"Giovanni! Wait up!" Marissa called the next day as she ran towards her friend. Gene walked at a slow place behind her.
Giovanni, a tall, lanky and dark curly hair guy turned around. He smiled sweetly at Marissa stopping to wait for her. Gene noticed a pretty petite black girl standing nearby smiling at them.
"Hey Marissa. Look there is Camille, she said she'd wait for me here," Giovanni said as they entered the student lounge.
"Camille! Look who I found along the way," Giovanni said loudly in a voice that sounded like he was going through puberty.
Camille waved at her friends and they all found a nice quiet spot outside to drink coffee. Gene listened to them as they chatted about class, family and other miscellaneous things. He noticed Camille's pretty brown eyes focused on Giovanni. Giovanni however had his sights on Marissa. They laughed and shared a very intelligent conversation over poetry and writing. Camille seemed to be stuck on romantic poetry as so was Giovanni. Marissa had finally finished her essay on Frost's Poem "Mending Wall."
The three friends headed off for class and Gene followed silent as a mouse. He couldn't help but notice Marissa's mind in a far away place.
Dylan. She's thinking of Dylan.
Marissa smiled to herself about what happened the previous night with Gene. It had been sexy as hell masturbating with him, but she knew he was not a "real" person. He was this imaginary man in her life and she couldn't deal getting close to him, otherwise people would really think she'd lost her mind. She'd just have to concentrate on Dylan, the guy she'd been lusting for.
After class, Marissa headed off for the library and Gene walked besides her in silence. He looked as her two friends were walking away and Giovanni kept his big brown eyes on Marissa while Camille noticed with sad eyes.
"Hey you know, I think your friend Giovanni has got the hots for you," Gene said confidently.
Marissa laughed. "Giovanni? No way. He's just my friend. Nothing else."
"Yeah well that may be who you see him as, but he sees you as the object of his desire, love."
"Whatever Gene."
"And to top it all off, I think Camille has the hots for Giovanni."
Marissa stopped and looked around making sure no one was looking at her. "Look, Camille would never be interested in Giovanni. She dated a guy that looked like LL Cool J for crying out loud!"
"Who?"
"Never mind. I'm heading off to creative writing. You wanna come?"
"No. I think I'll go home now. I'll let you be free just for this afternoon."
Marissa shrugged and walked away leaving Gene alone. He cheated though, he didn't go home. Instead, he went to look for Giovanni and Camille. He wanted to learn more about Marissa's friends. He sat and listened to their conversation as they drank milkshakes later on that day.
"So do you think if I ask Marissa to be my date at the science awards ceremony she'd say yes?" Giovanni asked Camille.
"Y-yeah I suppose so. Do you think she'd want to go?" Camille answered sarcastically.
"I don't know. I hope so. I want to get the nerve to tell her how I feel about her, but Camille, she is so blind to see that. Even the little hints I give her. You know what I mean?"
Camille nodded and sighed. "Yup I know exactly what you mean. I know how you feel too."
"She's just so hung up on that Dylan bastard, that I don't even stand a chance."
Camille reached out to put her hand over his. Comforting him in a friendly way. "Don't worry hopefully Marissa will soon see what a wonderful person you are."
Giovanni blushed and moved his hand away leaving Camille feeling more hopeless than ever. Gene wondered how Camille could deal with loving Giovanni and not having him respond back. Or how she could even be friends with the girl that Giovanni admired so much. Camille was a strong and beautiful woman and Gene knew what he had to do.
Back at her apartment, Marissa lay in bed reading up on her history lesson. She heard Gene come in but he seemed very silent. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows.
"Gene, you weren't home this afternoon and you weren't in your bottle. May I ask where you were?"
He grinned deviously. "I was going around the campus practicing my magic on cute girls.'
Marissa sighed. "Gene, come on now."
"Ok I was just checking out your friends Giovanni and Camille. They are really nice people. You're lucky to have them as friends."
Marissa agreed. "Yeah I know. But I can't really talk to them much about Dylan. I can't talk to them about a lot of things."
"I'm sure if you open up to them they'll love to hear what you have to say just as much as I do."
"Oh Gene your too kind to me."
He fell next to her on the bed and touched her soft face. "I have a plan for you Marissa. I can get Dylan Fulton to notice you and maybe even fall in love with you."
She raised herself off the bed and stood up with a huge grin on her pretty face. "Really? Oh Gene you're the best! Tell me please what your plan is!"
He shook his head. "No way. It's a secret. You'll see."
Marissa pouted. "Oh Gene please!"
He laughed and again refused to tell her. "Just watch. Soon enough you'll have Dylan crazy for you."
* * *
The next day Marissa was back in drama class and sure enough Dylan was sitting next to Ashley. Marissa noticed a few guys still looking Ashley up and down after having seen her boobs bust out when her top came down. Gene had attended class with Marissa once again and promised to behave himself.
Gene of course crossed his fingers and wanted to try more of his magic. Mr. Taylor was calling the students up to demonstrate different types of acting skills. He was choosing two students at random and with the help of Gene's magic he automatically chose Marissa and Dylan.
Marissa felt her heart sink when Mr. Taylor called out her name. She got up feeling her legs wobbly and prayed she wouldn't trip. She saw the look on Ashley's face when Mr. Taylor called out her name instead of Ashley's.
Marissa was already on the stage and felt all eyes on her. She was calm knowing Gene was there to protect her from embarrassing herself. Dylan finally made it up on the stage and just stood around never looking at Marissa.
"Ok now you two are going to do a quick scene that features no words. It sounds easy but it's very hard to do in the acting world. In this scene you both are upset over a petty argument, but Dylan here is going to just walk up to you and start to dance with you. You'll have to just pretend you are able to hear music OK?"
They both nodded in agreement and took their places. Marissa stood in the corner looking sad trying hard to pretend she'd had an argument with Dylan. It was tough since she had never spoken one world to him. Gene watched attentively making sure his plan would work.
Dylan walked over to Marissa and almost began to laugh. Mr. Taylor kept a stern face that made Dylan's smile disappear. Dylan moved on to put his hand on Marissa's slender arm. Marissa felt her heart racing and she slowly turned around to face him.
He put his arms around her and soon enough they were dancing to their own music in their own minds. For some reason Marissa had Fred Astaire's "Cheek to Cheek" on her mind. She wondered what song was going through Dylan's mind. At this point she didn't care. She loved the way his strong arms felt holding her so close. They looked into each other's eyes and she felt Dylan press his body closer to hers.
She was in total bliss for those few seconds they shared until she felt something hard touching her leg. He pressed harder on her leg and grunted very low as if he was trying to hide something. She looked down and Dylan had a huge hard on! She yelped and stepped back while Mr. Taylor dropped his planner. The whole class stared and saw Dylan's huge hard on wanting to almost get out of his pants. Laughter surrounded the room right away and Dylan quickly tried to cover his boner. Marissa saw Ashley look furious and get up practically running out of class.
"Ashley!" Dylan called out running after her with his hand on his crotch covering his excitement.
Marissa looked at Dylan and frowned. Mr. Taylor was speechless and the class was still laughing and staring at Marissa. She panicked and grabbed her things and ran out of class just like Dylan and Ashley had. Gene ran after her finally being able to catch up to her in a quiet little spot near the janitor's room.
"Marissa! Calm down." Gene said putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Gene! How could you have done that to me? I'm so embarrassed."
"Not as embarrassed as Dylan is."
Marissa pulled away and sobbed softly. "Gene this is no game. I really want Dylan."
Gene looked confused. "I know you do that's why I did what I did. See, this way Ashley will know that he got turned on by you and they'll probably fight tonight and maybe even break up."
"No. Ashley Thompson will never leave Dylan. They are inseparable."
"No this is only the beginning Ashley. This will sort of give you and Dylan something to talk about."
Marissa stopped sobbing and laughed quietly. "I have to admit that is a brilliant idea Gene. Oh god but you really embarrassed me you jerk."
Gene laughed and held her in his arms. She felt so small and fragile. He felt as if he wanted to protect her for the rest of his life. "I'm sorry. I'll try to be more gentle next time."
"Thank you Gene. I really appreciate you doing all this for me."
"Well you deserve to get anything you want Marissa."
They held each other for a long time until Marissa finally calmed down. She laughed softly with her head on his chest. He stroked her long brown hair feeling the silkiness of it in his fingers. He only wish he could touch her entire beautiful naked body. He wished she could be with him.
That's going to happen without magic. She must realize on her own how much you love her. Yes you do love her.
Gene said to himself.
They both walked back to Marissa's apartment in silence. Marissa did her homework and Gene was watching the some old 1930's films that Marissa had. He understood why she loved these black and white movies. These movies portrayed true love. The way men and women ought to fall in love. The kisses were so passionate and the story lines were wonderful. He watched until his eyes felt heavy. Marissa was still sitting in the desk on the corner of the room studying. Gene drifted off into a sleep dreaming of his beautiful mistress.
* * *
Gene woke up the next day hearing nothing but silence. He'd overslept and figured Marissa hadn't bothered to wake him up. He rolled over and realized he was on Marissa's bed. Where in the world had she slept? He got up frantically looking for her. He saw the bathroom light on and the door slightly open. He pushed the door open slowly and found Marissa curling her long hair.
