The story has recently been re-written and I haven't been as thorough with the editing as I would like in order to meet the Valentines Day dead line, please forgive any minor errors.
Joy decided to walk to Rupert's, it wasn't far, half an hour maximum. She certainly could do with the exercise; after she started work a few months ago, she'd given up playing hockey, and the training that kept her fit. The walk helped her to straighten her mind, tomorrow was Valentines Day, she'd booked a hotel room, they would spend the night together. Rupert will make love to her, properly, fully. No more playing, she wanted to feel him move inside her.
She'd spoken with him by telephone just before she left home. He wanted to come and collect her, he didn't want to waste a moment now that his parents had left to visit his grandmother. They'd have all day, needed time for themselves; she'd made a mess of the last four months, the period since Christmas had been almost more than she could bear.
She walked briskly, much cooler than she'd anticipated, stupid to have worn her knee length shorts but Rupert liked her legs, that's how their relationship started, and she knew he wouldn't be able to resist touching her legs.
'This is going to be ok.' Joy told herself. 'Christ, I've been stupid.'
- - # - -
Joy and Madeline cycled to the local college where they both took a foundation course before moving on to Art School. Their route took them up a long hill, most days they cycled up. There were both active in sports, Madeline specialised in gymnastics; Joy was into athletics, and a hockey player. When Rupert first ran into her, figuratively speaking, she had a lean boyish figure, hard muscled calves and thighs, and a chest sporting a couple of nipples, masquerading as breasts. Madeline was altogether rounder, more feminine, with ample breasts threatening to terminate her gymnastic prowess. That particular morning Maddy was suffering, her period had started, she had 'the cramps' and couldn't muster the energy to cycle up the hill. So they walked, pushing their bikes laden with college gear and sports bags. This was way, way back in the days before young adults had their own car.
Rupert was the exception. Rupert owned a car. He'd finished school and was working in a small engineering company. Both girls knew Rupert by sight; they'd all attended a sixth form college career forum last year prior to starting University or employment. Joy also knew him from a club where she was an irregular attendee, her evenings usually taken up with training and studying.
Some girls, Maddy for one, would say the best thing Rupert had going for him was his car. They didn't really know him, he wasn't easy to know, quite shy and lacking in confidence around girls. Rupert's car was his prized possession. As Joy would soon be able to testify, Rupert's dexterity was most definitely expressed through his hands. Before he left sixth form college he applied his hands to the restoration of a vintage Austin Seven car, a sort of black upright box, after he left, he applied his hands to Joy's body. At this moment, Rupert is reversing his vintage car out of his driveway. The problem with the Austin Seven is its limited rear visibility, it has a tiny rear window; it makes reversing very difficult. The girls assumed, when they saw him reversing out of his drive, he'd seen them and would stop. He hadn't and didn't. He knocked Joy's bike to the floor then reversed across the front wheel buckling it beyond immediate repair.
"You stupid prat!" Joy screamed, thumping her hand on the roof of the car.
He stopped the car and opened the door, exiting and peering over the top at her, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Look what you've done you idiot. How am I going to get to college on time?"
"What?"
He reached inside the car and turned the engine off, then slowly walked around the front of the car his face screwing up when he saw my bike under his car.
"Bugger!" He said bending down and examining the paintwork, looking for scratches.
"Hey you. Sod your paintwork. What about my bike?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't see you. I think it's ok."
He reached for the bike pulling it from under the car seeing the buckled wheel for the first time.
"Oh."
"You'll have to take me to college."
"What? I can't."
"Oh yes you can buster."
Maddy stood giggling, she knew the expression on Joy's face; there would be only one winner in this argument.
That's how they started, Rupert and Joy, simple really, run over a pretty girls bike then you have to drive her everywhere. He took her to college, leaving her mangled bike at his parent's house for him to repair and return; Maddy cycled to college by herself. At seven o'clock, after hockey practice, Rupert was waiting as instructed at the college gates to take Joy home. For the next two weeks they repeated the morning and evening routine, it was astonishing how quickly everybody assumed they were 'going out', even Maddy refused to believe nothing was going on between them. There wasn't anything going on – not yet. Joy took sneaky looks at him during the drive, decided Rupert was nice, not dramatically good looking, but clean, huge plus as far as Joy was concerned, smells nice, dresses conservatively but sharp, and, considerate. At this time, she had no idea he was such a great kisser or he could do things with his fingers and tongue that would send her spinning out of control.
A couple weeks after he'd repaired her bike, Joy was careening down the hill outside Rupert's parents house on her way home from college when the strap holding her work bag to the rear pannier slipped. The bag fell off scattering notes and files everywhere, and Joy fell off her bike when she hit the kerb after turning her head to see what the hell was going on.
She didn't really hurt herself, grazed a knee, wounded her pride, and became pathetically girlish when Rupert pulled up in his car on the opposite side of the road. He didn't say anything, just set about collecting her papers and stuff before the wind blew them to the corners of the earth. Joy sat on the grass verge nursing her embarrassment.
"You ok?" He finally asked.
"Yes. Did you manage to collect everything?"
"Think so. You'll have to check. I'll help you to the car."
Rupert assumed she sat because she'd injured herself, the trickle of blood on her knee aiding his observation, Joy felt foolish enough without admitting she was so pissed off she'd stayed sitting whilst he collected her papers and managed to fake a pretty good limp as he helped her into his car. He reached for her, putting an arm around her to support her.
Some things you remember all your life, like the first real kiss, your first period, the first time you taste a man; Joy would always remember Rupert putting his arm around her. She remember his hand spreading itself across her ribcage, firm, supportive, his thumb and first finger framing what should have been a breast - it was the first time he touched her, she could never explain why his touch took her breath away. His hand pressing against her dominated her senses, she felt faint, it was as if all the blood in her body had rushed to the site of his hand to repel invaders; her nipples tingled as she willed her breasts bigger.
"You sure you're ok?" He asked, misinterpreting her sharp intake of breath. "Rest here," he said seating her in his car, "I'll take your bike back to my house, then come back for you."
He smiled in a reassuring way and set off up the road pushing her bike the hundred metres or so to his house. She watched him go, her back still burning from where his arm had been, she could feel his hand as if it were still spread across her rib cage and shifted in the car seat resisting the urge to rub her nipples.
Against her mild protestation, he drove her to his house.
