We went up to my room about a half-hour before I needed to start getting ready for work. This was nothing unusual, we often spent time up there alone. Usually we did nothing more than kiss.
"Got blue balls?" Nina asked me, a smile on her face.
"In the worst way," I nodded.
"I'm sorry," she told me, sitting on the edge of my bed once more. "I really meant to let you make love to me. I wanted it Bill. I still do."
"I know," I told her. "It's okay."
"I guess fate just doesn't like you for some reason."
I had to laugh at what she said. Fate like me? Probably not. "No," I said, "I don't believe that fate likes me at all."
She gave me a puzzled look for a moment and then her eyes took on a little shine. "So what are you gonna do about the blue balls?" she asked. "Play with yourself after I leave?"
"Probably before your car even starts," I confirmed. "I can't go to work like this."
"Maybe I can help," she said softly. "Come over here."
"Why?" I asked suspiciously.
She reached out and grabbed the waistband of my shorts, tugging me to her so I was standing between her legs. Her mouth was right at the level of my crotch. "You ask too many questions," she told me, reaching for the button and undoing it.
"Nina," I said, feeling myself coming to full erection once again, "my parents…"
"Would never come in without knocking," she put in. She unzipped me and pushed my shorts down. Another push to my underwear and my cock was waving in her face. "Just be quiet and let me do my work."
"If you insist," I croaked as her mouth slid over me.
My mom was in the habit of leaving me a plate of whatever she'd cooked for dinner that night in the refrigerator so I could heat it up when I got home from work. That night was no exception. I was gobbling up a large bowl of her beef stew and turning a thought that I'd been having over in my mind when the doorbell rang. I heard my Dad answer it and a moment later say, "he's in the kitchen." A few seconds after that, Mike came in, wearing a T-shirt from the fire department.
"What's up Mike?" I greeted, putting my thoughts on hold for the time being. "How's the new job?"
"It's cool," he answered, grabbing a seat. "I spent most of the day filling out the forms and all that crap. Then one of the captains that works days took me out in the truck to show me what I'd be doing. I'll start tomorrow on the normal route."
I offered him some of Mom's stew, there was plenty in the fridge, and he declined. While I finished up he continued to tell me about his new career.
When I was done eating and had put my dishes in the sink, we went out front.
"I'm off the buds now," he told me seriously once we were out of my parent's earshot.
"You?" I asked, raising my brows, "off the buds? What's up with that?"
He shook his head sadly. "I'll be driving a courier truck for the fire department. They have a policy. If anybody driving any vehicle gets into any accident of any kind, they have to get drug tested. It's some lawyer shit they have there. I wish I would've known about it a few weeks ago. I smoked some the other day with Maggie. Now I have to hope and pray I don't have some asshole crash into me in the next six weeks."
"Hopefully fate will be kind to you," I said, suppressing the joy I wanted to express. When I made my crack about fate I hadn't even been worried about it. Mike had already beaten fate. He had been forced to choose between marijuana and a career and he had chosen the career with hardly a second thought. Remarkable when you consider what had happened to him in his previous timeline, when he'd continued to smoke pot knowing that he would eventually be drug-tested and caught. He just hadn't cared. Now, at eighteen, he was much more mature than "the other Mike", as Tracy would have put it, ever was or ever would be. "Are you gonna miss it much?" I asked him.
"Oh yeah," he admitted, nodding. "There's nothing like getting stoned. Well, almost nothing. But I'll live. I hope Maggie understands. She likes to smoke a little bit with me. But I don't think it'll bother her that I quit. And the minute I make captain and don't have to drive anything anymore, I'm gonna go score me a fuckin' ounce and smoke it all in one night."
I grinned. "Be sure and invite me over," I told him. "How's it going with you and Maggie anyway?"
"It's goin' great," he assured me. "If she wasn't at work right now I'd be over there instead of bullshittin' with you." He grinned lasciviously, "I'm tellin' you Bill, that chick really knows how to fuck."
"What?" I asked, surprised at his words although I really shouldn't have been.
He nodded knowingly. "And she can suck dick like you wouldn't believe too. The other night she finally gave it up for the first time. Goddam she was hot. We started out in her living room. We were watching some TV and then we started kissing a little. She let me feel her tits, she has nice tits, and then she unbuttoned my…"
"Mike," I interrupted.
"What?" he asked, looking confused, wondering why I was intruding upon his sex story.
"Have you told anybody else about this?" I asked him.
"About fucking Maggie?" he asked. "No, you're the first. Why?"
I shook my head. "Don't take what I'm telling you the wrong way," I said, "I'm telling you this in friendship and to help you, just like when I told you about the Air Force recruiter, remember?"
"Yeah, but… what are you talking about?"
"Don't tell people about what you do with Maggie," I advised sternly. "Don't tell anybody a damn thing. Not even me, not even if they ask. Keep it to yourself. I know it's hard to do, I know that a guy's instinct is to share his conquests with everyone, to let other guys know he's a man. But it's a bad idea. A very bad idea."
He looked at me strangely. I could see the old immature hostility at being contradicted wanting to come forth. "I'm just telling you," he said. "Maggie doesn't know. And she wouldn't care anyway."
"Wrong." I said. "Now I don't know Maggie as well as you do, but I know women pretty well. And I know guys pretty well. If you tell me, you'll tell others. But even if you don't, you can't even trust me. Suppose I passed on what you said to Tracy. Tracy might run into Cindy, who is her friend. Cindy is also a friend of Maggie's. Suppose Maggie hears from Cindy exact quotes from what you just told me. She wouldn't be very happy. Her unhappiness will increase with each person that the story passed through before it got back to her. It really is a small world and if you are in the habit of blabbing your exploits to people, word will get around and get back to her. Women will break up with you in an instant if they find out you're telling people about what you do with them in bed. Worse than that, any other woman that the story has passed through will not have anything to do with you because they know you'll tell everyone. Are you following me?"
He looked a little shell shocked by my words. "Yeah, I see. But you won't tell Tracy anything."
"You can't know that." I told him, "You can't know that about even me and I'm your best friend. All it would take would be a few beers with Tracy, a little loosening of the tongue, and then out pops the story. You definitely can't know that about other people. Trust me on this. Keep you mouth shut about it if you want to keep her. Fuck the shit out of her at night. Enjoy it immensely. But don't tell a soul about it. Why even take a chance on her finding out? What's more important Mike, continuing to get the pussy and not having anybody know you're getting it or getting it a few times, letting everybody know, and then losing the pussy because you blabbed? Myself, I gotta go with continued pussy every time. No contest."
He was looking thoughtful at my speech but didn't say anything.
"Besides," I went on. "After it becomes known that you and Maggie are together, everyone is gonna know you're fucking her anyway. They'll know you're a man, they'll know you're taking her home and boffing the shit out of her. So why provide them with details? Let them just think about what you're doing with her and they're not. Let the fuckers be envious."