Author's note and acknowledgements
This story has sat on my hard drive for four years now.
I wrote it, all twenty chapters and 95,000 words of it in eight days of a frenzied, near trance-like state, sitting on my couch with my wife's laptop. She would occasionally have to remind me to eat.
When the dust settled, and I looked up, I realized a couple of things: one, I had just written a fucking novel in a week, whoa. Two, it seemed to be pretty damn good, double whoa. And three, what the hell was I going to do with it?
I tried editing it, I even enlisted the help of a Lit-Editor, who was invaluable for early editing, and confirming it was in fact, pretty good, or readable at least. I spent several months then, editing, unashamedly forcing it on writer friends to read, regular friends to read, and total strangers on writer boards. Everyone had different opinions of course, as people do, but all of them seemed to think it was pretty good, and I should probably try to do something with it.
So I spent another year trying to sell it.
Well nothing happened.
And I can't blame them, agents and publishers. It's kind of a niche story, hard to market. It's got too much sex for a coming age story, too much teenage drama for adult fiction, and not a single word about vampires or bondage to make it work as erotic fiction.
So it's sat on my hard drive for four years. I'll occasionally open it up, tinker with a line, or try to figure out how to re-work it into something more marketable. I always end up wasting a weekend trying to figure out how to change it, without losing the essence of the thing which I, and several others, feel is, "pretty good."
So fuck it. Here you go Literotica. I just want people to read it. I want people to get to know Jack the way I did. Writing his life made me feel like I was a part of it. He's a pretty good guy, I wish I knew him in real life.
So NEXT, some disclaimers.
This is a coming of age story. Which means first it starts out when the characters are too young to have sex (on literotica.) So there's no sex for a couple chapters. I hope that's okay. Second, this is a novel length story, including the prologue and epilogue, there are twenty-one chapters in all. Some are longer than others, and there is not a sex scene in every one. (Though some have more than one.) More importantly, sex is a thing that happens, it's not written to be titillating, but rather just as events in Jack's life.
So there you go. It's a story with sex in it, not a story about sex. I think it's pretty good anyway.
If you have not read the first chapter, please click on my profile and pick the story up at the beginning, its better that way, trust me.
*****
My graduation from Stanford was great, but it was not the same as high school. I graduated
magna cum laude,
with a 3.8 GPA, and gave my dissertation on the lack of math training required of math teachers in schools today. Went over well I think. Commencement was hard without my Dad. My mother of course flew up and was there, as were a number of my aunts and uncles and my grandparents. But my dad wasn't.
I had decided to wait before going right into graduate school. I was tired of school.
Which is weird I guess, considering I was planning on making a career of being in a school. But after sixteen years of non-stop studying and maintaining a high GPA. I needed a break.
Abby graduated with a degree in photojournalism, which was pretty awesome really. Her parent's were still happy for her - even though she wasn't becoming a lawyer. Beth graduated from USC with Media Communications and Anna with a business degree from Stanford. We still hadn't spoke since our final break up though.
The question then, was what was I going to do now?
I could start looking for a teaching job of course, but I wasn't ready for that yet either. I still had battle fatigue in a major way from school. I wasn't exactly eager to jump into the work force and start the last train to adulthood. I was twenty-two years old. I had a great degree and a good chance at getting picked up on a substitute rotation for the LA School District; or anywhere really. But I was just tired. My body was tired, my brain was tired; I'd left it all out on the field to bring it home the last term.
I had a decent savings and I'd managed to make it through school with nothing in student loans thanks to the life insurance from my father, scholarships, and grants. So there was no immediate need to jump into working.
No, I was definitely going to take a break.
"No, I am definitely going to take a break," I said.
Abby, Beth, and I were having some post graduation drinks down at a pub we'd started going too. It was in LA, not far from Beth and her boyfriend's apartment and Abby and I had moved back from San Francisco last week.
"Jack Wallington, what are you going to do without school?" smirked Beth. She was wearing a light summer dress, as was typical for her, because of course it displayed her cleavage perfectly. Her brunette hair was still as long as it had been in high school, and she was as good looking as ever.
Better really, because a sixteen year old girl can be pretty dam cute, even stunningly beautiful. But a twenty-two year old woman can be sexy in a way that a teenage girl just can't.
I shrugged, "I don't know, and right now that's kind of the point."
Abby sipped her cocktail through a straw. "I'm going to travel," she announced.
Beth and I looked at her with raised eyebrows.
She set her drink down on the table we were sitting around, "Yeah, Europe probably. Maybe China and Korea."
I raised both my eyebrows.
"Wow, good for you!" Beth said, and then her face twisted into a wistful expression, "I wish I could go! But I've got a to get a job, my student loans kick in really soon and I'm going to be barely keeping my head above water."
Abby shrugged, "Tell that man of yours to hurry up and get signed, then you'll never have to work again."
Beth was still dating her football player. Or maybe it was a different one. I didn't keep track.
Beth looked down at the table and spun her glass in circles. She had a weird embarrassed look.
Abby looked at me, "What about you Jack, want to travel the world with me?" she said. Her green eyes locked onto mine.
I had been about to laugh it off. Seriously, I couldn't see myself just up and...
Actually.
I did have a good sized savings. My dad had plenty of foresight, so not only had the house been paid off, and most of my student debt erased; but my mom had sold the house and moved into a smaller condo. She hadn't been able to handle leaving in our old place by herself. She was a lot happier now. She'd given me a good chunk of the money from the sale, even though I'd told her not too. Also it wasn't like I'd stopped earning money in school. I'd made pretty good money as a tutor.
I didn't want to stay with my mom in her tiny condo, which is where I was currently crashing, but I didn't want to run out and get a job and a place either. I had no ties. There was no reason I couldn't do this.
Both of the girls were looking at me expectantly.
