Alex's Friend

This story is set shortly after "Alex's First Adventure"   by Alex Griffin

I could tell Sarah had been crying when I came into the restaurant. Other people might miss it, but Sarah and I have been friends since grade school. We know everything about each other and have both seen our share of hardtimes.

My trip to the beauty salon which made me late catches her off guard. I slide into the seat, she bites her lip before a smile, a small smile, spreads across her face . “Alex, what did you do to your hair?”

My hand instinctively goes up to the back of by head, running my fingers through the short blond hair that barely falls around my shoulders. “You like it?”

She hesitates. “It looks, good…just different. What ever possessed you to cut it short?”

I look around for a waiter to bring me a drink. “Oh, I was in need of a change. Thought a cut and color would help me look...different. Like the color?”

Sarah is staring at my hair, and fidgeting with her napkin. “It’s…not you. I always saw you with long auburn hair. Anything else is, different. And, what does Jim think about it?”

I couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh. “Oh, he'll hate it. Glad I didn’t ask him, this way he just has to live with it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a familiar face in a crowd of strangers. The young man walks by our table, his eyes slide past ours. Would he recognize me from last night? Would he remember me? I remembered him and the smell of damp grass. What would I say if he did? He never stops or pauses as he walks past followed by another guy. My hand teases at my new short blond hair; my eyes follow him to the door. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Sarah normally would say something. She always has a comment about cute guys, especially if she thinks I am looking at them. She doesn't say anything. She is distracted herself.

I clasp my hands together and lean forward. “How about you. What’s bothering you?" My eyes drift back to the door. He is gone.

“Alex, you have a way of cutting to it.” Sarah slouches back, resting her head against the booth’s back for a moment, then leans forward on the table and places her hands on mine. She pulls at me to lean in closer. “I cheated on Bob.” Her forehead hits the table as she lets it fall.

I close my hands tighter on hers. “Sarah?”

She looks up and begins rambling quickly on before I can say more. “It’s not an affair…It just happened while I was on a business trip…the one in Texas…the meeting got out at 4, and there wasn’t anything to do, I was there by myself. I went out to the 6th Street area…where the restaurants and bars are…oh, it was a college town with lots of nightlife downtown. I was sitting by myself at a busy restaurant, eating and reading a book. The restaurant was on a wait and I was sitting at a table for four. Three young business-looking people stopped to visit with their friends at the table next to me…they were talking about what they could do together later, I heard they were waiting for a table, so I offered them to share mine... Why did I do that? I mean, I would have eaten, and just went for a walk before going back to the hotel. Instead I ended up visiting with them and after their friends left, the four of us kept talking and then we all went out together.”

"There's nothing wrong with going out," I interrupt.

Her forehead was resting on the table again; she fidgeted with something in her hands under the table. "We didn't just go out. We drank and danced...I wasn't that drunk, we were having so much fun. I don’t even remember who started the conversation...we were just joking around about what strangers could do if they had the freedom to live one night without any consequences...in the moment, I got swept away with that fantasy. It was so easy, a kiss, one kiss no one would ever know about. Then a bet about who was the better kisser among the guys and would I judge the bet. What am I going to tell Bob? Of course there are always consequences. Bob and I have been together since High School, I have never been with anyone else, God, what was I thinking."

The restaurant is alive with people and a buzz of mixed conversations fills the air. I lean closer, letting the noise lend us privacy. “You aren’t going to tell him anything” I say in a hushed voice. “Don’t be an idiot so you kissed some guys…”

Her forehead never leaves the table. “I’m pregnant,” she whispers. The sounds of people cheering for a touchdown on the television covers her words. Heartbeats pass as the bustle of the restaurant swallows the silence between the two of us.

Not sure I heard her right, or made out the word wrong, "What'd you say?"

"Pregnant and I don't think it's Bob's..."

"Sarah, How..."

Sarah interrupts me before I can continue. "Texas...Bob and I haven't been spending much time together with his caseload at work and all...maybe Texas...the timing is right."

"You know who then?"

Maybe, no...We were strangers. Sure we talked a little, but that was the point...we didn't know one another, separate lives, no consequences. It was the fantasy we painted. What would I do if I could do anything and no one ever knew...when one of them, his name was Joe, I think, joked that I should sleep with him just for the adventure of something different than married sex, I shot back, only if he paid me. That made his friends laugh; we all laughed."

Something slides accross the table and falls in my lap. I pick it up. An envelope with a Holiday Inn Logo on it. "What's this?"

She answers me with silence.

As the silence drags on getting awkward, I tear it open. "Sarah, there must be three or four hundred dollars here. What..."

"Three hundred and thirty seven dollars and seventy three cents. It is all they had between them and five dollars one stole from the tip left on the table next to us when I said they didn't have enough."

"I lean closer, you did it." He..."

She looks up at me, her eyes looking away from mine. "Not just Joe, all three of them." Then softer: "I did everything they wanted."

"Sarah Beth, you did what?"

Sarah taps her forehead head on the table three times before running her fingers through her black hair pulling it tight then letting it go. "Ohhh, I don't know what I was thinking...I never meant for it to happen, I don't do things like that. We were just joking and having fun. First the kissing contest, then the joke about money. I planned on leaving, just slipping away." She covers her face with her hands as she throws her head back hitting the seat of the booth behind her, then coming down to rest on her elbows -- hands still covering her face. "We started playing a game of truth or dare for the bar tab. We mixed sugar and sweet-n-low packages in a hat: if you drew out a sugar package you had to answer a question, draw out a sweet-n-low you had to complete a dare. Skip one and you had to pay the bill. The guys got the first dares so when mine came up, I kept playing along. One thing led to another; we kept playing and talking about how easy the game was because we didn't know each other and no one knew us here. I kept telling myself it's ok, Nobody would know, what if, don't we all have things we wished we did. Just do it, what does it matter.

It was like I was a teenager again, and I don't remember when I had so much fun. God I was drunk, but I remember everything. It was the last dare I took to let them take my picture with my own camera that set everything out of control. I don't know how I let it happen...I never would do those things...not the dares, not sleep with a stranger...three of them, and I did it, no one made me. I've never been with anyone but Bob, and now.

Getting up and moving over beside her, I interrupt before she can continue, “You are not going to tell Bob anything...ever...except that you are pregnant; look, you two are married and it is not like you haven't talked about having kids, sure you two wanted to wait 'till he made partner and had more time, but, this is now....it might be his anyway why mess up your life. Live it now. It isn't like he would even question it.”

We stared at each other. I pushed the envelope back to her. "Keep it," she said. I could see the possibility take root and the lives of the strangers at the restaurant went on around us oblivious to our secret and us theirs.


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I reach into my purse to get my billfold. The casual reach for the old soft leather turns to rummaging...Great. A memory of setting the billfold down at the beauty salon so that I could pick up a few things I had dropped flashes in an instant of remembrance. A desperate frustration sets in at not having the money to pay for gas as well as for the missing cell phone still attached to my billfold's outer pocket.

The envelope in the side of my purse brings a silent sigh -- Sarah's money. Pulling the thick wad of bills free from the envelope, I thumb through them, pulling out a twenty dollar bill. As I put the money back into the envelope, a tiny blue memory card, resting with some change, catches my eye. I pause. Texas?

Are these Sarah's? The envelope had been sealed at lunch...If this is Sarah's Texas pictures then she might be frantic if she knows she lost them. Maybe it is empty. Not remembering my phone is not with me, I reach for it to call her. Damm, it's at the salon.

Pumping the gas and the drive across town to the salon to pick up my billfold and phone is a blur. My mind is distracted. Is my billfold still at the salon... Are these Sarah's pictures from the dare in Texas...Surely she deleted them, what if Bob found them? A horn blares from behind me in a long shout for my attention. It's still red I think for an instant before realizing I am at a stop sign. I wave a half hearted sorry in the air to the driver behind me who can't hear my appology.

As I walk into the salon, Alice smiles resting her hand on her Hip. "Forget something?” she asks me before reaching for my billfold, which is setting on a shelf beside her station. "I was wondering how long it would take you to come back. I tried to call you but..."

"I know, you had my phone too. Thanks for hanging on to it for me."

"I half hoped you'd forget about it I would get a new iphone. By the way, how'd your husband like your hair?"

"He hasn't seen it yet, he won't be home till late again tonight."

The salon is bustling with people. The chatter of everyone talking at the same time mixes with the acrid smell of hairspray and drying perms. A young girl runs between Alice and me. "Sorry," her mother waiting in Alice's chair says, as she fusses with her daughter to sit down and wait for her to get finished.

"I'll let you know, what he thinks." The little girl runs by again her brother chasing quickly behind her while going, "tickle bug, tickle bug," as his sister giggles. I smile at the two of them having fun and feel jealous of the young mother. "I better let you get back to work."

Half watching the two kids and not looking where I am going as I head out the door, I almost bump into an older lady entering at the same time. "Excuse me," I say softly, turning to let her by. I draw the cell phone from its pocket as I let the lady in before I go out. One Missed Call Sliding my fingers over the button, I clear Alice's call from the screen. I bring up Sarah's number and call her to tell her about the memory card. There is a long pause as the phone connects...rings, ring, ring...no one answers, but the voice mail chimes to life. I hang up, wanting to talk to Sarah in person, and not leave a message for her to explain to Bob if he is around when she gets it.

Sitting in the parking lot, I tap my fingers on the steering wheel. I chew on my bottom lip closing my eyes trying to make up my mind what to do. My cheeks feel warm and my stomach fills queasy as I reach into my purse to take the memory card out of the envelope... what is on there? I take a deep breath through my nose and with trembling fingers slide the card into the phone's card slot. The folder shows 140 pictures and 8 video clips. I click on a random picture.

Sarah's face stared back at me. She was looking over her shoulder, a laughing smile giving her a warm glow accented by rosy cheeks. The night is empty except for Sarah and the unseen photographer capturing her in mid-motion; the neon of a distant sign casts a reflection in the wet street. The flash from the camera over lights a street sign making it unreadable. She stands near the sign, a parking lot just off to her right past the end of a brick building, and her dress hiked up showing off her rainbow striped panties.

I skip a few pictures, and Sarah's face is not staring back, but looking at the ground; her hair is blurred flying above her head. The street sign is still unreadable, just a bright green light. The photographer must have kneeled down because the angle of the shot had changed. I was looking up from down low. The street looked darker without the neon splashing in the wet street. Sarah had bent forward slightly, both hands out of focus as they moved down her hips. Her dress, still hiked high, showed her legs. The dress barely covered her rainbow panties. I could feel more than make out that she was pulling down her underwear.

I click another picture; an arm pokes out from behind the corner of the building dangling a black bra. Sarah's underwear is lying on the ground where she was moments before.

I click again, the black bra hangs from the street sign, her underwear is still on the ground, and the same arm holds out a black dress that is caught by the wind so that it is blurred.

I bite my lip trying to decide if to select a video, another picture, or quit looking at Sarah's personal pictures.

My hand trembling, I click next. A street light dimly lights a parking lot half full of cars. The light casts shadows from a nearby tree. Streaking on tiptoes, out of focus, is a dark haired girl running with her black dress clutched in one hand, the other arm wrapped tightly around her breasts...Sarah, she is not alone in the lot. Off to the side, a couple of guys are looking towards her.

The next picture is inside a car; the flash illuminates the interior bouncing off the passenger window. From the angle of the picture, the photographer must be outside the car. Part of the door is in view; it is open allowing a vertical shot of the tan leather back interior with Sarah leaning against the opposite door, one foot up in the seat and the other leg stretched out in the floorboard closest to the camera. I could just make out she was naked, her black dress is draped across her covering her chest and waist, but leaving the neckline and legs bare to see right up to Sarah’s most intimate parts. She clutched the dress, on arm angled across her breasts, hand resting on her shoulder, the other angled down, hand on her hip. Her mouth was open wide, her eyes squinted closed full of laughter.

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Excitement creeps into by breath shorting each one, my heart is racing, both palms are sweaty and my fingers tremble slightly. Nervous gitters make my stomach slightly queasy. I knew Sarah had slept with three guys in Texas, and that she had let one of them take some pictures of her with her own camera as part of a dare, but here they were, a memory card full of pictures and a few video clips displayed on my iphone ready to watch. I can't help myself but look. The thrill of peeking into something private carries me away.

With a tap the first video plays: She is in the back seat of the car I had seen her streaking to in a photo moments earlier. I am looking at her from just outside the car. The open rear door is in the left hand side of the frame. Sarah is leaning against the passenger door, laughing and squiring in the back seat. Her black dress is draped across her, it barley covers her nakedness. The light of the car's open door illuminates her with a slightly yellow cast. "I made it to the car, which was the dare...I win, I win..." She was laughing to hard to continue.

"I can't believe you did that," came an unseen guy's voice, also laughing. “How about a victory shot for posterity.”

Sarah tugged at her dress covering herself a little better. “What, you didn’t get an eye full on my way here?”

"No, I was to busy being shocked, and chasing after you to get a good picture for you to keep as a memento of your adventure."

"Your loss, the final dare for the bar tab was to streak to my car, and here I am. Close the door so I can get dressed."

"No..." the word was drawn out with laughter. When will you ever get this chance again...When will I. Let's see a little skin, do you want to give me a peek?" Sarah was laughing, "Come, on," the guy's voice continued, "Justa little peek?"

"Ben, Tom, are you going to get your picture with me?" Sarah's hand slides from her hip to between her legs as she pulls her foot on the floorboard back towards her. She twists from the passenger door to lean against the middle of the back seat; her legs spread wide as she turns allowing full view down her legs to her hand which barley covers herself, allowing tufts of black hair to peak out. Both of them got into the car, one on each side of her and closed the door. “You'll have to take our picture from up front," said one of them. Sarah sat between the two guys and let her head fall back against the seat tilting it back so that her chin was to the camera...what was she thinking I wondered. She let go of her dress letting it fall around her waist as she put out her arms around the necks of the guys. Both guys were grinning, leering at her breasts. Sarah was athletic and 15 years past a teenager but she still had retained much of the figure of her youth.

Her head was resting against the rim of the back window again, the tilting back of her head lifted her petite bust line, and smoothed her stomach. Was she thinking about what she was doing, or was she drunk and the alcohol getting to her. Was she passing out...I couldn't tell. I watched her stay there for a moment, the guys on each side of her admiring her and the camera panning her slowly. Sarah raised her head, and turned slowly towards the guy on her left, moving her arm from behind the guy on her right as she turned slightly. She placed her hand on his knee and leans into him with a kiss. The motion lifts her bottom slightly from the seat as she shifts her weight more to her side. The kiss was long and as she was kissing one guy, her back was bare to the other man beside her. His eyes run down her, then back up. The kiss ends, and no one speaks, she was staring into his eyes breathing hard. He moves towards her and kisses her again, this time his hand touching her bare side. The kiss lingers longer and longer, their tongues dancing together, his hand sliding to her breast cupping it, then releasing it to explore her back up to her neck and down to her bottom. The other guy watching, reaches out and touches her between her shoulder and neck. He shiftes his hand up running it through her hair.

Sarah turns towards the other guy now running his fingers through the back of her hair, and kisses him. Between kiss and tongue she says, “There are some condoms in my purse.” The clip ends with the kiss and I stare at the iphone for an instant before wetting my dry lips and selecting the next clip.

The video opens to Sarah stretched out on a bed arms over her head, elbows out and hands lightly holding each other. Both legs are bent over the edge of the bed, feet not quite touching the floor. She looks like she had just fallen into bed. Her eyes are covered with a maroon necktie. Her breasts were rising and falling with each deep excited breath. "What do you want me to do now?" I couldn't tell how drunk she was, her words weren't slurred.

"Pull your knees back," came a male voice. Sarah paused only a moment before pulling her knees back towards her. The movement gave the camera a clear shot of her pussy, even in the small video playback; I can see she was wet and excited. As the camera moves closer, I can see creamy white cum running out of her. "Now roll over," he said. She rolled over onto her knees, the side of her face on the bed, her arms still stretched out over her head.

“What do you want me to do now?” Sarah was swaying her ass slowly. A guy came into view. He checked his watch, then sat on the bed. He was holding a pair of headphones.

“Give us a show,” he says as he slips the headphones over her head, and lays the ipod next to her. He pushes a button, her slow swaying changes to a rhythmic rocking. The rhythm begins in her hips and moves up to her shoulders. She pulls her arms back lifting herself slightly from the bed, so that her nipples are just rubbing the bedspread.

A knock came, but Sarah keeps moving to the unheard music; her fingers dipping in between her legs. The camera jerks around hastily as someone moves it to the nightstand. I can still see Sarah on the bed, now with someone setting next to her and playing with her hair, but the angle has changed so that now I can see the door cracked open and two other guys in the room. One was leaning against the wall, the other against the cracked door looking out and talking to someone outside. I can’t quite make out what they are saying. The door opens and a young man, in his teens or early twenties, holding a pizza enters. He has short cropped blond hair and a green un-tucked polo shirt. Sarah is in full view fingering herself on the bed to the music only she can hear. He stands there staring, and looks around for a moment until one of the guys takes the Pizza from him and hands him something. “Damm, he mouths the word more than you can hear it.” The guy on the bed runs his hand up Sarah’s back and motions to the teen now standing in the room at the foot of the bed. He comes closer and touches Sarah. She keeps moving on the bed not flinching from the touch she can’t see, but moves against it, towards it. Sarah…Does she know there is someone else in the room? He moves his hand between her legs, and their fingers touch each other’s before she lets his fingers slide across her and into her. He moves his other hand to her lower back, hand half closed, fingers holding a small package. Sarah arches her back and presses herself into his hand. He unbuckles his belt and lets his black pants and red boxers fall around his ankles. The package in his hand goes to his mouth and he tears the condom wrapper open.

He presses himself into her and she pushes back moaning. Both of his hands grips her hips and he trusts hard twice before moving his hands up to her breasts pinching her nipples until she moans again from pleasure or pain. The guy sitting next to her takes a slice of pizza and feeds a bite to Sarah. In the nightstand mirror, I make out the other two guys eating pizza too. One of them is holding his cell phone. a picture…he is taking pictures too..

My phone rang and I answered it, “Hello.”