Track Meet in Purgatory Ch. 02

"I love you, Jason!" I heard her say as my awareness of the world outside of me returned. She stroked my cheek as she spoke.

I opened my eyes and found her looking into them. "I love you, Lynne," I replied. We kissed, gently and lovingly, and looked again into each other's eyes.

"Umm… I like having you where you are, but this floor's pretty hard. Maybe…"

"Yeah," I replied, "we'd better move." I kissed her again, quickly and lightly, and felt her sheath respond by contracting around me. Then I pulled myself out of her and stood. From my perch on the stairs, I observed, "I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to try a condom on me."

"Yeah," she said, laughing softly as she looked at my messy, shrinking cock. "They're guaranteed to be too large, now. But I'd better wash you off!"

I grinned at her and began, "You're just determined to—"

"Play with your dick!" she finished, interrupting me. "I sure am!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lynne had called the gynecologist's office while I was getting the condoms, and, as promised, she started on the Pill two days later—the same day that we started using those condoms. (Which, by the way, fit perfectly!) I'd heard that men weren't big fans of rubbers, and I'd had a pretty good suspicion of why that would be so. Personal experience confirmed that suspicion. Still, using one was better than the alternatives. So I was more than pleased when Lynne announced, as I "helped" her with her shower on the morning of the Thursday following, that the Pill was now doing it job and we could forget about the condoms, though there were still more than a dozen left. After we finally dried ourselves off, we celebrated that occasion in her bed—bareback, of course.

Commencement ceremonies were scheduled for the end of that week, during the morning of the first Saturday of June, just two weeks after we'd come to know what we really meant to each other. Those two weeks had gone by quickly; each of us lost in exploration of newly recognized love for the other—and, when parents were at work, in exploration of the other's newly discovered body.

When we weren't doing That, we were at school to rehearse for the ceremony or to fulfill our other duties. To no one's surprise, Lynne and I had placed, respectively, first and second in our class. Thus, she was to be our class valedictorian and I, the class salutatorian. So we both had speeches to prepare and memorize, and to practice under the watchful eyes of the class sponsors. We supposed they were making sure that we didn't plan to say anything inappropriate.

Commencement came and went, and with it our speeches. (I'd found that mine was almost as nerve-wracking as my drugstore trip had been.) That evening, Lynne and I were going to a party at a classmate's house. We'd hung out together that afternoon, as we'd done for years. But we couldn't do what we wanted most to do with each other because it was a Saturday and the parents were all at home.

Mom, Dad, and I were eating supper when Dad made an announcement: "Jason, Mom and I have something special for you in honor of your graduation. We were very pleased with how well you did in your studies, so, as a graduation present, and as a reward, we've made arrangements for a place in Fort Collins where you can live while you're in school. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll drive you up so that you can look at it."

I was floored. "Oh, Dad! You didn't have to 'reward' me for anything! I was just doing what I do!"

He went on, "What you do, Jason, is among the best, and we're proud of you. So we're adding the cost of this place to the money we've already set aside for you for college. You can think of it as a 'mini-scholarship' if you like."

Mom got up, came around the table, and hugged me. "Yes," she said, "you've grown up to be a very smart, responsible young man. We love you and we couldn't have asked for a better son. When she finds you, you're going to make some young woman very happy!"

I sputtered something, as my ears almost burst into flames again. And then it hit me! Evidently, I was stuck with my parents' choice of apartments in Fort Collins! So Lynne and I would have to find her a place to live that wasn't too far away from that choice!

A few minutes later, Lynne and I got into Mom's car, which I had borrowed for the evening, to drive to the party. Lynne was glad to see me, but she seemed a bit subdued. I found out why almost immediately. We'd just pulled out when she said, "Jase, I've got some iffy news. I don't know what to make of it."

"What's that, Lynne?"

"Mom and Dad told me this evening that they've rented me an apartment in Fort Collins for next year. I—"

I interrupted her, saying, "My parents just told me that they've done the same for me! I hope that yours isn't very far from mine!"

Neither of us spoke for a few minutes; neither of us knew what to say.

Finally, I broke the silence in exasperation: "Parents! They mean well, but sometimes I wish…" I paused.

"…they'd let us live our own lives!" she finished for me. "We'll just have to make the best of it. But, at least there's a silver lining: They're adding the money for the rent to what they had planned to give me! Because I was the class valedictorian!"

"My parents are doing the same thing!" I said. "The extra cash will come in handy! It'll mean that we'll have more spending money."

"Yeah!" she observed. "We'll like having more spending money. And maybe, now, we'll be able to afford to share a car! For the rest of it, we'll just have to make the best of things. We'll both be in Fort Collins, and both apartments are probably pretty close to the campus. So we can't be too far apart! I'll know more tomorrow. We're driving to Fort Collins after lunch so that I can see the place."

"Us, too! We're going up there tomorrow, too. Do you suppose that they planned this together?" I asked. "To make sure we didn't sneak an apartment together?"

"I wouldn't be surprised!" she answered. "Dad said just the other day how glad he was that I'd never been very interested in boys, so he hadn't had to worry about me 'fooling around' and getting pregnant! Maybe he just figured out that you're a boy!"

"Yeah, maybe!" I replied. I did't happen to think, then, that Lynne had only recently figured out that I was a boy, or that I'd just figured out that she was a girl. I took my eyes off the road for a moment, so that I could look at her. "Mom told me tonight that some young woman is going to find me, and that I'll make her very happy when she does."

She looked back at me and smiled. "I'm pretty interested in this boy!" she said. "I found you! Years ago! And you do make me very happy! Especially when we 'fool around' with each other!"

I reached over and stroked her thigh. "I'm very interested in this girl," I said. "Not to mention 'fooling around' with her!"

She replied, "Speaking of 'fooling around,' it's too light out now, but I'll bet that if we left the party a little early, we could find a dark, lonely spot in the bushes somewhere in City Park! And I'll bet Fred's blanket is still in the back seat! So we wouldn't have to worry about a cop spotting us doing That in a parked car!"

"The quilt's there, and I'll bet we could!" I answered. "That might help compensate for not being able to get together through the weekend because parents are home!" Traffic was a little too heavy for me to look at her, but my hand still rested on her thigh, and I gave it a squeeze. She reached over and squeezed my own thigh. We had a deal!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Leaving the party early didn't turn out to be a very big deal. Nobody there was important to either of us or was likely to notice that we'd left. Moreover, many of them seemed intent on getting drunk and/or stoned, and neither drinking nor smoking was our style. City Park did turn out to provide a dark, lonely spot surrounded by bushes and far enough from the street that a cop passing by wouldn't spot two naked teenagers doing what teenagers have done, whenever the opportunity arose, for thousands of years. So, although we didn't stay late at the party, we didn't get home early.

I didn't wake up until almost nine that Sunday. When I'd gotten dressed and had something to eat, I went next door to see what Lynne was up to. Commencement activities had evidently tired her out, too; I found her finishing her breakfast. We hung out for about an hour, and then we decided that we'd better separate to get lunch with our respective parents and get ready for our respective family trips to Fort Collins.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mom, Dad, and I arrived on the CSU campus at about two that afternoon. We'd already checked it out when I was applying for admission to several schools, but, now that I knew that this was where I was going, we spent a couple of hours walking around and investigating in a little more depth. So it was late afternoon when they took me to a street in the neighborhood just east of the campus.

"This is the place," Dad said as we got out of the car in front of a small, older, one-story house. "What do you think?"

I was astonished. "Dad!" I exclaimed. "You rented a whole house?"

"Well, not exactly," he answered as he let us in through the front door. "We're buying it. You're going to be here for four years, and we thought buying would be a better investment than renting would be."

The house was in surprisingly good shape for its age, I saw as we walked through it. There was a living room, a second front room that could be used as a study, a dining room, a bedroom, a bathroom that looked like it had been redone several years earlier, and a kitchen that had been remodeled recently. I was speechless.

"This seemed like just the place for you," Mom said, "You'll have to get some furniture, but finding some decent second-hand furniture shouldn't be a problem in a university town like this. Students are coming and going all the time." She smiled at me. "Maybe that can be your summer project. You can spend some of the money you won't be spending on rent!"

We were in the kitchen, looking out at the back yard and the garage (A garage!) when we heard someone letting themselves in through the front door. "I'll bet that's them," Dad said with a grin.

"Them?" I asked.

And then I heard someone say, "Mom! Dad! This is too much!"

It was Lynne's voice.

And Dennis' voice replied, "We didn't think so. It'll be a good place to put our money. Better than paying rent for the next four years."

To which Robin replied, "I think someone is already here. We can go ahead with the rest of the surprise."

And Lynne said, questioningly, "The rest of the surprise?"

We stepped into the living room, where the three of them were standing. When she saw us, Lynne's eyes opened wide in shock. She put her hand to her mouth and shrieked! She looked as though she was about to fall over.

I felt pretty much like she looked. For a bit, I could do nothing but stare at four grinning parents and one very shaken girl.

Finding some of her composure, Lynne started, "You mean…" And, unable to find words, she left the question hanging.

"Yes, that's what we mean!" Dad said. "You and Jason have been inseparable since you were three, and we don't see any reason the two of you should separate just because you're going to college!"

Having a bit of trouble with my voice, I stammered, "But… But… But…" I swallowed and got a grip on myself so that, at last, I got it out: "But there's only one bedroom!"

"Well, yes," Dennis said. "that could be a problem! But, you see, we know that you've already solved it!"

"We were a little bit worried," Robin said, "until last week."

"Yes," Mom added, "You didn't seem to have noticed that Lynne is a girl, Jason. And she didn't seem to have figured out that you're a boy!"

Dad said, "We were afraid that one of you might be gay!"

"Not that there's anything wrong with that," Dennis said. "But you two seemed so perfect for each other in every other way!"

"It would have been such a shame if that part hadn't worked out, too!" Robin contributed.

Still stunned, but beginning to recover, I asked, "Until last week?"

"Yes, last week," Mom said. "We had some suspicions for a week before that, but last week we knew!"

"After you two came home from your trip to see the dinosaur tracks, it was pretty clear that something was going on, " Robin said. "Neither of you was ever very forthcoming about what happened on that trip, but we could see that something had."

Mom added, "And whatever it was, we don't need to know the details. It seems to have been something that was good overall."

Lynne and I stared at each other, speechless, for a minute, while the 'rents looked on happily.

"Like I said a minute ago, you two have always been inseparable," Dad eventually observed. "But after you came back from that trip, something was different!"

"The way the two of you looked at each other," went on Robin, "the way you talked to each other, even the way you acted in each other's presence! All those things had changed. Julie and I could both see that Jason was acting a lot like he was suddenly thinking of Lynne as a girl!"

"And Lynne," Dennis added, "seemed to have noticed that Jason is a boy! She even started primping before she ran next door! I'd never seen her do that before!"

"So we were pretty sure! But Tuesday of last week confirmed it!" Robin pointed out.

Lynne and I looked at each other in confusion. I didn't have a clue about what had happened that day, and she didn't seem to either.

Seeing our bafflement, Robin added. "We ran out of paper towels that afternoon."

That only confused us more.

"Dirty Gerty needed more paper towels than we had in the house," Dennis explained. "So she drove over to Rite-Aid to get some."

Suddenly, I knew what was coming. The expression on Lynne's face told me that she knew, too.

Dennis continued without a pause, "And as she looked for towels in the store, she saw someone, whose name we won't mention, standing in one of the aisles, looking at a couple of shelves full of a certain commodity—which we also won't need to mention. She watched from another aisle as this person chose a couple of items and paid for them at the pharmacy window." He looked directly at me, a dirty grin on his face.

I gulped. I knew who wasn't going to be named, what he'd been looking at, and exactly what he'd bought—even down to the brands. Not just my ears, but my whole head seemed about to burst into flame. I looked into Lynne's eyes. She gulped and looked back at me. The color of her face suggested that her head was about to burst into flame, too.

Robin picked up from there. "Dirty called me at work. For some reason, she thought I'd want to know about those purchases, and who made them. She seemed to think the incident might have some bearing on my daughter…"

"Actually," Dennis added, "she was right about that. It did have something to do with our daughter, but we didn't react quite the way Dirty Gertie thought we would! She thought she was ratting you out!"

"But we didn't see it the way she thought we would," Dad said. "What we saw was confirmation that a couple of bright teenagers had finally realized that a boy and a girl can be a lot more than 'just friends' to each other. And that they were protecting themselves! You made all four of us very happy! On both accounts."

"We are happy!" Robin said. "We're happy for both of you." Then, looking directly at me, she went on, "Jason, for most of the last 18 years you've meant nearly as much to us as Lynne does, and nothing could please us more than seeing the two of you come to love each other fully."

"We feel the same way about you, Lynne," Mom said. "That's why the four of us are buying this house for the two of you to share for the next four years. Two people who feel the way you two do about each other should live together."

Dennis, who was standing next to me, nudged me. "I think Lynne's looking a bit faint," he said. But there was an enigmatic smile on his face. I looked at Lynne. I could see that she was bewildered, but I didn't see any faintness. He went on, "If Robin looked like that, I'd revive her with a good healthy kiss!"

"Yes," Mom said. "I'd definitely say that's what she needs!"

Still bewildered, shaking her head, Lynne flowed into my arms. I held her and looked into her eyes. I could see that her composure was already improving. She returned my gaze and smiled up at me. "Yes, Nerd! That's what I need!" she said. "Kiss me!" Happily, she she threw her arms around my neck and reached for my lips.

I had just time to say, "Okay, Nerdette!" as I bent down to meet her halfway.

The End

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