Love Among the Stacs

All characters are over 18.

Graduation Day is here. For James and Kellie, it's time for an amazing adventure. James is back at the narrative helm here, and I've switched the category from "First Time" to "Romance," because, well, it's more appropriate now. As always, feedback is requested, and I hope you enjoy!

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June 2, 1990

1.

I finished the last bit of Mrs. Lincoln's lawn and turned off the mower. It was 85 and humid already, and I was glad this was the last lawn I had to mow today. In fact, it was the last lawn I had to mow for almost two weeks. Later this morning I'd be graduating high school and this afternoon...well, if I spent too much time thinking about this afternoon, I'd never get around to my graduation.

I put the mower away and let Mrs. Lincoln know I was done, then hopped on my bike to head home. Well, "home." Home was a crappy city in Michigan where I'd lived for 19 years. "Home" is an apartment my parents rented when we moved in the middle of my senior year. I'd lived here just a few months, and in a couple more, I'd be moving into the dorms. For some people, everything started changing when they graduated high school. For me, my whole senior year was a study in change.

Thankfully, I'd been smart enough (and anxious enough) to set my graduation clothes out before I started on the lawns this morning. They were sitting on my bed, right next to my backpack and duffel bag. Those were for later today.

My mom gave me the requisite "oh my boy, you're so grown up" when she saw me, and my dad had that goofy "that's my boy!" grin on his face. I didn't take either for granted, though. A few months ago, not only was I a loser outcast in a dingy city with no future, but my relationship with my parents was relentlessly negative, too. We'd all changed a lot in that time, and I gave so much of the credit to one person.

The sixth time I asked when she'd be there, my mom made a joke about them not giving me my diploma because all my brains had fallen out.

"She'll be here when she gets here, Jimmy," Dad added. "Jenny called when she and Kellie left their house, and they should make the ceremony. But if there was a big slowdown or something, we won't know until they get here. Besides, as long as she makes it by this afternoon, that's what really matters, right?"

He grinned at me, and I grinned right back.

When we got to the school, they shuttled the grads one way and the families another. I had no idea if I'd be able to see them or Kellie until after the ceremony, so I tried to put it out of my mind as best I could.

I didn't have any close friends in my graduating class, not after only a few months, but they generally treated me better than those assholes I'd gone to school with since kindergarten ever had. And it was the kind of day for joking around and happiness, hugs and well-wishes. The bright sun was going to be an issue for some of my more-hungover classmates, but they took the good-natured teasing well.

I couldn't see my parents from where I was sitting, so I listened to the boring speeches and waited my turn to walk across the stage. I heard my name - "James Armstrong McKinley" - and got my handshakes and my diploma. As I rounded the corner to where they took photos, I saw her and almost ran past everyone else.

Kellie had grown her hair out some and gotten highlights and curls that caught the sun perfectly. She was wearing a white sundress that ended a few inches above her knee, covered with little pink roses and showing just a hint of cleavage. And she looked absolutely gorgeous to me. I knew that anyone getting a picture of me right then would be getting an enormous goofy grin, but I did not care. I waved to her and then moved along, ushered by one of the teachers. Kellie knew the drill - she'd done this the weekend before, although I hadn't been able to be there - and waved back. I followed her with my eyes the best I could and saw that she'd found my parents. Perfect.

Thankfully, the rest of the ceremony passed more quickly (once they get to the reading of the names, everyone is ready to get out of there). We did the recessional and then everything exploded into chaos as all the graduates tried to find their families or whoever was there for them. I saw classmates hugging each other with tears in their eyes, but there were no tears in mine - I just wanted to find Kellie and my parents.

As it turned out, Kellie found me first, running full-speed into my arms and giving me a big kiss. Well, the kind of big kiss you give someone you love who you haven't seen for two months but are also in public and in front of their parents. Her body felt so good in my arms, and I kept my arm around her even after we'd kissed.

My parents were standing with their arms around each other just like we were, smiling at us and talking to Kellie's Aunt Jenny, who'd driven her here from Michigan.

"Congratulations, Jimmy," my dad said. "If I'd been at all curious about what to get you for graduating, I think I'd know the answer."

I hugged Kellie against my side and laughed. "What you got for us, is, well, amazing."

"I know," Mom smirked. "But you've both more than earned it. Straight A's this semester. A full-ride scholarship for Kellie and a partial one for Jimmy, when we weren't even sure you'd want to go not that long ago."

"The thing that impressed me the most is how hard you worked for it all, James," Aunt Jenny said. "Every time Kellie talked about you, she was telling me about your job at the library and the promotion you got there and the jobs like yardwork and lawnmowing around the neighborhood. Did you sleep this spring?"

"I'm not entirely sure. But it was worth it. I'll be able to live on-campus, avoiding a long commute every day, and no one will have to borrow a penny, at least for this year."

Those things were true, but they weren't the only motivator. Living with my parents, getting back and forth to see Kellie would be a multi-hour affair without a car (and sometimes with). Now it'll be an L ride up the lakefront. We are both going to be quite busy, so when we can spend time together, we really don't want to waste it commuting.

2.

Since Kellie and I were all dressed up, Mom wanted to take a bunch of photos. We hadn't done prom, after all - that was one of the consequences of my being so busy these last few months, although neither of us had any regrets about that - and it was a good opportunity for nice family photos as well. The whole time, however, my mind was looking ahead to what was coming next.

The big present Mom had alluded to back when Kellie was in town for her college visits was a week-long trip to a cabin on a lake in Wisconsin. One of Dad's coworkers owned the cabin and let Dad rent it for a great price. They gave us money for food and other incidentals. Kellie's aunt was letting us use her car while she stayed in Chicago on a week's vacation. She'd really fallen in love with the city when she'd visited in March and had a busy week filled with visiting friends, baseball games, and concerts planned.

The lake the cabin was on was far enough away from most everything that we'd have to bring food and cook our own meals, unless we wanted to take a 2-hour car ride each way. Both of us were used to cooking, though, so that was fine with us. It sounded like heaven - clear skies, clear (but likely chilly, given the time of year) water, and the only other inhabited property on the lake was on the far side, screened by an inlet. A week alone, just the two of us, in beautiful country after only talking on the phone when we could for two-and-a-half months? It felt like a dream.

I quickly changed out of my dress clothes into a t-shirt and shorts, though Kellie left her sundress on (and I sure wasn't going to complain about that). There was much made of us going off on Our First Adult Adventure. Dad had pulled me aside for some last-minute advice, as well.

"I know you two are crazy in love with each other, but you will still disagree about things. There's an old joke about how the man only needs to learn to say 'Yes, dear,' but that's not true. When you disagree about something, before it gets heated, stop. *Listen* to what she has to say. If one or the both of you have hurt feelings, don't hide them. You can take a pause - go for a short walk, do the dishes, whatever - just something to distract your mind for a bit. Then apologize for what you did wrong. You don't have to throw yourself on a sword. Just own your mistakes. And listen to her. It took me a very long time to learn these lessons, son. You would have heard a whole lot less arguing if I'd done so years ago."

I gave him a hug and thanked him for his advice. And then Kellie and I loaded the car and headed out.

3.

"It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down/I had the radio on, I was drivin'"

Well, I wasn't driving, Kellie was, but that didn't stop me from singing along as we drove north. We had the windows down, the radio up, and the whole world just seemed happy. For a rare time, I wasn't thinking about the future or what might go wrong or how much money I was going to need to keep earning to pay for college or grades or my parents or the bullies at school or...

I shook my head - thinking about what I wasn't thinking about of course made me think about it. Instead, I looked at Kellie. The sun was on her side of the car, making her glow with even more beauty than she normally had. Her shoulder-length hair blew in the wind and her left hand was out the window, playing with the currents in the air. The wind buffeted her sundress, not exposing anything, but teasing around the edges. She was stunning in that dress - not Sports Illustrated swimsuit model-like, but all Kellie, and Kellie was who I loved. Most of the in-person part of our relationship had taken place during the fall and winter, and I was much more used to seeing her in sweaters and jeans and that kind of thing. I'd seen her naked a lot on a couple of glorious nights in March when she'd come to Chicago to look at colleges and the adults in our lives let us spend a lot of alone time together, but I'd never seen her dressed like this.

This was amazing. Of course, given that it had been more than two months since I'd seen her at all, she could have been wearing a hazmat suit and I would have been thrilled that we were together. As it was, I'd been hard pretty much the entire drive. It wasn't that I wanted to just grab her and have sex, though that certainly seemed like it would be fun when we got to the cabin. It was just how excited I was to be around her. There was an electricity in the air, and I was so lost in it that I hadn't even realized that Kellie was trying to get my attention and not just singing along with the radio.

I shook my head again and grinned. "What is it?"

"You've had the same giddy look on your face since we got in the car, you know. I think you kind of freaked out the guy at the gas station when we stopped to get snacks."

"I think he'll live. Besides, he was too busy looking at you to notice me at all."

"Really?"

"Really. Didn't you see how he had to re-count three dollars multiple times after you smiled at him?"

Kellie blushed. It just added to her glow.

"Anyway, how close are we to the turnoff, do you think?"

The atlas was sitting on my lap, our route marked lightly in pencil on it. I found where we'd turned last and looked for a road sign. "Looks like another, umm, 10 miles or so. And then another few miles and we'll be there."

"I can't wait. I've never driven this far, and it's more tiring than I thought it would be."

"You wanna take a nap when we get there?"

Kellie laughed. "You just want to get me in bed."

"And anywhere else you want."

"Gods, I have missed you so much, James. Just being around you makes the day better."

"I know the feeling. It's like there's more colors in the world now than there were yesterday."

"You're better with words than I am, so we'll go with that. Can you believe we're like adults now?"

"Almost. We still couldn't buy beer if we wanted to." Dad had told me that there was a large selection of beer and liquor at the cabin, and as long as we promised to not either get behind the wheel or go out on the water while drinking, we could just drop $20 in the box on the counter and have what we wanted. That, too, would be a new experience.

"Well, no, and a couple of other things, but we're out of high school. We're off seeing part of the world by ourselves. No parents or guardians or teachers watching us and telling us if we're doing things right or wrong."

"Just you and me."

"Yep!"

It was around four in the afternoon by the time we turned on the final road to the cabin. It was slow going because the road was gravel and crushed rock, and it didn't look like there'd be much room to the side if a car was coming the other way. That wasn't likely, but Kellie really didn't want to do anything bad to her aunt's car. Eventually, I saw the sign pointing towards "Leisuresuit Larry's Lakeside Lounge" (apparently, Dad's friend was a bit of a computer dork), and we turned onto the driveway. It wound itself around a couple of large trees and ended in a cleared area, mowed short, that could hold probably 6-8 cars, the cabin, and a lot of trees. We could see glimpses of the lake through the trees, and the mid-afternoon sun reflecting off the water was spectacular.

4.

We climbed out of the car and Kellie grabbed my hand as we ran to the cabin. It had a porch running around the side of it, and we followed that, listening to the echoing of our footfalls on the lumber until the lake came into view. I'd grown up not too far from wild places, and it felt good to get back to that. The lake wasn't huge, but it was big enough that we could see tiny waves forming from the western breeze. Stairs ran down from the cabin to the waterfront. There wasn't much of a beach - mostly mud and plants - but they'd built a really nice dock. Next to the dock were a couple of canoes that looked to be fairly new, some paddles, and a few lifejackets. There was also a sitting area built up on some stones containing a handful of chairs, a couple of tables, and a fire ring.

"Oh James. It's just so beautiful." Kellie looked at me and kissed me gently. "And it's all ours for a week."

"It is. Can you imagine what it will be like tonight, watching the sun setting low in the sky? I'll bet the lake lights up when that happens."

"We'll have to watch some sunsets this week. Maybe sit by a campfire?"

"That sounds lovely." I put my arms around Kellie's lower back and pulled her gently towards me. "Happy graduation, love."

She kissed me firmly, but without her tongue. "Happy graduation to you too. I love you."

Kellie pulled back. "Let's go see what's inside!"

The inside of the cabin was rustic, but clean and well-kept. It smelled of pine and a hint of woodsmoke. The living room connected to the porch through a wide glass patio door. It had a fireplace in one corner with a pile of wood and tools next to it. There were a couple of recliners and a couple of sofas. One of the things I noticed instantly was that it wasn't built to focus on a TV. People didn't come here to stare at a sitcom. They came here to do anything but that.

There was a dining room table that could easily seat eight, a relatively new stove and fridge in the kitchen, and an old-fashioned stereo in the corner next to a shelf filled with records. A door off to the side led to what had to be the bathroom, and Kellie popped in there first, claiming "driver's privilege."

I looked around the room a bit and then started flipping through some of the records. It was a really eclectic collection, with everything from pop to rock to disco to country. There was even a small section of things like soundtracks and symphonies. I knew Kellie was a big fan of old soul music - her dad had a big collection - so when I found an Otis Redding greatest hits record, I put it on and turned the volume up a bit.

Kellie wrapped her arms around me and put her head against my back. "Good choice. These songs always make me feel loved."

I turned around and took her in my arms. "I hope they always will."

We stood there for a bit, not quite dancing, just swaying to the music. The sound of the record was different than the tapes we listened to most of the time - I hadn't gotten around to investing the money in buying a CD player just yet - and even the slight scratchiness added to the sense that we were somewhere else, in another time.

Somewhere during the first song, Kellie took my hand in hers and we continued our tour of the cabin. Above the fireplace and hanging on the wall were pictures of people who'd visited the cabin before us. Each of them had a caption - "Fran and Larry, 1957," or "The Martins, 1976," or "Lucy and Jack, honeymoon, 1982." The fashions changed in each, but the smiles were the same. There were some couples or families who'd visited a bunch, and you could see them go from a smiling young couple to a middle-aged pair with a little less hair on the head (or a little more, depending on hairstyle fashions) and some kids on their knees or standing in the background. On the coffee table, there was a Polaroid camera and a sign reading "Leave a picture!" I imagined people visiting here in 2000, or 2023, or 2038 and seeing these pictures, including one of Kellie and me, and wondering what happened to all of those folks.

Kellie could see me getting lost in the history and tugged my hand gently. "You can begin curating those later, sweetie," she said, but she smiled at me with that look that told me that she understood what was going through my head.

We left the living room and she showed me the bathroom with its large claw-foot tub and assortment of smelly soaps. I thought of our first shower together and how nice a bath might be.

The bedrooms were down the hall. There were two on one side - basic, simple rooms with two beds in each. They were nice enough, but not the room you'd choose if you had the choice. The main bedroom was on the other side of the hall.

It was nearly as large as the other two put together, dominated in the center by a huge king-sized bed. On the near nightstand was a bottle of champagne and a bowl of little chocolates. On the far nightstand was a vase filled with roses and a note.

Kellie let go of my hand and walked over to where the flowers were. She bent down to smell them and picked up the note. Unfolding it, she read it quickly, then looked at me and blushed. She read it again and then set it down.

She picked up one of the roses carefully and smiled as she noticed that the thorns had been removed. Twirling it in her fingers, she moved toward me, her steps so light it looked like she was gliding. When she got close to me, she held the rose out to me, and I took it, inhaling its scent as she had.

The little smile that had crept onto Kellie's face when we'd entered the room was still there, but the look in her eyes was serious and passionate. She raised a hand to one of her shoulders and slowly pushed the strap of her sundress off, so that it hung enticingly against her arm. I bent down and gently kissed where it had been, smelling that scent of her - her deodorant, her shampoo, and just a little sweat from our long car ride.

I slowly kissed my way toward her neck, pausing to breathe in and let her presence fill me before each kiss. When I got closer to her neck, she tilted her head to give me better access and reached behind her neck to sweep her hair out of the way. I continued my slow progression upward, touching her with nothing but my lips and my breath. Goosebumps rose on her neck when I got close to her ear, and when I planted a gentle kiss just on the edge of her earlobe, she sighed softly - the first sound she'd made since leading me in here.