Preludes Ch. 11: Rumor Has It

But what was her? Was losing control to the point that she'd betrayed and alienated herself from her best friend "her"? Was letting the boy who had brought about her destruction control her to the extent that she'd show up at his house to service him at the drop of a hat "her"? Was trading oral sex for homework "her"? Or leaning over her car seat and using her mouth to apologize to a boy who had treated her badly on a date?

She didn't know the answers to any of these questions. She didn't think that those acts represented who she was, but she really didn't know anymore. There had been a time when such activities had only been a part of her life. A fun and exciting hobby that she enjoyed so much that she accepted the consequences in the forms of hallway whispers and a bludgeoned reputation.

But recently, they seemed to be everything. She'd lost her friends. She'd quit her teams. She'd even checked out of school and watched her own future begin to burn before her eyes. The only thing she was still consistently doing was dropping to her knees for just about any boy who had the gumption to ask. And these days, the required levels of such boldness were laughingly low.

As both her thoughts and Blake's fingers swirled around, Rachel felt the rumbling of her release begin to build. The physical pleasure she was receiving was driving it, but the mental storm she was navigating had its hands all over it as well. Her feelings of self-disappointment and shame were strangely cradling her arousal and twisting in into different shapes. It was like tossing chemicals onto a fire and making the flames burn with unnatural color.

She knew that almost everything she'd done in the past two months had been for the purpose of escape. She was hurting so badly and all she wanted was to feel loved again. And if not loved, at least wanted. If only for a few moments.

The combined sensations crested inside her and Rachel opened her eyes wide. She pressed her forehead into Blake's chest and gritted her teeth as the searing jolt of her orgasm's first wave rushed from the tips of her toes, up her legs, and squarely into the center of her stomach. Her clenched jaw popped open involuntarily and a high-pitched, squeaky moan escaped her lips. Her fingernails dug into Blake's shirt and her entire body shook as she finally let go and let the pleasure wash over her. Her knees buckled and her vision blurred as she came again and again.

Dizziness surrounded her senses, and for several long seconds, Rachel heard nothing. Just a dull ringing in her ears as the relief she'd been desperate for all day finally rushed over her. The pleasure was piercing and acute and hot tingles shot through her scalp. She swallowed hard and let the sensations continue as she rocked her hips gently into Blake's still-buried touch.

Finally, the sizzle of her orgasm began to ebb and was replaced by glowing warmth. She realized she was still clutching Blake's white shirt, her fingers scrunching the material tightly. Taking a few breaths to center herself, she lifted her head from his chest and blinked her eyes rapidly. She licked her lips and looked up at Blake, a subtle smile slipping across her lips.

Blake looked down at her with wide eyes and studied her for a few moments. He'd been surprised by the ferociousness of her reaction. He hadn't really been doing anything all that special (he thought at least). Just sliding and curling his fingers in to methodical rhythm that he'd used with several other girls.

But when she'd bitten down on his shoulder and dug her nails into his shirt, he'd momentarily flinched. As enthusiastic as she'd seemed to be when she'd been down on him, it appeared that her eagerness for her own relief had been even more severe. He smirked as he watched her eyes glaze over with obvious satisfaction. Oh well. He was glad that she'd enjoyed herself too.

Rachel shivered coolly and squeaked in protest as Blake slipped his fingers from inside her and flexed his hand. Her pulse was still coming fast and her face felt hot. The confined space of the stall certainly hadn't grown since they'd entered and she bent over a bit awkwardly to pull her skirt and thong back to their rightful positions. As she stood up tall, she brought her hand to her forehead and tucked some stray hairs behind her ears. Her temples were warm and a little damp. It had been some ride.

The pair stood in relative silence for a few final moments, but both quickly shifted gears to focusing on their plans to exit and smoothly rejoin the rest of their class. Rachel stepped out of the stall quietly and gave herself a once-over in the mirror. Her face was noticeably flush with color and a few hairs were out of place. But besides that, no further incriminating evidence was present. With a gentle wave, she indicated for Blake to slip out of the stall so that they could leave before any more surprises showed up.

They moved silently across the bathroom and Rachel poked her head out of the door to make sure no one was walking by. She waved Blake on as well and she began to turn out of the small alcove of the bathroom entrances when her eyes darted reflexively over to the men's room door. The "out of order" sign from earlier was gone; whatever work had necessitated it apparently finished. She smirked and swallowed at the thought. Had they been just a few minutes later, perhaps they could've gone there instead and she'd have been spared the ugliness of the rumors she'd heard.

She was still shaking her head at the thought when she turned the corner and almost walked directly into another person who was making his way to the bathrooms. She gasped at the near collision and shot the stranger a reddened, apologetic smile. She didn't know him; just some older man. Obviously a patron of the museum.

Her embarrassment turned more severe, however, as she watched the man's eyes go from her face to a target behind her head: Blake. The sudden awkwardness of their respective positioning (coming out of the women's bathroom together) filled the space with a dizzying rush. Rachel watched the man's eyes go back to hers as confusion trickled across his brow. Confusion that began to melt as understanding took its place.

Rachel felt frozen for a second as she took in the man's stare. She could tell he knew what he was looking at (as if two teenagers making a rushed exit from a bathroom one of them didn't belong in left much of a mystery). She watched his eyes flick quickly down her body, lingering purposefully on her chest. She'd seen this kind of look from any number of older men, and while it often filled her with a sense of shameful discomfort, it would be a lie to say that it didn't also cause a minor ripple of excitement as well.

She wondered if he knew explicitly what she'd just finished doing inside the bathroom. That she'd let the boy behind her lead her inside so that she could suck his dick during their field trip lunch break. She wondered if he might later imagine her naked and fantasize about her doing it to him as well. And most excitingly, she wondered if he knew that given the right moment or aligning of circumstances, such a fantasy might not be quite as impossible as he would think.

A shiver rushed through her and Rachel finally looked away. Mumbling a further apology, she stepped around him and began to walk evenly down the hall. She turned back to see Blake following, and although she didn't want to, she let her eyes flick back to the man. He was still looking her way, his thoughts obviously swirling in lustful directions. Rachel swallowed hard and continued on her path.

When they reached the main cafeteria, thankfully the scene was still loud and chaotic and no one really noticed their entrance. They separated silently, with Rachel only managing an awkward, friendly smile. She hated those weird moments and she always felt like there should be something to say.

She watched as Blake made his way through the crowd and eventually reached a table where a few boys were eating and talking together. Her fingertips tingled slightly as she saw him sit down and begin to gesticulate with his hands. She was way too far from the boys to hear what was being said, but that mattered none. The tingling in her fingers grew into a full buzz as right on cue, a few high fives were exchanged and smiles widened. Her stomach fluttered and a speckle of arousal trickled between her legs.

Not wanting to still be standing out in the open if and when the boys turned to locate her, Rachel found a table of girls she was friendly with and slipped into the group. Thankfully, the rumors of her bus ride activities hadn't seemed to reach them yet and the Rachel was more than happy to stay silent about it as well. She listened as the table conversation rotated among gossip about school and boys and other things. She liked these girls, but she wasn't exactly close with them. Hearing them giggle and smile with each other made her miss Rebecca.

The rest of the afternoon at the museum was uneventful and Rachel spent the time much in the same manner as she had the morning session. Her thoughts swirled as she replayed the events of the day, from Craig and Blake to the girls in the bathroom and the man outside of it. Every memory pulled her in different directions and she wasn't able to decide at all how she felt about them. Part of her buzzed with sexual satisfaction and power as she thought of how she'd so skillfully pleasured two boys and made them melt her hands (errr mouth). The spark she was getting from such hookups was no longer as potent as it had been a few months earlier. But it was still a physical craving that she needed.

The other part of her couldn't stop thinking about what she'd heard the girls say about her. How they'd (perhaps unintentionally) twisted her tale and turned her into a caricature of herself. It had been humiliating enough to listen to, but to do so while she'd been literally servicing another boy had pushed the level of shame into a very strange place. She could still see Blake's eyes looking down at her while she worked him softly between her lips. She knew what he'd been imagining based on the words he'd heard. She'd been imagining it herself.

Mercifully, the barrage of emotions banging through Rachel's psyche caused the day to end quickly. At the direction of the teachers, she and the rest of the students made their way out of the museum and meandered around as they lined up to board their respective buses for the ride back to school.

Similar to the morning, Rachel was amongst the last to climb the stairs and re-board. She made the same nervous walk down the aisles, this time more acutely aware that eyes were on her. Unlike the morning, her fellow students now had a fresh "Rachel Story" to chew on and the whispers and snickers were palpable as she passed each row.

But as she made it to the back of the bus, the embarrassment grew into a sense of dread. Blake was sitting in the same seat he had been earlier, but Craig no longer occupied his own. Rachel's eyes flicked from the area over to the row across the aisle where she saw Craig chatting with another guy. He'd changed seats with someone.

"Rach! Hey right back here!"

The voice she didn't need to follow to identify pulled Rachel's eyes back towards where Craig had been sitting on the ride up. She swallowed and took a breath as Shane's smiling eyes washed over her and indicated for her to come take her place in the triple-seated row.

Her stomach twisted but she showed no signs on her face. She was well aware of why Shane had relocated to that seat and why he was so eagerly calling her to join him. He already knew first-hand what she was capable of, and the rumors of the day had certainly only led to embolden him.

The thoughts continuing to tighten her stomach, Rachel let her eyes switch over to Blake, but he only grinned and shrugged.

With a final deep breath, she forced a smile and took her seat between the boys.

***

A loud chime sound on her phone startled Rachel from her thoughts and she looked down at her dresser to identify its purpose. She relaxed and smiled as she read the screen. It had been an alarm she'd set. A reminder actually. Kevin had told her earlier in the week that they'd probably be hitting up an afterprom party so she should pack a bag of clothes to change into.

Rachel swallowed and tapped her phone to silence the chirping alarm. She was standing in her room only half-dressed in just her bra and pair of dark grey yoga pants. She'd been slowly dressing and getting ready for her various errands as she'd been lost in thought and memories.

Shaking her head, she made her way over to her closet and retrieved a small duffle bag that she sometimes used for overnight trips. She dropped it onto her bed and returned to her dresser to think about what she needed to pack.

The thoughts focused her again on what exactly might be in store for her that night. She'd be seeing plenty of faces she hadn't come across in close to a year. She was sure that she'd be seeing (and likely talking to) a handful of boys with whom she had some sort of sexual history. The thoughts made her shiver unexpectedly.

She knew the boy who was throwing the afterprom party; she'd been to his house once or twice for other parties in the past. She figured that people would likely be dressing pretty casual after a long (and possibly uncomfortable) night in their formal attire.

As she dug through her drawers, she smiled as she came across a shirt she hadn't seen in quite some time. It was a yellow t-shirt with the words "Taylor Reed" across the front and the number "9" on the back. It was her old practice shirt from field hockey her freshman year of high school.

Somehow touching the shirt filled Rachel with an exciting sense of nostalgia. She wasn't even sure why she had kept it these past few years, but she was suddenly glad she had. She yanked it out and gave it a few shakes as her smile stretched wider. It would be humorously appropriate to wear it to the afterparty given that she'd be among her old classmates and friends.

She fished out a pair of black athletic shorts and shut the drawer with her foot. Holding the two articles in her hands, she walked over to the bed and folded them gently inside her bag. She grabbed some old flip flops and was about to go back to her dresser and grab a pair of underwear to complete the outfit when her phone buzzed again. She let go of the drawer handle and picked the phone up.

It was a text from Kevin and she smiled as she read it. It was only really a quick message and a couple of emojis but it was cute and made her feel warm. She clicked a button which closed the conversation and brought up her text message history. She was about to set her phone down, but her eyes flicked over the screen and she felt the temporary warmth drift away.

While Kevin's message had pushed his folder to the top, the next several slots were filled with familiar names. Boys' names. Matt. Greg. Blake. Austin. Jim. The list went on and Rachel swallowed as their obvious common thread made her stomach twist.

Shane's name appeared as well and Rachel's thoughts suddenly flashed back to that day at the museum. It had been crazy enough, but her discovery that Shane had switched seats so that he could sit next to her for the ride back had been among the most jarring moments.

For reasons she couldn't quite explain, Rachel had indeed gone and sat in between Shane and Blake on the return trip to school. She'd known exactly why Shane had wanted her there. He knew what she'd done on the ride up, and it was clear that Blake had shared the exciting details of their bathroom rendezvous as well.

And it wasn't only Shane. There had been witnesses to her blowing Craig in the back seat that morning and the rumors had swirled quickly. Thankfully, by the time she'd finished, they'd only been a few minutes from the museum and she hadn't been forced to awkwardly face the whispers.

But after a full day of circulating among the students, the rumors were fully developed and there had been nowhere for her to hide on the ride home. As soon as the wheels were spinning and the buses had left the lot, boys in all the surrounding seats began teasingly joking with her about what she'd done.

They hadn't been shy either. The comments were crude and bold and composed mainly of straight up requests for Rachel to continue her generous oral ways for more people on the way back to school. It had been a bit overwhelming, but Rachel was no wilting flower. Despite the emotional storm brewing in her stomach, she'd summoned her strength and deflected everything with skilled experience. Instead of shying away from it, she'd turned on the flirtatious charm and teased the boys right back. She didn't confirm or deny what was being rumored. She only gently swiped each question and bold request aside with a sly smile or a smirking shrug.

And Shane had been the worst offender. He'd gone right to work trying to get her to repeat the friendliness she'd shown him in his truck a few months earlier. He'd run his hand over her thigh and talked openly with Blake about how nice her tits were in an attempt to get her mind back onto that page. He'd even done a little bold caressing of the front of her tank top.

She didn't like him and she certainly didn't want to hook up with him again. His treatment of her that night on their date combined with his apparent taste for adding to the rumors about her filled her with nothing but disdain. And his bold touches on her legs and chest only creeped her out.

But despite all that, she almost gave in. She almost threw up the white flag and put her head into his lap and gave him what he wanted. She wouldn't have enjoyed it, but that wouldn't have mattered. She'd have slipped his penis into her mouth and sucked him off just to shut him up. She'd done just such a thing several times in her life with various boys who had cornered her at parties or in between classes and simply worn her down. It was never against her will, but rather a matter of lost patience and a lack of recourse. She'd just not want to argue anymore so she'd find herself kneeling in a bathroom or hunched over a bed dutifully sucking away knowing that it was the only bullet that would do the job.

This time, however, she'd found the strength to say no. Ironically, it had been the inundation of requests from surrounding seats that had helped her cause. Despite what she'd done on the ride down, she'd made it clear that she wasn't going to be performing for an audience.

Shane had eventually backed down, but not before getting a bit of a compromise out of her. His rave reviews of her tits had piqued Blake's interest, being that they were pretty much the only things she hadn't shown him that day. Rachel had listened to the two boys discuss the quality of her figure right past her head like she wasn't even there. It was blatantly objectifying but it had also made her feel sexy in a strange way.

So since she'd shot down Shane's request for a blowjob, she'd almost felt obligated when the boys had whined to her about getting a quick look at her boobs. She'd repeated her objections from the ride up of not wanting to put on a show, but it had been clear that things were way past that point. She'd been witnessed with her lips wrapped around another boy's penis. If a few stray eyeballs landed on her tits, it wouldn't change much.

With an exciting shiver, she'd lifted up her tank top and bra and let her heavy boobs pop free. Neither boy sitting next to her had wasted much time turning a quick "look" into a generous "touch." She'd whimpered and tried to keep her face casual as both Shane and Blake took turns playfully feeling her up. Blake had been especially excited to experience the one missing part of their earlier encounters and he'd commented effusively about the almost unnaturally perfect feel and image of her large, soft breasts.