The New Softballers Ch. 04

"Remember when I suspended Beth indefinitely? Angela and Beth had a fight over something, I don't know what. Angela came right to me and told me Beth had confided in her that she was using. I kept quiet, but I observed her really closely. She tore up the locker room after a loss. We kept it quiet, said the suspension was for unspecified disciplinary reasons. But I knew it was the testosterone in her system. I had her come to my office with the Attorney for Students so she could get due process. But she admitted the whole thing. I told her I didn't want to see her again until she was clean."

And again, back to the hotel room. Carol was still asking Beth questions and Beth was still answering them. "What was the fight with Angela about?"

Beth was quiet for a long time. "I made a pass at her."

Carol inhaled sharply.

"We were both drunk. Joey and me, and Angela and her date, were back at my place. Joey can't hold his liquor, he was asleep. Her date started egging us on, saying he'd like to see two girls making it. I guess Angela was too drunk to say no. We started kissing and making out and I touched her down there. She jumped back like she'd been shot." Beth pulled back a bit to compose herself.

"Then, Angela and her date went to pee, both at the same time. After a couple minutes I heard some terrible screams. I rushed into the bathroom and he was trying to rape her. Saying stuff about how if she wasn't a lez, she ought to love his cock, and a lot of shit-talk like 'Take it, bitch!' I jumped all over him and slugged him in the nuts, the gut, the face; kicked his legs; broke his hand. And to this day, I don't know if I was protecting Angela or I was beating on him because he had 'outed' me. Angela had to stop me."

Carol was horrified by the description. And light began to dawn. "Angela was angry at you not just because you tried to go for her, but because you were so brutal in rescuing her from him."

Beth nodded. "I sobered up enough to drive them both to the hospital, and a doctor looked at me as well. She said my heart was racing so fast that she was afraid I'd be dead at 21 from some kind of rupture. I had to tell her and Angela about the steroids. Angela was even more pissed."

"So she went to Coach T and told her?"

Beth nodded. "Coach T suspected, but didn't know. I was losing control too much and getting too mad after losing. Finally, she called me in and asked me and I said yes. She told me she wouldn't have me on the team until I quit and stayed off. And I have, too. I kicked alcohol and pain pills after losing the baby, and I'll stay off pain pills until I can't stand this any more."

Carol sighed. "My birth mom died of cancer and I saw her hurt. I know she always felt better whenever my dad was around. I hope you can find someone who really cares about you."

Beth shook her head. "Joey did. I've cried myself to sleep thinking why couldn't this work. I'm never going to say a bad word about him as long as I live, and I hope he stays my friend."

"But you still need someone close to you," Carol said.

Back to Katherine's bedroom. Katherine and Tawny had their robes open and were wrapped together as if in a cocoon. Each had been kissing the other's neck and rubbing their breasts together. For Katherine, it wasn't necessarily sexual. But Tawny wanted to lose herself in the embrace of the other woman, and Katherine was happy to oblige.

Katherine gave Tawny a lingering kiss and caressed her cheek. "Do you really believe she stopped taking them?"

Tawny nodded. "I really do believe so, but I think they stay in her system and cause serious problems."

"The car accident, do you think?"

Tawny nodded. "It didn't sound like much when I heard about it. She was folded up in a small passenger seat, so her knee hit the dashboard. She didn't seem to be hurting too badly at the time. But it just kept getting worse and worse. The doctors had to open her up and drain fluid, and they found bone deformities. Bone softening is a side effect of steroid usage, and they don't harden back. Plus, she was in pain all the time and I had to warn her again and again not to try to compensate and hurt the arm."

"The million-dollar arm?"

"Ten million is more like it, isn't it? We didn't make that much in ticket sales, but attendance went from 30 per game to over a thousand. Booster donations to build the field, buy the uniforms, get the big schools to play us. All coming to see her pitch. Once the word gets out that she was enhancing that pitching arm, the only way they'll come out to the ballpark is to see they can piss on the mound."

Katherine shook her head. "That is not the thing to say to your lover. It's creative, but it's crude."

Tawny nuzzled into Katherine's shoulder again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But the program will be tainted for I don't know how long, and she'll be tainted for life. I mean, if the N-C-A-A comes down with sanctions, I'm prepared to handle it. But I can't do anything for her without really violating the rules and getting her banned from the sport. I know, sooner or later she'd have to stop pitching, but she wants to be a coach and a teacher and it would all be taken away."

Katherine kissed Tawny deeply. She stroked the breast pressed against hers. She wiped Tawny's face. "If you didn't have me and you didn't have such good morals about not having an affair with one of your players ... would you?"

Tawny sighed. "No. She doesn't need a lover like me. Not because I'm old and ugly {Katherine: 'You're neither!'}, but because she doesn't need an authority figure for a lover. She needs someone who's her equal or pretty close to it."

Back to the hotel suite, where Beth had admitted all of the above. She didn't see Carol as an equal. She could have looked down on the freshman, the non-jock, the girl who would leave college early.

Instead, she looked up to Carol. Carol had thought a lot during the conversation, asking police-type questions about the steroid use and who might be involved. And Carol asked again.

"What is the worst that could happen to you, and to the program?"

Beth had thought about this a lot. "The program could lose its accreditation. The boosters could withdraw their support. Because of Title Nine, the college would have to keep a women's sport equivalent to a men's sport, but the sport would be meaningless. Coach T could lose her job and the girls could lose their scholarships. And me ..."

"May I guess?" Carol asked. "I've seen athletes get, well, not crucified, but regarded with suspicion all their lives. Look at Lance Armstrong. People believe every bad thing anybody says about him. Or some of those baseball sluggers who hit the ball a mile and a half. They will be black sheep for life. They'll never make the Hall of Fame. Their enemies will write nasty books about them. Oh, they'll have enough money to live on, but no friends. You ... you'll have no friends AND no money. You'll be an untouchable as a coach; everybody will think you deal as well as use. Nobody will give you a job unless it's flipping burgers. Am I right so far?"

"That's the worst thing that could happen, yes," Beth said. Again she looked like she had been raped and could be raped again. But not by Carol. Carol spoke in the gentlest tone she could muster.

"That young woman who framed me for all that – she came clean about it, pleaded guilty, stood up and let me forgive her. If you'll come to my house and talk to my parents about what you did, they can start talking to people they know. If the program didn't know about you using, they can find ways to clear the program. If you've stopped using, they can help you do community service about the dangers of steroids. My dad and my Aunt Linda know a lot about steroid dangers – they busted a steroid-and-cocaine ring years ago, right after they first met. They're both really involved in helping people get through all that. There may be other things we can do for you. I think some of the girls will forgive you for whatever you've done and even care for you."

"Carol ... I was the bitch from hell on the team. I wanted to win and play super-well, and I had zero tolerance for a lot of people."

"Me too?" Carol asked.

"You too, for even the slightest mistake. I hated myself afterwards, but I got mad at you, at Sarah, Tracy, all the others."

"I wonder how they took it," Carol said softly. "I wonder how they took it."

Back to Katherine's bedroom. Katherine was actively making love to Tawny's pussy with her mouth, both women still enfolded in their robes.

"My God," Tawny gasped. "I don't know what feels better, you licking me or your robe." Katherine hit a sensitive spot. Tawny moaned. "Your licking me."

Katherine raised herself and kissed her way up Tawny's belly to her face. She shared Tawny's juices in a deep soul kiss. "The robes are special-order," she said. "The softest and warmest I could find. You deserved one for being so soft and warm to me. Will you lick me too and make me melt?"

"Oh, thank you," Tawny said. Katherine knelt over Tawny's face and got down on all fours in a 69 position. Katherine flipped the robe up above her hips. "I just don't want you to have breathing problems," she said.

"Thank you for that beautiful bottom," Tawny said sincerely, caressing it with her hands. Katherine lowered her head and kissed around Tawny's thighs and lower belly. She certainly hadn't forgotten Tawny's pussy – loved it, in fact – but she wanted to reciprocate exactly what Tawny was to do to her.

Tawny chose to lick the length of Katherine's cleft, from the clit down, and drag her tongue back up. Her hands still clutched at Katherine's buttocks, spreading and compressing them and rotating them in circles. Katherine couldn't do quite the same with her hands as Tawny was doing, but her tongue matched the action. She lay on her elbows and pushed Tawny's thighs around her head.

This went on for several minutes. Both women were gentle and exploratory, enjoying the feel and the taste of their lovers. Their arousal wasn't frantic; there was no rush. But it did build. Eventually, Tawny begged leave to slip her arms out of the robe and to lie back for a minute for the sake of her neck. Katherine gladly granted it and shrugged off her own robe. She spread it over her back like a blanket and bent back down to Tawny's womanhood. Tawny lay back, her hands massaging Katherine's mons and bottom, tracing the cleft with a finger up and down. After giving birth multiple times, Katherine was stretched out inside and could easily be penetrated by several fingers, which was Tawny's intent. Tawny, who had no children and didn't particularly like being penetrated, was much more content with the tongue action Katherine was performing on her.

Slowly but surely, Tawny slid one finger into Katherine's vagina, rubbing just "above" the clit. Katherine reciprocated by taking Tawny's clit into her mouth and gently sucking it. Encouraged, Tawny added a second finger at the base of Katherine's pussy, rubbing the bottom walls. She lifted her head up and just flicked the clit with the base of her tongue.

Tawny's third finger penetrated her, this time in the middle, and did a little dance. First to the left, then to the right, then down to touch the finger at the base (which was close to the G-spot), then back up to the top, er, bottom of the vagina. The finger at the bottom, I mean top, began massaging the G-spot. Soon, Tawny would add her fourth finger to the penetration and lick all around.

Katherine redoubled her efforts, focusing mainly on Tawny's clit but also slipping her tongue just inside Tawny's folds and swirling it. She stopped at the bottom to gather the reservoir of female love juices and swallow a fair amount. Tawny's other hand, massaging Katherine's ass checks, signaled approval. So did her moving hips. Katherine's hips were moving too, driven by Tawny's fingers.

Tawny honestly felt she was being treated like a queen, in the presence of another monarch on a state visit. She reveled in the robes, in the woman above her, in the reassuring words of comfort Katherine gave, in the possibility of living with Katherine for a while until she could coach elsewhere. Oh, God ... that last possibility almost caused her to cum right there. She slipped her fourth finger in Katherine's core and massaged her perineum with her thumb, while bringing her mouth back into play on Katherine's clit.

Katherine licked Tawny for another minute or so. Then she rose up, arched her back, and pressed her pussy down on Tawny's face. The orgasm shivered through her. Her pussy clamped down on the fingers. She dropped down hard, used her hands to spread Tawny's lips apart, and licked Tawny's clit with the underside of her tongue. As Katherine's second orgasm approached, she felt Tawny moan into her pussy and raised her own hips up so Tawny could breathe, as Tawny lifted her hips to meet Katherine's face. Both women came together.

They lay as they were for a while. Slowly Tawny extracted her fingers from Katherine's pussy and asked Katherine to come up and meet her face to face. Tawny kissed Katherine's juice-covered lips and offered her fingers, upon which Katherine sucked deeply. Then they wrapped the robes about themselves and hugged, hands touching the intimate places. They continued to talk until they got aroused again, and rubbed together, aided by the fingers.

Long afterwards, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Beth didn't fall asleep until nearly 2 in the morning, consumed by pain and by worry. But she had gently but firmly told Carol to get to sleep by 11 at the latest. Carol didn't want to leave Beth alone, but she finally consented. Beth left the bedroom and went into the living room, where she sat up.

Beth touched herself intimately during that time. She tried to visualize Carol making love to her, but the images from the site kept popping into her head. She cried and tried to banish the images. She thought about Angela, an even more sad spectacle. She thought about Sarah, which wasn't bad, but made her uncomfortable. Finally, she just created an imaginary female lover in her head, a composite, and imagined making love to that woman. She had to take the eyes of one woman, the lips of another, the breasts of a third, the hips of a fourth, the legs of a fifth ... the personality and heart came from a man, Roger. She cried as she thought of whom she could find who was like him. Maybe she would find somebody ... some day. Her body yielded to that thought and she came around her fingers, breathing hard, not daring to cry out.

But she did wonder if any of the girls on the team would forgive her. She and Sarah had been roommates before her marriage, and she greatly admired Sarah's drive and ability. Furthermore, Sarah had never said a cross word to her, nor made a pass at her, even though she had known early on Sarah was gay. She just hadn't gotten that much into Sarah's multiculturalism. Maybe she should have ... she found herself almost loving Tracy.

She admired Mary and Camille for a lot of things. She hated what Angela had done to them as much as she hated what Angela had done to her. She couldn't hate Angela, she knew. Angela had dropped out of school and moved out-of-state, and Beth didn't know if Angela had formally reported the steroid charges to the newspapers and to the NCAA. She tried to put Angela out of her mind.

Then there were Melissa and Ariel, Mutt and Jeff. Each had sometimes given her informal massages, strictly professional but each as good as an amateur could give. They worked in different, but equivalent, ways. Beth had sometimes bristled at Ariel's teasing, but she had held her tongue and gradually become accustomed to it.

Beth lost herself in thought. Eventually she lost herself in sleep.

(End of Part 4)