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Chapter Sixteen

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Five days.

Just a short five days later, the following week's Monday, was the day that Ashley had finally gotten well enough to return to school. Spencer couldn't say that she was excited, there were, after all, few things in life that she got that way about. But she was feeling as close to it as was humanly possible. Ever since the day she'd first seen Ashley so beaten up and bruised, Spencer had been hungering for her to get better and to get out of that horrible situation. Thus far it seemed like both goals were achieved. But that hadn't been all she'd felt. Spencer was so introverted that she thought everything out. From how her lips chapped in cold weather to the way people looked at her shoes. It all dwelled on her mind and she sought to organize all the implications in her private little world. So although Spencer had longed for the moment Ashley got better, she couldn't help but wonder how things would be between them if she did.

Ashley had become more honest and open since Raiff's beating of her. Once she was better, would she revert back to her old self? That callow girl that seemed to want Spencer for nothing other than a periodic fuck? Spencer couldn't help but wonder as the days rolled on. However, when she finally did see Ashley again, she was pleased to see that that wasn't the case. And Spencer knew this now because she was currently engaged in what would become something of a tradition for them.

A Monday morning muffin.

When Spencer woke up for school that morning she expected to take the bus alone. Usually she went with Nicole, but she had an early morning practice with Carmen and the other Deltas in preparation for their next big game. Because of that Spencer had to go by herself. But as she completed her morning routine (computer time, feeding Koenig, a bit of awkward coffee with her Father, etc) and stepped out the door, she saw Ashley's car parked out in front. Its own sat in wait. Ashley herself looked great now. Though she still had her ribs bandaged, the bruises to her face had regressed and her cuts were all but healed. There was a glow about her again but the arrogance was gone. All that was left was a quite beautiful girl who'd faced up to herself and come out on top.

When Spencer approached her, Ashley offered her a quick stop at a bakery before driving her to school. Normally she dreaded seeing Ashley's car parked out front (if not for the tenuous relationship they had back then, then to make sure her parents didn't see) but this time she felt less trepidation. So she accepted the offer and was driven to a quiet little bistro on the corner of an empty shopping plaza just a few blocks away. A 'bakery' that sold both coffee and pastries, with a common area specked with numerous plastic tables occupied by fellow customers. If anything it was more like a cafe. And that was where Spencer and Ashley were now.

They stood out somewhat. Two young women, one slightly older than the other, amid a sea of older folks. They were all adults, mid twenties to late forties, affluent and suburban in their angle. Suits and ties and the like, sipping lattes and cappuccinos before cracking open some of L.A.'s finest fawning broadsheets. It was exactly the crowd that Ashley had always been so adverse to. The Italian girl seemed to pick up on Spencer's confusion about that because the next thing she said was,

"They make the best double chocolate chip muffins in town."

Spencer couldn't tell if Ashley had said that because of her transparency or because she herself felt how out of place they seemed to be here. She wanted to believe it was the latter. But whatever the reason Spencer simply shrugged and broke off a piece of her blueberry muffin.

Ashley watched her pop the soft chunk into her mouth with a grin. "That's really cute, you know."

"...What is?"

"The way you pick and nibble at your food. You're like a little bunny or something."

So the blonde blushed. She would never learn how to take a compliment without getting flustered but it felt nice all the same. There were no overarching angles or concerns now, she didn't have to worry if Ashley was only saying pleasant things about her to get inside her panties. It was surprising how calm that made Spencer feel about all this. A fortnight ago she would have balked at the idea of sharing time with Ashley Davies in a public place. Now here they were munching on muffins together in full view of suburban elite.

Of course, despite how pleasant this all was, she couldn't help but ask, "...How are things at your Mom's...?"

It seemed like Ashley hadn't expected that kind of question because the moment she was asked that she paused. But it was a pause followed by a sigh, and a slump of her chin into her palm. "It's... a lot better, I guess. I haven't heard from my Dad in a few days. Once he found out where I was he just stopped calling. But I think I'm holding up there. Mom's been really good to me, and even though I can't stand her boyfriend, he's pretty busy with Molly most of the time."

"Molly?"

"My little sister," Ashley explained. "Well, half-sister. He spends most of his time looking after her while Mom's at work during the day. Don't ask me why though. It's West Hollywood. You'd think with all the gay guys up there it wouldn't be so damned hard to find a babysitter."

Spencer frowned at her. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say."

"Huh...?"

"You think it's odd that a man might actually want to run a house and raise a child? This isn't the fifties."

Ashley grinned, taking a bite out of her chocolate chip muffin. "Easy there, tiger. If he wants to iron my Mom's pantsuits and make cookies for the church bake sale then it's all his. I really couldn't give a crap. I just think it's weird that while my Mom's out there working herself assless, he's curled up on the sofa watching Oprah."

It seemed that there was one thing Ashley had inherited from her father and that was a work ethic. She was the kind of woman that always had to be doing something with herself, even if it was a trivial practice. Spencer couldn't say how redeeming that was but it was nice to know that when push came to shove Ashley was prepared to work at something, especially if it was something she wanted.

"Maybe that's a good thing," Spencer suggested. "I mean, you don't have a job, do you?"

Ashley shook her head. "Not anymore, no. I used to work at this little boutique in a mall that sold all these tacky French dresses and shitty overpriced perfume. I kind of hated it at the time because everyone there was so damn snooty."

"If you hated it then why did you stay?"

"Why d'you think? The money. Petrol ain't cheap and neither was my car. I had to save up a lot of cash for that baby `cause I wasn't gonna get it from my Dad and I didn't wanna bother my Mom. So I just sort of swallowed my pride and ran with it. Wasn't all that bad though. Wasn't the worst place to pick up a girl."

Spencer stopped for a moment, and, ever the thoughtful one, it suddenly struck her. Ashley had a romantic history. It sounded kind of stupid in her head when she thought the thought, most people their age did, even Nicole had a long-term boyfriend. So why was it suddenly hitting her that Ashley would have been with girls before they met? It wasn't really that shocking. Ashley Davies knew her way around the bedroom. You didn't get that way without having some kind of experience beforehand. It was strange in that way... that Spencer felt so surprised at the notion. It made her wonder other things too. Like who these girls were, how far they went with her, how deeply she cared about any of them. Was it anything like what Spencer and Ashley had now (or at least where starting to have?). She couldn't tell.

"Hey," Ashley waved a crumble-ridden hand in her face. "Are you spacing out again?"

That made the blonde girl snap into focus again. Every time she got into deep thought about something she just lost sight of everything else. And while Spencer made a mental note to work on that, she couldn't help but be a little distracted by what she'd been thinking. It made her terribly self-conscious too. Ashley was the only person on earth that she had ever slept with. Encumbering that kind of woeful inexperience, it was hard to imagine someone as outgoing as Ashley would even bother with her -- and yet here they were together, sharing the closest thing they'd had to date since knowing each other.

"Spencer?"

Again she had to snap out of it. "Huh?"

"What're you thinking about?" Asked the brunette. "We're not late or anything."

"No, I... uh..." Maybe it didn't matter. The past was the past. Whoever Ashley dated in the yesteryears didn't matter anymore. She wasn't with those women now. Though Spencer had to remind herself that she wasn't technically with Ashley now either, there was... a connection. It was like a bud in springtime, repressed by a cold winter, that now wanted to blossom and display its pretty pink petals before the world.

Spencer smiled privately, to herself and not to Ashley, before tearing off another fragment of her muffin and slipping it between her lips. She chewed. "It's nothing. I was just wondering about... something silly, that's all."

"Okay," Was Ashley's only reply, before returning to her own muffin.

Then there was a silence. The only thing heard at their table was what was going on at other tables, their chatting, newspaper rustling, pastry crunching, and the clinks of coffee cups against their saucers. But it wasn't one of those uncomfortable silences two people could begrudge. It was nice. Pleasant. And Spencer often found herself glancing up from her muffin and stealing little glances of Ashley as she ate. It was really impossible to describe how beautiful Ashley was. Even the way she ate was cute, in its own way. But when she was caught staring at her Spencer looked away, with a little blush and a tiny smile, like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar. So when Ashley started grinning at her she just felt embarrassed enough to change the subject.

"Are you going to do it today?" Spencer asked.

"Do what today?"

"What we talked about last week? You apologizing to Nicole?"

Ashley sighed, woofing down the last of her muffin. If it wasn't clear that Ashley and Nicole weren't going to get along anytime soon before then it was clear now. But that didn't change the fact that Spencer wanted some of the bad air out of the way, once and for all.

"Ashley please, it's important to me."

"That's the only reason I'm doing it." She clarified.

Spencer exhaled. "...Why don't you like her?"

"..."

"... Ashley?"

She saw the Italian girl fidget then. Ashley looked away whilst clapping the crumbs from her hands. But eventually it came, the reply, in a tone more fragile than Spencer expected. "When... when you broke up with me... you said that you liked her. Do you?"

At first Spencer didn't remember that. So much had happened since then that it kind of escaped her memory. But she did think back to their pseudo-break up. It was the evening Spencer spent with Nicole and her parents. Ashley had been drinking at the time. It was the day after that that she and Nicole had gotten into that fight. And Spencer recalled Ashley asking her what her feelings were for Nicole i.e. "Do you like her?". She hadn't said anything but that same silence had suggested it. In hindsight Spencer knew that what she felt was for Nicole was a construction and no more than that. But Ashley didn't know that. In fact it didn't even occur to her that Ashley was still thinking about it.

"...I thought I did."

"What changed?" Asked the older girl.

"I don't know. I guess I just... I kind of... realized what I was doing, and..."

"Is she straight?"

Though Spencer failed to see what that had to do with anything, she replied, "...I think so. Yes."

Then Ashley started chuckling. It was a humorous little chuckle of victory, like she'd just won something, that she cast when she leaned back in her chair. Spencer pouted at it. You needn't be a genius to read the subtext of the laugh. It was as if to say, 'I knew all along'.

"It's not funny." Stated Spencer.

So Ashley sobered up a little. "...No. You know what, no it's not. But I'm not gonna lie to you either. I'm glad."

Spencer didn't see it as something anyone could have been 'glad' about at first. In fact if her feelings for Nicole had been more real then she'd imagined she could have come out of it all hurt, like many girls did. There weren't often times when Spencer pondered the situation of other gay girls out there -- she tried not to because she had always been adverse to be being seen as part of a lump sum (just another girl, just another blonde, just another American, etc) but it did make her wonder how other people dealt with the possibility of falling for straight girls. Oh sure, Spencer combed the Net over, looking for angst-ridden Sapphic poetry and fiction, but she'd never spoken to someone who went through it. In that way she wondered why Ashley could have been glad about it.

Then of course, she felt a hand press itself over hers. For some reason Spencer had slipped her hand underneath the table and rested it on her knee. What she felt was a stronger hand on hers, gentle stroking it with the thumb. It was Ashley's hand. Spencer blushed, smiling at her, but not saying anything. That was why she was glad.

"...What?" Ashley said with a shrug. "I can be romantic. Sometimes."

" Ashley, I'm... really glad that you're okay with this..." the blonde explained."About me needing time?"

"I don't mind waiting for you. I just want us to be together, you know?"

Spencer felt her heart gush. But she'd do nothing to suggest it. She couldn't let Ashley know how much that pleased her, not just yet. She still had to be sure that embarking on a relationship with her was the right road to go down. "...Yeah. I think I do."

So the morning proceeded. All in all it was one of the first times they had actually sat down and spoken to each other seriously about their lives -- without the horror of Ashley's past life hanging over their heads. It was significant for that reason and welcomed in both their hearts because of it. But unfortunately they couldn't sit there and eat muffins all day. Not least because they had school (and Spencer wasn't big on pastries to begin with) just half an hour or so away. So when they were done Spencer and Ashley left the bakery for the car park to climb into the car. From there it was just a short drive to Alderson High. As they later turned into school parking Spencer spotted the time. It was quarter to nine. Class was going to start soon. With her hand at the wheel Ashley parked just between two other student cars before pulling her keys from the ignition.

"We should do this again sometime," Ashley suggested softly. "Just you, me, and a muffin."

Spencer peeked a smile at her. "I'd like that."

"Well it's the best I can do on short notice."

"A muffin's fine with me."

"...Okay," Ashley's smile was bright enough to shatter stars. "I guess we better get to class."

Though Spencer was pleased to have Ashley back at school it hadn't escaped her notice that the blouse beneath the leather of the Italian girl's jacket was 'ridged' slightly. She still had her rib bandages on. Though she might have been well enough to come back to school she still wasn't a hundred percent. As long as she didn't push herself too hard that needn't be a problem, yet Spencer was still a little concerned. So frowning slightly, she leaned over to tenderly kiss Ashley's cheek.

"Take it easy today, okay? Just until you're better."

She shrugged. "Spencer, I feel fine."

"Promise me."

"...Okay. Okay. I won't sign up for any skydiving classes or 10-K runs. Oh shit, this is gonna ruin all my plans. I mean, I was thinking of flying over to Vatican City to punch the Pope. What about the Pope? Can I still punch the Pope?"

Spencer giggled lightly. "No you can't. And you're not as funny as you think you are."

"Yeah, maybe not," She unbuckled her seat belt. "I'll see you later then, yeah?"

"Yes."

Then Spencer unbuckled her own seatbelt, climbed out of the car, and closed the passenger side door behind her. She went straight for her locker then straight for class, once again it was History with Mrs. Swirlin. Nicole came in a little later than she did from her morning practice with the Deltas. Mrs. Swirlin couldn't reprimand her for it though because she had a note from their Coach. She simply took a seat next to Spencer's desk and they got on with the lesson. The hours marched on and one subject warped into the next until it hit its usual fleeting climax at half-noon, lunch hour. Spencer and Nicole went down to the cafeteria together, got in line, waited, and eventually were served by the lunch ladies on hand. Spencer moderated herself on an egg salad sandwich, a carton of milk and an orange. Nicole loaded her tray with chilli fries, chicken fingers and a 'pauper's-worth of garden salad' (Spencer speak for a leaf of lettuce and a slab of tomato) with a can of coke and a thin slice of chocolate cake on the side.

As per usual Spencer wanted to go outside to eat. But then she heard Nicole say, "You wanna bag outside today?"

"...Why?"

"Well," Nicole blushed a little. "There's no special reason or anything. I just think it would be good."

Good for who? Spencer heaved a sigh but she didn't put up an argument. She couldn't be bothered and to be perfectly honest she didn't want to. She only followed Nicole to one of the side-most tables and sat down when she chose an empty one. Yet when they started eating Spencer noticed that Nicole was a bit distracted. It was only a few minutes later that she realized why. Aiden, Kyla's adoptive brother, entered the lunch hall. Since Nicole had met him last week she had been enthralled by him, commenting that she could be "the Idina Menzel to his Taye Diggs". He was a senior however, like Ashley, which meant that he didn't share any of his classes with her. The only times she got to see him were before school, between classes, at lunch, or after school. That didn't give Nicole many windows. So as soon as she spotted Aiden and watched him grab some lunch for himself, she stood up and flagged him down.

"Hey Aiden!" She gestured. "Over here!"

He was across the lunchroom at the time. But the loudness and eagerness on Nicole's part carried her whims over the throng of the other kids. When he heard her he looked around for a moment, not really knowing where they were, but eventually found them holed up by their table. Spencer watched him approach them with a toothy, 'what the hell?' kind of smile.

"Hey y'all," Aiden said cheerfully. "Kyla and Carmen gonna be with you?"

Nicole shook her skull. "No, uh, I think Carmen's still in practice and Kyla's with her. Why don't you sit with us until they get here?"

She immediately pulled out the chair next to her and patted its seat. Spencer glanced up at Aiden. To look at his face it seemed that he wasn't getting that Nicole was hot for him... he probably assumed Nicole was just being friendly to him in virtue of Kyla. But while Spencer didn't know anything about Nicole's interest in Kyla she sure as hell could see her interest in her brother. As he sat next to her Nicole turned to him with a brilliantly bright and flagrantly flirtatious smile.

"You know," Nicole began smoothly, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger. "It's so cool that you're so supportive of the Deltas. I mean not a lot of guys out there take soccer seriously, much less, girl's soccer. I think that's really awesome."

Aiden shrugged. "Ah, it's no big deal. I mean... Carmen and I go way back, and she's... pretty tight with my sister and all, so I'm just out there doing my thing."

Nicole frowned at the whole Carmen and me go way back' thing. "You and Carmen are... close...?"

"Yeah, we're good friends," he clarified. "I think she's the only one besides me who isn't creeped out by the way Kyla acts sometimes. But I swear to God, don't tell either of them I said that. They'd kill me."

Little Nicole offered Aiden a shrug, that somehow moved her chair closer to his. "I'm not gonna say a word... as long as you come watch us play Ellis-Johnson High next Wednesday?"

"You have a match next Wednesday?" Spencer blinked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't? Oh well, its next week and all. You're welcome to come too. Kyla always does." And so her attentions went back to Aiden. Spencer suddenly started to feel like second string material here. It wasn't to say that she at all begrudged Nicole's crush, she didn't, but at the same time she didn't like feeling like a third wheel. Situations like this bugged the hell out of her because they were a subtle reminder of how lonely she often was. And there's nothing quite like acknowledging your own loneliness when not on your own.

Spencer went about picking at her food after that, while Nicole flirted so damn obviously with Aiden, and he absorbed it without really 'knowing' it. Neither one of them paid much attention to her as they went about the business that straight people had the luxury of being able to do so freely. But while she ate her egg salad sandwich Spencer found herself unintentionally observing the way Nicole and Aiden played off each other. Despite all her brilliances Nicole was a terrible flirt. She wasn't bad at the art, per say, she just lacked finesse -- constantly touching his arm, mimicking his bodily gestures, laughing just a bit too hard at his jokes; at times her smile bordered on saccharine in its intensity. Aiden on the other hand just seemed to cling on obliviously with some kind of reserved politeness. It struck Spencer as odd for a moment because even a blind person could see how apparent Nicole's flirtation was. Aiden couldn't have been that dense, and upon closer inspection, she figured out that he wasn't. When Spencer looked hard at him, searching out his expressions and bodily nuances, she realized that he just wasn't confident around girls. But in his eyes it was clear that he knew that Nicole was into him -- and also clear that he liked her too (or at the very least was quite attracted to her).

Spencer didn't blame him.

But at the same time she didn't much relish the idea of watching these two playing cat-and-mouse games whilst visually digesting each other. By the time she'd get her reprieve Aiden had mellowed out a little which made his 'conversation' with Nicole more loose and by extension, more forthcoming.

"I'm totally crazy about Kubrick movies."

"Me too!" Nicole beamed, chin in her palm. "Isn't it weird how we have so much in common?"

Aiden flushed a little. "Well, uh... Kyla and I have a little Movie Night that we do every Saturday. I bag some DVDs, she makes popcorn, and then we just crash on the couch. I know it doesn't sound much like her thing but it's like a tradition... sort of. Point is, I was thinking of doing a Kubrick marathon this week, you know? Eyes Wide Shut, Spartacus, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining. Carmen's been stopping by these past couple of months so, if you wanna come-"

"I'd love to." She abruptly replied.

"Great. That's great," Spencer saw him turn to her. "Do you wanna come too?"

"...Huh?"

He shrugged. "Spencer was your name, right? We've got room for one more."

"Oh, uh... I don't know, I..." In all honestly Spencer hadn't expected an invitation, nor would she have believed it if she had been told one was impending. It probably wasn't even on Nicole's agenda to invite her (what with her being so consumed by her newest crush) but Aiden was clearly a gracious man, if a little gauche. But the choice was elementary in that there really was only one choice -- to say yes. It didn't escape her grasp that it might be somewhat awkward for her. Carmen and Kyla were likely to be pretty preoccupied with each other (like always) and Nicole was sure to be devoting most of her time to charming (or seducing, depending on your view of her outrageously bad flirtations) Aiden. But deeper than that was a will to find something, a union, a lack of distance, something to strike away her loneliness. Up until the whole Ashley situation she'd considered solitude her lot in life. But there were people around her now that she liked, and for some reason seem to like (or at least tolerate) her. What was the point of keeping them at arm's length?

"Sure." Spencer offered.

Nicole blinked with confusion. "Are you sure, Spencer? I thought you weren't into movies?"

Now she remembered (and regretted) admitting to Nicole that she wasn't big on movies over the phone a few days back. And although she wasn't sure if Nicole said that because she actually found it weird or rather because she wanted as much of her fixation to herself as possible, Spencer didn't argue the point. She merely said, "I don't mind trying something new," and left it at that.

So for the first time since Aiden's arrival she turned her attentions from him to Spencer. And she wasn't smiling. The brunette rolled her eyes and nodded succinctly in his direction, then off toward the door. But when it became clear to her though that Spencer didn't get what she was trying to convey, Nicole piped up, "Hey you know what? I think I just remembered something."

"What'd you remember?" Asked Aiden.

"Carmen loaned me a book for Art class last week. I was supposed to give it back to her this morning but I totally lost track of time during soccer practice." Then Nicole gave Spencer an overly-bright smile. "Could you go give it to her for me, Spencer? I'll totally owe you one."

She could have gone to the O'Reilly Factor website to order one of those 'Don't Block the Shot' bumper stickers before stamping it on her forehead and still it'd have been more subtle than that was. How many more ways could you tell someone you wanted them out of the way without telling them you wanted them out of the way? People tended to learn new things about Nicole every day, and the newest thing Spencer had learned about her was that Miss Milligan didn't play around when she was hot for a guy. Even if that meant, in so many words, telling your friend to beat it.

Spencer heaved a sigh. She would have been a little peeved about this if not for Nicole's past break-up with Ryan. If anyone deserved to be happy right now it was her. More to the fact, Spencer still didn't want to be a third wheel here. As she stood up Nicole dragged a textbook out of her bag and slid it across the table to her. Spencer snatched up the Impressionist tome to slip it into her own bag.

"Thanks, Spencer," Nicole said with a wink. "I'll make it up to you."

Both Spencer's expression and her thoughts pretty much said 'whatever' to that. Nevertheless she wasn't going to hang around, especially not in the cafeteria, a place she unequivocally loathed. The blonde slinked her bag onto her shoulders, said her goodbyes (with Nicole briefly mentioning that Carmen should be out on the soccer field with some of the Deltas for their lunchtime practice) then left. She took her tray with her and was sure to dump what little she didn't eat in one of the lunch bins before booking it. Only as she turned to the door did she look back at the table. They looked even more blatant at a distance, with Aiden nattering on about something and a charmed Nicole hanging off his every word. Spencer simply rolled her eyes and left them to it. She headed straight for the rear of the school after leaving the 'mess hall', crossing the courtyard and traversing three departments until she got to soccer field behind the Art department. Just as Nicole said, some of the Deltas were there, dressed in gym class shorts and socks, but there was no Carmen. She saw that Kyla wasn't there either when she looked at the empty bleachers.

So Spencer walked up to one of the other girls and asked, "Have you seen Carmen?"

"You want Carmen?" quipped the girl. "I think she said she was hungry or something so she went to the lockers to get changed just a minute ago. She's probably still in there if you wanna see her."

"Thank you." Spencer said to the girl as she turned on her heels and headed for the gyms. They were just a short distance from the field and most of the doors were unlocked. She took her hand to one of the bars to pull the door open before slinking in, in search of Carmen. In an adjacent side door were the locker rooms. Spencer entered them but they (at first) appeared empty, with only a few school bags tucked in open lockers and clothes folded over wooden benches. Then strangely enough she heard something odd. It sounded at first like crying. It came from a conjoined room, and when Spencer peered there to see what was going on, she saw that room was in fact a unit of tiled shower compartments. Water had been left running in one of the stalls but no one was in it. But the patter of the water didn't drown out the sound of the sob, it being as blunt as it was. And as Spencer stole closer to the source she noted that it wasn't crying at all. It was protracted moaning.

Sheer curiosity made her peer around the corner of the stall she was standing by. But what she saw held her transfixed in the most illicit way -- what she saw was Carmen and Kyla; kissing each other with damn near animalistic fury.

Spencer's eyes widened. Whatever she expected to see this certainly wasn't it. An entirely amorous Carmen had the meeker Kyla pushed up against the wet white tiles of the wall whilst her smooth lips battered those of the Asian girl. At the moment the blouse Kyla was wearing had been rolled up to her chest and arms, freeing the slight bounce of her bosom to the sight. The faint copper of her rubbery nipples were utterly swollen into stiffness and stood prominent from small milk chocolate-y aureoles. Those same breasts coursed up and down as Carmen ground against her, with the thigh of her left leg pushed deep between Kyla's hips. They writhed together as they kissed, enraptured by total arousal, so enraptured that they failed to see an astonished Spencer meters across from them.

Instead they only deepened their intimacy. The grasp Carmen had of Kyla's throat, a throat she held so carefully as it bobbed with mouth contractions, slipped. One of her hands descended the slink of her lover's body only to seize Kyla's left mound. Kyla consequently broke the kiss with a quiver, eyes locked shut, and moaned her approval with sultry elegance. Carmen's fingers took to her breast not unlike a sculptor, who molded and kneaded a downy material to finality with enamored poise and artful composition. The goalkeeper knew full well how to manipulate Kyla with her breasts. A caress here, a squeeze there, perhaps even a pinch of her distended nipple -- all to provide electric shocks of indubitable pleasure to her girl, to make her writhe in ways only she could provoke. And her recompense? Blissful sobs that folded into Carmen's ears like a hummingbird's chirps; creating in her a sense of pride about her lavish labors.

It seemed though that if she couldn't kiss Kyla's lips then she had to kiss her throat. It was swan-like it its appearance and displayed a pearly velvetiness that Carmen took her lips, tongue and teeth to. Licks became kisses and kisses became bites, all the while Carmen's hand continued groping at Kyla's left breast, whilst her thigh stroked back and forth up the smaller girl's crotch. Kyla's expression was positively angelic; her thin eyebrows had arched up, her dusky olive cheeks were flushed, eyes had clamped closed, sylvan mouth opened. All that, along with the way her sweat dripped down the contours of her face in glossy diamond droplets, gave Kyla all the mesmerizing beauty of a cherubim within that single instance in time. Carmen noticed the loveliness of that expression as she pulled away from the girl's neck, a neck now slick with her spittle, destined to flower with hickeys over the coming hours. Kyla finally opened her eyes then. They stared hard at each other, displaying something in that instance, something that said that this was more than a cheap, reckless quickie. That `something' was love. They loved each other.

"Carmen..." the shorter girl whimpered. Not so suddenly she unwound her arms from around the taller girl`s neck and took one of Carmen`s own. Kyla brought that hand to her lips to kiss its fingertips, an act that made Carmen sigh delicately. "Carmen, please..."

"It hasn't been that long..." Said the goalkeeper, her voice low from the weight of her breaths.

"Yes it has..." Protested Kyla. "Please..."

How could she be refused? Carmen let Kyla pull her hand down. The three of them watched that hand descend and disappear below the waistband of the Asian girl's jeans and when it found its rightful place the reaction was instantaneous. Kyla juddered with a heavy, rasping gasp that dwarfed the intensity of her previous moans by a sizeable margin. Her thin arms grappled Carmen's body to her own as her feet arched on the floor just as the taller girl put all of her weight behind the thrust of her fingers, and as a result, Kyla's form moved with hers. In time they established a heavy rhythm in which they ground together, Kyla's back repeatedly slapping the wall, while Carmen leaned into her neck again to consume that smooth skin just once more. Kyla's breathing grew more and more ragged, more labored, more intense, until that illusive crescendo was reached. The most powerful moan of all burst forth, a harmonious and thunderous song collapsing into a breathless, heaving sigh. She rode out her orgasm to its very last, hanging onto Carmen as best she could, savoring every little bit of it, whilst Carmen's hand remained lodged firmly in her pants. To see its bulge there you could imagine no better place for it.

"I love you," Carmen murmured, between the kisses of Kyla's neck. "I love you so much..."

A stunned and now flushed (very flushed) Spencer staggered away from the scene, completely forgetting about giving Carmen the book. The blonde girl stepped out of the lockers, out of the gyms, then leaned up against the wall in a vain attempt to catch her breath. What the HELL just happened?