College Days Ch. 08

HERE IT IS BOYS AND GIRLS

When I woke up she was gone. I slept so hard I didn’t even wake up when Collette rummaged around the room getting ready for the conference, I didn’t even hear the door as she left. The heavy, dark curtains were still closed, the room cloaked in darkness. It was nearly noon when I finally opened my eyes to the world.

My first thought was that it couldn’t have been real. It must have been a dream. Collette and I had decided to take things slowly between us and hadn’t gone beyond kissing and a little touching. It was just my pent up desire for her that triggered a dream that felt so real. About that time I noticed I was sleeping nude. I felt soft, moist skin between my legs. I remembered Collette’s delicate hands spreading lotion all over me. It was not a dream.

I could hardly believe we’d done that. I was so tired that night, when she cuddled up next to me in bed I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. But Collette had been awake. What was she thinking? Why had she led me on all this time about taking it slow, only to whisk me away for 3 days in California and jump me the very first night. It didn’t make sense. Then again, it was exactly what I really wanted. Who was I to complain? Knowing Collette, we’d have a long talk about it later.

I showered and pondered, convinced it was real, but still feeling like it was a dream. Stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around me, I turned on the TV. The hotel channel noted it was actually a rather cool day, which I hadn’t expected. Being right next to the ocean, the cool wind from the Pacific was steadily blowing in keeping the temperatures in the low 70’s. I dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, my shirt-tails left to hang over my belt. Collette wouldn’t be done with the conference until around five o’clock, so I found a place to get a cheap sandwich, then strolled down a paved walkway and sat on a bench near the ocean. As I ate, I watched squadrons of birds hover low over the water looking for a meal of their own. Done eating, I put my trash in a can and drifted around the shops in town before returning to a bench outside the hotel, watching the clouds and the birds over the ocean.

It was pretty relaxing. Nice to get out and see a place I’d never been before. It also gave me a lot of time to think.

Collette had been a bit upset about me messing around with Jen and Tammy together. She and Jen had made so many comments up to this point about how I could get a girlfriend; I guess I figured that it wouldn’t be a big deal. I was with Jen, after all, it’s not like I was off at a bar picking up strangers. This relationship was… I don’t know… odd?

Tammy was definitely pleasant on the eyes, but more than that, I liked Tammy. What I knew of her anyway, which was considerably limited. I’d probably only spent several hours with her altogether, and never just with her. Jen was invariably around anytime Tammy was over. I didn’t have a crush on Tammy – she was fun to hang out with and seemed to have a pleasant way about her – but I was very focused on my desire for Collette and Jen. I guessed it was probably a good idea to keep my interactions with Tammy to simple friendship and stay away from further compromising situations with her. I really had no intention of upsetting Collette, what happened just sort of happened. It wasn’t planned.

Collette. She and I had been so close for so long, and yet Jen was the one who leapt right into bed with me. Jen always had been more forward, almost childlike in comparison. Collette was the grown-up of the pair. She was the one holding down a good job, paying the bills, keeping the house in good repair. Collette was responsible and domestic. Jen was more like a kid with a new toy, and I was the toy. I didn’t mind being the toy, I loved Jen terribly. It was just different with her, less serious. While Collette and I first joked about getting married then later started talking seriously about it, I never had any such illusions with Jennifer. The idea of Jen settling down and getting married seemed laughable. She’d always be jumping from one obsession to the next, looking for the next cool thing. Jen would rather buy a new outfit than clean her own clothes. Collette scrubbed floors and washed laundry as though it were her life’s work sometimes, then scolded Jen and I if we didn’t keep the house the way she’d left it.

At 18, I hadn’t given much thought to long-term relationships, but realized in the last few days that, if I had an ideal mate, it was Collette. She knew me better than anyone, all my odd habits and mannerisms, my faults and shortcomings, yet… she loved me. She had known me since I was three, nearly my entire life. She’d kissed my scrapes and bruises, played with little green army men with me, even bathed and fed me from time to time, yet she loved me, not just as a little brother, but as a man.

I knew her just as well, and that’s why I was so in love with her. Warm, nurturing, emotionally grounded, Collette was the emotional rock in our family. She could be a vicious viper when someone she loved was threatened, but she was a gentle, purring cat nuzzling my neck when we were alone. She was incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, and quirky. All that, combined with a surreal, intoxicating beauty that stopped my breath and started my engine whenever I laid eyes on her. As I sat there on the bench staring at the bay, I realized that I didn’t just love Collette, I was hopelessly, desperately in love with her, with everything about her. I would never be completely satisfied with anyone else.

Cool hands slipped from behind my head to cover my eyes. I had been lost in thought and was taken by surprise, startled until I felt warm, soft lips brush the nape of my neck. Of course, there was only one person in the entire state that even knew I existed, so I knew who it was. I felt a second warm kiss a little higher up, then a hot, breathy whisper in my right ear.

“Hey baby, how you doin’?” Collette said in as low a voice as she could muster. I laughed, remembering the line from Joey on the show ‘Friends’. It was a joke we had started using to greet each other for a while when I was in junior high and she had come home for the summer.

“I could really use a good meal, I’m starving!” I said, reaching up over me to hold her head and pull her closer to me “I haven’t eaten much since I got up at nearly twelve o’clock.” I pulled Collette into a smooth, full kiss as she stood over me. Collette slipped around the bench to sit next to me and cuddled up close.

“How did you know I was out here?” I asked, “Is it five thirty already?” Collette snuggled up against me in the cool salty breeze, her hands grasping mine, trying to warm up her fingers.

“The last seminar got out a little early,” She kissed my cheek, “I went out to the lobby, looked through the windows to the bay, and saw this amazing guy out there! I went to go hit on him, but he seems to have disappeared…”

I gently punched her shoulder with my free hand.

“Yeah, I saw this hot babe across the street when I walked out of the hotel this morning, but she was gone by the time I could get through the traffic to attack her with my boyish charm.” I retorted.

Collette pinched me.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed with a smile, “You’d better watch out, sis, I’m stronger than you! And I know just how to get you.”

“Ooo, maybe you’ll pin me down later… I might like that!” She cooed, returning my smile.

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” I asked, liking where the conversation was going. “Maybe I should carry you up to our room right now and show you who’s boss?”

“Tempting, but maybe later, I’m hungry too.” Collette stood up and pulled my arm to get me to follow her, “Let’s go find some good food, you can pin me down and torture me later!”

I got up and we started walking down the paved path to find a restaurant called the “Old Bath House”. One of her friends at the conference had suggested it as a good, quiet place for a meal. I held Collette’s hand in mine as we strolled along the bay and watched all the people walking and roller-blading around us. By the time we got to the restaurant, the temperature had dropped a few more degrees and Collette was cuddled up tightly against me, her arms around my back and chest, my right arm around her shoulder. I loved the feeling of her close to me, it felt safe, secure, and even a bit of a turn-on, given our recent encounter.

As soon as we stepped into the restaurant I knew I was out of my financial league. It was a much nicer restaurant than I had imagined. We were seated at a table by the window, overlooking the bay. A lighted candle on the white cotton tablecloth put a warm glow on Collette’s pretty face, I loved staring into that face. The whole room was rather dim, making the whole place seem intimate. When I looked at the prices on the menu, I decided I was in trouble.

“Collette, I’m not sure I can afford to eat here.” I said cautiously. Collette tilted back her menu to look up at me with her brilliant green eyes. Butterflies attacked my stomach just meeting her gaze, she was so beautiful.

“Mark, my food is going to be expensed, and I can pay for yours. Don’t worry, just enjoy yourself.” She went back to reading her menu. I continued staring at her, watching her eyes as they scanned the menu, the way her hair cascaded down her neck, the noble curve of her nose, the full, luscious lipped that I longed to kiss once more. God she was gorgeous.

At the same time, I was trying to figure out whether I should feel grateful or embarrassed. On the one hand, she was my sister, it’s not such an odd thing for a sister to buy dinner for her brother. On the other hand, we were now much more than siblings. I was raised to be pretty traditional, and it just didn’t feel right, this meal was pretty much a date, I felt like I should be paying for it.