You know how people can gossip, even over something as harmless as two people doing a script reading together?
That's why I'd parked four streets away from Chloe's house.
I wasn't able to stop right outside anyway because of parking restrictions, and although there were closer places, I didn't mind a little walk. Spring was in the air, the evenings were lighter and warmer, and I was in a good mood. Being asked to mentor one of the local teenagers was flattering. It confirmed that I'd made it in the local community, and was respected - at least by some.
Of course, my wife couldn't see it that way. She had to find it threatening instead. Her jealousy towards Chloe had become ridiculous. So maybe one reason I had parked so far away was because my wife didn't know I was here. Well, not here exactly. She knew I was doing the reading with Chloe, she just didn't know it was at her house. I must have forgotten to tell her that part - what she didn't know couldn't hurt her, after all.
I just didn't see the problem. Yes, Chloe was a pretty girl - a very pretty girl, in fact; some might even say she was beautiful. She was also outgoing, friendly, bubbly, and funny. She was the kind of girl that lit up whichever room she was in, and she was almost universally liked because she was just so friendly to everyone. But maybe that was why the older women distrusted her. They'd all seen her blossom from an awkward and bratty fourteen-year-old into the gorgeous and voluptuous young woman she was today, and they saw the effect her pretty smile and her curvy petite frame had on their husbands. But my wife must have realized she didn't affect me in that way. I was well beyond flirting with eighteen-year-old girls.
Of course, that didn't mean that my heart didn't leap a bit when she opened the door to me, grinning excitedly. Her hair was down and she looked so pretty when she was smiling. OK, so maybe she always had this effect on me, but it didn't mean anything. I mean, it's not like I was going to act on it. I may have noticed certain things about her - like the tight T-shirt she was wearing today, which made her burgeoning breasts hard to ignore - but they just didn't affect me in that way. Not in the slightest.
"Hi, Harry! Thanks for coming!" she said happily.
"My pleasure," I said, in a gentlemanly kind of way.
She beckoned me into the house.
"Do you want a Coke or something?" she asked.
"Yeah, Coke would be nice, thanks," I replied, and I watched her skip into the kitchen. I couldn't help but admire her ass as she walked away; it was full without being large, and looked fantastic in the jeans she was wearing.
Her mum came downstairs.
"Hi, Harry," she said.
"Hi, Pam, how are you?" I replied, hoping she hadn't noticed me checking out her daughter's ass.
"Fine, thanks. So you're rehearsing this mystery scene, are you?" she asked.
"I've got no idea yet," I told her, smiling.
Chloe returned and handed me a glass, then started up the stairs.
"You're not planning to rehearse in your bedroom are you?" her mum asked quickly.
"Yeah, why?" Chloe replied, stopping on the second step.
"I don't mind if you want to rehearse down here."
"No thanks, mum, we really don't want an audience; it's so embarrassing when you're doing a first read-through," Chloe told her.
"Well, yes, but I'm sure Harry's wife would prefer it if ..."
"Actually, she doesn't know I'm here," I interjected.
Chloe's mum just stared at me in puzzlement for a minute.
"There you go mum, it doesn't matter which room we're in because she doesn't know he's here anyway," Chloe said, and I had to admire her logic. "Let's go, Harry," she said to me, and started back up the stairs.
"Let me know if you need anything!" her mum called up after her.
"Just some privacy, thanks!" she giggled from the hallway above us. Her mum rolled her eyes.
"I'll see you later," I said, and then I followed Chloe upstairs.
She led me into a smallish bedroom which was dominated by a double bed, and sat down on the edge of the mattress. I sat next to her.
"Right, so what's the plan for tonight, then?" I asked.
"Well I'm doing this play for college, and, well, I'm just really nervous about this one scene. I was hoping you'd help me get comfortable with it. The dialog just seems really forced and the action is really embarrassing. I have to do it with this freak called Brian, and he's so spotty and ugly, and he's always perving on me. I feel so much more comfortable with you, Harry, that's why I wanted you to help."
"So what's the scene?"
"Oh well I printed out a copy for you, it's only one page."
I glanced down at the sheet she handed me.
"OK, so I'm Tom?" I asked.
"Er, yeah, you're Tom and I'm Daisy, obviously."
"OK, well, I guess you go first."
Chloe put on a higher voice than usual, and started reading from her script.
"Oh, Tom, you know how much I love you."
"Oh, baby, if you love me, why won't you show it?"
"I kiss you on the cheek now. I show you every day, Tom. You know I'm not interested in anyone else."
"I just need you to do this one thing for me, baby, to prove you're really mine. Jesus, this dialog is lame."
"I know. But I've never done it with anyone before."
"Just lie down, baby."
"OK so now you push me down onto the bed, and lie next to me," Chloe told me.
"We'll skip that part," I suggested quickly.
"Oh, Tom! Kiss me!"
"Mwah!" I said, kissing the air.
"Very funny."
"Oh, Daisy!"
"Now you rip my panties off."
"Huh?" I exclaimed, and then I blushed as I read the corresponding stage direction. "Actually, it says I whip them off, not rip them off. But we'll skip that too," I said.
"What are you doing?" Chloe read.
"And that!" I laughed, after reading the next stage direction to myself.
"Oh, Tom, stop it! That feels so good! You're so hard!"
"How about if I ... oh, really? How about if I put it here? Cheesus! Do guys your age really talk like this?"
"Um ... they kind of do actually. Oh, Tom, don't, it feels so good there."
"I want to ..." I said, before spluttering with laughter.
"Just read the line, Harry."
"I want to push it inside you," I said, putting on a girlie voice. "I want to fuck you."
"Stop it, Harry. Ohhh, God, Tom, I want you to fuck me too, it's just ..."
At that point Chloe let out a blood-curdling scream. I put my hands over my ears to protect myself.
"Oh my God, Chloe, what the hell was that?"
"It says she screams."
"Yeah, but ... I don't think she screams like that!"
"What do you mean?"
"It's not a horror movie! She's not screaming because she being bitten in half!"
"Well that's the point of having you here, Harry, you need to help me get this stuff right."
"OK, well we'll work on that scream, then. If my ears can handle it!"
At that point, Chloe's mum burst through the door.
"What's going on? Are you OK?" she said to her daughter.
Chloe laughed. "You're such a doofus, mum. I have to scream. It's in the stage directions."
Her mum rolled her eyes. "Well you could have warned me! Anyone want a cuppa?"
"Mum, we've only been up here five minutes; can we just have some peace? So we can rehearse?"
"OK, well scream if you want anything," her mum said, winking at me as she closed the door.
"Ha ha, mum," Chloe said to the closed door. "OK, so it's your line now."
"Oh. Er, mmm," I said.
Chloe paused.
"You OK?" I asked her.
"I'm just waiting for my mum to go downstairs before I read the next line," she grinned.
We listened until we heard receding footsteps on the stairs, then Chloe continued.
"Oh my God! You popped my cherry!" Chloe said, sounding somewhat pleased, and holding my gaze for a little longer than necessary. I felt a slight stirring in my trousers.
"It's done now. Do you want me to stop?"
"Don't you fucking dare."
There was no more dialog. We both laughed, a little nervously.
"That's it?" I asked.
"Yeah, I told you it was only a short scene."
"But this next stage direction ... what kind of play is this?"
"It's about sexual awakening or some shit like that."
"This bit's about rape."
"Oh, Harry, it's not really rape, is it?"
"Well, yes. Yes it is."
"But she wants it. It's every girl's fantasy to be dominated like that."
I studied her face as the last words she said rang around my head. She looked away, blushing slightly.
"Is it? Like that?" I asked.
"Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you know."
"So like that, except she says yes?"
"Er, well, yeah, I guess you could put it that way."
"But this is a bit racy for school isn't it?"
"College, Harry. That's what you do at college. Sex, sex, sex. All the tutors are obsessed with it. Like, one of them asked everyone's favourite sexual position on the first day."
For a moment I wondered what her reply had been.
"Is that even legal?" I asked instead.
"We're all eighteen, Harry. It's just what drama college is like. We're supposed to be testing our boundaries as actors, exploring taboos, shit like that. God, Harry, you're worse than my mum!"
"And what does your mum think about this play?"
"I ain't told her yet," Chloe said, grinning cleverly.
"I'm not surprised!"
"OK so let's read it through once more."
"That's all you want me to do?"
"Well no but once we've read the words again then we can try acting it out properly."
"What, you mean like making it sound more in character? I'm not a very good actor."
"That's OK, you don't need to be, I'll act it, you just do your best."
"OK," I smiled.
"Oh, Tom, you know how much I love you," Chloe said, putting some real emotion behind it this time.
"Oh, baby, if you love me, why won't you show it?" I said. I was trying to act but it came out wrong.
Chloe kissed me gently on the cheek. I flinched slightly. "That's good," she whispered.
I blushed. Where she kissed still felt warm, almost tingly, and I felt another stirring in my trousers. I hoped my little friend was going to behave himself tonight.
"I show you every day, Tom," Chloe continued. "You know I'm not interested in anyone else."
"I just need you to do this one thing for me, baby, to prove you're really mine."
"But I've never done it with anyone before."
"Just lie down, baby."
"Oh, Tom! Kiss me!"
