Faith Rhode’s heart gave a little jump when she clicked on the friend request in her in-box. She didn’t recognize the name attached, so she decided to indulge in a little Facebook stalking to see how this person knew her. Imagine her surprise when after scrolling through the albums she came face to face with the one person she never thought she would see again; Hunter Richards.

To say that their relationship had been rocky was like stating that water was wet. The Joker’s Jinx in Six Flags, Maryland had less twists and turns than they had had. It was a like when a volcano meets a tornado and they had both been chewed up, spit out, barely walking away, both covered in battle scars.

She sat back and let the memories wash over her. They met her Sophomore year of High School but only became close his Senior year when their circle of friends tightened up. She had always been aware of him, with his six-two frame topped with blonde hair and the most beautiful pair of pale green eyes she had ever seen. They sparkled when he smiled, and he was usually always smiling. A pair of dimples emerging when he did, only heightened his over-all appeal.

He was on the basketball team and she was on the dance squad, so they would frequently meet up at rallies and after parties. Their friendship went from teasing comments to small pranks to serious flirtation with a healthy dose of sexual innuendo. The culmination of their amorous dance came to a head at Jake’s Winter Break blow out.

Both had been hanging out by the indoor pool, chatting the other up all night, unending Solo cups of beer on hand. Faith noticed that Haunter’s cup was empty and went to get him another. But as she returned with two full cups, he had reached out, grabbed her wrist and pulled her down onto his lap. His mouth swiftly swooped in to claim hers. The kiss ignited months’ worth of frustrated passion and each of their mouths gladly took it out on other.

It wasn’t long before they were slipping off to find one of the many quiet rooms for a full-on heavy petting session. Faith had kept it PG-13 since she wasn’t ready yet to go all the way, especially with someone she wasn’t even dating and told him as much.

“Hunter, stop,” she said, grabbing his wrist as it made its way down to the top her bikini bottoms.

“Why Baby Girl?” he asked, raising his head, looking down into her flushed face.

“Because we aren’t even dating, and I’m not ready to just give it up so easily.”

“That can soon be solved. Be my girlfriend; then no problems,” he replied cheekily.

She let out a husky chuckle, and slowly shook her head at him.

“We’re going to keep this above the belt mister. Especially if you want to be repeating this at any time, especially tonight.”

Hunter sighed in mock resignation but kept to her demands and his hands went no further south than her belly button. He did spend a lot of time becoming well acquainted with her breasts, though. He started over the clothing, but pushed on by her moans, he soon had her top pushed to the sides and his lips fastened to her right breast. She arched into him, pulling his head deeper onto her. Her breathy sighs were replaced by mewling gasps as he switched to the other one, leaving his hand to keep playing with the taughtened nipple.

He brought his mouth back to hers and began a slow rhythm of thrusting against her lower body. The thin material of their bathing suits made it possible to feel everything that was happening. She brought her legs up and wrapped them around his hips, meeting him in the mating dance. As his tongue dueled with hers, his hips picked up speed, rocking harder and harder against her. She felt a low tingling start in the vicinity of her pelvis and it quickly came to a crescendo, quaking throughout all her limbs. She let out a squeal of surprise and clutched tighter to Hunter, rocking her hips hard against his, causing the sensations to escalate and be drawn out. Hunter tensed up, uttering a low groan of his own, pumping his hips in time with hers, before collapsing onto her chest.

She floated back down into herself, gasping for air, her eyes wide in amazement. It took her a few tries to regain her mental faculties enough to form a coherent sentence. And even that was broken by the dazed flutter still moving throughout her body.

“Wha-... What… The hell… Was that?” she gasped out.

“Never had one of those before?” Hunter smirked, his own breath still labored.

“No,” she answered in a quiet voice.

Hunter laughed low, and rolled off her, coming up on his side, resting his head on his right hand. He looked down on her flushed, dazed face, his left hand reaching over to turn her head to him and leaned down to kiss her once again.

“That, Baby Girl, was an orgasm. And they are one of the greatest things to ever be felt. Trust me, they are even better without clothing to obstruct the feel of skin moving against skin,” he said, grinning down at her wickedly.

Faith’s eyes widened at his words, and she felt that tingling sensation start building low in her body again. She smiled up at him, her eyes twinkling in the low light.

~~~

They began dating after that night. They were hardly ever separated. Where you found one, the other wasn’t too far away. Holding hands in the halls between classes. Eating lunch together, usually with her sitting in his lap. Making-out in and around all obscure corners. The only time they were apart was during practices and actual classes. He would pick her up in the mornings for school and drive her home after.

Things were going great until Hunter started pressuring her to take things further. It started out subtly enough. A casual comment here, extra wandering hands there. Every time he crossed the line she would stop the neck-fest and remind him that she just wasn’t ready to cross that line yet. She was more than happy to suck face and dry hump but going any farther kind of scared her.

She tried explaining things to him, but he never seemed to get it. Things finally came to a head one Friday night when they were “watching” movies at her house. They were topless making-out on her couch, while Bring It On played in the background. He had grabbed her hands and was proceeding to push them down the front of his pants, while his own were busy on the button of her own. She quickly yanked her hands back out, and began pushing on his chest, trying to get him off her.

“Hunter,” she said, trying to wriggle out from under him. “Hunter stop.”

“What is it, Baby Girl,” he said, looking at her, his hands still busy at her waist.

“I said stop.”

“Why?” he asked, raising his head, his eyes meeting hers.

“Because I’ve told you this before. I’m not ready for this. You have. To. Stop,” she said reaching down, pushing his hands forcefully away from her.

He leaned back on his heels, giving her the space to scramble to the opposite end of the couch. He ran a hand angrily through his hair, and let out a frustrated growl.

“Jesus Christ Faith,” he growled. “We’ve been dating for two months. When are we going to go further?”

“I’ve told you time and time again. I’m not ready to go there yet. I need more time. Why can’t you understand that?”

“What I can’t understand, why you’re being such a prude about this. I can touch your naked body all I want. Unless it’s below the waist. I can’t go there at all; with or without clothing. Are you ever going to want to take it to the next level?

Faith stared at him silently, hugging her knees to her chest.

“I have needs too, you know. I need you to loosen up and make up your mind.”

“Listen, Hunter, if you can’t respect my desire to take things slow, then maybe you should just leave.”

“Take things slow? TAKE THINGS SLOW?” he practically yelled. “If we go any slower, then we’ll be moving backward. This isn’t the 1950’s Faith. Most girls have already lost their V-card by Junior year. Or are you holding out for marriage?” he sneered.

“No,” she said. “I’m waiting until I feel comfortable with doing ‘it’. And I’m not ‘most girls’.”

“With the way you hold out, you’ll never be comfortable,” he said yanking his shirt back on.

Tears started welling up in her eyes, and she looked away, biting her lips. Hunter proceeded to rearrange his clothing, and grabbed his keys, wallet and Nokia off the side table. He angrily shoved his feet into his shoes, and started making his way to the door.

“Hunter. Hunter wait,” she said running around the couch, grabbing his arm. “Don’t leave mad.”

He shook off her hold on him and glared down at her.

“Baby Girl look. I want to go all the way with you. I get that you’re not ready yet, but a man can only wait so long. Even if you aren’t prepared to go fully ‘there’, I want more from you. You could at least try going below the belt occasionally. Give me a hand job. Something. And stop acting like I’m radio-active from the waist down.”

He sighed then, running a hand through his hair again.

“Call me when you’re ready to grow up and be a real woman, not just a little girl.”

With those words, he turned on his heel, slamming the door behind him. Faith hugged herself, watching him go in stunned silence. Tears ran down her face, as she heard him rev out of the driveway and speed off into the night.