The Humper Game Pt. 02 Ch. 17

She gave me a lengthy kiss. I told her, "I'm a little afraid that you'll start to resent me, too, if you don't get me yourself. This is going to be another fatigue-inducing one. I can't have her in my room all night and give her nothing but a couple of quickies, and for that matter the shower is out of the question, I think. Sam, promise me you'll take a turn with me soon. Or two. I mean it."

"Yes, Phil, I promise. Tomorrow for sure. I know you're likely to be recovering from gym class, so there may not be much for me even after supper, but I may insist on before supper if you can do it. After that we'll see."

She kissed me again. "Phil. Remember. I owe you anything. Maybe at some point I'll start to feel the way Jenny has been, but it's hard to imagine. Honestly, if I have to stand by and watch you screw thirty or forty different girls, one after the other, with nothing for me, well, I hurt you for three solid years, every chance I got. And you forgave me for it, just like that. OK, it wasn't that quick, in a way, but really it was, what took time was just recovering from the injuries. Jenny wanted more from the beginning. She agreed to less, she understood why, but her heart really wasn't in it. And she came to feel like you were taking her for granted. You're doing all you can for her. But don't worry about me. If I start to feel hurt, I promise not to keep it bottled up."

The ten-minute warning sounded. I said, "We're back here after supper?"

"Yes, leave your stuff. Tonight, you should make sure you take everything you'll need for tomorrow, and leave a little more than an hour early."

"Um. I can't take a server into the showers, can I?"

"No, but she's expecting you to screw her as fast as you possibly can on your way there. She's supposed to wait for you. She'll have a robe so she can go to the lavatory while you're running—or other times. Since it will be on the other side, you can run a little late, too. No specific checkout time. Actually, you probably could shower with her, but you don't want to call attention to her."

We kissed again, and went off to supper, stopping at the lavatory on the way. When we got there and had collected our food, Ellen was again sitting there—making sure two places stayed open I thought.

I was feeling flustered and disoriented for some reason. I sat and ate, without paying any real attention to the conversations flowing around me. My thoughts wandered, but I couldn't have said what they were.

I came back to reality with Ellen's and Sam's hands on my shoulders, very gently shaking me. Sam said, "Phil!"

"I hear you. I'm sorry, I guess I was drifting. In hyperspace or off to sleep, I don't really know which."

They both looked really concerned. I sighed. "OK, I missed something that matters. Are you going to tell me what it is?"

They looked at each other, and then Sam said, "I think we don't want to talk about it here. You finish eating. I need to find Jenny and tell her we'll be a little late for studying. If I don't make it back here before supper's over, clear my stuff, OK? Then go to Ellen's room, so we're not interrupted. How that girl can be so invisible among only a few hundred people I can't imagine, but I haven't seen her at a meal for two days now."

But Sam came back in time to finish eating. "Tell you later," was all she said.

After we cleared our stuff, we stopped by Sam's room to get study materials. "I told Jenny no more than half an hour late, but that we had stuff to talk about and would be doing it elsewhere," she said. We went to Ellen's room, and all sat down with no displays of affection. All business.

"OK, at lunch, you said something about Brian and me. You really didn't hear anything at all I was saying to Sam? Well, Sunday night we had a little disagreement, a quarrel to be more honest. Not anything like what I gather you and Jenny had yesterday. I think he's a little tired of me, that's what it really amounts to. He did bring in what I've said a few times—and it's still true!—about you being not just my first but my best. But anyway, um, well, if we were married, we'd be having a trial separation—to decide whether to divorce. So last night Sam had no problem getting me to fill in for Jenny, because I was on my own. And for what it's worth, Brian wasn't alone, because he was with Jenny. And it seems he will be for the foreseeable future.

"So yes, I mean what I said, if she doesn't want you, I'll take you. You're not in a position to just say yes, even if you want to. Sam has to sign off on it, too. And Jenny needs to know and have another chance, assuming you're inclined to say yes. Since I'm kind of just another entry on your list, now, I'm willing to say no one else who's just that has a right to complain if it happens, but maybe you need to consider them all as possible replacements before you do say yes. Or whether you want just one partner, who would have to be Sam."

"You two were discussing all this over my head, with everyone eating near us listening?"

They looked at each other. Sam sighed. "And you're not going to get much sleep tonight, either. I can't believe you weren't listening! The answer is, not exactly. We did, but no one who hadn't heard some conversations yesterday could have understood. Too much background left out, and we did keep it pretty quiet.

"So we need to head back to my room to study. With Jenny. And you need to think about what you're going to say to her, because you promised her some time to talk. And that's what I was saying to you just before you came out of la-la land. Or wherever you were!"

I kissed Ellen goodbye, with as much passion as I could get into it. When we got to Sam's room, we went in and started studying. And Jenny arrived about five minutes later.

She turned to the books, too. We made good progress, but it wasn't very long before Sam said, "Phil, you're going to have to get moving pretty soon. If you and Jenny are going to talk, you need to do it."

Jenny seemed surprised. I told her, "I'm not exactly making it on the dot to bed an hour before curfew, but I'm trying, and I'm still short on sleep even so. So I think she's right.

"So I guess the first question is, is what we have now stable and workable? I'm having to think about whether it is for me, and I don't have an answer yet. But I'd like to hear your answer to that."

Jenny looked really uncertain, and didn't answer right away. Finally she said, "I'm going to have to think about that more. I don't know. There probably is someone else who would make a good running partner, but I don't know who, or even have any hope of finding out. Studying is fine, I think. We still work well together when we do it. Sam, you're a big help, too. I'm—I'm getting enough sex for a change, from someone who's willing to be just with me, most of the time. That part, having most of his attention, is working better than it ever did with you. I mean, right away, very first time after that first day, it was me, but Barbara was there, and then Claire. And it kept growing.

"And OK, you're right, I needed to stop helping you find more other opportunities and start saying it wasn't working, a lot sooner, instead of slowly getting totally fed up. That's all the excuse I have for blowing up at you, and it's not much—that and being invited by someone else to something more nearly exclusive, and—no, I'd better not go into that. Anyway I still feel totally guilty about not telling you about that, right off. I felt guilty for considering it. But if I'd raised it for discussion right away, we wouldn't be one bit worse off than we are now, except without my jumping all over you first. Because you would have told me that you didn't have that kind of claim on me, to tell me no.

"But as it is, if we keep studying together, we're going to keep running into the rest of your love life like this all the time, aren't we? And I'm not getting enough sleep, he doesn't need as much sleep as I do, the sex is almost as good as with you but I'm never going to get my work done if we can't cut it back. Someday I won't show for running, just once but before long not any more at all, just because I have to sleep in, and finally even Billy Butts will be catching me in gym because I'm too out of shape to run. So I don't know. I want too many conflicting things. And I love you and miss you, but apparently not enough." Butts wasn't in our group, of course, but I understood what she meant.

I waited a few moments, trying to be sure she was done. "Jenny, have you told him you need more sleep? Have the two of you talked about it, to each other?"

She suddenly burst into tears. "I'm afraid that if I do, he'll just find someone else. He already did that, when he came to me, after all."

I moved to hold her, but she held out her arms to block me. "Thank you for caring. I know you mean it, and in a way it's what I need. But after the way I've pushed you away, especially after yesterday morning, I don't think I can bear letting you comfort me. I'm already feeling like dirt. And here you are, ready to dump your date with—whoever—because you care about me. I'm sorry. I need to let you go, and to go myself."

I said, "I'm sorry. I have another thing we need to talk about, I'm afraid. It's part of the reason I asked what I did, but that didn't go the way I expected, any of the ways I thought it might, so this is going to come as an unrelated question. What are the chances that you're going to want to go back to where we were, or something like it? And it's heading toward being a pressing question. You see, I've already had a suggestion from someone else that she would be willing to be where you were before yesterday. Or something like it. I'm trying, among other things, to make her realize that we're not talking about getting half or anything like it of my time and attention—in other words, she'd only get what you finally couldn't stand. And there are things about it that I'm going to need to consider, myself, including whether there are others who would want to be asking me the same but are holding back for your sake or mine or Sam's.

"I'm not asking for an answer now. I wouldn't in any case, but I'm dumping this on you when you're already distraught. Again. And this time, I can't just pull you in as a third partner, or even just take you to bed to comfort you.

"I wish you would let me comfort you as much as I can. I won't try to do that. But will you let me hug you just for a moment?"

She dropped her arms, and I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, then let go and stepped back. "Goodnight, Jenny. I hope you'll think about this, and the larger issues, enough to give me an answer soon, because I owe someone an answer soon, and I don't want to just say yes if the next day or the next week you want to try putting the pieces back together. And it's not my business to tell you what to do, but I do love you enough to ignore that and say, you've got to talk to—whomever—about the sleep issue. Otherwise, you're going to explode at him the way you did at me yesterday morning, when you really get to the point where you can't function at all. That's my advice, how it seems to me, anyway.

"And I'm a fine one to talk. Good night. I'll see you in the morning, 5:30 as usual?"

I turned to Sam and kissed her, certainly not a mere formality. I told her, "Thank you, Sam. Right now you're kind of all that's holding me together. And you and I have got to talk, too. Tomorrow. Please don't make any arrangement for me, with anyone at all, for at least a couple of days. And good night. I love you. Oh, shower after running?"

"Not tomorrow, but the next day. Remember what I said about tomorrow morning? You better be planning on it then, though! Phil, I love you."

I gathered all my study materials. I was pretty sure I had a toothbrush and razor in my room, but it was so long since I'd slept there that I wasn't really sure. Oh, I could get them from the supply cupboard, and that was one more thing to have to do, but I guessed I'd risk it.

I went out the door, checking out with Ms. Miller, and hurried off to the boys' wing. I stopped in the lavatory, and went to my room. When I got there, Ginny was already there. "I'm sorry I'm late," I told her, dumping my burdens on my desk. "Minor crisis, issues in love life that I touched on with you yesterday morning. Part of it got resolved, but the effects are still spinning out of control, and no telling where they'll come down. For a bit I thought I was going to be much later indeed, most unfairly to you, but that got postponed."

Ginny came over and hugged me. "I'm so sorry to hear it. I hope I didn't cause the problem."

"Actually, I learned a little more about causes, something important I hadn't known. In a way, you and your cousins and Miss Macgregor, and Madison and Heather may have been the last straw. I really don't think so, but I don't know. But the camel's back was due to break any minute anyway, and it's the total load, not the straw that's to blame." She looked a little confused, and I reflected that the kitchen and housekeeping staff didn't necessarily have the educational background the students had to have when we came in, much less after three years and some. "In other words, no, you didn't. Did Sam tell you the program?"

"Well, you need to get up at your usual time. I don't need to get up at mine. We're starting now, not at curfew, because you are really short on sleep, which I've seen for myself morning after morning. If there's a sexual program, she didn't give it, but I assume you have one. I can stay here until you're at breakfast, and then I shouldn't run into any students in the halls."

"What about the lavatory, for you? I'm almost certain to need to get up during the night, and I'm afraid you should expect a quickie at that point. I'm sorry. I mean fast sex, with very little if any foreplay, probably for my benefit not yours."

"I have a robe to put on. There are lots of girls spending the night over here. We shouldn't obviously go together, but my appearing in the lav probably won't draw any attention. I'm actually kind of excited at the prospect of seeing a boys' lav in use. I mean, I've had to clean urinals when you all are in classes, but I've never seen a boy pee, ever."

"You're almost certain to get the chance. Did you bring a toothbrush? I don't know what you need for getting ready for bed. Or in the morning, for that matter. I assume you will need to shave. Did you bring a razor?"

"I'll just wait until I'm back to my room to shave myself. May I just share your toothbrush? What should I do now?"

"Get ready for bed and get in, while I do the same. The rest of the program is simple enough. I try to please you, you try to please me. I have more experience, so I'll guide a little, but you need to tell me if you want something different."

We brushed our teeth, and washed up, and got undressed, and got into bed. I asked her, "You're not scared this time, are you?"

She smiled at me and said, "If I say yes, do I get another back rub? No, I know we shouldn't take the time. But maybe you can do that again, someday."

I told her, "Roll over, then. We don't have time for the full treatment, but I can do a little." So I massaged her back for a few brief minutes, then lay down beside her again. We kissed, at some length, and made love, taking enough time for it to be wonderful for both of us. I didn't try to bring her more than one orgasm before going in. Ginny was very responsive, and very beautiful. I had her be on top this time, and she found that exciting in itself, for whatever reasons. There was no trouble bringing her to another orgasm, and I came with her.

I did wake up early in the morning, hours before my alarm. Since it was my room I didn't need her awake, but when I stirred she woke anyway, and she pulled on her robe and came along, although we went a few seconds apart. I was using the urinal when she arrived, and she spent a few moments watching, but then she went to a stall. She was out before I was done washing my hands, and we went back, again not quite together. She ducked into the shower room on her way out. Someone was showering, and I asked when we were back in my room. She said there were some individual guys, not very many, and at least two couples washing each other.

She asked if she could just try giving me oral sex. I was too sleepy to argue. It took almost no time. I told her to rinse out her mouth. In the morning, I didn't remember her getting back in bed, so I must have been asleep before she did.

When my alarm went off Wednesday morning, we headed to the lavatory again. There were a lot more people there, both boys and couples, but no one seemed to look at her enough to recognize her—even enough to notice she wasn't a student, apparently. Back in my room, I warned her that this really would just be a quickie, and kissed her very briefly, touching her only enough to make sure she wasn't painfully dry. It probably took less than thirty seconds in all, once I went in. When I had come, I pulled right out. I spent another minute or two thanking her and kissing her, then got up, cleaned myself off a little, shaved, got dressed, kissed her once more for goodbye, and hurried off. I thought she reset my alarm and went back to sleep. Given when she normally had to get up, I couldn't blame her.

I asked the door monitor whether Jenny had gone out yet, and since she hadn't I sat down to wait there. She was a couple of minutes late, not much. We went out, stretched, and started running.

We made some small talk. Eventually, though, she said, "You're right, I'm going to have to insist on discussing sleep. It didn't seem like a good idea last night, the time wasn't right and I, um, I was upset because you had said that, but you were right. The alarm was set early enough for something quick this morning, and I almost fell asleep while he was doing it to me. But you see, I am here.

"I don't think there'll ever be a good time to discuss it, and I'm afraid. The more I have to deal with anything with him, any issues, the more I realize that I should have been happy with what I had with you. But we can't just go back to where we were, can we?

"Can you give me just a day or two more to think and, and to find the courage to talk to him about what's wrong? Before I answer your question? I know that's really unfair!

"And if I keep postponing it, or if I tell you yes, and you settle with someone else to be your second partner—I can't really believe Sam's willing to let you do that!—I'm going to want you to put me on your list as one of your occasionals. I won't deserve more than that, and if you can't bear to do it I'll understand, but I hope you will."

When we finished running, both Sam and Ellen were waiting for me, just to greet me and touch bases with me.

Jenny said to me, but with looks at them, "I'm sorry that I'm so, um, so mixed up, I guess. I don't know what I want, and that's hard on all of us. I wish I could go back to the end of last week and start over, knowing what I know now. I could ask you to let me go back to what we had before, but it wouldn't be the same, would it? It would still leave a lot of things in ruins, and it's my fault." She was crying again, and I held her and let her cry.

Sam said, "Jenny, remember that I've messed up worse than you have, much, much worse. I can only tell you that really admitting what you've done wrong, and asking for forgiveness and a chance to start over—well, it's not magic, you don't go back a week, or three years, and get to undo things. But sometimes what you get is better than you ever thought you could have, anyway. Especially with Phil. But you're going to have to make your mind up on some things before you can do that, it seems to me, and you don't have forever to do it."