The Trampoline

The Trampoline

Chapter 1

Caleb trudged wearily down the stairs. What should have taken ten minutes, had taken an hour. His daughter had refused to sleep after just one story and he'd sworn on each of the subsequent five stories that this was "the last one."

He reached into the fridge for a cold soda, craving something sweet but caffeinated.

He'd heard Nicole get out half an hour before him from putting their other daughter to bed.

"Come on!" he'd texted her in dismay and envy.

"Sucka!" she texted back.

He'd tried to listen to hear through the door whether she was getting into the ice cream he'd bought, but couldn't make out anything over the sound of his daughter informing him that "I'm not sleepy!"

He carried his soda into the living room, but paused for a moment when he noticed an absence of Nicole. He looked around, perplexed. The routine was put the kids to bed then Netflix. He sipped his soda absentmindedly and waited for the hint of caffeine to reawaken his senses.

"Where are you?" he texted.

"Trampoline" pinged the reply.

"???" he texted back.

"Trampoline!" it pinged once, then a second time for "hurry up, dickweed!"

Caleb went back to the kitchen, then stepped barefoot out the back patio door of their modestly generic suburban home and out into the pitch black of night.

As he waited for his eyes to adjust before proceeding, she called to him.

"Come on over," she chimed. "I have a plan."

"I thought we already had a plan" he called back into the darkness. Technically he'd had two. The original plan, worked out months in advance was for Caleb to drop the kids at their parents on their way to the airport and fly down to Costa Rica to spend her birthday week on a beach resort, drinking, sleeping, and --quite frankly- fucking far more than their suburban life would ever normally allow them to. The tickets were non-refundable.

Then COVID hit.

Plan B was for him to make her a nice wild mushroom risotto (which he had done), put the kids to bed, and binge-watch her favorite episodes of Dr. Who, before seeing where the night might take them. Caleb had been excited for it.

"My plan is better!" she answered. "Quit being a baby. Come to the trampoline."

"You're on the trampoline," he laughed. "Now whose a baby?!"

"Baby's don't go on trampolines, dumbass. Nice try," she retorted....accurately.

He stumbled forward in defeat.

The trampoline had saved their sanity more than once during the lockdown. The kids could get some exercise while Nicole or Caleb worked from a laptop outside or even from the kitchen. They'd bought it just a month before the pandemic hit, from a local buy n sell. 10 ft of bouncy black bliss surrounded by a soft mesh net to catch any wayward lunges. "Best purchase I ever made," he'd told his Dad via skype just 4 days ago.

His eyes were beginning to adjust now, and he could see her laying flat on her back on the trampoline. As her silhouette started to sharpen in his vision, he could see that she was wearing her puffy light grey sweatpants from UCLA, where she'd gotten her bachelors degree, and a shirt (he couldn't tell what colour) that was way too tight and didn't nearly fit down to the waistband of her sweats. She'd given up on bras about two weeks into the pandemic. He stated constantly, involuntarily, at her large, soft breasts -- European breasts, he though, without really knowing why - It had been driving him crazy with desire, but there was rarely time to explore those urges. She had an elven face, narrow and mischievous, with a short, soft body to contrast it. Her hair was long -- months now without a cut -- and raven black; it splayed across the surface of the trampoline.

She was staring up at the stars.

Caleb crawled through the zippered opening in the trampoline's netting and flopped on his back beside her, ricocheting both their bodies up and down before settling. He stared up into the same sky that had captivated her.

"Whatcha doin?" he asked.

"It's my birthday," she replied.

"Mmm hmmm" he responded.

"At 2:00 am I'll be 30 years old, with a husband, two kids, and a mortgage." The words sounded dry and distant in her mouth.

"Yup," he replied.

She rolled onto her side to face him. "But I'm not 30 yet."

Caleb was confused, and starting to sense something brewing in her intent.

"That's true" he stated bluntly.

"Do you remember your 30th last month?"

Caleb suddenly felt like a trap was forming around him. Of course he did. It was his birthday. And it was, you know, last month.

"Y-es" he replied.

"Do you remember what I did for you?"

He did. Did he ever.

"Of course."

"Do you remember that I said I'd do anything for you.....even, that thing you wanted to try?"

That thing hadn't been nearly as pleasant as Caleb had hoped it would be; it was mostly awkward and a little gross, but he was deeply grateful that she had let him try it.

"I do" he stated, knowing that the axe was about to fall.

"And do you remember how you said you'd do anything for me as well?"

Caleb found himself cursing his moment of weakness -- surely pillow-talk couldn't be held against him in a court of marital negotiation. He immediately wondered what she had planned.

"I do" he answered while running through scenarios in his head of what might be to come.

"Did you mean that?" she asked with her sweetest, most seductive whisper.

Caleb did some math his brain at this, trying to envision what each potential response might lead to. The possibilities hovered in his consciousness for what seemed like minutes, and all the while she just gently stroked his chest, patiently awaiting his response. In the end, he decided to just be honest. He had meant it when he said it, and even now it held true. He would do anything for her.

"Yes," he confessed in surrender.

Immediately, Nicole leapt up on to her forearms and smiled like the Joker himself with a perverse sort of glee. "Excellent. Take your shirt off."

"Uh, we're outside," he protested.

"That's correct," she affirmed.

"What if the neighbours see?"

It was at this point in time that Caleb clued in to the fact that the trampoline had been carefully moved approximately six feet, and that consequently the lines of sight leading to it were now blocked from all sides by their maple trees, with just one exception -- the house behind them could still see the trampoline from over the fence; this was Sasha and Jackson's home.

"They will." She replied, and pointed her finger up to the top floor of Sasha and Jackson's house. He had to squint his eyes to see them but there in the dark, standing behind the sliding glass door that lead to their second story balcony were Caleb's neighbours and friends staring straight down at him, Jackson a beefy man with long brown hair, and Sasha, a statuesque red-head an athletic build.

Caleb was frozen, bereft of words or actions. He simply stared, waiting for something to make sense.

Nicole reached down and started to pull up his T-shirt.

"Let's get this going, 'kay. They're super horny and ready to see you bounce!" she snorted with laughter.

"Uh..." said Caleb.

Chapter 2

She managed to slide his T-shirt up over his head while he spoke, still not entirely sure what to make of the situation. "Is...is this something you're into?"

"Very much so," she said with a grin as she tossed it nonchalantly over the side of the trampoline (to an entirely different side than where she'd tossed his belt).

"How am I just learning this now? I've known you for 8 years."

She paused and looked over the fence to the house behind them. "Not this part of me." Caleb followed her stare and noticed that the light in Sasha and Jackson's kitchen had been turned on. They were illuminated now, and Jackson had lowered Sasha's blue jeans to around her ankles, exposing a pair of striped blue and white panties.

Nicole's phone pinged and she took it out of the pocket of her sweatpants to see what it was.

"It's Sasha," she stated. "She wants to know if we're doing this?"

"Doing what?" Caleb protested in frustration. "You haven't even told me what's happening."

Nicole smiled innocently. "You're putting on a show," she said. "You know, for my birthday."

Her phone pinged again. Caleb just stared at her incredulously.

"She says she wants to see you bounce" Nicole informed. "Slowly."

"Dude," Caleb whined. "You have to give me more than this."

She rolled her eyes, impatiently. "Fine," she conceded. "But start jumping" and she slid herself over to the side of the trampoline in order to make room for him to do so.

"So," she began, "back in College, Sasha and I had a thing going."

"A what?" he asked.

She stared him expectantly and refused to answer.

"Fine," he said, and started bouncing up and down, shirtless as he was, on the trampoline. He looked across at his neighbours who were watching him. He was acutely conscious of how strange the situation was, but he wasn't feeling it just yet. Jackson was lightly running his hands along Sasha's exposed hips, which swayed back and forth responsively.

Nicole continued. "So one night we got really drunk at a frat party, and we started making out."

Caleb stopped immediately in his tracks "You're.....bisexual?"

She rolled her yes. "I had a physical relationship with a woman; don't force your bullshit labels on me."

"Sorry?" he responded. "Go on."

"Get bouncing," she replied, and he did, looking up again to see that Sasha and Jackson had begun kissing.

"So things got a little heated," Nicole continued amid the metronome-like squeak of the trampoline at each subsequent jump of Caleb "and we started taking our clothes off, and a crowd sort of formed around us."

"How far did this..."

Nicole's phone pinged before Caleb could finish his question.

"She wants you to take off your pants."

Caleb furrowed his brow. "And you're OK with that?"

"With you being pantsless on this trampoline with me? Definitely."

"With your neighbour watching?"

"Yeah, that's my favorite part," she replied. "That's what makes it a birthday celebration."

Caleb was still confused and stopped leaping again to gather his wits.

"Would you like to hear the rest of the story?" she asked. He really did, and in that he realized that there was more than a little excitement co-mingled with his mounting confusion. He unbuttoned his trousers and slid them off his feet before tossing them to Nicole who immediately tossed them over her shoulder and off the trampoline. They both looked over the fence and saw that Sasha and Jackson were staring back at them astonished.

Nicole smiled. "She didn't think you'd go through with this." A moment later her phone pinged again.

"What did she say?" Caleb asked.

Nicole was giggling. "Just a bunch of emojis. Time to bounce again, handsome." Not really sure what else to do, Caleb bounced.

"So anyway, after the party some hedge-fund douche-bro approached us...."

"Wait-wait," Caleb protested. "You haven't actually explained what happened at the party. How far did you two go?"

She raised an eyebrow at his question. "Are you certain?"

"Yes," he responded, bluntly.

"In the basement of the house we got naked. She went down on me until I came, then asked me to lick her asshole while I fingered her, until she came as well. By the end, we were surrounded by about 60 other students. They applauded when I reached my orgasm. Then a standing ovation the moment I put my lips to Sasha's asshole. It was the most exhilarating night of my life."

Caleb bounced rhythmically, not really sure how to process. He could see that Jackson was naked now and Sasha was stroking his erect penis in rhythm with the bouncing of the trampoline.

"So afterward," Nicole continued, "the douche-bro gave us his card, told us he was something of a party-planner, and that if we ever wanted to put on another show again, he could get us 10 grand per appearance. We told him that it was just a one-time thing, but when we talked about it back in the dorm, we sort of came to a different understanding. We both knew that we should be ashamed of what we did, but we weren't. We knew that being watched by people should be sort of tawdry and gross, but for both of us, that was the best part. We called the organizer back."

"And then what?" Caleb asked.

"And then we had our entire educations paid off in 3 months."

Caleb paused. "You told me you were on an athletic scholarship."

She snorted with laughter again. "In a manner of speaking,"

Nicole's phone pinged.

"What about Sasha?" he asked.

"She's wondering why you stopped?"

"No, what happened between the two of you? How did she go from your lover to our neighbour?"

Over the fence and through the patio window, Sasha and Jackson were still at it. His hand was reached around behind her and slipped into the front of her blue and white striped panties, pulsating inside while Sasha stared out the window at them expectantly with her phone still in her hand.

"It just sort of ran its course. The physical component faded, I suppose, but the friendship was always there, always strong, so we decided to see other people. Haven't looked back since."

It was true that Sasha had been Nicole's best friend for as long as Caleb had known her. It was hardly a surprise when she and Jackson had purchased the house behind them. If anything it was a convenience -- having your best friends living in a connecting back yard made a lot of things easier, especially during the pandemic. They'd even built a gate between the two yards.

Nicole's phone pinged again. Caleb resumed bouncing in an almost Pavlovian response.

A second ping.

"Oh dear." Nicole read. "She says she wants to see it now."

"It?" Caleb asked.

"She says she want to see it bounce too." Nicole answered with a snicker. "She's such a loser."

"So you want me naked?"

"Naked and bouncing, yes," Nicole agreed. "But only if you're ok with that."

Caleb had never imagined that his first time as a public stripper would occur in his own backyard, or, for that matter, on a trampoline. He looked at Nicole, who seemed positively buoyant in a way that she hadn't since about day 5 of the lockdown. She was having fun. He'd have given anything for that to continue. And so, with far less hesitation than he would have expected of himself, he paused his bouncing again to shuck his boxers down to his ankles then kicked them at his wife, who in turn again hucked them over the side of the trampoline with a giant smile of approval.

"Look at you!" she teased, as he resumed his bouncing.

Caleb looked out over the fence and saw that Sasha was literally clapping, while Jackson was holding his hands to his mouth in awe. Caleb felt exposed, but weirdly the silliness of jumping on the trampoline made it all a little more playful, a little less weird.

"And how long have you been planning this?" Caleb asked.

"About a week" Nicole replied. "I don't know if you're aware of this, but today is my birthday."

"And Jackson and Sasha are...."

"Swingers. They're part of the local group, but I assume you knew that..."

Caleb had not known that. Jackson had never said a word about such a thing. "Of course," he replied, suddenly conscious of how fortunate he was that the night air was so warm as he felt his member flapping up against his abdomen at the apex of each of his leaps. It created a strange rhythmic sound, when combined with the trampoline, of sproing -- slap, sproing -- slap. It was a little unnerving.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

Nicole lowered her stare suddenly to face the springs beneath her. "I wanted to. It was just better this way. After my college business enterprise with Sasha, dating got a little weird. Word had travelled and everyone knew. People started to expect things from me, both the guys and the girls that I dated back then. It started to define me, and I wanted to move past it. I switched schools to start over and then..."

"You met me," Caleb finished. "And I made an honest woman of you!" he added sarcastically.

"Not hardly," she laughed back at him. "I remember what you did to me on your birthday."

"Pretty sure I'm not gonna forget yours either" Caleb retorted with another *sproing -- slap* to punctuate it.

Ping.

"Sasha would like to know if you want to see her tits."

"Uh....." he looked at Nicole to try and read the situation. She'd never been the jealous type, but he didn't want to ruin her birthday either.

Before he could answer, Nicole had typed back her response and Caleb looked over the fence to see Jackson sliding up his wife's blouse to expose a lacey black brassiere, there for just an instant before it too was gone, slid off her shoulders with a graceful movement of Jackson's hands, allowing her small but perky breasts a moment of free-standing air before Sasha grabbed them with her hands and jiggled them at Caleb, playfully. She blew him a kiss, and then resumed stroking her husband's erect penis.

"You're welcome," Nicole interjected.

Caleb smiled.

"One last question," Caleb asked. "Why tonight?"

Nicole stared at the springs again and gathered her thoughts. "I've put that chapter of my life behind me, and I haven't looked back. Everything we have here means the world to me, and I love our relationship..."

"But...."

"But I wanted to feel that something again, just for one night before I turn 30, before I wake up again and I'm mom, now counting down to 40. I wanted this moment. I need this moment, and then I'm ready for the next chapter of our lives together."

"So this isn't just a weird symptom of COVID cabin fever?" he asked.

"I mean, I assume that's contributing something," she added. "But no, this has been brewing for a while, and thank you for indulging me so graciously, for making my birthday special."

"Graciously?" he snorted. "Is that how you'd describe my bouncing?"

"Definitely," she laughed in reply.

Ping

"Hmmmm," Nicole mused.

"Yes?"

"She wants to see it hard."

Chapter 3

"I'm really not sure the blood supply is stable enough for that. Kind of feels like it's all in my feet or my head from all the bouncing."

"Don't worry too much," Nicole replied. "I'm pretty sure this is her being disappointed that the mere sight of her breasts didn't send your body into a priapic state or something. The deal was just bouncing -- Sasha can go fuck herself if that's not good enough," she laughed.

"I mean, Jackson seems to be helping with the fucking a good deal" Caleb replied.

And true to form, Caleb could see that Jackson's middle finger was inside his wife now, her panties around her ankles on top of her blue jeans. His finger surged sporadically in and out of the gap between her legs, swirling around, it seemed, in her wetness.

And then from the haze of confusion that had clouded Caleb's mind all night, came a moment's inspiration.

"Take off your clothes," he commanded.

Nicole smiled and bit the tip of her pinky finger. It was more than she had hoped, and she immediately understood his notion. She pulled her shirt off first, exposing the large "European" breasts to the warm night air -- at the mere sight of them, Caleb felt instantly stunned and very nearly turned his ankle on the next subsequent bounce. She stood to her feet and slid her sweatpants off, revealing her fully shaved vagina (something she'd obviously done for this occasion, as she normally kept a small amount of pubic hair). She strode toward him, timing her movements to the rhythm of the trampoline so as not to fall.

"Lay in the middle," he added.

Again without question, she laid flat on her back in the centre of the trampoline, a sly and knowing grin upon her face. It was a side of her that he wanted to say he'd never seen before, but the truth was that in hindsight it had always been there, and his mind was just now connecting to a hundred little details throughout their relationship that, when he looked back on them, made perfect sense with her now revealed exhibitionist streak. He was starting to feel excited again.