Midnight Rain by Jettie Woodruff

We walked out of one elevator and into another one. “We’re so dead,” I worried.

  “No we’re not. He won’t tell.”

  “I bet he does.”

  Janie and I argued about it all the way up, and then we were both nervous.

  “Man, oh man, oh man, oh man,” she panicked, looking everywhere. “It’s gone. He must have found it! Crap!”

  “Oh my God. That’s it. We’re broken up.”

  “We have to go get it.”

  “What? No we don’t! No way, Janie. What are you going to do, knock on the door and ask if you can have the video of him fingering his wife back? You’re just asking for trouble.”

  “Fine, Blake. Be a pussy all your life, I don’t care, but I have to get it back.”

  “Why? I’ll buy you another one.”

  “I’m getting it back.”

  “Fine, Janie. Fine. I’ll have your back one more time to keep you from getting murdered, but that’s it. I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore. We need a break.”

  “Like for real? You’re breaking up with me?”

  “Yes, I can’t take it. I’m too young for all of these heart attacks. We’re too young to be this exclusive. We can hang out at the theater.”

  “You’re breaking up with me because my camera got ripped off and I want it back?”

  “No. I’m breaking up with you because you’re so Goddamn immature.”

  “Fine, I’m over your complaining all the time anyway. I want a dreamer like me. You go play it safe with some safe girl.”

  “Jesus, Janie, not so hard,” I ordered when she beat on the door at the end of the hall with everything in her. The girl had a death wish.

  As soon as Drew Kelley opened the door our eyes went to the television set. The camera was hooked to it, but it wasn’t anyone being scared by a moving snowman. It was Janie. No wonder she wanted the tape back. She was standing naked in her bedroom and she was talking to me.

  “Yeah, so since I was too embarrassed to do this in front of you the other day, I thought I would do it like this. It kind of hurt my feelings when I caught you looking at that Playboy magazine, like I wasn’t enough for you. You teased me and said that’s because you’re not naked. Well, this is me, giving it all to you. This is me naked in the front, this is me naked in the back, and this is me—”

  “Turn it off!” Janie yelled, ripping past Drew and to her camera. Cables were torn from the television and the tape was removed. Janie lifted the flap and jerked the film out by the foot.

  “Janie, I’m sorry. It just started.”

  “There, now there’s nothing on it. We’re both off the hook.”

  “Janie, I rewound it to the beginning. I didn’t know.”

  “Whatever, it’s done,” the plastic tape clanged against the metal can and Janie stormed out. I apologized again and went after her.

  “Janie, stop.”

  “No, are you happy now? You can say it. Say it, Blake. Tell me how I deserved that, how it should teach me a lesson. Say I told you so, Blake.”

  “Janie, I don’t want to say that. I want to say thank you,” I said, grabbing her arm and turning her.

  “You do?”

  “Yes, I just wish you would have given it to me.”

  “I was going to make you one for your birthday. That piece was going to be added to the back.”

  “I love that you did that for me. And, no. I wasn’t looking at that because I don’t think you’re enough, I did it because Wayne shoved it in my backpack and it was there. I would much rather look at you.”

  “You would?”

  “Yes. Any day. Now get in this elevator so I can kiss you all the way down.”

  “Just kiss?”

  “Oh my God. Yes. I’ve had enough close calls for one night.”

  “That wasn’t a close call. We got busted.”

  I kissed Janie until we felt the elevator slow. “So, do you want to be my boyfriend? Mine broke up with me,” she teased, taking my hand.

  I followed her out, “Are you serious? What idiot would do that? Of course I want to be your boyfriend.”

  Eight

  “Wow. I didn’t know it was going to turn X-rated,” I teased, smiling at Blake.

  “I didn’t either, not until Pea fell asleep anyway. I was planning on just telling her about how Janie was always the practical joker, but that’s how it happened.”

  “Put her to bed,” I nodded toward the tent opening and narrowed my eyes. Blake read me well; he knew exactly what I wanted. I was already on my feet when he left the tent, walking toward the stairs with a sway in my hips. Blake followed.

  By the time we made it to our empty room, I was butt naked. Blake locked the door behind him and pulled me into his arms. Lifting his shirt over his head, our bodies collided with magic and I moaned. My mind went to what Blake and Janie watched in that elevator and it played like a movie. I knew those two from around the hotel, they had a couple little boys when I saw them. He was smoking hot and she matched with her own female kind of hot. I stared at them one afternoon while Pea and I had lunch in the restaurant. That was before Blake and me, but it didn’t keep me from fantasizing about us being in love like that, and that was when I still thought he was a dick. Maybe I was always in love with Blake.

  He spun me to the closed door. The extra support was appreciated when he worked his way down my body. My breath caught when he clasped his teeth around my puckered bead, and then soothed it with his lips. The light squeezes and caresses to both my breasts worried me momentarily, I was afraid that he was going to feel it, I just about moved his hand when he did it himself. Warm kisses trailed with his tongue down my body and to my groin.

  “Blake, I can’t do this standing up,” I rasped, parting my right leg for him. What the hell? I didn’t mean to do that. It didn’t matter. My pleas went unnoticed and Blake continued with his assault. His lips circled the pulsating nub, and he sucked, lightly at first and then harder.

  “Did you do it, Blake?” I asked in panting, erratic breaths.

  Blake knew exactly what I was saying. “The elevator? With Janie?” He asked, looking up. I sucked on my top lip when I felt him slide two fingers in. His thumb circled my clit, and our eyes locked. “Yes, many times,” he admitted. I closed my eyes and imagined we were in the same scenario. I wanted Blake to do that to me. I wanted all the same hot steamy romances that he had with Janie. I had it; I just needed more time with it. There was no way I had experienced it all. I knew that for sure. A month ago I would have never stood before him like this; at the mercy of his mouth and tongue, but now I couldn’t get enough.

  After a mind blowing orgasm, I dropped to my knees to return the favor. Blake leaned back on his knees and let me have my way. The way he was positioned, the way he held my hair back in a makeshift ponytail, and the way he pushed down on my head while his hips moved up was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced in my life. The throb between my legs increased tenfold and I sucked hard. That was the granddaddy of blow-jobs. I gave it all I had.

  “Oh God. Stop, Makayla,” Blake begged, bucking his hips from my mouth. “I said stop!” he gritted in an angry tone. I didn’t like it and I sure as hell didn’t like the look in his eyes. Where the hell was this coming from? It was like a light was flipped and Blake was angry. What the hell. Or was he?

  “Turn around, baby,” he whispered with nothing but love in his eyes. Did I just imagine that? Although Blake did well to recover the hint of anger, I still felt it. I felt it in his hips and I felt it in his hands. He didn’t say I love you the way he always did, and it was over quickly. In that one positon.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you sorry for not getting me off again or for getting angry with me?” I asked point blank. It would have eaten me alive had I let it marinate all night.

  “I wasn’t angry at you. I was getting ready to shoot my load in your mouth and I wanted you to stop. I’m sorry for that too, if that’s how you felt. I didn’t mean it that
way. I love you.”

  I rolled my eyes and fell to the floor, letting Blake fall with me. We lay that way for a long time, naked and entwined on the new carpet with no furniture. I was never going to get furniture because Blake was never going to take us. We would be camping in a tent until the theater was done.

  “Does it bother you to talk about her? I feel like I can feel the connection between you two when you talk about her.”

  “It doesn’t bother me so much now. I guess I like the idea of Pea knowing her.”

  “Do you think it’s weird telling me about your sex life with her?”

  Blake snorted and sat up, “I don’t tell you that. You get a glance. I don’t think it’s weird, I mean it’s not like you knew her. I’m going to go shower.”

  “Blake?” I questioned when he walked away.

  “Yeah?”

  “I feel like something is bothering you. You always make me shower with you.”

  “I’m sorry, love. Come on. I’m just tired.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, it’s not you, it’s the theater. I promise. I’m tired. Get your ass in here.”

  I smiled and ran past him, taking a swat on my bare cheek. Maybe it was me because he seemed fine after that. We even had another quickie downstairs in the den. The built in desk was the perfect height and that time Blake did take care of me too, twice. I lay in his arms in the tent beside Pea and dozed off happy and relieved.

  Blake spent the entire next day with us at our home and we had a blast. The empty rooms made the perfect play-place. We skated in our socks across the floor, pretending it was ice. We walked through the imaginary zoo upstairs, climbed the waterfall steps to the rain forest, and we ate alligator over the fire. The entire Sunday was filled with fun and games with Pea, and flirting and kissing Blake. The day ended with another story about Janie. That’s the only ones Pea wanted to hear. I left him to it, and soaked in my new tub. I didn’t have oily bubbles, but the shampoo worked almost as good. It felt good to soak and relax. My muscles were sore and achy from all the pretending.

  I was surprised when I joined Blake and Pea that he was out of it with Pea asleep cuddled in his arms. I took a picture with my phone and posted it to Blake’s wall. Cutest thing ever. Deciding I wasn’t tired yet, I walked out to the patio, trying like hell to ignore the ink pen on the bar.

  “Oh hell,” I quietly said, taking the pen with me.

  I walked out armed and dangerous with a fountain pen and a happy heart. That was short lived and one line went down my arm. The feather was born this time, thinking about my mom. She would be so happy for me now. The whole situation sucked and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing. I thought about my mom, and how I wished she was here too. Had the circumstances been different, I think my mom and Sarah would have been best friends. I knew she would have loved Grace. You couldn’t help but love Grace.

  “You’ve been at it a while. You okay?”

  My pen continued to loop the A at the end of Pea’s name. The name London was made into a bridge and Pea followed, rippling with a wave just below it.

  “I’m fine. Just wishing I could introduce you to my mom.”

  “Come here,” Blake persuaded, taking my hand.

  We moved to the chaise lounge and I slid between his legs. “Do you ever miss your dad? You never talk about him.”

  “I miss him a lot. I wish I could introduce you to him too. He would love you.”

  “Tell me about that night, Blake. You’ve never told me. You never talk about him. You were only seventeen, right?”

  “Yeah, I just turned seventeen. Let’s go to bed.”

  “I don’t want to, I want you tell me about your dad. What happened?”

  “I told you what happened. He drove drunk. He killed himself.”

  Blake’s fingers traced mine while he tried to get out of it. I wasn’t letting him.

  “You’re very angry about that, aren’t you?”

  “Do we have to do this?”

  “No, but it is something I wish you would share with me. Where were you?”

  Blake took a long breath and wrapped his arms around me. “I was with Janie.”

  ***

  “What about this? Do you like this?” Janie asked, pressing the rack of dresses toward the back.

  “Yes, I love it. I love all of them. Will you pick one? Please? We’re going to miss the movie.”

  “I don’t want to go to the movies anymore.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No. I want to go back to your place. Your mom’s in Tennessee and your dad’s at that Christmas benefit. Let’s go there. We’ll order pizza and watch a movie. I’m kind of tired.”

  “You’re always tired, and that’s going to make your clothes fall off.”

  Janie laughed and spun in a dance circle to my lips, “I love you.”

  “I love you too. You’re very pretty in blue. It brings out the turquoise in your eyes.”

  “Really? You like me in blue?”

  “I do. A lot.”

  “Okay, fine. Let’s go get the first one we looked at.”

  “You mean the first one we looked at an hour ago. Are you serious?”

  “Stop being a baby. You want my clothes to fall off, don’t you?”

  “Oh, most definitely. Come on.”

  After buying the dress with Holden’s credit card, Janie was all set for the Christmas show. I would possibly wear a blue cummerbund, but that could change. Janie changed her mind more than she changed the color of her finger and toe nails, and that was a lot.

  I drove us back to my house and we hung out in my room, watching television, eating pizza and doing very dirty things to each other. We were just getting ready to walk out to the pool when the house phone rang.

  “Hey, mom. How’s the in-laws?”

  “You mean your Uncle Tim and your grandpa?”

  “Yeah, those people,” I teased, snapping a towel at Janie’s ass. Damn I loved her ass in that bikini.

  “What are you doing? Did you go to the movie with Janie?”

  “No, we just ordered pizza and stayed home.”

  “Janie is at the house, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, mom. What are you so worried about? We’re not going to do anything we haven’t done before. We’re careful, stop worrying.”

  “That doesn’t make it okay. You’re seventeen.”

  It didn’t shock her mommy nerves with the fact that we had sex when we were fourteen. It was best to let her think that time she walked in on us a couple months back was the first time. It was better left to that.

  “Whatever, would you rather I be at Wayne’s? He’s having a party while his parents are away. I could go there if you’d rather.”

  “Stop it. Behave yourself. Have you talked to your father?”

  “No, should I?”

  “No, I just tried to call him. He didn’t answer.”

  “He’s probably at a party.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Okay, behave. I’ll see you in two days.”

  “Okay, tell everyone I said hey.”

  “I will. Be careful taking Janie home.”

  “I will. See ya.”

  “I love you, Blake.”

  “Love you too, Mom.”

  Hanging up the phone, I turned to look for Janie. “I thought we were going swimming?” I questioned, seeing her eyes closed on the couch. She was curled into a little ball with the blanket pulled over her sexy bikini. Damn.

  “Let’s just watch television. I don’t feel well. I think the mushrooms were bad.”

  “Are you sure you’re not pregnant? You get sick every time we eat.”

  “Come over here. You can have the remote.”

  “Maybe it’s after sex, you’re either getting sick after sex or after we eat.”

  “Maybe, rub my feet.”

  I sat at the end of the sofa and rubbed her feet while she controlled the remote. I hated Lizzy McGuire. Hated! Why did she watch this shit?


  “Come on, Janie Lynn. Turn it.”

  “Hang on.”

  “I’m not rubbing your feet for Lizzy McGuire. Turn it to Family Guy.”

  “No way. I hate that show.”

  “I hate this show.”

  I moved her feet when the cordless rang again. That one would be my dad, calling to check on us. I swear they treated me like I was twelve instead of seventeen.

  “Yes, dad. I’m home and Janie is here too. I’ll have her home by eleven and come straight home.”

  “Could I speak with Grace Coast, please?”

  “She’s out of town. Can I take a message,” I asked, looking at the clock. Who the hell called after nine at night? The voice was serious, but not one I knew.

  “This is David Sanders, I’m a detective with the New York Police Department. Is there a number I can reach Mrs. Coast on?”

  “Why do you want her?” I probed. Why was the police department calling for my mom?

  “Who am I speaking with?”

  “Her son, Blake Coast.”

  “Blake, your father had an accident. He’s been taken to Queens Med Center.”

  “Is he okay? What happened?”

  “He lost control of his car just north of Rego Park, he hit a tree.”

  “I’ll call my mom and be there in twenty minutes. Tell him I love him and to hang in there. We’re coming.”

  “Blake? What is it?” Janie asked worriedly.

  “My dad. Go get dressed, Janie. He was in a wreck.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know. They didn’t say, they just said he was taken to Queens Med Center.”

  I ran up the stairs and waited for Janie. “Janie come on.”

  “I’m coming,” she panted, out of breath and sat on my bed to pull on her jeans. I knew she didn’t feel good, but I didn’t have time for that. I jerked the hoodie over her head and pulled her down the steps and to my car.

  “What did they say? Tell me something, Blake,” Janie begged.

  “Put your seatbelt on. I don’t know anything, that’s all they said. Dial my mom,” I ordered. I was driving seventy two in a thirty five zone. My eyes needed to stay on the road.

  “Blake, it’s not going to do any good for us to get into an accident too. Slow down. Calm down. I’m sure he’s fine.”