So It Starts

So It Starts











Baby loved where she lived.



She loved how everyone knew everyone. She loved how children rode their bikes late into the night, unafraid of anything and anyone. She loved how people would greet her with familiarity and warmth.



But most of all, she loved the tall grass, the dirt roads, the clear blue sky with the few puffed-up clouds scattered around. She loved the dust, the dirt, the heat. She even loved the rustic, rundown cars that could be found on the roads of her home, abandoned there like overused thoughts.



Some people, when confronted with her home would think -“destitute.” But not her. She thought tranquility, peace, simplicity…happiness.



Tonight, the little town was having a celebration. The sky was dark without a moon shining, but bright, colorful lanterns hung all around, lighting the night.



The rain had stopped three days ago. It had rained for two days straight before it stopped. Everything smelled fresh, the heat wasn’t so stifling anymore.



“Where do you think he is?” Mindy asked next to her.



Baby turned to look at her. “I don’t know.” And she didn’t know. She had no idea who Mindy was asking about.



“I haven’t seen him around in days. Not since the day in the store… Maybe he went somewhere. He’s probably screwing some bimbo right now.” Mindy looked down, her expression defeated…sad.



“You mean Lucas?” Baby asked surprised.



“Yeah, who do think I was talking about?” Mindy asked.



Baby wasn’t sure who Mindy could have been talking about. Mindy had a habit of falling in love. It never lasted long, though. But it looked as if Mindy might have real feelings for Lucas.



“Why do you like him so much?” Baby asked in a whisper. She wanted to tell Mindy about the night that Lucas came into her house, she wanted to, but couldn’t.



“I like him because…because he makes me feel good. Just seeing his face makes me think of better things. Does that make sense?” Mindy looked at Baby desperately, wanting her to understand. Baby said nothing, only listened. Baby was good at that, listening that is.



Mindy continued. “I get a whiff of his smell and I think of being a teenager, without the drunken mother, without the assholes she dates. I think of going to movies and having a good time. I think of being happy.” Mindy paused and took a swing of the beer in her hand.



“He’s so handsome… Beautiful really. And when I’m with him, I feel beautiful. I’d have to be beautiful for him to notice me?” Mindy looked at Baby.



“You are beautiful.” Baby reassured her. Mindy let out a bitter laugh.



“Yeah, I guess.” Mindy gave a little snort and continued looking through the crowd. Baby felt a heaviness in her chest, a pressure that threatened to choke the very breath from her lungs.



“Mindy?” Mindy turned to Baby. “I have something I have to tell you…”



Mindy spied something behind Baby and let out an appreciative whistle. “My, he sure knows how to work those cowboy boots.”



Baby’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She turned around. On the side of the street stood Andy and Sarah. They had their arms around each other. They both wore tight jeans and tight shirts. Baby thought they could be a pretty couple anywhere, even in a place where cowboy boots, blue jeans and plain shirts could be thought of as unfashionable. Baby then wanted to giggle to herself. Like she had any sort of idea what fashionable was.



Baby turned back to Mindy. “I thought you said…”



“What did I say?” Mindy asked in a distracted tone, obviously too taken with how Andy looked to listen to Baby. Baby questioned her friend’s feelings, how could she love one man, but look at another with such blatant lust?



“Oh, he’s coming over. How do I look?” Mindy asked in a breathy whisper, not looking at Baby.



“Beautiful…” Baby whispered, sure that Mindy hadn’t heard her. Not that Baby’s words meant much to Mindy in most circumstances. Baby sometimes thought herself that little, constant picker-upper that Mindy employed, not for any concrete self-confidence, but that little boost of arrogance. Not that she blamed Mindy, after all Baby was just the background noise to most people, even her best friend.



“Don’t you look pretty.” A husky voice drawled behind Baby. Her mama had dressed her for the occasion, she had brought her a brand new dress. It was completely white, with ruffles at the hem and shirt sleeves, and it actually hugged her curves instead of hiding them. She wore a pale yellow cardigan to cover her bare shoulders. She had felt pretty when she had looked into the mirror.



She turned around to see that Sarah and Andy had reached them. Andy’s hand was casually strung across Sarah’s shoulder, but his smirking gaze was firmly fixed on Baby. She no longer felt so pretty.



Baby thought she should say thank you, but she felt vindictive. She felt the slowly boiling anger that was inside of her since the week before, when Andy had said horrible things to her, spike at the sight of him. She wanted to scream all of a sudden. She had felt this urge only once before, when Lucas had been…doing things to her, but this time for entirely different reasons. She wanted to scream at Andy that he had no right to talk to her the way he had, that he had no right to touch her the way he had-that he had no right to look at her like he was looking at her now.



She said nothing.



“What about me? Don’t I look pretty?” Mindy asked from beneath her lashes. Her whole demeanor that of a shy, innocent, young woman. The image shattered once the view was redirected to her clothing. She wore a tight, stretchy dress. It was bright blue. It pulled against her small, pert breast, outlining her hard nipples. The dress was so tight that it was obvious that she wore nothing underneath. There was nothing shy or innocent about her.



“Yeah.” Andy said, but the tone of his voice was not teasing or complimentary as it usually was when talking to Mindy, it was completely flat. Mindy’s head sprang up sharply, her eyes narrowed. Baby saw Sarah direct a smug smile towards Mindy while Mindy tried to recover.



“May I have a dance with the second most beautiful woman here?” Andy asked Baby. Andy turned back to Sarah giving her a smile that clearly showed who he thought was the most beautiful woman there. Always the charmer, that Andy. For all his gruffness, women appreciated Andy because he had a way of making them feel desired, even when it was false.



Sarah smiled back indulgently, confident in herself once again. Sarah saw Mindy stiffen, and felt elation. The little bitch had constantly been prancing around her Andy, wanting his attention, and like the good guy he was he’s indulged Mindy, but Sarah knew that she was the only one for him. Tonight was proof enough. No amount of short skirts would sway her man.



“Of course, baby. You have fun. But don’t be too hard on her.” Sarah kissed Andy’s lips briefly and gave Baby a wink.



Andy approached Baby with slow, predatory steps. Baby felt like running. She felt the adrenaline, and just as she was about to spring to her escape, Andy grabbed her arm and started leading her to the dance floor.



“I…I…d-don’t…” Baby was horrified to realize that she was afraid. She was so scared that she couldn’t speak.



“Shh. Be a good girl and do what I tell you.” Andy whispered as he moved Baby closer to him.



He felt her softness settle against his side, felt his semi-hardness stir inside his pants. He wanted to pant lewdly against her ear while he ground himself against her. He could just imagine her face, much like it was now, terrified and embarrassed. But Andy knew that with that embarrassment, arousal would come.



Andy had watched Baby long enough to know that she was not a little girl, like most of the females around him. Baby was a woman who enjoyed touch and texture. He knew as much, because he had watched her nipples harden while she was tracing her fingers across his tools, seen her clench her thighs while she sat in one of the cars he was repairing.



Oh, how he wanted sometimes to toss the ugly dresses she insisted on wearing, toss it over her ass, spread her wide and fuck her on the hood of that pretty little corvette she so admired. Andy wondered if he should tell her that he had bought that pretty corvette from the owner just because he had seen how much Baby had liked it. He wondered if he should offer to give her some driving lessons in that car, with him in the passenger seat and his fingers in her unquestionably tight cunt.



When they reached the dance floor, Andy whirled Baby to his front, trapping her in his arms. Baby felt his body move so that it was touching hers, inch for inch. She looked up into his smiling, brown eyes.



“I think you’re a bad man.” Baby said to him.



Andy thought she meant it as a grave insult. There was nothing worse than being a bad man in Baby’s mind, he thought. He wanted to laugh. He had never meant a woman who so simultaneously projected an air of innocent as her very mature body seduced his every raging need. He didn’t laugh, instead he ground her pretty self against his hardness.



“Yes Baby. I’m all sorts of bad.” His mouth was only an inch away from her ear. He could smell her hair, it smelled like a cool drink on a hot day. He could see her creamy skin peeking from under her yellow cardigan. It had a slight flush to it. Always that slight flush. Like there was a heat building just under the surface of her skin, ready to explode at any moment. She was the most sensual woman Andy had ever come in contact with. He wanted her, had wanted her for so long.



Andy thought it was funny the way he had turned out. He had been born poor to a father that showed him no kindness; a father who would talk to him only when he was instructing him on what to do on whatever car they were fixing. Andy’s mother had walked out when he was seven, fed up with a man that didn’t love her, couldn’t love her. She had left him there, with a loveless man, like Andy wasn’t worth her trouble. Now he had more money than either of his parents could dream up.



Through his adolescence and young adulthood, he had always gravitated to certain women: hot, sexy, blonde, unafraid of showing off their body. But now at thirty-two, married to the kind of woman who had gotten him excited as a kid, wasn’t at all satisfying. He realized that he didn’t like Sarah’s blatant sexuality, her cursing, her drinking. It was all too much.



But Baby, with her hesitant smiles and shy, downward gaze was giving him the biggest hard-on he had ever had. He smiled again as he brought her a little closer to him. She would be so amazing under him.



Baby tried to shift away from Andy. They were too close. They weren’t even dancing, they were swaying in place. She felt his hand stroke circles on her hip. His hand sometimes drifted very close to her behind, but then at the last minute he would move it back to her hip. His other hand clutched hers, she could feel the callous of them.



She had a thought then. Lucas would come to the dance floor, and take Andy’s hand off her hip. He would tell Andy to go away and take her into his arms and promise her… What would he promise her? He didn’t even want her. She was so stupid sometimes, wishing for things that would never come to pass.



“What’s with the face?” Andy asked, nudging her.



She looked up at him. She felt a sudden desire to tell him. Tell him that she was in love, always had been. And that it was stupid because he just didn’t care… Because he hurt her. But what came out of her mouth was something completely different than what she wanted to say.



“I’m not pretty like Sarah or Mindy. I can’t do…things like they can. I’m not all that smart. I’m not brave. I can’t wear the things they do. I don’t know how to play games like they can… Why? Why do this to someone who is so…lacking in everything? What can I give you…besides the obvious, which is not saying much considering I don’t know much about that either?” Baby looked up at Andy, who stood a good foot taller than her. His face held a look of consideration.



“You’re right. You’re not pretty like Sarah or Mindy…you Baby- are beautiful. You don’t know how to play the game, and I have a feeling even if you did, you wouldn’t. Do you know why? Because you’re good, Baby. You’re pure and so…amazing. I don’t want just the obvious. I could go to Mindy for the obvious.” He let out a little chuckle still looking at her rounded eyes.



“What I want is you. You. All of you. I see the way you touch my tools, I see the way you run your fingers along the ridges and edges…” He was gazing deeply into her eyes. Baby found herself transfixed by his intensity.



“I could make you feel so good Baby. I could give you anything in the world. You would never have to ask or need for anything ever again.” He took a deep breath. “Just tell me, and I’ll give you everything I have.”



Baby stopped swaying. He let go of her. She felt her arms go limp by her side. His eyes…they weren’t lying. He wanted more from her than the obvious, she was certain of that.



“What about Sarah?” Baby’s brain was muddled.



“I never wanted to marry her, wouldn’t have if it weren’t… She told me she was pregnant.” He let out a sardonic snort. “I should have known something was up. She got into my finances, saw how much I was making… There was never a baby. She just wanted an easy out. But you…you would never do something like this, I know that.” Baby finally realized that they had swayed their way to a corner of the dance floor, where the lamps didn’t light the night.



“I’m sorry.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I can’t… I don’t…” She paused and gathered herself. She squared her shoulders.



“I’m in love.” She looked Andy squarely in the eye.



“I’m in love, Andy. And it’s not with you. I’m sorry that life turned out… That life is the way it is, but you are the one who made the choices you did.” She paused and wrapped her arms around herself.



“I wish I could give you this…this thing that you want from me. But I can’t… I don’t want to. Because this thing already belongs to someone else.” Baby bit her lip. She felt relieved that the words were finally out, that someone knew her feelings.



“Who?” Andy asked, the pervasive mischievous tone gone from his voice.



Baby let out a quiet, defeated sigh.



“Lucas.”



Andy said nothing.



The music played, a blues number that spoke of tragedy and acceptance.













AN

Umm. Yeah. That’s pretty much it. Probably has a lot of mistake because its late and I’m not really seeing things right, but there it is.