A New Friend

1.

In 1999 my father accepted a new job in Northern Maine, guiding expeditions for groups of rich city people through the woods and hidden waterways of the backcountry. I should have been happy -- camping was more than a hobby with him, and a new job was finally going to push my family out of the rut we had been in since I could remember, but it meant I had to relocate to a new town, with new people, a new house, and worst of all a new school. It was supposed to be the best year of High School -- Senior year -- and now... no friends, no reputation with the teachers, no idea what I was getting myself into. Senior year, and I was back to square one. Ugh.

We moved up in August. We moved up to wilderness. We moved up to cold water. We moved up to power lines and logging roads and hidden clearings. And I moved up to discovery. And I moved up to Ella.

The first day of school was overcast and cold. Walking to Northern High (our new house was mercifully close to my new school) I shivered in my jeans and sweatshirt. I spent most of that morning in a daze. The town we had moved to seemed small, and everyone in the school seemed to already know each other. The school had the usual clicks. Walking into the cafeteria for Senior lunch, I noted a few tables of clear outcasts, another few tables of athletic type students wearing letter jackets, and then a smattering of everything in between. I sat on my own.

At my old school I was towards the middle of the pack and I liked it that way. I flew under the radar of the idiots who played football and did what I needed to do to get through my classes with strong enough grades to earn the scholarship I would need to go to college. I liked that niche. No one pressured me to do anything I didn't want to do, I had enough friends to not feel like a total looser and enough free time to do my own thing when I wanted to. I never had a girlfriend at the old school, but that was ok. I've never been that comfortable around girls anyway.

I pushed around the food on my plate. Tuna Melts. The worst. I looked around the cafeteria. Sitting at a table across the room from me was the boy's lacrosse team. Most wore their letter jackets. Some even had their lacrosse sticks with them at the tables. Good plan guys, just in case a surprise game breaks out, just to make sure you're ready. Sitting with the team was a group of girls. Many of the girls were sitting in a group at one end of the table, clearly wanting to be associated with the team, but enjoying their own time. A few of them, however, were mixed in with the players, sitting on their laps, draped over their shoulders, whispering quietly.

As I watched, I couldn't help notice one girl sitting with the others at the end of the table. She had dirty-blond, shoulder length hair, an average frame and from what I could tell under the tight tank-top and skirt she was wearing, a great body. She laughed at a friends joke, her head back, her hands on her chest, and I couldn't help smiling. Her smile was just too cute not to respond to. As I grinned, however, one of the girls she was with must have caught sight of me, because before I knew it, the pretty girl with the blond hair was looking straight at me. She still had the remnants of a smile on her lips (which were a subtle light red), but she was staring right at me.

The other girls went back to their conversation, and I looked away for a moment, embarrassed by the direct eye contact, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the girl still staring at me. I glanced back in her direction and I could see that she had one eyebrow up now, and was, wait, was she smirking at me? As she caught me looking at her a second time she got up, turned, and walked over to one of the larger lacrosse players, sat down sideways on his lap, turned his head away from his friend and towards her, and kissed him full on the lips. The boy responded quickly, moving one hand up her back, and the other around her waist towards her ass. She moved a hand to stop him, but he pushed past her and squeezed, her ass hard, and she pushed her body towards him.

I don't know how long I stared at them, but it was clearly too long because when the bell rang for 5th period and I stood up, I noticed the girls at a table to my left giggling to each other and pointing in my direction. Great. Way to start of strong, James.

The rest of that first day went by slowly. My classes were easy enough, but I was not making any friends. Towards the end of the day at my final period, we were asked to form groups and it took me so long to find a group to work with that my teacher pulled me aside after the bell and invited me to a lacrosse game that night as a way to "start fitting in."

The idea of watching the meat heads show off wasn't the most appetizing prospect, but there was a chance that I might see that girl again, so at 6:00, as the rain clouds settled down over the tree tops and the temperature dropped even further towards too cold, I found myself sitting in the bleachers of the lacrosse stadium. The game was entertaining enough to watch -- fast paced and violent -- and I guess I was wrapped up in it because I didn't notice when someone sat down next to me and was, thus, startled when that someone tapped me on the shoulder, and even more so when I turned and saw it was the girl.

"You're new, aren't you," she said

"Yeah, hey"

"What's your name anyway?

"James."

"Ella."

She looked back at the field and I saw her eyes track the ball back and forth. It was silent for a while. I wondered what she wanted from me. I could smell her perfume in the cold air.

Then, out of nowhere,

"I saw you looking at me today. My friends think your weird."

"Sorry, I wasn't..." I stammered,

"You were. Whatever. I just wouldn't let Nick catch you. He isn't exactly the forgiving type." She had a way of talking that made her seem foreign. Older.

Then, "

I

don't think you're weird. Just shy. But that's ok, I like shy. See you later, New Kid" And with that the game ended, everyone around me got up, and Ella was gone.

2.

Over the next few weeks things started to improve. By Friday of my third week at Northern I had made a few friends and was starting to feel more comfortable moving around town. My classes were beginning to get interesting and my father's business was starting to gain momentum. Clients were popping up every few days so that my father was often gone on trips on the weekends.

After that initial conversation with Ella, we hadn't spoken again...in fact, she seemed to have forgotten I existed, but that was fine by me. She had been at the same time so direct and so nonchalant during that first conversation that I found myself getting nervous whenever I saw her in the halls. There were a few dreams in those first few weeks, dreams in which Ella and I... but I pushed them out of my mind as fast as I could. Just thinking about her made me uncomfortable, and besides - she was clearly in a relationship with Nick, who it turned out was one of the forward attack players on the varsity Lacrosse team. Nick was known around the school for being somewhat of a douchebag and I didn't feel like getting anywhere near that. As it turned out, however, I didn't have a choice.

On the Friday of the third week of school I walked out of the back doors of the school around 6:30 pm. In an attempt to make friends I had joined my school's debate club which met on Friday afternoons, and as a result I tended to leave school and walk home alone. I was surprised, then, when I opened the school's back door and found my path blocked by a checkerboard of letter jackets and Northern High Lacrosse T-shirts. The crowd was coming from the field where a game had just clearly ended, and as I walked by I couldn't help but notice Ella and Nick at the center of the pack.

I skirted the throng of people and was half way down the lawn to the street when I caught, out of the corner of my eye, Ella and Nick drop behind the moving pack of people, arguing about something. Ella had her hands on her hips and was looking up at Nick who was talking quickly. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was clear that neither was happy with the situation and eventually Nick waved Ella off with a wave of a hand and a roll of his eyes, and jogged back towards the rest of his team.

I had done it again -- started staring without meaning to, and as Nick moved away from Ella, her gaze drifted past him and she noticed me looking again. Seeing me her expression changed quickly from a substantial scowl to that same, self-confident grin and she turned and started towards me.

I froze. What did she want now? Ella walked towards me without breaking eye contact. She was wearing a skirt that rode high above the knee and a baggy tank-top that showed off just enough of her breasts to make me unable to turn away. Her hair caught in a gust of wind and whipped to one side and the tank-top lifted up too, revealing a flat, tan stomach. She had her bellybutton pierced and it glinted in the sun. All I could think about was how good she looked.

"Hey, what are you doing here so late?" She asked.

"Oh.. I -"

"Mind if I walk with you a little bit? I need a little break from those idiots."

Ella asked the question, but she was already walking down the street in the direction I had been headed. I hurried to catch up.

"I was just going home," I explained.

"Great. You live right near by, don't you?" she asked, adding "I see you walking to school sometimes." She was walking next to me now, looking straight ahead.

"Yeah, just over there - "

"Look -- I have this party I'm going to later around the corner. You know Lizzy? Anyway, I don't want to go all the way home, and the people I was going to hang out with...well fuck them." She stopped, turned and put a hand on my arm. "So is it cool if I crash at your place for a little while before I go?"

"Uh huh" was all I could muster. Nice one, James.

When we got to my house I opened the door and led Ella in. My father was out on a trip, so we went straight to my room. I hadn't been expecting any visitors and things were a bit of a mess. As we walked in I tried to straighten up by pulling some clothes off a chair so that Ella could sit down, but she made straight for the bed and sat down there, pulling her legs up and leaning her back against the headboard.

"This is your place, huh?" She looked around. "Not bad at all, new kid."

I didn't know what to do, so I sat down on the chair. Suddenly my hands felt very awkward. Where should I put them? On my knees? No that was weird. Cross them? No, I'd look bored. Hanging by my sides? Do people hang their arms by their sides when they are sitting down?

" So this is where you take the ladies?" she continued, ignoring my arm dilemma, "or maybe, where other things happen?"

"What? No, I mean, wait, what?" I didn't know what to say. She was doing that thing again. Being direct and not caring at all about it. I had to get out of there.

"Excuse me," I said, and got up, went into the bathroom attached to my room,, and shut the door. I turned on the faucet and took a drink of water. I sat down on the edge of the tub. She was just trying to make you nervous, I thought. She is just waiting until she goes to the party that she didn't invite you to. She's dating that guy. But my mind started wandering. I imagined going back out and standing in front of her. I imagined bending over and kissing her. I imagined kneeling over her as she lay on my bed and unbuttoning my pants.

Before I knew it I was rubbing myself through my pants, my cock hard and welcoming to the touch. I thought about her looking up at me with those eyes as I put my cock into her mouth and pulled her head towards me.

"James, come back out here. This is no way to treat a guest," she called from the other room. And then, "oh! I knew it!"

I didn't know what she had just found, but I didn't like the sound of it, so I rushed back out. Ella was still on the bed, but in her hands were the tube of lube and box of tissues I keep next to my bed. She was grinning, and as I came out of the bathroom her eyes moved down from my face to my crotch and widened as she saw the bulge in my pants that I had forgotten was there in my hurry.

"So this

is

where you touch yourself." She had that look on her face again. That smirk of superiority.

"Ella, I -"

"I've always wondered about how much you single boys masturbate. And how. It must be a lot, huh." she looked at the container of lube, already half empty. "I wonder what you think about while you do it. I don't see any porn around...so maybe..you think about people you know?"

"I don't...wait, you shouldn't be.."

Ella moved forward off the bed. She closed the gap between us slowly but until she was only inches away. "Do you ever think about me, James?" I shook my head, trying to ignore how close she was.

She stepped forward again, moving slightly to my side so that her lips were almost touching my ear and her right hand came to rest on my stomach, just above my now even harder cock. I swallowed. She let her hand drift down ever so slightly and I felt my self, my whole body, hoping she would touch me.

"I know how much you stare at me at school. I remember the first day of school, James. Maybe this will give you something to think about when you touch yourself." and she slipped off her shirt and bra. Her breasts were round and just the right size and her nipples were small and erect. She saw me staring and took my hand in hers and guided it up to her chest. "Is this what you want?" She pulled my hand onto her right breast and squeezed it, exhaling through her moist, red lips. Then, leaving my hand there she let hers drift down to my waist. I took a sharp breadth in as her hand found my cock and began rubbing it through my pants.

"Oh, you're as big and as hard as I thought you would be." she whispered. Each time she spoke her lips grazed my ear, sending shivers down my neck and back. I pushed my hips forward, urging her to rub harder and she responded by sliding her hand up. I thought for a second she was going to stop, but she only lifted her other hand from her side which was still holding the lube, squeezed some onto her palm, and then slid her hand, fingers down, into my pants.

"Is this how you touch yourself, James?" she whispered? "does it feel this good?" Her tongue found my earlobe and slid around it.

"oh fuck" was all I could muster. FUCK.

She had her hand around my penis now and she was slowly moving it up and down the shaft. Each time her fingers slid over the head of my cock I felt myself fall deeper under her spell. Her breath was heavy in my hear and I could feel the warmth of it on my neck. I knew I was going to cum soon. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the fact that she had a boyfriend bounced against the absurdity of what was happening but the smooth motion of her hand felt too good to resist. I still had my own hand on her breast and I squeezed harder and then pinched her nipple. She moaned softly when I pinched, which turned me on even more. I pinched her harder and she started pumping faster, moving over the head with each pump. I was breathing hard now, thinking only about the feeling building just under the head, thinking about how amazing it felt.

"Next time when you masturbate, will you think of this James?" she was still standing next to me, her body pressed against my side, one hand on my pulsing cock, the other pressing into my lower back. "I want you to think about me, James. I want you to think about me touching you and I want you to cum. I want you to think about my lips around your cock, about bending me over your bed and taking me. I know you want to, James, I know every thought in your dirty little head...now cum for me, James."

She was breathing faster too, her eyes closed. She licked her lips. Looking down I saw that she had moved her right hand from my back and was touching herself too, rubbing in between her legs with two fingers. There was a wet spot in in her sweatpants where her fingers were working. Seeing that was too much. The feeling in my cock built past control and I came hard, loosing the strength in my legs as the result of my orgasm shot out of my cock, soaking my pants and covering her hand and wrist.

"Mm. That's more like it." She said, quietly, regaining her composure. She pulled her hand out of my pants, brought it up to her mouth, and sucked my cum off of it in front of me. I wanted to touch her, I wanted to throw her down on the bed and feel how wet she was. But as soon as I was able to move she stepped away, reaching for her shirt and bra.

"Now now, I have to go. The party is starting, and if I'm late Nick will be mad at me again."

She pulled on her shirt.

"See you around, James," she said, and with that, walked out of my room.

I looked across the room and saw myself reflected in the mirror, pants wet, eyes glazed. It seemed like I didn't look like myself.