The It Girl Ch 04

Cassie woke up suffused with warmth. Part of it was the summer heat, but mostly it was the radiant pleasure inside her and the heat of the soft body she was cuddled up against. She smiled to herself and wrapped the other girl's arm around her as she slipped back into sleep.

She woke up for a second time when the body pressed against her began to shift. Cassie rolled over into the space left by the retreating warmth. The sun came right into her eyes, and she blinked herself awake. She looked over to Devin's beautiful naked body, gleaming in the sunlight.

"Good morning," Cassie said, for lack of anything cleverer.

Devin seemed back to being a little nervous, but managed a smile. "Good morning to you too. That was one hell of a night.

"Yeah." Looking over the bed, Cassie could see the remnants of their tryst: dark stains, discarded underwear, and the damp pink vibrator. It was amazing that she had managed to sleep so long. It was then that she looked over at the clock. 11:15. "Shit."

"Did you sleep too late?" said Devin as she pulled on a fresh pair of panties.

"I shouldn't have slept at all," said Cassie. She remembered one time a year ago when she had crashed at Rainey's after a show, and her un-notified parents had gone on the warpath. "I mean, it was lovely. But my stepmom."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Cassie gave Devin a quick kiss. "It wasn't your fault, unless you count fucking me so good I passed out. But I gotta get back now. See you tomorrow at work?"

The two girls quickly got dressed. Devin offered Cassie the use of her shower to freshen up, and Cassie was briefly tempted by the idea of sudsy fun. But she felt the need to get home as quick as possible, as if minutes could make the difference at this point. So Devin gave her a ride home in nervous silence. Cassie just hoped that her parents wouldn't notice her disheveled appearance and the obvious-to-her scent of pussy.

Devin pulled up in front of Cassie's house, which did not feel much like a home to her right now. "Send me a text and let me know how it goes, okay?"

"Sure thing." Cassie gave Devin another quick peck as they left. Even now, she always wanted more.

It was with trepidation that Cassie went in the front door. Maybe she could sneak past them. Sure, it was a Saturday morning, but maybe they had all gone out. But the second she slid the door shut - very quietly, she thought - her father and Charlotte appeared in front of her.

"Where have you been?" Charlotte said.

"Hello to you too," said Cassie. "I was at my friend Devin's and I accidentally fell asleep. Nothing happened."

Her father looked just as angry as Charlotte, but his voice was more conciliatory. "You should let us know when you're going to sleep over. We've been worried sick."

"Well, like I said, it was an accident."

Charlotte folded her arms. "We were talking about calling the police, get them to put out an Amber Alert or something. We had no idea what had happened to you."

"First off, Amber Alerts are for kids. I'm not a kid. And I'm sorry, I forgot to call you. Can I go now?"

But Charlotte didn't move. She was a few inches shorter than Cassie, but at this moment she seemed a mountainous ogre, blocking the staircase and the private solace of the bedroom. Cassie considered muscling her way through Charlotte, but thought that might just cause further yelling.

"No, you can't go," said Charlotte. "As long as you're under our roof, we're in charge, and you'll answer to us." Cassie was pretty sure that Charlotte meant "me" instead of "us". "You're grounded."

It felt like one of those dreams where she was back in elementary school. "Grounded? How old do you think I am, Charlotte?" She drew out the name into three long syllables, knowing that Charlotte resented not being "Mom" to her.

"Obviously not old enough to know better." Charlotte folded her arms. "No using the car, no going out except for work for two weeks. I mean it."

Cassie looked desperately to her father, but he certainly wasn't about to object. "I think you should go to your room and think about your behaviour, Cassandra." If Cassie had learned anything about drawing out every dreadful sound of a first name, she had learned it from Dad.

"Fine," said Cassie in a petulant voice. And she stormed up to her room, fourteen again.

"You got grounded?" Devin said with a laugh.

Cassie didn't find it particularly funny. They were stocking the questionably-defined "International Food" aisle before the supermarket opened for business. "It was completely ridiculous. I swear, this woman has always treated me like a child."

"Well, for most of that time you were a child," said Devin.

"I was a teenager, and she treated me like I was six," said Cassie. "Do you know she honestly bought me dolls?"

"Yeesh.

Cassie rearranged a couple of packages that Dawn had erroneously shelved. "You put the couscous in with the quinoa here."

"Oh. What's the difference?"

"Quinoa is smaller... I think."

Cassie and Devin moved onto the Hawaiian sodas, which Cassie swore she had never seen anyone buy. "At least she let you come to work," Devin said.

Cassie snorted. "Small mercies from the Fuhrer."

"You know," said Devin. "If I gave you a ride home from work, that wouldn't violate the terms of the grounding, now would it?"

"I don't think so," said Cassie, not particularly excited.

"And if we happened to take a bit of a scenic route, maybe go up to Makeout Point... well, who's to know the difference, really? There can be a lot of traffic these days."

Cassie was getting more intrigued. "Now, I'm only a small-time grounding lawyer, but I do think you've hit onto an exciting loophole."

Devin smacked her lips. "Well, I guess I'd better give you a ride home tonight. It's dangerous out on these streets, you know."

And so the plan was put into motion. Before dropping her off at home, Devin took Cassie up to the mountain ridge where all the straight kids necked (or so she said) and they made out for fifteen minutes before heading home. It was distinctly adolescent compared to what they had been up to a few nights before, all French kissing and above-the-clothes heavy petting, but it was a lot better than sitting alone in her room and had its own peculiar charm.

Home was terrible, of course. Mindy took every bit of delight she could in seeing Cassie brought low, loudly talking about her evening plans at the dinner table and putting even greater emphasis when she told Charlotte that she would be sure to be home by eleven. And naturally, when she came home forty-five minutes after that, or even past midnight, there were no fights. Charlotte hadn't directly addressed Cassie for days. Her father looked nervously at the two women he had brought into their house, but said nothing. In her room, Cassie did a quick sketch of Charlotte carrying around her dad's balls in her purse, then decided it was a bit weird to draw her father's genitals and threw the drawing in the trash.

The long rides home with Devin became a kind of routine. They would stop off at the mall and wander around aimlessly, or stop by Devin's house and watch YouTube videos or make out or do more. More than just the physical attractions of her body, Cassie began to appreciate Devin's companionship. She was cool and sophisticated, equally ready to talk about nail polish and confusing foreign films (that of course Devin understood perfectly). It wasn't quite love, but Cassie felt that Devin was the type of girl she wanted to know in college: smart, funny, and with a nice bubble butt and a tongue like an angel.

The two of them pressed the limits of plausibility and kept going. Cassie wondered if Charlotte would notice that her step-daughter was gone for ten hours a day, all of which could not have been spent at her part-time job, but maybe she just wasn't paying attention.

But there was another problem. Cassie was seeing a lot of Devin, but her other friends missed her. In particular, Rainey was going out of her mind without her favourite partner in crime. She had even stopped sending dick pics, which was always a sign of despondency for her. So Cassie asked Devin one day if Rainey could come by her place.

"Does she know you're..." Devin said, trailing off.

"Of course," said Cassie. "She knows all about you."

Devin blushed. "Really? I mean, I haven't talked to any of my friends from uni about this. Shit, do I have to come out to everybody now?"

"Not if you don't want to," said Cassie. "I just started making out with my friend Leah on the couch one morning in front of my dad. Saved me the awkward conversation. Mind you, he never let me have sleepovers again."

The suggestion obviously kept rattling around in Devin's mind for the rest of their shift. As they were hanging up their aprons, she turned to Cassie. "So tell me about this Rainey. How long have you guys known each other?"

"Since I moved here - so, the start of high school. I was sure I wasn't going to make any friends in this town, but Rainey and I hit it off right away. Of course, I think just about anyone could hit it off with Rainey. She just says whatever she wants, and she says a lot of it, so all she needs is a pair of ears to talk to. Wait, that makes her sound kind of annoying."

Devin laughed. "No, I have friends like that. It's nice to feel no pressure to hold up your end of a conversation."

"Anyway, I guess we were both sort of outsiders," said Cassie. "So we bonded. You know how it is in high school - you spend six hours a day with someone, and you get close quickly Later we both ended up getting involved with drama."

"Ooh, you were in theatre?" said Devin. "Did you do any Shakespeare?"

"No, it was pretty much just musicals," said Cassie. "We had to sell tickets to support the program, after all."

Devin made a square with her thumbs and index fingers, as if looking at Cassie through a movie camera. It wasn't exactly an appropriate gesture for the situation, but easily understandable. "I see you as a Beatrice."

"Really? I've always seen myself as more of a Lady Macbeth." Cassie made a stabbing motion that got some strange stares from the other employees in the changing room.

"Cassie, I have a hard time imagining you scheming much of anything."

Cassie wasn't sure whether or not to be offended by that.

The two girls had been up in Devin's garage apartment chatting and playing with each others' hair for about half an hour when Rainey got there. She had never liked to wear much clothing in the summer, and today was sporting a purple crop-top that was short enough to be mistaken for underwear and shorts that disappeared from sight when she crossed her legs. Cassie would be lying if she had never ogled Rainey and her wonderful dusky legs during these hot summer months, but it was just looking with no intention of doing more, and if Rainey ever noticed she didn't let on. Devin, on the other hand, gave her exposed cleavage a very conspicuous stare. She had a lot to learn.

"So this is your spooky girlfriend," said Rainey as she sat down on the floor.

"What's so spooky about me?" said Devin, not even contesting the "girlfriend" part.

"Well, for one thing you live in an attic," said Rainey. "And for another, I have it on good authority that at night you turn into a flock of bats."

Devin gave Cassie a wry look. "And whose authority is that? Surely little Cassie isn't giving away my secrets."

"Nah, this is from my good friend Andrew," said Rainey. "He also said that the secret to defeating you is silver, but I think he might be getting his mythologies mixed up."

Devin snorted. "Andrew... oh yeah, him. He was adorable. Carried my books from class to class and everything. Too innocent for me, though. The one time I took off my shirt he just made this face" - she adopted a dumbstruck, deer-in-the-headlights expression - "for like ten minutes, and then said he had to go to band practice."

Rainey laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like Andrew. I'm surprised he got up the nerve to ask you out in the first place."

"Oh, he didn't," said Devin. "I noticed that he kept staring, and one day I cornered him in the stairwell and took a bite."

Seeming to abandon the subject, Devin wen to her desk drawer. "Hey, you guys want some pot? I've been saving it up all summer for just the right occasion."

"Sweet, uni weed," said Rainey.

Devin rolled up a couple of joints and passed them around. She had cracked a window, but the room was soon filled with the haze of weed-smoke anyway. Nobody seemed to care. They were all laying back, letting their bodies go slack. Cassie could feel the tranquility passing through her body. It wasn't all that strong, though. Certainly not as good as the stuff Leah's moms got for her. God, why couldn't her parents be that cool?

Cassie noticed that Devin had lain down next to her. They were awfully close, just as they had been that night they had first fucked. Rainey, who was still squatting on the floor, looked on at them curiously.

Devin exhaled a cloud of smoke and said "So, I gotta ask. What's Rainey short for?"

Rainey frowned. Cassie knew this was a sore subject for her. "What makes you think it's short for anything?"

"What, your parents named you that?"

"No, my parents named me Rainbow."

Devin burst out laughing. Cassie found herself laughing too - harder than she had really intended to. Rainey turned beet red. God, she shouldn't be laughing right now - but she couldn't stop. There was just something about the sour look on Rainey's face. Her sensitivity about the name was what was funny, really.

"Yes, it's all so hilarious," said Rainey. "Two Korean immigrants didn't know that not every nice English word made an appropriate name. And so I ended up Rainbow Park."

"No, no, it's a beautiful name," said Devin through the giggles. "Wait... Rainbow Park? Sounds like a Mario Kart level."

"I know," said Rainey, with long-held bitterness. "I know."

Devin managed to compose herself a little bit, although she was still grinning ear-to-ear. "So, wait. You prefer Rainey Park? Is that really any better?"

"Well, at least it conveys how miserable I am."

"She tried to go by Rayanne in sophomore year," said Cassie. "But it just made her sound like a country singer instead."

Rainey's face was now the colour of ketchup. Cassie felt a little bad, but it was also pretty funny. Could she help it if her friend was so sensitive about her name. But before she could get out a half-hearted apology, Rainey snapped to her feet and stared down the two girls on the bed.

"All right, you've had some fun at my expense," said Rainey. "So why don't you both tell me something embarrassing about your selves? We'll be even."

Cassie racked her foggy brain, but couldn't come up with much. "Rainey, you know all my embarrassing secrets. I tell you everything." It was true - their chatlogs were generally candid, vulgar, and instantly deleted.

"And you seem to know all of mine too," said Devin. "Even though I've never met you before." She burst out giggling again. Cassie and Rainey soon found themselves compulsively following suit, the room filled with light but deranged laughter.

"Okay, okay," said Rainey. "But what about when you're together? You must have some kind of weird sex thing."

Cassie pointed a finger at Rainey. "Weird sex things are not the same thing as your goddamn name."

"Come oooon," said Rainey, complete with pleading puppy-dog eyes.

Well, Cassie was feeling a little guilty about embarrassing Rainey. "Okay, one thing. She's got pierced nips."

"Hey!" said Devin. "You're just spillin' everyone's shit."

"Really?" said Rainey. "Does that make them more sensitive?"

Devin looked down at her cleavage self-consciously. "A little," she said. "But mostly I just liked the way they looked."

"Now what's the weirdest part of Cassie's body?" Rainey had a wolfish grin on her face.

"Oh, definitely her butt."

"Hey!" Cassie wasn't so much offended by the disclosure as she was by the offhand tone of voice. And she had always thought she had a rather nice butt. That was what Leah said, anyway.

Devin slung an arm around her shoulder. "Don't get me wrong, it's nice. But you have a little birthmark. Looks like the state of Michigan."

"I do?" Cassie had never contorted herself enough to be able to see her bare ass in the mirror. But wouldn't Leah or Sara or someone have said something?

Rainey approached the bed. "Ooh. Let me see."

"No way," said Cassie. "I do not have a mark on my ass."

"Only one way to tell," said Rainey, making a claw motion with her thumb and forefinger. "Take 'em off."

At the time, this seemed like ironclad logic. She later wouldn't remember quite how it happened, but Cassie found herself face down and ass up on Devin's bed, as her lover pulled down her shorts and her friend inspected her posterior closely. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing, but in a way arousing. If Rainey wasn't there, she would have pounced Devin right away. Then again, if Rainey wasn't there she wouldn't be doing something so preposterous in the first place.

"I can't see it," she heard Rainey say.

"It's closer to the inside," said Devin. "Her panties are covering it up."

Cassie could feel Devin pulling the side of her panties aside and squirmed with humiliation (well, mostly humiliation). She could feel someone's breath on her inner thigh. "Wow," Rainey said. "Yep. That's Michigan."

"I know, right? And that little pimple is probably Detroit."

"Can we stop this now?" said Cassie.

"Yeah, you can turn over," said Rainey. Cassie spun around, only to find that left her friend's head directly between her thighs. Rainey raised an eyebrow but stood up straight, taking her face away from Cassie's panties. What exactly was going on here.

Devin sat on the bed. "Any other requests?"

"Well, since you asked," said Rainey with a smack of her lips. "Why don't you show me your weird body part too? I think you said something about a piercing?"

"Oh, absolutely." And with much less prompting or evident discomfort, Devin whipped her shirt over her head. This time, she was wearing a black bra, but that too was quickly gone as her glorious breasts and the slight silver rings hanging from her nipples were once again fully exposed.

She was a lot more easy-going when she was high, thought Cassie. The whole situation was increasingly surreal. Rainey, her totally straight best friend, was closely examining the naked tits of her current fling while Cassie sat between them with her pants off. It was like a sex dream, but like one of the weird ones.

Rainey tugged on one of Devin's rings. "Doesn't this hurt?"

Devin did, indeed wince. "Only when someone jerks on it like that. Which doesn't happen often."

"What, doesn't Cassie give these things a nice tug?" said Rainey as she continued idly toying with Devin's nipples.

"She's more gentle," said Devin. "Although a little bit of pain never hurts. Well, it does, but you know... in a good way."

Rainey laughed. "No, I don't know what you mean. Wanna show me?"

"Wait, what?" said Cassie. It felt like she had something stuck in her throat.

With that smirk on her face that usually suggested a stink bomb was about to go off somewhere, Rainey sat back down on the floor. "Don't tell me you didn't have some idea where this was headed, Cass. I wanna watch you two fuck!"

"Rainey!"

"What? You're always talking about how much better lesbian sex is than the old in-and-out. Why don't you give me a little bit of a demonstration?"

Devin draped her arms over Cassie's shoulder, pressing her bosom into her lover's back. "It doesn't sound so bad to me. You know, I did something like this at uni with my roommate and her boyfriend. I was the one watching, mind." And all of a sudden, instead of being the sexual liberator, Cassie felt like the stick in the mud. It was just such a shock to her conception of Rainey, who had always been an enthusiastic colour commentator to her liaisons and not actually involved in them.