Snowed in Together (10 page)

"'Course not." I knew she wouldn't want to do anything behind his back. Part me hoped she would anyway.

Or? Maybe later, after she talked to him, after she broke up with him? Was that what she was trying to say? My pulse quickened. If only! Maybe I should
ask
her if that's what she meant. But how? "You're right, Ellyce. You wouldn't want to--"

"Hi, guys!" Tiffany stuck her head into the nurse's office. She was carrying a candlestick and wearing a mischievous smile. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Nothing!" Ellyce said too quickly. She grabbed a pile of blankets. "I'll take this stuff to the art room. The others'll need it." She gave me a quick, embarrassed smile, and was out the door.

My heart went with her.

"Huh!" Tiffany said. "I didn't mean to run her off."

"What
did
you mean?" I said, grinding out the words between my teeth. Then I decided there was no point being mad at Tiffany. "I mean, what are you doing here?"

Tiffany shrugged. "I had to go to the lav and, as long as I was down here anyway, I thought I'd see if you guys needed some help. With the blankets."

Tiffany fingered the remaining pile of blankets and pillows, but didn't pick up any. Instead, she winked and crooked her little finger at me.

I sat rooted to the cot.

"Come here, Wes." Tiffany wriggled her little finger again.

I couldn't look Tiffany in the eye. I had no problem, however, gazing at her enormous casabas. I was glad the only light in the room was from one candle. That way she couldn't see me turning bright red all over.

I slid my arms around her waist. What the hell! If I couldn't have Ellyce, why not take whatever Tiffany offered? I mean, guys are supposed to. Right? It's practically mandatory.

I edged Tiffany toward the other cot. Before I knew it, we were on it and I was halfway on top of her. She opened her mouth. Next thing, tongues were involved in an incredible duel, and suddenly every single problem I ever had seemed to melt away.

I’m not sure how long this went on before Tiffany whispered, "Oh, Wes."

Her voice jolted me. For a second I wondered what I was doing. I didn't even like Tiffany. I mean, not the way I liked Ellyce.

But. There she was, and she was so willing. Why should I resist? I slid my hand under her sweater. Blood pounded in my brain. I could just lose myself, totally forget the rest of the world.

Ellyce popped into my mind. I didn't get far with her. She wanted to stop. But. What if she wanted to Do It later, some day? Would she still, if she found out about me and Tiffany?

Too much thinking!

I ran my fingers along the lacy edge of Tiffany's bra. I was trying to figure out the fastest way to unhook the thing, when I felt a tug on my pants. Tiffany was undoing the button on my jeans! Her fingers fumbled with the fly. She sighed and whispered, "Wes."

"Wait." I heard a voice say. "Stop."

Chapter Thirteen

Turned out the voice was mine.

"What?" Tiffany whispered.

"Uh. Um. Stop. Don't do that." That was a lot harder to say this time. The first time it just came out, as much to my surprise as I'm sure it was to Tiffany's. I slid off her and brushed her hand away.

I don't know why Tiffany's fingers on my fly was such a shock to my system. I mean, sex had definitely been on my mind and that part of my body would've seriously been a major factor in the situation.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing," Tiffany huffed.

"I can't believe what I'm saying," I confessed.

"So, why say it?" Tiffany smiled sweetly and pulled my mouth over hers in a kiss.

"Mmmmph!" I yanked my lips off of hers. "’Cause I … I think we should stop."

"Why?"

"Um … because … uh …." It was hard to think with Tiffany's bra staring up at me. Part of me still wanted to bury my face in her lush warmth. But some small, yet persistent, part of my brain was telling me to stop. I fumbled with Tiffany's sweater, trying to cover her. I wasn't very good at it. I had no practice with that kind of thing.

"Sheesh," Tiffany muttered, irritation creeping into her voice. She pulled her sweater into place and sat up, almost looking prim and proper.

I sat up, too, and in an attempt to explain, took her hands in mine. She pulled them away.

"Make up your mind, Wes! Are you hot--or not?"

"Uh, well … yeah." I gulped. "But I don't want … I mean, I shouldn't …. I mean, it isn't right--"

Tiffany let out a long, loud sigh. "What are you trying to say, Wes? Is it condoms you're worried about? I bet there's some here in the nurse's office. If not, I can get my--"

"That's not it." I shook my head How could I explain without sounding as if I was nuts, which maybe I was. Maybe Tiffany was in complete control, but I wasn't sure what
I
was doing. I don’t know. Maybe I was a slave to my hormones they way Dad was a slave to beer. Maybe I wanted to use sex to forget my problems the way Dad drank to forget his. "Listen, I know guys who don't have a history as total players are practically considered abnormal
.
" I hesitated.

Tiffany seemed to be listening.

"It's just that I … I don't want to use sex … use you … for all the wrong reasons."
Dork Patrol--take me away!

"Oh," Tiffany said. She didn't sound thrilled. But she didn't sound pissed either.

"Am I making any sense at all?"

Tiffany tilted her head to one side. "I don't want to sound like something straight out of the 'Sex and You' class, but are you saying we don't always have to give in to our animal passions?" She sounded serious, but she had a sort of a gleam in her eye.

"Something like that." I shrugged. "It's me, not you, Tiffany.” Yuck. I actually used that ancient line. “I mean you're … you're …."

"Totally hot? Scorching? All that and then some?"

I grinned. "All of the above."

"So. As long as we agree on that," Tiffany said, "then whatever's right for you is okay with me."

"Thanks."

"Ya know, if a girl shows, um, how would it be phrased in 'Sex and You' class? Ah, I know. If a girl shows sexual interest in a guy, she's sometimes considered a … well … not so nice."

"
I
never thought that--"

Tiffany held up her hands. "I'm careful, you know. I insist on using protection. If a guy doesn't go along with that, he can just forget it!"

I nodded. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't used to a girl telling me about her sex life. I wasn't used to guys telling me about their sex lives either, since the guys I hung out with didn't have anything to tell.

"I'm choosy." Tiffany shook her finger at me. "I haven't done it with half the guys the rumor mill says I have." She smiled. "Much to the disappointment of several of my boyfriends."

I made a mental note to stop listening to rumors, at least about Tiffany. "I'm, um … honored that you were, uh, interested in me."

"You should be!"

We traded smiles.

Tiffany cleared her throat, then picked up a candleholder and grabbed a couple blankets. "We'd better get back to the art room. I wouldn't want to start any rumors." She laughed.

I stood up to follow her, and my pants almost fell down. I fumbled with the button, zipped, then picked up the rest of the blankets and pillows, and followed Tiffany. I figured nothing could hurt my reputation. I was so far down on the social charts at Valley Regional that I was reputationless.

But as soon as we set foot in the art room, I started to wonder. Cari and Jeff were too busy making love-sick eyes at each other to notice us, but Tony gave Tiffany kind of a weird stare. Ellyce avoided looking at me at all. Oh, great.

We quietly passed out the pillows and blankets, kept a couple for ourselves, and sat down. I tried to think. Tiffany and I hadn't been alone together all that long. It would've been a record-breaking quickie for us to have actually gone the entire distance.

Tony eyes bored holes in my head. In what I hoped was a subtle move, I nodded toward Ellyce, hoping Tony would catch my meaning that she was the one for me. It was a lot to expect from one small nod, but by the way Tony smiled I think it worked.

After a while, I ached from trying not to move. I was near the terminal stages of embarrassment because Jeff and Cari were whispering to each other, while Tony and Tiffany cuddled under a blanket wrapped around them up to their ears. They produced an assortment of moans and sighs.

I couldn't take it any more. I peeked out of the corner of my eye at Ellyce. She was peeking at me! Quickly, we both looked away.

I tried to think. One, Ellyce had been looking at me. Two, she had to have noticed what was going on with Tony and Tiffany. Three, in that case, she must've figured, correctly, that Tiffany and I had not climbed the highest mountain together.

Maybe Ellyce was uneasy because she and I had scrambled up the foothills together, so to speak. I mean, my hand had found it's way under her sweater. Maybe she wanted to forget about it.

But. Ellyce
had
been looking at me. I decided to give it another try. I took a deep breath, turned my head and stared directly into her eyes. She was looking right at me.

"I, um, I feel kinda weird." Ellyce gestured toward Jeff and Cari, then Tony and Tiffany.

“Oh?” Was that a good sign or a bad one?

"It's getting colder," Ellyce said. "I guess we should sit close together."

"To keep warm?" I said, cursing myself for sounding so practical.

"Yes. To keep warm." Ellyce slid next to me.

I put my arm around her shoulder.

She leaned her head against my chest.

I rested my chin on her head.

Okay. I was almost ready to pull her into a passionate kiss, tell her I love her and make her forget she ever met Matt Cummings. But. What if that scared her off? I settled for the semi-cozy impasse we seemed to have reached.

Ellyce didn't say a word. I had so many things I wanted to say to her, but I wondered if conversation would break the spell. At least sitting there, snuggled up with her, I could fantasize.

It wasn't long before I noticed that Ellyce's breathing had become soft and shallow. She was asleep. Asleep in my arms. I just sat there, holding her, savoring every second I had with her.

I don't know when I fell asleep.

Chapter Fourteen

When I woke up, the lights were on, the room was hot, and Ellyce was gone.

I tried to think. Had I only dreamed that Ellyce had fallen asleep in my arms? No. It had been for real.

I looked around the room. Everyone else, was still asleep, including Korman and Tenray. The heater hummed in the background. I slipped off my jacket and tried to concentrate.

Why did Ellyce take off? Where was she? It was hard to think over the sound of my worried, pounding heart. She wouldn't have done anything stupid, like try to walk for help. Maybe she was in the lav. Yeah, that was it. I let myself relax.

I gasped, panicked again. Maybe Ellyce was trying the phone again. Maybe at that exact moment she was talking to Matt!

I jumped to my feet, ran out to the hall and headed for the pay phone. What I would do when I got there, I had no idea. Grab the phone out of Ellyce's hands? Yell into the receiver that Ellyce and I had kissed? Challenge Matt to a duel?

As it turned out, it didn't matter. As I rounded the corner, I saw the pay phone all by itself, hugging the wall and minding its own business.

I ran to check the girls' lav. I skidded to halt in front of the door. What should I do? Knock? Casually stroll inside? Wait to see if Ellyce came out?

I was just totaling up the overwhelming vote to step inside, when I smelled something. Coffee?
Sniff.
Yes! Coffee! I ran to the kitchen. She was there, lights blazing, as it was still dark out.

"Ell-yce." I hoped I said her name casually as I forced myself to walk calmly through the kitchen door, but I think it came out as a squeaky shout.

"Hi, Wes." Ellyce's voice was warm, and more than friendly. She smiled tentatively at me.

Hope filled my heart. I felt a warm blush of love and lust rush through my entire body. I tried to be cool. "H-h-hi!"

Okay, I didn't quite master the cool part.

Ellyce offered me another shy smile. Was she as nervous as I was?

"I … I did a major search and finally found a can of coffee shoved in the back of a corner cabinet," Ellyce said, trying to sound matter-of-fact, I thought.

"Hey! Great! Coffee!" I rubbed my hands together, even though I wasn't all that crazy about coffee.

"I, uh, thought it might help wash down the cheese curls," Ellyce said.

"The cheese curls?"

"Remember? Tiffany's cheese curls. That's all we have to eat for breakfast."

"Oh. Oh, those cheese curls!" I was really sweeping Ellyce off her feet with my brilliant conversation. My mind raced, trying to think of one intelligent thing to say, but it wiped out in a cloud of irrational dust. Just as I was thinking of having a nervous breakdown to conceal the fact that I was a dialogue idiot, Ellyce spoke.

"I have to see him before I can decide."

"What? See who? Decide what? When? Where?" I knew I was babbling, but a small part of my brain actually thought it knew Ellyce was talking about Matt.

"I have to see Matt."

Okay … I think that's good. I hope it is, anyway.

Ellyce finished putting coffee in the filter, poured water in the coffeepot and turned on the switch.

 
I didn't say a word. I tried not to breathe. I just waited for Ellyce to continue.

"I have to talk to Matt."

"Sure." I was almost starting to feel sorry for the guy now.

"I thought I smelled coffee!" Tiffany burst into the kitchen. Her hair was messy and her makeup was smudged, but, even so, she still had that earthy, tempting aura. Briefly, I regretted passing up my chance to Do It with her. But only briefly. Ellyce had to talk to Matt! I could just picture her walking up to him. No, on the phone. No, again. She’d do it in person.
Matt, we have to talk.

"Since the lights are on," Tiffany said, "Does that mean the phone is working?"

"It wasn't a few minutes ago," Ellyce said.

Tiffany sighed. “I await the day some enterprising company builds a cell phone tower down the road and brings the school into the twenty-first century.”

My stomach dropped, ever-so-slightly. Did Ellyce try to call Matt or not?
Does
she want to break up with him? Or maybe she tried to call her parents. I decided to not think about it.

When the coffee was ready, we poured out several cups and carried them on trays back to the art room, where everyone else was just waking up.

After a breakfast of coffee, cheese curls and breath mints, we were all ready to stretch our legs, including Korman and Tenray, who seemed to be feeling a lot better.

"Has it stopped snowing?" Korman asked.

None of us had even thought to check on that, so we all hiked down to the front door. A few lonely flakes drifted down, but basically, the storm seemed to be over.

Korman whistled. "There must be over a foot of snow out there!"

"I wonder how long we'll be stuck here," Tiffany said. "I mean, I'd like to know where my next meal is coming from."

"It could take a while for someone to reach us," Ms. Tenray said. "But I don't think it'll be more than another day."

"Another day! If I can't shower and shampoo soon, I'll go crazy!"! Tiffany ran her hands through her hair.

"Think of it this way," Tony said. "You quit your hair-spray addiction almost cold turkey."

Tiffany elbowed Tony in the ribs, but then she laughed.

"I've gotta walk, or something," Cari said. "I'm turning total cellulite from lack of exercise."

"And, no offense," Jeff said, "but I'm kind of sick of the rest of you guys. So … see ya." He gave a salute and walked off with Cari.

I guess the rest of us felt the same as Jeff, because we drifted off in pairs, all in different directions. Ellyce and I wound up in the kitchen, cleaning the coffeepot and washing cups. Funny, but just then there was nowhere else I'd rather be and nothing else I'd rather be doing.

Each time Ellyce rinsed a dish and handed it to me to dry, I felt as if I was adding another brick to the foundation of our relationship. Okay, it was a goofy way to think, but I was a goofy kind of guy. I just had this feeling Ellyce was going to break up with Matt and go with me.

Every once in a while I just looked at Ellyce and smiled. She'd return my smile and I'd sigh happily. I pictured a very rosy future together.

"There!" Ellyce handed me the last cup. "Done."

As I absent-mindedly dried the cup, waves of a contentment I hadn't felt in a long time, if ever, coursed through my body. It was almost better than the not-quite sexual thing Ellyce and I had. Just knowing that we were here together, that we would continue to be together, sent shivers up my spine.

After we put away the cups and coffeepot, Ellyce looked at me with an eager glow in her beautiful green eyes and said, "You know what I'd like to do right now?"

"What?" I juggled hundreds of tantalizing possibilities in my mind.

Ellyce clasped her hands together and gave me a radiant smile. "Play in the snow!"

That had not been on my imaginary list. Playing in snow seemed like kind of an odd thing to do after being trapped in the school without heat and electricity a good deal of the time. But then I pictured flakes of snow sparkling as they caught in Ellyce's soft, shiny curls. I imagined her running joyously, her face lit up in a rosy glow from the cold. "Good idea. Let's play in the snow."

We rushed to the art room to get our coats. As I slipped on my thin jacket, I noticed a look of concern cross Ellyce's face. Yeah, she was wearing her cheerleading uniform, but she also had a nice long, heavy jacket and knee-hi boots for outside.

"Oh," she said. "I forgot you don't have a … I mean, maybe it's too cold to--"

"No problem." I fingered my jacket. "This is warmer than it looks. Besides, we'll warm up once we start playing in the snow. If it gets too cold, we can come back inside." I grabbed an eraser from the chalk tray. "I'll stick this in the doorway, so we don't get locked out."

"You sure?" Ellyce looked at me uncertainly.

Ah, another sign of how much she cared about me. "I'm sure!"

I grabbed Ellyce's hand then, and we ran, laughing, for the front door. Opening the door turned out to be no easy task. Wind had piled several inches of snow against it. It took both of us pushing to get it opened. I didn't mind. I leaned against the door, and Ellyce leaned against me.

Finally, the door opened and we tumbled outside, me turning and catching Ellyce in my arms. Outside, the world seemed absolutely still.

Ellyce laughed, grabbed a handful of snow, threw it at me and took off. Or tried to.

The snow was too deep to run in, and I didn't have any boots. We had to stop and lift our legs out of the holes our feet made in the snow just to take another step. We probably looked pretty goofy chasing each other around the parking lot like that.

But I could've gone on that way forever.

For a moment, the sun cut through the clouds. Sunlight skidded across the snow, and the patch of blue sky set off the white rolling landscape. The air was tingly cold. It stung my face and came out of my mouth in white puffs.

As we "ran," Ellyce turned, laughing, and hit me with another spray of snow. I loved every second of it.

Then I heard a noise. Up the driveway to the school I saw it coming. A four-wheel-drive rig with a snow plow attached to the front.

When I realized who was driving, my heart sank to my knees.