Love is Being Stupid Together Ch. 1
Nerd Kait meets Geek Nick in freshman year at university. They discover sex and realize even genius can't save you from dumb behavior.
...
Kaitlyn was conceived in a moment of weakness by her mother who faintly heard her 'biological clock' ticking. Both parents were surgeons with the required personal arrogance to separate them from their mistakes. They both loved their daughter but had zero capability to demonstrate it any way other than financially. In their place Martha, a nurse who didn't like bodily fluids, served as pseudo parent in the role of live-in nanny.
'Kait' (Kate) demonstrated her intelligence by talking, reading, and writing very early. She skipped several grades in elementary, middle, and high school. To keep her relatively close in age to her schoolmates, Kait spent three years in an independent study entitled 'Ethical considerations in modern genetics studies.' At age eighteen, after three years of working alone, she found the interpersonal interactions required of first-year University students overwhelming. She spent a lot of time in her dorm, writing poetry.
Nicholas was planned meticulously by his lawyer mother and professor father. She stayed home for a couple of months to breastfeed but then returned to 'The Firm.' A full-time nanny was hired from a company in Brussels. Her name was Gretchen and she spoke five languages. Father was a professor of Engineering with a concomitant lack of social skills. He was too deeply involved in AI research to pay any attention to his son's development.
Nick began using computers before he could talk. He was doing simple programming for his iPad in elementary school. His mom didn't want him to skip grades in school. So, bored to tears with schoolwork beneath his capability, he started designing games in middle school and hacking in high school. He entered his freshman year of college, used to working alone. He was also overwhelmed by the need for interpersonal discourse and spent an inordinate amount of time online.
In a fortuitous turn of circumstances, they ended up sitting next to each other at Freshman Class Orientation. Neither had any interest in 'meeting classmates.' In fact, both dreaded the forced social interaction. Their academic advisors had overcome strong resistance by insisting attendance was mandatory. They perceived the discomfort in each other and recognized a kindred spirit. Even knowing this, neither spoke until the moderator asked everyone to introduce themselves to the person on their left and right.
They turned to each other, ignoring the two on either side. After exchanging names, neither one could think of anything else to say. They sat looking at each other for a minute or so. Nick finally asked her major.
"Both my parents are surgeons. I'm interested in Medicine, but I have too many ideas about possible directions. I haven't declared a major, clearly... well maybe it's not. I mean, uh... What's yours?"
He thought, 'She is a goddess! Attractive, intelligent, and socially incompetent. I might be in love.'
"My major? I don't know what... I mean it will be something in computer science. I'm a total geek, uh, I'm not... I'm a geek about computers. But I'm just learning all I can and then at some point... you know like you. There's too much to learn. Don't you think?"
She thought, 'He is perfect! Nice looking, intelligent, and a nervous wreck. He has potential.'
"I understand. It's meaningless at this point to focus when it's so much fun to explore."
Nick stared at her, nodding 'yes,' unable to form a sentence. She silently returned his gaze. They were both used to what most people consider 'uncomfortable pauses.' Neither one of them had the skill to move the conversation forward and were content to just be present with each other. It was a rare experience for both to be almost relaxed with another person. However, a niggling thought began pushing Nick. He realized the germination of the relationship was tenuous. It was up to him to suggest something to continue the development.
"Do you drink... uh drink coffee? I mean would you like to, uh, um..."
"Get a cup of coffee?"
"Yes... uh, that's it. Would you like to go get some coffee?"
"I would, yes."
They left the meeting and went to the Student Union. Finding a place away from everyone else, they talked and sat and tried talking again. They found they had experiences in common including childhood boredom, distant relationships with parents, being the smartest person in the room, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships.
When the Union closed at 11pm, they both realized it was the most time they had ever spent talking to someone their own age. He politely walked her towards her dormitory. He turned to point out his dorm. His foot went off the edge of the sidewalk, twisting his ankle and lower back. He landed in the grass.
"Are you Ok?"
"I think I hurt my pride," he smiled.
He groaned a bit when standing up.
"I must have dinged my back a little."
She asked 'where,' and he pointed to his lower back on both sides.
"Guess I'll drop you off at your room. You don't have a heating pad by any chance?"
"I actually do. Sometimes I sit at the computer for hours and by back tightens up."
They went up to his room. All the Freshman on-campus dorms were 'quads.' Each unit had four bedrooms with bathrooms and a common area with a small kitchenette. None of his roommates were in the common area.
"My nanny was a nurse and she taught me massage..."
When he looked up quickly, she lost her nerve.
"You should go to the clinic and see about getting some deep tissue work. It will help the healing and make you more comfortable."
"But you said you knew how to massage."
"Yes, but I'm, uh. I'm not licensed and um, I'm not sure I could... uh..."
"I just got here. I don't want to go over to the clinic tonight. Maybe you could just, you know, uh, just do a little bit tonight and I... would you please?"
A small jolt of excitement raced through her autonomic nervous system. This would be the first time in her short, isolated life that she had touched a male her age in such a prolonged intimate way. She was confident the massage part would be competent, but unsure about her own emotional reactions. Would her hands start shaking? How would he respond?' She knew this type of thought cycle would spiral down and create the situation she feared. So, she plunged ahead.
"I guess I could do just a little. Do you have any water solvent lotion?"
He immediately realized he had the gel he used to jerk off with. 'Could he show her that? What would she think?' He panicked, staring at the bedside table. She followed his eyesight and pulled the drawer open. He closed his eyes.
"Oh, this is the brand in my bedside table. It's perfect."
When the words left her mouth, she realized she had just told him she masturbates. 'That's why he couldn't speak. It's what he uses it for.'
"That was probably a bit too much to share. But this will work very well. Take off your shirt and lay on the bed, stomach down."
Nick freaked about Kait knowing he was giving himself a hand and she held the evidence in her own hand. But she had confessed to using the same lotion herself. The image that thought produced in his mind was arousing. Then she put her dry hands on his back, and he thought he might die. Her gentle touch sent energy straight to his groin. He had to slip a hand underneath to make an adjustment.
Kait put her dry hands on his back at the beginning of the massage to warm up his muscles and to assess the tension in his body. She could tell immediately that his back was extremely tight. The clinical part of what she was doing quickly gave way to other thoughts. His back muscles were toned... he exercised. He was warm and his skin was smooth. The physical contact was arousing her. She pushed that thought aside and put some lotion in her palms to warm it up. She started on the lower back, pushing up on either side of his spinal column with the palms of her hands. These long strokes stretched out multiple muscle groups.
"Oh, Kait, that's great. It feels so relaxing."
When she worked out the overall tension in his back, she began looking for 'hot spots,' small knots of tense muscles. These 'triggers' needed precision pressure to release. She worked her way down to upper hips, releasing the trigger points as she went. There were more under his pants.
