Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Charley's Kiss (Rerun)

I need literary feedback on this one. I have ran it before awhile back and have been working on a small book around the character, Craig.

Charley had never before left with a man. Not from a bar anyway. She had always been able to peel away from any potential suitor. She had had plenty of advice from her three older sisters and from a couple of the older girls in the dorm. She had the usual advice of always go in parties of at least three, never take your eyes off your drink, always drink from a bottle, and most importantly always be nice but have a good excuse why you have to go home. You have a test in the morning; your folks are in town and you’re meeting them for breakfast; you’re a Mormon and aren’t supposed to drink and you sure and heck have no intentions of complicating matters by sleeping with a non-Mormon. Unless you know the guy well, never step out for air with him without telling one of your buds where you’re going and when you expect to be back.

Charley wasn’t afraid of guys and she certainly wasn’t a virgin but she was naïve and inexperienced. Most of her boy/girl encounters were with boys she had grown up with in her small rural community in Oregon. She had known every boy in her graduating class since she was five or six years old except Steve Cooper, who had moved to Falls City when she was a junior in high school. She had experienced puppy love with several of the boys in her class but she had never done anything more than hold their hands or kiss, until she had met Steve.

Steve had swooped her off her feet when he first moved to town the summer before they were in the eleventh grade. He had all the characteristics a high school girl wanted in a boy; he was tall, athletic, and cute, he had a car and was new in town. He spotted her before she had ever noticed there was a new kid in school. By the second football game of the year they were the hottest topic at school and they stayed that way until she left for college in the big city. When they both went off to school they promised to write and see each other during breaks. The promise was met until spring break their freshman year then the letters stopped and the going home for breaks rarely happened. They both had found their ways through early adulthood, new friends, new likes and new life styles.

Steve does call on the rare occasion after he has had too many beers with his frat buddies and after the newest girl has told him to take a flying hike. Their flame had long burned out.

Tonight was an exception. She had met Craig at Cooper’s Night Club and she melted instantly. She hadn’t had this feeling for a guy since she first met Steve. Craig had many of the same characteristics as Steve, tall, says he’s on the baseball team and without a doubt he was drop dead gorgeous. For extra measure he seemed sweet and humble. When the guys from his table joshed him about dancing with her she noticed behind his dimpled smile his face turning red and his eyes dropping to the floor. He told her he was from a small logging town in northern California and only went to college because he had promised his mother on her deathbed that he would.

He wasn’t a good dancer and he was too quiet to talk with in the noisy club but he was as gentlemanly as Charley could ask for. When she spoke he looked her straight in the eye and without hesitation in his face he listened to her intently.

Out of character and ever so slightly, she made the first move. She moved her chair closer to his as to hear him better. The closer she moved her chair the more their knees pushed against each other’s. As they talked and danced through the evening Charley kept thinking to herself that she may have finally found the right one. He wasn’t full of himself like most frat boys she had met her first two years at Willamette. His boyish small town charm had captured her from the beginning.

Each of their groups of friends had moved further on in their drinking then Charley and Craig. They eventually found themselves sitting alone together at a separate table then their friends. They told their friends they were moving to get away from the noise and the smoke.

The band got louder and the smoke thicker. Charley leaned closer to Craig’s ear and asked if he’d like to step out and get some air. He sat back smiled and seemed reluctant to be too much alone with her. He was either playing hard to get or he was overwhelmingly shy. He finally said yes and the two of them grabbed their coats and stepped outside. Charley watched the table of her friends; none of the ladies seemed to notice the two leaving.

The street outside of Cooper’s was quiet with few cars driving by and a smattering of couples walking across the street. The two walked without saying a word for the first block or two before Charley told him she was cold. And like a gentlemen he took his coat off and wrapped it around her and then put his right arm around her shoulders. Charley laid her head on him and they walked and said little. They stopped in front of the Book Bin, a used bookstore and looked at the calendar displays in the window and talked about some of the books they had read either for assignments or for pleasure. Craig had few he had read for leisure. The usual guy books about sport legends and mystical stories.

When they began to walk back towards Cooper’s Craig ever so gently led her into an alley. They stopped only a few steps from the main street with plenty of lighting, but out of the way. He had obviously been too shy to face her where someone else could see them. They both stood looking into each other’s eyes smiling and silent.

He broke the silence by saying he’d have to kiss her if she kept smiling. She thought how corny but sweet his first line was. She knew she had Mr. Right, corny lines, shy to the fault, good listener and cute beyond cute. She naturally smiled.

Craig gently put his hands on the sides of Charley’s face and covered her lips with the warmest soft lips she had ever imagined. She melted, surrendering into him as they kissed she fell further into him. Soon her body was securely and happily pinned between Craig and the brick alley wall. Her arms moving up and down his warm strong back, up and down his front. His kisses took her further away. Somewhere she had never been, somewhere safe, comfortable, and exciting. Her body was surrendering, she wanted him, she wanted him to take her somewhere and fill her.

Their tongues began to greet each other; their caresses explored more. Their breathing had become more hurried, deeper. Craig had moved his lips from her mouth allowing her fresh air. He began to gently kiss her neck. Charley had never relaxed enough with anyone to allow them to kiss her behind the ear, on the shoulder on the neck. She began to moan; she thought she would lose herself in the alley with their clothes on. She was warm wet and wanting throughout her whole body. Craig continued being a gentleman, never exploring areas of temptation, but she wanted him to. She wanted him to take her now.

The kisses on the neck turned into small bites that first tingled then began to slightly hurt but she wanted them. Bite me she thought bite me. The bite seemed deeper, harder, more surrender poured from her. She felt his hand on her breast; he began to play with her right nipple, rolling it between his forefinger and thumb. His left hand firmly grasped her butt as he pulled her into him. She could feel his hardness throbbing through his jeans his bite grew stronger.

“Don't be shy, Craig. What ever you want”, Charley quietly whispered in his ear. She grew ever so weak ever so dark. “Please,” she whispered as she slowly slid down the wall to consume her last breath of air. Her last vision in life was Craig’s sated face, his eyes now dark and eternal his mouth dripping with the last pumped blood of Charley.