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 ï>¿Saturday Night School byjessica_tang_vonharperÂ(C)

   Saturday Night School Ch.  10

   Charlie and Michelle explore a garden.

   Afterwards, they fled into the gardens.

   They raced across the meadow on bare feet, hand in hand, first running
under the night sky but swiftly cutting to the left and seeking refuge in
the shadows of the trees.  In the course of their love-making, Michelle had
pulled off Charlie's clothes, and now he walked beside her just as naked as
she was, his clothes bundled in the crook of his arm like a football.  He
peeked at her, and reflected that, for once, he was actually more naked
than she was.  She, at least, still wore her stockings.

   The night air felt cool on his skin.  Charlie looked up at the tree
branches that stretched above his head, picking out the occasional glint of
a star through the ceiling of leaves.  He felt a wary vigilance, walking
through the garden with no clothes on, concerned that at any moment they
would turn the corner and find someone waiting to catch them.  Yet he also
thought he understood something of the thrill Michelle felt when she walked
outside naked.

   His gaze lingered on her body, her skin speckled with the moonlight that
slipped through the tree cover.  He recalled how she had undressed outside
in the parking lot, passing him her garments one by one, and afterwards he
had locked the stack of clothing in the trunk of his car.  Since that
point, she had been nude, without any means of getting dressed again,
completely trusting in Charlie to return her clothing to her at some
undefined point in the future.

   She was nude when they walked into Greenholt Gardens.  She was nude when
she met Ronni's brother Nick for the first time.  She was nude while Nick
gave them a tour of the gardens, and when Ronni had to leave and asked
Charlie to walk her back to her car, Michelle remained behind, chatting
with Nick, still nude.

   Michelle appeared very comfortable being naked, even while the rest of
them wore clothes, but that didn't mean she was unaffected by the
experience.  Charlie learned just how much it had affected her when he
returned from saying goodbye to Ronni and found Michelle spinning in place
in the meadow.  Michelle had flung herself at him, greedy with desire, and
he'd been quickly divested of his own clothing.  He and Michelle had made
love on a picnic bench just outside the snack bar, in full view of one of
the security cameras.

   Charlie pointed out that Nick could be watching them on the security
camera, and Michelle was not only aware of the possibility, she was excited
by it.  She wanted to put on a show for Nick, to show him what she looked
like with Charlie's cock inside her.  She and Charlie had sex in several
positions, and Charlie could tell that Michelle was always aware of that
watching camera and the view she offered it.

   Until they both climaxed.  Michelle tried not to cry out when she came,
but she couldn't stop herself completely, and her faint shrieks mingled
with the distant calls of night birds.  Charlie pulled free and painted a
streak of cum along the top of her left stocking.  They held each other,
sweating and breathing hard, and Charlie could tell the spell was broken.
Instead of putting on a show for the camera, now Michelle wanted to flee
from it.  So Charlie quickly gathered his clothes and they ran for the
darkness.  They only left behind their shoes, his sneakers and Michelle's
heels, which still sat side by side under the concrete table.

   They found the pathway known as the Brook Path, which followed the
trickling brook that fed the garden's lily pond.  The path led uphill, a
dark and winding trail with occasional stone steps that took them higher
and higher.  To their left, they could see the shadowy line of the brook,
and could hear the trickle of the water.  To their right, the trees and
ferns of the Tropical Garden grew thick and high, leaning over them. 
Charlie could hear small creatures hiding in the darkness, scurrying
through the carpet of loose leaves, rustling the low branches.

   Michelle gazed into the darkness.  "It's a little scary, isn't it?" she
remarked.

   "Yeah," Charlie agreed.  "But I don't think we'll get in too much
trouble if we get caught.  It'll be really embarrassing, definitely, but
I'm sure we're not the first couple to sneak into the garden looking to be
alone."

   "I'm not so worried about getting caught," Michelle said.  "I'm more
worried about getting eaten by a bear.  Or murdered by a serial killer with
an axe."

   Charlie tried to smile, but as he looked out at the darkness of the
garden, it was impossible to completely dismiss those possibilities.  "It's
kind of a horror movie trope, right?  The teenagers have sex, and then the
killer gets them...  like punishing them for being immoral..."

   "Then we're in big trouble," Michelle said gravely.  "We've been so
immoral tonight."

   Charlie chuckled and slipped his arm around her waist.  He pulled her
close, enjoying the feel of her skin.  "If an axe murderer gets me," he
said, "my last words will be, 'Completely worth it!'"

   She laughed.  "That's what your last words will be?" She stretched up to
kiss him.  Down below, he felt her fingers circling his cock, squeezing it
gently.  Her breasts gently bumped against his chest.  She murmured, "I
think my last words will be, 'Help!  An axe murderer!'"

   "Don't worry," he told her.  "I'll make sure it takes him a long time to
kill me, so you have time to escape."

   "So sweet!" Michelle smiled and kissed him again.  Her hand continued to
casually clutch his penis, and he could feel it hardening between her
fingers.  She tugged on it gently for a moment, and when she let go,
Charlie could feel his cock pointing at a higher angle than before.

   Now if they got caught, he had the added shock bonus of a visible
erection.

   They reached an intersection where the Brook Path crossed a wider grassy
trail.  The grassy trail led to a wooden bridge on their right, traversing
the brook.  A light pole stood next to the bridge, bathing the intersection
in a white glow.  A wood bench painted dark brown sat under the light pole.

   Michelle walked directly towards the far-left corner of the
intersection, and at first Charlie couldn't figure out why.  She bent over
and manipulated some long metal thing that jutted out of the ground, and
Charlie realized that it was a faucet just before water sprayed out of the
spout onto the grass.  Michelle turned the water off and looked up at him.
"I'm going to clean off," she said.

   "Okay."

   Michelle leaned over and caught the top of one of her stockings.  She
slowly worked it down her leg and finally tugged it off her foot.  "Will
you keep track of these for me?" She held the rolled-up stocking out
towards Charlie.  "Do you have someplace you can keep them?"

   "Sure." Charlie plucked the stocking out of her hand and stuck it into
the front pocket of his jeans.  He did the same thing with her other
stocking.

   Michelle turned on the water and cupped her hands underneath the spray.
"It's cold!" she moaned.  Nevertheless, she squatted next to the faucet and
splashed water onto her legs, cleaning off the sticky evidence of their
immorality.

   Charlie looked around the dark garden, feeling vulnerable in his state
of nakedness.  "Maybe I should put my clothes on..."

   "Not yet," Michelle said.

   "No?"

   "Go sit on that bench.  I'll join you in a second."

   Charlie thought about mentioning that the bench was positioned right
under the light, and he would be clearly visible sitting there.  But of
course, Michelle already knew that, and didn't care.  He walked over and
sat down on the bench, placing his bundle of clothes next to him.

   Naked in Greenholt Gardens.  Charlie looked around, checking carefully
to make sure no one was watching them.  He didn't see anyone, but couldn't
help feeling like he was on display.  Maybe someone lurked in the shadows,
watching them.  The white light from the bulb overhead took away his night
vision, and prevented him from penetrating the darkness off the trail.

   Michelle turned off the faucet and walked towards him, her body wet and
gleaming in the glow of the overhead light.  Charlie watched her careful,
swaying walk; the contrast of her shining body against the background of
dark foliage gave her approach a dreamlike quality.  Perhaps that was all
this was.  Just a dream, and he would wake up any minute to find the whole
night had been conjured up by his overactive imagination.

   "What now?" he asked.

   "Now I want to give you a blow job." She lowered herself to her knees in
front of him.

   "You do?  I mean...  do you think this is a safe place?"

   She already had his cock in her hand, stroking it as she rested her
elbow on his leg.  "Imagine walking by this bench, in the daylight when the
garden is open and full of people," she murmured.  "We'll see this bench
and remember that I gave you a blow job here.  We'll always remember." She
leaned over and kissed the head of his penis.

   Charlie felt himself rapidly stiffening under her attentions.  He could
feel her tongue swirling around his swollen head and he leaned back, his
nervousness quickly overcome by the pleasure she was giving him.  "We'll
call this bench the Blow Job Bench," he whispered.

   She lifted her head and made a face.  "Eww.  No."

   "Sorry." He laughed.

   "We just need to take advantage of this opportunity," she said.  "Who
knows when we'll get the chance to do something like this again?" She
leaned over and her mouth enveloped his cock.

   "Yeah," he sighed, and for the next several minutes, he didn't say a
word.  He slouched against the back of the bench, watching Michelle's head
bob in his lap.  Part of him wanted to close his eyes and focus on the
sensations she was causing, but he couldn't bring himself to detach
completely from the world around them.  His eyes continued to scan their
surroundings, on the lookout for any unexpected spectators.

   As Michelle continued her earnest work, Charlie started to wonder what
he would do if he saw someone approaching.  He knew realistically that he
would probably warn Michelle and they would retreat into the garden to
hide, but he also felt aroused by the idea of not doing anything, of
letting Michelle continue sliding her lips up and down his cock while he
casually waved to the hypothetical approaching stranger.  The thought of it
excited him tremendously.

   He glanced down at Michelle.  He expected at any moment that she would
abandon her oral manipulations in order to climb into his lap and take
advantage of his extremely hard erection, but she seemed determined to make
him climax only with her mouth.  Her head bobbed tirelessly, rhythmically.
His hands tangled in her hair, and they played with the illusion that he
was moving her up and down on his shaft, fucking her mouth, although in
reality she still retained most of the control.

   "We'll remember this bench," he whispered to her.  "Whenever I see it,
I'll think about how beautiful you look now, naked and on your knees,
sucking my dick.  I'll think about how you did such a good job that I came
in your mouth.  I think every time I see this bench from now on, it's going
to get me hard again, just remembering how this feels right now, and I'll
remember how sexy and beautiful you looked, with my dick in your mouth..."

   She made a low groaning sound, and for the first time, he noticed that
one of her hands had disappeared down below, and she was almost certainly
fingering herself.  He continued whispering to her.  "Maybe someday, we'll
be here in the day, when it's busy, and I'll remember how good this felt,
and I'll just have to feel it again.  Would you do that for me, Michelle?
If I ask for you to do this again, even if it's daylight and people are
walking by, will you take off all your clothes so I can watch you naked and
on your knees, just like this, sucking my dick?  Would you do that in front
of all the people?"

   She moaned again, clearly turned on by the outrageous scenario he was
describing.  Her shoulder quivered as her hand moved rapidly between her
legs.  Charlie felt himself getting very close.  He tried to continue his
dirty talk, but now he could barely manage a rhythmic patter, "Ahhh... 
Michelle...  ohhh, Michelle...  you're so good...  ohh, you're so good..."

   Finally, he threw back his head, closed his eyes and came.  Her hand
circled his cock, milking it for every drop, while her mouth waited above
to lick it clean.

   He opened his eyes, and she climbed onto the bench to press next to him.
"Thank you..." he said.

   "You're welcome." She leaned her head on his shoulder, her long hair
falling down his front as if to clothe him.  "Is there any on my face?"

   He glanced at her.  "No."

   "Good." She touched her chin anyway, tracing it with her finger.  "I
thought about just letting it go on the ground...  but then we'd have to
figure out how to clean it up anyway, right?  We couldn't just leave it. 
Not when we're guests here."

   "Yeah..."

   "There wasn't much, anyway.  Not like before."

   Charlie put his arm around Michelle and pulled her against him.  For the
first time that night, he noticed the chill of the night air against his
skin, but where Michelle pressed against him, he felt warm.  The world
around them had become a dream again, the milky light cast by the lamp
above their heads making a circle of light around them, like an island
floating in a sea of darkness.  Their lone bench sat along a piece of
grassy path that disappeared into blackness in either direction.  They were
both naked, which was surreal in itself.  Naked under the night sky.

   We're not the only island, he thought.  In the distance, he could see
another lamp, casting its own circle of light, illuminating its own piece
of the garden.  Why did they bother?  Lighting up such tiny bits of the
garden and leaving all the rest to the night?

   Michelle's breathing felt slow and steady against his side, and her head
nestled against his shoulder.  He thought for a minute that she had fallen
asleep.  "I wish we could stay here forever," he murmured, reminding her
with those same words that they could do no such thing.

   "I know," she sighed.  "It's probably so late though."

   "You want to head back to the car?"

   "Let's go a little bit further."

   "Okay."

   "Did you want to get dressed?"

   He did.  As he pulled on his clothes, he felt the strangeness of their
relationship, that she would stand there, completely naked, watching him as
he dressed, and she would remain naked, as if the practice of wearing
clothes was something that only applied to him.  He could have offered her
his shirt, but he didn't, and he knew she would have said no if he did. 
She had willingly surrendered her clothes before entering the garden, and
he knew she intended to be naked the whole time they were there.

   "Okay," he said.  "I'm ready."

   They followed the brook path further up the hill, until finally the path
veered away from the brook, and Charlie could see a fence in the distance
delineating the border of Greenholt Gardens.  The brook itself continued
past the fence, towards the mountains, and Charlie wondered if he could
look it up on a map and find out where it went.

   Their eyes adapted to the darkness, and they consciously avoided the
illuminated areas, choosing instead to retain their night vision.  They
picked a meandering path back down to the Japanese garden, and skirted wide
around it, seeing the glowing red lanterns peeking through the trees.

   Michelle held his hand as they walked towards the entrance to the
gardens and the concrete table where they had made love earlier. 
"Charlie," she said.  "This was better than the school.  I'm so glad you
found this place."

   "You never did have your freak-out," he observed.

   "What?"

   "When I came back from walking Ronni to her car.  You said you were on
the verge of having a complete freak-out."

   "Oh." She shrugged.  "I probably still will.  Later.  I'm trying not to
think about all of it right now." She waved at their surroundings.  "Why
waste this worrying?  If I'm dead, I'm dead.  Nothing I can do about it
now."

   "What do you mean, if you're dead?"

   "You know...  if Ronni tells everyone.  Or if her brother tells
everyone. My reputation at school.  Actually, my reputation everywhere."

   "I don't think Ronni will tell anyone," Charlie said quietly.

   "Maybe she won't.  But I don't know for sure." Michelle paused.  "She
has pictures of me.  Videos."

   "She deleted them."

   "She did?"

   "I watched her.  She showed me that she deleted them."

   "When?"

   "Just before she left."

   "Oh!" Michelle nodded thoughtfully.  "Well, that's good, I guess."

   The path turned and Charlie could see the courtyard at the entrance of
Greenholt Gardens.  He could see that unforgettable table, with their shoes
still sitting underneath it, and on the slope above the table, the snack
bar.  He froze.  "I think I know what you mean," he said in a low voice. 
"About having a freak-out."

   "Are you about to have one right now?"

   He pointed towards the table.  "We just had sex on top of that table. 
Actually, all around that table, in a bunch of different positions.  We
didn't hold back.  And you said that Nick could see us the whole time."

   "Uh-huh.  On the security monitor."

   "That's pretty embarrassing, isn't it?  We had sex right where he could
see it.  And now we have to go talk to him and pretend like nothing's
weird."

   "I know," Michelle said.

   "And he's Ronni's brother.  And we just met him tonight."

   "I know." Michelle held out her arms.  "And I'm still naked."

   "That's true." Charlie glanced down at her nude body.  When they said
goodbye to Nick, would the security guard even be thinking about the sex he
had witnessed?  Or would he be too distracted by Michelle standing naked
right in front of him?

   "Do we need to talk to him?" Michelle asked.  "We could just go without
saying anything."

   "Yeah, we could," Charlie said.  "Do you want to?"

   Michelle's hands touched the top of her legs.  "No," she admitted
nervously.  "We should go tell him we're leaving.  He knows what I'm like
by now.  No point in trying to be modest after everything else that's
happened tonight."

   Charlie looked at the snack bar.  He could see a dim light through the
windows.  "You think he's in the snack bar?"

   "He's probably in the monitor room," Michelle said.  "Come on...  I'll
show you where it is."

   Michelle started up the path, and Charlie reluctantly followed.  He felt
as if someone was watching him as soon as they stepped out into the
courtyard, and he looked around for the camera.  He immediately noticed a
black half-sphere hanging under the edge of one of the buildings.  That was
almost certainly where the camera was hidden, and he could feel it watching
them like a dark eye.  He imagined Nick, sitting in his monitor room,
tracking Michelle's approach on a screen.  Leaning towards the screen,
studying the curves of her nude body as she came closer and closer.

   They stopped by the table to get their shoes.  Michelle carefully
stepped into her heels, growing about four inches as she did so.  Charlie
had to sit and pull on his socks first.  Michelle leaned her hip against
the edge of the table and watched him.  "Almost ready?" she asked as he
yanked on his sneakers.

   He stood.  "Ready.  Where to now?"

   "Follow me." Michelle led the way up the slope.

   They walked past the door to the snack bar and headed towards the locked
front gate of the garden, a tall dark wall of metal with wheels bolted to
the bottom.  A semi-circle indentation in the cement showed the path that
the wheels took when the gate was rolled open during business hours.  The
gate was closed and locked with a thick chain, yet Michelle seemed to be
heading right towards it.  Just as Charlie was about to ask her where she
was going, she turned sharply to the right and stood in front of a closed
brown door.  She knocked.

   After a few seconds, the door opened and Nick stood in the doorway.  He
held a coffee mug in his hand.  "Hey!" he greeted them.  "You're done
looking around?"

   Behind Nick, Charlie could see a black chair sitting in front of a messy
desk, and just in front of the desk, a wall of monitors.  Charlie counted
twelve, in three rows of four, each displaying the feed from a different
camera.  "Yeah," he said to Nick.  "Thanks for letting us look around this
place at night.  We're about to head out, just wanted to let you know."

   "The garden is so beautiful," Michelle said earnestly.

   "Hey, no problem." Nick grinned.  "Did you have any trouble?  You didn't
accidentally crush any plants, right?"

   "No," Charlie said.  "We stayed on the paths."

   "You didn't leave any signs you were there?"

   "No," Michelle said softly.  "We cleaned up after ourselves." Her eyes
met Charlie's and he could see a mischievous twinkle in them.

   "Great," Nick said.  "I don't love this job but I don't want to be fired
from it, either."

   "No one will even be able to tell we were here," Charlie assured him.

   "Great, great." Nick looked at his watch.  "You guys need to leave right
away?  I'm due for a break.  Want to hang out in the snack bar for a bit?
We can grab some drinks from the coolers, they don't care."

   Charlie and Michelle looked at each other, and Charlie shrugged to let
her know he was fine either way.  Michelle turned back to Nick and smiled.
"No rush," she said.  "We can hang out."

   "Let's go." Nick walked over to the desk and grabbed a set of keys. 
Charlie took the opportunity to scan the monitors, trying to make a quick
inventory of which sections of the gardens had cameras on them.  He noticed
that one of the monitors had a dark screen, as if it was broken or had been
turned off.  He only had that quick glimpse before Nick turned around and
blocked his view, but Charlie was pretty sure he knew which monitor had
been turned off.

   Nick closed the door to the monitor room and locked it.  He did so
without thinking; probably he had to lock the door every time he left that
room.  As they started towards the snack bar, Nick looked at Michelle. 
"So, have you been nude this whole time?"

   "Yes."

   "Wow." Nick grinned.  "I mean, Ronni told me that she was working on a
student film with a nude scene.  I pictured you wearing a robe or
something, and just taking it off for the nude scene.  I sure didn't expect
this.  Are you a nudist or something?

   "Not at all," Michelle answered in a cheerful voice.  "I just thought,
if I'm going to have to be nude for the film...  I should get used to it,
don't you think?  And what better way to get used to it, than just to jump
right in and do it?" She spoke so calmly that Charlie wondered if she had
been expecting someone to ask such a question and had an answer prepared.

   "That make sense, I guess," Nick said.  "So, this is your first time
experimenting with being a nudist?

   "Yeah..."

   "Are you used to it now?"

   "Not quite yet." She gave him a tiny smile.  "I probably just need some
more time."

   They reached the snack bar and Nick unlocked it.  He pulled the door
open.  "After you," he said, and held the door while Michelle and Charlie
entered.  "Go on back, grab what you want from the cooler.  Just none of
the alcohol, please." Nick sat down and picked up the remote for the TV. 
He turned it on and started flipping through the channels.

   "You want anything?" Charlie asked Michelle.

   "I need to see what they have," she said.  "I'll come back with you."

   "Nick?"

   "Just a coke," Nick said.

   Charlie walked with Michelle past the cash register and through the door
into the kitchen.  He opened the tall refrigerator and pulled out a bottle
of Sprite for himself, plus a Coke for Nick.  "Anything look good?" he
asked Michelle.

   "Brrr." She stood in front of the open cooler, letting the cold air
stream over her bare skin.  "That's cold!"

   "You don't have to stand right in front of it."

   "Here.  Feel." She took his hand and brought it to her hard nipple.

   "Definitely cold," he said, squeezing the tip of her nipple between his
fingers.  "Hey, did you notice that one of Nick's monitors was off?"

   Michelle reached into the cooler and pulled out a raspberry iced tea
Snapple.  "No, I didn't notice.  Why was it off?"

   "I think he turned it off.  It was the monitor showing that stone table.
I don't think he watched us after all."

   "No?"

   "No.  Maybe he turned it off when he saw what we were doing.  He didn't
want to watch us."

   Michelle considered this as she tried to open her Snapple.  "I'm
actually really happy, if that's true.  You saw how I was out there.  I was
getting really carried away." She held out the Snapple.  "Can you open this
for me?"

   Charlie released her nipple to take the bottle from her.  He gripped it
with his hand and tried to turn it, and thought for a moment that the cap
would defeat him as well.  Then it made an audible popping noise and he
twisted it loose.  He gave the drink back to her.  "It does give us a
little less to be embarrassed about," he said.

   "Maybe."

   They returned to the dining area of the snack bar and took seats at the
table with Nick.  Charlie took the seat at the opposite side of the table
from Nick, leaving the chair between them for Michelle.  Nick had found a
late-night talk show where the host was engaged in an awkward interview
with Aubrey Plaza, and they watched for a few minutes while they sipped
their drinks.

   "If one of the bosses walked in right now, I'd be fired for sure," Nick
said, eyeing Michelle's body.  "It'd be hard to explain this one." Michelle
didn't seem at all self-conscious when he looked at her, and that was
gradually making him bolder about looking.

   "Is that a possibility?" Charlie wanted to know.  "Has anyone ever
dropped in on you this late, unexpectedly?"

   "Oh, it's definitely a possibility," Nick said ominously, but then he
grinned.  "It hasn't happened yet, though.  They don't need to check on me
in person.  They have other ways to make sure I'm really working.  Like I
have to keep moving the mouse on the computer in the monitor room, or it
shows me as 'Idle' at the main security office.  And when I do a patrol
around the gardens, they have me test my card access on each of the gates.
It saves the time I put in my card, so they know when I did the patrol."

   "Are you serious?" Michelle said.  "What happens if you don't do a
patrol on time?"

   "If I'm really overdue, they'll call.  If I don't answer the phone,
they'd probably send someone.  You know, like maybe I need help or
something." Nick shrugged.  "This job kind of sucks.  It's not very
exciting.  I look forward to the patrols, because at least I get to walk
around the gardens."

   "I can imagine," Michelle said.  "I think I'd be so bored if I had this
job."

   Nick held up his Coke.  "Well, here's a toast to you, Michelle.  Tonight
definitely hasn't been boring."

   Michelle smiled and touched her Snapple to the side of his Coke.

   They continued to chat, the conversation turning to Pine Hills High
School.  It turned out that Nick was three years older, and had been a
senior during their ninth-grade year.  They had all shared the same high
school campus for that one year, but he didn't remember either of them.  He
did remember Michelle's older sister Mirella, who was a junior that year
and also a cheerleader.  "Yeah, when I picture her in my head, I can see
the resemblance," Nick said.  "She was really pretty, too.  What's she
doing these days?"

   "She works at Macy's," Michelle said.  "She still lives at home."

   "She has a boyfriend?"

   "Yeah."

   "Figures." Nick grinned.

   Nick changed the channel.  He seemed to know all the late night
programs, and Charlie wondered how many hours a night he spent watching TV
in the snack bar.  They settled on an old episode of "The Twilight Zone",
which Charlie had seen before, and for a while Charlie exchanged favorite
Twilight Zone episode plots with Nick.  Michelle had never seen the
Twilight Zone, and didn't have much to say, although she seemed to want to
laugh at a lot of what they were saying.

   "I just have to say something to you guys," Nick said all of a sudden,
"and I hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable, Michelle..." He glanced at
her, but she just waited patiently for him to continue.  "I just gotta say
this...  there's something so fucking hot about having a beautiful, naked
woman sitting right next to me, and, like, just casually talking about TV
and stuff.  We're just sitting around, watching TV, and you're there,
drinking your drink, kicking back like you're not even worried, and we're
talking about all this stuff, and every time I look at you, I'm like, damn,
she's naked!  I'm having a conversation with a naked woman and she's got
the best body I've ever seen and it's right there in front of me!  Sorry,
am I making you feel self-conscious?"

   "No," Michelle said.  "I mean, not any more self-conscious than I
already felt." She laughed.

   "You don't seem self-conscious at all," Nick said.  "What's your movie
about, anyway?"

   "It's about two people, Max and Ingrid, who are falling in love,"
Charlie said.  "But they're hiding their feelings from each other. 
Whenever they talk, another woman Gwen is with them, but she's actually a
representation of their hidden attraction."

   "I'm going to play Gwen," Michelle said.

   "What's it called?" Nick asked.

   "It's called: 'Anything You Want' ", Charlie said.  "At least, that's
what I'm calling it right now.  I might pick a different title later."

   " 'Anything You Want'?" Nick looked thoughtful.  "Can I read the
script?"

   "Sure," Charlie said.  "Ronni has a copy she can show you." He
hesitated. "You know what?  Actually, you can take mine." He had his copy
of the screenplay folded up in his back pocket.  He passed it to Nick. 
"Maybe you can read it if you get bored later tonight."

   "Cool," Nick said.  "Thanks."

   They only made it halfway through the Twilight Zone episode when Nick
abruptly stood.  "Sorry, I need to do my circuit of the gardens.  I'm
overdue, actually, and it's like I told you, I have to swipe my card or the
company starts to wonder what's going on."

   "That's cool, we should probably get going anyway," Charlie said.  "What
is it, almost two in the morning?"

   "Almost," Nick said.  He watched Michelle as she stood.  "You have
clothes to put on?" he asked her.

   "Yes," she said.  "In the car." She took three steps closer to Nick,
stopping just within his reach.  Her palms pressed flat against her upper
legs and she looked up at him intently.  "Nick...  I want to tell you
something before we go.  It's something you've probably already figured
out, but I just want to say it out loud.  I'm not this way because I'm
trying to get ready for that nude scene in Charlie's movie.  That's not the
real reason..." Her hands had started to move on her legs in her usual
nervous gesture.  "The real reason..." She struggled to find the right
words.

   The left side of Nick's mouth twitched up in a half grin.  "It's all
right.  You don't have to say it.  I think I get it." He paused.  "This
isn't the first time, is it?"

   "No," she admitted.  "We did this at the school.  On the weekend, when
no one was there."

   "You were with Charlie?"

   "Yeah.  We walked all around.  Even outside."

   "Nice," he said.  "Well, no one's ever here either, not at night.  Come
back any time.  Sunday thru Thursday.  I don't work the weekends.  Just
tell Ronni you're coming, she'll give me the message."

   "Thank you, Nick." Michelle moved closer to him.  "Well...  good night!"
She brought her hands up, reaching for him, and this time Nick knew what to
expect.  He opened his arms and let her slip in close to him.  Pressing her
body close to him, Michelle stretched up to kiss him softly on the mouth.
Nick let his hands rest on her hips as she kissed him.

   She broke the kiss, and Charlie heard her whisper, "Thank you for not
telling." Nick nodded and Michelle pulled away, stepping back to stand
beside Charlie.

   "Good night, Nick.  Appreciate you letting us in here," Charlie said,
offering his hand.

   Nick reached out and shook Charlie's hand distractedly.  "No problem,"
he said.  "Good night."

   Charlie held Michelle's hand as they walked out the way they came.  They
stepped out into the parking lot, still empty except for Charlie's car and
Nick's pick-up truck.  "I'll get your clothes out of the trunk," Charlie
said.

   "Oh, that's all right," Michelle said, walking straight to his car. 
"Hardly anyone's going to be up this late."

   Charlie slowed.  "You're going to keep going?  How long?  Until I drop
you off at your car?"

   "Why not?  I'm small, I'll mostly be hidden inside your car, and
anyways, it's dark.  No one's going to notice me." She stopped in front of
Charlie's car and gazed for a moment at all of the empty parking spaces,
and beyond them, the silent road that led past the garden.  Her eyes
dropped to look down at her body.  In a quiet voice, she said, "It's hard
for me to stop sometimes."

   "It is?"

   "I really like this feeling of not caring.  Maybe I get too used to it.
It's hard to have to get dressed again." She looked out at the empty
parking lot.  "I get this feeling like I want to wait until the very last
minute.  The very last second.  Like I'm about to walk into a crowded room
and I'll pull a dress over my head just as I'm opening the door." She
paused.  "No, more like I want to wait until I'm a second too late.  After
the door is already open.  I want that rush of being a second too late."

   "All right," Charlie said.  "Hop in.  You're right, no one will see you
in my car in the dark..."

   "You decide, Charlie," Michelle said.

   "What?"

   "I want to give the decision to you.  Should I get dressed now, or do
you want me to stay like this while you drive me to my car?  I want you to
tell me what to do." She stood and watched him, waiting for his answer.  He
could tell that she was serious.

   "I'll get your clothes," he said.  He walked to the trunk and popped it
open.  The stack of her clothes sat where he had left it.  He picked up the
stack and brought it to her.

   Michelle didn't argue and she didn't ask why.  She obediently took her
clothes and sat them down by her feet, then put them on one by one.  The
sky-blue pair of panties and the sky-blue bra.  The clingy white sweater.
The tight black skirt.  Everything but her stockings, which Charlie still
had, one in each of his front pockets.  After she was dressed, Charlie
walked over to his car and opened the passenger door for her.  Michelle
held out her hand for him to hold as she carefully lowered herself onto the
passenger seat.  She moved one foot into the car, then the other.  Once she
was safely inside, Charlie shut the door.

   He circled around the back of the car to the driver's seat, and as he
walked, he remembered the heart she had drawn him, after the Saturday he
called the Second Michelle.  He had left her in his car for no more than
five minutes, and when he returned, she was gone, leaving behind just a
simple heart drawn on a piece of paper.

   Now he imagined it would happen again.  Circling around the car, he
would open the driver's side door and she would be gone.  In her place,
another heart drawn on a piece of paper.

   He opened the door and she was still there, sitting in his car in her
white sweater and black skirt.  She was there, of course she was.  But it
still seemed like a miracle to see her.

   That was the Second Michelle, when she had left the heart in his car. 
What Michelle was he on now?  Sixth?  Seventh?  When had he stopped
counting?

   He closed his door and started the car.  "1:51," Michelle read the
digital clock on his dashboard.  "Did you think we would be out so late?"

   "Yeah, I thought it would be something like this."

   "Will your mom say anything when you get home?" Michelle asked.

   "I doubt my mom will even wake up," Charlie said.  "What about you? 
You're not in trouble, are you?"

   "No.  My parents think I'm at Vanessa's house."

   "They do?" Charlie frowned.  "So you're driving to Vanessa's house after
I drop you off at your car?"

   "No.  Vanessa doesn't know I'm doing this, either.  I'll just go home,
and if anyone asks, I'll tell them I didn't feel like sleeping at Vanessa's
after all.  I'll say I have a stomachache or something." She shrugged. 
"The benefit of never getting into trouble.  When I do need to lie, my mom
and dad usually believe me."

   "What if they called Vanessa asking for you?  And she doesn't even know
you're supposed to be at her house?"

   "She'd cover for me anyway.  I know she would.  But she'd be mad, and
she'd definitely want to know what the hell I was up to." Michelle sighed.
"I'll need to come up with a better excuse, if we're going to keep doing
these late nights at Greenholt Gardens."

   Charlie thought of his own mother.  He hadn't considered for a moment
telling her anything but the truth; he even brought Michelle inside to meet
her.  I'm a secret, Charlie thought.  From Michelle's friends, from her
family.  Charlie wondered if Michelle would ever introduce him to her
parents.  He decided he wasn't in any great hurry for that to happen.

   They reached Michelle's car, parked in the same dark spot where she'd
parked before.  Charlie pulled up to the curb behind her car and turned off
his headlights.  He turned off the engine and the abrupt cessation of noise
made the darkness seem very quiet.

   "I'm just going to throw an idea out there..." Charlie spoke in a low
voice, but he was clearly audible in the silent car.

   "Uh huh?"

   "Your parents think you're at Vanessa's house.  All night."

   "Uh huh."

   "Do you maybe want to spend the night at my house?" He watched her,
trying to gauge her reaction to the suggestion.  "I mean, you don't have to
sleep in my room.  Unless you want to.  But we also have an extra bedroom.
With a bed.  You could sleep there."

   "I don't think so, Charlie." She spoke softly.  "Not tonight.  Okay?"

   He shrugged, as if it didn't matter to him.  "Sure.  It was just a
thought."

   "I just met your mom a few hours ago.  I don't think I'm ready to be
sitting across the breakfast table from her."

   "I know."

   "It's a nice thought, though."

   The silence returned.  Charlie turned his head and studied Michelle's
profile for a moment against the glass window.  "Okay," he said.  "Well...
good night." He reached for her to kiss her goodbye, and she leaned into
him, returning his kiss without hesitation.  A final taste of the passion
they had shared that night.

   "Good night," she whispered breathlessly, untangling herself from his
arms.  "We're going to be so tired tomorrow."

   "Completely worth it," he said, and she laughed.

   He watched her as she walked to her car, and it occurred to him that if
he had decided the other way and told her to keep her clothes in the trunk,
she would be walking to her car naked right then.  In fact, she was ready
and willing to do exactly that before they left Greenholt Gardens.  She
would have sat in his passenger seat naked for the whole drive and then she
would have hopped out of his car and walked to her own without a thought.

   I'm not the secret, Charlie thought.  This is the secret.  Michelle
stripping in a parking lot.  Michelle walking naked through the gardens. 
Michelle sitting naked between two fully-dressed men, watching TV.

   He reminded himself to keep his perspective.  They were playing a risky
game, and he had to let Michelle handle her side of it her way.  Even if it
meant her parents thought she was with Vanessa all night instead of with
him.

   Michelle's lights turned on.  A moment later, her car pulled away and
drove down the street, becoming just a pair of red taillights dwindling in
the distance.

   "Now four people know our secret," Charlie murmured.  "Five, actually. I
forgot Daryl." How many people did it take to learn a secret before it
wasn't a secret any longer?  Charlie realized he would soon be adding two
more: the two actors who would play the parts of Max and Ingrid.  He would
need to recruit them carefully.  He would need to make sure they would be
discrete.

   Charlie started his car and pulled the steering wheel to the right to
make a sharp U-turn.  He turned left at the corner and slowly drove the
short distance to his house.  He thought about Michelle and the way she had
looked just moments before, walking to her car dressed in her clingy white
sweater and black skirt.  "At least she didn't leave any of her clothes
behind this time," Charlie mused as he pulled into the driveway.

   Then he remembered the stockings in his pockets.



   Saturday Night School Ch.  11

   Charlie spies on Michelle in a movie theater.

   Charlie Tucker slouched down in his seat at the back of the movie
theater, pulling his baseball cap down to obscure his face.  He couldn't
see them yet but he could hear them, talking loudly as they walked through
the hallway that led into the theater.  In particular, he could pick out
Michelle's laugh.  He knew that laugh well.

   The theater was mostly empty, since the movie they were coming to see
was on its fourth week of release.  Charlie was by himself in the last row.
In fact, he hadn't seen anyone come in and sit in any of the last five
rows. The theater was angled downwards and the seat backs were high enough
that he couldn't really be sure where the nearest person was.  His seat, in
a niche to the left of the aisle, allowed him to view anyone entering the
theater.  The entrance opened onto a walkway that crossed through the
middle of the theater, with patrons having the option to go up the stairs
to the upper levels of seating, or down to the lower levels.

   Cody appeared in the entrance first, with Ryan appearing a moment later.
Cody looked at the seats, quickly glancing upward without coming close to
looking towards Charlie's seat, then turning his head to look towards the
lower levels.  He was clearly more interested in the lower seating, closer
to the screen.  He pointed at a row and Ryan nodded in agreement.  They
walked down the stairs.

   The rest of them followed.  Vampire Vanessa.  Blonde Sandy and
brown-haired Tina.  And then Michelle.  Michelle was wearing her green
jacket and a pair of tight blue jeans.  She was saying something to Tina.
Charlie shrank down in his seat and his fingers scratched at his chin
through his thick beard.  He imagined Michelle, sensing his eyes on her,
abruptly turning and looking up in his direction.  Searching him out,
finding him in his hiding spot in the back of the theater.  Would she even
recognize him the way he looked now?  Or would she just see a ragged man in
disheveled clothing and an old baseball cap, face obscured by a scraggly
beard, someone unworthy of notice?

   The last person to enter was Glenn Mack.  Charlie watched as Michelle
turned, smiling, and said something to Glenn, something too far away to
overhear.  Glenn Mack.  How could it have been, Charlie mused, that he had
once thought Glenn Mack was a nice guy?  Now, looking down at him, Charlie
could think of no one that he hated more.

   He watched Michelle, walking with Glenn, bringing up the tail end of
their pack of friends.  All of them turned, one by one, to go down the same
row, with Michelle and Glenn the last two.  Charlie could see just their
heads over the tall seat backs as they walked towards the center of the
row. He picked out Michelle's black hair and watched her intently to see
where she sat.  The seating arrangement required some discussion,
apparently, and Charlie watched the heads moving back and forth, appearing
and disappearing, as seats were shifted.  He didn't care where the rest of
them sat.  He just wanted to see where Michelle ended up.

   She settled in the center of the group, and his spirits plunged as he
watched Glenn take the seat next to her.  He couldn't see either of them
after they sat, but still his eyes remained on those two seats.  He felt
desperate to know what Michelle and Glenn were doing.

   An hour and fifty-five minutes.  That was how long the movie was.  That
was how long he would have to sit there, in the darkness, looking down at
the spot where Michelle and Glenn sat together, wondering how things could
have gone so wrong.

   ****

   Maybe Charlie should have sensed something was amiss on the Sunday when
he and Michelle went out to celebrate his acceptance into Jefferson
University's Apex film program.  He wanted to take Michelle out to brunch
and intended to pay the check, but she insisted that it would be her treat.
After all, she said, they were celebrating his accomplishment, so why would
he be the one to pay?  He tried to argue but she wouldn't budge.

   Okay, Charlie finally relented.  She could pay, but he would drive.

   Deal, she said.

   He could have told her that she didn't need to do anything more for him
because she had already done so much the night before.  Walking naked
through the Macy's parking lot, just so he could gaze at her nude body in
the glow of the street lights.  Pulling him onto her as she lay naked on
the hood of her car, making love to him under the night sky.  She had given
herself to him, unconditionally and completely, where anyone could see, all
to fulfill his lurid fantasy; how could he ask for more from her?

   He could have said that, but he found himself reluctant to speak of what
they had done the night before.  It was starting to seem like a dream in
his mind, a memory too incredible to be real.  Perhaps he and Michelle had
put on masks that night, assumed roles; her the angel, himself the devil,
coming together, making love, then fleeing before anyone saw them.  She had
said it was too much, too risky, she had said she wouldn't do it but
Charlie had gone to that parking lot anyway and waited for her, knowing she
would be there eventually.  He knew she wouldn't be able to resist.  The
risk made it even more irresistible to her.

   Michelle was also reluctant to talk about what they had done.  She
didn't bring it up, either.

   He picked her up at a juice bar on the west side of Pine Hills.  She
said it was within walking distance of her house.  When he saw her, she was
wearing a tank top and a tight pair of black shorts, and when she sat in
his car he couldn't help but look down and admire her long legs.

   Michelle wanted to go to a place about five miles west of Pine Hills, a
place called Nora's Nook.  "You've never been to Nora's?" She grinned at
him.  "You'll like it.  They have the best pancakes!"

   She was right.  The pancakes were very good.

   Mostly, he just liked being with her.  He liked looking across the table
and seeing her face looking back at him.  He snuck peeks at her, watching
her as she did things.  Sipping her orange juice.  Taking a bite of
pancake. Spreading grape jam on her toast.  He wanted to remember the way
she did everything.

   He liked talking to her, the sound of her voice.  He felt like they had
reached a level of comfort between them where the conversation took very
little effort.  She seemed interested in what he was saying, and he loved
the moments when he could make her laugh.  He loved the sound of her laugh.

   He had such a good time with Michelle that it wasn't until later that
evening that he realized their brunch date had followed a similar pattern
as their previous dates.  He always met her somewhere other than her house,
they always went somewhere out of town, and afterwards, he always dropped
her off somewhere other than her house.  In this case, back to the juice
bar.  The juice bar that she said was close to her house.

   A very nice date.  But he wondered if it had been a secret date.  Did
her parents know she had been out with him?  Did anyone else know?  Did
Michelle take them to a restaurant out of town to make it less likely that
anyone they knew would see them?

   It wasn't hard to shrug off those concerns.  They had enjoyed a nice
afternoon with each other.  When he dropped her off at the juice bar, he
leaned over to kiss her goodbye, and she gladly returned his kiss.  What
did he have to complain about?  Life was good on a day when he got to kiss
Michelle.

   The next day at school, he saw Michelle once in the hallway, in the
distance, too far away to wave at her.  She didn't see him.  Charlie was
anxious to speak to her.  He felt like he'd failed the previous week when
he waited until Thursday to make plans with her for the weekend.  By the
time he asked, she was already booked for both Friday and Saturday night.
This week, he wanted to ask her out as soon as he could.

   Also, he needed to set up a second night of filming for their short film
"Anything You Want".  He was thinking that they could schedule it for
Wednesday at Greenholt Gardens, but he needed to confirm the day and time
with Michelle and the rest of the cast.  Wednesday for filming, and maybe
Michelle would be interested in going to the gardens another night, just
the two of them.  Maybe that could happen Tuesday night.

   When Charlie sent Michelle a text message asking if she had time to
meet, he already had a schedule planned out in his head.  He would see
Michelle four out of the next five nights.  Tuesday, he would meet her at
the gardens for a nude walk and sex.  Wednesday, at the gardens for
filming. Friday and Saturday, he would take her out, to dinner, or a movie,
or whatever she wanted to do.

   Michelle texted back: "Do you want to meet at lunch?"

   "Okay," he replied.  "Come to the editing bay?"

   "Okay.  To eat lunch there?"

   "Yes," he texted.  "I'll show you how the film's going."

   "Okay!" she sent back, followed by a smiling emoji.

   It wasn't until he stepped out of his last class before lunch that he
realized he didn't know if he was supposed to provide the lunch or not. 
Were they meeting in the editing bay?  Or buying lunch together, then
walking to the editing bay to eat it?  He decided he would stop by the
cafeteria, and if she wasn't there, he would buy her something.

   Ten minutes after the start of lunch, he walked into the editing bay,
carrying two slices of pizza and two drinks, only to find Michelle sitting
in a chair, halfway done with a salad.  "Oh..." She looked at what he was
carrying.  "I thought we were meeting here?"

   "Yeah..." He set down the food.  "I wasn't sure...  I bought you a slice
of pizza if you want it."

   "Oh, thanks.  I'm all right, actually.  I brought my lunch today."

   "Oh.  Okay."

   "Sit down." She pulled out his chair for him.  "You've already done some
editing on the movie?"

   "Yeah.  Do you want to see?"

   "Sure!"

   Charlie pulled out his flash drive and connected it to the computer.  He
opened the rough cut of the film and showed Michelle the pieces he had
edited together.  She leaned forward, gazing intently at the screen as the
video played.  In particular, she seemed fascinated by the clips of
herself.

   "Do I seem like a good actress?" she murmured.  "I mean, am I doing
okay?"

   "Sure, you're doing great!" he said.  "Don't you think so?"

   "Some of these clips of me, I just want to cringe.  I don't even know
what I'm doing."

   "Naw, don't say that!"

   "It's true!  I really don't know anything about acting.  But the parts
you've edited together...  it's so different when it's all put together,
isn't it?  It becomes something else.  Like, it doesn't even seem like me
anymore, when it goes between me and Kim and Darren and we're all talking
to each other."

   "You're doing a good job," he reassured her.  "Everyone is."

   "I hope so," she said.  "I can't believe you've done so much work on it
already!"

   Charlie spoke his next words without thinking, and in later days, he
would think back to these careless words and wonder how much they
contributed to what happened the next day.

   He said, "Ronni has been a big help with the editing."

   "Oh, really?" Michelle looked up.  "She's been helping?"

   "Yeah.  We did some work over the weekend."

   "You did.  You did a lot of work." Michelle looked at the screen.  "You
worked on this computer?"

   "Yeah.  Saturday."

   "She was here on Saturday?"

   "Yeah."

   Michelle nodded slowly.  "Well.  The film looks really good so far.  Was
Ronni excited that you got into the film program at Jefferson U?"

   Charlie hesitated.  In fact, he had spent Saturday afternoon in the
editing bay with Ronni, but hadn't thought to tell her that he was accepted
into the film program.  ""Yeah," he said to Michelle.  "Yeah, Ronni was
thrilled."

   "She probably knows all about it.  It's the kind of thing that she'd
apply to, isn't it?"

   "Maybe.  I don't know.  We didn't talk about it a whole lot." Charlie
cleared his throat.  "Hey, so anyways, I was wondering, how's your schedule
this week?"

   "My schedule?"

   "Can you make it to Greenholt Gardens on Wednesday?  We were hoping to
get a second night of filming."

   Michelle thought for a moment, then nodded.  "I think so.  I can do
Wednesday."

   "What about tomorrow?"

   "You want to film tomorrow, too?"

   "No," Charlie said.  "Not for filming.  Do you want to go to the
gardens, you and me?"

   "Oh," she said.  "You mean...  to walk?"

   "Yeah." He smiled to show her he meant more than walking.  "Just you and
me."

   "You and me, and Nick."

   Charlie shrugged.  "Well, yeah.  Nick will be working.  But he won't be
with us most of the time."

   "Right." Michelle looked down at her hands.  "I don't think I can,
Charlie.  Two nights in a row, late at the gardens?  I don't think my
parents will go for that."

   "No?"

   "We stay there pretty late.  I don't think I can do more than one night
during the week."

   "All right." Charlie tried his best to conceal his disappointment.  He
hadn't realized how sure he had been that she would say yes until she said
no.

   "Which night should I try for?  Tuesday or Wednesday?"

   "Wednesday, I guess," Charlie said reluctantly.  "We should try to make
some progress on the film."

   "Wednesday is better?"

   "Yeah.  If Darren and Kim can make it.  I still need to ask them."

   "Okay.  Just let me know.  If they can make it, I'll be there." A chime
sounded from Michelle's phone, and she glanced at it.  "Oh!  I should run.
I need to stop by Vanessa's locker before class starts." She smiled.  "The
movie looks really good so far, Charlie." She leaned over and kissed him on
the cheek.  Then she gathered her empty salad container and rushed off.

   It wasn't until she was already gone that Charlie realized he hadn't
asked her out for the weekend.  In the calendar in his mind, he had
imagined spending four out of the next five evenings with her.  Now, after
half an hour together, he had only gotten her to commit to one.

   ***

   He called Michelle after school, and the call went to voice mail. 
"Hey," he said.  "It's Charlie.  I forgot to ask you at lunch...  are you
doing anything this weekend?  Want to go out and do something?  Like a
movie or something?  Um...  yeah.  Call me when you can.  Bye."

   After he disconnected, Charlie realized that he had no idea what movies
were playing.  He quickly booted up his computer and found the website of
the Pine Hills 10-Plex.  He read down the list of movies.

   The phone chirped and he grabbed it swiftly, expecting Michelle.  But it
was Ronni's name on the caller ID.  "Hey," he answered.

   "Hey, Charlie," Ronni said.  "Nick is fine with us filming on Wednesday.
I talked to Kim, too, and she's free.  Did you ask Michelle?"

   "Yeah.  Michelle says she can make it.  I haven't asked Darren."

   "Will you call him?"

   "Sure."

   "Do you have a list of shots you want to get?"

   He did.  Ronni had her copy of the script with her and they talked
through the next few scenes.  Charlie explained how he saw it in his head,
and Ronni made suggestions.  They discussed how they could organize things
on Wednesday to get the maximum amount of work in during their short time
at the gardens.  When Ronni finally hung up, almost forty minutes had
passed.

   Charlie started to set his phone down on his dresser when he saw a
notification of a missed call.  It was Michelle's number.  A missed call,
but no voice mail.

   He called her again, and again his call went to voice mail.  "Hey,
Michelle," he said.  "This is Charlie again.  Sorry I missed your call.  I
was on the phone with Ronni, talking about the movie.  My phone didn't even
ring or anything.  I'm not sure why it didn't.  Anyways...  just wanted to
check with you again about this weekend.  If you wanted do to something. 
Talk to you soon."

   He kept the phone next to him for the rest of the evening, glancing at
it frequently.  Michelle didn't call back.

   ***

   Charlie didn't need to look for Michelle the next day.  He was logging
some equipment back into the AV closet in the morning when he suddenly
realized she was standing behind him in the doorway.  She was dressed
casually, in a short-sleeve blue top and black jeans.  Charlie set down the
speaker he was holding and leaned against the shelf.  "Hey, Michelle.  Good
morning."

   "Hi, Charlie." Michelle hesitated, then took a step into the closet.

   "I guess we played phone tag last night.  Did you get my message?  The
second one?"

   "The second one?"

   "Yeah.  I left you a message.  You called me, I missed it, so I called
you back and I left a message.  My phone didn't ring when you called,
that's why I didn't pick up."

   "Oh.  Yeah, I got that message." She held her hands clasped in front of
her.  "That's why I wanted to talk to you."

   "I sort of had an idea for Saturday night," Charlie said.  "If you're
free, that is.  Do you like Thai food?"

   "Charlie," Michelle said.  "I want you to do something for me."

   "What?"

   "I want you to ask Ronni out.  I want you to ask her on a date."

   Charlie stared at her.  He thought he must have misheard.  "What?"

   "You should see if she's busy on Saturday.  If she's free, I want you to
take her out.  Not just as friends.  A date." Michelle gazed at him
earnestly.  She seemed to be serious.  But Charlie couldn't make sense of
the request.

   "But I'm asking you out for Saturday," he said slowly.  "I want to go
out with you.  Like we had brunch together two days ago."

   "I know," Michelle said.  "But I want you to have a date with Ronni
instead."

   "I do have a date with Ronni.  I'm taking her to the prom.  Remember?"

   "I want you to take her out before then.  This weekend."

   Charlie studied Michelle's face, looking for something that might give
him a hint where all of this was coming from.  "Why?" he asked finally.

   "I was up late last night, thinking," she said.  "About you and me, and
you and Ronni, and everything that's happened, with the movie and
everything.  I think you and Ronni seem like a good match.  I really do,
Charlie.  I see the way you two work together, when we're filming at the
garden.  You get along really well.  And you have a lot in common." She
looked up.  "Maybe you should give it a chance."

   "Michelle," Charlie said.  "Ronni and I are just friends.  Right?"

   "I know," she said.  "I know you're just friends.  But maybe that's just
because of me.  Because I'm standing in the way."

   "No, you're not.  What are you saying?  You're not standing in the way
of anything."

   "It's in your movie, Charlie." Michelle glanced outside the closet,
making sure that they were still alone.  "I spent a lot of time thinking
last night, and it finally hit me what your movie is about.  You have a man
and a woman who are acting like friends but actually they're falling in
love with each other.  And the third person in the scene is a woman who
takes her clothes off as the movie goes on.  That's me, you wrote that role
for me.  I'm the third person."

   "Wait, wait.  You think that I'm Max and Ronni is Ingrid?  You think
that's what the movie is about?"

   "I don't know.  Don't you think it's something to think about?"

   "No.  That's not what the movie's about at all.  You're reading into it.
You're seeing something that's not there."

   "But, Charlie.  Last night, I was thinking about the last time we were
filming at the gardens.  After Kim and Darren left.  Wasn't I acting
exactly like your Gwen character?  I basically became her.  As soon as it
was only you, me and Ronni left, I threw off all my clothes and fluttered
around while you and Ronni put everything away.  You two did the work and I
was just silly, naked Gwen.  Naked and invisible."

   "It wasn't just us three, Nick was there, too."

   "Right." She looked down at her hands.  "Nick was also there.  I was
naked in front of him, too."

   "I thought you did that because you felt comfortable with us.  All of us
have seen you naked before, we know that's how you like to be sometimes,
and I thought..."

   "No...  that's not why I did it.  I didn't feel comfortable.  I did it
because I thought I could get away with it...  I knew none of you would say
anything...  and it was exciting, because I thought about doing it and then
I just did it, just like that.  And then...  I don't know.  I drove off by
myself.  I left all three of you behind and drove off.  It's something I
need to think about.  Why I acted that way."

   "Michelle," Charlie said.  "If you want to know what I was thinking when
I wrote that movie, I can tell you exactly what I was thinking.  I didn't
write it about Max and Ingrid - I started with Gwen.  I wanted to write a
character you could play who had nude scenes..."

   "And what about the other movie?" Michelle asked.  "My movie?"

   "Huh?"

   "When you did your interview at Jefferson University," Michelle said,
"you showed them a movie that they really liked.  You said it was a movie
you were making for me, a gift for me, but you said I couldn't see it,
because it wasn't done yet.  Are you ever going to give it to me?  Or is it
still not done?"

   "Oh...  that." Charlie hadn't thought about his Michelle tribute video
in a while.  "Uh...  it's still not done."

   "Uh huh." Michelle nodded, as if she wasn't surprised.  "Maybe it'll
never be done.  You're focused on your new project now, right?"

   "No, it's not that.  I'm just trying to tell you..." He started, but
just then, the bell rang.  The five-minute bell, warning them to go to
their first class.

   "We'll talk later," Michelle said.  "I just want you to think about what
I've said, okay?  I'm not asking you to do anything right away.  With
Ronni, I mean.  Just think about it." She took a step towards the door.  "I
need to get to class."

   "Wait," Charlie said.  "What about you?"

   "Me?"

   "If I take Ronni out on Saturday, what will you do?  Sit at home alone
all night?"

   "Oh!" Michelle smiled.  "No, I won't be sitting at home alone.  I'm
doing something with Vanessa.  She invited me to see a movie."

   "Really?  What movie?"

   "'Night Crew'?" She looked embarrassed.  "I've heard it's bad, but I
guess it's bad enough to be kind of funny?"

   Charlie frowned.  "Just you and Vanessa?"

   "Well...  no.  Some other people, too." She hesitated.  "The usual gang.
Cody, Sandy, Ryan, Glenn..."

   "Glenn?" Charlie repeated.  "Glenn is going with you?"

   "Uh-huh."

   "So you're going out with Glenn on Saturday.  That's what you're really
saying."

   "No, I'm not!  I mean, he'll probably be there, but a whole group is
going, it's not like I'm going WITH him..."

   "You just named three couples," Charlie said.  He ticked them off on his
fingers.  "Vanessa and Cody, Sandy and Ryan...  that leaves you with
Glenn." He shook his head incredulously.  "So that's why you want me to go
out with Ronni on Saturday?  Because you already have a date with someone
else?"

   "Charlie, no.  It's not like that..."

   "You want me to go on a date with Ronni so you don't have to feel guilty
about being out with Glenn," Charlie said in a flat tone.  "That's the real
reason you want me to do it."

   Michelle opened and closed her mouth, struggling to find the right
words. The second bell rang; now they were both late for class.  She said,
"He's one of my friends.  The same group of friends that I sit with all the
time during lunch.  That group of friends is going to the movies."

   "He's your friend.  I just said the same thing about Ronni, and you said
I only think of Ronni as a friend because you're standing in the way.  So
the same must be true of Glenn.  Maybe you and Glenn would be together if I
wasn't standing in the way.  Right?"

   Michelle shook her head.  Her shoulders slumped, and she looked like she
was on the verge of crumpling in on herself like a paper cup.  "I don't
know," she whispered.  She spoke so quietly that it took a moment for
Charlie to understand.  Three little words, but to Charlie, they felt like
a punch in the gut.

   "You know what?" he said bitterly.  "Go out with Glenn.  It makes a lot
of sense, you and him.  I mean, your moms are friends, right?" He didn't
wait for her response.  He walked past her, out the door, heading for his
first class.  He didn't look back.

   ***

   The problem was, it did make sense.  That was the worst part of it.  He
had never met Michelle's parents, but he knew they wouldn't like him, if
they knew anything about his relationship with Michelle.  He was a bad
influence on her.  Bonnie and Clyde.  He was the Clyde to her Bonnie.  The
guy that convinced her to do bad, illegal things.

   Hello, Mr.  and Mrs.  Santos.  I'm Charlie.  Glenn takes your daughter
to the movies.  I have sex with her on the hood of her car.  He has lunch
with her in the cafeteria.  I fuck her in the parking lot of the Macy's.  I
take her out to restaurants where she gives me blow jobs under the table.

   Hello, Mr.  and Mrs.  Santos.  I'm Charlie Tucker, and I just realized
I'm the bad guy in this movie.

   "Are you okay, Charlie?" Ronni asked.  She was sitting across from him
at lunch.  "You're completely distracted."

   Charlie realized he was staring into space.  Specifically, staring to
the side, at a blank wall.  He looked at Ronni.  She looked back, and he
couldn't decide if she appeared concerned, or just puzzled.

   "Are you busy Saturday?" The words came out before he could think about
them.

   "Not too busy," she said.  "Do you think you'll come in and do some
editing?"

   "No, I mean Saturday night.  Do you want to do something Saturday
night?"

   "Saturday night?" She looked at him thoughtfully.  "You're not going out
with Michelle that night?"

   "No." Charlie looked down at his food.  In a quiet voice, he said, "I
think we broke up."

   "What?" Ronni blinked.  "Did you just say you and Michelle broke up?"

   "Yeah.  I think so."

   "Why?  What happened?"

   "I asked her if she wanted to do something on Saturday." Charlie knew
even as he spoke that he would leave out certain details of his
conversation with Michelle.  For instance, Michelle's suggestion that he go
out with Ronni.  "I asked her a few times, but she kept evading the
question.  Finally, she admitted that she already had plans that night. 
She's going to the movies with Glenn Mack."

   "No way," Ronni said.  "What movie?  Did she say?"

   "'Night Crew'."

   "What?  That's supposed to a terrible movie.  And it's been out for a
month."

   "Glenn wants to see it, I guess." Charlie leaned his elbow on the table,
tapping his fingers against the side of his head.  He felt like he was
looking through the world through a grey shroud.  Everything seemed darker
than usual, dark and colorless.  The gloom in his thoughts infected his
physical body, and he felt tired, as if his arms and legs weighed more than
usual.

   "So what did you say?"

   "I got a little mad," Charlie said, visualizing the scene earlier with
Michelle.  "I told her she should go ahead and be with Glenn, that he was a
better match for her."

   "Yikes.  What did she say?"

   "I don't know.  Nothing.  I had to go to class.  I didn't wait around."

   Ronni sat back in her chair, considering the news.  "When did this
happen?"

   "This morning."

   "And you haven't talked to her since then?"

   "No."

   "You know...  she's supposed to meet us at Greenholt Gardens tomorrow.
We're filming, right?"

   "Yeah, I know." His fantasy schedule was a joke now.  He had thought he
would see Michelle four evenings that week.  Now only one day remained, the
day of the filming.

   "Should we cancel?  Is Michelle going to show up?"

   "That was the other part of our fight," Charlie said.  "The film. 
Michelle thinks there's a subtext to the Gwen character.  Like the way I
wrote Gwen says something about what I think of her."

   "What does she think it says?"

   "She said Gwen was 'naked and invisible.' She used those exact words."

   "Naked and invisible?  That doesn't make any sense." Ronni shook her
head.  "Those words don't go together.  They're more like the opposite of
each other."

   "I know.  In the original script, Gwen is naked in the final scene, and
no one seems to notice.  The other characters just accept it.  So maybe you
could define Gwen as 'naked and invisible' in the last scene.  But I don't
know how Michelle can decide that's some kind of subtext for what I think
of her."

   "You did write the character for her."

   "Yeah," he said.  "I wrote the whole film for her.  I wanted to give her
a role to play.  I wasn't trying to make any kind of statement about her."

   "Does Michelle think you treat her like she's invisible?"

   Charlie held up his hands.  "No.  I don't know.  I don't know why she
would think that.  If anything, I'm the one that's invisible."

   "What?  What does that mean?"

   Charlie leaned against the table.  "Nothing.  I don't know."

   They sat in silence for a moment.  Ronni asked, "So she doesn't want to
do the film anymore?  Should we cancel tomorrow?"

   "No," Charlie said in a low voice.  "Let's not cancel it yet.  I think
she might still be there."

   "We already have some good stuff edited," Ronni said.  "It'd be a shame
if we didn't at least try to finish it."

   "Yeah.  I think so, too."

   Ronni stirred her drink with her straw.  The ice rattled against the
plastic cup.  "So Glenn asked Michelle to see a movie, and she said yes?"

   "I don't know how it all got planned.  It's a bunch of couples going. 
Michelle and her friends."

   "Oh, so it's not Glenn and Michelle alone?  It's a group of people?"

   "Yeah.  Couples.  Vanessa and Cody, Glenn and Michelle, some others.  I
don't know the whole list."

   Ronni stirred her ice again.  "And you're sure Michelle is there with
Glenn?  She's not there to be with her other friends?  Like Vanessa and the
other cheerleaders?"

   Charlie made himself think back to that morning, trying to remember
exactly what Michelle had said.  "I don't know," he finally admitted.  "I'm
not sure.  It sounded like she was going as Glenn's date, but I don't
remember that she said it.  It was more like she implied it."

   "Maybe you should ask her?" Ronni suggested.  "Would she answer honestly
if it was a date?"

   "The thing is..." Charlie said, "I don't think Michelle knows."

   Ronni frowned.  "She doesn't know if it's a date?"

   "I don't think she knows whether or not she wants it to be a date."
Charlie felt the gloom settling over him again, pulling him down with its
weight.  Because as he said the words, he felt the truth in them.  Michelle
didn't know who she wanted to be with.

   "Well," Ronni said, "she needs to know, because you need to know." And
that was the truth, too.

   A horrible thought occurred to him.  He hadn't paid a lot of attention
to Michelle's social life; he knew she spent a lot of time with her
cheerleader friends, and that meant she spent some time with the guys who
were friends with her cheerleader friends.  He had assumed that if anything
was happening between her and another boy, he would hear about it.  Gossip
spread quickly at Pine Hills High.

   But now he wondered if she had been on previous dates with Glenn, casual
dates similar to her upcoming movie date.  A lot of Michelle's weekend time
in the last couple months couldn't be unaccounted for.  Had she been dating
Glenn openly while secretly spending time with Charlie?  It would explain
Cody's strong reaction to seeing Charlie and Michelle kissing at the train
station.

   How could he trust Michelle?  How could he know how she really felt
about Glenn?

   Suddenly, Charlie had a thought.  He sat up straight, and Ronni must
have seen the change in him, because she became alert.  "Hey.  Your friend
Jennifer Addish.  She did the make-up last year for that pirate musical,
didn't she?"

   "Not by herself.  But yeah, she did a lot of it."

   "She's very talented.  Didn't she help James Castro with that werewolf
costume last Halloween?"

   "Yes, she did." Ronni frowned.  "I hope you're not thinking what I think
you're thinking."

   But that was exactly what he was thinking.

   ***

   Vanessa was the head cheerleader, and everyone called her Vampire
Vanessa because she had pronounced upper canines that resembled fangs.  She
also had very light skin which contrasted with her very dark hair and also
contributed to her vampire-like appearance.  Vanessa didn't discourage the
nickname; she had dressed as a vampire for Halloween all four years of high
school.

   When Charlie saw her in the cafeteria, she was wearing a long green
dress, and Charlie paused a moment to admire her.  He still thought
Michelle's beauty was at a level by itself, but Vanessa was undeniably
attractive.  She looked Charlie's way and said, "There you are."

   "I'm glad you're here.  I didn't know if you would come." He glanced
down at her outfit.  "That dress looks good on you."

   "Thanks." She sounded nervous.  "Of course I'm here.  I didn't have a
choice."

   "You always have a choice," Charlie said.  "Follow me.  I'll introduce
you to my friends." He walked through the lunch tables, and Vanessa trailed
along behind him.  Lunch had just started, and the tables were still only
half full.

   Charlie could see Greg Arden sitting at a table with Michael and Dinesh
from the AV team.  Michael and Dinesh sat together on one side of the
table, and Greg sat on the other side.  The other seats were empty, more
than enough space for Vanessa and Charlie to join them.

   The three boys looked up at them as they approached.  "Hey," Charlie
greeted them.  "Greg, Michael, Dinesh." He pointed to each of them in turn.
"You know Vanessa, right?"

   "Right," Greg answered.  He nodded towards Vanessa.

   "Hi," Vanessa waved at them.

   "Hi." The three boys all spoke at the same time.

   Charlie looked at Vanessa.  "You're sorry?"

   She nodded.  "I am.  I'm really sorry."

   "Isn't it enough that you said it?  You said it and you mean it?"

   "No." She looked down shamefully as she shook her head.  "It's not
enough.  I want you to know how sorry I am."

   "All right," Charlie said.  "Then take off all of your clothes."

   Vanessa nodded.  She crossed her arms in front of her and pinched the
sides of the dress.  Slowly, she began to tug the dress up, shimmying out
from under it.  Her long legs were revealed, her skimpy black panties.  The
type of panties a vampire would wear.

   "What's going on, Charlie?" Greg asked.  He was staring at Vanessa as
she disrobed.  All of them stared at Vanessa.

   "This is something that Vanessa owes me," Charlie told the table of
boys. "She made a mistake and it cost me someone I cared about.  Now she
wants to be punished for it."

   "Is she really going to take off everything?" Greg asked as he gaped at
Vanessa, and Charlie didn't even need to answer because Vanessa was already
pushing her panties down her legs.  She kicked off the flimsy garment and
pushed it into the pile with her discarded dress and bra.  Now that she was
completely naked, she looked at Charlie, waiting for his next instructions.

   "Vanessa is going to eat lunch with us, and she's going to remain like
this until lunch period is over." He looked at Vanessa, eyeing her body. 
Her nipples were so pink that they barely stood out against her skin.  He
wasn't able to judge if her pubic hair was as dark as the hair on her head,
because she had it completely shaved smooth.  Charlie pointed to the seat
by Greg.  "Vanessa, you can sit there."

   Vanessa didn't hesitate; she walked around the table and took the seat
next to Greg.  She looked up at Charlie, waiting obediently for his
command.

   "I'm going to get some food for us to share, Vanessa," Charlie said. 
"You guys enjoy Vanessa's company."

   Greg stared openly at Vanessa's body.  "Can we touch her?"

   "Yes," Charlie said.  "That's part of her punishment.  But you aren't
allowed to fuck her."

   Greg nodded.  He was already reaching between her legs.  Vanessa didn't
say a word, only opened her legs wider.

   Charlie turned away from the sight.  He would buy Vanessa something to
eat, but first he had to use the bathroom.  He hurried in that direction.
The pressure was building in his groin, and he was embarrassed to realize
that he had a clear erection bulging against his pants.  What could he do?
How could he not be erect, with beautiful naked Vanessa waiting for him
back at his table?  It would make it difficult to pee, though.  Plus, it
was embarrassing, walking through the cafeteria with an obvious erection.

   The door to the bathroom wasn't where he remembered it.  He turned in
place, searching the cafeteria for the door, and saw that Greg now had
Vanessa bent over the table and he was fucking her vigorously from behind.
He wasn't supposed to be doing that, Charlie had clearly told him it wasn't
allowed, yet there they were.  Charlie tried to step in that direction, but
his legs were unresponsive.  He really needed to go to the bathroom.

   The urge was getting desperate.  He would need to pee somewhere.  Maybe
even in the corner.  But he was enormously erect, in fact, his cock was now
out of his pants, and his pace was sluggish.  Also, he couldn't look away
from the vision of Vanessa, on the table, her legs spread, and a boy
between those legs, a boy he didn't recognize, fucking her, fucking her
hard enough to make her breasts bounce.  She was biting her lip to keep
from crying out, hard enough to bring a trickle of blood from her mouth,
and her teeth were fangs, long fangs.  That's why they called her a
vampire. Because of those fangs.

   He couldn't stop himself.  He was hard as a rock and he had to pee, and
it was building up beyond his ability to restrain it.  Suddenly, it burst
free...

   Charlie woke with a shock.  He was cumming in his pajamas.  He shoved
his blanket off the bed and stared at the wet spot in the front of his
pajama pants.  His erection still jabbed against the fabric, and he watched
it pulse, unleashing another shot of cum into his boxers.

   He stared at the mess in revulsion.  His sheets would need to be washed.
The blanket, too.  Discretely washed, along with what he was wearing.  How
could he be having a wet dream?  He hadn't had one in years, not since he
had figured out how to masturbate in junior high.

   The content of the dream repulsed him as well.  How could he be dreaming
of Vanessa Watson in that way?  It was like he had been cheating on
Michelle with her best friend, even if it was just a dream.  If he could
dream it, what did that say about what was going on in his subconscious? 
Did he lust for Vanessa at some level?

   The way he had treated her...  offering her to his friends like she was
a toy for them to play with...  like he was a pimp and she was one of his
prostitutes...  and then that whole thing about punishing her...  that was
weird, too.  He had been so cold and dominating in the dream, and it
bothered him that the dream had gotten him so hard, that his sleeping mind
had used that lurid fantasy to trick him into cumming.

   It was almost six in the morning; the sun wasn't even up.  Charlie
pulled off his pajamas and wrapped them in the sheet and blanket.  Later in
the day, he would throw them in the laundry, but for now, they needed to
live at the bottom of his hamper.  He usually did his own laundry, so he
didn't need to worry that his mom would discover them there.

   His bathrobe was hanging in the bathroom across the hall.  He peeked out
to make sure the hall was empty, then darted across.  He closed the
bathroom door and started the shower.

   As he cleaned himself off in the hot water, he brooded over his dream.
He had left Vanessa at that lunch table with the boys, warning them that
they weren't allowed to fuck her.  As if he alone was in charge of whether
or not she had sex with them, like she had no will of her own.  Then, he
had looked back at the table to discover Greg having sex with her anyway,
and the sight of it hadn't angered or dismayed him.  It had turned him on.

   "It was a dream," he murmured to himself.  "Just a weird dream." Not the
real Vanessa.  But he still felt guilty that he had treated her that way.

   Why was it Vanessa?  Why not Michelle?  Maybe his subconscious had
balked at casting Michelle in the role.  It was too graphic a scene for
her. Maybe he couldn't imagine Michelle having sex with someone else, a
stranger, so his mind had selected Vanessa instead.  Vanessa was
attractive. But it wasn't like he was attracted to her in the same way he
was attracted to Michelle.

   Was he?

   And if he really thought about the things he'd seen Michelle do... 
honestly, was the idea of her having sex with a stranger that far off?

   She had kissed Daryl.  She had kissed him while she was naked.  Daryl,
the school security guard.  Daryl had fondled her while she kissed him.

   Michelle had kissed Nick, Ronni's brother, and she was naked then, too.
She had kissed Nick after they had just met.  And several times after that.
She had been naked every time.  Nick knew Michelle was an exhibitionist,
and Michelle knew that Nick knew.  Charlie could list a number of times
when Michelle had clearly been displaying herself for Nick's gaze.

   What if Michelle had sex with someone else, and Charlie was there
watching?  Would he stop her?  Or would it turn him on?

   He was horrified by the idea that it might turn him on.

   Michelle had questioned the nature of their relationship, and now
Charlie found himself questioning it as well.  From the first moment that
he saw Michelle standing naked in the school hallway, sex had been a major
part of what connected them.  She was an exhibitionist, frequently
displaying her body for him, frequently being openly sexual in his
presence. He often fell into the habit of thinking that the public displays
were Michelle's fetish and he was just a happy beneficiary.  But deep down,
he knew that wasn't the truth.  He got off on her streaking just as much as
she did.

   Maybe that's what the dream was telling him?  Maybe it was showing him
that he would be just as turned on by any attractive woman displaying
herself in public.  It didn't have to be Michelle.

   He realized what an obvious statement this was and chuckled.  It wasn't
really a revelation so say that he liked looking at naked women.  So did
most heterosexual teenage boys.  Big deal.

   When he thought about it, he wasn't spending all of his time with
Michelle begging her to get undressed.  Frequently, he was the one telling
her to put her clothes back on.  It wasn't just about seeing her naked.  It
was about sharing the adventure with her.  Feeling her thrill when she took
her clothes off and being there to hide her and protect her when she came
close to being discovered.  He was her guide, her bodyguard, her public
lover.

   Michelle wanted him to think about the nature of their relationship, but
it really didn't take much soul-searching for him to understand what
Michelle was to him.  He loved her.  He was in love with her.  Sex was a
big part of their relationship, and sex between them usually included
Michelle indulging her fetish for exhibitionism and public exposure.  But
if Michelle decided she needed to take a break and just wanted to be
celibate for a time, Charlie would still want to spend time with her.  He
would still love every minute he spent with her.

   The question was, would she still want to spend time with him?

   ***

   Charlie tried to get back to sleep after his shower, but he tossed and
turned and finally gave up.  He went down to the kitchen and moped at the
kitchen table for half an hour, eating his bowl of cereal with the
automatic movements of a robot running on low batteries.  Shortly after
7:00 AM, he decided to drive to school.  He would get there early, but
could kill time in the A/V rooms.  Maybe Michelle would meet him there
again, to continue their talk.

   He pulled into the front lot of Pine Hills High about half an hour
before the first bell would ring.  The front lot had a few empty parking
spaces, but he passed them and continued around the school to the back lot,
hoping to find a parking space close to the green door that he usually used
on the weekends.  He noticed a woman walking in the distance, heading
towards the doors that entered the school by the cafeteria, and his pulse
quickened.  What a coincidence, to see Vampire Vanessa so soon after he had
dreamed of her.  He couldn't help superimposing the obscene images from his
dream onto her as she walked.  She was wearing tight black jeans and a
clingy sleeveless black top, and it wasn't difficult to look at the
contours of her body and compare them to the naked version of her from his
dream.

   She was walking towards a group of boys who loitered just outside the
cafeteria doors.  Charlie could see her smiling and greeting them.  He
recognized one of the boys as Cody.  Sure, that made sense.  She was dating
Cody.

   Charlie looked away from her.  He shouldn't be staring at Vanessa.  It
didn't matter that he had dreamed about her.  It was just a dream, and in
reality, Vanessa may have been Michelle's best friend but Charlie didn't
know her hardly at all.  He had only talked to her a few times.

   He pulled into a parking space as close as he could get to the green
door.  That put him closer to Cody than he preferred, but he told himself
it didn't matter.  Cody hadn't said a word to him since the day his tires
got slashed.  Maybe the tall football player had stopped caring about
Charlie.  As far as he knew, Charlie and Michelle had stopped spending time
together.

   As Charlie stepped out of his car, he couldn't help himself.  He looked
over at Vanessa.  She was bending over her bag, her jeans stretched over a
very firm ass.  The memory of his dream returned, and Charlie let his eyes
linger on her for just a little too long.  Then his eyes shifted to the
right, and he noticed Cody staring right at him.

   Charlie quickly turned back to his car.  He really didn't need Cody
telling Vanessa that he had been checking her out.  His backpack was in the
backseat of the car so he unlocked the back door.

   Cody raised his voice, clearly intending it to carry over the distance
to Charlie.  "Hey, look at that," he drawled.  "Charlie Tucker has new
tires." The other boys snickered.

   Charlie turned to glare at them.  Cody was gazing at him, coldly
defiant, with Vanessa standing next to him.  She looked embarrassed. 
"You're the one who bought them," Charlie retorted.

   Cody looked indignant.  "What are you talking about?  I didn't buy shit.
Why would I?" His glare challenged Charlie to make an accusation.

   Charlie turned away from the boys and hoisted his bag out of the back
seat, throwing it over his shoulder.  He could still hear them muttering to
each other and snickering behind him.  Charlie shut the car door and walked
towards the school, moving swiftly to hide his confusion.  Why would Cody
deny that he had paid for the tires?  Was he trying to save face in front
of his friends?  Or putting up a front because he didn't want to admit to
having slashed the tires in the first place?

   Or was Cody telling the truth and he really didn't pay for the tires?

   In an instant, Charlie understood what must have happened, and it made
him sick to his stomach.  The money hadn't come from Cody.  It had come
from Michelle.  She was the one who told him Cody was going to pay for the
tires, and she was the one that gave him the money.  Two hundred and fifty
dollars.

   Two hundred and fifty dollars of her own money.  She had paid for the
tires out of her own pocket.  Why had she lied about it?

   To appease Charlie so he wouldn't do anything about Cody.  That was the
explanation that made the most sense.  She paid him the money to placate
him.  And then he would accept what she had asked for next: to pretend like
she and Charlie had nothing going on between them.  That they were just
friends.

   She had paid him $250 to be her secret.  So that he wouldn't make waves
at school and disrupt her relationship with her friends there.  Her
relationship with Glenn.

   It seemed so obvious to Charlie that he wondered how he could have
missed it before.  Cody wouldn't slash his tires and then immediately turn
around and pay for the damage.  Michelle had explained it by saying that
Vanessa had put pressure on Cody, and Charlie had bought that explanation
without even thinking about how unlikely it was.

   He entered the school and went straight to the editing bay. 
Immediately, he pulled out his phone and looked up Michelle's number.  For
several seconds, his finger hovered over the call button, but he couldn't
bring himself to press it.

   He didn't want to call her right then.  It wasn't a good idea.  He was
too upset and he didn't know what he would say.  The bell would ring for
them to go to their classes, and he didn't want to have another
conversation cut short at the wrong moment.  No, he would talk to her
later. He needed to think about this new information, turn it around in his
head for a while.

   How many times had she been out with Glenn without telling him?  Charlie
wondered if Michelle would tell him if he asked her.  The previous Friday,
she said she needed to eat dinner with her family.  The previous Saturday,
she said she had plans with Vanessa.  Now, Charlie wondered if she had been
with Glenn both of those nights.

   He knew Michelle was capable of lying to people.  She lied to her
parents all the time.  Why would he imagine he was the exception?  She had
lied about the $250.  Maybe she was lying about everything.

   On Saturday, he would see for himself.  With the help of Jennifer
Addish, he would sit in the same movie theater where Michelle intended to
watch "Night Crew" with Glenn and the rest of her friends.  Charlie would
wear a disguise so that they wouldn't recognize him.  Once the movie
started, he would find a position where he could observe Michelle and
Glenn.

   He needed to know what they had going on between them.

   ***

   During lunch, he sat with Ronni and Jennifer.  Jennifer was a thin girl,
pale with long brown hair, known for her easy laugh.  She laughed at
everything.  But when Charlie explained what he wanted, she frowned.  "You
want me to make you look older?"

   "Yeah, basically.  I want you to give me a beard.  A beard and a
moustache.  Can you make it look real?"

   "Sure.  But it won't get you into a bar, if that's what you're
planning."

   "He needs a disguise so he can spy on his girlfriend," Ronni said
frankly.  "He thinks she's cheating on him."

   Jennifer winced.  "Ouch.  Sorry.  That sucks, Charlie."

   "Yeah..." Charlie didn't know what else to say.

   "I didn't know you had a girlfriend.  Does she go to Pine Hills?"

   Before he could answer, Ronni spoke up.  "No," she said.  "She goes to a
different school."

   Jennifer nodded.  "I can do it.  It's easy.  I can make you look
completely different.  She'll never recognize you."

   Charlie went to his car five minutes before lunch ended.  He called
Michelle.

   "Hello?" she said.

   "Hey.  It's Charlie.  I just wanted to confirm with you, you're coming
to Greenholt Gardens tonight, right?  We're filming."

   "Hi, Charlie.  Uh-huh.  I haven't forgotten.  I'll be there."

   "Great," Charlie said.  "Oh, I wanted to tell you.  I took your
suggestion.  I asked Ronni out for Saturday."

   Michelle was silent for a moment.  Then she said, "You did?"

   "Yeah, at lunch.  She said yes.  We have plans for this Saturday." It
wasn't a lie.  He would meet Jennifer and Ronni in the afternoon, and
Jennifer would help him with his disguise.

   "Oh...." Michelle said.  "Okay."

   "Yeah," he said.  "Well, anyways.  I just wanted to make sure that
you're still okay with tonight at the gardens.  I'm calling all the actors.
We need all of you to be there or we have to cancel the whole thing."

   "I'll be there.  Don't worry."

   "Okay.  That's awesome.  Well...  bye.  See you tonight."

   He disconnected without waiting for her response.

   ***

   In the original script for "Anything You Want", the Gwen character wore
less and less clothing as the film progressed, until she was naked in the
final scene.  She was meant to be the personification of the passion
growing between the other two characters, a passion that they otherwise hid
from each other.  It pretended to be artistic, but in reality, Charlie had
only written it that way so Michelle would have a nude scene in the film.

   But Michelle had been reluctant to do the scene, so Charlie had
rewritten the script.  Now, instead of Michelle wearing less and less, she
just wore brighter and brighter clothing.  On the first day of filming, she
had worn a conservative dark blue dress.  Now, for the second scene,
Michelle had selected her own dress, a dress that was maroon at the hem and
gradually changed color to a glowing orange at her shoulders.  It made
Charlie think of a fireplace, late in the evening, when the flames are gone
but the wood still smolders.

   The blue dress had come down nearly to her ankles, while the red dress
stopped at her knees and left her arms bare.  Charlie had meant to be cold
and professional to Michelle that evening, but he couldn't help himself. 
"That dress is perfect," he told her.  "Exactly right for this scene."

   Michelle smiled.  "I told you I'd take care of my outfits."

   He thought it might be awkward between them, but in actuality, they
didn't have the time to be awkward.  As soon as Kim and Darren arrived,
Charlie felt like a countdown had started.  He needed to get as much
footage as he could in the two hours that they had, and that meant the was
constantly going between the camera and the actors, resetting them, making
suggestions for their lines, moving lights.  He talked to Ronni more than
he did Michelle, but that was because he needed Ronni's help with
everything.

   As midnight approached, Ronni leaned over to him.  "You think we have
enough for this scene?"

   "No," Charlie answered immediately.  He sighed.  "We'll have to figure
out how to make it work when we edit."

   "Right."

   They rushed to film a few final critical shots, then Charlie let
everyone know they were done.

   "One thing I like I about you, Charlie." Darren grinned as he slapped
Charlie on the shoulder.  "You never keep us over." Charlie tried to return
the grin, but a string of tension was knotting in his gut now that the
filming was over.  During the filming, he could lose himself in his work.
Now he felt Michelle's presence like a physical force pulling at him, and
he felt like he was watching her in his peripheral vision at every moment.

   Kim Mink disappeared immediately, and Darren made a show of helping them
put away some equipment, but really just stood around making jokes for a
few minutes before departing.  Charlie kept his eye on Michelle as he took
down the lighting, knowing that she might get up to leave at any moment. 
If she did start to leave, he would insist on walking her out.  He needed
to talk to her.

   Nick appeared to help them bag up the equipment.  "Those other two are
gone," he said.  "I watched them drive away on the security camera."

   "Yeah," Charlie said.  "It's late."

   "You're in the clear, Michelle," Nick said cheerfully.

   "What?" She looked up.

   "You can take off your clothes now," he said.  "It's just us here."

   Oh, no, Charlie groaned internally.  Not now.  Not a good time.

   Michelle stood up.  She glanced at Charlie, perhaps trying to catch his
eye, but he avoided her gaze, pretending to be absorbed in what he was
doing.  He didn't want to do anything that could be mistaken for
encouragement.

   Surely, she wouldn't.  Not here, not now.  Not with so much unresolved
between them.

   "Here, Michelle." Ronni appeared next to her, offering her a small blue
duffle bag.

   "What's this?" Michelle asked, as she let Ronni push the duffel bag into
her hands.

   "For your clothes," Ronni said.  "So you don't forget them when you
leave."

   "Oh.  Okay." Michelle looked down at the duffel bag.  "Thanks." She sat
the bag on the table next to her.  Did she glance at Charlie again?  He
thought so, but he couldn't be sure since he was watching her out of the
corner of his eye.  She had her hands behind her back, fumbling for her
zipper, then Ronni stepped in to help, pulling it down for her.

   Charlie didn't watch Michelle as she undressed.  He only glanced at her
quickly, a minute later, and saw that she was naked.  She had folded her
dress and was slipping it into the duffel bag.

   Naked.  He needed to have a serious talk with her, and she was
completely naked.

   She raised her eyes and saw him watching her.  She shifted nervously and
her hands rose an inch, as if she suppressed an instinct to cover herself.
Like his gaze made her self-conscious, like she was exposing herself to him
for the first time.

   He couldn't wait any longer.  "Michelle," he said.  "I need to talk to
you."

   "Okay."

   "In private.  Come on." He beckoned her towards the snack bar.  She
followed; he saw that she carried her purse with her, and the blue duffel
bag.  He didn't speak to her until they had stepped inside.  At that point,
he turned and faced her.  He reached in his pocket and pulled out a wad of
bills.

   "Here." He held out the money.

   Michelle didn't reach for it.  "What's this?"

   "The $250 that you gave me.  You said it came from Cody.  But it's not
his money, is it?  It's your money.  Take it.  I don't want it."

   Michelle looked stricken.  She took the bills and cradled them gingerly
in her fingers.  "Charlie..."

   "I don't know why you would lie to me.  Why did you say it was from him?
Did you think I wouldn't find out, eventually?"

   "I just felt bad," she said softly.  "I didn't want anyone to fight over
me.  I felt bad about what happened to your tires."

   "So you took $250 of your own money and gave it to me?  You told me that
you and Vanessa stood up to Cody, you made him admit he slashed my tires
and you made him promise to pay me back.  But none of that happened, did
it? You went to Cody and you denied there was anything between us.  That's
all you did.  You didn't stand up for me at all.  You just renounced me."

   "I didn't.  I didn't renounce you." Michelle gazed at her hands, the wad
of bills crumpled into a ball.  "It wasn't any of his business.  That's why
I said that.  He didn't need to know about us."

   "What was the $250?  Some money so I'd let it go?  So I wouldn't stir
anything up among your friends?"

   "It was just for your tires," she said.  "I wanted to pay for your
tires. I felt bad that someone did that to you."

   "Keep it.  I don't want your money."

   "Okay." She still held the money in her hands.  "I'm sorry I didn't tell
you the truth.  It's just...  I didn't want anyone to fight over me."

   "Right." Charlie looked at the window of the snack bar, out at the
gardens.  He didn't want to look at her body, to be distracted by it.  "I
guess the lie worked, then.  No one is fighting over you right now." He
glanced at her.  She was still looking down and wouldn't make eye contact.
He couldn't help himself; his eyes slid over her body.  Even as angry as he
was, he still felt the desire to reach for her.  To stroke her skin, to
touch her breasts.  "We'll finish up with the equipment.  Why don't you
head home, Michelle.  It's late.  We can finish without you." He paused,
then specified, "Put your clothes back on before you leave."

   Michelle nodded.  Without saying a word, she put the money into her
purse, then reached for the blue duffel bag.  She pulled her red dress out
of the bag and slid it over her head and down her body.  She tugged it into
place.

   Charlie walked her to the back door of the snack bar and opened it for
her.  The parking lot held four cars; Kim and Darren had left.  As Michelle
stepped out, Charlie noticed that the back of her dress was still unzipped.
He didn't offer to zip it for her.

   "You have your car keys, right?" Charlie asked.

   "Yes." Michelle turned to face him.

   "All right.  Good night.  then." Charlie pulled the door closed.  He
stood by the door, waiting, listening.  Maybe she would knock at the door,
maybe she would insist on kissing him goodbye, the way that she did, with
her whole body pressed against him.  Maybe she would knock at the door, and
when he pushed it open, she would be naked, her dress tossed to the ground.
Naked and wanting a good night kiss.  He would give her a kiss, his hands
stroking her body as he did it, and then maybe he'd push her against the
wall and he would give her a good night fuck.  He would stop caring about
the money, and stop caring about her and Glenn Mack and Vanessa and Cody
and all the rest.  He would enter her, and all he would care about was her,
the smell of her, the taste of her, the feel of her.

   Instead, he heard her car start.  A moment later, the sound of her car
pulling out of the parking lot.  Then quiet.

   Ronni gave him an inquiring look when he returned, and he could tell she
was curious what had happened.  But he didn't volunteer any information and
she didn't ask.  Quickly and quietly, they packed everything up.

   Nick helped them carry the equipment out to Charlie's car.  Ronni sat
down the two bags she was carrying and shook her head incredulously.  "I
gave her this thing so she wouldn't forget her stuff, and then she went and
did it anyway." Charlie followed Ronni's gaze, and saw the blue bag sitting
on top of the hood of his car.

   He didn't bother to check to see if Michelle's red dress was in it; he
knew it was.  Michelle had left the bag there to send him a message, but
what the message was, he didn't have a clue.  He picked up the bag and put
it in his trunk with the other equipment.

   ***

   "Why did you give her that blue bag?" Charlie asked.  He was at school,
sitting at the main computer in the editing bay.  The bell had just
signaled that school was over, and he could hear students talking and
laughing in the hallway.

   "Who, Michelle?" Ronni asked from the seat behind him.  "You know why I
did it."

   "I don't.  Why did you give it to her?"

   "To put her clothes in.  So she wouldn't leave them behind."

   Charlie scowled.  "You shouldn't have done that."

   "Why not?"

   "Because.  You knew what it would make her do.  You knew she would
undress.  You put pressure on her to do it.  She wasn't sure, but when you
gave her that bag, she felt like she had to."

   "I don't think so," Ronni said.  "It was ultimately up to her.  She
chose to take her clothes off."

   "It wasn't a good time for her to do it," Charlie muttered.  "I didn't
want her to do it.  I told you that we broke up.  You shouldn't have
pressured her to strip.  You and Nick.  Not after she broke up with me."

   "I thought you broke up with her."

   "I did.  I mean..." He frowned, trying to remember.  Did he break up
with Michelle or vice versa?  Or had it been mutual?  He couldn't remember
the exact words of their conversation.

   "She wanted you to be with me," Ronni said.  "Remember?"

   "She did?" Charlie couldn't remember.  The memories slipped away from
him like threads of oil in water.  Did he break up with Michelle?  Or did
she break up with him?  What did Ronni have to do with any of it?

   "You think she's so exciting, don't you?" Ronni's voice had become low
and sultry.  "Because she gets naked for you.  But I can get naked for you,
too." Behind him, Charlie heard the sound of a zipper, the rustling of
cloth.  A moment later, Ronni's blue jeans dropped onto the table next to
him.

   "Ronni!" He kept his eyes on the screen.  "What're you doing?  You can't
do that."

   Another bundle of fabric dropped onto the blue jeans.  Ronni's white
t-shirt.  "You like it when she does it," she whispered next to his ear. 
"Do you like it when I do it?"

   "No!  I mean...  Ronni.  This isn't a good place or time for this. 
Can't you hear the people in the hallway?  Class just let out." A pair of
panties landed on the top of his monitor.  His heart was thundering in his
chest.  Did she have anything left to take off?  Or was Ronni sitting
completely naked behind him?

   "I am," she whispered.  "I'm naked.  Just like Michelle.  Isn't this how
you want me?"

   Her body pressed against his back and her arms slid around him.  Her
hands went down his front, towards his erection.  Charlie noticed motion to
his left; he looked over and saw that they weren't alone.  A ring of
students had gathered around them, watching them.  Charlie knew he should
stop Ronni, he should warn her, but he didn't.  He let her put her hand
between his legs, let her stroke his erection in front of everyone...

   Charlie woke up as he climaxed.  He was cumming in his pajamas again.

   Five minutes later, he stood in the shower, washing himself off.  His
thoughts were troubled.  Another wet dream, just a few days after the first
one.  What was happening to him?  Why did his dreams have him lusting after
every girl at school, every girl but Michelle?  Why was his subconscious
weaving together these lurid fantasies of public exposure?

   He gazed down at his drooping penis, dripping in the shower water.  A
stubborn, defiant organ.  It insisted that every woman was the same, that
sex was sex, that a naked woman was a naked woman, no matter who she was.
That sulking, dangling thing.  It just wanted to feel good, to nestle in
someplace tight and warm and wet.  It wanted to pretend that was all that
mattered.

   "You don't even get it," his thoughts raged.  "If we sit in that theater
on Saturday, and we see Michelle is actually Glenn's girlfriend, it's going
to destroy us.  Nothing else is going to matter.  There won't be a Ronni,
there won't be a Vampire Vanessa.  There won't be another woman to convince
to strip in public.  There's just going to be emptiness.  The rest of
senior year is just going to be empty and colorless and nothing else."

   His penis sagged towards the drain, the water dripping from it in a
steady stream.  It had one eye, pointed down, as if avoiding his gaze. 
Could it feel shame?  His wet dreams seemed like denial.  He could already
see the bleak days ahead, cock in hand, lying in bed alone, masturbating to
his memories of Michelle.  His penis would be satisfied, it must be
satisfied, even if it could only be satisfied by the fading memories of his
one achingly brief brush with love.

   ***

   The fake beard and moustache made Charlie's face itch.  Earlier, he had
bought a ticket and walked through the theater lobby without anyone
scrutinizing his disguise.  All credit to Jennifer - she was a skilled
make-up artist and did excellent work.  Charlie barely recognized himself
when he looked in the mirror.

   He arrived early so he could find a seat in the back of the theater, a
spot where Michelle was unlikely to see him.  Even with the disguise, he
feared that she would be able to pick him out.  He wanted to be sitting in
his spot before she or any of her friends arrived.

   He picked a spot that gave him a good view of the entrance to the
theater.  He could lean over slightly and look down the aisle all the way
to the front row.  He could see Michelle's arrival and he would be able to
see when she left.  If she glanced up in his direction, he just needed to
lean back and slouch and he would disappear into the darkness.

   But when Michelle finally arrived, Charlie realized the flaw in his
spying position.  Michelle and Glenn were sitting next to each other and he
was too far away to see anything they did during the movie.  The movie was
almost two hours long and anything could happen during that time.  They
could hold hands.  They could kiss.  Charlie was there to observe the way
Michelle interacted with the charismatic football player, but he had no
view of it.

   Maybe he could move during the movie, when the theater was dark.  Find a
seat a little closer.  The theater was nearly empty.  He had a lot of seats
to choose from.  He just had to remember: the closer he sat to her, the
greater the chance she might see and recognize him.  And that would be a
disaster.

   Still, he had to chance it or the whole thing would be a waste of time.
He needed to be able to see them.  He just had to trust in Jennifer's
disguise.  Michelle didn't expect him to be there and she wouldn't be
looking for him.  She wouldn't pay any attention to the scruffy man in the
baseball cap and the beard.

   He heard laughter from below.  Boys laughing.  Glenn and his friends
having a good time.  Charlie clenched his jaw and slouched in his chair. 
He wondered when the movie would start.  The time on his phone read 7:48.
The movie was three minutes late.

   The lights dimmed.  Finally!  Charlie perked up in his seat.  The screen
lit up and started to play a commercial for Coca-Cola.  Then a warning to
the audience that all cell phones should be silenced.  Charlie tapped his
foot impatiently through one preview, then the next.  He told himself that
he would wait for the movie to start before he slipped out of his seat and
crept closer to Michelle's row.

   He was leaning forward, too far forward, when all of a sudden Michelle
appeared in the aisle, walking up the stairs.  She seemed to be looking
straight at him.  Charlie froze; he waited for the inevitable reaction when
she recognized him.  Instead, her eyes slid to the side, oblivious to his
presence.  Maybe he was hidden in the darkness, or maybe his disguise
fooled her.  Whatever the reason, she didn't notice him.

   Vanessa and Tina followed her.  Three girls on an expedition to the
lobby.  Maybe they wanted to buy sodas and popcorn from the concession
counter.  Or maybe they were all headed to the bathroom.  They would likely
miss the beginning of the movie, but probably they didn't care.

   Whatever their reasons for leaving, Charlie couldn't move while they
were gone.  He couldn't risk getting caught while wandering through the
theater.  Besides, if Michelle was outside with Vanessa and Tina, then she
wasn't with Glenn, and Charlie had no reason to watch her.  He leaned back
in his seat and watched the start of the movie.

   Night Crew.  Not the kind of movie he would pick to see.  It was a
comedy about a group of custodians at a department store.  Charlie wondered
which of Michelle's friends had picked this particular film.

   His phone buzzed from where it was sitting on the seat next to him.  A
text message.  To his surprise, it was from Michelle.

   "Hi, Charlie," it read.  "Are you out with Ronni?"

   Did she know?  Did she see him?  Charlie glanced down the aisle but no
one was looking in his direction.  Michelle was still outside with her
friends, as far as he could tell.

   So maybe she was asking because she really thought he might be out with
Ronni.  She wanted to know how it was going.  Charlie cradled the phone in
his hand, his finger hovering over the keyboard.  He thought about making
up a story, something about an awesome date with Ronni, everything going
perfectly, blah blah blah.  But then he wondered what the point was of
lying to Michelle.  To try and make her jealous?  Maybe she wouldn't even
care.  And what if she discovered his lie?  It would be humiliating.

   "No," he texted back.  After a brief hesitation, he typed, "I saw her
earlier today.  We did some editing on the film.  Just work."

   He waited to see if Michelle would respond.  After a minute, her
response appeared on the screen: "No plans with her tonight?"

   "No," he wrote.  "Cancelled."

   He watched his phone, waiting for an answer, but it never came.  When he
saw Michelle reappear in the aisle with her friends, he knew he wasn't
going to get a response.  Their brief communication was over; Michelle
wouldn't dare text him in front of Glenn.  He watched her walk down to her
row, and his eyes followed her in the dim light until she disappeared into
her seat.

   Now he wasn't sure what to do.  He wanted to find a seat where he would
have a better view of her, but now that she had texted him, he felt
self-conscious about being there in the theater with her.  It felt like she
had put a spotlight on him.  She was thinking of him, she wanted to know
what he was doing, if he was with Ronni.  But he wasn't with Ronni. 
Because he was spying on Michelle.  Stalking her.  That was what he was
doing, wasn't it?  He was stalking her.

   He was the bad guy in the movie.

   He wanted to leave.  The whole scheme seemed ridiculous to him now.  In
the back of a dark movie theater, wearing a fake beard and a baseball cap,
watching Michelle's seat like he could see through it if he stared hard
enough.  Even if he sat closer, would he really be able to watch her while
remaining inconspicuous?  It would be pretty obvious he was watching her
and not the movie.

   All this subterfuge, and in the end, all he had was a view of the back
of her seat.

   A burst of laughter came from that row.  He couldn't tell who it was. 
He didn't think it was Michelle's laugh.  Whatever they were laughing at,
it wasn't the movie.  Charlie leaned forward, concentrating on separating
the sound of the movie from the noises coming from Michelle's row.  He
couldn't see her, but maybe he could hear her.

   More giggling, laughter.  Voices talking back and forth.  Charlie
wondered if this was why they had picked a movie that had been out for
weeks.  The theater was close to empty and they could talk and laugh
without worrying about the other customers complaining.  Charlie thought he
heard Michelle giggling a couple times, but he didn't hear her saying
anything.

   A text appeared on his phone.  It was from Michelle, and she provided a
reason for some of the laughter.  "Ugh," she wrote.  "Someone snuck tequila
into the movie.  They're playing a drinking game."

   He wrote back, "Who?"

   "Cody.  Others."

   "Are you playing?"

   "No," she wrote.  "I don't drink."

   Charlie looked up at the movie screen.  Three of the custodians in the
film were trying to chase down a raccoon, with slapstick consequences. 
Charlie texted Michelle: "Is the movie good?"

   "No," she wrote back.  "It's terrible."

   Her friends didn't seem to think it was so terrible.  Charlie heard an
eruption of laughter from that row as the custodians fell over each other
trying to chase the raccoon.  He checked the rest of the theater and could
only see a handful of other patrons, scattered here and there.  Charlie's
row was empty except for a short elderly man on the far side.  The elderly
man was absorbed in the movie, but he wasn't laughing.  No one was laughing
in the theater but Michelle's friends.

   Was Glenn drinking?  Charlie wondered if his rival had joined in the
drinking game.  He wished he could figure out a subtle way to ask Michelle
about it in a text.  Glenn and Cody were friends, and if Cody was drinking,
it seemed likely that Glenn was getting drunk as well.  What was Glenn like
when he was drunk?

   Now the laughter coming from that row seemed like drunken laughter.  The
loud voices sounded like the belligerent shouting of the intoxicated.  "Oh
my god," Michelle texted.  "This is embarrassing.  They're being so loud."

   Charlie texted back, "Who?"

   "The boys.  They're drinking and being loud."

   "Are people complaining?" Charlie asked.

   "No," she sent.  "No one else is here, thank god."

   "Wrong," Charlie thought to himself.  "I'm here." But, of course, he
wasn't going to tell her that.  And he wasn't going to complain about her
friends, no matter how loud they got.  Actually, if he was being honest, it
made him happy that Glenn, Cody and the boys were behaving so obnoxiously.
Their behavior might cause Michelle to think twice about spending time with
them in the future.

   The movie seemed to be reaching a climactic moment.  The custodians had
all been fired, and now they sat around a table brooding about their
futures.  Michelle texted him.  "Now Cody and Vanessa are making out. 
They're not even watching the movie anymore."

   Charlie was about to type a response, when another text came from her.
"Hello," it said.  Then several more texts, very quickly, one after the
other: "Hello." "Hello." "Test." "Test."

   "What's up?" He texted back.

   Still more texts came from her.  "Test." "Test." "Test." The phone
vibrated in his hand.
Then: "Are you here in the theater?"

   Too late, Charlie realized that his phone had been audibly buzzing with
each text that she sent.  The movie was at a quiet moment, and Michelle's
friends weren't making any noise, either.  The sound of his phone buzzing
must have carried down to the row where Michelle sat.  She had caught on to
the pattern: every single text she sent to Charlie resulted in a buzz from
the back of the theater.

   He fumbled with the settings of the phone, trying to make it silent. 
But Michelle was done sending texts; Charlie looked down the aisle and saw
her emerge from her row.  She started up the stairs, her eyes flashing over
each row, examining each person.  She didn't have many to pick from, and
her eyes swiftly landed on Charlie.  She stared up at him for a moment, and
he could see the exact moment when she recognized him.

   She stormed up the last few steps and loomed over him in the back row.
"Charlie!  What is this?  What are you wearing?" She spoke in an angry
whisper.  "What the heck are you wearing?  Is this thing glued on?" She
seized the beard, tugging on it.  He winced as it pulled at his skin.  "Are
you here spying on me?"

   "I...  um...." How could he deny it?  What else could he be doing?

   "You look ridiculous," she said.  "Who put this on you?  You look like a
biker." She pulled at the beard again.

   "Jennifer Addish."

   "Right.  Of course.  Ronni's best friend.  She helped you put on a
disguise so you could come here and spy on me."

   Charlie shook his head.  He didn't even want to look at her.  He spoke
in a low voice, "I'm an idiot."

   "What?"

   "You're right.  I don't even know what I'm doing here.  I'm sorry.  This
was so stupid."

   "You're here to spy on me."

   He looked up at her.  "I am.  The thought of you with...with him.  I'm
sorry.  I'm acting crazy.  Jealous.  I don't even know what I'm doing."

   She looked down at him silently for a moment, her hands on her hips. 
Her lips were pursed together.  "Will you leave?" she asked.

   "Yes.  I'll leave."

   "Right now?"

   "Yes.  I won't spy on you anymore.  You don't have to tell me this was
crazy.  I know it was crazy."

   "Ok." She glanced down the aisle, towards the row where her friends sat.
"I'll talk to you later, then."

   "Ok.  I'm sorry, Michelle."

   "That's fine.  I'm still mad at you, though." Michelle turned and
started down the stairs.  She only made it down five steps before she
turned around.  She hesitated, gazing at Charlie, then shot a quick glance
towards the front of the theater where her friends were sitting.  They were
blocked from view by the tall seats.  Michelle looked back up at Charlie.
Swiftly, she came back up the stairs.

   "Michelle?" he asked uncertainly.

   She slid her jacket off her shoulders.  She let it fall to the floor.

   "Michelle?"

   "You make me do crazy things, too," she breathed.  Now she was undoing
the buttons on her shirt.

   "Michelle..." Charlie whispered.  He could see past her to the old man
sitting on the other side of the row.  The old man was still watching the
movie.  "There's a man in on the other side of the row.  He can see you."

   Michelle finished unbuttoning her shirt.  She slid it off and let it
drop to the floor.  She reached behind to undo her black bra.  "It doesn't
matter," she said.  "He won't recognize you.  You're wearing a disguise,
aren't you?" She slid her bra off.  It joined the rest of her clothes on
the floor.

   Charlie looked past her, towards the elderly man, and saw that the man
had noticed them, and was looking right at Michelle as she stripped. 
Charlie said nothing; he watched as Michelle pushed her tight jeans down
her thighs, revealing dark panties.  Charlie could see that the old man had
his eyes locked onto Michelle's ass.  "He's looking right at us," Charlie
said in a low voice.

   Michelle turned around.  She faced the stranger, wearing nothing but a
flimsy pair of black panties.  Her finger rose to her lips and she gave the
man the "shhh!" gesture.  Then she bent over and pushed her panties down
her legs.  When she sat down in Charlie's lap, she was completely naked,
and didn't seem to care at all that the old man ten seats away had
forgotten about the movie and was now entirely focused on the live show she
and Charlie were putting on.

   She kissed Charlie.  The fake beard must have felt odd to her, but it
didn't cause her any hesitation.  He wondered if it was part of the thrill
for her; maybe she was pretending that he was a bearded stranger.  Her legs
were pressed tightly together, but when he slid his hand between her knees,
it took only the slightest nudge to make her spread them wide apart.  She
was giving a clear view of her pussy to the man on the other side of the
row, and Charlie knew how it excited her.  He could feel her excitement
when he slid his fingers into her.

   Everything was happening so quickly.  Charlie understood why they had to
rush; Michelle had a row of friends sitting below who might start to wonder
where she was if she was gone too long.  This wasn't a slow, romantic
encounter.  Michelle had suddenly gotten it into her head that she wanted
to fuck him, and that's what she intended to do.

   She straddled him, grinding against him while her mouth pressed hungrily
against his.  Her pussy rubbed against the bulge of his cock through his
pants.  Somehow, through anxious and frenetic fumbling, they managed to
free his cock, and she rose above it, dropping onto it, sliding it into her
wet slit.  She bounced on his lap, impaled on his erection, her breasts
rising and falling in front of his eyes.

   They fought to keep silent as they fucked furiously in the back row of
the movie theater.  The old man, who might have given them away, instead
watched their coupling in awed silence.  Fortunately, the events in the
movie had returned to slapstick humor, and the loud sound effects obscured
the sound of their sex.

   The whole thing happened so quickly.  Charlie tried to last as long as
he could, but he quickly felt the tightness in his groin that meant he was
about to cum.  "I can't...  I'm about to..." he moaned in her ear.

   Michelle suddenly slipped off him.  She reached down and clutched his
cock in her fingers.  "Don't hold it back," she whispered in his ear. 
"Just go ahead."

   "Michelle..." he groaned.  She was squeezing him, stroking him, and all
at once it broke free.  Cum spurted from his cock like it was a firehose.
Michelle clutched his shaft in her small hand, and directed his cock
towards him.  She made sure that every drop of cum landed on his shirt.

   "I'm still mad at you, Charlie," Michelle murmured.  "You shouldn't spy
on me like this."

   Charlie was in a daze.  He looked down at the sticky white mess on his
shirt.

   Michelle gathered her clothes and started to dress.  "We'll talk later,"
she said.

   "Michelle..."

   "That was hot." She smiled at him.  "I've always wanted to have sex in a
movie theater." She was already nearly dressed; he was impressed by the
speed with which she slid back into her garments.  Once everything was back
in place, she turned away and walked back down the steps.  She didn't say
another word to him, didn't give him a backwards glance.  Just left him
with his cock out and his shirt dripping in cum.

   Charlie had some napkins with him, but they proved inadequate for
dealing with the mess on his shirt.  Finally, he just put on his jacket and
held it closed in the front as he walked down the stairs and exited the
theater.  Fortunately, no one paid any attention to the man in the beard
who slipped quickly and quietly out the exit door and disappeared into the
night.

   ***

   Charlie's phone buzzed while he was in bed staring at the night sky out
his window.  It was almost midnight.  He glanced at the screen, expecting
it to be Michelle, but it was Ronni.

   "Hey," she said.  "Is it too late to call?"

   "It's all right.  I'm still awake."

   "So...  what happened?  Did you go to the movie?"

   "Yeah."

   "Michelle was there?"

   "Yeah."

   "So?  What happened?"

   He considered his answer for a moment.  "It's okay.  Everything's okay.
She doesn't like Glenn."

   "No?"

   Charlie recalled the feel of Michelle's pussy around his cock, her naked
body on top of him, moving up and down in his lap.  "No," he said.  "I
think Michelle and I are good."

   Ronni was silent for a moment.  "What happened, Charlie?" she asked.

   "The disguise didn't work," he said.  "She knew it was me." His face was
red where the beard and moustache had been.  He had removed them too
quickly in the car.

   "She recognized you?" -"

   "Yeah.  But it's all good." He paused.  "I think we worked it out."

   "Oh.  You did?  As in, you're back together?"

   "I think so." The way Michelle had stripped for him, as if she yearned
to be naked for him.  The feel of her, on top of him in the theater, her
body pressed against him, her lips on his.  "Yeah, we're back together."

   "She wasn't mad about you sneaking in to watch her?"

   "No.  I mean, yeah.  She was mad about that." The whole thing was
starting to seem surreal.  Like a weird dream.  Just like the evening in
the Macy's parking lot.  "I don't know.  She said she was mad...  but I
think a part of her was glad I was there?" He gazed up at the dark sky out
his window.  "Maybe I looked so pathetic when she caught me that she
couldn't stay angry."

   Ronni was quiet.  Maybe she understood that he couldn't tell the whole
story, that he had to keep some of it between Michelle and himself. 
"Well," she said softly, "you sound happier now, Charlie.  So maybe it was
worth it in the end."

   "Yeah," he said.  "It was a crazy thing to do, the whole disguise
thing...  I probably shouldn't have done it.  But it worked out."

   "I'm glad she makes you happy.  I want you to be happy.  Good night,
Charlie."

   "Good night," he said, but Ronni had already disconnected.