Open Road Ch. 01

"Not again," I groaned. I had just gotten back to my dorm after an evening of studying. It was 10:00pm and the library had just closed. I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was crash into bed. My roommate, however, had other ideas for me judging by the green sock hanging from the doorknob. I thought rooming with my best friend was going to be great. What I didn't consider was that she had just broken up with her boyfriend over the summer. In the couple of weeks we've been back at school I'm pretty sure she had slept with half the soccer team. Luckily I had my car keys on me. I left campus, swung by the liquor store and got some wine and a stack of solo cups, and headed to the park.

I climbed up a metal play castle that was connected to another castle by a woven rope hammock/bridge. Once at the top of the castle, I poured a cup of wine, left the bottle at the top, and climbed onto the netting. I pulled a Black n Mild cigar out of my pocket, lit it, and laid back. Within just a couple minutes, I heard a commotion a few yards away from me. From my perch, I saw that a station wagon had pulled up, and two girls and a guy had gotten out and were fighting. I couldn't really make them out due to the shadows, but I could hear their conversation.

"Dammit guys, not again. We need to make it to Denver by morning! We're not going to make it if you keep taking fuck breaks!" I heard a girl yell.

"Kristi relax. You're just jealous. You know if we had found a bangin' girl on the side of the road you'd be doing the same thing to me right now." Another female voice replied.

"Bullshit, dude!"

"This isn't up for debate. Take some beer and make yourself scarce."

"This is the LAST time! It's my car. If you guys fucking stop one more time I'm kicking both you and Trent out and you can find your own fucking way to Denver."

"Whatever, bitch."

A couple seconds later, I saw a figure heading over to me. I laid back down and tried to pretend I didn't hear anything. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her start to walk past where I was, then she stopped and looked around. She saw me, and I diverted my eyes.

"Hey!" She yelled. I sat up and tried to act like I didn't know anyone was around.

"Oh...yes?" I replied.

"Is that a Black n Mild I smell?"

"Uh, yeah. Would...would you like one?" Kristi smiled.

"I'd LOVE one. I have a beer if you'd like to trade."

"I have some wine up here, but a beer sounds nice. What is it?"

"Shiner Bock"

I smiled. "Sounds good. Come on up."

Kristi made her way up the castle, set her beer at the top, grabbed a couple bottles, and came out onto the netting. I set the cup of wine in my lap, accepted her beer, handed her a cigar and lit it for her.

"Oh man, that's good. I haven't had one of these in ages. I'm Kristi"

"Abbie," I replied. We clinked bottles and took a swig.

"So, I bet you heard all that. Sorry, my friend Jackie is a cunt whore."

"Oh...yeah...well I wasn't really listening but I did hear...some words." Kristi peered toward her car and saw how close their car was to the castle. She chuckled.

"Liar. We were screaming at each other. You heard everything."

I blushed. "OK, yeah. I heard everything. Jackie does seem like a cunt whore." Kristi laughed hard. I turned to her and grinned, and that's when I really stopped to take in my company. Kristi seemed to be my age, but that's where the similarities stopped. I am short and a bit stocky and have short black hair and glasses. People at school lovingly refer to me as "lesbian Harry Potter." Kristi, on the other hand, was tall and slender. She was wearing faded jeans, a white and blue ringer t-shirt, brown sandals, and had her dark blonde hair in tiny braids pulled back by a red bandana. And she was very, very cute. At that moment I remembered Jackie yelling at her saying if they had found a "bangin' girl" on the side of the road she'd be the one doing the fucking. My night was starting to get interesting.

"I'm kind of in the same situation." I said. "I go to college across town and I was coming back to my dorm only to get the sock-on-doorknob treatment from my roommate."

"Oh bummer. Well, I'm sure you'd rather be out here with some booze than in a stuffy dorm anyway. Jackie and I met our freshman year at Virginia Tech. We quickly realized school wasn't our bag and have been traveling ever since visiting friends across the country and whatnot."

"How many years have you been on the road??" I asked incredulously.

"About three now."

"Wow...I mean I can't even imagine what that must be like. Where do you get money? Where do you sleep?"

"Parks, hostels, truck stops, with friends. We're going to Denver to see Jackie's cousin. When we stay with friends we take odd jobs. We've worked some carnivals. I discovered I was pretty awesome at blackjack so we've hit up some casinos with my mad skills. We get by just fine."

"That's...that's really cool. I don't think I'd ever have the guts to do that. The way I grew up it was drilled into me to go to school, get a good job, find roots..."

"Find a knight in shining armor and crank out kids in a house with a white picket fence in the suburbs?" Kristi offered.

I grinned. "Nah, more like a dyke in comfy flannel in a condo filled with rescue cats."

Kristi choked on her beer and laughed hard. "Well shit, Abbie! You're a girl after my own heart!"

I gave her a wink, and we chuckled for a moment.

"So, what are you in school for?" she asked.

"Psychology. I'm going to grad school next year for Human Factor Psychology." Kristi raised her eyebrow. "It's studying how people use everyday things and do every day tasks to make them more efficient and user-friendly. Ideally I'd like to become a computer software engineer, but I don't think I'm smart enough."

Kristi grinned. "I'm sure you're brilliant. I didn't even know that shit existed. See, I don't think I could do that. Lectures and tests and papers...not to mention living in a dorm. It would be like being a rat trapped in a cage."

"Yeah, but that's all temporary. I'd like to think I'm securing a good life for myself, but you never know what the future holds."

Kristi nodded. "Ain't that the truth. Hell, an hour ago I was about to pull my hair out and crash my car into a telephone pole because of the slobbering hornballs in the back seat, and now I'm up here in a kiddie castle having smokes and drinks with a foxy little lesbian." I lowered my eyes and found myself blushing again. I felt Kristi's fingers on my chin and I looked up. "I mean that."

We locked eyes for a moment. A grin was tugging at her lips. She moved her fingers to my cheek and stroked it lightly. Our lips met in a light but electrifying kiss. After a few seconds she broke the kiss to put our beer bottles and my cup of wine to the top of the castle. She slipped her hands around my neck and I put mine around her waist and we met for another kiss. I traced circles up and down her back as we kissed. My hands made their way up the back of her shirt, and in a quick movement I unhooked her bra. Kristi gasped, and I pulled away.

"Sorry! Too fast?" I asked, silently cursing my roaming hands.

"No! I like fast, fast is good!" She replied, pulling me back to her. I leaned her onto the netting and laid down beside her. My lips traced her jawline and down her neck as I nudged her shirt up and slid my hand under her bra. She moaned into my ear and pulled me on top of her by my jeans' belt loops. She slipped a leg between mine, giving me something to ride. I graciously accepted as I began kissing her stomach, up to the breast I had uncovered. I felt her inhale sharply as I fluttered my tongue around her nipple. Soon my roaming hands took over again, gliding down her stomach and over her jeans.

"Abbie?" She whispered. I released her nipple and looked up into her eyes. She was laughing softly. "Maybe we should stop for a sec. Or reposition. The ropes are starting to dig into my back. And I'm feeling kind of...exposed."

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry. I get kind of carried away." I said as I rolled off of her. We sat up and she straightened her clothes.

"Don't worry about that! That part was awesome. I want more, but I think we need some privacy for what I want to do with you. Is there someplace we can go? Can you kick your roommate out of your dorm? I think that's only fair."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's definitely an option...but what about your friends? Don't you need to be getting to Denver?"

Kristi's face fell. "Right. Denver. Shit."

"Well, how long do you have before you need to go?"

Kristi thought for a moment. Suddenly she turned to me, grinning big. "Come with us, Abbie. It's still early enough to drop your classes, right? Just drop them and take the semester off. We can leave Jackie and Trent in Denver with her cousin, then we'll have the road to ourselves. Have an adventure with me. What do you say?"

To be continued...