Page 91 of Two Marlboros

Your Slut

(?George Michael - Too funky)

The seminar class ended around lunchtime. I could say goodbye to polymeric materials for that day as well, with the hope I could learn it by osmosis during the afternoon. I put all my stuff back in my shoulder bag and greeted the professor with a nod of my head and a smile, then left the classroom with a bored sigh.

It had been three days since I last heard from Alan. Three days in which the doubt that I had screwed up assailed me more than once, partly because I had sent a couple of messages to Nelly telling her about the kiss between him and me but without receiving a response. I would call her, perhaps that afternoon or later, because she was the only person I felt I could confide in, and the only one who had any interest in my love life.

I set off out of the building with the idea of walking down the cobblestone path that led toward the street, but just then I caught a glimpse of Ryan, sitting on the surrounding lawn, a cell phone in his hand. My head immediately ached again. I wanted to approach him and say something, but what? I wanted explanations about the robbery, about who the boy I had seen that morning really was, but how could I broach the subject? I watched as he fiddled with his phone, his gaze absent or perhaps just focused, locked in his own world, while around him small groups of students came and went. One girl almost stumbled past him, but he didn’t even seem to realize it.

Ryan put his phone away, and I took a step back. He picked up his bag, looked around for a moment, and walked towardthe entrance gates. There, I noticed Harvey. He looked up at Ryan, and I thought it was a case; soon after, he pulled out a cigarette and handed it to my friend. They talked for a moment, perhaps just the time of a hurried greeting, after which Ryan disappeared.

As soon as he was gone, I reached Harvey, scanning the bags of some girl sitting on the grass. The last evening with him had been a disappointment, and I was surprised to find him there. Perhaps it was a way to make up for it. I reached him in a few strides, and he tried to greet me with a slap, which I avoided by a whisker.

“Well? Is that how you greet me?”

I stretched out my neck in the hope of scouting Ryan, but he was already gone who knows where. Had they really spoken to each other?

“Sorry. It’s just that I’d rather they didn’t see me.”

“With me?”

Across the street, I thought I caught a glimpse of my friend’s figure, but as soon as he turned around I realized it wasn’t him.

“With a guy.”

“Oh, got it. Let’s get out of here then, shall we? I want to make it up to you for what happened last time.”

I shifted my gaze to Harvey, who was waiting for my response, while I was still thinking about Ryan, so much so that his last sentence went in and out of my brain without hardly noticing. Eventually I resigned myself and nodded. Likely, he was already far away from the university and in that day I would not see him again.

We went to a park. I got so carried away by Harvey and his chatter that I no longer even knew what part of the world we were in. His face seemed less hollowed out than the last few times I had seen him. He seemed to shine by his own light, andI found him charming. In front of us passed a young boy with a lemonade and I smiled at Harvey.

“Remember that guy who spilled it on me?”

He laughed heartily. “I remember him, yes. With those big eyes you begged me to clean you up - you couldn’t wait for me to get my hands on you.”

“Exaggerated, you just stuck your hand under my shirt to clean me better.”

“Yes, of course. What happened next?”

I blushed suddenly and felt a chill run through my lower abdomen. “Come on, stop it.”

“‘I’ve never been with a man. Be gentle.’ You were so cute, so innocent. You barely knew how to take it in your hand.”

“Come on!”

The scene came back to me overwhelmingly, and I could barely look him in the eye. In the end nothing much happened that night, if you could call it my first time, but it was embarrassing that he remembered it so well. I had been clumsy, and the embarrassments that had followed that event came back to my mind one by one.

“Sorry, come on. You’ve grown into such a handsome guy. Handsome and sexy. And I’m so lucky to have you.”

He encircled my hip and left a kiss on my cheek as I met the gaze of a passerby. Those were eyes of disgust, and I was pretty sure he turned around a few more times, though I couldn’t be sure.

We turned into a secluded alley, and he pushed me back to the wall and smothered me with a kiss. It was impetuous and I felt his beard rub against my skin with each movement he made; then he pressed less fiercely, and I had time to breathe between contacts. He stuck his tongue in my mouth and joined it with mine, a gesture that turned me on. We stopped kissingonly when my stomach emitted a certain pang, which we tried to ignore but it protested louder than before.

“Aren’t my kisses enough to satiate you?”

I smiled, his body still wrapped in my grip. “I’d like to, but I still need food to survive.”

“Too bad,” he replied and brought a hand down on my buttocks. “Who knows what we could have done in this little alley...”

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