0 comments/ 14717 views/ 2 favorites Love of Johanna Ch. 01 By: Epmd607 "Johanna, skip class with me, we'll go for a walk." I knew she'd blow me off, but I asked anyway. "I'm not gonna ditch math." It was only the second week of school. A little over two weeks since we made out at the Labor Day carnival and watched the fireworks together. "Have you ever ditched a class?" She closed her locker. "Yes, a bunch of times." I smiled. We walked down the crowded hall toward math class. "Really, which ones?" She thought about it. "I skipped orchestra a few times last year. Anyway, what's so dangerous or cool about skipping class to hang out in the cafeteria or the lobby?" She eyed me, we were maybe twenty paces from our destination. "There's nothing dangerous about sitting in a study hall. But we're talking about you and me taking a nice walk in the woods out on the trails -- all we have to do is turn left instead of right." She tried not to smile. We were ten paces from math boredom. I drifted left. "Johanna, it's brilliant outside, perfect for a seventh period nature walk." I thought I'd failed, but a few steps from the door she turned and followed me down to the first floor. "Stephen, if we get detention and I miss practice I won't talk to you for weeks." I was smiling, she was serious. I guided her down to the locker room hallway which lead to the football practice fields and then onto the cross country trails. She ran cross country, a sport I never really figured out. Why not run a marathon or normal track? What's the point of having to run over sticks and leaves? I kept that to myself though. "The gym classes will be down on the softball field, if anyone sees us we'll say we couldn't participate so we had to walk for the period." I thought it was an airtight alibi. She stopped at the doors that lead outside. "Well, since the gym teachers will be outside, they're probably going to be the ones that will see us and ask us why we're out here." I hadn't thought of that. "They won't be out for ten more minutes and they always come back in early -- trust me." She eyed me suspiciously but followed. It felt satisfying to be breathing outside air during the school day, a mild prison break euphoria. We walked quickly to the edge of the woods. She was wearing these tiny khaki shorts and I was admiring her from behind a few steps back. "I like your blouse, Jojo." She was wearing this loose fitting white blouse, her tits poking out at me from beneath the flimsy material. Her dark brown hair framed her face well, ran down her shoulders and back. She smiled, thanked me. We stepped into the shadow of the trees. The path was pretty beat up. "You guys run back here?" "Once in a while." Whenever I saw them they were running down the streets outside my house in these little shorts. She was the only one I recognized, the rest were younger kids, lanky weirdos. "I look for your name in the box scores. I don't know what any of it means though." She smiled, looked surprised. "It's just run times... You like reading my name?" "Yeah, sometimes I even say it out loud while I read -- Jo-ann-ah." She giggled. "Sometimes I look for your name too, and try to figure out the numbers. Once in a while I even get to see a picture of you while I read your mysterious scores." She wasn't really flirty, usually just mildly sarcastic and incredibly witty. We came upon a creek that ran next to the trail, it had overflowed the path. She stopped when she saw. "Stephen, it's all muddy." She wanted to go back. "It's only muddy right here, let's just go around it." She stopped at the least muddy spot while I began crossing. "No, these shoes are brand new, let's go back." She was wearing these baby blue sneakers that weren't meant to be used as sneakers -- that is, worn outside. I came back and picked her up, she screeched and wrapped her arms around my neck. I carried her past the mud and set her down. She straightened her blouse and pulled her shorts down, her cheeks were flush. "You should of asked first." "You wouldn't have let me. Which would've been a shame since there's so much more walk to be had." She pouted and kept walking. I took her hand. She looked at me funny but didn't pull away. "Yes, walking is all that will be had out on these trails today." I laughed. I was hoping for a kiss, not a forest-themed hand job. "Maybe I should get a picnic blanket and shoot off some fireworks..." She pulled her hand away, slapped my shoulder and giggled. I wanted to recreate a scene -- a hot, wantonly tongue in mouth, hands over the shirt exploration. "Stephen!" "I've got to do something. I can't even get you talk to me on the phone for more than ten minutes." She always had an excuse why she couldn't go out. "Labor Day was fun, but now we're back at school and I'm busy and you should be busy if you want to go to a good college. We can catch the last half of class..." She turned back, I grabbed her hand and she let me take her further in. "I want to see you and talk to you, Jo." She held my hand at least. "You see me at school and talk to me on the phone." She knew we'd end up kissing on our little nature walk, I could see the fear in her eyes. The same fear she had before she let me kiss her everywhere during the fireworks -- face, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, knees...anywhere skin was exposed. "That's not enough, Johanna." "Then join the cross country team, you can see me every day after school and even on the weekends." I played football when they were running around the woods. She knew I wouldn't, but that's why she said it. "Plus, you'll probably end up being the star of the team, everybody's hero. We could use you. People might actually come to our matches if the fabulous Stephen Paul was running." She smiled, stuck her tongue between her teeth. "I'm glad you think it's funny -- mocking me while I declare my affection for you -- in what I think is a more than romantic setting." I smiled and waved my hand at the picturesque scene. "What do you want from me? You want me to take my clothes off and lay in the middle of the trail and say, 'Here I am, Stephen, blaze a new trail?'" This time I didn't laugh. She let go of my hand and turned to go back to the school. I followed. "We have this whole year to get to know each other. If you're into someone else then that's fine, I'll leave you alone." She seemed conflicted, didn't say anything for a while, then her resolve returned. "I already told you, I want to get into a good school -- don't need melodrama, drama, or tragedy this year. My activities outside of school are cross country and studying. On the weekends I have meets, on Sundays I spend time with my family and volunteer at my church. Saturday nights are the only time outside of school I get to see my friends and I'm not gonna blow them off for weeks or months or the rest of the year just to get groped in the back of some football player's SUV." "That's me, Johanna, I'm some high school archetype that you know nothing about, feel nothing for -- just give me a football and a cheerleader and that's my senior year." It looked like she felt bad about what she said, but that didn't last long. "You had your chance with me at my cousin's graduation party. I asked you if you wanted to go swimming, but you weren't interested, you left with Tina. Labor Day was a mistake on my part. I should of told you that you already made your choice in June." She had her arms crossed, totally defensive. I was surprised. At that party I was with someone, so what she was saying was completely irrational. "Was I supposed to tell my girlfriend to find another ride home -- that I was gonna go swimming with this other girl -- someone I really only had a handful of real conversations with the last few weeks of school?" "Well, then that's that. I guess your chance with me was the three years before, when you only spoke to me to borrow a pencil or to ask about an assignment." She stopped at the mud but didn't look at me. I picked her up and carried her but this time stopped in the middle. "Why are you stopping?" She thought I was gonna drop her and held my neck tighter. Which I actually thought about for two seconds -- a sort of kiss me/tell me you love me or you get muddy type bargain. "Say we did go swimming that night, what would it have involved?" She pinched my cheek. "Well, since I can make up any scenario now and not have to deliver... Let's assume you come over, it's dark, my parents are asleep -- our bathing suits come off, you chase me around the pool for a bit. I let you catch me, you get a feel of anything you want to feel, we kiss until our lips turn blue. You go home, think about me, call me and we go out the next day and every night after." I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little jolt at her skinny dipping scenario. She looked as sure of herself as ever. I thought about dropping her in the mud again. "You've got such a nice white top on. It'd be a shame if it got all muddy and you had to walk into school and go to last period with even a teensy bit of brown on it." She had something more than daggers in her eyes at my empty threat. She didn't respond. I stood there for a beat longer then continued to dry soil and put her down. She stared at me for a few seconds. "Johanna, you know I wouldn't drop you in the mud..." My shoes were covered in gunk, especially after sinking down to my laces during our mid-crossing conversation. I lifted a leg to pick off a muddy leaf from one of my soles. She pushed me backward into the mud. The strength of the push was impressive for such a small female. I landed on my elbow, was covered from right calf to right shoulder blade. I was so surprised I didn't really react. She laughed and ran out of the forest and down the hill. I got up and made my way to the locker room, changed into gym clothes. I went to last period looking like an idiot in gym clothes -- except I had traces of mud on my arms and legs that I couldn't wipe off in time. We used to grow abundantly, flower gregariously, set seed, then die matted together and trampled underfoot, so exquisitely, my leaves and yours meshed stem to stem 'til our resurrection After class I went to my football coach to tell him of my lifelong desire to run cross country. At first he was pretty pissed, actually he was pissed for the whole conversation -- talked about commitment, letting my teammates down etc. Finally, after his face had gone from bright red to slightly purple he said he'd try and work it out. I didn't know what that meant. He just said to go to cross country practice. So, I got my sneakers and found the cross country coach. A man that didn't look athletic in any way, had the paunch of a bowling coach. He was more than welcoming, gave me my practice uniform and told me to meet my teammates in the lobby. Some of them were stretching, most I didn't recognize outside of the context of their tiny shorts. One guy I remembered from freshman baseball. "Hey, Stephen, you running cross country?" He had a goofy smile, I nodded. "Yeah, Kevin, I just joined." The other kids just sort of stared, some looked irritated, the others I thought might of been special needs -- turns out they were just awkward/socially inept. Johanna arrived a few minutes later. One of the other girls greeted her way too excited that we were about to run up hills. Then she spotted me, looked me up and down, came up to me obviously baffled. "Stephen, who'd you steal that uniform from? Where's Richie? Did you take Richie's uniform?" She looked around. "I got this from Coach Ford when I joined, you know, after I took my mud bath and went to Spanish class." She smirked. "Yeah, right." Kevin chimed in: "No joke, Jo, Stephen's running with us." She looked puzzled, studied me. "What about football?" I just shrugged. Coach came out and talked to us for a few minutes, told us the route for the day's run. We began, Kevin lead, he and Johanna were the captains. I kept pace with Johanna, she ignored me for the first few miles. The school was surrounded by neighborhoods on hills. We ran them all. I'd never run so much at one time. Kevin, Johanna and I lost sight of the rest of the team somewhere on the third hill. We made it back to school in the time allotted. I was dead tired but didn't want to show it. "Where's the rest of the team, Kevin?" "They'll show up in the next fifteen to twenty minutes. If not, Coach will search for them. Some have a tendency to get lost." Johanna drank her water. Some of the others arrived, Coach told us about the next meet, we were gonna run on an actual trail the next practice to train for it. The team dispersed, Kevin went with the coach to find the other kids. I was alone with Johanna in the lobby. "I'm surprised you kept up with us. You tired?" I shook my head. Honestly, I was ready to collapse. "So, why are you here, Stephen?" "You told me I had to join the cross country team to see you -- so I did." For whatever reason, she didn't expect that answer, started to say something then stopped, changed the subject. "Stephen, I'm sorry for pushing you in the mud earlier. Our walk was fun for the most part. I'm glad we ditched math today." "You want a ride home?" "No thanks, my mom is coming. I should go get changed." She started walking toward the locker room but turned back. "Running on the trails is more fun than in the streets. See you tomorrow?" I nodded, she smiled then disappeared around the corner. The next day in school just about everyone asked me if I quit the football team. I just told them I wasn't and was hoping Coach would let me come late to practice or something. Needless to say, a lot of my friends were pissed and wouldn't talk to me when I admitted I'd joined the cross country team. At least the girls didn't care, I could just talk and sit with them at lunch for a few days. Since I knew I was gonna see Johanna after school, I didn't try to find her during the day. I had to keep some shred of dignity, she knew I joined the cross country team just to see her. So I ignored her during math class, passed notes with other girls right in front of her. I asked this girl Jessica about her 18th birthday party, she went on about it for most of the class. Johanna was giving us all sorts of looks but Jessica was oblivious. Johanna had told me a couple times that she thought the girl was an idiot. I told her about cross country, tried to explain the point of it to her. Johanna was laughing at my explanations. When I went down to the locker room after school, Coach found me and told me to dress for football the next day, said everything was taken care of so I could do both. I didn't understand what that meant, he disappeared and I went out to the lobby to join Kevin and the awkward. "Hey, Stephen, Coach Ford will pull up in a van eventually. We're going to the state park." Johanna came out a few minutes later, went right over to Kevin and ignored me. They talked about whatever, she wouldn't reply to any of my comments. The van pulled up outside. "Sit with me, Johanna." I was the first in, went right to the back and waited for her. She sat in the front row next to Kevin. "Hey, Lew, right?" The tall goof ball nodded. "Wanna switch seats with me?" He got up before Johanna could tell him to stay. I slid in next to her, smiled. "Jojo, why didn't you come back? We could of sang songs and made faces at passing motorists." "No thanks." Kevin looked uncomfortable, he'd figured out what was going on. "You mad at me, Johanna?" "No." She definitely was. I guess she felt slighted when I didn't show up at her locker or talk to her before, during, and after class. "I just wanted to have a nice chat, talk about cross country." I half-smiled. "You don't need me for that, you can talk to Jessica or Mandy or any of the other morons." Exactly what I wanted to hear. She was jealous, and probably as into me as I was into her. "They're in the same college level math as us." She didn't reply. I talked to Kevin about baseball for the next fifteen minutes. We arrived at the park. Coach went over the plan of attack. Split us into two teams of four. Me, Kevin, Jo and way-too-excited-about-running girl went to one trail, while the other misfits had some misfit trail to run on. "Hey, Stephen, my name's Lola. I'm a sophomore and I was a cheerleader last year for basketball." I didn't recognize her, but cheerleaders at high school basketball games were superfluous. "Hi, Lola. You gonna cheer again this year? We should be better, make it farther at State's." "Yeah, I would cheer for football but my mom says colleges don't care about cheer leading as an activity. She works at the University in the admissions office, says cross country looks good on a girl's application." She went on as we warmed up with a jog, stumbled a few times because she wasn't paying attention to the trail. She was cute enough, too young, but that wasn't the point. Her talking to me was getting to Johanna. "Lola, we should concentrate on the trail." Lola immediately shut up, so I began talking to Kevin. He wasn't as nice to look at though, told me what the meet would be like. Johanna was more than irritated and ran on ahead of us. When she was out of earshot I told Kevin to stay with Lola, that I'd go up and run with Johanna. I caught up to her, she looked back, didn't say anything, I didn't either for a while. "You're very good at this, Jo." She looked over. "I take it seriously. If you're not going to, please quit." "I know you take it seriously, and I take you seriously. Why won't you talk to me?" She stopped, I ran by because it was so sudden. She walked up to me. "Coach told me that we're going to start running in the mornings from now on. Why do you think that is, Stephen? So now instead of running right after school we have to get up at five something. It gets pretty cold and dark in the mornings here in October. All because you think it's pretty sweet joining a joke sport just to hit on a girl every day." We were both breathing heavy, she was genuinely upset. "I don't think it's a joke sport, Johanna. I'm dead tired already. I want to be here because you're here, but I'll quit if you want me to." She softened a little. "I don't want you to quit, you're better than Kevin, you could probably beat most of the guys we run against...just fix this -- no mornings. It's not fair to me or the rest of the team." I said I would. We ran the rest of the trail and this time she sat with me on the ride back to school. In this wheel you are the premise, the immovable mover and pivot, the hub, remiss umbilicus, and center the hilum at separation, the mark and merestone of the damned, borne by an idolator in his adulation. We ran our morning run the next day, the other kids hated me for it. I told them I'd get it changed back, which didn't change the fact that they had to shower at school that day. I told the cross country coach that we should run right after school, that I'd just go to football practice late. He looked worried, like my plan wouldn't go over well with the football coach. I'd missed two days of full dress practice and we had a game in two days. He wasn't happy, told me that I was jeopardizing the season for my teammates and the school. Really, I wasn't that important. I was a receiver on a team that ran the ball, a corner back against teams that ran the ball. Finally, he gave in, but only after he threatened to kick me off the team a dozen times. I explained to him why I could skip warm-ups because I was essentially doing the best possible warm-up someone at my position could do. He told me I wasn't going to play Friday night, but I knew that wouldn't last a quarter. Our first cross country thing was Saturday morning, so I thought I had everything figured out. I told Johanna how everything was going to work, she seemed excited, told me about the trail and the other schools we'd be running against. Love of Johanna Ch. 01 It was our last full contact practice. I dressed for football after we ran our five miles, was out on the field right when the team was finishing the worst of the warm-up drills. We ran plays, the other guys hit me hard because they were pissed about what I was doing. On my drive home that night I'd never felt so beat up and tired. It all seemed to work so well on paper. I didn't know how I'd make it through the next week -- if I made it through the next couple days. Johanna called me to ask how practice went. I told her it went well, that everything was going to work out. She had never called me before. We talked for an hour. The next day was similar to the last, except my teammates couldn't annihilate me because we weren't wearing pads. Still, my legs were just about dead as I got into bed that night. Johanna even called me again to ask how I was doing. It seemed like my vague, impulsive plan was working. The day of the football game. I sat with Johanna and her friends at lunch, walked with her to her locker. I thought I was in, that we were a week away from full-on couple hood. "Hey, Jo, do wanna come see me play tonight?" "Stephen, I can't. I usually go to bed at nine the night before a meet." She looked at least mildly bummed about it. "I promise I'll get you home no later than 10:30." She thought about it before turning me down. "Sorry, Stephen. Next Saturday you have a home game and our meet's home too. I'll come watch you get tackled then." I was surprised she knew the game schedule. I had dead legs in the game that night, caught a few passes, played terrible defense though. We should've won easily but we didn't, lost by three. The whole team played poorly, I was singled out during the 'team dedication' portion of the weekly win or lose rant. I was bruised and beat. Hobbled out of bed the next day, arrived at school, everyone was in the van ready to go. "Sorry, I'm late, Coach, won't happen again." Johanna saved me a seat next to her, she was one of the few that didn't look like they wanted to kick me in the nuts when I got in. "Stephen, you guys looked terrible last night. I left at the half." She had gone to the game after telling me she absolutely couldn't? "You came to the game? We didn't play well at all." She was wearing lip gloss. I thought it was strange that she'd put on lip gloss to go run in the woods. "Yes. I couldn't remember your number, but this one guy hit you so hard your helmet came off -- so I got to watch you for most of the second quarter at least." Slightly embarrassing. "Tell me next time you're coming. I'll try not to get run over." She giggled, we went over the rules again, how everything worked. There were kids from three different schools besides ours. Kevin pointed out this one guy that was supposed to be the fastest. I started out fine, kept pace with him for a while, but fell behind since my legs were swollen. Kevin finished second to the star runner, I finished somewhere in the middle. I knew that if my legs were healthy I could beat him. It got to me, finishing in the middle of a bunch of guys I knew I was faster than. We came in second overall, Johanna did as well as Kevin. The rest of the team was happy with our performance. They kept saying how they never beat Bridgewater before -- were proud of coming in ahead of the third place team. It was all mildly depressing. Johanna hugged me a bunch of times, asked me why I looked so bummed when we were back in the van. "I did crappy. I know I could've run with that guy that beat Kevin." She smiled, stroked my arm. "You did good for someone who's never run cross country before. I know your legs are probably jello -- mine are, and I'm used to running all week. You'll do better each week." "Thanks, Jo, but I think I should probably quit one of the teams or I might end up ruining both teams' chances." "It's still the first week, I think you can do both. We need you, the football guys need you. Give it some time, please?" I smiled. "Well, if you think I can do it then I have to try. I can't have Johanna Johnston thinking I'm a quitter giver-upper." She giggled. "So stop looking like you're gonna go home and hang yourself. We're going out for pizza after we get changed, you wanna give me a ride?" It's difficult describing how desirable she was to me then, especially then. It was like every other female I'd ever messed around with was just sort of attractive in comparison to Johanna. I came back out showered and changed, had to wait another twenty minutes for Jo. She appeared with Lola. Apparently, she'd offered rides to Kevin and Lola. We went to the mall down the road, had to wait to get a table at this grimy pizza place everyone went to. Lola talked, I watched Johanna, Kevin was all business. At one point Lola went to the bathroom and Kevin went to re-fill our pitcher. Johanna pinched me. "What?!" She smiled, devilishly. "Quit staring at me! They're gonna find out..." "Find out what?" She faux frowned, eyed me like a detective. "That we like each other... Lola will tell everyone." I smiled, held her hand under the table. "So what if everyone knows that I like you and want you to be all mine." She stuck her tongue between her teeth, tried not to laugh. "It doesn't work like that. Dating me requires patience and ridiculous concentration. I don't know that you're up to the task." "I think I'm up to any task where I get the chance to be with the wonderful, fabulous Johanna Johnston." She blushed. "I don't think you understand. You have no chance at sleeping with me before Thanksgiving. After New Year's, if you're still around, your chances will have diminished even further since I'll be studying for SAT's and applying to colleges. And imagine you're taking me to prom, it's prom night -- you're definitely not getting any prom night." She laughed, I couldn't help but giggle at my own misfortune. "I want all that Johanna entails, and if I can cop a feel by Christmas..." Lola returned, Jo nudged me to be quiet. We finished and I drove Kevin and Lola home, was alone with Johanna on the way to her house. "You wanna go to a movie tonight?" Might as well ask, since we're basically dating now. "I can't. I'm going to my friend's house tonight. I told you -- patience. I'll see you Monday at school. Plus, I said I'd watch you play football next Saturday." "I guess seeing you every day except Sunday is fine for now." She smirked, kissed me quick on the lips, got out of my car then turned back. "I guess you can call me tomorrow night if you want." She smiled then sorta hopped off into her house. It was weeks before she agreed to a proper date. Weeks of double practices and aching legs. But I did it. I dominated at every cross country meet, did my part on the football team. And even though Johanna wouldn't go out with me, we talked for an hour on the phone pretty much every night, spent as much time as we could together in school. We hadn't had our first date yet, but we were in love. She wanted to pick apples, it was Sunday, I went to pick her up. Her father answered the door. "Hey, Stephen, come in." I'd seen him a few times at the cross country runs. "How's it going Dr. Johnston?" He talked about a winery trip he'd gone on with his wife the day before. "Oh, I forgot, congratulations on your win yesterday, actually, both your wins. You had two touchdowns and what, 150 yards?" He was obviously more interested in football than running in the woods. After what seemed like twenty minutes of uncomfortable chit-chat, Johanna appeared. It was early October, chilly out. She wore a light sweater and tight jeans. "Hi, Stephen." I stood up, she smiled and hugged me. "Daddy, we'll be out 'til dark." She hugged him and we left. "I've been waiting for today all week, Stephen." "Me too. I'm excited, a real date with Johanna." I hadn't thought of bringing flowers, I'd have to figure something out. I liked talking to her more than anyone. She was the sweetest girl I'd ever known, but still so silly. She made me carry the basket while she went from tree to tree picking out certain apples. We were there for hours, I didn't mind. "You have been perfect so far, Stephen." She made me put the full basket down, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. We kissed again when we got to the car. "I'm gonna take you out to dinner and wow you with my dinnertime charm." She giggled, held my hand for the rest of the night. We arrived back at her house around nine, not exactly pushing curfew. "Today was so much fun, Stephen. I'll see you tomorrow at school." We kissed for a while in her driveway, but it was chilly, she had her body pressed to me. "Stephen! I've got to go inside and go to bed." I had my arms around her, but she hadn't moved hers from around my neck either. "I wanna put you in your bed and tuck you in." She giggled, buried her face in my jacket. "My daddy likes you, you shouldn't push your luck." "Luck? I'm in love with his daughter." She kissed my chin. "When can I meet your parents?" "You can go up with them this Friday, sit with them and cheer on your boy." "My boy, my boy -- I kinda love my boy... I hope your mom likes me." "What about my dad?" "Your dad will like me automatically, I've got a cute butt." I grabbed her butt, she squealed. "But my daddy won't like you touching his girl's butt in the driveway..." I moved my hands higher. "That's cuz she's a good girl and should be in bed." She kissed me, said goodnight, kissed me again, and said goodnight again. Finally she went in. She was all mine. By anyone's definition I haven't left my home for yours, picked you up and hugged you to your bones, hello, I can't say the things I mean to when I say 'Hello' By your own definition I haven't left your drive when I spy you from the car, pictured in your window as if I'd only just arrived, 'Hello' you say with your mouth in an 'O' It was Thursday afternoon, I didn't go to school because I had a fever -- had a football game the next night and a cross country tournament on the weekend. Johanna called me during the day to find out how I was feeling. She surprised me when she walked into my room right after school. "Stevie, you look pretty sick." She sat on the bed next to me. "You gotta go to practice, don't get too close, you'll get sick." I turned away from her. She didn't move. "You're shaking, Stephen." "Yeah, whenever I turn over I get all cold and shiver." She rubbed my arm over the blanket. "You want me to get you another blanket?" I told her there was one in the closet. She retrieved it and covered me then lay down and put her arm over me. "Jo, I've been throwing up, you shouldn't be in my bed." She propped herself up over me. "You don't want me in your bed?" She smiled. "God, yes I do, just not when the room's spinning and I have the taste of puke in my mouth." "Stephen, want me to call your mom? Or I could take you to the walk-in clinic?" "Jo, it's just a fever, I'll probably be fine tomorrow. You should get to practice, we've got the tournament this weekend." She ignored me. "Stephen, let me call my dad, I'll take you to his office -- he'll make sure." Her dad was a pediatrician, I didn't really think I needed to go to the doctor's. "I don't want your dad touching my privates." She didn't think it was funny. "I'm not laughing, you look like a corpse, your eyes can't focus on anything." That was true, I couldn't concentrate on anything for more than a couple seconds. She got out her phone and dialed her father's office. "Hi, Daddy. I'm at Stephen's, he's pretty sick, could you stop by his house after work to make sure he's not dying?" They talked, it sounded like he said he'd be over in a couple hours. "Stephen, he's gonna come over after work. Now, would you like some medicine or water or Gatorade?" "Yeah, actually, there's pills on the kitchen counter my mom left out. Two of those and some water would be nice -- and if you could take your top off on the way back, that'd be great." She pinched my arm under the blanket then left to go get the pills. She came back, unfortunately fully dressed. I sucked down the pills, she sat on the bed. "I'll take my top off if you show me your penis." "Under normal circumstances I would, but when a guy's sick his manhood tends to disappear -- a lot like after swimming." She giggled. "That's what I thought. You're freezing because your blood is flowing to your organs, away from your limbs and your special appendage." "I hope you get to see my special appendage someday, it's awfully nice." "I'm just going to assume you're delirious." She stroked my arm, I felt so nauseous that if she said she'd sleep with me right then, I'd have to pass. "You're already late, you should get back to school." "I'm your nurse. I'm skipping practice and I'm gonna wait until my dad comes and says you're not gonna die." "Nurse fantasies don't work when you're actually sick." "I'm not here to be your fantasy. I'm here because I want you to get better so you can chase me around the woods." "What if I'm too sick to play football or run this weekend? These are the matches we've been working toward." She lay her head on my shoulder. "I'd prefer you stay in bed if you're not feeling good enough to run. I don't like watching you get tackled anyway, but if you feel weak because you're sick you might actually get hurt." We lay there for a while, it was comforting listening to her breathe. "Johanna, I think about you more than I'd ever want you to know." "What you think about? Seeing me naked?" She was amused. "Of course, seeing you naked has become my top fantasy, but I also think about you wearing clothes too. You know, like coming over for Thanksgiving and meeting my sister and going to homecoming dance with me." She laughed. "I'm glad I'm wearing clothes when I meet your sister... You asking me to homecoming?" "Yes. You're gonna be homecoming queen for cross country and I'm gonna be your escort." "Yeah, since I'm the only senior girl I might get some votes. But the homecoming queen for the whole school has to actually be popular." "I think you'll win, you're sweeter and prettier than any girl I know." She was blushing, my face was flush from being sick, but hers was probably redder. "I'm glad you think so, because what you think about me is all that matters. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't want to be homecoming queen. I'd get to wear a crown in the middle of the football field at half-time with you watching me from the sidelines." "Even better, no one else around, you naked in the middle of the field wearing a crown, me watching from the sidelines." She nudged me. "You know, you have a better chance at seeing me naked by not talking about seeing me naked." "Johanna, I've come to accept that I'm probably not ever going to see you naked. At least we can joke about it, unless you think I'm pressuring you." "Don't worry, Stephen, if I ever felt like you were pressuring me into sex you'd be the first to know. I wouldn't have a problem ignoring you for the rest of the year if you proved you were some typical high school block head. I've little time for one-dimensional characters in my story." She was brilliant, unique. "I wanna be in your story all year, give you some surprise plot twists." "You've already given me one big surprise plot twist. My narrative for this year didn't include falling for some guy I've already went to school with for four years." She was making me feel better, the sound of her voice. "So, you work on getting into a top notch college and I'll work on making this year the funnest and most exciting." She looked sad. "I can't think about college when I'm with you. Anyway, you should be thinking about your own future too." "I already know where I'm going to college, and I know who I want to spend every day with this year. So basically, I've got everything all figured out." She bit her lip. "If you weren't yucky and barfy I'd kiss you for like an hour." "Rain check make-out, I figure Sunday I should be germ free?" "Sunday I have a clothing drive and bake sale at my church -- you can come help?" I hadn't been in or thought of a church since I was a kid. "Okay. But my family isn't exactly church going. You know, it might get embarrassing when Mrs. Ladyfingers asks me where my family worships and I say 'nowhere'." "Don't worry, I'm not easily embarrassed, and no one's going to ask you if you believe in God. -I kinda believe in God, do you think I'm an idiot?" She looked worried. "Nothing you believe in would make me think you're an idiot. You have a super special power over me. I just don't think about God for the most part." "It's not the best reason, but I probably only believe in God because everyone else does. -Actually, it's probably the only reason I can think of that doesn't sound like magic." "You don't have to give me any reasons, the question doesn't keep me up at night." "Good. I'm glad we've got that settled then. Johanna probably believes in God and it's okay that Stephen probably doesn't." Her dad rang her on the way to my house. She went to the door and showed him to my room. "Hey, Stephen, how you feeling?" "Actually, a lot better since Johanna came over, she's a very good nurse." He asked me some more questions, inspected me a little -- does this hurt here, is it painful when... He said it was just some run of the mill fever, that if it continued or got worse to call him. Johanna reluctantly left with him. I did feel slightly better the next day, went to school just to be eligible to play in the game. I was pretty dizzy during warm-ups, threw-up at half-time. Thankfully the coaches made me sit the second half. We won at least, no fault of my own. At least Johanna got to meet my parents because of it. I was surprised when she appeared at my house with them. "You shouldn't have played, you still look sick." She had her arms crossed, scolding me like my mother use to. I couldn't help but smile. "Jojo, you should be in bed, you've got to run tomorrow. I'll be ready to go, twelve hours of rest beforehand." She pushed me onto my bed. "You better not show up tomorrow if you're still this sick. I mean it." She marched out of my room and went home. My dad came in after she left. "Hey, so me and your mom really like Johanna, she's a sweet girl." He smiled knowingly, having heard her orders to me. "I'm sure I'll be okay to run tomorrow, throwing up in my helmet isn't as bad as it looks." "Well, it's not really about that, is it -- whether you're physically capable to run?" I wasn't tracking, spinning head and everything. "Steve, I'm saying, why piss off Johanna? It seems like she really likes you." He had more fatherly insights to share, but I was falling asleep. The next day I arrived at the school and tried my best to convince Johanna I was completely ready to run. She accepted my case and let me proceed. She and Lola ran well enough to start us off in second place overall. They were covered in mud at the finish due to a standing water obstacle. The girls were freezing cold, toweling off while we got ready. Out of the box we were fine, there were four other schools competing, Kevin had the lead, followed by the hero from the first meet, then me. Wading through the standing water was horrible, it was freezing, I managed to push Kevin out ahead of the top runner, which put me in third. Into the finishing chute I nudged out the cross country hero to finish second to Kevin. A perfect score to give us a steady team lead. Unfortunately, the frigid water really got to me in my already weakened state. I was shivering, shaking like crazy during the secondary races. When Johanna found me she went and got a medic. They took me to the hospital. It was all very dramatic, except it wasn't so funny, because Jo was terrified. Love of Johanna Ch. 01 They treated me for hypothermia and dehydration then sent me out to my family. Johanna hugged me then went home with her dad. I called her later that night, she wasn't happy. "Hey, Jo, church clothing drive tomorrow?" "No. I don't want to see you or talk to you this weekend. You hurt me, lied to me and ended up going to the hospital." "I'm sorry, Jo. I really thought I could run and not end up in the ER. I love you, let me come over and we'll talk." "No. We can talk Monday in school." Monday wasn't any better. She either ignored me or told me I lied to her and that she didn't want to see me. It was just the flu. She didn't talk to me the rest of the week. I sent her flowers, teddy bears, anything I could think of. Friday after school I followed her home. When she saw me get out of my car she ran behind her house. I ran after her, for whatever reason she didn't run into her house, but through the woods in the back. She paused at a creek, looked back at me, then stepped over it rock by rock. I followed her, slipped and fell into the water to my waist. "Ahh, this is unreal..." My teeth were chattering by the time I stumbled to the bank. She was smiling. "Serves you right for trying to outrun me." "I'll go back in the water, just to get you to talk to me." She came down the bank and sat next to me. "You scared me, Stephen. I love you and you didn't care how I felt." "If I thought I was gonna get hypothermia I wouldn't have run, but I wanted the team to win. I wanted you to have your name on a trophy in the lobby so people could read your name in fifty years and think about you." "I guess it'll get distracting having you for my stalker. So I forgive you, if you mean you're sorry for not thinking of me before acting like an idiot." I smiled. "Yeah, exactly. I love you and want you to come to Thanksgiving and meet my sister and my niece." I was shaking, I was so cold, she looked pretty frigid herself, she helped me stand up, we tip-toed back across the creek and went into her house. She brought me up to her bathroom, took her pants and shirt off. "Well, take off your clothes, unless you want a repeat in hypothermia." I stripped down to my boxers, she turned the shower on. I watched her take her bra and panties off from the back, was incredibly cold and aroused. She got in behind the curtain. I stood there for a minute, confused. She peeked her head out from behind the curtain. "I trust you, get in." I hopped in, almost tore the curtain down in my excitement. At first we both resisted looking at each other below the head, but she kept peeking down at my cock so I thought it was only fair that I get a look at her. The water cascaded down her, I was maybe six inches from her pretty, pert breasts. They stuck out at me, beckoned me. Her puss was lightly furred, I could see her slit and was utterly erect. "I guess we're not in danger of hypothermia anymore, maybe we should get out?" She was teasing me. I kissed her gently, made sure not to poke her with my erection. "I've thought about what your penis might look like, it's a little nicer than what I pictured." She was staring at it. "Jo, I've no problem with you touching it." She slowly reached out, grasped it, smiled like a little kid. "It doesn't feel like anything else...I like it." She kissed me, rubbed her stomach against my penis while she held me. "Stephen, we can rub, just don't put it in." I held her breast, kissed her neck, fucked her hand as she held me. Her tits were too much, I sucked one and then the other, licked her aureole and nipples and came on her stomach after just a couple minutes rubbing her over her slit. She looked down at my semen, wiped it off her body then studied it in her fingers. She leaned into me, mashed her tits against my chest and wiggled her hips, rubbed her wet puss against my thigh. She came against me, shuddered while I held her pert ass in my hands. "Stephen... Stephen, the water's getting cold." Forget the water, I wanted to stay there until I got hard again. She turned the water off, bent over in front of me, I saw her pink between her labia. She got out and grabbed towels. We dried off and kissed, grabbed a little skin. She brought me to her room and made me put on shorts and a t-shirt. Unfortunately, she dressed too. "You're so sexy, Johanna, I've never felt that good with someone." "Well, I've never been with anyone but you. I can't believe I let you see me all naked." "I love you, I want us to be special." She sat in my lap on the bed, let me stroke her hair and kiss her neck. "You should go before my mom comes home. If she sees you in my clothes and your clothes on the floor..." We made out for twenty minutes, I collected my clothes from the bathroom and left. I've no self-control over the way the light hits me, or its shiver into electricity when it's your time of day and I'm bent toward your light like a plant climbing hand over fist and open; you made me happy as I swam organelle to organelle and through the seaweed *** I picked up Johanna for Thanksgiving dinner early in the afternoon. She dressed up nice, wanted to impress my family. She was impressive with or without nice clothes. It had been a long month since we took our shower together. She backed off at anything more than kissing. After the homecoming dance she said she wanted to take another shower. Her parents came home before we even turned the water on. "Oh God, Stephen, I'm nervous." Her hand was shaking a little on the drive to my house. "My parents already like you, my sister will too." "I really want your sister to like me, she's special to you." "She'll love you, because I love you." She still looked anxious. "She's gonna think I'm just some high school slut. She's gonna take one look at me and know I let you cum on my belly." I would of laughed but she looked serious. "She's not gonna think that. She got pregnant in college, so she's the last to judge." She calmed down a little. When we walked into the house I introduced her to my sister, they hugged then she greeted my parents. We went into the living room and my four-year-old niece was sitting on the carpet eating an ice cream. "Hi, Sweetie, what you doing?" She looked up, smiled big. "Eatin' an ice cream." She stared at Johanna. "Who let you have an ice cream before dinner?" "Gran-pa." She got up and hugged me, got her ice cream on my shirt. "Gigi, this is Johanna, she wants to play with you." She hid her face against me. "Hi, Gigi. I like your skirt, it's the same color as mine." She peeked out at Jo. "Stee-ben is mine!" We both laughed, I picked her up and sat her in my lap. "You're my sweetie, we're gonna go sledding when it snows. Can me and Johanna watch cartoons with you?" She nodded, accepted Johanna's existence after about five minutes. After dinner my sister found me and Jo in my room playing with Gigi. "I haven't gotten a chance to talk to Johanna yet. Stephen's told me you're perfect for him. Which would be a nice change from the usual..." Jo's face flushed. My sister was intimidating, and absolutely gorgeous. "He's my first real boyfriend. I try not to think about who he's already dated." "I'm sitting right here." They looked at me and smiled. "From what I've heard you've gotten my little brother to act decent. Not that he's a cheater or a liar or anything, but he does tend to say just what you want to hear." "Come on, my niece can hear you." Gigi jumped on me and kissed my cheek. "I love you, Stee-ben." "Well, me and Gigi have another dinner to attend. It was nice meeting you, Johanna." Gigi clung, so we all had to say goodbye a few more times before me and Jo were left alone in my room. "I wish I had boobs like your sister's." She was studying her own. "No, I don't want anything of my sister's on your beautiful body." "You think I'm sexy?" I nodded. "Too bad, now that I've seen your thing, I'm sorta even more frightened... I know it'll only hurt for a while, but then there's the whole after sex part." "What you mean?" "You know, like you can always tell when a couple starts having sex. The guy treats the girl different, like she is his to have sex with, grabs her and gropes her in school." "I wasn't really planning my Thanksgiving vacation around sex. I was planning it around seeing you as much as possible." "Our shower was a big deal to me...now I think about being with you all the time. The constant temptation of Stephen. I always thought guys were the ones that lost their minds over it, but it turns out girls do to." She knelt in front of me. Her face was flush. I kissed her, she kissed me back needy. "We can do something else if you want...we don't have to involve my frightening penis. Lay back and I'll kiss you under your skirt." Her eyes were wide. "Stephen! Your parents are in the other room." "I'll lock the door, they won't notice if we're extra quiet for a little while." She thought about it. I got up and locked the door. "Lay on my bed, Jo. I want to make you feel good." She lay back on my bed with her legs together and hands at her sides, skirt just over her knees. I ran my hand up her thigh to the bottom of her panties, flipper up her skirt. She was wearing these striped cotton bikini cut panties. I leaned down and kissed her thigh, she squirmed, was super tense, tried to push her skirt back down. "Jo, put your hands over your head." She giggled and lifted her hands, I flipped her skirt back up, ran my hand over her hot mound. She wiggled around every time I kissed or touched her on or around her panty line. Finally, after a little negotiation I managed to slide her panties down her legs and off. She was beet red, partly from embarrassment, but mostly from arousal. Her little lips were tiny, pressed together, covered by a soft fuzz. It was evident she trimmed and shaved it to keep things orderly down there. I ran my tongue up her slit, she screeched at first contact then covered her mouth. I lay still between her legs, we both watched the door, when nothing happened I went back to work. "Put your legs over my shoulders." She shook her head, smiled. So I placed each thigh over a shoulder and her pink revealed itself to me. She was wet, her smell was stronger. I'd say her smell was reminiscent of cinnamon, but that wouldn't do it justice, it was intoxicating. She tasted wholly original, slightly sweet, fucking brilliant. I was absolutely hard, straining against my pants. We were both totally dressed save for Jo's missing panties. I tasted her pink, ran my tongue all over her puss swirled around her clit and down to her ass. I didn't think she was ready for me to lick her there, so kept my tongue working her crotch. She wiggled her pelvis in my face, cooed, mewled incoherently. Her hands had moved to the back of my head. When she came she screeched a little too loud, ground my face into her pussy. "Oh boy, I think someone's coming." Her eyes were wide, face post-orgasm flush. I scrambled from beneath her legs, fell to the floor, stuffed her panties in my pocket. She sat up as my Dad turned the handle on the door, discovered it was locked. "Stephen, come help me take this table apart." I unlocked the door, my dad stepped in and looked at Johanna sitting on my messy bed all flushed, then at me. He didn't say anything, just turned and walked back into the hall. I looked back at Johanna, she looked relieved. I smiled, stepped toward the door to help my father. "Stephen, wait!" I stopped. "What?!" "My panties, please." She giggled, I fished them out of my pocket and tossed them to her, then bounded the few steps to her and pinned her to the bed. I kissed her hard, she kissed me back, I let her up and went out to the dining room to help my father. This symbol unfolds by the hour, for ideological reasons we can't record, your flowering has been awkward, uneasy for your apostles, but I can tell by the warmth you've spread and by the hours I can't recall— exactly what you said, as you step naked out of bed and into a dress made from flowers End of Part One