 Tara Alton has previously published in Mind Caviar her fiction “Chocolate Kisses” and “Sugar High.” She has published stories and essays in numerous Web magazines such as Blue Food, Voracity Beat, Thermoerotic, and she has stories in the print anthologies Best Lesbian Erotica 05 and The Big Book of Hot Women’s Erotica 2004. Recently her story "The End of Daphne Greenwood’s Travel Career” has appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 4. In addition, she has started a blog Flirty Kitty. Visit Tara online.
Fifth Place My college life was certainly not turning out the way I had planned. College was supposed to have been a blissful, fun-filled adventure. I’d have been living in a fabulous flat in a Victorian House. My professors would've all thought I was brilliant. I’d have worked at a wonderful, part-time job at a cosmetics counter in an upscale department store. But, no... Instead I had been sharing a house with eight other students, and I’d considered myself lucky to have my own tiny room. My classes seemed more difficult than I’d ever thought they would be. I was struggling to pull a C-, and the best paying job I could get was working at the Safe Sex Condom Store. Back home, guys had told me I was cute, even adorable. I could wear low rider jeans with the best of them, but no one in this town would have given me more than a look. Sometimes I felt like I was a creature from another planet waiting for the mothership to beam me back home, especially when I was sitting behind the counter at work, with nothing to do. It wasn't so bad working at a condom store, if you pretended you were working at a candy shop, and all the condoms were colorful flavors. But, if you started looking at things closely enough, you'd start to wonder who were all these people having sex, and why weren’t you the one buying a lime green French tickler to surprise your boyfriend with. I couldn’t get a date, and I'd been working at a place with the word “sex” emblazoned across its logo. After work, I was feeling so blue, I thought the only thing that might cheer me up was doing something drastic-- like getting a tattoo. My boss had given me a handful of temp tattoo samples I’d stashed away for just such an emergency. Since I'd had an aversion to pain and needles, a temporary tattoo would’ve had to do the trick. Thank goodness, no one else was home. I’d gone into the kitchen to apply my tribal art. It seemed no matter what I tried, the edge of the tattoo wouldn’t peel away. Finally, I grabbed a steak knife from the counter, and I was attempting to peel back the edge, when the knife slipped and cut my leg. I clamped my hand over the cut. I was sure I had gone sheet white because I felt nauseous and a little dizzy. Just at that moment, Zach walked into the kitchen. I tried to act as if nothing was wrong, but I’d never been a good actor. Moreover, the pain was really starting to get to me. How could things go any more wrong for me? This was so not cool. Zach was peering around the kitchen table at my leg, and there was a trickle of blood between my fingertips. Zach Taylor, one of my roommates, had to be the most attractive boy I’d ever seen, with his brooding, mysterious manner, and his simmering sex appeal. I’d heard his parents were Spanish and French. Every girl who knew him had her panties in a knot over him. I admit I’d stolen some glances at him, especially when he came out the shower without his shirt on. He had a body to die for. Last night during a game of truth and dare among roommates, Zach had ranked me in fifth place in order of whom he would like to kiss in the room. I thought I’d caught him staring at me while I was eating cereal one the morning, but I must have been wrong. Oh, good grief. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I couldn’t have the boy who’d ranked me fifth coming to my rescue. “Oops,” I started to say, but the word came out as “ouch.” The next thing I knew Zach was kneeling beside me and prying back my fingers in order to see the damage. I looked down. The room swirled around a little. Was it from the pain of the cut, or from the sensation of Zach’s hand on my knee? “It’s just a little cut,” he said. I nodded mutely. He blotted it with a clean paper towel and found a bandage in a drawer. Crouching back down in front of me, he put the bandage on my wound. His fingers left my skin. It was at that moment, I realized Zach Taylor was directly between my legs. I couldn’t help it. It was an involuntarily reflex. My legs opened a fraction. He obviously saw it. Suddenly, he was kissing me. Our tongues were touching. Our saliva was mixing. Panic lit up my brain like a Christmas tree. Why was he doing this? Was he given a dare to follow through with his kissing list after I went to bed, and he’d already kissed the other four girls in front of me? Did he consider me one of those “ugly-sexy” girls? You know, someone he wanted to fuck, but he would have never admitted to it in the light of day? I didn’t know why he decided to go for me, but it was feeling damn good. I mean, it didn’t seem like your usual kiss. It felt as though there was a deep current passing between us. I wondered if all fantastic looking people kissed like that, and I was just being naïve for thinking there might be some real chemistry between us. No matter the reason, I didn’t want it to stop. Then he was kneeling between my legs; my legs were almost wrapped around him. I could feel his hips pressing against the inside of my thighs. He pushed my hair back, off my face, and began to kiss my neck. Holy cow! A chill ran straight down my back. If he’d started kissing my ear, he could’ve probably fucked me right there in the kitchen. He’d started to unbutton my blouse, and I’d let him. He couldn’t have possibly wanted me. I’d been the girl who came in fifth. Oh, my goodness. We were going to fuck, I realized. Another chill bloomed across me. “I can’t,” I cried. He looked surprised. “You can’t want me,” I said. “You ranked me fifth.” “The question was, ‘In what order, who would I want to just kiss?’ After you went to bed,” he said, “I was asked, ‘In what order, to whom would I want to make love?’ I thought about it. You came first.” “Oh,” I said. Looking into his eyes, I wanted to believe him. Was he the type of guy who would just say anything to get to beaver town? He kissed me again. His tongue felt so good in my mouth it could’ve lived there if it wanted to. Suddenly, another alarming thought went off in my brain. I was the girl who worked in the condom store who didn’t have any condoms with her! “Do you have any protection?” I asked. He froze. “You work at a condom store,” he said. “But, I don’t have sex,” I said. “Ever.” For a moment, he looked as if he might’ve been scared off, but then I saw it register that I might’ve been one horny, frustrated chick. He leapt up. “I’ll go find one,” he said. By the racket, he must have taken the stairs three at time. I closed my legs. I felt strange, as if I had been in the middle of a snow globe, and someone had just shaken it up. Would he actually come back downstairs with a condom? Would I get to touch his body in all sorts of intimate places? I wanted him more than anything else. Suddenly, there was a clamoring at the back door. All seven of the rest of my roommates noisily poured into the kitchen. At the same moment, Zach appeared in the other doorway holding up a 3-pack of condoms. There was no denying what we'd been up to, and Zach looked utterly panic stricken. An uneasy hush fell over the room. Fear leapt up in my throat. I turned to the group at the back door. “Was there a truth or dare question last night about with whom in the group Zach would choose to make love first?” I asked. I waited for an answer. Finally, I saw one mute nod. “Who was it?” I asked, thinking that if they didn’t say it was me, I would die from embarrassment. I was waiting for someone to reply when Zach came to me and knelt before me once more. He began kissing me again, as if no one was even there. With eyes closed, I listened as everyone left the room, and heard someone finally close the back door. My fingers fumbled with the condom package Zach had shoved into my hands. My eyes opened to peek. “These are almost expired,” I said. “Maybe we should use them all up?” The world spun around. I was in first place. I tightened my legs around him, feeling the firm truth of how much he wanted me. Copyright ©
2004 Tara Alton. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy or post.
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