The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Flirtations and Other Fun

Previously: "Sunday in the Park with Friends" 

"Did you guys say you wanted to go?" you ask Felix. You have to lean forward to look past your new friend.

Felix and Janelle exchange a glance. Then Felix says, "Yeah."

This could be your way to get rid of your Westside friends so you can concentrate on this new guy. But you don't really see an upside to making his acquaintance, so get to your feet, and Felix and Janelle scramble up to join you.

Your new friend grabs at your arm. "Hey, come on, give me a chance," he says.

"They're going, and I need to go with them."

"I can take you home. We can go someplace else." He pulls at you. "Come on."

"Thanks, but—" You try pulling away, but he tightens his grip. "Let go."

"No. Siddown, come on, we just met, I don't even—"

"She said let go," Felix warns him.

"Oh yeah?" The Eastman guy uses you like a ladder to pull himself to his feet. "If she wants to stay—"

"She says she doesn't!"

"Hey, guys!" Joshua bleats. The one called "Weldon" also gets to his feet.

A babble of voices breaks out, and then Felix shoves the other guy in the chest. The other one flies at Felix, and there's a tangle of limbs and shouts as they trip and fall onto a boy and girl who were too slow to get out of the way. Joshua dances around them, flapping his hands uselessly in the air.

It's left to Janelle to break up the fight. As the two grapple with each other, she calmly walks over to the sink in the corner, fills a small plastic bucket from the tap, and walks back over to pour it over the two boys. They jump, sputtering, but break apart.

"Come on, Alana." Janelle tosses the bucket to Joshua, and puts an arm around your shoulder. "Let's get out of here. There's too many assholes here."

"Yeah, you all can go fuck yourselves!" the guy yells as you and Janelle and Felix steer for the stairway. "You fucks!"

* * * * *

Felix is in a black mood on the drive back into town, and no one talks as he steers straight to your complex to drop you off. You wish he'd get out and walk you to the door, so you can hug him, but he just glowers and says nothing when you tell him, in a small voice, "Thank you for what you did back there." Janelle mouths I'll call you later. That's a depressing prospect, and you consider turning off your phone after you're inside, but that might mean missing a call from Sydney.

Except—now that you think about it—maybe you don't want to talk to her either. She hasn't called you yet today, but you've only just noticed because Alana never expects any calls or visits from Marcos on Sundays, that being one of the days he spends with Trina. You wonder if this means she'd gotten as deep into Marcos's character as you've gotten into Alana's. The thought of him playing house with Mamacita gives you the sulks.

But your phone is still on and you're browsing x2z—and vicariously enjoying some kind of lovers' spat between Victoria Rodriguez and Joe Ysleta that has broken out in public—when the call comes from Janelle.

"Jesus, Alana," she sighs. "What were you doing back at Joshua's?"

"Nothing! That guy just came over and—!"

"Bullshit! I saw the way you were looking at him—"

"I wasn't looking at him!"

"You were eye-fucking him! I was facing you, Lana, I could see the look you were giving him!"

"I wasn't! He was staring at me, and I was just—"

"Well, he thought you were eye-fucking him!"

"He was being an asshole!"

"Yeah, but— Is that what you were doing to guys at the drive-thru?"

"No!"

"Alana." She sighs. "I think maybe you don't know how you come off with guys. Like, I'm sure you're not doing it on purpose. But guys, not even assholes like that guy, just come over and start hitting on girls hard, or get in fights with other guys!"

"Well—! It's not my fault!" you whine.

"So you're not doing it on purpose. Except maybe I think you are." For one heart-stopping moment, you think Felix might have told Janelle about how you hugged him at the soccer fields. "You're, like, smiling at guys 'cos you think they're cute, but they think you're coming onto them."

"Well, I can't help that!"

"Yes you can. Why did David Kirkham hit on you at school the other day?"

"Tch! He was being a douche. Anyway I told Marcos, and he—"

"Yeah, David Kirkham's a douche, but he wouldn't— Look," she grunts with an audible effort, "who is Marcos really going out with? Is it you? Or is it Cristina or Trina? Or you?"

You shrivel up, and pull your knees up under your chin. "He's going with me," you insist in a small voice.

"So who are—? What are Cristina and Trina? Why do I see him with them out at clubs and stuff? And he was going out with Cristina before he met you."

"Well, it's not like they broke up."

"They didn't break up? But he's going out with you?" Janelle sounds like she's going to choke on her own surprise and outrage.

"Don't ask me to explain, Janelle, but— We all kind of share him. I guess."

She groans again. "I've heard people say shit like that about you and him, but I didn't think you'd say it!"

"Why?" You hate the whine in your voice, but you can't seem to get rid of it. "I'm in the middle of it, and I know what's going on—"

"What is going on?"

"We're sharing him! Like I said!"

"Like a bag of cookies?"

You can't help giggling. "Well ... He is!"

"Oh, God, Alana!"

"Well, what's wrong with it? If we like it—"

"Because it's not— This is how come guys are hitting on you in the drive-thru, and at Joshua's house, and— Wherever the fuck else they're hitting on you. Because Marcos hits on you even though he's got a girlfriend, and you just fall over at his feet. All those other guys think you're gonna fall over at their feet, too!"

"Marcos'd kill 'em."

"He wouldn't have to if you didn't—"

"Why you gotta yell at me, Janelle? I'm not doing anything wrong! And if me and Marcos, and Cristina, and Trina—"

"Trina's in it too?"

"Yes. I thought you said you knew that."

"Oh God." There's another long pause, and you can almost hear the vein that's probably throbbing in Janelle's temple. "Then maybe you're right, maybe I don't want to know what it's all about. Oh God, Alana, just don't— Just be careful."

"Tch, that's what Cristina said. I wish I knew what you guys meant."

"I wish you did too, 'cos then you wouldn't keep getting into this kind of trouble."

After Janelle hangs up, you pad into the bathroom and lock yourself in, to lean against the sink and smile into your reflected face. Alana has such big, beautiful eyes, and such a shy and inviting smile. It's no wonder that she only has to give a guy a long and lingering look for him to decide that she's both interested in him and worth getting to know. You pull off the cap and shake out your hair, then slowly brush it out until you are wet with desire.

Then you pull down your jeans and pleasure yourself with the brush handle.

* * * * *

"A brush handle, huh? Bring it to school tomorrow, okay?"

You giggle and snuggle deeper under the covers with the blankets over your head. Marcos's voice is coming from the phone you've laid on the pillow, because you've got both your hands down between your thighs. "You wanna know what I'm doing now?" you ask him.

It's after ten, and he finally called after texting you around dinner time to tell you to expect the call at bedtime. Mamacita kept me late, he explained, having trouble with her math homework. You'd rather have him in bed with you, but a late-night call, with his voice coming from your pillow, is the next-best thing.

"I'll tell you what I'm doing," Marcos says. "I'm under the covers with you, and I'm sniffing the front of your panties. They smell good, 'cos you've been wearing them all day and they smell like you. And they smell like you want me."

"Mmmm! I do want you!" You rub the lobes of your pulsing pussy with the heel of your hand.

"And now I'm peeling back the front of your panties, and I'm sniffing you. You smell hot and dirty. Hot and wet and dirty. And now I'm licking you with my tongue. Slowly."

"Oh, yeah!" You stroke yourself with a fingertip.

"You're prickly on my tongue, 'cos you haven't shaved in a couple of days, but it feels good. I lick you a couple of times, then I put my tongue inside you."

"Oh, Jesus."

"I'm licking you inside and out—"

"Your tongue is getting me so wet!"

"Now I'm kissing you, I'm pushing my face in and I'm kissing you, and you're so soft and wet—"

"Oh God, I think I'm going to cum!"

"Yeah. So I—"

"No, I think I really am— Hhruk!"

You choke back the squeak of ecstasy as your loins roll and roil. It's like an earthquake, and you jab your fingers inside yourself and grind on them with toothless gums. "Ooohhhhh!" you sigh when you shut it down, even though you still have unspent shudders inside you. "Oh my God," you whimper. "I didn't know— Just you talking—"

"Jesus, I'm with you," he gasps. "You went off and suddenly I was creaming myself. I'm gonna have to change my underwear.

"Oh God, I wish you was inside me now!"

"Tomorrow," he murmurs. "I'll see you at school. Then after school—"

You almost pass out.

Next: Coming soon! Check back!

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"