"Thanks to LadyVer for her editing assistance."
*
When I graduated from high school I stayed in town, but I didn't sit at home all day scratching my ass. Since the age of fourteen, I had been working to save up for the college I wouldn't attend. Starting with pushing carts at the local Super-Mart, by twenty, I had become the front-end supervisor. I figured by twenty-two, I could either graduate with a degree and no job, or I could work, save, and earn an assistant manager's salary. My name is Curtis Wilson. I was born and raised in Indiana, and I have nothing against going to college—I always figured that I would go eventually.
On the other hand my older brother Kevin went off to college, on time and on track, three years before I graduated from high school. Mom and Dad were quite proud, as was I, although Kevin hadn't saved up for college like I had. Mom and Dad couldn't afford to pay Kevin's tuition when his football scholarship fell through, so I jumped at the chance to help my big bro. I was fifteen and I looked up to him. That was ten grand that I would regret parting with.
Kevin's longtime hottie of a girlfriend, Nicole, also chipped in with five grand to further his education. I guess Kevin figured out how to pay the rest of his tuition with the loans he qualified for, because he left for college. Funny thing is I only heard from him when he wanted something. For someone who attended a college only two hours from home, Mom, Dad, Nicole, and I rarely ever saw him.
I was nineteen when Nicole drove up to see Kevin to surprise the future marketing grad for his twenty-second birthday. However, she was the one who got the surprise! She caught Bridget, her best friend, fucking him instead of keeping an eye on him as she'd promised.
Nicole and I had become closer than I had realized. Nineteen-year-old me was her first call, even though it was my brother who had cheated on her. I was over at her apartment, waiting, by the time she arrived back in town, angered and teary eyed. I held Nicole on her couch for hours with her head on my shoulder as she explained everything—how she found Kevin's apartment unlocked and Bridget in Kevin's bedroom sucking his cock.
I hated that I found myself imagining Bridget, a former cheerleader, in that position. "He blamed it all on me. Said I wasn't there for him. He broke up with me before I could figure out what had happened," Nicole explained in tears.
I wish I could have done more than just listen, but it didn't seem to matter that I had nothing to say. I just held her close and let her cry on my shoulder, which was difficult to do without actually getting hard. Nicole was, and is, a stunner. At five-nine she has a fit, shapely body, amplified by her beautiful soft face.
I tried not to get distracted by her plump pink lips or what was behind them, and I'm not talking about her perfect pearly whites or a tongue stud that made your imagination wander. I don't know how, but I found myself hanging out with her more and more. She was becoming my best friend.
Nicole worked at the Pit-Stop, a bar and restaurant on Main Street. She turned a blind eye to my being only twenty, as she had when I was nineteen. She would always bring me my favorite beer as soon as I stepped inside.
I was sitting with one of my friends, Danny, who was home from college for the weekend. We were sitting in the Pit-Stop and having a cold one when he started up. "You fuck her yet?" Danny asked.
"What?" I questioned.
"Have you fucked Nicole yet?"
"She's my friend!" I defended.
"So?"
"Like I said, she's my friend."
"Do you see the way she acts around you?"
"That doesn't mean anything."
Danny took a swig of his Miller's Genuine Draft. "Either I'm an idiot or she wants you real bad."
"You're not going to Notre Dame, so..." I quipped smartly.
"Neither are you, smart-ass."
"Touché," I exclaimed, looking at Nicole in her tight ass-grabbing blue jeans and red shirt that had 'Pit-Stop' scattered over her firm pert breasts. Just before taking an order at the table opposite where Danny and I sat, Nicole turned to me with her short black hair waving in suspended animation and smiled, showcasing her pearly whites and inadvertently her tongue stud. My cock hardened as I smiled back at her.
"Have you tried asking her out?" Danny pressed like a dog with a tasty bone.
"She used to date my brother, plus she's three years older than me...we're just friends!"
"Stop being a pussy."
Danny and I drank a bit too much so Nicole ended up driving us both home at the end of her shift. As I exited her Jetta, she waved at me and I returned it like a drunken fool as she pulled out of my parents' driveway. In my drunken haze, I stumbled into the house, and I realized there was no reason for me to still be living there—it was like an epiphany. I had enough money. Living with my parents was no longer justifiable, and I needed to move out.
At work the following Monday just before lunch, Nicole came up behind me, surprising the hell out of me. I punched out for my lunch break and we walked across the street to Subway.
"I'm moving out of my parents' place."
She had a pleasant, hopeful smile on her face. "That's good, when did you decide that?" I shrugged.
"Did Danny influence this?"
"No, I just figured it was time, you know."
"Yeah, I understand. Is this something you say but never do?"
I laughed. "No, I want to be out within two weeks, most likely sooner."
"Jesus, you're serious. Well, you can move in with me if you'd like. I have a spare room and the split in rent would be awesome."
I felt a noose tightening around my neck. "I should at least look around first," I responded defensively.
"If you don't want to be roommates, just say so. I'm not going to get pissed over it."
"What? I never said that."
"You pretty much did."
"I don't know that I want to live with anyone, is all. No offence to you, Nicole."
The rest of the lunch was awkward. I didn't see Nicole again until the end of the week, although we still texted like usual. I apologized to Nicole a few days later; I still don't know what for though. Still, I apologized anyway as that's the adult thing to do. That Friday night she invited me to a house party in the suburban area of town.
Wanting to be early, I waited in my Subaru Legacy outside her apartment for twenty minutes and ensured her favorite song was playing when she entered the car. I held her door for her, her facial expression brightening upon seeing my signs of interest. I knew that if I was going to make a move, it would have to be at the party tonight.
By the time we arrived at the party, police cars had lined the street and the neighborhood was well trashed with teenagers spewing vomit on the curbside. Parking at the corner, we watched her friends get arrested. Nicole tried to get a new location for the party by texting, but couldn't get any confirmation. The night seemed dead. I had escaped the night's duty, but my heart still buzzed.
"We could head to a bar," Nicole said.
All I could do was look at her beautiful face. "I didn't tell you how hot you looked when I picked you up. I thought it, but I didn't say it. I should have." Through the streetlight I could see her cheeks brighten.
