El Sobador
by ElSol

Chapter 2

"I need to study with Janet," I announced.

Family dinners sucked. Usually, my stepparents did everything they could to avoid having a sit-down meal that included me. My stepmother liked the big meal cooking thing, so once a month we suffered through the silence of pretending to be a family.

I never knew my biological father. My mother emigrated to the U.S. days after I was born and married my stepfather eight years later. She died within months of my sister's birth. Six months later, my stepfather remarried; a year later, they had twin boys. My stepmother (I called her Double-Step) treated my sister like her own, but...

The Steps fulfilled their obligations and I tried to make it painless. Sometimes, Double-Step's face flashed with guilt over the situation. We took comfort in the thought they could assuage any guilt with financial aid for my college education which was less than two years away for me.

"Of course," the Double-Step said. "Do you need a ride?"

"No, thank you." I got up and put my plate in the sink. "I need some exercise so I'll walk."

I stepped behind my little sister. She dropped her head back as far as she could to let me kiss her on the forehead.

"Story!" she insisted.

I looked at the clock before nodding to her. It didn't give me much time out of the house, but I read to her every night that she wanted so I'd deal with being in the house while the Double-Step felt familial.

-----

If I could be said to have a friend in high school, Janet Smith would be it. The relationship was based on being outsiders, a nobody and a lesbian. Being a Senior, Janet's parole was months away.

We didn't have to study. She let me use her apartment as an escape when I needed it as long as I did the same for her. I can't say which one of us had the crappier home life. Janet's dad found a new family to love when she was nine and her mom worked eighty hour weeks while spending any free time adding notches to single men's bedposts. Though her dad made insincere offers every now and then, Janet chose to live with her mom.

"I'm sorry," she whispered when she opened the door.

"It's okay," I replied. "I'll go to the library."

If Janet had someone over, I was glad for her. Her sophomore year, she'd been caught in a broom closet with another girl during a student conference. Janet didn't deny or hide from the moment of her sexual awareness. It made her life lonely, though my classmates surprised me in that it wasn't as bad as I would have thought.

"Not that," she said, grabbing my backpack strap to drag me inside. She pressed against me, until she had my back pinned to the wall. "It wasn't my idea; I owe her."

I never let myself think about Janet in THAT way. Unfortunately, she was shorter than me and very cute in a no makeup, dykey clothed way. The shortness mattered because her belly was pushing on my groin.

"You need to step back, Janet," I said. "Please!"

She looked down between us before following the instruction, "Oh, sorry!"

"Who do you owe?" I asked. When she looked down the hall, I adjusted my lengthening penis to give it room in my jeans.

"Can you really do the stuff Maggie says?" she asked. "You didn't tell me."

"Maggie?"

"Magdalena." She grabbed my arm and guided me towards her living room. Janet did that--dragging me from place to place when she got excited. Most of the time it was to small venue concerts we shouldn't have been able to get into. Personally I liked the museum trips the best, even when I only got to look at the stuff Janet found interesting.

As I turned the corner, my stomach squeezed in on itself. Bailey, Magdalena, the Junior class President, and our Treasurer were sitting in various places around the room.

"Oh, fuck no!" I said, turning around to jet. Janet grabbed my backpack and held on for dear life.

"It's nothing bad, Mateo." Bailey walked over to help Janet keep me in the room. "I promise."

"Your boyfriend wants to kick my ass," I told her.

"I want to kick your ass!" she replied. "You don't fucking know how to say hi?"

She was pissed; she might have had good reason to be pissed. None of the girls in the room were going to be on my side of the reason so I didn't bother to look at them for support. A week passed since I massaged the pain from Bailey's shoulder. The high school nobody getting to touch the most popular girl in school, in a public forum and in a private way, only happens in movies. Dumb movies! I figured Bailey would regain her senses after the fallout with the boyfriend settled and regret it so I ignored her. As in, I didn't meet her eyes or give her a chance to diss me when we passed each other in the hall. It required wearing hoodies and keeping my head down for a week, but the sacrifice seemed worthwhile so as not to take a tumble farther down the social ladder. Not that there's much room below 'nobody' except maybe the kid who has to be taken out of class and given a year's supply of personal hygiene products along with a demonstration on using them. (I'm NOT kidding!)

"Bailey, you're gorgeous." I stopped. "I don't believe I said it that so forget it. Whatever the fuck you're doing here, my answer is 'No!' Okay? I'm leaving."

"My shoulder hurts again," she said as I turned around. I puffed my cheeks and blew the air out slowly. "I shouldn't have done that to you in the cafeteria. Reggie cheated on me. I was so pissed off and I just..."

Facing her, I closed my eyes. "Don't bother explaining--we're in high school."

"What is that supposed to mean?" the class President asked.

"Jennifer, don't!" Bailey ordered.

I had to wonder why Jennifer White and our Treasurer Susan Tint were present. I looked at Bailey and the other girls. Bailey answered the question, "I don't know you. Janet says you're sweet, but with what Maggie says you probably have to do I thought more girls would be better."

Bailey stared hard at me, "Maggie says you're like a Hispanic witch doctor."

"It's curandero. My grandmother used to do it, like you, with massage," Magdalena told me. "You're really good. How long have you been training?"

"I don't think I was ever in training. Anyway, I stopped going a while ago," I said. "Look Bailey, it was a one time thing. I got lucky."

Bailey studied my face for a few seconds. "Bullshit!"

Magdalena moved from her spot to the sofa nearest me. Kneeling on it, she joined in the study of my features. "Abuelita said you had to be training for a long time."

"My mom took me to some old women who did the stuff. I was baby when I started, like still eating baby food age." I said. "It stopped a few months before she died because they were getting into herbal stuff and the Jesus-thing. She said I didn't need it. Hell, I don't even speak Spanish!"

"Lo entiendes?" Magdalena asked.

"Yes, I understand it," I replied.

"So you can help with my shoulder?" Bailey asked.

I sighed, "Fuck me! I'll do it but don't tell anybody else, okay?"

"Are you for real?" Susan asked. "A witch doctor is such bullshit."

"Massage therapy!" Magdelana said, biting each syllable off as she glared at Susan. "White people didn't invent everything. It's been done in Latin countries for centuries."

"So you're not going to burn leaves and shit?" Jennifer asked. "Like dance around the room half-naked?"

I almost laughed at the disappointed look on her face.

"It's not like that," I said and then grimaced. "Some of it is like that without the dancing half-naked, but like I said, my mom stopped taking me to the old women so I only know the hands-on part of it."

"She must have insisted they not teach you the religious stuff," Magdalena said thoughtfully.

"Boring! Do you have premium channels?" Jennifer grabbed the TV remote. I was losing my good impression of our Class President.

"Will it distract you?" Bailey asked.

"We could go into the other room," I replied.

Bailey walked over to Jennifer and snatched the remote out of her hand. "That would defeat the purpose of bringing the girls."

"I'm not going to win," I whispered. Janet must have heard me because she covered her mouth to stifle a lƒaugh.

"Do you still have the massage oil sampler I gave you?" I asked her.

"Did you give me that stuff because you were hoping..."

"No! Dammit!" I threw my backpack on the ground. "You're gay; I get it. It's a nice kit. I figured girls, together, massage oil, maybe she hadn't ever gotten massage."

"Oh!" Janet's eyes lost focus. "Does that work?"

"I don't know," I said. "You have a better chance with girls than I do."

"Excuse me." Bailey raised her hand. "We're here for my shoulder. I don't want to interrupt but it's hurting a lot."

"What are you talking about?" I said. "Not more than before."

"Yes, it is."

"That's not right," I said. "Nothing I did would make it worse."

"Something she did could have." Magdelana plopped her ass down on the sofa, crossed her arms, and gave Bailey an I-told-you-so look. "Someone thought she was fine and tried the same stunt that fucked her up to begin with. Didn't land it again!"

"Cheerleaders!" Jennifer huffed.

"Shut up, Jen!" Bailey dropped her best nasty look on Jennifer. I got the feeling this was something that played out many times with them. Their quick smiles when they looked away from each other confirmed it.

"I need the coconut scented oil," I told Janet. "Unless you've got any orange scented in the apartment."

"Why the coconut?" Bailey asked.

"You're an orange," I replied. "Like in the juice carton pictures. Bright, every part ready to burst with..."

"I think he likes you," Jennifer told Bailey.

Bailey kicked my backpack away when I reached down for it. "Jen, seriously, shut up! I need his help."

"You can get a massage at the gym," Susan said.

"I did," Bailey said. "Mateo didn't do a real massage. He rubbed my shoulder for a few seconds and then pressed down on the spot that hurts. I tried the same thing. I mean, it wasn't that hard to do it but I got nothing."

"Sounds more real than the guy at the gym," Magdelana said to no one in particular. "I guess since Mateo doesn't use chemicals it's just witchy stuff like a midwife."

"I don't think it's the same thing," I told Magdalena. "Technically speaking, women were having babies before we had huts called hospitals."

"Here it is," Janet said, handing me the small bottle of massage oil.

"If she's an orange, why are you going to use coconut?" Jennifer asked me.

"You're not any one thing," I answered. "Unless you're really fucking shallow."

"She is a cheerleader."

"Push your top and bra strap off the shoulder," I told Bailey.

She pursed her lips, "But you said my shoulder wasn't the problem."

The girls stared at me expectantly. I think Jennifer wanted to see some half-naked dancing.

"It's not but..."

"My neck and back," Bailey said. "So fix them."

"Your neck and back are out of alignment, by themselves and with each other," I said. "It's not going to be a massage. I have to adjust you."
ƒ
"You sound like a chiropractor," Susan said.

"I thought you were a sobador," Magdalena said looking at me. "I guess a huesero makes more sense."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Susan asked.

"I think it sounds cool," Jennifer said. "You're kind of cute, Mateo. Does the neck and back thing call for the half-naked dancing?"

I gave each girl a hard look, "Yes, I've been trained in traditional Meso-American healing practices. No, I don't know any of the ritual or herbal stuff. No, I've never heard of anybody having to dance half-naked or fully naked as a part of it. Yes, I trained as a masseuse and bone-setter; Magdalena used the Spanish words for them."

"But my neck and back aren't broken," Bailey said.

"The words don't translate well," Magdalena told her. "They're titles."

"What's Meso-American?" Jennifer asked.

I looked towards the door.

"Okay!" Bailey said to me. "So you can help me. Will it be permanent?"

"Probably," I said. "It might take a realignment and later on to massage the affected areas a couple of times. I won't know without touching you again and that takes..."

"My clothes off," Bailey finished for me.

"You said there was no naked stuff." Jennifer sat up straight. Janet looked like it would take wild horses to drag her out of the room.

"It's not just to see me naked, right?" Bailey asked me. I'd never seen her unsure of herself.

"You don't have to be naked." My dick didn't like me very much at that moment.

"My grandmother always had people get naked or at least mostly naked," Magdalena said.

"I need skin to skin contact," I told them. "The bra won't be in the way unless it's directly on top of the spot on her back I have to fix."

"Down to panties too, right?" Jennifer asked.

"No!" I replied too quickly. Some of those smiles that guys don't understand passed between them.

"Are we going to do this or not?" I asked. "You, girls, ambushed me. I can go read in the library or something."

"What if I'm not wearing a bra?" Bailey asked.

"I'm kidding, Mateo," she said when I took a step away from her. Pulling up the yellow shirt, she flashed the matching bra at me. "See, we're good."

Unlike Janet, I couldn't watch Bailey take off her shirt. I put the massage oil down on a table and stared at the floor.

"Okay, I'm ready," Bailey said, walking up to stand in front of me.

"Turn around," I said as clinically as I could.

She turned around. Trying to be clinical didn't help me; mostly because a sixteen year old male can't be clinical with the hottest girl in school standing with her back to him while only wearing a very thin, yellow bra. She was wearing jeans but the top part of her being half-naked got all my attention.

I put my hand on her back and let that distract me from who I was touching. My fingers were at the small of her back. When you train at such a young age, what you do can become instinct. I traced two fingertips up Bailey's spine until I was three inches from the bra strap. I followed the wrongness in her body to the right of her spine. It wasn't much but combined with the neck problem it threw off her muscle balance. Some muscles had to work harder than others and some worked less thus weakening them slowly.

Taking a deep breath, I put the other hand on her back and walked both sets of fingers up Bailey's back to her neck. The problem there screamed so loudly I was surprised Bailey didn't know the real source of her pain. The work I needed to do here would scare her. I'd have to do it first or she'd balk.

"Face me." Bailey turned around. She looked up at me; we were standing so close together I could feel the warmth of her breath.

"Against me," I said. "I need to feel your problem from this side."

It was a lie, but one that would distract her.

"A little tighter," I said. Bailey pressed her chest and belly against my body.

I wrapped my arms around her neck. After widening my stance, I hugged Bailey tighter and pressed my fingertips against her neck. She must have figured it out at the last second. Her hands grabbed my side and she tried to push me away. I lifted, straightening her neck, and pressed hard with two fingers to force her neck back to normal. In the moment between deciding to apply pressure and applying it, I sent the heat of my body into hers. It was the part that mattered the most.

Bailey's hands relaxed against my body. She gasped, louder and deeper than in the cafeteria.

"It's okay, Bailey," I whispered into her ear. "I have you."

I sent more of my heat into her body. Touching her neck with all my fingertips, I increased the flow.

"Oh my God!" Bailey cried out softly. She pushed against my crotch and rubbed. That was new! I couldn't let her go; her neck was drinking in the heat. Her muscles were adjusting back to before the distribution of work had been thrown off.

It was an uncomfortable pair of minutes for me.

"Is that it?" Jennifer asked finally.

"One more thing," I said, letting Bailey go and stepping back. "Turn around."

Bailey's eyes were out of focus. Her mind was somewhere else and happy to be there. Thankfully, her body followed my instruction. Setting her back right required less work, especially with her body so relaxed. Having already used the hug method on Bailey, I decided to use it again instead of getting her to lie down so I could do her back with just my hands and fingers. I hugged Bailey into me, wrapping my arms around her until I could rest each hand on the opposite sides of her rib cage. She didn't protest this time, letting me lift and twist her.

She gasped again. Sliding my hands below her breastbone, I sent the heat into her body again. This part would have been easier with her lying down, but the extra couple of minutes needed were worth it since Bailey was obviously not comfortable with me or else she wouldn't have brought the other girls.

"Okay, we're done," I said into her ear.

"You're hard," Bailey told me, standing up on her toes and pressing her ass against the penis doing an impression of oak tree trunk. "Give it a few more minutes."

"Yeah but..."

"You're a boy," Bailey said. "That stuff makes you embarrassed and there's a few cute girls who are going to see, and can I say, 'Wow! I thought Reggie was big!'"

"You're not helping," I whispered.

Bailey was still pushing her ass back. She settled down on her feet before replying "You're a nice guy, Mateo. Janet is right, you're sweet."

The humor in her voice told me Janet had spilled her guts about my most hated adjectives. Nice and sweet--Bleh!!!

Five minutes later, I had my backpack on and was thinking about heading home to start story time early.

"Are you going to have to massage me?" Bailey asked. "I won't bring the girls."

"Massage definitely requires some nudity," Jennifer said. "Someone should be there to protect you."

"I'll do it!" Janet volunteered a bit too quickly.

"No," I said to break the uncomfortable silence. "You probably would have been okay if you hadn't tried to do that thing Magdalena was talking about."

"You can say hi to me in school," Bailey said as I turned to walk out. "To all of us, we're not that bad or bad at all."

I stopped and looked at her. "No, thanks. I don't need your boyfriend kicking my ass."

"He's not my boyfriend anymore."

"That makes it worse, Bailey."

"It's bullshit, girl," Jennifer said to Bailey. "He doesn't want anything to do with us."

I nodded after a few seconds, "Since you're all here, I guess it means Janet could do better. I like being alone. I'm not interested in sports or being in college application enhancing extracurricular activities or singing in a group or doing anything in a group."

I looked at Bailey; the hard-on thing had been kind of her. I didn't think I owed her, but I was also being an asshole about not wanting anything more to do with her.

"There's evil in your..." I gestured with a hand to her right breast and then to her left breast. "You should get it checked out."

The shock on Bailey's face is something I will never forget. The fear also!

"That's taking this shit too far!" Susan exclaimed. "Evil! Really? What the fuck? I thought your mom dragged you away before they could get you into the religious crazy of being a witch doctor."

"It's going to kill her," I said, keeping my eyes on Bailey. "What else would you call it?"

Their silence gave me enough time to make a getaway. At least, my sister was greatly appreciative of a two story night.

