How Could I Resist?

This first chapter is very long as I'm trying to set up a world for future events in the story. If you don't get too bored reading this story and actually finish this chapter I would love any feedback you have, especially on dialog, pacing and descriptions. Having read through it several times those are what I think is the most incomplete. As is often the case, other people have a much easier time to spot mistakes than you can yourself so don't be hesitant to point those out.

Oh, and the tittle doesn't make much sense for this first chapter, but it'll make sense when we get further along in the story. As will some of the more random things as right now I'm trying to leave small hints of what are to come, though not making it too obvious. Feel free to guess where I'm going with them so I know how effective my efforts have been.

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Hi, my name is Charles and I just wanted to introduce myself before I begin this hopefully tantalizing tale. I'm 5 feet tall, 7 inches and I weigh around 170 pounds, give or take 10 pounds. I like to be lazy during the winter so I gain a bit of weight there, and then when spring comes around I get back to keeping myself in shape. I have blue enough eyes that you can see they are blue, but I wish the blue were more present in them. My hair is dark, though more than once I have dyed it stupid colors like deep red, green and even pink once on a dare. I never back down from a dare as long as it's stupid enough which friends have taken advantage of plenty of times over the years. But it makes for great stories so I can warmly recommend you do the same.

As a child I was never good at reading others. And I didn't really care. The little I did socialize was more than enough, but it did mean that my parents thought I was lonely and maybe a little depressed. I never felt lonely often preferring to live in my head and coming out if there was something I needed or wanted to try.

When I started high school I decided it was time to turn over a new leaf and start making an effort. I met this strangely carefree boy named Mark, even more carefree than I had been as a kid. In the first year of high school he seemed to not have a care in the world, but he later confided in me that he just wanted to turn over a new leaf. We were very much alike in that regard, as I wanted to get better at reading body language and he wanted to be a more relaxed person without having to fake it. We both learned a lot from each other and I don't think I could ever have improved enough that it would make a difference on my own. We grew very close as friends, and to this day he is still the best friend I've ever had and the closest I've been to a person emotionally. Even the girlfriends I was together with over the years. It takes a lot for me to completely trust a person, but Mark made it easy for me. I've never had romantic feelings for him so I guess what we have is what could be conceived as a bromance.

Us spending so much time together and learning from each other, we became more and more similar and us also looking very much alike it gave people the impression we were brothers. Something we were eager to encourage as we both thought it was hilarious.

I'm guessing you are starting to suspect that neither of us has ever been, or ever will be completely normal, whatever normal means in this quickly changing world. To this day I still don't know why he one day started calling me Johnny boy which obviously left me no choice but to call start calling him Jimmy boy. To this day it's still how we introduce each other when meeting new people. We both think that it is hilarious seeing people's reactions to it. All the way through high school we managed to get pretty good grades. We both had talents in various subjects, so when one of us struggled with a subject the other could help out with it.

I'm not sure if it was luck or if we just unconsciously knew which college the other were going to apply to, but we indeed had applied to the same college and got in. We had hoped that would mean we could share a dorm room together, but the college in question had a policy of wanting students to live with a stranger for at least one semester. It was to broaden student's horizon or some other buzz word sentence. I can't remember.

I can't say we were happy with it as first, but after some time apart we both realized that it was actually a good thing. It is after all better to have more than one friend. It meant that we weren't hanging out as much as before, but it made it easier to keep a relationship going with the various lovely ladies you are bound to meet at a college. And isn't the college experience as much about having fun with women as it is about learning stuff? Most women aren't exactly happy if they have to compete for their boyfriend's attention every day, especially not against his friends.

We had dated a little in high school; we even ended up both losing our virginity on the same night by chance, but relationships never lasted that long. Maybe we weren't really boyfriend material.

We spent the next three semesters living with our separate roommates until we thought screw it, Bro's before other bro's as the old saying goes. Or am I remembering that wrong? Our time spent apart only talking with each other a few times a week we learnt a lot about ourselves. Living together after having not a whole of contact the last two years was great. But it also meant that we had changed in a lot of ways. It made for some awkward moments at first getting used to each other having changed a lot. But it also meant very late night talks about the last two years and the experiences we thought had been the most important.

Our interests had changed a fair bit, but our sense of humor hadn't changed at all. We were just as immature at twenty-one as we had been at sixteen. Our opinions about sex had matured a lot which made me both sad and happy at the same time. It felt like losing a part of your past self. In our younger years we had some great times making fun of each other for what we liked or didn't like. But now we had almost the exact same fantasies with slight differences and only a few we didn't share.

I'm not sure how much other friends really talk about that stuff, but trust and honesty is the foundation of any good relationship, romantic or not and we were always very open to each other.

We both preferred giving oral sex over receiving it.

We both really enjoyed flirting, but the thrill of it was really in the chase, not the catch. Not that we didn't enjoy it when we were on our game, we just had more fun flirting than getting lucky.

We had both been snowballed but after the initial shock it didn't really bother either of us. The taste wasn't as bad as we had expected, but it's not something I could see myself doing unless it was a turn on for the girl.

We both thought sex was rather bland if there wasn't an emotional connection.

We both had a thing for redheads.

We liked it when a girl took charge of what she wanted and sure as well were going to get it.

We both preferred girls with a little hair over their vagina rather than completely shaved. We often remarked that it would be amazing if a girl had shaved the hair to look like a little mustache. Weird thought yes, but again, we were far from normal.

The rest of our time at college went by rather uneventful. We both dated a little but neither of us really found someone we could see ourselves dating long term. I will say though, Mark came up with an ingenious idea a few months we both graduated. Instead of hanging a tie or a sock on the door when you had a girl over, we would place two or three fake mustaches on the door (those with the glue stuff on the backside.) We knew that if a girl laughed at that, she was worth keeping.

After graduation Mark and I went out to celebrate going barhopping. Usually neither of us was a big fan of it, but we thought fuck it. We were in a good mood, we felt like partying and we sure as hell were going to get drunk off our asses before we had to return to be responsible adults.

At the second bar we went to we saw her. It was lucky it was the second bar of the evening as we only had a slight buzz going at this point. She was pretty in every sense of the word. She had beautiful red hair that stopped a few inches below her shoulders. She wore a loose grey shirt and rather plain jeans; as if she wanted to not stand out but in spite of trying to dress down she radiated beauty that everyone around her could see.

She was standing with her back to us talking with her friends. It was hard to get a good look at them though as they were sort of standing in the shadows. She must have felt us starring or maybe one of her friends had noticed because she turned around rather suddenly. She caught us starring and then gave us a smile that could make men go to war to protect it and could light up a room that was covered in darkness.

Snapping out of our dazed state, quickly looking away we went up to the bar and quickly ordered a beer each before we made even bigger fools of ourselves. We needed a few more beers before that would be fun. Drinking our beers slowly we couldn't help but glance over at her every few minutes.

We saw several hopeful men going up to her to try and hit on her or her friends. Yet none of them got anything other than a rejection. We couldn't actually hear them, but the rejections seemed more cheerful than annoyed which of course made our attraction to her even stronger. A few times she saw us looking and gave us a look that showed confidence and teasing at the same time. After the third time she caught us looking she turned to her friends saying something, and they all started to giggle. It's not a bad night if you make a group of girls laugh so mission accomplished of sorts.

Mark and I tried a few times to start a conversation, but none of them lasted long. It was almost like talking about the weather with a stranger, yet more awkward. Since neither of us enjoyed going to bars or clubs, we didn't have much confidence going up to a woman and flirt with her, especially not one that radiated an aura strong with confidence. We looked at each other shortly and came to a silent agreement that we would finish our beers in peace, and then get out of there before we wouldn't be able to muster up the will to leave.

Paying attention to someone is good, stalking them not so much. After all, we went out to relax a bit, drink a little more than we should and then stumble home looking forward to a nice hangover, not to drool over a girl we would never have a shot with anyway. Determined to follow our original plan for the night I brought up the past as it usually got us to relax and talking like we were the only people in the world.

"Do you remember our first time on campus and we accidently walked into the wrong building only to be greeted by that naked girl sitting on the couch?" I asked, hoping Mark would bite.

He looked at me with a smile and uttered "Oh yeah, that was a good way to start the college experience. I'd say very appropriate." He continued with a little smile on his face "I don't think I ever told you, but she cornered me a few days after that asking if I liked what I had seen. I still regret apologizing profusely instead of asking her out on a date so we could even the score."

"I guess you hadn't gotten into your groove quite yet. Oh and I always thought I was the handsome one. She must have mistaken you for me." I said laughing.

"No way hosé, I'm the handsome one and you are my wingman" He teased.

Relieved the night was back on track I went on "Oh yeah? I don't remember you being so confident at our prom night!" I said with a teasing voice." Remember those suits we rented? God we looked so ridiculous. Especially with that pink hair we dared each other into, though we did make everyone turn their heads so mission accomplished. Any chance you still have the pictures? It would be a great thing to show when we get a girl over. Just to prepare them for what we are really like."

He looked at me his eyes twinkling for a moment and then said. "I'm amazed our dates didn't run away when they saw us. I expected them to get angry so I was very relieved when they just laughed."

"Yeah, they were very understanding and game for a night of idiocy. They probably weren't even surprised we did something so stupid. They had known we were idiots for a long time but surely that's part our charm my dear old Johnny boy"

Suddenly looking serious like he had something important to say he said with regret in his voice "I wish we had tried to get them to put those mustaches on. I bet they would have gone for it" then smiling broadly.

Laughing and suddenly regretting that we hadn't thought of that I agreed "Yeah that could have been great. I'm pretty sure they would have as well, those two had the patience of a god putting up with us, egging us on when they were bored and then following us into stupidity."

"Yeah, too bad we went off to different colleges. Sometimes I regret not trying the long term relationship thing; though I think it was the right decision in the end." He said looking serious again, then finishing his beer. I followed his example, Looked back over to where the redhead had been standing and saw she was gone, but her friends still there. I regretted looking over at where she had been as it probably meant some guy had scored and dragged her off.

Oh well, I would have been too nervous to talk to her anyway, and with that I started walking towards the door Mark following right behind me. A few feet before we reached the door I heard a voice asking us to stop. Looking over my shoulder my jaw dropped, and I think Marks did too. The girl we had both been eyeing ever since we stepped into the bar was waving at us, as was her friends to come join them at the empty table they were moving towards. Time seemed to stop while were walking over towards them, a million thoughts going through my head. She smiled and waved at us again and my mind went numb for what seemed eternity, but I managed to gather myself before reaching the table.

"Why didn't you come over to say hello to us instead of sitting over at the bar trying not to look?" She asked pouting slightly, but her green eyes radiant with warmth and joy.

"I...err...I...we...um...didn't think you wanted to be disturbed. It would have been wrong of us to interrupt you if you were out to just have a good time with your friends." I said trying to avoid her or her friends gaze.

Mark had had a little more to drink than me so his confidence was in a better place than mine so he answered with a smile "Trust me, we wanted to, but it looked like you and your friends didn't want to be disturbed by every guy in this place hoping to get lucky. I'm Mark and my less drunken friend here is Charles, though we prefer to be called Jimmy boy and Johnny boy respectively."

Getting some confidence back by realizing that they had invited us over here, and the giggling we got from our nicknames. I held up my hand and said "before you ask, if either of us knew why we call each other that we would be glad to tell you as I'm sure it could be a good story, but neither of us can remember how it started. I don't suppose you pretty ladies could come up with a convincing story of how we got the names while we go buy you ladies a drink?" I said with a broad grin.

"Hold up old Johnny boy, we can't leave without us hearing their names. After all, we have to come up with terrible nicknames for them since they know ours. It's only fair, don't you agree ladies?"

"True, so very true my good Jimmy boy. As my father never said, but I'm sure he would have if he was as silly as me; you can't party without stupid nicknames." I said trying to look wise and mysterious. The girls giggled, clearly not falling for my act.

I don't know why but as I started to relax and looked around at them all since they were now in a better light, they looked just as stunning as the redhead did. They were smiling and enjoying our company. They looked great. Seeing that we had four hot girls enjoying our company I think I would have done anything just to keep them happy. I could tell Mark was probably more smitten with the redhead than me, even though we both had a thing for redheads. I was pretty sure she was favoring Mark as well. I didn't really mind, I love Mark as a brother and both of us trying to fight over the same girl would end in disaster. This was Marks night to show off his charms.

"So my noble ladies" Mark said bowing his head, then continuing "what be thy names and what may we have the pleasure of offering you to drink on this most auspicious of evenings?" I had to look away for a moment to stifle a laugh; Mark really knew how to be charming and silly at the same time. I had always admired him for that.

The girl to the far left stood up. She had blonde hair, with thin black stripes in her hair. It looked cool, but it did distract a little from her pretty face. I couldn't help but notice her blue eyes were the exact shade of blue I wish my eyes were.

With a voice that was surprisingly deep she started introducing everyone "I'm Rachel" then pointing at the girl next to her; a very tall slender brunette wearing a plain skirt but a gorgeous looking top. "This is Courtney" continuing on to the next girl, Dark hair, not quite black but very close to it. Her arms and legs looked toned and tan like she was out in the sun most days exercising. "And this is Beverly, though she already has a nickname: Bells." I could see why she had the nickname Bells, she reminded me of Christmas for some reason. "And the last one, the shy redhead here is Amy. Luckily we can get her to do almost anything, like fetching a few noble gentlemen such as your selves to accompany us this evening" she said with a an enticing smile

"And I think we are fine with beer for the first round, right my fair maidens?" she finished looking around at her friends. I was glad they took our fancy talk in stride and followed suit. They nodded, but I sensed a problem. We needed to come up with bad nicknames for them, but ordering beers would not give us enough time to do so.

"I must interject my ladies, but we beg of thee to request a drink of which can let us ponder a little longer so your new names may match your beauty and grace" I said trying hard to look humble.

Mark as usual being quick on his feet continued on "I must agree with my most noble of companions my ladies, he is quite right."

Again we were rewarded with giggling from them; this night had already turned out to be much better than what we had originally planned.

"Fair enough my good sir's" Rachel said with a little blush on her cheeks and a sly grin. It had a great effect as her face really lit up. "I wonder if perhaps we could have a round of mojitos if you would care to join us."

Mark with a teasing voice said "It would be our pleasure, but I hope you don't mind if we ease up on the fancy talk for a while. It is getting hard to find suitable words and I can speak for both Johnny boy and I that we would rather give you our full attention than wasting time on talking silly. Oh and don't forget, in exchange for new names you need to make a good story of how we got our nicknames."

We got another round of giggling, then Courtney said in a soft voice "Not that we don't enjoy the noble English talk, I think it would be easier for all of us to get to know each other better if we don't have the pressure on us."

Grateful for Marks suggestion I gave my last noble words of the night as I turned to Mark "My noble Jimmy boy, we must make haste if we are to enjoy the company of these most gracious maidens." I heard a quiet sigh of satisfaction from the girls as I turned and Mark quickly followed me laughing. Mark was always good company.