doing to me until she ran her thumb’s knuckle roughly across my labia. With a sudden jolt, I brought my legs together, grasping Brooke’s hand with my thighs and groaning at the edge of ecstasy. Brooke still had a finger she could wiggle and it stroked my pubic mound. I sped up my assault on Hannah’s wet crotch. I gritted my teeth, desperate to hang on and not lose control.

Brooke shouted first. Whatever Hannah was doing finally got to her. I felt Brooke stop groping me. Better able to concentrate, I rubbed my fingers side to side across Hannah’s cleft. Soon, she was moaning hard. Despite my best efforts, she didn’t reach orgasm before Brooke’s attack on my groin brought on a shuddering climax.

“Unh, fuck…” I panted. Brooke was back at it in a flash, giving my pussy no rest. “How… long… does this… go?”

“It’s…” Hannah started, but my knuckles were grinding into her as far as her panties would let them. “Ahh! Yes, Allie, yes! Six… minutesnnnngghhhh!”. I felt her collapse a little as an orgasm rocked her body. “Ohhhhh…” she groaned full-throatedly.

Brooke laughed, and began patting out a quick rhythm on the spot just above my clitoris. My strategy was all wrong, I realized. If I distracted the person I was pleasuring, then they would slack off on the person who was attacking me. This game was more devious than I had first thought. Slow and steady. That was the ticket.

Fast and powerful. That described the second climax that Brooke drove me to. It came out of nowhere, too. One moment, I was massaging Hannah’s marvelous round ass, feeling her twinge as my fingers dove back between her thighs, listening to the sounds of her and Brooke’s grunting growing louder and higher, doing my best to ignore the rough touch of another woman’s hands running up and down my crotch. The next, I lurched forward, rubbing my cheek into Hannah’s lower back, and cried out exultantly.

The timer signaled the end of that round, much to my relief. Surprisingly, Hannah sounded the worst afterwards.

“Oh, shit…” she lamented, “And to think that those were the easy rounds.”

Brooke was exhaling audibly. “And I’m not gonna go lightly on you like Allie here was.”

“Bullcrap,” I retorted.

“Don’t worry,” Hannah said. “You’ll get your chance for revenge. Next up: remove the rest of your clothes and use your hands on any part of the person to your left. Ten minutes this time.”

On our knees, we leaned our nude bodies into one another. Each of us turned slightly to address the person next us. Hannah’s right hand fondled my breasts. Her left hand ran through my hair. Her lips kissed my shoulder. It took all I had to maintain concentration. I grabbed at Brooke’s firm tits and stroked her tight ass. She moaned as my fingers sought for her burning hot pussy.

We began swaying in unison, rubbing our nakedness together in an undulating dance. Hannah was probing my crotch, moving up and down between my legs. Wet smacking sounds mixed with rough panting in the air around us. Lost in lust and pressed into a single mass of female arousal, we finger fucked each other slowly, then faster and faster. Penetrating deeply, teasing our clits, slapping our quivering cunts again and again, the three of us spiraled into a whirlpool of sexual abandon. Breathing hard through my nose, I playfully bit at Brooke’s neck, tugging her flesh with my teeth. “Fuck, yes,” she groaned.

Hannah plunged into me once more. I shouted, feeling another climax coming. “Cum for me, Allie,” she demanded. “Do it! Cum for me!”

I nibbled Brooke’s earlobe, perhaps a bit harshly. She yelped, swallowed, and then growled as I worked her clit using a circular motion. “Too rough for you, bitch?” I whispered.

“I can take it,” she panted. “Which is more than I can say for Hannah, here.”

My girlfriend was making those high-pitched whimpers she makes when she’s really getting going. She paused just long enough to retort, “Do your worst.”

On and on we went at each other’s bodies, kissing, sucking, and clutching at bare skin, rubbing, grinding, and pleasuring our pussies.

“Nnngh.”

“Yeah?”

“Unff, fuck.”

“You ready?”

“Uh huh.”

“Gonna cum?”

“Yes!”

“Fuck me, you bitch!”

“Yes! Oh, yes!”

“Fuck!”

“I’m going to…”

“Oh, shit!”

“!!!”

We came hard simultaneously. With our left arms, we squeezed ourselves together so tightly. I felt both Brooke and Hannah’s climaxes rampage through their bodies for several seconds in concert with my own. Dazed, we paused for several moments. The timer sounded. Nobody moved.

“Holy crap,” Brooke whispered.

“That was…” I swallowed, unable to think clearly.

“… magical.” Hannah finished my sentence. None of us wanted to separate from the warm embrace we were in for over a minute.

“There’s more?” Brooke asked.

“Yes,” replied Hannah. “Just a sec.”

We all sat back on our heels. My heart was pounding.

“It’s okay if you want to drop out,” Brooke challenged.

“Speak for yourself, little girl.”

“I meant Hannah.”

“It’ll take a lot more than that to knock me out. You just wait and see if you last through the next round, missy.”

“Bring it on, skank.”

“Watch your mouth,” I warned.

“You watch yourself, Allie. I bet you’re the one I go after next.”

“Ahem,” Hannah interrupted. I heard the side table drawer open and felt some things drop in the space between us. “Use what’s in front of you on the person to your right.”

I touched something long, thin and hard. Oh my goodness.

“The bottle there in the center is for getting them lubed up.”

“Damn,” drawled Brooke.

“Get yourself ready, you hussy,” Hannah snarled at Brooke, and set the timer. I swear, my entire body jolted with excitement when she said that.

After preparing our toys, we settled onto our hands and knees in a triangle like before. Hannah smelled of sex, cloying and powerful. I was teasing her thighs tantalizingly with the head of my dildo when Brooke’s entered me full and deep. I whooped in surprise. Brooke groaned seconds later, a victim of Hannah’s attack. This was unfamiliar territory for me, but I soon found a good rhythm, pumping in and out of Hannah. She sympathetically pushed back slightly against each of my thrusts and soon the side of my hand was clapping against her moist womanhood.

Whatever Hannah was doing to Brooke must have been really effective. Brooke wasn’t screwing my nearly as hard as her breathing was going. Soon, she was moaning, desperately trying to hold back the passion building in her. I fucked in and out of Hannah’s pussy faster and faster, driven on by the increasing tone of her shouts.

“Yes!” bellowed Hannah.

“Right there!” howled Brooke.

They both came in short, exultant bursts. ‘This is it,’ I thought, ‘They’re both reaching their limit. I’m going to win this.’ As if on a signal, we all slowed down. The timer dinged. ‘Crap.’

Catching her breath, Hannah asked, “Anyone done now?”

“No,” I said.

“Fuck no.”

“Alright, you asked for it.” A few more things hit the mattress. “These are for the person to your left.”

“Oh my freakin’ goodness.” I exclaimed, feeling it for the first time. It was another dildo. This time much thicker, and covered in bumps.

“Jeez.” said Brooke.

“I know. If my parents only knew the things I spend my college money on.” Hannah laughed. “Anyone want to drop out NOW?”

There was a slight pause. “No,” I said with authority. I was going to knock Brooke out. I could feel it coming.

“Oh I’m in, you kinky lady.”

“Just remember to bow to me properly when I become queen.”

I laughed as we aimed ourselves in a circle clockwise this time. “You have to beat me first.”

“All in good time, Allie.” She wound the timer.

I wasn’t quite prepared for the sensations that hit me when Hannah penetrated me with that thing. It didn’t leave a single part of my vagina unmolested. I worked the one I held into Brooke slowly, rotating it as I went.

“Whoo!” she let out nervously. “I was with a guy once… rugby player… real well hung… but not like this.”

I wanted to reply but I was being screwed so completely and so thoroughly I found it hard to breathe properly. I forced myself to continue ramming Brooke, feeling her gyrate and gasp in response. Four minutes later, I couldn’t take it any more. I let go and hugged Brooke’s leg as Hannah brought me to a thundering climax.

“Allie’s had it,” Brooke announced.

“No, no I’m not.” I shook dizziness out of my head and rejoined the lewd melee. At first, we didn’t have to pump that fast to get a reaction out of each other. After a while, everybody had grown used to the feeling of being stuffed with those oversized phalluses and we began to crave speed. During that time, Hannah cried out once, and dug her nails into my ass. I knew I was close to making Brooke cum. Her lower body was practically impaling itself on the dildo in my hand. It took great concentration to keep a solid grip on it with Hannah behind me fucking me good and hard.

Brooke was groaning, “Shit! Oh, shit…!”

“C’mon, you bitch!” I panted. Brooke was whimpering a high-pitched squeal I’d never heard from her before as I kept fucking her good and hard. I began to feel light-headed but forced myself to concentrate. Any second now and she’d orgasm, and I didn’t plan on letting her rest.

The timer went off.

“Unnngh,” Brooke moaned in relief.

“Fucking hell!”

“Maybe next time.”

“There’s more?” I wondered with a bit of a whine as Hannah’s retreating dildo left my dripping pussy feeling abandoned.

“Unless you’ve had enough,” Hannah reminded me.

“Nope.” It was only partially true.

Hannah fumbled in the drawer. “Something a little smaller this time. But just as bad.” Into my palm, Hannah put a small egg-shaped object.

“Oh, wow. These are demons,” Brooke said.

“And you’re on the receiving end, Miss Pound-Me-Like-Jackhammer.”

“How does it turn on… oh, I see.”

The timer started ticking. Through my darkened vision, I watched the other two draw upright and get close to me on their knees. The buzzing sounds our vibrators made filled the room. We embraced gently, our warm skin gliding and brushing. I walked my vibrator in a circle around Hannah’s labia and felt her inhale sharply. Brooke was much less indirect. She stroked hers down my stomach and didn’t stop until it parted the folds of my vagina. From there she moved it upwards until it sat next to my aching clit. I moaned uncontrollably and kissed Hannah’s shoulder and upper arm passionately. The pleasure I experienced was much more intense than I was prepared for.

It was probably only a minute in when I hit orgasm for the I-don’t-know-how-many times that day. This one went on long, making me buck violently over and over against Hannah’s naked body. I rested my hand on her back to steady myself. Brooke didn’t ease up. She fumbled around but found my pussy again with her buzzing toy. Soon, I was shouting another screaming climax. Unable to keep myself upright, I collapsed onto the bed and protected my overstimulated groin with my hands.

“You okay there?” Hannah asked.

“Hey, no fair defending yourself,” chided Brooke.

“Please, please… just…”

“One,” Brooke announced. Hannah joined her on “Two.” They kept counting. I sat back up at “Eight”. The thought of facing more was too much. I paused.

It was only when they reached “Ten” that it dawned on me that I’d just lost. I suddenly wanted to turn back time and reverse my decision, but it was too late. Brooke and Hannah were quiet for a moment. Their vibrators still hummed.

“Down to us two now, I guess,” said Brooke.

“Not for long,” Hannah said confidently.

Wading together, the shadowy figures rested their heads on each other’s shoulders and thrust their hands between their opponent’s thighs. Hannah chirped as Brooke found a sensitive target. I wanted so badly for my girlfriend to win now. I took heart from the way Brooke was grinding her tits into Hannah’s vigorously, She must be getting close to losing it. Their bodies squirmed and danced in an erotic ballet, their hands attacking each other’s pussies relentlessly.

“Hmmm. Nnngh. Fuck you,” Brooke panted.

“Yes, yes, you horny slut.”

“Gonna cum, huh? Give it up, you pampered, prissy…!”

“Do it. Do it, you bitch!”

The timer went off. Neither girl stopped their assault for a few seconds afterwards, frustrated with their inability to knock the other out. They shut their vibrators off. Brooke dropped hers to the bed and wrapped Hannah in a tight embrace. I pulled my blindfold off and saw them engaged in a torrid kiss. I scrambled up to rip Brooke off my girlfriend. As I neared, Hannah stuck out an arm and held me at bay. I tumbled back to the sheet, stunned. ‘What?” I thought. ‘No…’

When the kiss ended, Hannah collected herself. With surprising violence she shoved Brooke backwards, sending her splayed out towards the headboard of the bed. Before Brooke could react, Hannah plunged her lips between her foe’s legs. I took one crawling step toward the pair to pin Brooke, but halted when I saw the look that spread across the prone girl’s face. Hannah’s plan became clear to me. I had nothing to worry about. Several moments later, Brooke’s head tilted backward. Her fingers dug into Hannah’s blonde hair. I sat down. I knew exactly what was coming.

Brooke opened her mouth in a wide-open O and began exhaling in rough bursts. She closed her eyes and fought against Hannah’s sexually devilish tongue. One long minute later, Brooke began lifting her body up off the satin sheet. Soon she was arched from her feet to her head. Her breasts pointed straight up, capped by nipples engorged with desire. Hannah’s mouth had followed Brooke’s cunt to where it writhed in midair, never letting up its all-conquering assault.

Brooke tensed, shook her head and fell to the mattress, bouncing and shuddering in fevered ecstasy. Hannah pursued her, but Brooke grabbed fistfuls of hair and kept her away from her ravished pussy. They froze in that position for a second.

“What’s the matter?” Hannah’s voice teased. “I’m not done yet.”

“Oh, shit… No. No, please.” Brooke sagged in defeat. “Fuck… I’ve never… holy…”

“This is your last chance to beg for mercy. Speak now or I swear I won’t stop.”

“Yes… oh fuck… I give. No more.” Her nude, tanned body rocked back and forth on the bed. I ran my hand up Hannah’s naked ass. “What… in the world…?”

“Allie has a rather rude name for what I just did,” Hannah chuckled.

“She… does? Of course.” Brooke rolled her head over to look at me. “You… are the luckiest dyke on the planet. You know that?”

I laughed. “Oh, I know.”

Hannah sat up triumphantly. She regarded the two of us imperiously. “Bow now before your queen!”

I wanted to wrap her up in a great, giant hug and kiss her, but I inclined my head dutifully. Brooke lay against the headboard, too wiped out to do anything.

“From this day forward, there shall be no enmity between any of us. Also, Ms. Parker here is MY royal consort and mine alone. I trust that we’ve all enjoyed ourselves here together, but henceforth extracurricular activities will not be tolerated. I dislike doing this to you, Brooke, but I must insist.”

To my surprise, Brooke replied, “No problem.”

“She means it,” I warned.

“I got the message. Don’t worry. I got it a week ago, too.”

“Then what the heck was that you said into the camera? And what’s with getting Hannah to sneak behind my back? Were you trying to get us into arguing so bad it would destroy our relationship?”

Brooke shook her head. “Do you honestly think I want to break the two of you up? I’m not some dastardly villain, just a girl desperate for… for something thrilling to make me feel fully alive. I crave that so bad sometimes I can hardly think straight. I taunted you so that you’d put everything you had into it, figuring that it was the last time I’d have the chance. It was just acting.”

“You had me fooled,” I admitted.

Brooke smiled. “I’ve watched how you two are when you’re together. Personally, I think you’re perfect for each other. Monogamy’s not really my thing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize it when I see it so strongly.” She groaned as she sat herself up and addressed Hannah deferentially. “Queen Hannah, this knight has seen the error of her ways, and will now seek her fortunes in other lands.”

Hannah smiled regally. “You were a better sport than I originally gave you credit for. I apologize for misjudging you.”

“No sweat. Thank you so much for arranging this. Really. I’m going to remember it for a long, long time. How about you, Allie? You satisfied?”

“My body’s still delirious… but you don’t mean that, do you? Well, I didn’t become queen, but I have one right here. She rules my heart and has never steered me wrong. That’s all I need. Well, almost. She mentioned to me a few weeks ago that there’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu place here in town. I think I’m going to join it.”

“I can see you doing that. It’s not quite in line with what I’m looking for, though.”

Hannah said, “Brooke, I’m positive you’ll find the excitement you desire somewhere out there. You’re too driven not to. And if you feel like it, you’re still welcome to visit us.” Hannah put her hand on my knee. “In your own way, you’ve helped the two of us understand each other even better and grow closer together.”

“That’s very kind of you. Oh, speaking of closer together… One thing, if I may be so bold.”. Brooke shifted so that she could see both of us at once. “Something I’d like to insist upon.”

“Ah!” I spoke up in a tone of mock authority. “You didn’t win. You don’t get to make demands.”

“Silence!” Hannah thundered. “I am the queen in this castle. The royal ear will hear this petitioner’s plea.”

“A request, then,” Brooke said, suitably chastised. “As I will never have one myself, I ask that when you two get married, I can have some part in the ceremony.”

“Well, we’ve never really…” Hannah began, chuckling nervously. She stopped, noticing me looking at her, and not saying anything. And continuing not saying anything. She raised her hands to cover her mouth, and a shiver ran through her body. I peered deep into my beloved’s eyes, and knew what to do.

“Brooke, I think it’d be great if you could be our Maid of Honor.” Hannah’s eyes went wide. She shrieked like a little girl whose greatest birthday wish just came true and threw her arms around me. Her naked body was warm against mine as she crushed me with all her might.

“Really?” Brooke asked.

When Hannah loosened her embrace and let me breathe once more, I replied, “Yeah. I think you’d give one hell of an interesting speech.”

And I was right. She did.

Allison’s Afterword

Figure out my secret to staying on the path to happiness? I tried to give enough hints. You don’t listen to what people say. You don’t follow some gut instinct that might be nothing but a base impulse. Don’t get caught up in the wants that people have that get shaped by so many fleeting emotions and advertisements.

It’s behind the eyes of the people who care about you. That’s where I find what really matters. If you find a way to detect what other people’s true needs are, and give yourself generously out of an honest desire to satisfy those needs, you’ll never go wrong.

Take it from someone who’s charged into plenty of situations she wish she hadn’t: Love is what guides you to make the right choice.

The End

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