Alex and Tess 3 – Comfort
by
Tommy Linarcos
For Alex and Tess, there was no repeat performance the next day. After having lost their virginities to each other the night before, they did not get together and fuck each other blue. They did not attempt to improve on their bad oral sex, they did not offer each other manual stimulation. They did not kiss, or hold hands, or tell each other ‘I love you.’
Alex’s father returned from the hospital and did not have good news. “We knew the procedure had limited chances, and the outcome was either going to be very, very good, or very, very bad. But with no other recourse, other than watching your mother go downhill and get weaker and weaker every day, she and I decided to try it. I’m afraid the outcome is not very, very good.” Karl Brand was a stone before his children; he’d done all his crying elsewhere.
Time was so short, Alex, his sister Karin, and his brother Peter were rushed into the car and driven to the hospital. Any planned hospice for their home was cancelled, their mother was just being made as comfortable as possible in her hospital room.
“This is not how I pictured this…” his mother said, trying to laugh. “I’m afraid I’m going to be leaving you all a lot sooner than I’d hoped.” Alex’s father just sat in the chair near her, allowing the kids to get as close to her as they needed to.
Peter, at eighteen, was angry and wouldn’t speak to his mother. He wound up leaving the room and punching the vending machine in the hall, breaking the plasti-glass until it looked like a spider web and eventually collapsed in on itself. His father was called away to help with Peter and the situation.
Karin, still fifteen, was in near hysterics. She was crying, apologizing for forgetting a card she’d made for her mother. She’d been rushed out of the house, she’d forgotten the card, and a box of memories she was going to share, full of little toys and photos she’d curated over the last month, hoping she wouldn’t need it, and now that she did, she didn’t have it.
Alex, recently twelve, was just quiet. When Karin had calmed down and hugged her mother as long and as carefully as she could, she gave up the prime space at her mother’s hand to Alex.
“What happened, honey?” His mother ran her hand along Alex’s face, where a thick, bruised welt across his cheek and a blood-crusted ear generated her concern. Alex had sat at the foot of the bed prior, turned the other way, showing the good side of his face in profile, but there was no hiding it, now.
“Oh, nothing,” Alex tried to smile, but failed. “A jerk got fresh with my girl and I had to show him some manners.”
His mother suspected that Peter had done this damage, and she was right, but she didn’t ask. Alex had several small scars on various parts of his body attributed to wounds from Peter taking his frustrations with the world out on his little brother.
“I hope you can find forgiveness for whomever you got in this fight with. Whatever caused it is wrong, but I hope you can live together peacefully from now on.” She looked sadder now than she had when they first arrived.
“Maybe,” was all Alex could promise about that.
“How’s your leg?” she asked next.
“Doing better. I got to go swimming, so…” Alex had recently had an accident in the kitchen (not Peter’s fault) and spilled a pot of hot coffee on his leg, burning his thigh. His friend Tess had been there to help him, luckily.
“I’m glad Tess was there. Take care with her. And with Suzie. Things are going to change in high school. Keep your good friends with you, don’t shut yourself off. Remember, life is better with friends.”
“I have good friends,” Alex agreed.
“I had a dream,” his mother just seemed to remember. “It felt like the future. I don’t know how old you were, but you didn’t look too much different. Bigger, stronger, but still you, still that blonde shaggy hair. You were in a forest, by a river — or in a river, I don’t remember — and you were looking at someone. You were happy. There was sunshine on your hair and you were wearing a green shirt. I don’t know why I know that, I just see the image now. It felt like you were in love. You had a smile that said you were in love. That’s what I know, what I feel is right. I don’t know where or when this was, but it didn’t look like here. There were mountains.”
“I like mountains,” he said.
“I hope it’s true, then.” His mother smiled and pressed his hand. “I love you, my baby.”
“I love you, Mama.”
She closed her eyes. Karin leapt up. “No. No, don’t… I’m not done, yet, Mama! I have more to tell you!” Her mother opened her eyes, smiled, and shut them again. She was weak, but she was not dead, the machines said so. She was either asleep or passed out. Karin turned to Alex. “Find Peter. She wanted to talk to Peter and he ran out.”
Alex nodded and left to look for his brother. Peter was not to be found, though.
Alex’s father returned and sat with his wife, letting Karin and Alex get a drink in the cafeteria and then sit in the small waiting room outside, hoping Peter would return. When he did finally return, with a sock wrapped around his hand, he was still angry, but subdued. They checked on their mother, but Dad said she hadn’t regained consciousness.
“It’s not fair. I didn’t get my time with her that you guys got,” Peter shot at them in the waiting room.
“You left!” Karin countered.
“I came back!”
“You got three more years with her than I did!”
The sniping continued, but ended. Alex thought Peter had six more years, and Karin three more years than he did, though he said nothing aloud. He’d acquired some of Peter’s anger in the interim, in the waiting. If his mother was going to leave him, maybe she ought to just get on and leave them, then. Quit this waiting, this maybe, this praying for hope, this hope that she’ll wake up and everything will be all better again.
An hour later, his father returned to them, and it was over.
* * *
When they got home, Peter took his backpack and no one saw him for two days. Karin and Alex cleaned the house from top to bottom, getting every crack, every window, the grease on the stove. Alex wasn’t sure why, but Karin needed to do it, and she needed him to help her.
Tess, Suzie, and Joey came by when they found Alex had returned, but he didn’t talk to them, just kind of waved at them from the door and shook his head. They knew, then.
Tess and Suzie each came by again, but Alex wouldn’t see them. Karin spoke to them.
At the funeral on Saturday, the entire neighborhood came to the wake and the cemetery. Alex sat with his cousin when his friends weren’t there, but they did come. He still wouldn’t speak, but both Tess and Suzie held his hands, throughout. Even Joey broke from his family to sit with Alex.
Relatives kept asking Alex about the bruises on his face and the scab on his ear so often that Tess went home and got him a pair of her sunglasses, dark aviators, which he wore indoors and out for the duration. He didn’t want to look like a spy, or look cool, which, in his black suit, any other day he would. But with them on, people got the idea that he wanted to be left alone.
Peter was angry that his mother was being buried — he didn’t want her alone, in a box, in a place with all these strangers, someplace he’d never want to visit, and Karin argued back that he wasn’t around to help make any decisions or even talk to his father. Alex stayed out of the argument, just sat behind his sunglasses with Tess and Suzie.
There was a luncheon for those who’d come to the funeral. Alex didn’t eat. Joey, Tess, and Suzie did, and tried to get him to, but they knew. Though Joey had to leave with his family, Tess and Suzie told their parents they were going to stay with Alex until it was over and help Karin clean up, and were allowed to. They all came home later with Alex’s family.
Back home, Tess kissed Alex and told him she’d see him later. Suzie gave Alex a kiss — a real kiss — and said she’d check on him tomorrow.
Alex’s father and Karin retreated into their spaces in the house. Peter took off. Alex sat in his frontroom staring at a television he hadn’t turned on, still in his black suit.
Tess had changed out of her dress, though still looked nice, not in jeans or “play clothes,” and came back to sit with Alex, trying to get him to open up. They sat through a Muppet Show, then flipped channels from Battlestar Galactica to The Bad News Bears. At 8:00pm, it was either The Love Boat or the movie version of Judy Blume’s Forever. Tess kind of wanted to watch that, but didn’t know how Alex was feeling, if he wanted her here, or if he would say or choose anything at all. They made it about half-way through the movie when she asked him if he would, at least, get out of his black suit.
Alex turned to her, stood, took her hand, and she walked with him. He went to his bedroom. He didn’t turn the light on. She sat at his desk chair. He took off his jacket and tie, hanging each nicely in his closet. He opened his sleeve buttons, then one by one, the buttons down the front of his nice white shirt, took that off, and hung it over the back of his desk chair. Tess picked that up to fix how it hung, and could smell him on the shirt collar. He emptied his black suit pants pockets, then removed them and hung them in the closet. He did not find any new clothes. He pulled off his white undershirt, then his black socks, and threw them in his hamper. He removed his briefs and put them in the hamper, too.
He stood in front of her, naked.
He turned and opened the Star Wars covers on his bed and got under them.
Tess stood up and used the telephone in the kitchen, then shut off the television. She returned to Alex’s bedroom and closed the door. She removed her clothes, folded them, and set them on the desk chair. She crawled under the covers with Alex and wrapped her arms around him.
He immediately closed his arms on her, too. He held her tight, so tightly that he had to remind himself not to hurt her, though she did not protest. He put his head in her shoulder, breathed out and shuddered, and continuously fought the battle not to cry. Eventually, his breathing became softer and regular, his hold on her relaxed, and Tess knew he had fallen asleep. She found a way to be comfortable, and joined him.
Somewhere after eleven o’clock, she had awoken. She found Alex awake next to her, just stroking her arm, watching her. “You’re up? You okay?” she asked. He squeezed her arm twice, lightly, and nodded. Something had changed, some little bit, something inside him. He still wasn’t speaking, but he felt different.
“I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him. She didn’t know if that was the right or wrong thing to say, especially with the day’s events, but she wanted him to know.
He kissed her cheek. She turned to him and kissed him back, full. Careful, at first, just to assure him. He continued to kiss her, warmly, softly, so she gave it back. He stopped and turned her body toward him, holding her point-to-point, and just held her close, his mouth dipping into her shoulder, kissing her there and up her neck.
She ran her hand up and down his back, slowly, gently. She wished she had breasts; she imagined it would be so much more comfortable like this, and perhaps he’d touch them. She was so thin, she poked him with her knee or elbow every time they shifted, but she found a good spot, hooking her foot behind his knee and hugging his leg between hers. She couldn’t help but run her hands down to his butt; he had a cute butt, and squeezing it lightly made her think that’s how her breasts would be, when they came in.
He was getting hard. That hadn’t been her intention, to make him hard, but he was a boy. His kisses were getting more intentional on her shoulder, on her neck, up her throat, and then on her lips. She kissed him back. It was okay, she was here for him.
He pushed her back off her side and moved his head down to kiss and suck at her nipples. She liked when he did that. Again, she wished she had breasts, but she liked when he did that. He was getting very warm. She was getting warm. It was warm under the covers, and it was summer, but she didn’t want to throw them open. Warm was good. His hand moved down to her pussy, grazing her bare vulva, then dipping inside. She didn’t grab for his cock — she knew where that was, hard against her thigh — she’d have to fidget too much to get her hand in there.
He moved on top of her and settled between her legs. She opened them for him. She wanted him to do this. She hadn’t thought they’d get a chance to do it again for some time, with the mood in the house and with Alex closing himself off, but it appeared he wanted to. That was good, wasn’t it? In the last couple of hours, and especially the last fifteen minutes, he’d opened up to her more than he had all day.
He put his cock into place, or at least where he thought it was supposed to go. “A little lower,” she whispered. He tried, and found the spot, starting a gentle but insistent thrust. It was hard gaining entrance, and he slipped upward and lost the spot. Her hand appeared, fixing her flower, showing him her wetness a little deeper, and guided him. In a moment, he was inside of her again.
The first time, the last time, it had been so thrilling, her on top, making it happen little by little. It only lasted a short time before Alex had pulled out of her, but it was glorious. She wanted that feeling again. She wanted it better. She had nothing to compare it to, but she knew they were both nervous before, and they didn’t really do it right. She wasn’t nervous, now. Just a little worried for Alex, yet. He’d been hollow all day, and now there finally was his need to be with her. She not only wanted to help, but she loved how they were doing it.
Alex was gaining momentum, thrusting inside of her. He fell out of her again, but fixed himself and was back inside, filling her. It was still so new, this fullness inside of her, but it was Alex inside of her. It’s who she wanted.
It was weird liking a boy that she played baseball with. And bikes. And superheroes. Skating in the winter. Star Wars. And hanging at the mall. And Atari. Well, Atari at his house, she still only had the Coleco Telstar. Sometimes they were kids, sometimes they were like teenagers. They were very much being like teenagers, now.
He was breathing hard by her ear. He was trying to be quiet in the house, she could tell. He was almost whispering to her. He was almost speaking to her. She could tell what was coming. It had only been a short time, but she could tell. She held his butt with both of her hands and wrapped her legs behind his. “Inside me. I want to feel it,” she whispered back to him.
He didn’t want to pull out, either. He didn’t want to leave her. His arms were tight around her, his breathing got shallow, his thrusting was hard but erratic. He was an engine. He tried to speak, “I’m… I’m…” right next to her ear, but she could tell his teeth were clenched. His entire body clenched, like it did when she stroked him off, but this time it was all inside her — inside her arms, inside her legs, inside her. And then he thrust one more time and she felt it. The warmth inside her.
She wasn’t cumming, but he was, and he kept cumming. When he held still, she could feel him shoot inside her, and then he thrust again, just a rocking, like he needed to. Slowly, he stopped, but he still held onto her. Eventually, she felt him breathing again. She relaxed under him, moved her hands to his spine and in his hair, but she didn’t let go of him.
When they played together, in the park, on the field, in the streets, he always watched out for her. She was as tough as he was, sometimes better in the games than he was, but she always knew that if there was trouble — with other kids, or with nosy cops, or a buttinski parent, Alex would protect her. He made her feel safe. Now, tonight, she was protecting him. Comforting him. She wanted him to feel safe.
Neither one wanted to move. Actually, she wouldn’t mind if he got off of her, but he wasn’t too heavy, and she didn’t want to do the wrong thing. If she shoved him over, would he get mad at her? Were girls supposed to shove the boys off, or wait?
Alex lifted his head, found her eyes. She could see a smile somewhere in his cheeks. He didn’t speak yet. She imagined he wanted to say something like, ‘Hey, we did it! The whole thing! That was awesome!’ But he didn’t, or couldn’t. Not yet.
He kissed her. They kept kissing. If people saw them kissing, these two twelve-year-old kids, they’d be all ‘Oh, my!’ she figured. But they liked to kiss. And they were pretty good at it, too. It was the simplest thing to do. It wasn’t to show anyone they were together. It was just them being together.
Their laying on each other and kissing had lasted longer than she perceived, or boys were really that weird. He had never pulled out of her, never fell to her side, and she hadn’t made him. She had felt that his cock had gotten softer after his orgasm, but it was definitely hard again. She could feel his blood moving inside his arms. He was breathing deeper. He was coming back to life, and when she found his face in the blue light from the window, he had that look in his eye.
His hips started moving. They were going to fuck again. No. She wanted to think of this differently. They were going to make love again. Maybe that was too grown up. Maybe she was fooling herself. But she loved her boyfriend, and that’s what they were doing, damn it!
She giggled into his mouth. She always swore too much, her sister said. She even swore while she was thinking! And when she thought aloud, she could get in trouble. He looked at her — was she laughing at him? She had to let him know. “I knew you’d come back. That’s it. Yeah…”
It was squishier this time, a lot wetter with his cum still inside her. It felt different, but exciting. He slipped out of her. He was starting to go faster and it slipped out. Back in. God, he’s hard! Like a… is this where the word ‘horny’ comes from? she wondered, but not aloud. He slipped out again. It was the angle. It was like he figured he had to be on top, and face-to-face, that was the way it was supposed to be done, and his hard, hard cock was slipping out.
She held his elbows, and it stopped him. “Hey, let me. It’s my turn.” With force, she started the turn-over, and he got the idea, and helped with the transition. Shortly, he was on his back and she straddled his waist. She found him beneath her and guided him inside. She sat back and made sure he was inside. All the way. “Oh!” She didn’t mean to let that out, it just happened. It felt that good!
Was it loud? Was anyone else up? Karin? His dad? Did Peter ever come back? It was after midnight, according to Alex’s glow-in-the-dark alarm clock, and a long day, so the others should be settled, but you never knew. But if she thought about it, she hadn’t heard any creaking outside the bedroom door or on the ceiling since they’d woken back up.
The first time they’d fuc— made love, she’d been on top. But that was how it happened, sliding on top of him, getting herself off, when she’d caught his cock in her opening, and then making it happen, little by little, pushing him inside her. Now, she realized, she could control the speed and the depth like this, perhaps the angle…. Yes, the angle, too.
Until Alex took control back, grabbed her butt, and started slamming into her from below! Oh, god, that was good, too! But he let her take it back. When she bent over to kiss him, he popped out, again, but he fixed himself quickly. She smiled as he did — he didn’t want to not be inside of her! She rose back up, vertical, hyper aware of him inside of her, his hands on her hips or feeling what tits she would have, one day. She found the bounce, but that was making the bed make too much noise. Then rocking. Oh, yes! That was the way…. She moved like this, he went back, almost out; she went like that, and he was back in, all the way…. When she applied pressure forward… her clit… Oh, yeah!
His hands were all over her as she pumped him. He moved his knees up, she could tell he wanted control, again. She’d let him. She leaned forward, and oh, she let him pound her! She found a way she could rub her clit on him while he did and… Oh! That was it. She grabbed him around his neck and pulled him tight. She wanted to scream, but knew where she was. She found his pillow and sunk her head into it, her chin at his shoulder, and just let it out into the foam and feathers as her knees gave out, her pelvis shook, and the sun radiated from her center.
It got very, very wet down below as Tess came all over Alex’s cock. Knowing that she was cumming was going to make him cum. Her juices and trembling made him lose any sense of rhythm he had, that either of them had. Alex immediately gripped her, arms around her back, as he came inside her again, shooting inside her again.
He called her name. “Tess!”
She got to collapse on top of him, this time, kissing his face and making him smile, though eventually she straightened out and lay next to him. But during that time, it wasn’t lost on her that the first thing he’d said in days had been her name.
But something was embarrassing. All this stuff was leaking out of her. Wasn’t it just supposed to go somewhere in her body? Even though she hadn’t started her period and couldn’t get pregnant, yet, she knew cum was supposed to go up into her. I guess when there’s this much of it, though, it’s got to go somewhere…
She didn’t want to try sneaking out of the room to the washroom to clean up and get caught, just in case. And luckily, she didn’t need to pee, or at least didn’t feel like she needed to. There was always the cum shirt. “Hey,” she whispered, but in her tomboy voice, “find me your cum shirt.”
Alex thought for a second and nodded. She’d been using whatever shirt he’d been wearing to clean her body up after they’d been fooling around the last few weeks. Hence, a cum shirt. He looked around the floor, but remembered his room was clean. He’d put his undershirt in the hamper. That would have to do. He got out of bed and found it. She put it to good use.
The bed was wet, and he had no towel to put down, and there was still a whole night to sleep through. He dabbed the spot with his shirt, then went to his closet for his spare pillow case — no cartoon picture, just plain blue — and set that in place. He climbed back into bed.
They found a comfortable embrace. He combed her short brown hair away from her face. He was about to kiss her when she said, “I love you.”
He stopped. She’d said it before. He’d said it before. Did it feel wrong, now, for some reason? They’d just had sex twice, and he did love her, but he was still feeling off, still feeling shaky inside. Everything was not right, yet. Should he be feeling this good? Wasn’t he supposed to be sad and withdrawn since…?
“Don’t tell me you love me today,” he asked of her. “Just tell me you’re still my best friend.”
She was a little taken aback, but not offended. “You are my best friend.” She kissed him, looking him in the eyes. “But fuck you, I love you.”
He laughed. For the first time in days. And he held her tight.
* * *
They fell back asleep, but neither was used to sleeping with someone else, and each awoke now and again. With Alex’s hard cock continuously poking Tess in the rear, somewhere around 3:00am, she lifted her leg back over him, tried to see if she could spear him inside her, maybe comfortably rock a little without changing positions, something that would feel good, and that’s when she found that he was also awake. Their “Round 3” lasted much longer than either of their previous, just that slow, gentle rocking, filling her, never completely coming out, gently massaging her button and feeling “how she was,” holding her, kissing her neck, being close for who knew how long. She wasn’t sure if he actually came in her before he had fallen asleep again, but she knew she had, if from nothing else than being held like that.
* * *
They were both awake and very aware of the house in the morning. They hadn’t thought this far through about being discovered or Tess’s escape, but they hadn’t heard anyone else moving in the house, yet, or at least in the kitchen. But the clock said it was only after 6:30am, and it was a Sunday. No one should be up for a long while.
Alex was very interested in the naked girl in his bed.
“Doesn’t that thing ever go down?” she asked about his cock. “I know I saw it soft once…”
“Sorry, this is every morning,” he pleasantly assured her. “I really need to fu-“
“Make love to me,” she corrected.
“Yeah…” He moved to get on top of her when she stopped him, again.
“Don’t… don’t be on top of me. You’ll squish me and I’ll pee all over your bed. I’m not kidding,” she chided him.
“So, no?”
“Oh, I want to. Just don’t be on top of me.”
Alex sat on his knees inside her legs, getting as tight in as he could, both of them figuring out how to fold her legs over his, and he was soon inside her, sitting up, holding her hips, finding a rhythm as they had morning sex.
“Take it easy, I’m a little sore,” she advised quietly.
“Am I hurting you?” He stopped all motion.
“No,” she assured him, “I love your cock, this feels so good, just take it easy.”
He got the idea, loving the sight of watching his cock slide in and out of her. Slow in, slow out. Each time he pulled back, the flare on his cock head pulled along her ridges, dragging more of her wetness out with it. It occurred to him the flare was like a barb on a fish hook — easy to pierce, tough to remove. This is so cool! In this position, he could roll his hips, like fucking her from below. It was like she was dancing… Her eyes were staring past him, through him. He could tell from his ‘feel how I am’ lessons that he was getting to her. He wanted to play with her clit, but she’d warned him not to put any pressure on her abdomen, and he sure didn’t want the consequence.
He wanted a little more room and lifted her leg, his arm under her knee, and found he could get a little deeper, still. A little faster, and she started to whimper as she got very wet. But, yeah, now that he’d gotten a taste for it, he really needed to fuck, and he let the pace get the better of him, slamming into her pussy as he pushed himself over the edge.
And Tess allowed it, hanging onto Alex, pulling him into her. She could feel his cock swelling, it felt like his head got bigger, she recognized his breathing pattern already, and she knew he was going to cum in her. His body started rocking a little more violently and she let go of his rear, moving to his ribs to hold him up and away from her, bracing him above, feeling he was going to come crashing down on her body if she didn’t — and she meant it about peeing if he squished her. Eyes clenched shut, he flailed above her, unable to collapse down onto her, as he exploded inside her.
She continued to prop him up with her leg and arms until he could open his eyes, and she helped him settle beside her.
He was out, again, catching the bits of sleep he missed at midnight and three. Tess moved him into big spoon position to hold her, again, and he was just conscious enough to do so. The spare pillow case had gathered uncomfortably and needed to be adjusted, but she just removed it altogether. She pulled up the covers to their waist, and folded her hands about his arms.
She would catch up on sleep, later. She loved the morning. She loved this morning. The window was open, the sheer panels of his blue curtains billowing but not flying, the breeze cool enough to enjoy with the blanket. The sunshine wasn’t coming in directly due to the closeness of the homes here in Colton, but the light was… peaceful. There were actual birds making their calls before any noise of the city took over in an hour or so.
She could imagine herself in a TV commercial like this, but with a big four-poster bed and wearing some white, frilly, gauzy, ankle-length nightgown. She didn’t have that, just this boy’s room with Cubs and Star Wars posters, the one Cheryl Ladd poster his mom used to pretend not to see, some toys and books, a bed, and a desk. And her boyfriend. She had Alex.
She’d never spent the night with a boy, not even a group sleepover, and wondered if she would ever repeat it — with Alex or some future boyfriend in her teen years. She couldn’t think of what boy it could be other than him, but she knew there was a long time ahead of her to think about. Her own mother and father were talking about moving. No set plans, yet, but it was for work, she knew. Strange cities had been mentioned. If she wound up leaving, she’d have to enjoy her boyfriend while she could.
She looked over her shoulder at him. His golden hair, his darker eyebrows, the mouth she knew that hid the smile she loved. The welt across his face. Fuckin’ brother. She’d gotten him to smile. He’d even laughed a bit. Losing your mother had to be tough — something she hoped she wouldn’t have to go through. It was going to take a while to bring him back to normal, whatever that might be.
But she’d be there with him.
The door opened. Karin stuck her head inside, starting a sentence she didn’t finish. She saw her little brother and his girlfriend naked in his bed. Tess met her eyes, didn’t panic, just gave a question back with them. Karin looked away and down, then back to Tess. She nodded, and closed the door.
Tess hadn’t even noticed it was now after eight o’clock. She carefully slipped from Alex’s bed and found her clothes. Her shifting of position made her realize how badly she really did have to pee, so she dressed quickly, but completely, no missing buttons, no untied shoes. She left the room and headed to the washroom, looking out for Alex’s father or brother.
When she returned, she went into the kitchen, where she found Karin getting prepared to make breakfast. “Good morning. Want to help?” Karin asked her. Tess did what she could to assist and not get in her way.
They figured the bacon and coffee smells would get the men coming in soon enough, but sat to eat the first items they’d made. “How is he doing?” Karin asked.
“Better. He’s speaking again.”
“Good.” Karin put down some eggs, considered something, and then had some coffee. “I told him he better not be a jerk and hurt you, but now I think I have to ask you the same thing. Just without the jerk part.”
“I won’t hurt him,” Tess said.
“I mean, don’t abandon him. He might not be a lot of fun, for a while. He’ll need his friends.”
“Don’t worry. I’m his friend first.”
Karin snickered and put down her mug. “That’s the same thing he said about you.”
Tess looked a little sheepish, but asked, “Do you have a boyfriend? To help you?”
Karin weighed her answer. “Not now. Just got rid of a bad one. I’m not ready yet.” She attempted to push a hair away from her eye, but her pony tail had taken care of those. “Maybe soon. Got a whole summer to go. We’ll see.” She started buttering some toast. “How about you? Are you… ready… for what boyfriends and girlfriends… do?”
They were speaking almost as equals, Tess understood. “Ready or not.” Her answer seemed a bit too clever, but she was talking to a girl, a teenager, not a judgmental parent. “He’s nice to me. It’s nice.” She met Karin’s eyes. “It’s really nice. And we’re… I’m okay, still, you know what I mean?” Tess made eyes referring to her body.
Karin nodded. “Soon, though,” she said.
“I know.” Tess jellied her own toast. “But he’s the best. He’s the best one out of all of them.”
“Yes. He is.”
Alex’s father made his entrance into the kitchen, dressed for an easy Sunday: still formal in shirtsleeves, but his collar was open. He put his hand on Karin’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said to her, “for everything this week.” Karin put her hand on her father’s and nodded.
“And good morning to you, Tessie. When did you get here?” he asked.
“Just a little bit ago,” she answered brightly. “Stopped by to see if our boy wanted to go for a walk or a ride or something.” Karin smiled and nodded at her.
The sound of his father’s voice woke Alex with a start. His father was up! Where was Tess? They’d found her in the kitchen? Dang — he was still naked! And his door was open! He threw back the covers, jumped out of bed, knocked over an X-Wing, and put on a half-sleeve baseball t-shirt, some briefs, and a pair of shorts. He was making too much noise — they knew he was up. There were more voices. What was going on? He figured he’d better get out there and take it — whatever his dad and Karin were going to throw at him — and defend Tess.
Alex came to his bedroom doorway and rounded the corner into the kitchen, barefoot, his golden mop a mess, bedhead on his right side, dark circles under his eyes, wary of what he was walking in to.
At his kitchen table was Karin, his father, Suzie, Joey,… and Tess.
“You’re late. Your breakfast is getting all cold and eaten,” Suzie kidded him.
He connected eyes with Tess where she sat, open chair next to her, and smiled.
The End
Copyright 2025 – Tommy Linarcos
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