Closing Night High Ch. 05

Strong, steady arms wrap me up, and I'm pulled into the security of Caleb's body. Powerful relief and a sense of safety stop any more of my tears from falling. I have no clue what just happened outside, and I don't want to think about it just yet.

I'm alive. Caleb's alive. Nothing else matters in this moment.

Two of the officers run for the exit, guns drawn, and cautiously open the door. Whatever they find has one of them holstering his weapon as he steps outside. There's no doubt in mind what he saw. The look in Melissa's eyes before she turned and ran made it clear that someone wouldn't be walking away from this—someone who couldn't come to grips with her life as it now was and tried to bend reality to her will, with no success. Reality is stubborn that way.

"Em!" Eric shouts frantically, as he flies down the aisle, Parker and Kyle right behind him. Caleb reluctantly releases his hold on me so my best friend and I can hug each other tight enough to crack ribs. "God, Em, I was so scared. When I heard the shot, I was so fucking scared. And they wouldn't let us in, and they weren't telling us anything, and I am so, so glad you're ok," he says at rapid speed, shaking like a leaf.

"It's over, Eric. It's finally all over, and— Oomph!" I'm suddenly squeezed by another set of arms, wrapping around me from behind. "Hey, Cutie."

"No more scares, missy. We can't handle it."

"When Kyle called me and told me you looked freaked out and that you were with some brunette, it was like my whole world just stopped."

I look over Eric's shoulder at his brother and mouth, "Thank you." When his brows knit together in confusion, I laugh and say the words out loud.

Caleb tugs me back to him. I know how he feels—I can't stand to be separated from him for long, either. With me no longer between them, Eric and Parker embrace and comfort each other. The hug isn't one between friends, but between two people who are completely in love with each other.

I watch for Kyle's reaction. Eric has been keeping his sexuality a secret from his family, and especially from the guy who tormented him his entire life, but there's no surprise on his big brother's face. Kyle simply clasps his hand on Eric's shoulder in a show of support.

Even in a tragic moment like this, my love for the people in this room brings a smile to my face.

* * * * *

Caleb and I wait at the crowded police station. A detective had already interviewed us at the theater, but he asked us to come down to go over the sequence of events of the past month. I'm not looking forward to telling some stranger about my sex tape. And, oh god, will he want to see it? I groan and lean into Caleb's chest.

"Are you ok, babe?" he asks me for the billionth time since things went down.

"I'm amazing... but now I have to tell people everything. Everything, Caleb. At least we won't have to go to court. Wait—do you think they'll charge Lacey with anything?" After considering it for a second, I'm surprised to find I don't want that to happen. I'll never forgive her for what she did to me, but should one terrible choice she made as a teenager ruin her life? "If I don't want them to, can they still arrest her?"

"I'm not sure, but we can find out." He cradles my face in his large hands, and my eyes meet his. It's a wonder they're not shooting laser beams of love at him. Or maybe they are, but they're invisible laser beams. What a cool superpower to have. "Remember what I told you today in my office? You're a fighter, Em. And thank you—thank you—for fighting for yourself today. I meant what I said to Melissa. If she'd taken you from me, life wouldn't have been worth living."

"Don't ever talk like that. And besides, it doesn't matter. We're here. You and me. And there's nothing left to keep us apart." At my words, Caleb slides his fingers through my hair and grips it, bringing my lips to his. We kiss with a passion so hot, it could set this whole damn place on fire if we're not careful.

Clutching his shirt in my fists, I open my mouth to feel his tongue glide over mine. I'm turned on instantly, and judging by the hardening bulge in Caleb's jeans, he's right there with me. I wonder if they'd mind if we slipped out for a little bit to fuck like we just survived the end of the world.

"Emilie?" a tentative voice asks.

Oh... shit... Breaking away from Caleb is painful, but sadly necessary in this situation.

"Um. Hi, Mom." My face is beet red. Mom and Dad are standing right in front of us, mouths gaping and eyes bugging out. Not a good look for them, really.

Caleb clasps my hand in his. Cat's out of the bag, anyway. What's a little handholding when my parents just witnessed the prelude to some seriously hot sex?

Looking between me and the much older, tattooed, badass-looking man at my side, my mother's mouth opens and closes, while little noises that sound like they're supposed to be complete words but don't quite make it that far crackle in her throat.

"Dr. Ormond. Mrs. Ormond. My name is Caleb." He offers his free hand in greeting. Neither one of my parents takes it.

"You look familiar..." Mom squints, trying to place him. Caleb looks to me, silently asking how much I want my parents to know. They're my family, so it's my decision. It's time I man up and finally tell the truth about the most crucial person in my life.

"Caleb is the tech director at the high school," I tell her, trying to play it cool, just lay out the facts. "He's also my boyfriend." Annnnd brace for impact!

"Boyfriend?" my dad yells, finally chiming in. "Jesus. You must be twice her age! What the hell is wrong with you?" His face turns a scary shade of reddish-purple, veins pop out on his forehead, and his raised voice attracts the attention of everyone in the crowded room.

"I fell in love with your daughter, sir. I couldn't help it. She's an amazing woman." I wrap my arms around his waist, no longer content with holding only his hand. His strong arm snakes around my back, and he strokes my waist with his thumb.

"She's just a damn child!"

Oh no, he didn't.

"Enough!" I shout, picking up my foot and slamming it down. "Caleb and I will be happy to talk to you. Answer all your questions. But let's get one thing straight: I am not a child. And if I was one before today, I'm definitely not, anymore."

The shock and confusion on my mom's face is quickly replaced by fretful anxiety and, well, more confusion. "What happened today? Eric's mom called me and said that you were... Were you attacked? Kidnapped? Jesus, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Mom. I promise, everything is fine now." Not sure if that reassures her at all. Probably not. Just then, the detective steps out of his office and lets me and Caleb know he's ready for us. "This may take a while, so I'll probably be home pretty late."

"We'll be up," my mother assures me. I had no doubt they would be.

"Ok. We'll be there, hopefully in a few hours."

"We?" my dad asks in disbelief.

"Yes, we. Caleb will be with me. From now on."

* * * * *

Our grilling lasted until midnight and went about as awkwardly as expected. It's amazing I don't have third degree burns on my cheeks from hours of hardcore blushing. "Yes, detective, the sex tape was filmed on school property." "No, our relationship didn't start until after I turned eighteen." "No, we did not give our consent to be filmed." "Yes, we were completely naked in the video." "No, there was no penetration." Yeesh.

My suspicion is that we had a particularly pervy interrogator. I'd be surprised if he didn't rush off to the men's room to bust a big nut in the toilet as soon as he was done with us. Or maybe he went home and gave his wife a thorough fucking. In which case, you're welcome, Mrs. Detective.

But that wasn't even the real torture of the night. No, that's going to come when I have to face my parents and explain the shit show—with intermissions of awesomeness—that has been my life since closing night. My stomach churns as Caleb and I make our way to my house, and it does a backflip when he hits a small pothole.

This time, I'm pretty damn sure my queasiness is from stress. Stress from a month's worth of torment. Stress from keeping huge secrets from my family. Stress from sitting next to Caleb and not telling him that he's probably going to be a father soon. Stress from Melissa's defeated and desperate expression moments before she took her own life playing on an endless loop in my head.

Needing space and fresh air, I lean into the passenger side door, the cool, late-night wind like an air-shower on my face. Caleb and I stay connected by our hands resting in the center of the bench seat. I feel his eyes on me, and I know he's worried about my emotional state.

The right thing would be to tell him, right this second, what I suspect. It doesn't matter that I'm not one-hundred-percent sure, yet. I shouldn't be keeping something this huge from him. But I'm so fucking wrung out, and we still have my parents to deal with. If his disappointment or distrust got piled on top of that shit heap, it'd probably break me.

"Are you o—"

"I love you, Caleb, but if you ask me that question on more time, I might just bite your tongue off the next time you try to kiss me." The helpless look on his face makes me feel like an ungrateful bitch.

"Is there anything I can do, babe? You know I can't stand seeing you like this." He lifts our joined hands and tucks some windblown strands of hair behind my ear.

"I'd say that I need silence—and I really do—but that'd leave me no choice but to listen to my own thoughts, and that's just asking for trouble. Maybe you could distract me? Talk about something as unrelated to todays events as possible?"

He fixes his gaze on the road ahead, illuminated only by his headlights and the occasional street lamp. After two stop signs, I'm about to force him to speak, when he turns into the dark parking lot of a long-since closed dental office. Without saying a word, he kills the engine and steps out of the truck, pulling me gently by the hand to follow him.

"What are you doing?" I stage-whisper. After years of theater, I've lost the ability to use proper, quiet whispers.

"Distracting you," is all he says before he pins me against the brick wall at the side of the small building and takes my mouth in a hurried, fevered kiss. Moaning into his lips, I immediately start rubbing my body all over his, my hands clutching his perfect ass, wishing he could fuck me through all our clothes, so we wouldn't have to waste time shedding the barriers between our skin. "I almost lost you today, Em. You could've died. Right now, I need to feel how alive you are. Inside and out."

He undoes his jeans and takes his solid cock into his tight grip. With his free hand, he hikes one of my thighs up to his waist, then bends his knees so he's at my level, pushes my panties to the side, and shoves his scalding hot erection in me to the hilt. That feeling of being instantly stretched by his thick shaft to what feels like my limit really is distracting as hell. The man knows what he's doing.

My hands slip inside his loosened jeans to grab onto his firm cheeks again, digging my nails into soft skin and straining muscles, encouraging him to slam into my pussy even harder. When he hits an almost painful spot inside me, I cry out so loud, he slaps a hand over my misbehaving mouth. When he's sure I can keep my sex sounds in check, his hand moves lower to manhandle one of my small tits, probably leaving fingertip-shaped bruises on the tender skin.

There is nothing gentle about this, and yet it's nowhere near as rough as I'm craving.

"Harder, Caleb," I beg, my words sneaking out between gasps and pants. "Don't hold back. Fuck me deeper. So deep it hurts. So deep it rips me in half."

He answers with an incoherent grunt, before giving me exactly what I asked for. More, even. Some of the stitching on the back of my dress splits apart from the stress of getting pounded against rough brick.

Caleb grabs my other leg and effortlessly lifts my petite body off the ground to wrap around him. With one palm flat against the wall next to my head, his other hand cups my full, round ass. The unfamiliar sensation of a thick finger—wet with the juices leaking from my core—rimming my asshole shocks me at first. And when the tip eases past the tight ring, stretching me open in a place I've never been stretched before, my eyes pop open.

"Oh, holy shit..." I moan and throw my head back, cracking it a little against the red brick. It's pitch black out here, but with his face so close to mine, it's impossible to miss the wicked grin on his breathtakingly beautiful face.

"You like that, huh?" Not waiting for my answer, he pushes in to the first knuckle, then pulls it out and slips it back into the increasingly accommodating hole. I can only answer "Yes, yes, yes," in time to every brutal thrust of his cock.

Being filled in both holes—the second one, deliciously dirty—I'm on the brink of one of the most powerful orgasms of my life. When he pries my red, swollen lips open with his and forces his tongue inside my mouth, my body shakes with excitement. The walls of my battered cunt spasm around his swelling girth, and my womb flutters in anticipation of accepting a thick blast of Caleb's hot cum.

Wait— Shit! Shit, shit, shit. No, I can't!

Suddenly, my holes are empty, and I'm being carefully lowered to the pavement. Oh, crap. Did I say that stuff out loud?

"Em, what's wrong? Was it too much? Did I hurt you?"

The only thing that hurts is the sharp stab of guilt. Like, ice-pick-to-the-heart hurts. He thinks he's the one who did something wrong. As if I needed to feel like an even shittier person than I already did.

Why did I let this happen? I mean, what if it turns out I'm not pregnant right this second? What if I'd let him fill me with his cum, and it was this fuck, right here, that succeeded in knocking me up? I'm having enough trouble forgiving myself, as it is.

No, I have to be honest with him before this can happen again. But the pained look on his flushed face makes it impossible to force the words out. After I take the pregnancy test—whether it comes back positive or negative—I'll throw my undeserving ass at his mercy. Just... not now.

"I'm so sorry," I tell him with total sincerity. "You didn't do anything wrong. God, it felt so, so right. Really." Closing the small distance between us, my arms circle his waist, and he wraps me up in his protective embrace. "Today has just been too much. My head's all over the place, and I kinda freaked for a moment. I'm really, really sorry." He's tucked his cock into his pants, but I can feel that it's still half-hard. Stepping back and gesturing in its general direction, I ask, "Do you want me to—"

"Don't you dare even suggest it, babe. Do you really think I could get off when you're feeling this way?" I cast my eyes down and shake my head, feeling ashamed that I'd temporarily forgotten how selfless he is.

"No. No, I know you wouldn't." Going up on my tiptoes, I kiss him, just barely touching my lips to his. It lacks the heat from a moment ago, but it's filled with every warm and fuzzy feeling ever. "I just went a little crazy there for a sec, but I'm back now. Promise."

"Good. I'm glad. Now... Are you ready for this?"

"Ready to let my parents in on a month's worth of dirty little secrets? Sure! Why not?"

"You know, you don't have to tell them anything you don't want them to know. Hell, you don't have to tell them anything, at all. They have no right to pressure it out of you."

His words set me at ease. He's right—I'm the one in control of this dreaded conversation. They want to know my personal shit? They'll have to settle for whatever it is I decide to give them.

With an exaggerated nod and a fierce look, I march over to Caleb's truck. "Come on," I whisper-shout back to him. "Let's do this."

* * * * *

Shifting uncomfortably in the stiff chair, I can freely admit that I am so very much not in control of this conversation. It was easy enough to fool myself into thinking I would be, until I saw the worried, pissed, and disgusted looks on my parents faces. The disgust seems reserved solely for my boyfriend.

Mom and Dad strategically took up all the couch space, forcing me and Caleb to sit in the matching arm chairs, five feet apart from each other. If it wouldn't have made things much worse, I would've sat in his lap. The distance between us just amps up the total awkwardness of this moment.

The first part of the conversation went smoothly enough. We gave them answers similar to what we gave the detective. Only, we left out all the details, like everything that went down in the men's room and tech room that first night, simply telling them, "That was the night our relationship started."

I felt the need to make it quite clear that absolutely nothing sexual happened until months after I'd turned eighteen. And that I was the one who did the majority of the seducing, not Caleb; though, admittedly, that was probably more than they needed to know.

Every time they ask a question, I have to fight the urge to be an obedient daughter. I'm a total Daddy's girl, so disappointing him like this is killing me.

And now, Mom's just asked us how and why the blackmail started. I shoot a panicked look to Caleb, but he appears to be just as lost for a G-rated explanation as I am. Oh, man, he looks nervous. Is he intimidated by my parents? Not that he doesn't have every reason to be, what with the bizarre and disastrous first meeting between them. Looks like I'll have to be the brave one tonight.

"Caleb's ex-wife had a—" Nope. Not mentioning the sex tape. No fucking way. "She had evidence of our relationship." Oo, that's a good one. Mental high five.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" my dad asks. Stick to your guns, Em. Not their business, not their business, not their business...

"That's really not their—I mean, your—business." Good enough. "Anyway, she threatened to expose us if we didn't break up, and she sent creepy emails every once in a while, in case we forgot." No need to tell them how frequently we "forgot." "Of course, we had no clue who she was until, like, a week ago."

"I don't understand why you didn't go to the police right away," Mom says, shaking her head. "How could you be so reckless? Why would you put yourself in such a dangerous position?"

After what happened today, I've been asking myself that very question. But I do remember the reasons I thought were so important at the time.

"Honestly? It seemed scarier to come forward with it. It could've gotten Caleb fired. It might've forced Melissa's hand, giving her an excuse to send out the sex—" Er... Um... Crap. "I mean, share the evidence." Good save. "Plus, I really hoped it'd all just go away on its own. It was easy to convince myself that was possible, because the whole thing was so unreal. Hell, even today feels more like a bad dream than something that actually happened in my life."

Mom's trembling hand covers her mouth, and tears fill her eyes. "How could we have missed this, Jeremy?" she asks my dad. "What kind of parents are we that we had no idea any of this was going on?" Dad puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into the crook of his neck, soothing her with firm strokes on her arm.

"Are you sure this is over, now?" he asks me. "You're not in trouble anymore, right?"

"It's over, and thank fuck for that."

Dad doesn't balk at my blatant profanity. My parents got used to my trucker's mouth a long time ago.

"So is this," he declares, gesturing between me and Caleb. Mom lifts her head then, her eyes pleading with me to agree. "You're smarter than this, Emilie. You have to know how inappropriate it was for him to become involved with a girl still in high school—where he worked, no less."