October to October

{Chapter Twenty-Two}

     It was eleven pm, and the entire house was dark. This was unusual for the purple Victorian as usually there was a large group of Henry's friends hanging around and listening or playing music. Henry wasn't singing terrible opera, or Wren wasn't yelling at him from downstairs to shut up. 

  There was nothing except a small light on in the tower where Lauren laid on the pile of blankets with Joan on her side next to her as the two passionately kissed. Lauren came over at ten as planned, and they started a movie upstairs. At first they were innocently sitting next to one another on the floor with their backs against the windows of the tower. Then suddenly they were lying down beside one another. Twenty minutes in Joan held out her hand, and Lauren had laced her fingers again with Joan's.

  "Do you mind if I...?" Joan whispered as she stopped kissing Lauren for a moment, and her hand lingering questioningly on the top of Lauren's waist.

  "No," Lauren said without a moment of thought.

  Joan ran her hand over Lauren's small right breast; she worried about most of her life about her body, and being too small, but it didn't seem to matter. She felt her body respond in a way that was new to her, and she felt scared for a moment, but she relaxed as Joan's hand softly caressed. 

  There was no erratic grabbing like with Jake. This was gentle, and sensual. Lauren touched Joan's hair; it was very soft and as always smelled like green apple. It fell on to Lauren's face and shoulders. Her own red hair was startling against the pale pink pillow. Joan jokingly said Lauren looked like the Little Mermaid.

  A few minutes later Joan was on top of her, and they were kissing so intensely that Lauren knew something was about to happen. It had to. They were going too far. She wanted it to happen. It wasn't like with Jake where she worried, and she tried to wiggle out of it. She'd never felt so sexually charged in her life, but she was still scared. Was she ready to go that far? 

  Joan was now kissing Lauren's neck, and her hand was running down Lauren's stomach to her thigh. Lauren knew where the fingers were going.

  "I don't know," Lauren said suddenly as she felt Joan's finger tips stray by the edge of her skirt.

  "Okay," Joan said quietly, and she drew her hand away.

  The look on Joan's eyes made Lauren want to strip off her sweater. She'd never been looked at in such a raw, passionate way. Instead they went back to kissing; slowing down, but it seemed even sexier somehow. Joan was heavy on top of her, and Lauren ran her hand down Joan's back over and over. It felt so nice to lie there with their bodies occasionally pushing against one another. 

  Lauren stopped herself from moaning while Joan occasionally made a little sound, and every time Lauren would feel shivers go up her body.

  Lauren's phone rang around eleven. It was her Mom.

  "Hello?" Lauren knew better than to let her mother go to voicemail. Joan was lying on her side next to her; looking at her hands.

  "Where are you? It's our movie night. We're waiting for you."

  "I forgot," Lauren said honestly.

  "We were just talking about it at dinner."

  "I wasn't listening, I'm sorry."

  "So you just tune out your family?"

  "I had something on my mind," Lauren said; not catching Joan's eye.

  "Well, are you coming home? We have the movie waiting."

  "Yeah, I'll be there. I'm at Joan's."