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What A Tucking Mess -*- Copyright 2001 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


What A Tucking Mess


***
22:05 18 Jul

     Jeez, I never knew chest hair could be so much fun.  I was having
fun finger-combing it into strange patterns-
     "Valerie?"
     "Hmmm?"  I looked up at him, or his face.
     "Can, uh, can..."
     I looked closer and he was looking embarrassed.  "Can what?"
     "Uh, um, I..."
     I thought about it as I watched him try to get the words out, and
then I got it.  Before he could say it, too, which made me feel clever.
"You want me to, to 'do you' again?" I confirmed.
     He nodded.
     "I'd be happy to," I smiled, and cuddled against him.
     "What?"

***
22:06 18 Jul

     "Do you have a condom or something?" I asked.  That would solve a
lot of the problems from last time.
     "Uhhh... I dunno?"
     "Well?"  He didn't move.  "Go look for one.  Or two," I suggested,
feeling wicked.  "We might get lucky."
     NOW, he moved.
     I sat and twisted backwards so I could watch over the back of the
couch as he went into his room, shut the door, and went berserk.  I felt
so nice and relaxed...

***
22:08 18 Jul

     There was a particularly loud crash from inside Travis' room.  I
was so limp, I didn't want to get up, but I'd be really upset if he died
in an avalanche, too.  I compromised.  "Travis, are you okay in there?"
     No answer.
     I really didn't want to get up.  "Travis?"
     No answer.  I really hoped he wasn't injured or dead.
     Just as I was thinking about actually having to get up, he came
out, shutting the door behind him.  "Found two!" he grinned
triumphantly, and brushed some dust off his pants.
     "Great!" I smiled.  *Do condoms have expiration dates on them?* I
wondered, because this was the sort of thing I'd expect from George, if
he was trying to find the ones we got in junior high sex ed or
something.
     He came and sat down next to me, and I took the condoms away from
him to check.  They did have an expiration date, but it was a year from
now, so they should be okay.  Of course, that's completely ignoring the
question of what could go bad in there, which...  Which, after a few
moments, I realized was something I didn't want to know, really.
     "What are you looking at?" he asked, and I didn't really want to
embarrass him with my suspicion, so I just shrugged and didn't answer.
     Instead, I said, "Come here," and pursed my lips for kissing.  He
took the hint.

***
22:13 18 Jul

     Unfortunately for his sake, sucking on Travis' nipples didn't have
anywhere near the effect that sucking on mine had.  What a shame.  I
sort of wanted to tell him he was missing out, but then what could he do
about it?  Nothing I'd want him to do, that's for sure.
     Chewing lightly on his neck, though, produced all sorts of
interesting noises from him.

***
22:15 18 Jul

     I slid the zipper down, and prestidigitated around in his pants for
a while, until I found the right holes and gently started maneuvering
him out.
     "No wait," he said, and stood up to slide his pants down, which
sort of took all the fun out of that.
     On the other hand, he really was that large; I hadn't imagined it.
     "Val?"
     I blushed, because I'd been staring.  "Sorry."
     "What?"
     "It's still really big."
     "It is NOT that big!" he laughed.
     "Oh, yes it is," I challenged.  "Besides, I don't care if it's big
compared to other guys, _I_ think it's big."
     He looked at me for a while, then dropped his gaze and sort of
laughed, like he didn't know what to say.
     "Come on, sit back down," I enticed.
     He did, finally, and I kissed him encouragingly.

***
22:19 18 Jul

     I'd been doing him bare, but when I saw a drop of something start
to ooze out the end, I decided that now would be a good time for a
condom.  I pulled the packet out of my lap and tried to tear it open
with my fingers, but I couldn't quite manage, so I had to use my teeth.
     Travis looked, I guess to see why I'd stopped, and when he saw me
put the condom package in my teeth he started laughing, and I didn't
think he was ever going to stop.  He even fell off the couch.
     I almost got mad, but the idea of someone ripping open a condom
package with their teeth was, I had to admit, mildly amusing.  Mildly.
I sighed, and waited to see if we should even bother putting the condom
on him or not.

***
22:21 18 Jul

     He had calmed down, finally, and climbed back up on the couch and
wiped his face, and then he looked at his watch.  "Oh no," he groaned.
     "What?"
     "It's twenty after ten!"
     "So?"
     There was a short pause, and then he said, "Don't you have to go
home soon?"
     I shook my head happily.  "Not on the weekends!  In fact..."  I got
up and went looking for my pack.  "I might not want to go home at all,"
I dropped casually.
     As I got out my pager, there was a weak, "What?" from behind me,
which I pretended to ignore.  Unfortunately, when I checked, Dad had
said 'dont show yourself' and not 'stay gone', which was perhaps a
subtle distinction, but one that I understood.  Unfortunately.  It meant
my curfew was still in effect.
     And Mike had paged me in the last twenty minutes.  *Uh oh,* I
thought.  The last time I hadn't called him back after a page, he'd
gotten unusually upset at me.  "Um, Travis?  Can I use your phone?  It
shouldn't take more than a few minutes..."  I hoped.
     "Um..."
     I went back to the couch and kissed on him for a while, to soften
the blow, then leaned back and told him, "My best friend is worried that
I haven't answered my pager.  So I'll call and reassure him."
     "Him?" he said.
     "My brother," I said back.  "He's sort of overprotective."
     "Your brother?"
     "Yeah- you met him, the Chinese looking fellow, remember?"
     "And that's your brother," he said skeptically.
     "Trust me, everyone who knows us says we were Siamese twins
separated at birth."  I kissed his ear.  "I just have to talk to him for
a few minutes, I think, and then we can get back to, oh," I pulled back
and put an innocent look on my face, "whatever it was we were doing?"  I
fluttered my eyelashes at him, too, for good measure.
     "Uh... the phone's in the bedroom," he said, like I wasn't going to
like that.
     I shrugged, and grabbed my upper clothing for reinstallation,
because you never knew, and said, "Okay."

***
22:22 18 Jul

     "Nooooo, this is not okay," I decided, looking at the room.  It was
worse than mine had been before Debbie, even.  At least mine had had
some organization, even if it had looked like the inside of a mainframe
mating with a machine shop.  His looked like our refrigerator when
they'd shut the power off for two weeks when we'd been out of town on
vacation.  And sort of smelled like it.  "Where's the phone?"
     He led me through the rubble, which I did not want to examine too
closely at the moment, and towards the bed, which did not have clean
sheets like Amy and I put on my bed now about twice a week.  I had
started to like the feeling, I realized, as I sat on sheets which were
not changed twice a week, I didn't think.  And I think I liked the
smell, too.  Of mine, not his.
     Travis sat down next to me and rummaged, and came up with a phone
which amazingly didn't look in need of a phone sanitizer, and handed it
to me. I tried not to sigh, and smiled appreciatively at him.  Then I
started dialing.  Mike had paged me to my place, for some reason, but
that meant that I could route things through the redialer in my room and
thus totally conceal my current location.  Besides, it was good
practice.

***
22:23 18 Jul

     "Hello?" Mike said after Dad transferred the phone.
     "Hey Mike, it's-"
     "Where the hell are you?"
     I took a breath.  "I'm doing some extra work, for-"
     "Your car's not there," he accused me.
     "What?"  I now wanted to go look outside to check.  "It's not
where?"
     "At the Parker's house!"
     I took a couple of quiet deep fast breaths, to max-oxygenate my
system, because I had to do some serious fast thinking.  "Oh, no, this
is a different thing.  Remember Travis?  He said he wanted some help
clearing out his place, he's got a girl coming to visit or something,
and he said he'd pay me eight an hour if I helped him clean and sanitize
the place before she got here."
     Mike was silent.
     So was Travis, though I could see Travis' face and he looked pretty
stunned.  I smiled at him.  He was so-
     I closed my eyes and continued, "So, anyway, it's taking a while,
but it looks like we might get done in a while.  Is Amy around?"  I had
a feeling she was-
     "Uh, yeah..."  Mike sounded stunned, too.  Heh.
     "Did she tell you what happened to Mom last night?"
     "No?" Mike said, now curious.
     "Get her to tell you about it, that's another reason I sort of want
to stay gone for a while.  But don't do it where Mom can hear you.  Hey,
you can even use my room," since everyone in the fucking house knows the
door code now, I didn't say.  I really had to remember to change that at
some point in the near future-
     "Uh-"
     "Anyway, did you talk to Kim lately?  I was thinking," furiously,
"about going dancing tomorrow night?"  I turned to Travis and raised my
eyebrows.  He still looked stunned, so I kicked him very lightly to
unstick his I/O, and asked again with my eyebrows, as I heard Mike ask
Amy and Kim if they wanted to go dancing.  Travis shook himself, then
eventually nodded at me.  Cool.

***
22:24 18 Jul

     "So anyway, tell Dad I need to beg for a curfew extension, would
you?  I wanna," I dropped my voice, "I wanna make sure I get as much
time out of this as I can," and I winked at Travis, who was still
staring at me.  "Oh!  And don't mention this to Kim, okay?  Or she'd
want me to put it all through D'n'E, and I don't want to pay taxes and
stuff on it, okay?"  I'd almost forgotten that little angle.
     "Uhhhhh, okay," he ground.  He must've had a hard week or something
because he was usually faster on the ball than this.
     I waited to transfer, and spent some time looking at Travis, who
still was not wearing a shirt, which was fine with me, because I was
thinking about seeing what would happen if I nibbled on those muscles-
     "Your dad said," Mike said, "you can stay out 'til three if you do
all your chores this weekend, and he reminds you that you have a therapy
appointment at ten."
     "Yeah yeah okay," I sighed, "Anyway I gotta get back to work, he's
back from the store with more bleach," casual lie, "so I'll talk to you
tomorrow, right?"
     "Okay, um... Tuck?" he asked.
     "Yeah?"
     "Are you sure you're okay?" Mike asked suspiciously.  "You're
thinking, right?"
     "I'm fine, Mike," I smiled.  "I'm thinking.  Everything's cool."
     "Okay, then, see ya tomorrow," Mike agreed.

***
22:26 18 Jul

     I cuddled against Travis again, happy to be where I was.
     "We do have to clean that room, though," I whispered into an ear of
his.  "What'cha doing tomorrow?"
     "Are you serious?" he asked me.
     "Yep, I'm serious.  I'll even help," I told him.

***
22:39 18 Jul

     Cuddling had led to tentative kisses, which had led to confident
kisses, which had led to him fondling me again and vice versa, and he
was now erect again, and I had the condom package open already, so that
wasn't going to interrupt again, I hoped.

***
22:47 18 Jul

     "Ohhhhhhh," Travis moaned, throwing us both around the couch in
pre-orgasmic spasms, even though I was sitting next to him on the couch
and only had one leg over his.  "Oh God yes, don't stop..."
     I didn't.
     Very shortly thereafter, he grabbed my shoulder and squeezed, which
HURT, but I didn't say anything because he was virtually levitating us
both off the couch, and then he made some really amusing high-pitched
whimpers, and then he thrust towards my busy hand with enough force to
scare me, and he GROWLED, sort of... maybe it was more like a grunt, but
it sure sounded, and felt, immensely aggressive.
     And then, of course, he relaxed somewhat and concentrated on
filling up a condom.  I still thought that was amazing.  It would have
been even more amazing to watch it 'naked' as it were, but then it would
have been a lot harder to clean up, too.
     When he got done, he collapsed, eventually, and I moved around to
where I could cuddle him as he recovered.

***
22:58 18 Jul

     "So?"
     "Mmmm?" Travis rumbled.  I liked it when he did that; it was like a
tiger purring, especially when I was laying against him.  I'd have to do
this more often, I decided.
     "Did you like it?"
     "Mmmmmmmmmmmm," he smiled, and squeezed me a little tighter against
his body.
     "I'll take that as a yes."

***
23:18 18 Jul

     He was kissing on me again, which was great, in my opinion.
Especially with me on top of his lap again.  He was also, I discovered
when I moved a little, hard again.  And I do mean HARD.
     "Good lord," I said, without quite meaning to.
     "I'm sorry!" Travis gasped.
     "Oh, no, don't be sorry!" I smiled at him.  "I'm just..."  I was
just a bit stunned at how hard it actually felt when it was poking my
loins.  "Did I mention how big it was?" I smiled.
     He glared at me, which made me laugh.

***
23:21 18 Jul

     "Because I want to sit on top of you this time, and you can hold me
on," I said as I turned around on his lap.  "Maybe touch me in
inappropriate ways or something, while I fondle that monster dick of
yours?"  I began fondling said monster, and he made appreciative noises
that I couldn't see, but at least I could see what I was doing and feel
him moving under me.  A lot.

***
23:26 18 Jul

     We'd shifted so he could lie down on the couch and I could kneel
over him if I didn't mind jamming my knee into the back of the couch,
which I didn't, at least not for this.  He'd played with my back for a
while, which was nice, but then he started getting seriously excited,
and stopped playing with my back when he'd grabbed my hips and started
pushing and pulling against me, which was very interesting from my
viewpoint.
     When he grabbed me and pulled me down on top of him like he was
going to pull me through his own body, though, I guessed what was about
to happen and stifled my shriek of pain, which was good because about
five seconds later, he arched his back and lifted us both off the couch
entirely, but since I was sitting on top of him I could just ride him
off into his own personal sunset.
     And since I'd used the last condom, there wasn't even any mess for
me to clean up when he finally let go of me and collapsed under me.
     I rubbed around his legs and butt before I got up, careful again
not to groan in pain from the cramps I felt, and turned around before I
arranged myself on top of him, face to face.
     He was all red and flushed, for some reason.  Heh.
     I made sure to keep my weight off his heaving chest, and I just
watched him come down.

***
23:47 18 Jul

     He had actually fallen asleep, which I thought was amusing, but I
had to piss, so I started slowly and gently getting up.  Of course I
woke him up the instant I moved, and when he figured out that he'd been
sleeping he got all apologetic.
     "Travis," I had to tell him, "you put a lot of work into those two;
I can understand taking a nap afterwards!"
     "But-"
     "I think it's a nice butt," I said, rubbing mine against him.  He
moaned, hopefully from sensual appreciation.  "Don't you?"
     "Unnnhhhhhhhhh," was his comment.
     "But I still have to go to the bathroom," I remembered with a sigh
as my bladder cramped.  "Be right back."

***
23:50 18 Jul

     It was amazing, just how much lipstick had gone just where, when I
checked my face in his bathroom mirror.  "Jeez, you'd think he was
drawing on me with paint," I commented to myself as I started wiping off
the errant goo.
     We were going to have to clean the hell out of this room too,
tomorrow.  At least the seat hadn't been sticky.

***
23:53 18 Jul

     "What do girls do in the bathroom?" Travis asked as I came out.
     "Repaint our faces so we don't look like clowns, after you guys get
done smearing it all over the place," I shot back.  "See?"
     After I came around the couch and sat down next to him - he'd sat
up since I left - he looked me over, and finally commented, "But it
looks sexy."
     "What, the other way?"  He nodded.  "So get to work messing it up
again!" I dared him.

***
00:17 19 Jul

     He took the dare, and I had been so surprised he did, not, but he
was acting tired and I knew I was tired and there was tomorrow anyway.
     "Travis?"
     "Hmmmm?" he said, from where he was resting against my breasts.
     "I was thinking about going home, sleeping, and then me coming back
tomorrow about twelve, and we could clean your room up and then go
dancing.  How about that?"
     "What about food?"
     Guys.  "I might be talked into eating, sometime in there," I
agreed.
     Delightfully sleepy warm calm pause.
     "Am I doing something wrong?" Travis asked, out of the blue.
     "What?"  NOW I was baffled again.  I thought about it for a bit,
and guessed, "What, about me leaving?"  He nodded, looking down and
shamed.  "Travis?  I know you're sleepy; I'm sleepy too, and I do have
to go home sometime tonight.  If I go home now, I'll see you earlier
tomorrow, and we can spend the day together."  My body sort of twitched
favorably at that, and I had to giggle.  "Allll day long, Travis, think
of that.  AND, if we get your room clean, then, then I could show you
what kind of things we could do in a nice clean bedroom."  Which it
wasn't, at least not now.
     "Like what?"
     "You'll have to see!"

***
00:49 19 Jul

     He'd promised to get cleaning supplies by noon, because I'd told
him I would come by and check and I wouldn't eat until he had the
supplies there in his place, and then we said goodnight, which took
about half an hour, but he finally pried me from around his neck and
stuffed me into my car before I could get loose and recommence saying
goodnight again.  I sighed, and reminded myself that I was going to see
him in-
     "Jeez, twelve hours," I smiled.  That was a lot better than 24.

***
02:22 19 Jul

     I'd thought it was better.  Maybe it was worse.
     Amy was nice and warm, but it just wasn't the same.

***
09:00 19 Jul

     I really hated therapy, I decided as I hit my alarm clock.

***
09:09 19 Jul

     I really hated therapy, I decided as I hit my alarm clock.

***
09:18 19 Jul

     I really hated-
     "Tuck?" Amy whined.  "It's quarter past nine, don't you have to go
to therapy?"
     "Gnuhhh?"  I stared at the clock until I understood it.  "FUCK!"
     "Ooops," she commented sleepily as she rolled over and put a pillow
over her head.

***
09:35 19 Jul

     "Thanks Dad," I lied as he handed me a check.
     "Sure thing," he said back, and then turned at a noise.  So did I,
and we saw Brian lugging one of the gun cases towards the back.
     "Hey!" I complained.
     "Well, if you wanted to go shooting, you should have said
something earlier," Dad tormented me.  "I sent you email..."
     I sighed deeply.  Life was so unfair.

***
10:02 19 Jul

     I saw some girl leave the office, looking upset, and wondered what
she was in for.  No one would tell me, of course.  Maybe she didn't even
know.  I didn't know why I kept coming here, that was for certain.

***
10:21 19 Jul

     "So how do you feel about that?" she asked, which was rapidly
becoming my most unfavored question.
     I wished I could just blow it off, but Sheila was very good at
detecting the blowoffs and digging harder.

***
10:38 19 Jul

     "But I don't WANT to date anyone for a while," I said.
     Sheila asked, "Because of Debbie?"
     "Well DUH!"

***
11:06 19 Jul

     So, returned the question from therapy, if I didn't want to date
anyone, what was I doing with Travis?
     Maybe I just didn't want to date girls.
     'Course, dating guys made me a homo, which is pretty much what I'd
be told before I was stuffed into a locker, say.  Or beaten with a
baseball bat until I died.
     Maybe I could run off to the desert or something.
     *But then,* I had to admit, *I'd really miss Travis.*  And, I
remembered, I was going to go over and clean house and spend the day
with him today.  That made me smile.  The being with him part did,
anyway.

***
11:29 19 Jul

     "Because I'm getting paid," I told Amy.  "Anyway, wanna go dancing
tonight?"
     "Oh yeah, you know it," she grinned evilly at me.

***
11:51 19 Jul

     Rachel wasn't home, but Dave was, having breakfast, so I waved at
him and his friend as I went up the stairs to Rachel's room.

***
12:14 19 Jul

     I knocked on the door to Travis' garage apartment, and he opened
the door finally, looking like he'd gotten an early start on the
cleaning.  "Hi!" I said happily, glad just to see him.
     "Hi, come on, see what I did," he said proudly.

***
12:18 19 Jul

     Not much, but I didn't want to tell him that.  Besides, I didn't
know how long he'd been up.  I'd have slept until eleven if I didn't
have therapy, I guessed.  "Great start!" I told him, and kissed him.
"Are you hungry?"
     "Yeah?"
     "Wanna go out or something?"
     "Yeah!"
     Guys.  "Want me to change into my nice stuff to go out, or is this
okay?"  I'd brought two sets of clothing from Rachel's along with what I
was wearing, since cleaning tended to make me dirty.
     Travis chuckled at I don't know what.  "No, you look fine," he
smiled at me.

***
12:57 19 Jul

     "So, I was thinking, if we concentrate on your room first, then we
should have it done in a few hours, and-"
     "A few HOURS?" he scoffed.
     "Yeah?  Trust me, it'll take that long," I said confidently.
"We're gonna have to vacuum at least twice, for one thing, and wouldn't
you like to be able to SEE out of those windows?"  I dug into my chili.
I had my suspicions about what was under the bed and in the closet too,
but I wasn't going to say those out loud, since we were going to be
working for a while and thus this would be the last time I got to see
him in a 'friendly' fashion until we were done.  I sighed.
     "What?" Travis asked.
     "I don't want to work either," I told him, "I just want to cuddle
and stuff with you, but I really want to get that room clean so we can
do it someplace a little roomier than the couch."
     "You're that serious about this?"
     "Yeah," I admitted.  And then I ran my shoe up and down his leg
under the table.  "I think, once we go through all the work, that it'll
be better that way.  I really do."

***
13:22 19 Jul

     I pushed away from him reluctantly, and gasped, "Okay!  Now we
clean!"
     "Awwwww-"
     "Don't you start, this is something my sister would do," I warned
him.
     His eyebrows went up.  "You stand around and kiss your sister?"
     I stared at him and thought furiously until I had something good in
mind as a retort.  "Travis, do you REALLY want me to answer that
question?"
     He made an ugly face.
     "That's what I thought," I grinned.
     He took my hand, and then pulled me to him so he could kiss me.  I
could have resisted, but I couldn't.

***
13:26 19 Jul

     "NOW!" I insisted, and slithered out of his arms and ran for the
stairs.
     He was pounding right behind me, and shaking the entire structure,
but I kept going, as fast as I could, which wasn't quite fast enough I
realized when his hands came over my shoulders.
     "I don't care we have to start cleaning!" I screamed at him as I
kept running up the stairs, which seemed to be getting longer.

***
13:34 19 Jul

     "Come on!  The faster we get started, the faster we'll get done,
and the faster we get done, the more time we can spend after we're
done!"

***
14:38 19 Jul

     "Travis!  Stop reading and get back to work!"
     "But I want-"
     "I don't care!  Stop reading and get back to work!  You can read
them later when I'm not here!"  Jeez.

***
15:44 19 Jul

     I came out of the bathroom, tired and stinking and cramped because
I'd been scrubbing things that made me wish I had my chemsuit, and
found Travis reading again.
     I was going to scream at him, but I just started crying instead.
It just seemed so unfair, that I was working on making HIS place cleaner
for US, and I was doing all the work.
     He tried to hug me, and that's when I screamed at him.

***
15:47 19 Jul

     My car was a good place to cry, I'd found, especially when I locked
the doors.
     "How can you be such a childish jerk?!" I asked the windshield.
"If you didn't want to do this, you should have told me!"
     I didn't feel any better after saying that, so I cried some more.

***
15:52 19 Jul

     I sighed and draped myself over the steering wheel.  I'd apparently
finished crying, since I'd stopped, and I managed to blow a lot of the
snot out, but I still felt bad, and I still had no idea if I should just
go upstairs and get my stuff and go home, or what.
     A tap on the driver's side window scared the crap out of me, and
scared me again when I looked and saw Travis looming there.
     I swallowed my heart and rolled down the window when he didn't do
things like try to punch through the window or turn the car over.  But I
couldn't think of any-
     "I'm sorry, Valerie," he said first.
     Pause.
     "I'm sorry too," I admitted eventually.  "I just, I mean-"
     "I know."  He sighed, a big heaving one.  "It's hard, for me, I
guess.  I didn't think it'd be this hard."
     I didn't see what was hard about it, except the volume of things to
do, but maybe that was just me.
     "Do you want, do you want to try and finish?" I asked him.  "I
mean, it IS your place, and I don't know if you even want to finish
cleaning..."
     "I dunno," he said, looking back up the stairs at the place under
discussion.  "I don't..."
     When he didn't finish, I said, "I mean, if you want me to, and if
you help, I think we can get it clean in a couple more hours.  If you
want to, I mean..."
     "I didn't blow it?" he asked as he looked at me again.
     I had to admit, "No."
     He offered me a hand as I got out of my car, which I think he
needed more than I did.

***
17:41 19 Jul

     I sighed, looked around, and finally plopped my tired ass down on
his couch.  "I think," I said, "I think we got it all."  Minus whatever
was still in the dryer downstairs, but that wasn't my problem right now.
     "Jeez," Travis said, looking around like I had.  "I never thought
it could get this clean in a day."
     "It just takes work," I told him, and smiled.
     "I really do owe you," he said, sounding guilty for some reason, I
thought, though I had to be mistaken.
     "Well, maybe after a shower and a change," I grinned, "you could
take me out someplace nice for dinner?"
     "You want to?"
     "Well, yeah!" I told him.  "Why wouldn't I?"
     He shrugged, looking weird.  "I thought, maybe, after that
argument, you wouldn't want to go out with me or someth-"
     "Travis!"  He stopped, and I groaned inside - but not outside, I
was very careful - as I got up and went over to hug him.  "It's not that
big a deal, okay?"
     He hugged me back, so hard it hurt.

***
18:21 19 Jul

     "How does Marciano's sound?" Travis asked as the first thing he
said as I came out of the bathroom.
     "What?  Oh, Travis, I'm not dressed for there!"  I was wearing my
LBD and my heels, but I still wasn't dressed nice enough for a place
like that.
     "You look fine," he countered.  "Really, you look great."
     "Travis!" I protested.  "I don't think this looks great enough-"
     "It does!" he said, and he picked me up and kissed me until I gave
in.  Besides, who would possibly argue with his judgement?
     "What time?" I asked breathlessly a few minutes later.
     "Seven," he smiled.

***
18:47 19 Jul

     "So hoist up the John B's sail," we sang together.
     "See how the mainsail sits..."

***
18:54 19 Jul

     "We have reservations, name of Jensen," Travis told the maitre d'.
     The man in the tuxedo consulted a list, then looked back up as he
said, "Yes sir, it will just be a few minutes until your table is
ready."
     Travis looked at me, like he was asking permission, so I nodded,
then pulled his hand so he'd bend down so I could kiss him again.
     In what seemed like moments, they were calling him and telling him
our table was ready.

***
19:19 19 Jul

     "And you'll have the eggplant parmigiana, right?" Travis grinned at
me.
     It took me a moment, but then I smiled back and said, "And you were
going to have the egg drop soup."
     I don't think the waiter understood why we were laughing.

***
20:27 19 Jul

     Amazingly, we'd already finished dessert when things went to hell.
     Because that's when Debbie and Lisa came in.
     I didn't see them at first, I just caught a whiff of scent and
almost tipped my chair backwards as I grabbed for the fighting knife in
my purse.  Then I froze as I caught Lisa's scent too.
     It was several moments before I could see them, but they were
there; I wasn't hallucinating.  I pulled my purse into my lap so it'd be
handier.  They were dressed nice, like they were on dates, but there
weren't any guys with-
     *Oh, right,* I remembered, and wanted to kick myself.  Then I sort
of wanted to kick both of them instead of me.
     "Valerie?" Travis rumbled at me as the two of them walked through
the dark restaurant.
     "Yeah?" I almost whispered, not wanting to attract attention.
     "What is it?" he asked back, but, thank all the gods, quietly.
     "Trav, it, it's Debbie and Lisa, and I don't want to see-"
     I guess I'd been staring too long, because that's when Lisa spotted
me.  I saw it hit her.  Then I saw her scan sideways, identify Travis,
and I saw THAT hit her.  I was flexing my fingers around the knife and
getting ready to throw my glass of tea as a preparatory move, when she
deliberately made Debbie sit with her back to us, and sat down facing
us.
     Then, I had no idea what to do.
     Except leave, as quickly as possible.
     I whispered to Travis that I was going outside because of Lisa and
Debbie, and then carefully got up and made my way outside, concentrating
on not existing.  I guess it worked; I wasn't painted that I could tell,
except by Lisa, who seemed to watch me the entire time it took me to
leave.

***
20:32 19 Jul

     It took forever, but he finally came out of Marciano's, alone, and
made his way to his truck, where I'd been hiding and watching from.
     "What did you do, stop to talk to them?" I shot off before I could
stop myself.
     "No, Valerie," he said like I'd just pissed him off, which I was
pretty sure I had, "it took me a while to get the check and then get
change from it.  What is your deal with her?"
     "Travis... Debbie said she'd kill me if I cheated on her," I
explained.  "And, I mean, she was COMPLETELY opposed to the idea of me
even dating any guys, even-"
     "But-"
     "Yeah I know but even so, she threatened me a couple of times with
me just hanging around other guys, she is so insanely jealous or
something, I mean, even though she made me date you before we broke, I
mean her and I broke up?"  Crap, this was starting to get confusing.
"Can we go somewhere else and talk?  I might be more coherent if I
wasn't scared she was going to come out with an axe or something."
     He sighed, and looked at me, before suggesting, "My place?"
     I wanted to ask if Lisa knew where it was, but stopped myself.
Besides, at least it was clean now.

g***
21:01 19 Jul

     I sighed as Travis locked the door behind us, and then I hugged
him.  "So explain," he told me instead of kissing me when I tugged on
his hand.  I sighed, then pulled us over to the couch so I could sit,
which I did, and finally he did also.
     "Okay," I sighed, and took a deep breath.  "Now, we met a long time
ago, and Debbie and I were dating then.  We were dating until June..."
He nodded.  "So, the whole time we were dating, she was shoving me in
front of guys sometimes, and then threatening me if I even looked at one
other times."  Travis and John the pizza boy on one hand, and Jack and
that ex-boyfriend on the other.  Not to mention her throwing me out of
the hotel room in L.A. and then screaming at me for doing what she'd
made me do.  "So, I mean, she broke up with me... and so that's over
with, right?"
     Travis nodded.
     "But, in HER mind," I emphasized, "does that mean that she's
through with me?  Or does she still consider me to have to play by her
rules, which change all the time apparently?  Am I allowed to date you
even though I'm not dating her any more?"
     "That's really insane," he said.
     "I don't think she's really the Sanity Poster Child, Travis."
     "I think you are really overblowing the problem," he told me.
"Besides, I don't think Lisa would let her do something stupid."
     "But-"
     "I mean, has Debbie done anything to you yet?" he asked.
     "Well..."  I thought about it carefully, and I finally had to
admit, "no."
     "And I don't think Lisa liked the competition," he said.
     "What, me?"
     "Yeah-"
     "But she was dating both of us, I mean, whatever you call her and
Lisa's relationship," I reminded him.
     "But every time Debbie went out with you was one time she didn't go
out with Lisa," Travis explained.  "So, now that you're out of the
picture, why would Lisa even want Debbie to think about you ever again?"
     I thought about that.  "Really?"
     "Would YOU want to remind me of the girls _I_ dated?" he suggested.
     My, "No!" required about zero thought, and made him chuckle.
     "See?" he added unnecessarily.
     "But what if Debbie sees me and goes crazy?" I asked.
     "You remember when you and Amy came out dancing with me and my
friends?" he sidetracked.
     "So?"
     "So, if you're crazy enough to attack me, then you're crazy enough
to counter her," he said.  "And if you're with me at the time..."  He
just let that one trail off.
     "My hero," I smiled, and commenced kissing him.

***
21:08 19 Jul

     I had just started getting warmed up, as it were, when my pager
went off in my purse.  "Oh, fuck," I sighed as I broke away from Travis.
     He just sighed.
     I sighed too, and got up and got my pager out of my purse.  It
said:

     HEY THOUGHT WE WER GOING DANCING OR SOMETHING CALL USE AT HOME
     MIKE KIM N AMY

     And they had the gall to complain about MY English.  I sighed,
before I remembered, and then I turned to Travis.  "Hey, Travis?  Wanna
go dancing tonight?"
     He didn't say yes immediately, which confused me.  He even looked
hesitant.  "Travis?"
     "I just..." he said.
     Pause.
     "Traaaaaaaavis?" I pinged.
     "I just feel weird about going out with your friends, when they all
know about you," he said, looking kind of miserable.
     "Oh," I said, as I realized that if we went out together, I
probably wouldn't be able to keep my hands off him, which could lead to
some bad questions.  "Yeah, I see what you mean."

***
21:14 19 Jul

     We had established that neither one thought the other one was
horribly bad or whatever for not risking my friends & family this
weekend - and I've have to do some more of that damned thinking - which
meant that I was going to have to wait to sample the delights of necking
on a real bed for a couple of days, what with both of us being busy
Sunday.
     "Hello?" Dad said.
     "Dad?  It's me?"
     "Which one?" he said.
     I sighed.  "Lemme talk to the chink, he said he was there-"  Click
as Dad transferred me.
     Positive, as they say, authentication.

***
21:15 19 Jul

     "Where-" Mike started.
     "I told you I was cleaning today," I reminded him, and ran a foot
up Travis' leg.  He looked so much better than most guys I'd ever s-
     "Done yet?"
     "Oh, uh, yeah, and uh, he took me out to eat as a bonus, so if you
wan-"
     "Ah man," he sighed.
     "When did you eat?"
     "Couple of hours ago, but you know," he said.  I knew; Mike was
sort of a pig, i.e. an omnivorous scrounger, with either a high
metabolism or a great desire to grow larger.  Or maybe it was a Chinese
thing; you eat, and in an hour you're hungry again.
     "What does Amy think?"
     "Amy?  Think?  Are we talking about the same Amy?  Ow," he said,
and then Amy was on the phone.  "Jerk," she said.
     "Hey!" I complained, to be annoying.
     "Not you!" she snapped back like she was annoyed already.  "Are you
done yet?"
     "Yes, we're done cleaning for today, and I already ate-"
     "For today?" she complained.
     I sighed.

***
21:29 19 Jul

     Now all I had to do was successfully say goodnight and disconnect.
     I thought, when I could think, that we'd made the right decision.
I wasn't quite ready to announce to everyone who, or more precisely
what, I was dating, and while Lisa had seen me and Travis, we hadn't
been doing anything more naughty than having dinner at the time - rare
enough - and her actions had sort of convinced me she wasn't interested
in causing as much chaos as possible.  That would have been if she'd
screamed and marked us for Debbie to home in on, which would have gotten
very nasty.  Travis had made some logical points too, though like I
said, I wasn't dealing with the Logic Twins.  He seemed completely sure,
though, and he was risking at least half as much as me, maybe more if
you counted second-strike capability on my side.  So I guessed Lisa
wouldn't mention it to Debbie, which meant Debbie wouldn't tell the rest
of the world.  So it was sort of up to me and Travis.  And like I said,
I wasn't quite ready to deal with the announcement yet.
     So all I had to do was successfully say goodnight and disconnect.
     Travis ran a large warm hand up my skirt from the rear, and my
brain fell out.

***
21:48 19 Jul

     My pager started going off, which startled us apart, and then we
sort of had a rush of sanity and he half-carried me downstairs and threw
me into my car.
     But my pager kept going off.

***
21:57 19 Jul

     It is completely impossible to find a pay phone quickly when you
need one, and I wasn't carrying the equipment needed to make a field
expedient NIC.  I'd have to fix that.
     Finally, though, a gas station wasn't quick enough to disappear and
so I pinned it down with my car and ran around until I found the phone,
dialed home, and screamed, "WHAT!"
     "One moment, please," Dad said in this nasal voice, and transferred
me.
     "He-"
     "WHAT?!" I screamed again.
     "WHERE ARE YOU!?" Amy screamed back.
     "I'm at a fucking gas station in Idunnowhere trying to figure out
who keeps paging me?!  Know anything about that?!"
     "Well tell us where you are!"
     "I'm... I'm still changed," I said, hoping Dad wasn't monitoring
the line, "and I'll meet you at, uh, that club Rachel took us to, a
month ago..."
     "That weird one?" Amy said.
     "Yeah, the one that Mike liked so much," I said, grateful she'd
remembered.
     She snickered.  "Okay, I'll, uh, ask Kim if she remembers where it
is.  See ya there, right?"
     "Right!  I'll wait for you outside, though."
     "'Kay, bye!"
     "Bye!"  We hung up.
     Now I just had to remember where it was, and then figure out how to
get there from here.  Wherever here was.

***
22:29 19 Jul

     I finally found the damned place, and Mike and Kim and Amy were
standing around or sitting on Kim's car, waiting for me.  I found a
space relatively near them, parked my car, and walked over.
     "What took-"
     "Nice!" Kim interrupted.
     "Well, it's a nice place," I said, feeling kind of nervous.
     "Where did you go?" she asked.
     "Marciano's."
     "Ooooh," she said.  "Remind me not to let you clean my room, I
can't afford there!"
     I turned to Mike, because he wasn't supposed to tell her about what
I was doing, and he signed at me, <She does not care.>
     <Still,> I signed back, to let him know I wasn't pleased, then
added, <Later> when it looked like he wanted to discuss it.
     Then I noticed that it wasn't just the weird parking lot lighting
making those patterns on their faces; they were wearing face paint.
"What did YOU do?" I complained and pointed.  They all laughed.
     Sometimes I had to wonder why I even wore makeup.

***
22:32 19 Jul

     They'd brought red and black, so I did a triple diamond pattern,
the outer ones in a straight line from the top of my eyebrows to the
corners of my mouth, and the middle one over my nose, a top diamond
going off into my hair and a bottom one over my chin and downwards, and
the rest of the uberdiamond in black, and rice-powder white everywhere
else.
     Mike had done his up in a Noh mask, I think it was, and he looked
really demonic in a sort of anime or manga sort of way, which was the
point.  Kim had gone for this twisted Barbie look, with paint and fake
eyes and color dots and smears all over in this parody of makeup that
just looked WRONG, and Amy was just wearing it as war paint.

***
23:51 19 Jul

     I'd thought I was being a little paranoid about this guy I'd never
seen before dancing close, but it turned out I wasn't, when he put a
hand a place I don't let strangers put hands.
     After I slapped him - which was a lot nicer than the nosecracker I
was going to deliver - I yelled at him, "DON'T TOUCH THE DISPLAY
MANNEQUINS!" took Amy's hand, and left to find where Mike and Kim had
wandered off to.
     I finally found them, doing disgusting things, and so I convinced
Amy that we could dance near them as easily as we could on the dance
floor, and so we did.

***
01:29 20 Jul

     "How many times did you get hit on, Mike?" I asked as I sipped my
soda and waited for my dessert.  The Gay Cafe was kind of crowded, as
usual.
     His not-quite-casual, "Eighteen," stopped us.  "Not counting the
five girls."
     "Fi-" Kim started to protest.
     "One in the bloody BATHROOM!" Mike complained bitterly.  "While I
was pissing!"
     "Boy or girl?" Amy asked.
     "A GIRL!" Mike complained louder.  "That's what made it so bad."
     Girls went to the bathroom sometimes to get away from the guys.
They weren't the only side that used a bathroom as a refuge; they just
made a bigger deal out of it.
     "You sound like you have strong feelings about this issue," Kim
goaded him in a neutral voice.
     "Y-" Mike started and stopped almost at the same time.  Then he
grabbed an ice cube and delivered it down Kim's cleavage.

***
01:30 20 Jul

     "Jeez, Kim, chill out!  He did it to me once!"
     Kim stopped.  "He did?"
     "He's evil," Amy added, which helped not at all.
     I nodded to Kim, and when she relaxed her arm, I slowly let go of
it.
     Kim just glared silently at Mike, who shrugged, and said, "I'm
evil, what can I do?"

***
02:55 20 Jul

     "One nice thing about going out like this," I said to Amy after I
parked the car in front of our house.
     "Whazzat?" she said before she yawned.
     I waited until she'd finished before I said, "Don't have to take my
makeup off before we go in."
     It didn't even matter though; for once, Dad wasn't in his office by
the front door.  It looked like he'd gone off to bed with Mom.  I hoped
he'd locked the door; that would slow her down a bit.

***


"No, the last thing they'll expect is for us to turn into ice skating
mongooses dancing the Volero." - I'm not sure, but I think it's
Blackadder


Distribution:
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+ ==[--------   Ellen Hayes   @>--,--'---      ellen@barkingduck.net +
PGP DH/DSS keyfing: 33D4 156A AE39 53E2 0313  6714 2878 56A8 61B0 9CDC
+ http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes -=[1990]=- vicki .sig virus 11.4 +


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