Rock and Roll Angel Pt. 05

The food arrived. Danny had ordered the chicken enchiladas too. The enchiladas were smothered in a white gooey cheese and flanked by steaming black beans and a fragrant brown rice. Everything smelled heavenly. The server gave Kat a huge smile and Danny that wink again.

"What's that about?" Kat asked.

"I'm not seen with girls too often," Danny said with a shrug.

Kat lifted a fork full to her mouth. "Lord have mercy! This is delirious! Truly from God!"

"Told you," their server said from across the room.

Danny and Kat laughed then went at their lunch with gusto.

Sated, drinking tall glasses of iced tea and picking at a cake desert with a rich coconut cream topping Kat asked, "Why did you tell me about your family?"

He shrugged. "Secrets get kind of heavy sometimes. Nice to share."

Kat nodded. He wasn't doing this lightly. If Kat chose to tell, Danny's family would be in serious hock. The people of Ballinger can be... intolerant was the mildest word she could come up with. Kat had secrets too. Most recently the angel she harbored at the Rumcup house.

"I won't tell," she said seriously.

"I know you won't," he said.

He's putting a lot of trust in me, Kat thought. Guess we're even. He hasn't breathed a word about Ethan as far as she knew. "Let's drive out to Devil's Wing," she said.

"Thought only the old timers called it that?" he said.

The day with Danny was nice and thrilling. The fact that he wasn't a Christian like her made him more... attractive? Interesting? Exotic? Every couple of minuets on the hill she left herself wide open for a kiss but each time he passed it up. She wasn't being subtle so his passes HAD to be intentional. Then she had a worrisome thought. Is he gay? But his crush on her seemed so... NOT GAY! Why was she so bad at reading people!

"Are you gay?" she asked point blank.

"Like Claymore Shaw? Your friend that died?" he asked.

Mentioning Claymore took her by surprise and she burst into unexpected tears. Danny was dismayed to say the least. "Well are you? She asked through the tears. "I've been throwing myself at you all day!"

"I'm not gay," he said.

"You don't like me?"

"I like you a lot."

"Then WHY aren't you KISSING ME!"

"I've never kissed a girl," he said.

"What? Never? Really?"

"Never, really."

"Tell you what," she said, her Tennessee accent coming to the forefront, "It is time to remedy that!"

He stood motionless.

"Well???" she asked beyond annoyed,

"Your boyfriend," he whispered.

"WHAT boyfriend?" she nearly shouted at him.

"The guy you buy the stuff for staying at Rev, Rumcup's house."

Shocked, she asked, "How do you know he's staying there?"

"My dad does the gardening for all the big houses."

"Your dad saw him?" she asked with a lump of fear in her throat.

"No," Danny said. "but one of his guys picks up the recycling and told my dad about the beer bottles."

"Oh," Kat said feeling stupid.

"He knows that you're house sitting. My dad thinks that you're bringing people over to party,"

"Oh no," she said with a depressing moan.

"I backed you up. He won't rat on you."

"Thank you," Kat said relieved. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him... and my mom that it was just you and me drinking the beer."

"Now way! How did they take that?"

"Dad slapped me on the shoulder and mom said to use protection."

"Your parents are SOOOO different from mine."

"Now about your boyfriend."

"Hes not—"

"You like him... I know about crushes. I'm an expert."

"My relationship with Ethan is... charitable," she said. "He's in a tough spot. I'm just helping him out."

"Okay."

"You don't believe me?" He shrugged and she nearly blew her stack. "Come and meet him then you'll see why I'm helping." She headed for the fellowship van.

"You don't have to—"

"Shut up!" She said. "I have never had to work so hard to get a boy to kiss me! Tell you what!"

"I'm—"

She cut him off, "We need to get more beer."

Being the bright boy that he was, Danny kept his mouth shut all the way down Joshua hill to the Bag-n-Sack.

********

Kat stepped into the cool foyer of the Rumcup house. Ethan called from the living room.

"What's the best sandwich place in—" he started to say but stopped when he saw that Kat wasn't alone.

Danny said several things in Spanish. Kat caught the word loco.

"This must be Buck," Ethan said. Ethan wore baggy surfer shorts from her brother's donation.

"Danny," Kat corrected.

Ethan stepped forward and took the charge of the case of Rolling Rocks the poor gawking boy held and walked it to the kitchen.

Danny spoke in rapid fire Spanish.

To Kat's surprise Ethan responded in kind.

"You speak Spanish?" Kat asked astounded. "What you guys talking about?"

"I told him that the wings are real and not robotic or puppetry," Ethan said. "He politely called me a liar."

"I didn't—" Danny started to say.

"No worries, hard thing to believe,"Ethan said.

Ethan turned so that his side faced Danny and Kat. His wing flexed up high then back to show the perfect meeting of white wings to pale skin. "Go ahead, touch where it meets my back he said to Danny.

Danny did then quickly pulled his hand back, then dropped to his knees like Kat had on Joshua Hill.

"Not this again," Ethan said with a roll of his eyes.

As Kat yanked Danny to his feet, Danny asked, "Are you from heaven?"

"No, Ohio," Ethan said. "I still got a few cold ones in the fridge?"

"I don't drink," Kat said.

"I bet Danny does," Ethan said. Danny nodded his head. Ethan headed for the kitchen. The view of his wings from the back was so unique so... otherworldly. Ethan handed a cold sweaty green bottle to Danny.

The boy crossed himself in Catholic fashion then downed half his beer.

Since Ethan was standing right next to her, Kat took the liberty to run her fingers along the edge of the wing close to her then she ran her hand along the flat part on the inside for a few inches. It was soft to the touch but she could feel the tendons just below the surface. The wing flinched away from her.

"A little sensitive," Ethan said clearly annoyed at her brazenness.

She noticed that the edges went a little pink. Sensitive how she wondered?

"Can you and I talk privately?" Ethan asked Kat.

They walked out on the pool deck leaving Danny in the living for the moment.

"I trust him." Kat said immediately. She told him how Danny had headed off his dad.

Ethan looked at her for a few seconds then nodded. "What have you told him?"

"Nothing. Everything he's knows about you he just heard a minute ago."

Ethan nodded again. "He's sweet on you."

"Yeah... I know," she said. She looked at him with a serious expression on her freckled face. "How do you feel about me... not in the future but now."

"Kat... It's impossible for me to separate you then and now," he said just as serious. "And I refuse to take advantage of my insider track to you. I don't know what you do from now to when we meet again. I want you to live your live without interruption."

"Maybe its too late for that?" she said locking eyes with him making it hard for him to look away but he managed to anyway.

"Maybe," he said.

********

Kat and Danny made a quick trip to the local music store to buy an electric guitar. After that they headed to to Danny's to get his spare set of keyboards. Danny's dad gave his son a curious look seeing him in the company of Katrina House the most sought after girl in town. He gave his son a thumbs up as the pair slipped out the door.

"I think your dad likes me," Kat stated.

"What's not to like?" Danny said.

They raced back to the Rumcups with their booty. Out side the front door Danny looked at Kat and said, "I don't care if he is your boyfriend." He dramatically pulled her in for a kiss. A thrill ran up Kat's spine knowing that she was his first.

"We gonna get back to this real soon," Kat assured him after the surprisingly skilful first kiss.

For the next two hours the three rehearsed Kat vigorously for the up and coming AESC contest. In between sessions the guys drank beer, Kat abstained claiming she wasn't kin to drinking. Danny asked about Ethan's wings, If he had them all his life and if he could fly.

"Started growing in five years ago. And no, I can't fly," Ethan said.

"You can sure swim with them," Kat said.

"You've seen me swim?" Ethan asked curious.

Oh oh, Kat thought.

"Have you seen doctors and stuff?" Danny asked.

"Tons," Ethan said.

"What they say? That you a mutant or something?"

"Danny! This ain't the X-men movies," Kat said sounding cross but was secretly relieved that the conversation had drifted away from her spying on Ethan over the pool hedge.

"One doctor told me that my wings are antennas and I use them to broadcast with."

"Broadcast what?" Kat asked.

"Nothing specific," he said. "People get this... vibe around me sometimes."

Oh it was specific," Kat thought recall the intense feelings she had around him.

Ethan tilted his beer and finished it. He got up to get another. Kat couldn't help but watch him move. Danny caught her looking and she quickly pretended to look at her lyric notes.

"One more time from the top," Ethan said as he lifted the brand new electric guitar from its stand.

********

"I still think that the encore will be a problem," Kat said.

"It'll knock them dead," Ethan said. "Besides, if you're up to sing the encore you had already won."

"The could disqualify me for heathenism," Kat said.

"They'll love you... believe me... I know what you do to people when you're on that stage."

"I'm gonna take this to the van," Danny said as he hefted the sizable keyboard in its case and headed for the front door.

When Danny was out of earshot, Ethan asked, "Now... when did you see me swimming?"

"Oh... that again... last night... and the night before."

"How long did you watch?" he asked.

"Long enough to know that it excites you to swim," she said not meeting his eyes.

"That it does," he said.

She looked him in the eye. "That vibe yawl mentioned... its sexual ain't it?"

"You ever notice that your southern accent thickens when you are seducing?"

"Ain't so," she said in thick country Tennessee.

"Tell you what," he said mocking her favorite expression.

Danny came back in.

Kat went to the phone in the kitchen and dialed home. "Mom? I'm rehearsing at the Rumcups with some friends. I'm going to sleep over and have a movie night... Got plenty of food... Yes, got the Van for emergencies..." She rolled her eyes. "Tell dad that I'm eighteen and can take care of myself... Love you both... By." Kat hung up the phone a bit surprised at how easy that went.

She looked at Danny and said, "Grab another beer, we goin' for a swim."

"I didn't bring trunks," Danny said.

"I'll loan you some," Ethan said. He went to the guess room on the ground floor and returned with a pair of trunks and tossed them to Danny. "I'm beat. So if you don't mind I'll bow out. Keep it down to a roar," he said and headed back to the guess room.

Cop out she that as he walked away. She was steamed and stood quiet for several seconds. Finally Danny asked. "You gonna put on your suit?"

"Got it covered," she said curtly and headed toward the pool door. Danny went to the downstairs bathroom near the kitchen to change.

Kat stood at the edge of the deep end at the exact spot where she watched Ethan dive in on both nights. Like it had been on that first night, all the lights were off except for the underwater pool lights. In the ripply blue-green, she stood with her arms crossed feeling ill-tempered. Danny stepped onto the pool deck.

"Change your mind?" he asked seeing her still in her street clothes.

"No," she said.

Her plan was to use one of Mrs. Rumcups bathing suits that she kept in the drawers near the pool deck door. Then a feeling rippled through her that trumped her bad temper and put her in a daring mood. She pulled her t-shirt over her head.

"Wow," Danny said wide eyed with wonder.

"It's a sports bra silly," Kat said. "Women worked out in these things all the time. No biggie."

"Yeah... wow anyway," Danny said.

The sports bra was white and sculpted her firm young breasts quite nicely. She should know for she had studied herself in the mirror back home for WAY too long. Normally, she wasn't overly concerned about her appearance. God had blessed her with a pretty face and a nice figure so minor maintenance was required on her part. But ever since meeting Ethan things intimate occupied most of her waking moments. Her breast for instance. As a high end C-cup, she was always confident of her size and shape but lately her freckles bothered her to no end. The freckles on her face and shoulders were fairly light so she tolerated them but the spots on her breasts were WAY too prominent she thought. With an internal shiver, she pushed that all aside to bask in Danny's focus on her. Plane-B had her swimming her shorts. Then suddenly she had a plan-C. She pealed off her shorts. Her panties were light pink with red stripes. She had taken the time to bikini trim even though she didn't own a single bikini. Living in front of the her stupid mirror as she was, she had detected a faint but noticeable field of freckles near her pubic mound... she didn't like that one bit.

She was so engrossed in her inner musing that she didn't notice the high branches of the maple tree just outside the pool hedge shake. She DID notice that Danny was at her side.

"Y'all Come to collect on that second kiss?" she asked him in exotic Tennessean.

He didn't say a thing and leaned in for the kiss. The feel of his smooth bare skin against her was unusually fascinating. After the kiss he looked down at her shyly.

"What," she asked softly in a tone full of possibilities.

He laughed nervously. "I'm kind of over weight."

She ran her hands over his hairless chest. "Just a little happy fat," she said.

"Happy fat?" he asked.

"Just enough to make you round and smooth," she said.

"The subcutaneous layer," Danny said.

She giggled. "The what?"

"The fat just under the skin," he said.

"That's what it's called?" she asked. "My aunt Celia said a man should always have a little subcutaneous fat to pull in a girls eye." Her accent thickened especially when she said subcutaneous. "Muscle bound hard bodies did nothin' for aunt Celia."

"Still makes me shy to take off my shirt," he said.

"We all got body issues," she said snuggling in close. "My freckles don't please me somthin' awful."

"You are the most beautiful girl in all of Ballinger," he said.

"Ain't, so," she said automatically but was please with the compliment... and a part of her knew it for a fact.

They stood quiet, holding each other, swaying to music in their perspective heads.

"What you thinking?" she asked.

"Nothin'"

"You standing here holding the most beautiful girl in all Ballinger and you thinkin' nothin'?"

"I'm thinking what you would look like all wet," he said.

She screamed when he picked her up and threw her into the pool, the sudden contact of cool water on her skin was a thrilling shock. She broke the surface and did something totally out of character, she cussed.

"You asshole!"

"Come up here and tell me that," he said barely containing a huge grin.

"I will! Tell you what," she said as she swam to the edge and pulled herself up. "You spend most the day NOT kissin' me! Then you chuck me in the water like trout on a pole!" Her plan was to charge him and give him a good dunking. If he thinks she was stronger that her he had another think coming. Fighting four older brothers over the years had honed her dirty in fighting skills. But his expression stopped her.

"What you looking at?" she asked slick and dripping on the cement pool deck. He didn't say a thing and stared at her in wonder. She looked down at her body. "Oh, I see," she said. Her hard dark nipples and patch of pubic hair were on clear display in her wet underwear. She looked up just in time to see rustling in the maple hanging over the hedge.

She quickly changed her plan to give Danny a dunking. She arranged her wet hair just so as she said with her southern accent strong and articulate."You eva see that move 'The Last Picture Show?'"

Danny nodded looking a bit confused at her out of the blue question.

"I found it on CD at the school library of all places," she said. "Because it was in black and white it slipped passed old Mrs. Determiner. A handful of us girls knew about it and it made the rounds. It was one steamy movie with loads of nude scenes. When that Cybil Shepard girl gets all naked on the diving board it got me all hot and bothered tell you what." She looked around. "Ain't got a diving board," she said and walked to the edge of the deep end putting her in perfect view of the maple tree. She pulled her sports bra over her head and flung it aside the way Cybill had in the movie. "The movie was about this little town in the fifties and they had far more complicated undies then this. She snapped the elastic of her panties at the hips. She stole a glance at the maple and caught a shimmer of movement.

Bet his wings are making it hard to move, she thought. Bet they're all pink too. She punctuated that last thought with a sweet smile made just for southern girls. She peeled down her panties.

The patch of dark brown hair between her legs stood out in black-blue contrast to her light blue-green skin.

"Wow," Danny said.

"Ain't you got something else to say?" she asked with a laugh. "Your turn on the diving board."

"Um... don't think so," he said shyly.

"I don't plan on being the only naked person in the room," she said folding her arms under her C-cups pretending to be cross. The little movement widened Danny's eyes and caused the maple to shimmer a bit too.

Where he stood, Danny undid his shorts, lowered them a bit but stopped. "I'm kind of... you know—"

"Hard?" she finished for him. "I would certainly hope so. If you weren't I'd go home and pray, tell you what."

Danny let his shorts drop to the deck revealing his solid youthful erection.

"Meet ya," Kat said and dove into the pool. Being naked in the cool water thrilled her to no end. She waited below the surface to watch Danny's entrance. In a glorious violent trail of bubbles, Danny pierced the surface and swam in her direction. They folded into each others arms and engaged in an underwater kiss, not her first, but definitely Danny's. They remained under for a long time. Finally, together, they floated to the surface and drifted to the shallow end so they could stand. Her C-cups cleared the water by several inches.

"Your mama said to use protection?" she asked.

He nodded with his eyes glued to her exposed breasts.

"Did you listen?"

He nodded still eying her C-cups.

"Stop gawkin' and go fetch it," she said.

He splashed toward the ladder, got out and ran into the house.

Kat looked up at the Maple tree. "Enjoying the show?" she asked.

"Immensely," came a voice from the tree. "Want me to go away?"

"Stay," she said.

The branches shimmered wildly. "Ouch! Damn wings makes it near impossible to climb."

The entire maple shook. Kat giggled. "You gotta stay still."

Danny came running back and cannon balled into the pool. Kat screamed at his enthusiastic entry. Comically, just his hand broke the surface and in it was a string of three condoms. His head bobbed up seconds later.

One will do," she said. "Sit on the edge and I'll put it on for you." she guided him to the side of the pool that would put his back to the maple.

"I done it before," he said as he pulled himself up on the edge.

"You never kissed a girl yet you know how to put one on these on?" she asked playfully.