Footlong (Part 1)
Kathryn M. Burke
Samantha Jameson was smart, and she knew it. As a junior at one of the more prestigious colleges in the Boston area, she sailed through her classes as a double major in English and philosophy. Now, at the age of twenty-one, she suddenly realized that she had failed to take the two semesters of science classes that she had to pass before she could get her B.A.; so far, she had only taken a one-semester freshman geology class. The idea of taking another introductory class full of callow rubes right out of high school offended her sense of dignity and self-worth, so she signed up for an Intermediate Chemistry class, figuring that the year-long chemistry class she'd taken in high school would help her along.
It didn't. After several weeks, it became painfully obvious to her that she was hopelessly at sea and that the other studentsâeven those who were younger than herâwere looking on her with a mixture of scorn and pity. The idea! This was not to be borne; and, decisive as always, Samantha decided to do something about it.
She had noticed an African American in the class who, although seemingly quite shy and retiring for the most part, was a whiz at the complex formulas and experiments that the boring and unhelpful instructor threw out to the class. He was a big, hulking guy named Julius Mathers, and she'd heard he was on the football team. Given her utter lack of interest in sports, this fact didn't impress her one bit; in fact, she was amazed the guy could add 2 + 2, since he presumably spent his time on the gridiron knocking heads with other equally brainless lugs to whom the university in its blindness had extended academic scholarships. But Julius was definitely not brainless; he knew chemistry front and back.
So after class one day in October, she sidled up to him, hooked an arm in his, and said: "Say, Julius, you really know your stuff!"
The guy seemed stunned at Samantha's approach. His eyes got big, and it was almost as if he was going to faint on the spot.
Samantha chuckled inwardly. She knew she was a superior girl both in looks and in brains. At five foot six, she was definitely not petite; and she had plenty of curves at bust and bottom that would make any manâespecially, she figured, the football player typeâsalivate with anticipation. She'd had a fair amount of experience with men and knew how to push their buttons. Some of them responded to the "weak, helpless female" personaâyou know, batting of eyelashes and that sort of thing. Others were keen on the tough broad who could take anything a guy dishes out. Samantha had had boyfriends of all different sorts in her college career, but none of them could keep up with either her mind or her body. Men were such babiesâputty in the hands of a determined woman.
She didn't exactly know what sort of guy Julius wasâor, rather, what kind of girl would appeal to him. She'd never seen him with a girl; in fact, people seemed to hold him in a sort of awe, and very few seemed to have the courage even to speak to him. But she could tell that he was desperately shy and withdrawn, so she thought a mixture of approachesâa frank acknowledgment of her need for help and a clear implication that she would not allow his assistance go unrewardedâwould work.
But as he gaped down at her (he was at least six feet tall, with incredibly broad shoulders and a barrel chest, not to mention his stovepipe thighs and sculpted calves) almost in terror, she wondered whether Julius was afflicted social anxiety disorder or something of the sort.
If an African Americanâeven a light-skinned one as Julius wasâcould blush, he blushed at her flattery. "Thank you, ma'am," he muttered half-inaudibly, unable to look Samantha in the face.
She frowned at him. "Don't call me ma'am. My name is Samantha."
"Sorry," he said, still looking away. "I've been taught to be respectful to women."
"That's all very nice, but please call me by my name. I hope we'll be great friends very soon." After a pause she went on: "How do you know so much about chemistry?"
Julius grinned to himself, and something about that smile touched Samantha's heart. "Gee, Samantha, I did a lot of stuff with a chemistry set as a kid."
"Chemistry set?" she said incredulously. "That couldn't have been very advanced!"
"Maybe not, but it helped me understand how things like this work."
"I'll take your word for it."
She now told him what she was proposing. In essence, she hoped that Julius would agree to be her lab partnerâand, even beyond that, that he would give her some help in understanding certain basics in chemistry that she was obviously lacking, and that that boring professor couldn't be bothered to explain, apparently on the assumption that the class knew them already.
Julius's eyes lit up as he peered down at Samantha. "Sure, ma'amâI mean, Samantha. That would be fine."
She knew he had him hooked.
Over the next several weeks, they spent a lot of time togetherânot just at the lab, but at her rooming house, poring over the textbook. They even took meals together at various eateries around campusâand Samantha couldn't help noticing that lots of people were gawking at them, some of them even pointing to them as they sat at a secluded table to chow down. Surely it couldn't be because they were an interracial couple! People here just didn't care about that, did they? But what else could it be?
There was one time, while they were wrestling with what Samantha and even Julius found to be a particularly difficult problem, when she almost lost her patienceânot at him, but at herself. She threw down the book on the floor and flopped onto the bed on her stomach, pounding the mattress with her fists and saying, "God, I'm so stupid!"
Julius, who had been the most incredibly mild-mannered and patient tutor up to this point, came over to her, took her by the arm, and almost violently turned her over so that she was facing up.
"Hey!" he almost shouted. "Don't ever say that about yourself!" Getting a grip on himself, he said more softly, "You're real smart, and you're real pretty. I don't know any girl like you."
He seemed embarrassed at what he'd said, and retreated to the desk chair, sitting down on it and facing away from Samantha.
She got up slowly from the bed and walked over to him. Without hesitation she sat down on his lap, her legs draped on either side of him. (The chair had no arms, otherwise this wouldn't have been possible.)
"You're such a sweetheart, Julius," she whispered, and she held his head to her chest.
She was wearing only a sweater over her bra, and Julius's head rested exactly in the space between her ample breasts. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her back, as if she were a fine piece of china that might break if he held it too tight.
She pulled his head back so she could look him in the face. She had long admired that face, but now she realized how exquisitely modulated the features were. If an ancient Greek sculptor had wanted to fashion an image of Apollo or Hermes, he could easily have used Julius's face as a model. For all his brawn, there was a gentleness and delicacy in his features that wrung her heart.
So what else could she do but kiss him?
The kiss lasted a long, long time, and she could feel Julius's lips actually trying to pull away from hers after a half-minute or so.
Okay,
she thought,
that's a pretty long time to kiss someone, especially for the first time.
But she wasn't letting go, and pressed her lips to his quite a bit longer.
At last she pulled her face away, and both of them were gazing at each other, eyes shining. It was with only a slight hesitation that Samantha said:
"Take my sweater off, Julius."
As if in a dream, he pulled the sweater up from her waist and gently tugged it over her head. He gawked at the large, shapely breasts encased in her bra, giving the bare skin at the top of them a tender little kiss.
"Take my bra off now," she said.
Julius did as orderedâand his jaw dropped as her naked breasts were revealed to his gaze. With a kind of awe he extended one of his large hands toward them, uncertain whether he would actually be allowed to touch these holy objects. She took that hand and pressed it against her left breast, and Julius expelled a little moan that signaled both his desire and a more abstract appreciation of the pure aesthetic beauty of that heavenly globe.
Julius brought his face to Samantha's chest and kissed her breasts over and over, then fastened his lips on her nipples in turn and made them even more erect than they had been before. Samantha glanced down at him as if she were a sort of Madonna nurturing her (very large) child.
After some moments of this, Samantha abruptly got off of Julius's lap. Eyes fixed on his, she quickly peeled off her tight-fitting jeans, taking her underwear with them. She thought wryly that Julius might pass out from the sight of her naked bodyâthe swell of her hips, the curve of her bottom (as much as he could see of it from the front), and especially the fine hairs covering her delta.
But she wasn't interested merely in exposing herself. She wanted to get a clear idea of what this rugged athlete had to offer.
He was wearing a T-shirt that clung closely to his torso, and he watched in amazement as she took it off. The hairless chest that was now revealed, with its almost frighteningly well-developed pectoral muscles, caused Samantha to go weak in the knees. She was no innocent virgin, but she'd never seen anything like this.
Now ordering Julius to stand up, she said, "Let's see what you got down here."
She flopped down to her knees in front of him. It took some effort to undo the button above the zipper of his jeans, but she managed it at last. Then, just as she had done with her own jeans, she pulled his down along with his underwear to display his own splendid nudity.