A Touch Away

Chapter 2

The next day was a hard day, and I don't think anyone could blame me. School was boring, studies felt irrelevant. My friends could tell I was distracted. And there was nothing on the internet that looked interesting.

Somehow I trudged through all my classes and made it to the end of the day. Just as I was about to head out, I found Jane and Mel waiting for me at the entrance. And before I could say hi to them, I found my eyes drawn to their boobs.

Keep it under control, Kyle, they're your friends.

"Looks like he forgot," Jane said.

Her twin shook her head, pretending to be disappointed. "Oh Kyle, what are we going to do with you?"

"Hey guys, what's up?" I said.

"What's up?" Mel repeated in a nasal tone, mocking me. "It's Tuesday, that's what's up. Asshole."

It took a second for her words to register. Fuck. I totally forgot about it!

Jane crossed her arms and said, in a gentle but firm tone, "You can't say no."

The Jolly Cup was a little cafe located two blocks from our school. Ever since we had moved into town, after-school coffee with the two of them had become a tradition. Today, however, I thought it would be a bad idea. With tits in my mind all day, I struggled to keep my gaze at eye-level. And believe it or not, this was usually not a problem.

"Rain check?" I nervously asked.

"It's a tradition!" Jane said a little not grumpily this time.

"Kyle, we know you don't have anything better to do," Mel said. "Either you come with us willingly or we drag you."

Jane chimed in, "And then we can talk about whatever it is that's bothering you."

I sighed. There was no winning against these two, I had learned that the hard way. As we began walking, I asked, "Am I that transparent?"

She nodded enigmatically.

Mel shrugged and said, "You just seem like you need to get laid."

I rolled my eyes, intentionally exaggerating the motion. "Please, you think that'll solve every problem."

"It might not, but it'll solve one problem." With a cocky grin, she asked, "Am I right or am I right?"

Could she be onto me? No way!

I didn't like pretending, but this seemed like those cases where you really needed to. So I tried putting on a confused look and said, "I don't know what you mean. I'm doing just fine."

"Uh-huh. Got it. You've got everything under control." From the dryness in her voice, I could tell she wasn't convinced. "And that must be why you've been sneaking glances all day, huh?"

My eyes almost popped out of my skull. I was hoping she'd be subtle about it even if she had noticed. But that was my mistake. Jane would pretend to be oblivious to save me the embarrassment, not her twin though. Mel was blunt by default, and would become the devil incarnate when she wanted to antagonize me.

"Mel!" Jane looked at her sister reproachfully, who stuck her tongue out in response.

Trying to salvage the situation, I muttered, "It's not like that."

"Sure, if you say so," Mel said. "But something's up. Now tell us what's got you so worked up."

"I..." I sighed, wondering what to say.

Should I even be talking about this?

Mel was still talking. "I wonder what happened. Oh, I know! Maybe something happened at work? Something... fun?"

She winked at me and nudged my ribs with her elbow. I felt a cold chill along my spine as my face suddenly felt warm.

Jane said, "He works at a library, it's not like anything would happen there."

With a shrug, Mel replied, "Where there's a will..."

"Ugh, only you'd have sex at a library," her twin said.

My ears were burning now, but I remained silent, praying that my expressions would remain unnoticed. But who was I kidding? I could never hide my expression, and that wasn't about to change today. Even the nonchalant smile I was trying to show felt stiff.

Mel's mouth opened in a wide gape as her eyes widened with excitement. Jane narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Kyle," the latter asked, "Did you... at a library... at work? I mean..."

"Holy shit, Kyle!" Mel shouted. "Congratulations, dude! And way to go! I didn't know you had it in you."

"Okay, you two, stop it!" I begged. "Whatever you think happened... didn't happen. Alright?"

Jane still had her eyes narrowed. "So what happened? Details!"

"Because something clearly happened!" Mel looked way too happy for someone else's sexual awakening.

Could I tell her about what happened? "I groped Claire's tits" might earn me some points... but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to say that. I didn't care what Claire wanted, but I had my principles and dignity. Since she came to me so low-key, I figured I should keep to myself. But, I did want to tell them.

"Okay," I sighed. "Let's say that there is a girl called... Karina."

"I'm sure that's her real name," Mel said with an obviously forced eye roll.

"Shut up," Jane said without looking at her.

"So this Karina comes up to me and..."

I slowly recounted the events of the last day, keeping out details that would make her identity clear. When I was done, they both looked deep in thought, analyzing my story.

"So?" I asked tentatively.

Mel went first, "It's pretty weird."

"Okay, elaborate."

"Look... you know I'm a slut, and I'm like pretty proud of it. And I'm saying that I would only do that if I have great chemistry with the guy. Sure, I have fantasies about doing something like that on the fly, but... they're just fantasies. Which makes me think that..."

She paused, as if chewing on her words.

"Hey, don't just leave me hanging!"

"Ugh, patience."

"If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black," I muttered.

Mel finished her thought. "It seems to me that this Karina of yours wasn't acting rationally. Like... she just threw caution to the wind and decided to enact a fantasy."

Jane added, "Wasn't very nice of her to leave you like that though."

We all knew what Mel was going to say next. Grinning, she said, "All the more reason for you to get laid!"

Suddenly excited, Jane chimed in, "Ooh, want me to set you up with someone?"

"God help me," I muttered. "No, I'll just go home and watch a movie or something."

"Sure, we can call them movies."

"Mel!" Jane chided her sister while grinning.

***

After our hangout, on my way home, my mind took me back to a day almost 4 years ago. We had just moved into town and I had enrolled in this school. I had no friends and the last thing on my mind was making one, so I was just sitting by myself at the cafeteria.

"Hey, aren't you Kyle?"

I had turned back in disbelief to find a somewhat familiar face. I couldn't exactly place who she was.

"Oh my God! You are Kyle!" She had exclaimed, looking a little too excited. "You remember me?"

"No?"

She had left her group of friends and sat down beside me. Her friends just chuckled and walked away, as if that was the natural thing with her. Only one of the girls had remained, who also sat down beside her.

"Clearly he doesn't remember," the second girl said, muttering, "asshole."

I scowled. "Excuse me?"

We hadn't even exchanged names, and she already seemed like she wanted to pick a fight.

The first ignored the second, saying, "I'm Jane. Remember me?"

I had vague memories of a Jane. I remembered a pair of girls who lived across the street when I was a six year old. We used to play almost every day, until they moved away.

The other girl chuckled, saying, "Looks like that rang a bell."

"Then... then..." I stammered, "You're Melinda."

"Took you long enough," she replied, looking incredibly annoyed.

The Mel I had remembered from my childhood was more tomboyish, but it seemed like she had changed. As we all had. I would later find that the change in her case was only external.

"When I heard you're here, I didn't believe it!" Jane was talking.

Mel continued, "Yeah, mom told us you'd moved and we were like 'whaaaat?'"

"And then when she said you wouldn't meet us, I thought there must be a mistake."

"Like 'whaaat?' But it turns out you've become an unsocial asshole."

"Mel! That's not nice!"

"Hey, it's his fault for not wanting to say hi to his friends."

I had no idea these two lived in this town, or that they went to this school. But I understood why Dad didn't tell me. Ever since before the move, I had stopped talking to all my old friends. In the case of these two, we hadn't talked much since their move.

With a sigh, I got up and said, "Look, you two are very nice. But I'm not looking to make friends. Or reconnect. Or whatever."

They looked at each other, and smiled conspiratorially. I had known, even then, that trouble would follow.

"Umm... yeah, that's not gonna happen," Jane said.

I had raised my eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

"It means we don't leave anyone behind," Mel explained. "Not even assholes."

"Seriously?" I asked in frustration. "You guys know you can't force me to be your friend, right?"

Jane shrugged, "We're already friends."

Her twin chimed in, "And we'll always be, even if you're an asshole."

"Would you stop it with the asshole?" I asked.

Mel shrugged, "I'll consider it if you stop being one."

I couldn't believe it. All I had wanted for my new school was peace, anonymity and solitude. I hadn't even made it through my first day, and these two had seemed eager to deny me all three!

Shaking my head in disbelief, asking, "What are you going to do if I don't want to be around you?"

Jane offered, "We'll find you at lunch."

"And in class."

"We'll ask the teachers very nicely to put us in the same group."

Mel added an evil smile and added, "And the teachers never say no goody-two-shoes Jane."

Jane scowled at her sister, but it looked like she wanted to press forward instead of arguing. She said, "And we'll walk home with you every day."

"And talk a lot. We'll chatter your ears off."

"Stop, please!" I moaned. Surprisingly, they did. They waited for me as I collected my thoughts.

"Why are you doing this? I just want to be alone."

Jane nodded, as if she understood what I was saying. "Sometimes I want to be alone, and sometimes I don't. And I'd be very sad if there was no one when I wanted to hang out."

"Come on, Kyle," Mel said. "You can stay by yourself, but eventually you'll just feel like shit when you see everyone hanging out with their friends."

"That's not going to happen to me," I said angrily. "I'm not like you."

Mel scoffed. "Fine, do whatever you want."

Jane looked at her sister pleadingly. "Look, we'll get out of your hair now. But we'll also check in with you time and again. You can be alone, but we're here when you want us."

Two weeks later, I found myself getting involved in something undesirable. I saved a scrawny kid from getting his face flattened, but somehow drew a fair share of attention to myself. It was then that I thought 'never again'. Sometime later, I happened to make my first friend and things kinda snowballed.

But nothing, not even friendship, was that simple. The problem that came with hanging with the twins, I soon had discovered, was that they were too popular. On top of that, Jane went out of her way to ensure that I could join her friends in every activity and get along with them. But that was too much. And to some extent, I felt like a dead weight among these bright faces.

Still, I did want to reconnect with the two of them. And that's how the tradition began. Once a week, we'd meet after school at the Jolly Cup, just the three of us. This term Tuesday worked for everyone, so here we were.

***

It was already Wednesday. I was very excited, and this time I'm not talking about my dick. Time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl. Barely half the day had passed, and I was sitting at the cafeteria with my friends - Alex and Cole. Jane and Mel had other friend groups and I was happy with them not drawing too much attention my way.

Two of us were quiet, the conversation dominated by Cole. As usual, he didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that our engagement was minimal. He was a slightly overweight guy, but nothing could ever bring him down, least of all, his weight. His face was round and goofy-looking, a feature that was accentuated when he laughed, or smiled, or anything for that matter.

Alex was the polar opposite in many ways. He was a nerdy kid with a lanky body and a long face. He fit the nerd stereotype to the dot, and his thick-rimmed glasses really did not help. He had a gloomy look on his face, as usual, not really paying attention to anything. I wondered where in his head he was at.

I looked at the clock, counting the hours down. Then I slyly turned my head, hoping to catch a glimpse of Claire as she had lunch. She was wearing a light-blue buttoned top, similar to the one she wore on Monday.

She really likes clothes like that.

I thought I was doing a good job, but I should have known better. Suddenly I felt Cole's arm on my shoulder.

"She's quite the beauty, yes she is!"

There was a smug grin on his face. It almost looked comical.

Fuck! The last thing I needed was for them to know.

"Dude, you got the wrong idea. I just zoned out. I wasn't looking at anyone."

"Oh, you definitely were," Cole argued. "And no man at this table will blame you. Claire's beauty is unrivaled. She somehow lands in that area between hot and beautiful without even trying."

"Umm, dude, stop."

"Her beautiful, silky red hair really makes her stand out even among the hottest of girls. And let's not forget, she's got a killer figure."

Alex seemed to snap out of the fog his mind was shrouded in. Now, he had a wide smile plastered on his face, enjoying the entertainment at my expense.

"She's smart too. And her polite and kind manners make her the ideal girl. So really, no one will blame you here. Hell, I wish I had the balls to ask her out."

Alex scowled this time. "Didn't you already try to ask her out though?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Wait, when did this happen?"

I could have sworn that I would have heard if he had asked her out.

Cole was grinning, thriving in the attention he was receiving. "Alex, my boy, you have a lot to learn. What I tried was something entirely different."

Entirely different?

"Not everything is about love and poetry and meaning. Sometimes, people just have fun."

Rolling his eyes, Alex replied, "I'm aware of how hook-ups work."

I blurted out, "You hooked up with Claire?"

Of course he did. Suddenly everything made sense. This was her thing, finding and seducing the not-very popular kids.

"No, no, never got that far." He sighed wistfully. "We went to a party last month. You know, the one hosted by Jimmy Rudd? He's got a crazy big house with a huge pool and lots of room, and..."

I had no idea who Jimmy Rudd was, and I didn't care to know. "I get it, Cole, I get it. Skip the details."

"Alright, alright. I hit on her and tried to get into her pants, but she wasn't interested."

Okay, so I was wrong. But that made a lot of sense too.

A popular girl like Claire with lots of options wouldn't bat an eye at someone like Cole. Anger began to grow in me. Cole was decent-looking. Not fit but active enough. Apparently he pulled as well. Why was he not worth giving a shot? Because he wasn't one of the popular kids?

Reeling myself in, I said, "Sorry to hear that, man."

Cole shrugged. "It's all good, man. She was pretty chill about it."

Of course she was. Claire knew how to pull off that approachable nice-girl persona.

"And then I got with Kiera. You know, Kiera..."

I still had a tough time wrapping my head around the fact that Cole had lost his virginity and was sexually active. The most surprising thing was that he lost his virginity to Mel. Still, good for him for getting laid.

The downside of all that was that Cole liked to talk. A lot. With a lot of details. And right now he was recounting his entire conversation with Kiera. Luckily, I knew just the right distraction.

"Hey, who did you go to the party with? You said 'we.'"

"Huh? Oh, with Haru."

Suddenly I felt awkward and went quiet. I could see the tense look on Alex's face as he watched me. Cole, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the obvious.

"He invited you two as well, but you both declined. Remember?"

"Right," I muttered.

"Anyway, so I spoke to Kiera and told her..."

Cole went on. He was the kind of person who couldn't go long without opening his mouth. But I had kinda learned to tune him out. There would be no point in trying to stop him, so I let him blab while focusing elsewhere.

At a different table, a Japanese boy with a crew cut sat with the other popular kids. He was having lunch with his new, cool friends, laughing, joking. Somehow, he had fit in seamlessly. I wondered how he did it. Were they really his friends, or if that was just an act?

I looked away before he could catch me staring. Beside me, Alex had his eyes focused somewhere as well. At the cheerleaders' table. I couldn't tell if he was yearning for them or just had them in mind after our conversation. Or, knowing him, he could just be thinking about something completely unrelated. Either way, it was a good excuse to glance at Claire again

***.

As I began my shift, I could feel my body shiver with both anticipation and angst. After two whole days, everything I felt was just more extreme. Every time I caught glimpses of her, my excitement grew. And for every moment when I didn't see her, a part of me dreaded that she would just not show up. I don't mean this in a sappy way, I just feared that she wouldn't want to continue our arrangement.

Finally, at the time we had previously agreed upon, I made my way to the Law section. Finding it empty, my paranoid mind immediately jumped to the worst case conclusion. Of course this was what would happen. She had changed her mind, went back to her boyfriend, found some other lame kid to toy with.

Maybe that's why she didn't hook-up with Cole, he just wasn't lame enough! No, stop it, Kyle, this isn't helping!

I backtracked - maybe she was running late. I waited for a few minutes. Just as I was about to change my mind and give up, I saw Claire approaching the section at a fast pace - as fast as one can be in a library.

She flashed me a flawless smile. "Sorry Kyle, I had to take a phone call."

I realized I wasn't mad anymore. Was it her apology? Was it the smile?

"Let's begin, shall we?" she asked with whispered enthusiasm.

There was no time to think about what disarmed me. I stood behind her, still feeling the initial nerves, but this time I did not 'dilly-dally'. The sight of her dainty body beckoned to me. She didn't wait for me, grabbing my hands. Instead of placing them on her boob, this time she guided them to her sides, just at the base of her ribcage. I took a moment to enjoy her slim form.

Then I began exploring, moving my hands over her beautiful body, cupping her tits from the front. She was wearing a bra today, I could feel the firmness of the pad. Slowly, I unbuttoned her shirt, stopping at the third button like last time. I could only see the unblemished, cream skin of her shoulders, leaving me to imagine what she looked like from the front.

It felt right to tease her first. Gently, I touched and played with whatever skin was exposed. She moaned appreciatively, encouraging my efforts. Brushing my fingertips around the edges of her bra, I slowly dragged my fingers along her skin. I could see the goosebumps on her skin, something that brought me tremendous satisfaction.

Next, I set my sights - and senses - on her cleavage. Moving my fingers over to the valley of softness, I pressed against the firm, yielding flesh. Then, I cupped my hand over her bra and gently squeezed for a few moments.