This is the end of this set of stories, but perhaps there is more to explore with these characters? Please let me know your interests in hearing more about them by leaving a comment. And, of course, please do give it the number of stars that reflects your enjoyment; it helps me know I've connected with you. - ek.
We kissed goodbye in the morning, in the entry: Lise waiting for a ride to the airport, Jade hopping a tram to school, and I, already late for an appointment, racing to the car.
"Call us!" I shouted on my way to the garage.
"I'll call you when I land!"
Jade had been teary all morning, setting the tenor for all of us.
"I have some presents for you," Lise said, later. "I'll leave them in the den. You can open them when you get back."
"When will you be back?" Jade had asked the night before, her fingers playing with Lise's nipples, enjoying the sound she made when she tweaked them in just a certain way.
"A couple months…oh!"
That could mean anything.
But I kept quiet; Jade might have been thinking the same thing, or maybe she was still innocent enough to believe it. The truth was that Lise couldn't predict when or where her job took her. She would be back whenever she could make it, or, like this time, when she couldn't wait any longer for a proper fuck. But maybe there was more truth to her answer this time. Jade had changed, with Lise's guidance, but Lise had definitely changed as well. Jade and I both felt it, seeing the possibility of Lise's longer term commitment.
Jade was in the den by the time I'd returned, her present sitting on the coffee table, her face glued to her screen.
"You waited for me. That was nice." I picked mine up and sat next to her, placing hers on her lap.
Mine was smallish, the box not much bigger than my hand. Hers was obviously clothes: a pillow shaped package, light and soft.
"Wow," I said admiring the gift. "That'll look amazing on you!"
She'd already gotten up to press it against her front, confirming it would fit. "I should try it on, right?"
I nodded, watching as she laid it down and stripped off to her panties.
"Why leave those on?"
She stuck her tongue out at me, but I was being serious. She pulled the outfit up her legs: a one-piece cotton jumpsuit, sheer enough to see her golden-brown skin, except around her breasts. There were cotton pads there that hid her nipples. Zipped up, she looked practically undressed, except she was completely covered. I could see the outline of her underwear, understanding why she'd left it on.
I unwrapped mine, pulling out a paper wrapped object, greenish tones peeking out. Unwrapping it, I could see it was a horse…and then it transformed into a unicorn carved from a green stone. It was beautiful, detailed and delicate.
"Holy shit," she exclaimed. "A unicorn…?!"
I nodded and looked at her, the meaning sinking in. "A Jade unicorn."
A few weeks later, Jade came to dinner with a strange expression. "I…hmmm, I'm not sure what's happening, actually…I…I'm a little worried, actually!"
I shook my head once, waiting for something more. When she stayed silent, I prompted her. "Are you physically unwell? Might you be pregnant? Did something happen at school?"
She giggled. "No, NO!, and, well, yes, but not today."
I waited.
"I think I met someone…?"
I felt some small thing in me break. Not my heart. Not that big, but something more in my core. A crystal thing.
"Someone…?"
She couldn't look me in the face, her gaze at the table top, nodding.
"And is he a student? Is he part of your research group?" I was quiet. I was calm. I knew something had changed, that this wasn't another one of her experiments or research. "You know whatever it is you can tell me, right? T and H, Jade. No matter what."
She broke down and cried, not sobbing or wailing, just tears flowing down her face, her cheeks twisted up, her mouth quivering. I reached over and hugged her, and she wrapped her arms around me, the sobbing starting for real.
I comforted her, whispering that it was okay, that she should follow her heart. We stayed like that for awhile until she could talk about it, and once she started, she couldn't stop.
She was conflicted—she felt something for him she'd never felt before, but she didn't want to lose what she'd come to think of as her life.
It was the pure moment of youth: you don't know the value of what you've got because you don't know what to compare it to. Should I have 'fought' for her? I could hear her making the argument, like she had made so many times before: 'If I really cared for her, I'd fight for her.' Even when I heard it in my head I laughed.
The irony was that she didn't even bring it up. Either she knew it wouldn't matter, or she realized that there was nothing to fight. Fight her feelings for another person? Fight her growing apart? Fight her right to choose her own path?
She didn't move out right away, and she didn't stop wanting to have sex. It was sweet, actually. A calm, sweet, familiar feeling. How did she explain it to him? I was only curious in an academic way, but she didn't offer, and I didn't care enough to ask. I knew she was having sex with him; I could smell him on her, and on more than one night, she'd ask me to suck on her, to pull his cum out of her. I thought it was cute. He didn't taste so bad.
"I need you to fuck me like you own me," she said the night before she was ready to go.