Still … You Turn Me On

by Arty

"No!" Penny stuck her tongue out at me and giggled as I responded in kind. The teacher sighed. Every year it was the same, persuading teenagers to behave sensibly during the annual school Christmas production. This year we were going to perform a Nativity Play.

"Have you cast Mary yet?" I was cast as Joseph and I would like nothing better than having Penny playing Mary opposite me, not to mention all that extra rehearsal time! The teacher looked at me and shook her head at my obvious clowning. Miss Mellor was nice though - for a teacher that is.

"Do you want to be a star?"

The question caught Penny by surprise; she recovered well though.

"Are you serious? I can be Mary?"

"If it will keep you two from disrupting the rehearsals."

I had the good grace to look sheepish, we never kept our attraction for each other a secret, but in Drama Club we let ourselves go, using every opportunity to indulge ourselves. It hadn't always been like that; Penny grinned and looked at me speculatively.

"Look you two, Mary and Joseph are an unmarried couple, and Mary was most definitely a virgin!"

"Yes Miss." Penny looked downcast, the wink she gave me, however, belied her apparent docility.

Miss Mellor was not deceived and glared at her; her mouth was twitching though, so the effect was muted. Giving us up as a lost cause, she turned to the rest of the group and proceeded to complete the casting. Once the rehearsal schedules were drawn up the Drama Club drifted off in twos and threes.

"Do you want to play some magic on my guitar?" I whispered in Penny's ear. She giggled.

"I thought it was a trombone?" Said she, emphasizing the final syllable with a lascivious leer. The lust in her voice sent a shiver down my spine. Once more I thanked my lucky stars that Penny and I had hooked up. We'd been friends forever before we discovered that our attraction was much more than merely platonic.

"Do you want to be a poet?"

I looked up from my latest magnum opus to see the speaker. Penny moved behind me and began reading over my shoulder. Hurriedly I covered the poem that I'd been working on. Too late.

"Do you want to be my string?
You could be anything.
Do you want to be the lover of another?
Undercover? You could even be the man on the moon." Penny intoned the lines. "Very profound what's it about?"

"It's just something I'm working on."

"Come on, we'll be late for Drama Club."

I collected my papers, stuffed them in my bag and followed her out of the library. Drama Club was our favourite activity.

"Okay get into pairs, boy and girl, for this exercise." Miss Mellor looked around as we paired up. Penny and I were an obvious pair and eventually everyone had someone that they were comfortable with. "I want you to take some time and work up an improvisation based on the following premise: one of you has an unrequited love for the other; something has happened, I'll let you decide what, that has persuaded you to 'bite the bullet' and make your feelings known."

Now this was interesting. I could see several people looking embarrassed at the possibilities presented by this exercise, and then it hit me - I was in love with Penny! I mean I knew I loved her, but as a friend. Now that the seed had been planted I knew that what I felt for her was more, much more than just platonic. I turned to Penny and saw her with new eyes; she blushed at my frank appraisal.

"Look if you'll be the object of my desire, I'll be the unrequited lover."

Penny smiled. "Do you want to rehearse or shall we just wing it?"

I made a decision, "Let's just see where the mood takes us shall we?"

"You're on."

We waited as several couples portrayed various stages of embarrassment ranging from slight to paralysed with fear and then it was our turn.

"Do you want to be the player?" Penny smiled at me as I started to circle around her. "Do you want to be the string?"

"I just want to be me. What do you want Tony?"

"Let me tell you something, it just don't mean a thing." I stopped in front of her and reached for her hands, I stared deep into her eyes; you could hear a proverbial pin drop, so silent were the rest of the group. "You see it really doesn't matter when you're buried in disguise by the dark glass on your eyes, though your flesh has crystallised." I leaned closer and lowered my voice, "Still … you turn me on."

Her eyes opened wide as she realised what I was about to do next. I closed my eyes just as our lips touched. I felt her moan into my mouth as my tongue began a tentative exploration of her lips, her mouth opened wide as she invaded mine. Now it was my turn to groan as she pressed her body against mine. I released her hands so that I could pull her closer and she did likewise. So close were we that I could feel the points of her nipples against my chest. Lack of oxygen made us break our kiss.

"Do you want to be the pillow where I lay my head?" I stage whispered into her ear.

"Yes."

"Do you want to be the feathers lying in my bed?"

"Yes"

"Do you want to be a colour cover magazine; create a scene." We kissed again.

"I've loved you forever, I can't hold it in anymore; it's driving me crazy; please tell me that I'm not alone."

Her eyes blazed and the smile that she gave me was blinding in its intensity.

"You're not alone."

That seemed a reasonable place to stop the improv. I held onto her hand and pulled us into an impromptu bow. The rest of the group erupted into applause and Miss Mellor looked at us appraisingly. We were the last pair to go so we sat down together, Penny sat on my lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world and Miss Mellor started to read the notes that she had made on everyone's performances. Penny and I cuddled and tuned her out; this was all so new and it was all that I could do not to carry her off.

"Now we come to Penny and Tony." We were jerked from our reverie, "I'd like to say that it was, on the face of it, a truly outstanding performance." She paused for dramatic effect; it was Drama Club after all. "But it wasn't a performance was it?" This drew gasps from everyone except Penny and me.

"No, I realised as you were giving us the premise to the improvisation that I was in love with Penny, so I took it and ran with it." I looked at Penny and smiled at the adoration that I saw there. "God knows what would have happened if she hadn't felt the same way about me."

"Oh for Christ's sake Tony! You two have been in love for the last six months, you've just been too stupid to realise it!" This came from Alison, one of the more outspoken members of our group. The rest chimed in with expressions of agreement. I was shocked to see that Miss Mellor was one of them. Penny looked at her accusingly.

"You set us up?"

"You might think that; I couldn't possibly comment."

Everyone laughed. Since anything else would have been an anticlimax, the group broke up and we went our separate ways. Miss Mellor admonished us to encourage the rest of the school to audition for the Nativity Play that we were doing this year. A collective groan was all the reply that she got.

"Every day a little sadder, A little madder," I hummed Pooh-bear-like to myself. We were painting the flats with a dark blue paint that was supposed to be the night sky. "Someone get me a ladder." I'd painted as high as I could go and there was about three feet still to paint.

"Here you go." Andy carried the stepladder that he had been using to adjust one of the backdrops. I climbed up and carried on painting the sky. Penny was working on the other side of the flat. She was painting a street scene, her side would be used for the trip through Bethlehem where we would search for somewhere to stay, and my side would be for the scene where the Angels appear to the Shepherds and for scenes with the Thee Wise Men.

Later when it was dry Penny and I would have great fun fixing tin-foil stars to the 'sky'. Miss Mellor came by and watched me painting for a moment.

"I don't want any identifiable constellations."

I grimaced. "You ain't no fun. No more." I moaned in my best KFC accent.

"I want them concentrating on the action on the stage. Not trying to identify Orion or The Plough!"

"Yes Miss Mellor."

"Now that wasn't so bad was it?"

Penny giggled from the other side. I muttered dire threats under my breath and carried on painting.

Penny and I were in the throes of passion. The rest of her family weren't due back for an hour or two and our minds turned to sex, as they were wont to do nowadays. The alteration in our relationship wasn't the surprise to them as it was to us. My mother, in particular, was unutterably smug. But it did mean that since we were already in the habit of spending almost all of our time together we didn't have to sneak around. No car seats for us! Well we did do it a few times, just to see what all the fuss was about, but neither of us was too impressed and we decided to leave car-sex to the realms of fiction where it belonged. Beds - OK, settee - OK, floors - hard but OK and we would wait for the weather to warm up before we tried the joys of al-fresco lovemaking! Both of had eyed up the swings and the climbing frame in the children's area of the local park - we'd burst out laughing when we'd looked at each other and realised that we'd both been thinking about the same thing.

Of course you can only spend so much time in bed and we had always enjoyed our debates - or rows - as our families called them. Our current disagreement was about whether it was better to be a creative or a producer. I was getting poetic about it again.

"Do you want to be the singer?" I paused for dramatic effect, "Do you want to be the song?"

"Let me tell you something" Penny poked me in the chest for emphasis, "you just couldn't be more wrong."

I love it when she gets mad, her eyes flash and she gets flushed like she does when she comes - and of course kissing and making up is just so much fun.

"You're beautiful when you're angry."

"You're annoying when you play Devil's Advocate."

"Yeah but you love me anyway."

Penny sniffed and turned from me in exaggerated disdain. This was my cue. I started to tickle her. Before long I had her helpless beneath me, until then I had been concentrating on tickling her to maximum effect, now I looked her in the face and was immediately lost; the fire in her eyes took my breath away.

It was Monday, the Dress Rehearsal had been a disaster; the problem with doing a nativity play is that everyone is convinced they already know everything they need to know as the story is so familiar. As a result everyone had a rude awakening as this translated into missed cues, forgotten lines and generally slapdash stagecraft. Our first performance was Friday. We were not a happy bunch as we gathered for the post rehearsal meeting.

Surprisingly Miss Mellor was not too displeased.

"Now you know why the Dress Rehearsal was scheduled so early. Right people you've had your wakeup call; we have two more days to get it right." She looked at each of us in turn. "The real Dress Rehearsal is Thursday."

We all groaned, we'd been suckered with the oldest trick in the book. But the lesson was well aimed and we took it to heart.

I looked round the edge of the proscenium arch and peered at the assembled crowds. The house lights were up as the last few stragglers made their way to their seats.

"Looks like a full house."

Around me the black-clad stagehands stood quietly and the air of expectancy crackled around me. Okay this was just your standard no-frills nativity play, but the thrill of the impending performance was intoxicating and then I started to feel sick.

"You see I really have to tell you that it all gets so intense." Penny whispered in my ear. "From my experience it just doesn't seem to make sense."

I turned, grateful for the distraction; stage fright is no picnic, but I knew from bitter experience if I wasn't feeling frightened before I went on then the performance was lousy.

"Thanks."

Before I could say anything Miss Mellor arrived.

"Go back to the dressing rooms and stop upsetting my stage manager!" The smile took the sting from the words. Grumbling we did as we were told.

The applause was tumultuous, stamping feet and the odd "Bravo". This was our sixth or seventh curtain call, I wasn't sure and the applause didn't seem to be dying down any.

"Last time." Miss Mellor shouted above the noise. We all gathered for the final curtain call.

Later, as we rested I turned to Penny and stared at her in wonderment. How could anyone so wonderful, so gorgeous and so right, be satisfied with me?

"Why me?" I asked her.

Penny turned to me, "Still … you turn me on."

--Fin--

Note: The phrases emphasised thusly are the lines of the song:

Still … You Turn Me On
Greg Lake

Do you want to be an angel,
Do you want to be a star,
Do you want to play some magic on my guitar?
Do you want to be a poet,
Do you want to be my string?
You could be anything.
Do you want to be the lover of another
Undercover? You could even be the man on the moon.

Do you want to be the player,
Do you want to be the string?
Let me tell you something,
It just don't mean a thing.
You see it really doesn't matter
when you're buried in disguise
by the dark glass on your eyes,
though your flesh has crystallised;
Still … you turn me on.

Do you want to be the pillow where I lay my head,
Do you want to be the feathers lying in my bed?
Do you want to be a colour cover magazine;
create a scene.
Every day a little sadder,
A little madder,
Someone get me a ladder.

Do you want to be the singer,
Do you want to be the song?
Let me tell you something
you just couldn't be more wrong.
You see I really have to tell you
that it all gets so intense.
From my experience
It just doesn't seem to make sense,
Still … you turn me on.