Polishing Jewel

Chapter 3

As Julie woke up she yawned and stretched the kinks from her lower back; she wasn't used to sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Then again,

she thought,

I guess it's not much worse than that ratty sofa at Rachael's.

Rolling her head to relieve the stiffness in her neck her gaze fell on the still sleeping form lying next to her. Looking at Nikki she smiled as the events of last night flitted through her mind. It seemed impossible to think, after the mess her life had been for the past year or so, that she was now rooming with,..,

living with?...

, this handsome rocker.

Lord, don't let this be just a dream

, she thought.

Having kicked off the sheet sometime during the night, Nikki lay sprawled mostly uncovered on the thin mattress. Roving her eyes up and down she took in his manly muscular chest and nicely developed arms. She giggled at the leather pants he still wore.

That must be uncomfortable to sleep in.

Julie gave a half grin at the bleached hair that, from the color of the roots, was obviously originally darker than her own. She wondered what he would look like with his natural hair color. Reaching out a finger she gently brushed back a stray lock that had fallen by one eyelid. Unable to resist taking a minute to dream of all the wonderful possibilities that stretched out from this moment, she roved her eyes up and down Nikki's form.

His handsome features were ruddy but not rough; kind of a cross between Mexican and Native American maybe, she thought, taking in the strong narrow nose that somehow managed to complement a set of full kissable lips currently courted by the dark morning stubble of unshaven beard and mustache. His strong chin had a little cleft slightly off center that looked like it might be an old scar possibly from a youthful fight - maybe the same fight where he got the scar on his neck.

Knife fight? Bar fight?

she wondered. As she continued gazing at the gorgeous form lying there so peacefully beside her Julie felt a stirring of warmth in her nether regions. As she watched, Nikki's eyelids twitched as his subconscious wandered amongst its own dream visions. Yep, last night had definitely been interesting and the possibilities of Nikki and the band were an entire universe waiting to be explored.

Careful not to disturb him, Julie cautiously slid out from under the thin cotton sheet and stood. Running a hand distractedly through the tangled mass of her hair, Julie looked down at herself. Distastefully she noted the wrinkled mess that was her skirt and blouse. Looking around at the sparse 'bachelor-ness' of Nikki's bedroom she grinned.

Oh well, nothing else to wear for now

.

Just make the best of it girl.

Running a tongue over grime coated teeth she made a face.

Can't greet Nikki with disgusting morning breath

, she thought.

God, I don't even have a toothbrush here. Please Lord, let there be mouthwash.

With one last glance at the peacefully sleeping figure still lying on the mattress, one bare foot poking cutely out from under the bottom of the mussed sheet, Julie padded quietly out of the bedroom.

----------

An errant breeze gusted at the thin curtain on the East facing window, bringing with it the morning smell of exhaust from the passing traffic mingled with the rather more pungent smell of the dumpster from the nearby gas station. Seizing the opportunity afforded by the wind gust, a shaft of early sunlight peeked into the window where it fell across the ruddy sleep slackened features of Clashing Forces' lead singer. Nikki Smith, sleep muddled mind still wending its way toward actual wakefulness, threw one heavy arm across his eyes and rolled over onto his side as his foggy brain tried to escape the encroaching light.

Still in that partial dream state that comes when one is partly aware of the outside world while still being lost in the vistas offered up in a dreamscape, Nikki's subconscious resumed its interrupted perusal of the visions last nights events had engendered. A mental picture of a tall vivacious blonde goddess drifted across his imaginary sightline...,

Dream Girl

, he thought. The very essence of his perfect fantasy. Ample breasts, their large creamy nipples straining to escape from a sheer silken halter top; long gazelle-like legs curving erotically up to a deliciously taut apple-cheeked ass displayed to perfection by a black leather miniskirt hiked embarrassingly high on sun kissed thighs; blue eyes batting demurely from underneath long lashes as her thin-waisted body wrapped enticingly around the rising length of a stripper pole.

Dream Girl's plump dark red lips that just begged to engulf a lover's shaft were pursed in a light pucker... As this delightful vision strutted across his internal screen Nikki felt a stirring in his groin. His subconscious unerringly picturing the possibilities those dick sucking lips brought to mind. As one hand, acting on its own volition, began to steal toward the turgid flesh just beginning to pulse against the skin of his inner thigh, the imaginary bubble containing his personal vision of Dream Girl was suddenly burst only to be supplanted by another vision. Curly blonde hair was replaced with a lustrous sheen of undulating waves of dark chocolate; blue almond shaped eyes shimmering in their smoky veil went opaque only to reform slightly rounder, their hue a vibrant emerald green shining with unfulfilled promise yet covering hidden depths of pain, longing, and need; plump lipstick coated lips were replaced by a slightly thinner set shining with just a light coating of cherry flavored lip gloss.

Running this mental movie reel forward, Nikki compared Dream Girl's ample breasts with Jewel's abundantly perky ones - noting to his surprise that Jewel's actually compared favorably. As the delightful creature from last nights adventure fully replaced the mental image burnt into his subconscious, Nikki realized that the turgid stirring in his groin had become a full fledged hard-on throbbing uncomfortably against leather pants.

Rolling over onto his back, Nikki stretched lazily and, groaning, worked his muddled way toward complete wakefulness. Smiling at the thought of how the young and gorgeous Julie Waters had managed, for the first time ever, to actually override and replace his once cherished image of the perfect fantasy woman with an even better reality, Nikki pried open sleep-gummed eyelids and rolled over to face his new fantasy girl.

Where is she!?

was his first frantic thought as he realized the mattress next to him was unoccupied. He bolted upright on the bed looking around for her. He had been pretty stoned at the club last night, but had Julie been a hallucination? He hoped that he hadn't dreamt up the whole thing. Tentatively he placed one hand in the slight depression where her body had been. The impression in the mattress was cool, but it was definitely there.

Well,

he thought with relief,

at least I know I didn't make it all up.

Someone had definitely slept there. But all the girls that had ever stayed the night before - not that there were a lot of those; it was kind of a rule of his, no overnight 'guests' - usually were still asleep when he woke up.

Rubbing a hand over his stubbly face, Nikki groaned, rolled out of bed, and got up. Padding over he slowly opened the door and looked both ways up the hall. Not seeing anyone he made his way to the living room. Nikki was surprised to see Eddie and his latest conquest sacked out on the couch. He gave a chuckle at the sight: the two of them were covered by a blanket, more or less - but mostly less. A naked hairy butt cheek peeking out from under the thin white blanket offered mute testimony that Eddie had gotten lucky last night. The clothes, including a pair of pink lacy panties and a black sports bra amongst other items, inexplicably folded and stacked neatly on the coffee table, lent credence to the idea that Eddie's latest bimbo was just as naked as he.

Adjusting the blanket to cover the more obvious problems, Nikki roved his view over the rest of the room. With the exception of Eddie's pants and tee-shirt thrown over the back of the couch, the living room was actually clean. Yawning, running his hand through tousled hair, Nikki covered the short distance to the kitchen, and found that that too was clean. The once grimy white stove, normally covered with old grease stains and unwashed pans, gleamed. The empty beer bottles and crusty pizza boxes usually scattered on the counters had been gathered and stuffed into a black trash bag. But still no sign of Julie. Where was she, and was she real or a product of drug induced euphoria?

Hell, she has to be real. This mess sure wasn't cleaned up by the kitchen fairy.

The sound of the front door closing drew Nikki back into the living room to find his Jewel just stumbling in with her arms full of plastic grocery bags. With a sigh of relief, mostly for his sanity, he smiled across the room at her. "Hi. I guess you've been busy this morning."

"Oh, well yeah, I got some stuff done. I hope it's okay. You were sleeping so peacefully that I just figured I could get some of this cleaned up while you rested. Oh, and uh, I found a twenty-dollar bill while straightening up the loveseat... It was just stuck there under the cushion. I was going to give it to you when you got up, but after cleaning out the fridge, I figured everyone would be cool with me replacing that science experiment gone bad with something that you could actually eat."

"No problem," he said with a bemused expression on his face. "Oh, here, let me help you with those."

"Thanks," she said, handing him one of the bags. "I was hoping to get breakfast going before you got up, but now you can help."

While following her into the kitchen he peeked into the bag. "Hey, bacon and eggs. Cool!"

Ten minutes later Eddie, wrapped in the thin blanket he and his companion had been covered by earlier, padded into the kitchen. One hand idly scratching the inside of his thigh he sniffed the air. "Smells great. Got enough for me?"

"Sure thing," Julie said with a chuckle. "It's almost ready. By the way, nice butt."

"Thanks. I'm rather proud of it."

"What about your, uh..., friend out there? She hungry?"

Over his shoulder Eddie called, "Hey Babe, you want some breakfast?" The only answer was an incoherent groan from the living room. "I don't think she's hungry," said Eddie, pulling out a chair from the folding dinette table and plopping down. "Jesus Christ! Did the clean-up-pixies visit last night or what? By the way," he said with a mockingly stern look at Julie where she stood by the stove piling a plate with cheesy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and buttered toast, "I was looking forward to that last slice of pepperoni."

Grabbing a fork from the drainer Julie set the laden plate in front of him and gave him a quick peck on one cheek. "Is that what those little round green things were? Try this instead. It has less mold."

Tucking into the food Eddie closed his eyes and sighed in bliss. "Damn Nik! You're gonna have to keep this one around a while." Winking surreptitiously at Julie he said, "That is if I don't take her from you."

Nikki bared his teeth at his young friend and growled a fiercely possessive warning. From the back of the house they heard a muffled masculine voice yell out "Hey, I smell coffee!"

"Ahh, the monster....he has risen," said Eddie in his best drawling Victor Von Frankenstein imitation. "Get your butt out here if you want any, Dumb Ass," Eddie jested as Julie poured yet another cup of coffee.

As Eric wandered in, absently rubbing one hand across his naked stomach just above a pair of blue boxer briefs, he said, "Damn, if this is what the mad scientists have been cooking up I volunteer for the job of lab assistant." Hunching over, Eric leaned to one side and closed one bloodshot eye. In a lisp he said "Maaasssterr, how may I be of assistance?" Plopping down next to Eddie he nodded toward the living room. "Nice piece of ass you got out there bud but maybe you should cover it back up..."

"Sure thing." Scraping his chair back on the tattered linoleum floor, Eddie stood and, with a flourish, pulled the blanket from around his waist. Grinning he held it toward Eric. "Be my guest."

Cheeks blossoming with sudden red splotches, Julie gave a muffled gasp and turned away.

"Nice piece of ass in here too, I see," said Eric with a grin.

"Hey guys! Come on!" said Nikki as Eric and Eddie simultaneously exploded with laughter.