Roswell Fanatics

New Part






When they got home, Maria went straight upstairs, not even waiting for Michael. That was strange. They had the house to themselves, and she was practically running away from him. Michael followed her up the stairs at a distance and found her in her room, already unmaking her bed. He stood in the doorway, watching her, wondering what he should say. He knew the meeting with Josh and Tess hadn’t been good for her.

“Will you hand me that t-shirt?” she asked, pointing toward the large Metallica t-shirt she had been wearing to bed lately.

Michael reached down and picked up the shirt from the floor where it lay in a mass of other clothes Maria had thrown about. He threw it to her and watched as she went into her bathroom to change. That was strange, too. He was well aware that she liked to torture him by changing only feet away from him, sometimes inches, while he looked the other way.

While she was in the bathroom, Michael took off his shirt, and let it fall to the floor among the other clothes, some of which were his. He went to close the curtains on her window and noticed two people standing outside on the street below, looking up at him. Josh leaned against the car, smoking a cigarette, and Tess looked up at him and waved. They must have followed us home, he thought to himself. Fuck . . .

“What’re you lookin’ at?” Maria asked him, exiting the bathroom suddenly. Michael closed the curtains in a hurry and looked back at her. She was already getting in her bed, making herself comfortable.

“Nothing,” he replied. “I . . . nothing.” He kicked off his shoes and sat down on the floor by the side of the bed she was laying on. He reached out his hand and ran his fingers through her hair, wishing that he could get her to smile. She didn’t. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

She nodded her head. “I’m okay.”

“Look, I’m sorry about that whole thing with Tess and Josh,” he apologized. “I didn’t want you to be a part of it.”

“It’s not your fault,” she told him. “They just showed up, and yeah, I’m not gonna lie to you and say that seeing your friends didn’t freak me out, ‘cause it did.”

“They’re not my friends,” he reminded her.

“I know,” she said, “but they were.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know what they were. I don’t care, though. They don’t matter.”

“I know,” she repeated. “I know they don’t.”

He leaned forward and kissed her lips gently. She kissed him back for a short time and then pulled away. “I really, really don’t like them,” she murmured against his lips.

As soon as she was asleep, Michael stood up and went to look out the window again. Tess and Josh were still there. They looked like they wanted something, probably to talk to him again. Michael glanced back at Maria, safe and asleep in her bed, and then at Tess and Josh. He found his shirt and shoes and put them on, reluctantly leaving the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Looks like you’ve done pretty well for yourself,” Josh commented when Michael walked outside. “Nice house. Hot girl. What’s next? A diploma?”

“Hopefully,” Michael answered.

Josh grunted. “You know, I’ve never understood your desire to graduate. It’s all a bunch of bullshit.”

Michael shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Michael’s planning a future for himself,” Tess said. “You can tell. It’s disgusting.”

“Yeah, it is,” Josh agreed. “Goin’ through school, gettin’ a girlfriend . . .”

“A girlfriend who happens to be your stepsister,” Tess added. “That’s sick, man.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it.”

“There’s so much wrong with it,” Tess went on. “It’s not even really about the step-sibling thing, either. It’s about you. And her. You know you don’t deserve her, Michael. You know she’s too good for you.”

Michael tried to hide the way Tess’s words hit him. Yeah, he knew that. He had always known that.

“Yeah,” Josh added, “she’s this somebody, and you’re just a nobody. She’s way better than you. She’s better than me. I’ll admit it. She’s better than Tess.”

“Like hell she is,” Tess muttered.

“You’re not good enough for her,” Josh told him. “That’s why you should’ve just stayed with us in Roswell.”

“I don’t even remember Roswell anymore,” Michael said. It was true. Up until now when he saw Josh and Tess, Roswell hadn’t even been a part of his life.

“You don’t remember ‘cause all you see is her, Michael,” Tess said. “I don’t get it. You’ve gone all soft and romantic and shit. You’re actin’ like you love her and you haven’t even fucked her yet.”

“And that’s crazy,” Josh said. “You’ve been livin’ with her all this time and you haven’t even got your hand down her pants yet! I tell you, if that was me, I’d be makin’ the bitch scream right now.”

Unable to control himself any longer, Michael let his fist collide with Josh’s jaw. “It’s not you,” he said, “and do you know why? Maria would never be with anyone like you.”

“She’s with you, isn’t she?” Tess pointed out.

“I’m not like either of you,” Michael said. “As much as you wanna make me believe I am, I’m not. I never have been. I’m better than both of you combined, and she knows that. That’s why she’s with me and not you.” He hit Josh again, just for the fun of it. “And you may think you’re better than Maria,” he said to Tess, “but you’re not. You’re not even close. I could never care about you the way I care about her. I never have.”

A flash of sadness crossed Tess’s eyes, but it disappeared quickly.

“Leave us both alone and get outta town,” Michael told them. “I don’t wanna have anything to do with you.” He started to walk off, but Tess started talking again.

“You can come back to Roswell with us. We’re willing to give you a second chance,” she told him. “We shouldn’t, but we will. We’re cool like that, you know.”

“You’re idiots,” Michael said, not turning around to face them. “Both of you. Go back to Roswell without me. Go get high, Josh. Go fuck some guy, Tess. I don’t care. Just go.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria heard a car start and pull away, and she wondered to herself if Michael was in that car. She hadn’t been asleep when he got dressed and headed outside, undoubtedly to see Tess and Josh. She felt tears sting her eyes at the thought that he might have left.

Michael won’t leave, she thought. I know he won’t.

She felt relief wash over her when the door to her room opened again and he stepped inside, running his hands through his hair. He froze when he saw her looking at him. “Hey,” he said. “I didn’t know you were up.”

“Yeah, I never really went to sleep,” she told him, sitting up on her elbows.

“I just went outside,” he said. “I had to . . . they were out there.” He kicked his shoes off and started towards the bed, taking his shirt off as he went. Maria couldn’t even look at him. She kept her eyes locked on the intricate design of her comforter. “Did you talk to them?” she asked him as he got into the bed beside her.

“Yeah,” he replied, “and I punched Josh twice.”

Maria smiled at that.

Michael reached over and grabbed her hand, something he rarely did. He put his arm around her waist a lot. He ran his fingers through her hair. He barely ever held her hand.

“What did you guys talk about?” she asked.

“You and me. They told me I wasn’t good enough for you. I already knew that.”

“That’s not true.”

“No, it is,” he said. “I’ve always known it is.”

Maria shook her head but didn’t argue with him any more. She had a feeling she would never get him to believe her. “What else did you talk about?”

He let out a deep breath. “They want me to go back to Roswell with them.”

A bolt of fear rushed through Maria, fear of losing Michael. “Are you gonna go?” she choked out, struggling to keep her voice steady and calm.

“No,” he said. “Of course I’m not gonna go back. Why would I do that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, I just--”

“You thought I was leaving?” Michael asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know,” she said, still not meeting his eyes. “When you left, I knew you were gonna go talk to them, and--”

“And you thought I was never gonna come back?” He cut her off again.

“No,” she said. “Not really. I just . . . you can’t blame me for worrying.” She finally found the courage to look him in the eyes. “It took me forever to realize how I feel about you, and I was just so scared that I was gonna lose you right after I finally found you.”

“I can’t believe you thought I was gonna leave you,” he said. “It wasn’t even an option for me, Maria.”

She felt tears stinging her eyes. “You never even thought about it?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She smiled with relief. “Good,” she said, “‘cause I don’t know what I would do if you left me, Michael. Everyone else already has.”

He moved in closer to her, holding her hand tighter. “I’m never gonna leave you, Maria,” he said. “It’s just not gonna happen.”

She smiled again. “I know,” she said. “Having Tess and Josh come here, though . . . it was proof of that for me, even though I never really needed any.”

He opened his arms up for her, and she moved closer to him, curling up into his chest. “So romantic,” she murmured as he kissed the top of her head.

“Yeah,” he said, “imagine that.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“He’s not even the same person anymore!” Tess shouted at the top of her lungs as she threw her duffle bag in the trunk of the old, beat up car she and Josh drove. “It makes me so fuckin’ angry!”

“Hell, if I had a bitch like that . . .” Josh trailed off.

Tess narrowed her eyes at him. “Unbelievable!” she said, slamming the trunk. “You’re taking his side!”

“I’m not,” Josh assured her. “I’m just sayin’ . . . she had some damn fine legs. Damn fine everything.”

“I just can’t believe Michael would pick her over me!” Tess continued to shout angrily. She felt like slamming her hand through the car window. “She’s still a virgin!”

“Those are the best kind,” Josh said, still daydreaming about that freakin’ Maria girl. “God, I bet she’s tight as hell.”

“I hate her!” Tess screamed, getting in the car. “I hate him, too! God, I hate him so much!” She threw the keys at Josh. “Let’s just get outta here.”

“Might as well,” Josh said, sticking the keys in the ignition. “Michael’s a lost cause. There’s no point in staying here.”

They took off for Roswell.








TBC...

New Part





Maria was wearing a towel when he walked into the kitchen. A criminally short towel. Her skin and hair were wet, signs that she had just taken a shower. Thinking of Maria in the shower was always a good thing.

Michael sneaked up behind her and put his arms around her waist, holding her tight. He picked her up off of the ground and nuzzled her neck before setting her down again.

“Whoa, Michael!” she exclaimed. “Have you been working out?”

“It doesn’t take much to lift you,” he told her.

“Oh, no, I’m starting to pack on the pounds, Michael! Graduation’s only a few weeks away and I’m gonna be fat! It’s these cookies, Michael! They’re the problem! They keep calling to me! Don’t let me eat any cookies ever again!”

“Got it,” he said, still holding onto her tiny form. “If I see you goin’ for ‘em, I’ll just . . .” He trailed off and remembered that she was in the tiniest of towels. “Are you naked under there?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said. “Now seriously, Michael, don’t let me eat any more cookies or cake or Mexican food or anything!”

“No more Mexican food?” He took a step back, releasing her from her arms. “Shit, that kinda sucks, ‘cause I was thinking about taking you out for Mexican tonight.”

She spun around and pressed her hands against his chest, backing him up against the counter. “Shut up! You weren’t!”

“I was,” he said, “and maybe even one of those crappy romance movies.”

Her smile grew larger, and her eyes began to sparkle with delight.

“Yeah, I even got you some of those pink roses you like so much.”

She started jumping up and down excitedly. “Are you serious?” she squealed.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Is that so hard to believe?”

She nodded, laughing. “You’re not much of a date guy.”

“I’m the date guy,” he said, even though he knew he wasn’t.

“You haven’t ever been on a date,” she reminded him. “You told me once.”

He sighed. “Okay, yeah, but I wanna take you out tonight. Besides, what’re we gonna do around here? Season three isn’t out on DVD yet.”

She started laughing again. “Season three isn’t out on DVD yet,” she mimicked in her lamest voice. “God, we are such nerds, Michael!” She started inching her face closer to his when Jim came around the corner.

“Maria,” he said, “if you’ve eaten all those cookies again . . .”

They jumped apart quickly. “Uh, Dad,” Maria said, “when did you get home?”

“A while ago,” Jim answered, reaching into the cookie jar and taking out two of Maria’s precious snacks. “Where were you?”

“In the shower.”

“I can see that,” Jim said, looking over his daughter. “You shouldn’t walk around the house in a towel, Maria. It’s indecent.”

Michael opened his mouth to protest, but he quickly closed it before he said something he would regret.

“I’ll go get ready then,” Maria said, pushing past both men. She snuck a cookie as she went, and Michael didn’t say anything to stop her.

“Get ready for what?” Jim asked. “Are you going to another party?”

“Yep,” Maria lied, heading up the stairs. “Michael and I are both gonna go to another party tonight.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I can’t believe he died. I seriously thought he was gonna live and then, BOOM! He didn’t.” Maria wasn’t able to get over the movie they had gone to see.

“I knew he was goin’,” Michael said. “It was sorta obvious.”

“I guess, maybe,” Maria agreed, “but I was hoping he was gonna live.” She glanced at the clock and noticed for the first time how late it was. “I guess we stayed out for awhile,” she said.

“Yeah,” Michael said. “You tired?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. You wanna watch another movie?”

He took a step closer to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her near. “We could do that,” he said. “Or we could do something else.”

Maria had to admit that something else was sounding very tempting, but with her parents asleep down the hallway, she wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. “We could do both,” she said, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to do ‘something else’.

“Works for me.” He let go of her hand and sat down on the couch. “You pick out the movie. Not Shakespeare In Love or something like that, though.”

Maria went to the video closet and started searching through the movies stored there. Most of them were her father’s and didn’t interest her. When she couldn’t find the movie she wanted to watch, she gave a growl of frustration. “God, where the hell is The Little Mermaid?”

“I’m not watching that,” Michael said.

“It’s a classic romance movie,” she informed him.

“I’ve already watched enough romance movies for tonight.”

She turned and gave him a look. “Michael, if you wanna do ‘something else’, you might just wanna tough it out.”

This seemed to hit something in him. “Right. Where’s the mermaid?”

“Not in here,” Maria said. “Looks like we’ll be watching Bambi.”

Michael threw his hands up in the air and shook his head. “Oh no! I am not watching that deer movie! I draw the line there, Maria!”

She laughed. “I know. I was just joking. I’ll find something we both like.” She kept looking through the closet, but she didn’t see anything halfway interesting. Most everything in there nowadays was about Italy. Artwork in Italy. Shopping in Italy. Transportation in Italy.

She dug around to the back of the closet and then found something she hadn’t been expecting to see. “Hey, Michael, what is this?”

“What is what?”

“Come here and look,” she said.

He got up off the couch and joined her. “What’re you lookin’ at?”

“That,” she said, pointing to a movie.

“Body Heat,” he read aloud. “I bet that one’s an award winner.”

“Body Heat,” Maria echoed. “Oh, I get it, ‘cause she’s wearing a fire-person costume and he’s holding onto a hose and . . .” She trailed off, studying the cover closer. “That’s not a hose.”

“Yeah, that’s a porno,” Michael said. “Probably your dad’s.”

Maria suddenly felt sick to her stomach. “Oh, sick. I never knew my dad watched stuff like that. Or, OH! What if it’s not even his? What if it’s my mom’s?”

“What if they watch it together?”

“Oh my God!”

“What if they use it to get ideas?”

Maria placed her hands over her ears. “No more, please! No more!”

Michael took her hands in his and pulled them away from her head. “Alright, fine. What do you wanna watch?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I mean . . .” She took another look at the porno. “We could watch that.”

Michael grinned. “Are you serious?”

She nodded.

“‘Cause I will,” he said. “You know I will.”

“I know,” she said. “But I kinda feel weird, like . . .” She trailed off and gave in. “Oh, whatever. Let’s just watch it.” She reached back and grabbed Body Heat, unprepared for what she would see next.

Five minutes into the movie, the two characters were already starting to have sex. “Oh,” Maria said, unsure whether she should look at the screen or the floor. “That’s graphic.”

“You wanna turn it off?” Michael asked her.

“No,” she said, not wanting to seem childish. “I just . . . how is that possible?”

“It’s possible,” he said, and then quickly added, “Not that I would know.”

“It’s okay that you know, Michael,” she assured him. “It’s just . . . it’s just that I don’t know anything about any of that.” She wasn’t sure how to go about saying this, how to throw him a hint. “Maybe I should know someday. Someday soon.”

Michael didn’t even look at her. He just stared straight ahead at the television, but she could tell that he wasn’t really watching. He was thinking about what she had just said.

Maria glanced back to the movie and noticed that another girl had entered the picture now. “Maybe we better just turn it off,” she suggested.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria sat on her bed looking at a brochure on Hawaii. She couldn’t wait for her road trip with Michael over the summer, especially since they would have a lot of time alone together. She was planning on taking full advantage of that alone time. Full advantage.

She hadn’t been ready with Max. It hadn’t been right. Every time he had mentioned sex to her, it had made feel uncomfortable. Things were different with Michael. He never even began to pressure her into doing anything, though she was fairly certain that he wanted to. She wanted to, as well. She was ready now. She was ready with Michael.

“. . . I don’t know anything about any of that . . . Maybe I should know someday . . . soon . . .”

She knew Michael had understood what she was getting at, but he wasn’t acting on it. He didn’t say anything about it, and he didn’t do anything about it. Truthfully, it was understandable. Amy and Jim had been home almost every night that week, so they hadn’t had that much time alone. Maria was praying that they would leave sometime soon. She wasn’t going to be waiting much longer.

Maria momentarily forgot about the Hawaii brochure and headed downstairs. She almost ran into her mother in the hallway.

“You look nice,” Maria commented, noticing her mother’s new gold dress. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Planning on it,” Amy replied, fastening a gold bracelet around her wrist. “I don’t know if your father’s ever going to be ready, though. You wouldn’t think it would take him that long to do his hair.”

“I know,” Maria said. “You should see Michael do his hair. It takes him almost an hour sometimes. It’s ridiculous.”

“My hair’s ridiculous?” Michael came and stood beside her, his hand momentarily resting in the small of her back before he remembered that Amy was around.

“No, your hair’s creative,” she told him.

“Creative,” he echoed. “Is that a good thing?”

She smiled. “You have the best hair in Long Beach, Michael.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Does this look okay?” Amy asked, interrupting the hair discussion. She smoothed her dress down over her hips and adjusted her earrings. “Do I look okay?”

“You goin’ out?” Michael asked.

“She is going out,” Maria answered for her mother, looking Michael straight in the eye. “She and Dad are both going out, Michael.”

“Where you going?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Amy replied. “Some charity event out in L.A.”

“L.A.?” Maria echoed with interest. “You should be gone pretty long, then, shouldn’t you?”

Amy nodded. “Yeah, probably until sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh,” Maria said, looking at Michael again. “Tomorrow afternoon.”

“You two don’t mind staying alone, do you? I know Jim and I have been home a lot lately, but he really wants to go to this event tonight.”

“You guys should definitely go,” Maria told her mother. “You should definitely go and have a really good time. Stay out as long as you want. Michael and I don’t mind staying alone at all. We have no problem with staying alone.” She stressed the word ‘alone’ so that Michael would get it.

“Great,” Amy said. “I better keep getting ready, then. Uh, what time is it?”

Michael glanced at his watch. “5:00.”

Amy sighed dramatically and headed back into the bedroom. “Jim, we’re gonna be late! Hurry it up!”

When she was gone, Maria grabbed Michael’s hand and started pulling him up the stairs. He didn’t say anything. He just followed her.

She opened the door to his room and searched around for the car keys. She found them in a clutter of other things and held them out in front of them. He stared at them for a brief second and then held out his hand.

“Drive,” she told him, dropping them in his hand. He nodded in understanding, not needing any more instructions than that. He kissed her cheek quickly, and she watched him leave the room, knowing that he knew exactly where he needed to go.







TBC...

Part 33






Michael pulled up in front of the general store. He shut off the car but didn’t get out. He suddenly felt like he couldn’t move.

Don’t be stupid, he told himself, forcing his legs to move. The rest of his body followed, and he got out of the car, making his way through the parking lot slowly. He saw that his hands were shaking when he reached to open the door. What the hell was wrong with him?

He made his way through the store quickly, wanting to get out of there as soon as he could, but he froze in place when he got where he needed to be.

Going to get condoms was never particularly easy, but it usually wasn’t this difficult, either.

At least ten older people who were probably either grandparents or great-grandparents passed him as he stood there, unable to move. They all gave him funny looks and walked off muttering about the things kids did these days. One woman even came up to him and showed him her wedding band and asked him where his was.

“Fuck,” Michael whispered to himself. What was his problem? Why was he so nervous? It wasn’t like he had never had sex before. Why was this such a big deal?

He sighed and grabbed a box, hurrying to get away from there. He was well aware why this was such a big deal, and it could be summed up in one word, one name.

Maria.

Michael got up to the register and handed his purchase over. The elderly clerk noticed what he was buying and shook her head in disapproval, muttering something to herself about how sex used to be something significant.

This is significant, Michael thought to himself. That’s why it’s so terrifying.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Amy and Jim were pulling out of the driveway when he got home. He pulled in their place and checked the time. It was getting late now. He had taken the long way home due to his extreme nervousness.

Maria was upstairs in his bedroom, not hers. He tried the door, but it was locked. He could hear her singing some pop song, and he smiled, picturing her dancing around the room, probably bouncing on the bed, just waiting until . . .

He went into her bedroom and lay down on her bed, which was now more familiar to him than his own. He could already smell her on the pillows. He could already feel her in the blankets. He wanted her so badly, but the thought of what was to come was terrifying him more and more as each second passed.

He lay there until the clock hit 7:15, listening to Maria from across the hallway. She had moved onto some other one-hit wonder now, and she was undoubtedly still dancing around the room, still waiting . . .

I gotta do something, he thought, sitting up. I gotta make this romantic for her. She likes that kind of thing.

He went downstairs and searched through numerous closets until he found matches. He kicked off his shoes and threw his jacket over the couch quickly before he headed back up to her room. He found several candles laying about and lit them. Yeah, she would like that. But what else was he supposed to do? He saw movies where there was a trail of rose petals laid out, but that was beyond him. He could manage to be romantic to an extent, but not to the rose petal extent.

“Looks nice.”

Michael turned and saw Maria standing in the doorway. She looked beautiful. She always looked beautiful. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans and a small light blue shirt, both of which clung to her body in all the right places. On anyone else, the ensemble would have just been average, but on her, it was breathtaking.

Michael glanced down at his own clothes. He was wearing exactly what he had been wearing since he got up. His shirt had a coffee stain on it. Fuck, he thought. I should’ve changed.

“I didn’t know you were gonna light candles,” she said, placing her hands in her back pockets.

He looked around the room. “Yeah, I was gonna do more, but I’m . . . not sure what I’m supposed to do.”

She stepped into the room and reached out for the doorknob. “It’s great just like this.” She gently pushed the door closed, and Michael felt his nerves start in on him again when it clicked into place.

“I was gonna do more,” he repeated.

“I already told you, this is great. I don’t need any more.” She came up to him and put her arms around his neck, staring up into his eyes. “Besides, doing more things would take more time, and I’m not waiting any longer.”

He let out a shaky breath and placed his hands in the curve of her waist. His heart was pounding so loud, he was wondering if she could hear it. “Are you nervous?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “No. Are you?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head and letting out another nervous breath of air.

“Why? You’re not the one losing your virginity.”

“I know,” he said, gazing into her vibrant green eyes. “It’s just . . . this is the first time that I’ve done this that it actually means something to me.” Everything, he thought to himself quietly. Everything to me.

She leaned in and kissed him, gently urging his hesitant lips apart with her own. He felt his nervousness start to dissipate as they kissed and the familiar feeling of warmth returned to him. This always felt so right, like nothing he had ever felt before.

She took the initiative and deepened the kiss, and he couldn’t help but respond. He brushed one hand up the side of her body, cupping her cheek. With the other, he pulled her closer to him, wanting to feel her body pressed up against his.

Slowly, she pulled away and took his hands in hers. She led him over to the bed and sat down on the edge, leaving him standing before her. God, she’s so perfect, he thought as he stared down at her. What if I hurt her?

Slowly, he knelt down on the floor in front of her, still holding her hands. He wove his fingers through hers locking their hands together. He leaned forward and up and kissed her again, letting his tongue dart out to trace her lips. He was so absorbed in the sensation of kissing her that he almost jumped in surprise when she released her hand from his and reached down, beginning to undo the buttons to his shirt. He felt cool air hit his chest only to be replaced by her warm hands when she pushed his shirt away to the floor.

Michael pulled away from the kiss and reached his hand up, running it through her long, blonde curls. She grabbed his hand as it came to her shoulders and kissed the back of it. She trailed a line of kisses to his fingertips and then took his hand in hers, lowering it to the bottom of her shirt. She kept her eyes locked with his, silently encouraging him.

Hesitantly, still afraid that he would hurt her, he guided the shirt upward, revealing her smooth, flat stomach. He ran his hand over the creamy skin, circling his index finger around her bellybutton. She laughed a little when his touch started to tickle her.

He continued to let his worries fade away as more of her beautiful skin came into view. She lifted her arms above her head and allowed him to pull her shirt away. He felt like he couldn’t breathe when her breasts came into his sight, covered only by the thin fabric of her bra. He had seen her like this before in her bikini, but he felt like he was seeing her for the first time.

He ran his hands up and down her bare shoulders, afraid that she was getting cold. Eventually, he let his hands drift down the sides of her body so that he was holding her hips again. Slowly, he moved his fingers across the denim so that he could undo the button on her jeans. He glanced up at her to make sure she was okay and then continued, sliding the zipper down. She assisted him in removing the heavy denim, kicking it off of her legs into their growing pile of clothes on the floor. She sat before him, clad in almost nothing, and Michael noticed his jeans growing noticeably more uncomfortable.

She backed up on the bed, allowing him room to get on with her. He took her in his arms and set her in his lap, holding her back to his front. He moved her hair to one side and kissed the back of her neck, evoking a soft moan from her. He kissed his way down to her shoulder and then pulled away. He ran his hands over her skin, unsure what she wanted him to do. He brought his shaking hands up to the small strip of fabric wrapping around her back. He undid the clasp and moved the fabric aside slowly. He heard her gasp when the cool air hit her exposed breasts.

He dropped the material behind him and began to trace his hands up and down her bare back again. He moved his hands around to the front, and she arched up into his touch immediately when he cupped her breasts. He kneaded her flesh beneath his fingertips and flicked his thumbs over her hardening nipples, and she threw her head back against his shoulder as the sensations started to overwhelm her. He bent his head and kissed the skin of her neck, reluctantly putting an end to his touch. He moved her around so that she was facing him effortlessly and crushed his lips to hers. She pressed her body to his, moving her bare chest against his. Her nails dug almost painfully into his back, and he smiled against her lips at the thought that he would have little half-moon marks there in the morning.

She lay back on the bed. Her hair sprawled out beneath her, and a small smile crossed her face as he trailed his hand up her legs from her ankles to her thighs. She began to laugh again when his touch started to tickle her again. He smiled and bent down, pressing his lips to her stomach. He circled his tongue around her belly button and then moved up to her breasts. He took one mound into his mouth, kneading the other with one hand. He sucked gently on the flesh and ran his tongue over the nipple, eliciting a full-out groan from her. He continued to knead her other breast with his free hand, and soon her breath was coming in short, quick gasps.

Leaving her breasts, he sat up and gazed down at her, keeping his eyes locked with hers as he hooked his fingers into the sides of her panties. He gently slid them down her long legs and added them to the clothing pile on the floor.

She laid out before him, completely exposed . . . exposed only for him.

God, she was so beautiful.

He reached out his hand to touch her, and he was lost. Completely lost. Lost in her. He was so lost that he didn’t even notice that she had removed his jeans and boxers until she took his growing erection in her hand.

He was starting to drown in his senses. The sight of her reminded him that he was the luckiest guy in the world. The sound of her voice as she whispered his name stole his breath. The smell of her sweet skin intoxicated him to an extreme. The taste of her sent him spiraling out of whatever control he had left. The feel of her body fitted perfectly beneath his as he moved inside of her made him believe he was in some kind of heaven.

She was better than him in every way imaginable, yet she seemed to believe she was in some kind of heaven, too.








TBC...

Part 34







Amy tried to be pleasant as Jim introduced her to a group of people that were supposed to work on his movie in Italy with him, but her mind was somewhere else.

“Jim, can I talk to you?” she asked him when they were finally left alone.

“Sure, just let me introduce you to Robert, first. He’s going to play my nephew in the movie.” Jim started forward, but Amy grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Let’s talk now,” she suggested. “Look, you’ve probably noticed that something else is on my mind.”

Jim nodded. “You have been distant tonight.”

She sighed. “I was just thinking about Maria. She’s been acting so strange lately.”

“Maria always acts like that.”

Amy shook her head, not sure how she should go about explaining this. “I know she’s a teenager,” she said, “and I know she has mood swings, but lately she just seems so . . . happy.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“No. It’s just weird. I’m not used to seeing her like this all the time. I just wonder what’s going on in her life sometimes.”

“Well I don’t,” Jim said. “I have more important things to think about than Maria’s sudden happiness. Now let’s go see Robert.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She stirred and started to wake up. The first thing she noticed was that he had his arms around her. He always did. He always held her throughout the entire night, and when he woke up, his whole arm never failed to be completely numb. He always held her, though, despite the numbness. He said it didn’t matter.

Something felt different than it usually did, though, and it took her a short time to figure out what that was. It all came flooding back to her when she realized that she wasn’t wearing the grey t-shirt she usually wore to bed. She wasn’t wearing anything, and either was he.

Maria opened her eyes and saw Michael looking at her with a small smile on his face. He looked about as happy as she felt. “Hey,” she said sleepily. “How long have you been up?”

“Just a few minutes,” he replied. “I didn’t wanna wake you up, so I didn’t move. Actually I really didn’t wanna move at all.”

“I know,” she said, snuggling in closer to him. “I feel like I could stay in here all day.”

“I wish we could.”

She found his hands and entwined her fingers with her own. “What time is it?” she asked him.

He twisted around and looked at the clock on the bedside table. “Uh, 8:00.”

She couldn’t help but groan. “School.”

“Screw it,” he said, sinking back down into the bed. “We can miss a day.”

“I guess. But my parents--”

“–are gonna be home this afternoon,” he finished for her, cutting her off. “Probably after school’s over with.” He leaned in and kissed her, and Maria started to feel the familiar feeling of euphoria. Michael had one very talented mouth. And two very talented hands. And one very, very, very nice . . .

She stopped and censored herself before her thoughts started getting pornographic.

“Staying home sounds good,” she said when he broke the kiss. “Very good.”

He smiled reached up, running his hands through her hair.

“So about last night,” she started. “Are we supposed to talk about it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never . . . you know.”

She nodded. Yeah, she knew. He meant that sex had never meant something to him before. He had probably done countless things countless times with Tess, but she knew that last night had been just as much a first time for him as it had been for her.

“Well, I think we should talk,” she decided, “especially with me having been a virgin before this and all. I just . . .” She wasn’t sure how to go about this. “I feel really embarrassed asking this,” she said.

“You were amazing,” he answered before he even heard the question.

She smiled. “Really?”

He nodded. “Really.”

“You were, too,” she told him. “Obviously. I mean, Michael, that was way hotter than that porn movie downstairs.”

He chuckled and then leaned in to capture her mouth. She kissed him back and jerked away in surprise when she felt something pressing into her stomach. “Oh my God, Michael!” she exclaimed. “You never tire out, do you?”

He smirked. “Takes a lot to tire me out.”

She snaked her hand down the covers between their bodies and grabbed his hardened cock suddenly. “Give me five minutes,” she said, “and I’ll have you sawing logs.” She crashed her lips onto his again and kissed him while she began to handle him. Even though he was trying to maintain his control, she had him moaning her name between kisses in a few seconds.

“Maria . . . Shit, Maria . . .”

She was just starting to get into it when she heard something outside. It sounded like a car pulling into her driveway. “Did you hear that?” she asked Michael, pulling away immediately.

“Hear what?” he asked, his breath coming in ragged pants already.

Maria heard the sound of a car door shutting and sat up in the bed, stretching to see out the window. She saw the back end of the Mercedes Benz.

“Oh my God, Michael!” she exclaimed. “They’re home!” She pushed him away from her and accidently pushed him off the bed and onto the floor.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“Clothes!” she shouted urgently. “Find your clothes, Michael! Find my clothes!”

“Okay, okay,” he said, rifling through the clothes on the floor. He handed Maria his shirt to put on, and he found her panties and smiled.

“Michael!” she exclaimed, seizing the panties from him. She got dressed quickly and hurried him on just as Amy and Jim entered the house. “Hurry!” she shouted in a whisper.

He tugged on his jeans and grabbed the rest of his clothes, starting to the door. He stopped on his way, though, and ran back to her, pressing his lips to hers quickly. She kissed him back as long as she could and then pushed him away. “Go!” she told him. He shot through the door and had disappeared into his own bedroom in no time at all. Maria heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs, so she quickly laid back in her bed and pretended to be asleep.

“Maria!” Amy shouted when she passed her daughter’s bedroom, the door left open. “What are you still doing here?”

Maria pretended to be sleepy and just waking up. “What?” she asked. “Mom? What are you doing home?”

“The food didn’t agree with me last night,” Amy replied. “I wanted to come home early.”

“Oh,” Maria said, nodding in understanding. “I see.”

“Why aren’t you at school?” Amy asked. “It’s after 8:00.”

“Is it really?” Maria asked, pretending that she didn’t know. “Gosh, I guess I just didn’t hear my alarm or something.”

Amy peered across the hallway into Michael’s room. “Michael must not have, either. He’s still asleep.”

Maria struggled to hide her smile. “Yeah, he is.”

Amy gave her a strange look.

“I better just get ready for school then,” Maria said. “If it’s after 8:00, I’m running kinda late.”

Amy called into Michael’s room, and Maria laughed to herself as he tried to pretend that he was just waking up as well. He was definitely up already, especially a particular Y chromosome part of him.

Maria got out of bed and started into her bathroom. Her mother said something that stopped her just as her hand was on the doorknob.

“You look different.”

Maria spun around in surprise. “What? What do you mean I look different?”

“You look older,” Amy explained. “Did you grow up overnight?”

The honest answer wouldn’t go over well, so Maria continued the fine art of concealing. “Overnight?” she echoed with a slight laugh. “Yeah, right, Mom.” She hurried into the bathroom before her mother expanded on the topic any more.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They got to school just as second period was starting. Maria hurried in the classroom and tried to sit down unnoticed, but Mrs. Preston could always be counted upon to live up to the teachers-have-eyes-in-the-back-of-their-heads theory.

“Ms. DeLuca, late start this morning?”

“Sure,” Maria muttered slipping into a desk in the back of the room next to Isabel.

Isabel leaned over as Mrs. Preston started to write something on the board. “Uh, Maria,” Isabel said quietly, “I can kinda tell you got a late start. You mismatched your socks.”

Maria looked down at her feet and pulled up her jeans slightly. Isabel was right. She had mismatched her socks. God, the morning had gone so fast, she couldn’t even remember putting on socks.

“It’s like freshman year revisited, huh?”

“Sexual intercourse,” Mrs. Preston announced suddenly, bringing every single student in the class to a silence. “That’s what we’ll be discussing today.”

Oh God, Maria thought. She immediately felt like Mrs. Preston’s eyes were staring straight at her.

“Turn to page 350 in your textbook,” Mrs. Preston ordered. The class obediently started flipping through pages until they got to page 350. Maria’s mouth dropped open when she saw a picture of the . . . process.

She couldn’t help but flash back on the memory of Michael’s . . . endowment. He most definitely wasn’t lacking . . .

She started to smile just thinking about it, and when she snapped out of it, she found that almost everyone in the class was staring at her.

“Maria, do you wish to say something?” Mrs. Preston asked.

Maria shook her head forcefully. “No. No.” Everyone continued to stare at her. “Important stuff,” she said, pointing to the picture in the book. “Time to learn.”

That class couldn’t get over with fast enough. The whole time she was in there, Maria kept thinking about Michael and how she wished she was with him right at that moment.

“Nice socks,” somebody said as she passed them in the hallway. Maria ignored them and shook her head in disgust. God, some people were really idiots.

She was struggling to get her locker open again when she glanced up and noticed a long line of flyers hanging on the wall above her. Each one read ‘Take Back the Night.’

“So you’ve seen ‘em, too.” She turned around when she heard Michael’s voice, and she resisted the urge to throw her arms around him.

“The flyers?” she asked, motioning toward the wall behind her.

He nodded. “Yeah, they’re all over the place.”

“I know,” she said, “Oh, but don’t worry. I don’t wanna take back the night.”

He smiled. “Good to know.”

“You wanna know something else?” She started with her locker combination again, and pulled up on the lock, still unable to get it open. “I walked into my health class today and we were learning about sex.”

“You don’t need to learn anything more,” he said, stepping in to try her locker for her. “If you do--” He lowered his voice and pulled up hard on the locker, finally getting it open. “–I’m not gonna be able to keep up.”








TBC...

Part 35






Graduation couldn’t have come any sooner. The days before it seemed to go on forever, so when it was finally time to pick up the graduation robes and hats, most of the student body was ecstatic.

Maria wasn’t. She started complaining about the hats before she even saw them. “I’m gonna look stupid,” she told Michael as they stood in line to get the graduation attire. “I’m gonna have hat hair. I’m gonna look like a complete disaster.”

“That’s not possible,” Michael assured her, and he meant it. Maria managed to look incredible whenever and wherever.

She let out a frustrated sigh when she picked up the hat. “I think it’s too big,” she said.

Michael grabbed his and looked it over. “I think it’s supposed to be a one size fits all thing.” He tried to fit it over his hair, but it didn’t work out. “Doesn’t fit me.”

Maria breathed a sigh of relief. “Well at least I don’t have to wear this,” she handed Michael a black graduation robe. “It’s so gloomy. Too bad you have to wear it.” She held up a white robe to herself and smiled. “I’m definitely glad girls are wearing white. But I don’t like this color combination, though. Black and white. We’re gonna look like a herd of zebras or something.”

The girl had a strange mind and a different way of thinking about things. Michael loved that about her. He loved everything about her.

“I’m just gonna be happy when this is all done with,” Maria said. She quickly scribbled down her name and Michael’s name on a sheet of paper so that they could walk together at the ceremony and then got out of the way.

“Piece of crap,” Michael muttered as he made his way down the crowded hallway, still trying to fit his hat over his hair. Maria was right. Graduation was going to be a disaster.

“You gonna get a yearbook?” Maria asked him, pointing to the journalism room where they were selling yearbooks.

Michael shrugged. “I guess.” He took out his wallet and got out enough cash for two yearbooks, one for him and Maria both. When he got it, he started flipping straight to the senior class pictures to see what his had turned out like. He had been hoping to just skip out on pictures altogether like he usually did, but Maria had forced him to get his taken.

“That’s great,” Michael said when he found his picture. He looked so . . . angry. Probably because he was angry.

“What?” Maria leaned over and took a look at the picture. “It’s hot, Michael,” she said. “Anyway, look at how mine turned out.” She held the book open to her page and let him see. He couldn’t find anything wrong with the picture, probably because he couldn’t find anything wrong with Maria. “There’s a hair out of place,” she explained.

“Oh, yeah, that kills.”

“HELL YEAH!” Alex suddenly came bounding down the hallway with Isabel following him. “HELL YEAH, BABY!”

“What is up with you?” Maria asked him.

“Most likely to become a multi-millionaire!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in a sign of triumph. “That would be me!”

“Most likely to become a supermodel,” Isabel put in, gesturing to herself with slightly less enthusiasm. “That would be me.”

Michael flipped back to the pages where people were voted most likely to do this and most likely to do that. “I don’t see the big deal,” he said. “That’s just some stupid voting thing.”

“No, it’s not!” The volume in Alex’s voice rose. “It’s destiny, man! These things tend to come true! And if that’s the case, then I am gonna be one very happy man!”

“And you’re gonna be famous,” Isabel told Maria.

“What?”

“Most likely to become a celebrity,” Isabel explained.

Maria rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Whatever.”

“Whatever?” Isabel echoed, not understanding. “I thought it was pretty cool, Maria. I mean, you could’ve been voted most likely to live in the sewers or something.”

“No, that would be me,” Michael piped up in an attempt to make Maria feel better. He could see that she wasn’t happy at all about the celebrity thing.

“Well, I don’t wanna be a celebrity, and I’m not gonna be a celebrity,” she told them. “You know, no offense you guys, but this whole ‘most likely’ thing is really stupid. Not everybody even gets to be on there. Like you, Michael. You should be on there for something.”

“I am.”

She gave him a confused look. “Wait a minute, the living in the sewers thing was a joke, right?”

“Most likely to end up in prison,” he told her. “That’s great, huh?”

“Like I said, it’s stupid,” she said. “Everything in this school is so stupid. I’m gonna be so glad to get outta here.”

“Me, too,” Michael agreed. “You wanna get outta here right now?”

“I do,” Maria said, closing her yearbook.

“Actually,” Isabel said, “I was kinda hoping you might drop by my place for a few minutes. I just need you to try on the dress. I mean, it should fit fine, so I don’t think it’ll take too long. If you don’t mind . . .”

“Oh, yeah,” Maria said. “I can do that.”

“Great,” Isabel said. “You can just ride home with us, then.”

Maria looked at Michael, disappointment all over her features. They had been planning to take a short detour on the way home so that they could go someplace secluded where no one would find them. “I guess I’ll see you at home, then,” she told Michael. He nodded in agreement, equally as disappointed as she was, and watched her leave with Isabel and Alex.

Michael ran into Mr. Sommers on his way out to the parking lot. Great, he thought. It’s always nice to run into your least favorite teacher on one of the last days of school.

“Michael Guerin,” Mr. Sommers started, “I do believe that it’s the end of days here at Hamilton for you, isn’t it?” He didn’t give Michael a chance to say anything. “Now, as I understand it, those who graduate have completed all of their assignments and turned in all of their essays already. You have not.”

“Your point?” Michael asked, already not liking where this was heading.

Mr. Sommers handed him a list full of assignments that needed to be done and essays that needed to be written. Michael’s felt like his head was spinning when he saw the list. He was aware that he had slacked off on a few things, but he wasn’t aware that he had left so much undone.

“You get all of these things to me by tomorrow,” Mr. Sommers told him, “or I’ll see to it that you don’t graduate.”

“There’s no way,” Michael said. “There’s no way that I can do all this.”

Mr. Sommers almost smiled. He looked completely pleased with himself. “Well then, I guess you’ll still be going to high school when you’re twenty.” He walked away, leaving Michael with a tremendous list of things to do and barely any time to do them in.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michael was feeling understandably upset when he got home. He put the long list away in his back pocket, but he still knew that it was there, and he still knew that graduation might not be. It bothered him. It bothered him that he might not get out of high school yet, that he might have crap jobs for the rest of his life, minimum wage stuff. It bothered him that everyone around him was succeeding and he was still failing.

Maria was graduating. Not with flying colors and straight a’s or anything like that, but she was graduating. Even Max was graduating. Even Max Evans managed to make it through high school.

Amy and Jim were cuddling on the couch when Michael got home. It was kind of sickening. Amy was his mother, and even though he had never come to thinking of her as his mother, the way she was when she was around Jim disgusted both him and Maria. It was like she lost all ability to think for herself, and she made Michael feel nauseous.

“Maria’s gonna be home later,” Michael announced, unsure if Amy and Jim had even heard him. “She went over to Isabel’s to try on a dress.”

“That’s nice,” Amy said, playing with Jim’s earlobe. Michael turned away to keep from vomiting. He was starting up the stairs when Amy called him back down. “Oh, Michael, wait!” she said. “I have a dress waiting at the dry cleaner’s. Could you go pick it up for me?”

“I kinda got a lot of stuff to do,” Michael told her, remembering the list in his back pocket.

“Please,” Amy begged. “I’m a little busy.”

Michael sighed and headed back down the stairs. “Yeah, I can see that.” He walked back to the front door past Amy and Jim and headed back out to the car. Amy didn’t show any sort of gratitude.

After Michael went and picked up Amy’s stupid dress, he wanted to get a start on the endless list of endless assignments he had to have completed by the next day. He threw Amy’s dress in her lap and started for the stairs again.

“Michael, would you go pick up this prescription from the pharmacy for me?” Jim asked, handing Michael a slip of paper.

“I really have stuff to do,” Michael repeated, stressing the importance.

Jim didn’t even beg. He gave Michael a hard, cold look, and Michael knew his assignments would have to wait. He hated letting Jim tell him what to do, but he was living in the guy’s house. He didn’t exactly have a choice.

“Fine,” Michael muttered, taking the slip of paper. He put it in his back pocket along with the list and headed back out for the car again. He went out to the pharmacy and had to wait half an hour for Jim’s stupid medicine. He checked his watch when he got home and saw that it was already going on 6:00.

“Here you go,” he told Jim, tossing him a tiny bottle of pills.

“If you feel like going out to get some food . . .” Amy started.

“Call for pizza,” Michael told her. “I’m not goin’ anywhere else tonight.”

He collapsed on his bed when he got up into his room. He wished Maria was home, but she didn’t seem to be. Being with her made everything easier.

He thought about getting up and going into her bedroom, but he wasn’t sure that he could move. He already felt exhausted, and he still had an incredibly daunting task that lay before him: Graduating.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Dress doesn’t fit,” Maria announced the moment she stepped foot inside the house. She didn’t care who was listening. She just wanted to spew. “I swear to God, people always measure me wrong. I told the lady that I don’t care if it’s tight, that I actually prefer it, and now I’ve got this huge, huge dress that I’m somehow gonna have to fit into and hope I don’t fall out of. It’s a disaster.”

“That’s great, honey,” Amy said. She was sitting on the couch in Jim’s lap. She didn’t so much as glance at Maria.

“Are you even listening to me?” Maria asked her mother.

“Of course I am,” Amy said, but it was obvious that she wasn’t.

Maria shook her head and looked at the clock. It was already 6:30. “Great,” she said. “Isabel said that wasn’t gonna take too long, but my whole afternoon is pretty much shot now.”

“You had plans for this afternoon?” Amy asked, only semi-interested.

“No,” Maria lied, “but if I did, I wouldn’t have them anymore.” She had been planning on spending time with Michael. It had been about week since their relationship had . . . advanced . . . significantly, and she was already missing him. Time together was limited. Her parents were home a lot more, lately, it seemed, due to the fact that there weren’t many parties going on, and it was hard to find time to even kiss Michael for fear that they would be caught.

Maria went upstairs into her bedroom, surprised to find that Michael wasn’t waiting for her. He told her that her bedroom was one of his favorite places in the world to be, and it had become as familiar to him as his own, if not more. She got out of her uncomfortable jeans and tight shirt and pulled Michael’s t-shirt over her head. His t-shirt was her favorite thing to wear, and she had been wearing it quite a lot, lately. Even though it was huge on her and almost went down to her knees, she knew it drove him crazy to see her wearing his clothes.

She didn’t knock on his door. She didn’t need to. She walked right inside and found him lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he replied in return. He smiled slightly when he saw her, but she could tell that something was wrong.

“Are you okay?” she asked him, closing the door behind her. “You seem a little upset.”

“I am upset.”

“Why?” She sat down on the side of the bed and ran her hand across his stomach, feeling his abdominal muscles beneath her fingertips.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded up sheet of paper. “This,” he said, handing it to her. She opened it and took a look at a long list of what appeared to be history assignments. “I have to get all this stuff done tomorrow,” he told her, “or I might not graduate.”

It was a lot of assignments. Not just one or two. Probably closer to fifteen.

“Fuckin’ Sommers,” he muttered angrily. “I wanted to shove his balls up into his throat.”

Maria smiled. “Yeah, he is a real jerk.” Michael wasn’t the only one who had that urge.

“I don’t know how I’m gonna get this all done.”

Maria reached up and grabbed the phone from beside the bed. “Relax,” she told him. “I got it covered.” She dialed Alex’s number and waited for him to pick up.

But he didn’t. She let it ring at least ten times and he didn’t pick up the phone. “I don’t think Alex is home,” she told Michael sadly, setting the phone back down. “He said something about going out with Isabel.”

Michael sighed. “Great. I’m really screwed now.”

“No, you’re not,” she told him. “I’ll help you with it, even though I’m not much help. You know what, Michael? We’re gonna get this done. This just calls for a lot of plagiarizing, cramming, and staying up late.” She took the fabric of Michael’s shirt in her fingers and started pulling up on it, exposing some of his stomach. “And it also calls for one nice, relaxing massage.”

“A massage,” he echoed, sitting up to assist her in removing his shirt. “I can handle that.”

She dropped his shirt to the floor and motioned for him to turn over so that he was laying on his stomach. She sat on top of him, straddling his body, and she began to run her hands down his back, starting all the way up at his shoulders and traveling all the way down to his jeans. She repeated the maneuver up his back and then started relaxing the tense muscles in his shoulders. She heard him groan when she bent down and pressed her lips to his back softly. She smiled against his skin, loving the way such a simple gesture had such a huge effect on Michael.

When she was done, he turned over and smiled. “You give good massages.” Before she could comprehend what he was doing, she felt his hand gliding up her leg and under the t-shirt. Her panties were instantly pushed aside, and he immediately inserted one finger inside of her tight passage. She gasped, throwing her head back and sinking down on top of him. “So do you,” she said, struggling to stay quiet as a second finger joined his first.

He reached up and tangled his free hand in her hair and kissed her deeply. She let her entire body fall on top of his as his fingers fought for sufficient space inside her body and his tongue fought for dominance inside her mouth. She only pulled back from their kiss when oxygen was becoming an issue. “You’re so good at this,” she told him with a mischievous smile.

She began to quicken her movements as he quickened the movements of his fingers. “We really shouldn’t be doing this,” she breathed, barely able to speak. “They’re . . . they’re right downstairs.”

Michael didn’t seem to care. He didn’t pull away or slow down. He only became more aggressive. He slipped a third finger inside of her, and she could not stop a full out moan from escaping her lips. A loud moan.

“Michael, we have to stop,” she told him, reluctantly pulling away. He seemed to understand and slowly removed his fingers from her. “I don’t want to,” he said.

“I know,” she agreed, already missing the especially close contact. “But we are getting distracted, and there’s a lot of stuff to do.” She had almost forgotten about the long list of assignments waiting to be completed.








TBC...

Ooh, this is a lengthy part!

Part 36






“Whether we’ve overcome obstacles or avoided them altogether, we all deserve to be here. We all deserve to get what we have worked years for: a diploma. A diploma signifies the end of our present and the start of our future, and I can assure you all, the students of the class of 2005 have very bright futures ahead of them.”

Maria yawned as the valedictorian went on and on and on with her speech. She was beginning to think that the girl would never stop. She wished that Alex would have gotten valedictorian. At least he might have been semi-interesting to listen to.

“God, this is so boring,” Maria said quietly. “Don’t you think Michael?” She turned her head and found him sleeping. His mouth was hanging open and his head was tilted back, and he looked as if he were about to slump to the side any minute. “Michael!” Maria said a little too loudly. She looked around, hoping no one had heard her. “Wake up,” she told him in a less audible tone. “I gotta have somebody to talk to.”

Michael didn’t wake up. When it was time to walk up on the stage to receive the diplomas, Maria had to pull him up and practically carry him up the stage. He only opened his eyes just as they said his name.

“Michael Anthony Guerin.”

Maria smiled as he received his diploma, thinking back to how hard he had worked. It hadn’t been easy, and Mr. Sommers most certainly hadn’t made it any easier. The list of assignments had taken a sleepless night to complete, but when he slammed it all down on Mr. Sommers’s desk, the deal was sealed. He was graduating.

“Maria Elizabeth DeLuca.”

The diploma was stupid. When Maria held it in her hands, she couldn’t believe that she had worked for what seemed like endless years for a tiny, flimsy piece of paper proclaiming her graduation. It was pointless. The whole graduation ceremony was pointless. She couldn’t wait until it was over.

“Congratulations to the graduating class of 2005!”

When it did finally get over, things weren’t much better. Her family found her in the hallway before she could try to sneak away. Her entire family.

Uncle Ben hugged her so tightly that she thought he was going to break her ribs. Aunt May pinched her cheeks like she was still three years old. Beth congratulated her quickly and started looking around for Michael. Amber handed her an Avril Lavigne watch and said it was her graduation gift.

Michael tried to get away, but he couldn’t escape. Beth, Amber, and Aunt May all paid more attention to him than they did to Maria. Beth tried to flirt and continued to tell Michael how ‘aesthetically pleasing’ he was. Amber asked him if he had converted to Avril yet. Aunt May played with his hair, and all Maria’s other female cousins, aunts, and other relation seemed immediately drawn to him.

“Is that your boyfriend?” everyone asked her as they always did.

“He’s, um . . .” Maria trailed off, hating that she couldn’t tell the truth. Michael was more of her boyfriend than any other guy had ever been, but people couldn’t know that. “He’s Michael.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Uh . . . Michael.”

They treated Michael like he was royalty, some kind of celebrity or something, and Maria could see why. He looked so cute in his graduation attire. She laughed at the thought. Michael would lose it if he knew she was putting him in the ‘cute’ category.

At first, she was okay with everyone hanging all over him. Her family was like that. New face, new obsession. That sort of thing. But when her cousin Amanda leaned in close to him and then slapped him on the ass, Maria felt the familiar feeling of jealousy rise up inside of her. She marched over there and squeezed in between Michael and Amanda, reclaiming her place at his side. She felt his fingers brush against hers and knew that he never had any intention of replacing her to begin with.

“You look older,” Aunt May told Maria when she had stopped obsessing over Michael’s hair. “All grown up.”

Maria tried to smile. “Funny,” she said. “Everyone’s been saying that.” She didn’t add that everyone had been saying that since the night she and Michael had taken things to another level. Was it that obvious? I should try to look younger, she thought. Not all grown up. That way I won’t give anyone anything to be suspicious about.

But trying to be not all grown up didn’t work. Everyone said she looked older since they had last saw her, even those who had just last saw her at Christmas time.

For at least a half an hour, Michael had to deal with the admirers, and Maria had to deal with the comments.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The entire family and a few friends headed back to the DeLuca house that night for a huge graduation celebration. Amy was busy in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and Jim was informing everyone that he would be going to Italy in a few short weeks. Maria was talking with a few of her cousins, and Michael was watching her from across the room. She looked so good. She was wearing a pink and yellow sun-dress. On anyone else, the outfit might not have intrigued him so much, but Maria managed to rock it like she did everything else.

When Michael started staring at Maria longingly instead of just watching her, he had to find something to distract himself. He started looking over the display table Jim had set up with protest. Most of the pictures were of Maria for obvious reasons, but there was one of them together on the night of the prom, the night that everything had changed.

She’s so perfect, Michael thought. Every curve and line, every dip and bend. He didn’t feel weird thinking these thoughts anymore. He was to the point where he didn’t care if he was giving up the cruel exterior personality he had exuded for years. Maria was more than worthy of the loving, caring kinds of thoughts.

I don’t deserve her. I really don’t.

“Nice pictures,” a man commented in a gruff voice. Michael turned to see that Maria’s Uncle Ben had joined him at the display table.

“Yeah,” Michael agreed, thinking to himself how especially nice the pictures of Maria dancing were.

“What’s this from?” Uncle Ben asked, pointing to the prom picture Michael had been looking at.

“The prom,” Michael replied.

“You like those dance things?”

“No, but Maria really wanted to go, but she didn’t want to go alone, so we went together.”

Uncle Ben seemed shocked. “What about her boyfriend? Dax?”

“Max,” Michael corrected, hatred filling him as he said the name. “It didn’t work out.”

“Doesn’t she have another boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?” Maria echoed, stepping up to the table beside her uncle. “Beth has a boyfriend?”

“Not Beth,” Uncle Ben said. “You. Who’s the lucky man nowadays, Maria?”

The way she looked at him and then glanced away quickly made Michael’s hands itch with desire. Yeah, he was the lucky man.

“It’s, uh . . . it’s sort of a complicated thing,” she replied, “that I don’t really wanna talk about right now.”

“Oh, tell me!” Ben was like a little gossiping schoolgirl.

She shook her head. “Sorry, Uncle Ben, but talking about my love life with my uncle isn’t exactly one of my favorite things to do.”

Michael couldn’t resist asking. “What are your favorite things to do?”

Maria blushed and looked at the ground, unable to meet her uncle’s eyes. “Okay,” she said, “I’m gonna head upstairs.”

Michael noticed the way she stressed the last word. “Yeah, me, too.” He practically flew up the stairs, and Maria followed him. She was already in his arms as they made their way down the hallway. He threw open to the door to his bedroom and almost carried her in with him, slamming the door behind him.

“We graduated!” she exclaimed excitedly. “We really, really graduated!”

“Well then we should celebrate.” He pulled her close to him, his face a mere inches away from her own.

“Definitely,” she agreed with a nod. She took the initiative, attacking his lips with her own. With surprising strength, she pushed him down onto his bed and fell on top of him, straddling his hips.

“So, Maria,” he said after finally pulling away, “tell me. What are your favorite things to do?”

She smiled mischievously. “You’re pretty much at the top of the list.” She crushed her lips to his again, and before he knew it, she was undoing the buttons of his shirt. He only realized that she had his shirt halfway off already when he felt her hands running down his chest, skin to skin. Going lower, she felt his hardened cock. “Ooh,” she said innocently, like she had just made some sort of discovery. “You’re on mountain time, aren’t you baby?”

She didn’t call him ‘baby’ very much, but he loved it when she did. Of course, he would never let her know that, but whenever she called him that, it made him feel like a wild, crazy animal, hungry for her.

He groaned loudly when she freed him from the confinements of his jeans. “I know we shouldn’t do this here, right now,” she said.

“They won’t even know,” he assured her. “There’s a party goin’ on downstairs, remember?”

She grinned suggestively again. “There’s a bigger party going on up here.” She took his cock in her hands. “Much bigger.”

All at once, there was a knock on the door. Maria shot up and almost fell off the back of the bed. Michael got up quickly and re-buttoned his jeans and shirt in a hurry. He went to the door and opened it up just slightly to see who it was. “Beth,” he said.

“Hey,” she said. “Is Maria in here?”

“Uh . . .” He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. He could lie, but Beth would probably figure it out. “Yeah, she’s . . .” He opened the door wider for Beth to see Maria sitting on his bed. She seemed to be trying to regain her composure, and Michael wondered if Beth could tell that something definitely wasn’t normal in this situation.

“Maria, your mom wants you to come back downstairs,” Beth told her. “Both of you probably. She wanted me to come and . . . What were you guys doing in here?” The suspicious cousin kept shifting her gaze back and forth from Maria to Michael and to the bed which had already become a disaster, even with little movement.

“What were we doing?” Maria echoed, still in question. She looked to Michael for an answer, but he had none. “We were . . . wrestling,” she finally answered. It was sort of close to the truth. “Yeah, see I have this, like, hidden passion for wrestling, and I’m thinking about getting into it, and Michael’s thinking about being my, uh . . . my coach.”

Michael had to keep from laughing. Maria came up with some ridiculous stories sometimes, and the amazing thing was that most people believed her.

“Wrestling?” Beth gaped. “That’s so weird, Maria.”

“Yeah, it is,” Maria agreed, “so I don’t want anyone to know about it, okay?”

Beth shrugged. “Whatever. Anyway, you better get back down or your mom’s gonna be pissed.” Beth headed back down the hallway, and Maria breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Michael shut the door and ran his hands through his hair. “That was a close call.”

“Very,” Maria agreed, “but it’s okay. She totally bought it.”

Michael gave her a skeptical look. “I guess.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just . . . you really are the worst liar in the world, Maria.”

“Oh, I am not!” she almost shouted, standing up from the bed. “Look, I didn’t see you jumping in with any explanation anytime soon, so I saved the day.” She walked towards him. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m a super hero, Mr. Guerin.”

Something about the way she said his name struck the desire within him. He grabbed her arms and pulled her close to him. “Call me that again and we’ll never make it out of this room.”

She smiled, satisfied and seductively. “What? You can’t handle the complete sexiness?”

“Oh I can handle it,” he said. “Let’s just face it, Maria. You can’t handle my many god-like qualities.”

“God-like, huh?” she said. “You know what, Michael? I think I handle every single inch of you very . . . effectively. Don’t you think?

He thrust his hips into hers, letting her feel the effect that her words were having on him. “Okay,” he said. “Be effective.”

“I wish I could,” she said, brushing past him and out the door, “but I gotta go.”

Michael leaned against the doorframe and watched her walk away. Long legs. Slim waist. Supple breasts. God, she was really leaving him wanting things badly. Maria had been a virgin until not too long ago, but she knew exactly what to do, exactly where to go, and exactly what to say to make him lose control. “You’re killin’ me, DeLuca,” he called after her.

“I know,” she said, “Mr. Guerin.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Where have you been? You need to stay down here! This is your party, you know?”

Amy was chaotic when Maria got downstairs. The stress of preparing all of the food was clearly getting to her. One day, the woman would just have to break down and get a fully-trained and highly capable staff of proclaimed professionals instead of doing everything herself.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Maria apologized, integrating herself back into the party. The party upstairs in Michael’s bedroom really was much better.

“Where were you?” Amy asked again. “What were you doing when you should have been down here with the rest of us?”

“She was wrestling,” Beth explained before Maria could lie.

“Wrestling?” Amy echoed in question as if she didn’t understand the word. “Why were you wrestling?”

Maria sighed. “It’s a secret passion, okay, and, Beth, the key word there would be secret.”

“Fine. Where’s Michael?” Amy asked.

“He was wrestling, too,” Beth went on. “He and Maria were wrestling together. He’s thinking about being her coach.”

Amy gave Maria a concerned look. “You’re acting so strange lately, Maria.” She turned her back and headed back into the kitchen.

“I didn’t mean to blab,” Beth told Maria. “Sorry.”

“I know,” Maria told her cousin. “It’s okay.” She turned to walk away, not wanting to have to explain the wrestling thing anymore to Beth, but Beth grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Can we go outside and talk?” she asked.

Maria glanced up and saw Michael coming down the stairs. She didn’t want to go outside. She wanted to stay inside with him. “Sure,” she said, reluctantly heading outside by the pool. She sat down at the edge of the pool and slipped off her shoes, setting them beside her. She dipped her feet in the water, and Beth did the same. “So what did you wanna talk about?” Maria asked her cousin.

Beth sighed. “Stuff. Guy stuff. More like the-lack-of-guy-stuff, actually.”

“Still no luck with a boyfriend, huh?”

Beth shook her head. “Maybe I’m just not girlfriend material like you are.”

Maria almost laughed at that. “Maybe you just don’t wanna be. Trust me, Beth, the majority of the guys who like me just wanna get in bed with me. They’re jerks. Most of them. But there are a few good ones. It just takes time to get to a good one.”

Beth smiled. “Yeah, you found a good one in Michael.”

“Michael?” Maria tried her hardest to pretend that she had no idea what Beth was talking about. “What do you mean?”

Beth stared up at the sky, a dreamy, fantasy-like expression on her face. “I mean, you guys are so close. Even closer than you were at Christmas. I would give so much to be that close to someone, to have an intimate relationship like that.”

“Intimate?” Maria shrieked. “No, Michael and I aren’t intimate! Not together! We don’t have an intimate relationship! No intimacy!”

Beth chuckled. “There’s tons of intimacy, Maria. Not the romantic kind, you know, but . . .”

“Right,” Maria agreed. “Not the romantic kind.” She was lying through her teeth, and despite what Michael said, she believed she was doing an okay job.

“It must be nice to have such a strong friendship like that, someone you could tell anything to and they would never hold it against you. It must be nice to be that close to someone and that familiar with him.”

“It is,” Maria agreed.

“And Michael,” Beth said. “He’s so . . . I don’t know. He’s got cool hair and he’s got a nice amount of muscles and . . . and those eyes. Those eyes . . . those . . . penetrating eyes!”

“Penetrating,” Maria murmured. She was thinking about a different sort of penetrating. When she caught Beth looking at her funny, she quickly recovered. “Penetrating eyes. Eyes. Penetrating eyes.”

“You’re so lucky,” Beth said. “I mean, even though you two aren’t, you know, together, you’re still his best friend. That’s obvious.”

“Well, he’s my best friend,” Maria told her. “Sometimes two people just click, and things work out like this.” All at once, she felt two strong, familiar hands on her back, and before she could stop it, she felt herself falling in the water. She went under quickly, and when she came to the surface, she wiped her eyes and saw that Michael was standing by the side of the pool laughing. “And sometimes one person decides to be--”

“The coolest person on the planet,” he filled in, cutting her off. “I know. Don’t flatter me.”

Beth laughed, but Maria didn’t. When she and Michael got into phases like this where they were both never going to back down, a full-fledged water fight usually ensued.

“Okay, Michael, I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get in here right now, and you are not gonna protest.”

“Oh, I’m gonna protest,” he said. “I’m protesting right now, as a matter of fact.”

“Michael,” she said, “if you don’t get in here right now, I’m not going to do this thing that I’ve been doing lately ever again.”

He was already stepping closer to the edge of the pool. “Ever?”

She nodded.

“Wait, I don’t get it,” Beth said. “What are you guys talking about?”

“The wrestling thing,” Maria said. “Michael really wants me to do it, and he’ll be devastated if I stop.” She turned to him. “Won’t you, Michael?”

He nodded, already taking his shirt off. Maria stopped him. “Uh-uh. Shirt stays on.” He gave her a look of confusion, and she explained. “I’m fully clothed, so it’s only fair that you are, too.”

He sighed and left the shirt on. He jumped in the water and landed right next to Maria. Beneath the water, he slapped her ass. Maria wondered if Beth had noticed, but her cousin seemed to be off in fantasy land again.

Maria pressed down on Michael shoulders, trying to push him down under the water. He did that to her all the time, and she never had the same strength to do it to him. “You’re not getting away with any of this!” she shouted, struggling against his strength. “You’re goin’ down!”

He grinned suggestively. “Okay.”

She couldn’t believe he had just said that with Beth around and everything. But there was something about the way he said it, something that made it so damn sexy . . .

“That’s it!” she shouted. She jumped into his arms, hoping that the weight of her body might weigh him down, but it didn’t.

“You’re not gonna get me to go under, Maria,” he told her. “You don’t weigh anything.”

She started pounding her fists down on his shoulders, hoping to pound him down under the water, but she still had no effect. “I mean it!” she said, splashing water into his face. “You’re not getting away with this!”

A shocked gasp came from the doorway, and Maria looked over her shoulder to find her mother standing in the doorway with her hand to her mouth. “Hey, Mom!” she said cheerfully.

“What on earth are you two doing?”

Maria took a look at their position, and she realized how the situation must look. “Oh! No!” she said. “Not that! We’re having a water fight. I’m winning.”

“She’s not,” Michael grumbled.

“I am, too!”

Amy shook her head in disbelief and disappointment. “You two are so out of control tonight. I can’t believe that you would pick tonight of all nights to have a water fight!”

“I’m sorry,” Maria apologized. “We’ll go change and then rejoin the party, okay?” She got down from Michael’s arms, already missing the closeness of his body.

Amy sighed. “Fine. Just try to be less hyperactive the rest of the night.”








TBC...

Part 37







Amy stayed up late that night, cleaning up after the party. A dirty house was one of the things she could not tolerate. Michael was sitting on the couch, asleep, and Maria was laying her head in his lap, asleep as well. Jim was in one of his moods where he didn’t want to help clean up. Jim always seemed to be in that kind of mood.

Amy piled the dishes in the sink and ran her hand across her head. She was sweating now due to all of her hard work, and it was late and there was still much to be done. She still had to clean up all of the decorations and take the food table back downstairs into storage.

Jim sauntered into the kitchen, and Amy broke down and asked him for help. It wouldn’t kill him, and if she kept trying to do everything by herself, it would surely kill her. “Could you bring that table downstairs?” she asked him.

“Maybe later,” he said. He joined her at the sink, but he didn’t bother to do the job of dishes for her. “It was a great party, honey.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Do you think everyone liked it?”

He nodded. “Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Even Maria. That’s kinda strange, you know. She’s usually not one for the family parties.”

“I know,” Amy said. “But she had a good time.” She looked over on the couch. She couldn’t see Maria, but she knew she was sleeping, and she knew she was probably smiling. Maria used to toss and turn a lot, but as of lately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

“I just don’t get it,” Amy said. “She’s different. She’s happier. She used to get sad and mad so much, but not anymore.”

“Give her time,” Jim said. “I’m sure she’ll be mad in a day or two.”

Amy sighed. “I just can’t shake the feeling that we should confront her about this drastic change.”

“We’re not confronting her,” Jim decided.

“Then maybe we should, you know . . . look into it.”

“We don’t need to. Nothing’s changed. If we need to . . . look into it, I’ll decide if we do and when we do. Understand?”

Amy sighed and nodded. “I understand.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I wonder what presents I’m gonna get? Maria thought. I wonder if I’ll get that new cell phone I’ve been wanting. I showed it to Dad in the magazine. He probably got it for me. I’m so excited!

Maria was dancing around the living room and the kitchen on the night of her eighteenth birthday. She was so excited. Instead of having a huge party like she usually did, she and Michael and her parents were going to out for dinner and just keeping things simple. She had wanted to have a small, simple birthday celebration for quite some time now, and she was finally getting her wish.

She jumped in surprise when she saw her mother coming down the hallway wearing Maria’s bridesmaid dress. “Mom, what are you doing?” she asked in disbelief.

Amy froze in place and gave her daughter a confused look. “Walking,” she replied.

“Why are you wearing that?” Maria rephrased her question. “You can’t wear that! I’m wearing that for the wedding.”

“The wedding’s two weeks away, honey,” Amy reminded her. “You won’t need to wear it anytime soon.”

Maria sighed. “Why are you not getting this? You can’t wear my bridesmaid dress to . . . where exactly are you wearing that? Not out to eat, right? ‘Cause I thought I made it pretty clear that we’re going to an informal restaurant for my birthday.”

“Your birthday,” Amy echoed.

“Yeah, my birthday. Look, I talked to Michael, and he and I both wanna go for Mexican, so Dad’s just gonna have to skip the Chinese food tonight. I was thinking we could go to that new place that opened up a few days ago. What was it called? Pedro’s?”

“Maria,” Amy said, “I don’t know if your father and I are going to be able to celebrate your birthday with you tonight.”

Maria couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice. “What? You promised me.”

“I know, I know, but something came up. A cast party. Your dad is expected to be there.”

“A cast party? How on earth is a cast party more important than the day I was born?”

“It’s not more important, Maria, but like I said, he needs to be there.”

“No, he doesn’t!” Maria shouted. “He needs to be with his daughter!”

Amy sighed and reached out a hand to touch Maria’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

Maria pulled away, just out of reach. “No, you’re not.”

“I am. Maria, don’t let this ruin your birthday. We can give you your presents when we get home tonight, and you and Michael can go out for Mexican like you planned.”

Maria was already heading up the stairs. “Fine. Whatever. Have a nice time.”

Amy and Jim left just as the sun was setting. They smiled and said goodbye to Maria and told her to enjoy the rest of her birthday. Amy kissed her on the cheek and told her not to open any of her presents until they got home.

Until they got home. They were really leaving. They were really abandoning her on her birthday.

Maria stood by the front door and watched them get in the car. She closed the door when she could watch no longer. She wasn’t sure if she was angry or sad or disappointed. Maybe she was all three.

Some of her anger and sadness and disappointment started to fade away when she heard Michael coming down the stairs. “Where are they going?” he asked. “Are we supposed to meet them at the restaurant?”

“Nope,” she said. “They’re going to a party ‘cause my dad’s gotta be there. It’s important or something. They’re not going out for Mexican on my birthday.”

Michael placed his hand on her shoulder and wrapped the other around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “They’re both idiots,” he said. “I can’t believe they’d go to this party on your birthday.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s typical, though. I should’ve known they would.”

He bent down and pressed a light kiss to her neck and another to her cheek. She turned to face him, and she felt herself starting to smile. They had the house to themselves. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Actually,” she said, looping her arms around his neck, “I’m kinda glad they did leave. I’d much rather spend my birthday with you anyway.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The firelight illuminated her smooth skin as they laid together on the floor. He was cradling her against him, pressing his front to her back. Her long, golden hair was sprawled across his arm, and her gorgeous legs were wrapped around his.

“This is one of my favorite parts,” she told him quietly as to not disrupt the peace that surrounded them. “I love just lying here with you.”

“I love it, too,” he said, surprising himself. With any other girl, he would think that holding her in his arms was a waste of time. With Maria, it was truly one of the best and most enjoyable parts. “But,” he said, “I think my favorite part might have to be . . . well, you know.”

She laughed. “Yeah,” she said. “I know.”

They lay together in a comfortable silence, and Michael ran his free hand up and down the side of her body, down from her shoulder, over the curve of her waist, down her legs and back up again. He stroked her stomach and cupped her breasts, eliciting a quiet moan from her. He reached down between them and moved his hand in between her legs, unable to stop touching her.

“That feels so good,” she moaned, throwing her head back against his chest. “Please, Michael, don’t stop touching me.”

He didn’t. He tangled his free hand in her hair and kissed her deeply as he spread her legs farther apart. He brought her to another orgasm that night. He wasn’t sure how many it had been for her now. He had lost count.

Her tired body collapsed to the floor, and he held her tight against him. “What time is it?” she asked, still out of breath.

“I don’t know,” he said. He couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off of her even to glance at the clock. “Probably late.”

“They might be home soon,” she said in reference to Jim and Amy. “I should probably go shower or something.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed, pressing his sweat-slick body against hers. “Probably.” He thought briefly about joining her, but he had a feeling that if they got in the shower together, they would start things all over again, and he didn’t want to tire her out. Amy was insisting on opening presents when they got home.

It took her a long time to get up off of the floor and out of his arms. “I don’t wanna move,” she said, and he didn’t want her to, either. But when he reminded her how her parents would react if they came home and saw them like this, she found the strength to head upstairs.

“Thanks for the birthday present, Michael.”

“Anytime.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I just don’t get it. When we left last night, she was obviously upset with us, and then we came back home and she was smiling and cheery again. And she’s still like that this morning.”

Jim wanted to believe that Amy was just being crazy, but the more he observed his daughter’s behavior, the more he had to admit that she was acting strangely. When they had arrived home from the party that last night, she had almost seemed to be happy that they had gone. Maria was never happy about that. She always complained about it and tried to make him feel bad, but she was never happy about it.

It wasn’t just this one time, either. It was a lot of times.

Jim sat down at the kitchen table and opened up the paper, flipping to the sports page. He tried to seem as uninterested in what Amy was saying as he could. She didn’t need to know that he had his suspicions, too. “It’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “If she’s happy, she’s happy.”

“I know,” Amy said. “I know that this should be a good thing, but I can’t get rid of this feeling I have that something else is going on that we don’t know about.”

“What do you think it is?” he asked her, still trying to focus on the sporting results.

Amy sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe she has some sort of . . . disorder.”

“Disorder?” Jim shrieked. “She’s happy and you think she has a disorder?”

Amy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe it’s something else. Maybe . . . maybe she went out and did drugs while we were gone. That’s it, Jim! The drugs are making her super happy!”

Jim put down the paper. “Now you’re going insane,” he said. Even he didn’t believe that Maria was going that far.

“I know,” Amy said again. “I’m just throwing out some ideas here. There’s a million things that could be happening to her, Jim, a million reasons why she’s so different lately, and she’s obviously not going to tell us a single one of them.”

Jim sighed. “I do know what you mean. She’s so secretive lately. But, Amy--”

“Jim,” she interrupted, “I know that you’re trying to pretend like this is nothing, that you don’t care, that this doesn’t matter to you, but I can tell that it does. You want to know what’s going on with her just as much as I do, don’t you?”

He didn’t say anything, silently admitting that he did.

“We need to find out what she isn’t telling us,” Amy said, “and we need to find out soon. Maybe . . . maybe we could ask Michael if he knows anything.”

“No,” Jim said immediately. “He’ll go tell Maria right away. We can’t have her knowing what we’re doing, or she’ll hide whatever it is that she’s doing.”

“You’re right,” Amy said. “That was stupid of me.”

“We’ll just have to be careful,” Jim said. “We can’t let either of them know about our . . . investigation.”

Amy shook her head. “Please don’t use that word, Jim. Please.”

“Why not?” he asked. “That’s exactly what this is.”







TBC...

Part 38






Amy knocked on the door to the Evans’s household, hoping she had the right address. She had never been to the Evans’s place before, even when Maria had been dating Max.

When Max Evans answered the door, he didn’t seem to know who he was seeing. “May I help you?” he asked politely but confused.

“Yes,” Amy said, surprised that he didn’t recognize her. Max had been introduced to her quite a few times. “I’m Maria DeLuca’s mother.”

“Right,” Max said. “I’m sorry. Bad memory.”

Amy smiled and nodded. “I’m sure.” She looked around the house, pleased to see that no one else appeared to be around. “I need to talk to you about a few things. Would you mind if I come in?”

Max stiffened. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Maria,” Amy said. “I came to talk about Maria and . . . what’s happened to her.”

“What’s happened to her?” Max echoed. “Mrs. DeLuca, I can assure you that was all a misunderstanding.”

“What was?” Amy wasn’t sure what Max was talking about.

“Uh . . . the break-up. I know it was hard on Maria.”

“It’s not about the break-up,” Amy said. “This is just about Maria. I was wondering if you could help me.”

Max shrugged. “I might be able to. Come inside and sit down and we can talk.”

Amy nodded and stepped through the doorway, briefly admiring the Evan’s expansive, expensive house. “You have a wonderful home,” she commented, sitting down on the couch.

Max shrugged. “It’ll do.” He sat down in the chair across from her, and they stared at each other in silence. Finally, Amy found the courage to speak. “Maria’s been . . . different lately,” she told Max. “I just have this feeling that something’s going on with her, and she won’t tell me anything about it. I was wondering if you might know anything.”

“Maybe you should ask Michael. He probably knows more than I do.”

“Is Michael here?” a girl asked, bouncing down the stairs. “Where’s Michael?”

Max groaned. “Liz, Michael isn’t here.”

“Why not? I want Michael to be here.”

Max turned his attention back to Amy. “I’m sorry she’s interrupted,” he said. “She has a crush on your son. And she also has a boyfriend!”

Liz tossed her hair behind her shoulders. “I will always love Michael more than any other man.”

“Right,” Max said. “Go upstairs, Liz. We were talking.”

“About what?” the annoying girl asked. “Michael?”

“Actually, we were talking about Maria,” Amy said. She didn’t mind letting Max’s sister in on the conversation. If Liz had a crush on Michael, she might have spent some time with him, and Michael might have said something about Maria that could be important, valuable. “Please join us,” she said. “I could talk to both of you.”

Liz sat down on the couch beside Amy. “Your son is very handsome,” she said. “You should be very proud.”

“Thank you,” Amy said. “Now, Liz, has Michael ever said anything to you about Maria that you remember being sort of . . . strange? Has he ever hinted that she might be involved in something she shouldn’t? Has he ever--”

“Michael really hasn’t ever said much to me,” Liz said, “except for when he tells me to stay away from him, but I know that means that he loves me.”

Amy sighed. Liz was going to be useless. “Okay,” she said. “Max, maybe you know something.”

“I’m not sure what you would like to know,” Max said. “Tell me, Mrs. DeLuca, is Maria . . . is she hurting?”

“No,” Amy said. “Quite the opposite, in fact. She seems happier than ever, and I know I shouldn’t be concerned, but I am. She’s not hurting, though, Max. At least I don’t think she is.”

“Good,” Max said, “because I would hate to see anyone or anything hurt Maria.”

Amy smiled. “You seem like such a good guy, Max. I don’t know why Maria ever let you go.”

Max shrugged. “Who knows?”

Amy stood up. “I guess I need to find out more about what’s going on with Maria before I come asking questions,” she said. “I’m sorry I can’t give you a clearer definition of what kind of information I’m looking for.”

Max stood up as well. “I’m sorry that I can’t give you the answers you need.”

“It’s okay,” Amy said. “Just, do me a favor. If you do notice anything that you think I might be interested in knowing, please tell me.”

“I will,” Max said. “I won’t even hesitate. And I won’t tell Maria that you came by here today. I’m going to help you out in any way I can, Mrs. DeLuca.”

I wonder what Maria was thinking when she let him slip away, Amy thought. He seems too good to be true.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jim knocked on the door to Ted Sommers’s classroom. Mr. Sommers looked up and recognized him immediately. “Jim, it’s great to see you again!” He extended his hand, and Jim extended his in return. “It’s great to see you, Ted,” he said, calling the teacher by his first name. “I think the last time we spoke was at Maria’s class conference about a year ago.”

“It was,” Ted said. “Long time, Jim. Or should I call you Mr. DeLuca now that you’re so rich and famous?”

“Jim’s fine.”

“Well, how have you been? I heard you landed a movie deal.”

Jim nodded. “Yes, I did. I’ll be going to Italy this summer.”

“That’s great,” Ted said. “What else has been going on?”

“A lot, actually,” Jim said. “We’ll have to catch up some other time, though, because I really came to talk about Maria today.”

“Maria,” Ted said. “I bet she’s happy to be out of school. I know I’ll be happy when I leave tonight. I’ve spent three days just cleaning out the room, and I can’t wait to get out of here, either!” He laughed at himself.

“Right,” Jim said. “Listen, Ted, I think that Maria’s hiding something from me.”

“Really?” Ted seemed surprised. “I always thought Maria was an open-book kind of girl.”

“Not at all,” Jim said. “Amy and I just have this gut feeling that there’s something going on that we don’t know about, and we need to get to the bottom of it. I was going around today to ask some of her teachers if they’ve ever noticed anything unusual.”

“Unusual,” Ted said. “Well, she does seem to cheat on every exam, and she still persuades me to give her a passing grade.” He laughed. “Maria’s a smart girl like that.”

Jim sighed. He wasn’t getting good answers out of any of Maria’s teachers. All any of them said was that she cheated, which obviously wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t very important, either.

“I’m sorry, Jim. I just haven’t noticed anything unusual about your daughter. Now that son of yours, Michael, on the other hand . . .”

“He’s not my son,” Jim corrected. “He’s my stepson. He’s staying with us for awhile.”

“Stepson,” Ted corrected himself. “Your stepson always fell asleep in my class. Never paid attention. He was very much a slacker. You might want to talk to him about that.”

“I will,” Jim said, though he had no intention of doing that.

“You might also want to talk to him about Maria,” Ted went on. “I think if anyone knows anything, it would be him.”

Jim sighed, disappointed. “That’s not possible.” He started for the door. “I better be going. It was nice to see you again, Ted.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria was waiting for Michael when he got home. He had gone out to the market to get groceries since Amy seemed too busy and uninterested to do it herself nowadays, and even though he had only been gone for slightly over an hour, it seemed like he had been gone much longer.

“Hey,” Michael said. “I got fruit roll-ups, so we’re eatin’ good tonight.”

Maria smiled, waiting for Michael to take notice of a very pertinent fact.

He set the groceries down on the counter and started unpacking them. “I got that spinach shit that your dad likes, too,” he went on. “How can he eat that stuff? I’ve been wondering about it for awhile. I think I’ll have to ask him sometime.”

“Michael,” Maria started.

“And your mom,” he continued, not having heard her. “Is she on a health kick or something, ‘cause all she wanted me to get her was fruit.”

“Michael,” she repeated. “Did you notice anything when you pulled in the driveway?”

He gave her a confused look. “Notice what?”

“If you were an observant person,” she said, walking closer to him, “which clearly you’re not, you would’ve noticed that the Benz is gone, and then you would’ve put everything together and figured out that my mom and dad are gone. We’re the only two people home.” She stood in front of him and leaned against the counter. “And since we haven’t had any time alone together since my birthday, you might forget about the groceries and spend a little time with me.”

He was already moving the groceries off of the counter. He picked her up in his arms and sat her down on top of the counter, attacking her lips with his. He was as hungry for this as she was. Amy and Jim had been spending a lot of time at home lately, and they hadn’t had anytime to be even the least bit intimate for almost two weeks.

Maria wasn’t even able to comprehend what was happening. He was moving so fast. He usually took things slow with her, but he was already lifting her shirt over her head this time. “Two weeks is way too long,” he breathed against her lips.

She nodded in agreement as he laid her down on the counter and lifted himself up so that he was positioned in between her legs. He was just sliding the zipper to her jeans down when they both heard the car pulling into the driveway. Maria groaned, frustrated, and got off the counter in a hurry. She found her shirt on the floor and got back into it in a hurry, doing up her jeans again. She and Michael both started to busy themselves with putting away groceries just as Amy and Jim walked in.

“Oh, you went to the market!” Amy exclaimed.

“Yep,” Michael said. “Where did you two go?”

“Uh . . .” Amy didn’t answer.

“We just ran a few errands,” Jim said. “We had things to do. People we needed to talk to.”

Maria did not think that she could care less where they were. All she cared about was that they had interrupted her and Michael, and it was looking as if two weeks without sex could become three.

Her body ached for him. The had barely even started, and her legs were already weak. Michael had an incredible ability to leave a girl wanting more, even when she had barely gotten any.

“We got a new car, too,” Amy said.

“What kind?” Michael asked.

“A Hummer,” Jim said proudly.

Maria made a face. “Sick, Dad! Those cars are awful! I’ve never seen the huge fascination with them!”

“Come take a look,” Jim said. “You might change your mind.”

Maria set down the groceries and went out the front door to find a huge, huge Hummer parked in the driveway next to the tiny Taurus that she and Michael always drove. The Hummer made the Taurus look smaller than it already was.

“What do you think?” Jim asked.

“I think I’m wondering why you brought the army home with you.”

“Maria . . .”

“I’m serious, Dad! This thing looks like it belongs in a military convoy, not our driveway!”

“What do you think, Michael?” Amy asked.

Michael surveyed the car, and he shrugged. “I mean, I’m all for a new car, you know, but this is really big. Really big. Why is it so big?”

“Because,” Jim said, “there’s an added feature.”

“Let me guess,” Maria said. “Commanders.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “Maria, I don’t care what you have to say about the car. You’re not driving it, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Well I have to look out my window and see it every day,” she said. “I can’t believe you would buy this without even consulting me!”

“Maria . . .”

“What’s the added feature?” Michael asked, intervening.

“You’ll never believe it,” Jim said. “A hot tub.”

“What?” Maria shrieked. “There’s a hot tub in the car?”

Jim nodded proudly. “In the back. That’s why it’s so big.”

Maria was already liking the new car better. “A hot tub,” she said. “I could get used to that.” She gave Michael a look. “You know, I might try out this hot tub tonight. What about you, Michael?”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “We’ll try it out and let you know what it’s like.”

Maria nodded in agreement. “Yep, we will.” She took another glance at the car. “You know, I’m startin’ to get it. The Hummer isn’t bad. The hot tub makes it kinda worthwhile.”







TBC...

Part 39







She came up to his bedroom that night looking as glamorous as she always did. She was wearing her pink bikini, and just the sight of her was driving him crazy. He had to resist the urge to pull her into his bedroom and do her right there. He remembered making a rule that they wouldn’t ever have sex in the house when others were around because of the noise factor, but he had been tempted to break that rule several times now.

The hot tub was the perfect opportunity. It wasn’t in the house. It was far enough outside that no one would hear them, and there weren’t any windows looking into the back of the Hummer, so no one would see them.

“Ready to go?” she asked, tracing her hand down her chest seductively. She took a glance at his lower self and smiled. “I guess you are.”

God, all he had to do was take a glance at her, and he was already almost out of control. He wasn’t sure if he was going to make it out to the car without losing it.

Not being able to be with Maria for two weeks now was torture, and it was making him crave her even more. If Jim and Amy weren’t home so much, they would’ve had their time together, but Jim kept saying that he wanted to spend more time at home before he went to Italy, and Amy of course wanted to do whatever Jim did. They hardly ever left the house anymore, and whenever they did, it was either only for a brief period of time, or they came home right as things were getting started.

Michael and Maria both hurried down the stairs and outside to the Hummer. Maria giggled excitedly as they made their way around to the back of the large car. “It’s so big,” she commented.

“I know,” Michael agreed. “I guess it has to be to fit a hot tub back there.”

She shook her head. “Michael, I’m not talking about the car.”

God, she was turning him on fast. “We gotta get in there,” he said, opening up the back of the car. Maria climbed into the car, still giggling. “Time to christen the hot tub.”

Michael got in the car and was just about to close the door behind him when he saw Amy standing before him. “Do you two have room for one more?” she asked excitedly, bouncing up and down.

“Mom!” Maria shrieked. “What are you doing? You can’t get in with us?”

“Why not?” Amy asked.

“Well, because . . . because two’s company, Mom, but three’s a crowd.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Let me in.”

Michael didn’t let her in. “Actually,” he said, “Maria, uh . . . she doesn’t want to see you in your bikini.”

“That’s right,” Maria agreed. “You know what, Mom? I really think you should convert to the one-piece. It’s so much more . . . mom-like.”

“I think I look fine in my bikini,” Amy said. “Come on, now, there’s plenty of room for me. You won’t even notice I’m here.”

Maria sighed. “Mom, I . . . I really don’t want to.”

“Great!” Amy exclaimed as if she hadn’t even heard Maria. She pushed the doors open wider and allowed herself enough room to get in. She squeezed past Michael and immediately went to starting up the hot tub.

The night did not turn out as Michael had expected and wanted it to. He and Maria didn’t remove their clothes. They didn’t touch each other. They didn’t kiss each other. And he got no relief for his major erection!

“This is fun,” Maria muttered sarcastically as they all sat in the hot tub.

“Sure is,” Amy agreed with much more enthusiasm. “The more the merrier, right?”

They both sighed, disappointed. “Whatever.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The big day had finally arrived for Alex and Isabel. After over a year of preparation and planning, they were finally getting married. Alex seemed as relaxed as any groom ever had been. Isabel seemed to be just the opposite.

“What if something goes wrong?” She was fanning herself as Maria tried to calm her down. “Oh, God, what if this whole thing is a disaster?”

“Isabel, you have to calm down,” Maria told her, holding her hands. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Isabel took in a deep, shaky breath. “Oh, God. How can you be so sure, Maria?”

“Think about it,” Maria told her friend. “You’re freaking out and everything right now, but you haven’t once doubted this. You haven’t once thought that this is a mistake, so it obviously isn’t. Look, if the cake topples over, the cake topples over. If the minister faints, he faints. The important thing is that you and Alex are starting your lives together, and you’re gonna be together forever.”

Isabel smiled, getting slightly teary. “You’re right,” she said. “Thank you, Maria.” She reached up and hugged her. “Thank you for reminding me what this is all about.”

“No problem. Do you want to go over your vows again?”

Isabel shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think I want to talk to my dad. I still don’t think he agrees with the marriage.”

“Okay. I’ll go get him.” Maria hugged her friend one last time. “I’m so happy for you.” She smiled and left Isabel in the room by herself, and when she went out into the hallway, she bumped into Michael. He was wearing a tuxedo, and he looked so good. “You look so hot in tux,” she told him.

“You look pretty hot yourself.” He came to stand beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against his side. “Tell me, Maria,” he said, leaning down and whispering in her ear, “are you hot?”

She smiled mischievously. “For you.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

“Hey, is Isabel in there?” a voice asked, disrupting them.

“What?” Maria asked jumping away from Michael in surprise. “Oh, Mr. Adams, I was just gonna come find you! I was on my way to go look for you! I was!”

Isabel’s father gave him a confused look. “Okay . . . is Izzy in there?”

“Yeah, yeah she is,” Maria replied. “She wanted to talk to you.”

Mr. Adam’s disappeared into the room, and Maria turned to face Michael again. “That was too close.”

“What?” Michael didn’t seem to get it. “I just had my arm around you.”

“And you were whispering things!” Maria reminded him. “Sexy things! We can’t be whispering or doing any sexy things out here!”

He grinned and looked to the door across the hallway. “But we could do them in there.” He grabbed her hand and started pulling her across the hallway.

“No, Michael, we can’t. It’s still too public. Anybody could walk in there and find us.”

“We’ll lock the door.” He opened the door and pulled her inside, and he locked it behind them. “Come on, Maria. It’s been three weeks.”

She was giving in. She could feel herself giving in. How could she resist him? They were alone. The door was locked. And he looked so damn hot in that tux!

“I’ve missed you,” he said, pulling her closer to him. He spun her around so that her back was pressed to his front, and he eased the thin straps of her dress down her shoulders, letting the material fall from her. She gasped as the cool air hit her breasts, only to be replaced seconds later by the warm touch of his hands.

“I’ve missed you, too,” she said as he placed a feather-light kiss on her shoulder.

“Spending almost every second of every day with you and not gettin’ to touch you, Maria . . . it’s torture.” His breath tickled her skin as he spoke, and she felt a shiver run through her body.

“Michael,” she moaned as she arched up into his touch. “More.”

He pressed his growing erection into her lower back ane elicited a groan from her. “Oh God,” she moaned. “Michael, I need you. I need you now.”

He was already lowering her dress past her hips when Maria heard the faint sounds of music beginning to play. “Music,” she said. “They’re playing music. Michael, I have to get out there!” She quickly tugged up her dress and broke free from his hold, even though it was painstakingly hard. She was just heading out the door when he grabbed her arm and whirled her around again. He crashed his lips onto hers and began to devour her all over again. It took everything she had to pull away, and it seemed to take everything he had to stop.

When Maria got downstairs, she saw that the minister was already taking his position, and the bridesmaids and all of the others were already lining up for the procession in. She had cut that close.

Amy came rushing up to Maria as she found her place in line. “Where were you?” she asked. “We’ve been looking for you for ten minutes!”

“Ten minutes?” Maria echoed in shock. “Time sure does fly when you’re having fun.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Maria said. “Look, I’m here now, so everything’s fine.”

“Are you okay?” Amy asked her. “You look a little . . . flushed.”

Am I that obvious? Maria thought. “Mom, the wedding’s gonna start soon. Go sit down.”

Amy sighed and shook her head, returning to her seat. “Strangest girl.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The wedding all went according to plan. Michael sat by Amy and Jim, knowing that he should be watching Isabel and Alex getting married, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of the maid of honor.

Maria’s eyes met his as Isabel and Alex said their vows, and she smiled and blushed. He wondered what she was thinking. Was she thinking the same thing that he was?

Marriage. It was a long way down the line, a long way, but when he did actually get married to someone, he wanted it to be to Maria.

As the wedding carried on, Michael started doing something he rarely did and tried his best not to do. He started thinking about the future.

He could just see it now. He could picture the shock on everyone’s faces when they noticed Maria had a ring, and he could hear their gasps of horror when she told them who she was marrying. He could hear the minister asking if anyone had objections to their union of holy matrimony, and he knew that everyone would stand up. He could see tears in Maria’s eyes when everyone objected to the two of them being together.

Michael quickly snapped himself out of his thoughts.







TBC...

Part 40








“It was a nice ceremony,” Maria commented, absentmindedly scraping away some of her nail polish as she tried to start up a conversation with her parents. Talking with them about anything at all seemed difficult anymore since Jim’s Italy movie deal was almost smothering them now. It seemed like it was all he could think about, and it was probably all Amy could think about, too. Though she hadn’t formally declared it yet, Maria knew that she was going with Jim when the time came.

“It was nice,” Amy agreed, sitting down at the kitchen table, exhausted. “They looked really happy.”

“They did,” Maria agreed, wondering to herself if that was how happy she looked when she was with Michael. It was how happy she felt.

Jim grunted, sitting down beside his wife. “It won’t last.”

Maria gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“They won’t last,” he said. “They’ll get a divorce in a year or two, tops.”

“Way to be optimistic.”

“I hate to agree with him,” Amy said, “but I think he’s right.”

“You hate to agree with him?” Maria echoed in disbelief. “That’s a first. And why are you agreeing with him anyway? Isabel and Alex are definitely gonna last.”

Jim sighed. “Maria, they’re eighteen. They just got married. Do you really think it’s gonna last forever?”

She shrugged. “Why not?”

“I’ll tell you why not,” he said. “You don’t fall in love when you’re eighteen. You just don’t.”

Maria couldn’t believe him. He was acting like he knew this for a fact and he didn’t! “You don’t know that,” she said. “You can fall just as in love with someone when you’re eighteen as you can when you’re twenty-five. It can last forever and ever and always be this great, beautiful thing.”

“Honey, it can,” Amy agreed, “but it’s so rare nowadays. When you get older, you’ll understand.”

“Whatever.” Maria stood up from the table and headed to the stairs. “I just wish you’d have some hope for Isabel and Alex and all the other people out there like them, you know.” She didn’t wait for their response. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it. She went upstairs and started down the hallway, stopping by the closed bathroom door when she heard the water running. She smiled to herself, knowing that Michael was in the midst of taking a shower.

She opened the door quietly, not bothering to care that they had made a rule about no sex in the house. With the water running, they wouldn’t be heard anyway, and she wanted to be with him so badly . . . she wasn’t going to wait.

She could see him through the clear glass, but he had his back to her and couldn’t see her. She closed the door quietly and then undressed herself, leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor beside his. She stepped up to the shower door and pulled it back slowly, opening it up so that she could step in. He spun around quickly and a halfway surprised, halfway intrigued expression came across his face. He surveyed her lack of clothes and held out his hand, helping her to get in with him. She moved so that she was standing under the water, and he stared at her for a few seconds, seemingly mesmerized as the water ran down her body.

She wasn’t as hungry for him as she had anticipated she would be. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him. She did. She always did, but she was content with just the simple things in that moment, like the way he eased his hands around her body and pulled her close to him, like the way he pressed a feather-light kiss to her forehead. She was content with just staring into his eyes as he ran his hands through her wet hair and just trailing her hands up and down his wet back as he joined her under the water.

The first word that came to her mind as she gazed at Michael was love.

He was still holding onto her as they got out of the shower. He seemed to be afraid of letting her go. He picked up the towel and stretched it so that it would wrap around the both of them. He held her back to his chest and brought her to stand in front of the mirrors. She watched him in the mirror as he bent down to kiss her neck, and she was able to see how happy she looked when she was with Michael. She wasn’t sure if she had ever looked or been happier. She didn’t think she had.

When she started to shiver, he wrapped his arms around her tighter and reached out to open up the door slightly. He peered out in each direction and then walked with her quickly across the hallway and into her bedroom. He shut the door quickly behind them and bent down to kiss her lips again. Just that simple gesture from him sent all the heat returning to her body.

He found some of his clothes on the floor and dressed in a hurry, and she stood by the door, still unable to stop gazing at him. She didn’t want to take her eyes off of him. Everything about Michael was so . . . artistic. He had artistic eyes and an artistic smile. He had artistic hands and most definitely and artistic mouth.

Love, she thought to herself. I know what love is. I feel it whenever I’m with him. That’s the only time that I feel it.

He found her warm bathrobe and slipped it around her shoulders, running his warm fingers over her skin as he did so to take notice that she was covered in goose bumps. He tied the robe around her and scooped her up in his arms, cradling her against his chest. She snuggled down into him, enjoying his warmth, his comfort, and his passion.

She stayed close to him that night as they slept, and she felt closer than she had ever felt to him before. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, but before she got the chance, she had fallen fast asleep in his arms.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria heard her father talking about Italy again when she went downstairs the next morning. He was telling Amy about some new museums that had just opened up around the area they were staying in. “I wouldn’t mind visiting them if we have time,” he said. “I am going to be busy with the film, but I think we can squeeze them in.”

“Museums,” Maria commented. “Sounds fun.” Yeah, right . . .

“For those of us who have an appreciation for the arts and knowledge, it is interesting.”

Maria couldn’t help but feel offended. “I have an appreciation for knowledge,” she said. “Just ‘cause I’m not doing the whole college thing doesn’t mean anything. And I’ll let you know that I most definitely appreciate art!” She wasn’t lying. In her opinion, Michael’s hands and lips and everything else of his was like artwork. She tried to hide her smile as she thought about it.

“Let’s not start something right in the morning,” Amy said, intervening. Maria suspected that her mother was becoming tired of the constant arguing that went on between her and her father.

“We’re not arguing,” Jim said. “Maria, sit down and let me tell you about some of my plans for Italy.”

“No thanks,” Maria said. She had heard way too much already. She was sure that if she heard the word Italy again, she was going to freak out. “I’m too busy thinking about Hawaii,” she said. “I’m so excited. Hawaii is way better than Italy.”

“Hawaii’s just one big beach,” Jim said. “Italy has promise.”

“Hawaii is way more than a beach. Hawaii has way more promise, or whatever, than Italy does!”

“Italy does seem wonderful, though,” Amy said, taking a seat beside Jim at the kitchen table. “You should see the videos, Maria.”

“I’d rather not.” Maria heard someone coming down the stairs and knew that it was Michael. “What do you think, Michael?” she asked him. “Hawaii or Italy? Which is better?”

He yawned and didn’t say anything. He was probably still trying to wake up.

“He thinks Hawaii’s better,” Maria answered for him. “He told me once.”

“Look,” Amy said, “it doesn’t matter which place is better. What matters is that we’re going.”

“I guess,” Maria said, reluctantly backing down from the argument. “Michael and I are leaving in a week. I can hardly believe it.”

“A week,” Amy echoed, sounding concerned. “Seven days. That’s incredibly soon.”

“You’re getting worried, aren’t you?” Maria was glad that Amy was worried. It showed that she still cared at least. “You don’t need to be,” she said. “We’ll be fine. Isn’t that right, Michael?”

He yawned again.

“That means yes.”

“I wanna believe that,” Amy said, “but it’s kinda scary. After Hawaii you guys are just gonna take off on a road trip with . . . with no plan?”

“That’s right,” Maria told her. “We’ll go where we want, when we want. We’ll do what we want. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Amy sighed. “I don’t know . . .”

Maria wasn’t liking this at all. “What do you mean? Why are you so . . . skeptical about all of this?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Do you think I’m . . . I don’t know, not smart enough to survive out there or something? Do you think I’m not mature enough?”

“I never said that. It’s just--”

“Because I am,” Maria interrupted. “I’m way smart enough and way mature enough, and I’m gonna be able to handle anything that might happen ‘cause I’m not a stupid kid anymore. And Michael’s gonna be with me. I’m not gonna be alone.”

“Let’s just drop it,” Amy suggested. “Gosh, you just won’t back down today.”

“I can’t help it. You two drive me insane sometimes.”

“You think we drive you insane?” Jim shrieked. “Maria, you have no idea how much you can drive us insane sometimes.”

“That’s right,” Amy said. “But it doesn’t matter, because hopefully we’ll have everything figured out soon.”

“What?” Maria had no idea what they were talking about. “What are you guys--”

“Nothing,” Jim said, cutting her off. “Let’s just get off the subject.”








TBC...