The Red Fox: A Romance (3 page)

Rick pulled himself back upright. “Listen,” he said, “there's something you really got to know about her.”

“
More than one thing, I bet,” Jay said. He was about to chase after her when Rick jumped in front of him and grabbed his shirt.

“
Hey, lover boy, you want to let this one go. She's a bad seed.”

“
What's so bad about her?”

“
I know what you're thinking. Your watching that steel-cap ass strolling off, and you're right, her ass
is
bad. Even a blind man could see that. But I'm not talking about the good kind of bad, I'm talking about the
bad
kind of bad, and trust me, she's got plenty of
bad
bad in her life.”

Jay ran his hand through his hair.

“
Yeah, OK. I'll take your word for it.”

“
Good.” Rick looked relieved.

A second later Leaf called out from down the hall. “What are you waiting for?”

Jay stared down at her, then to Rick, then back to Leaf.

“
Nothing. I'm coming.”

He shrugged his shoulders at his tour guide and ran down the hall. He wanted to know why that first glance was so intense. What was it about her that drew him in so powerfully?

Rick watched them leave. He shook his head, turned around and walked toward the opposite exit.

“
This is bad,” he said to himself, “This is
bad
bad.”

“
Hey Berkley, what's up with Leaf? Did you guys break up?” Brick asked.

“
Nah, we're just fighting. You know how it is, girls are always looking for a fight. I'm just playing along.”

They were on their third lap around the field. The big game was next weekend and the coach was pushing them into overdrive. Brick was the other forward, and hung next to Berkley at the back of the pack.

“
What the deal with New Guy?”

“
You mean the skinny kid you pinned against the wall at lunch?”

“
Yeah, you know anything about him?” Berkley asked.

“
I've heard a few rumors. He's a New Yorker. Moved here last week. Lives with his aunt and uncle out in Fonder's Estate.”

“
Why'd he move? Parents die or something?”

“
Don't know.”

“
He's a pervert in any case. Dirty pervert.” Those words were rather ironic, considering who was speaking them. Berkley was the biggest pervert in school.

“
I heard he saw Leaf naked today.”

Berkley nodded his head. His mind was in a rage. Her naked creamy skin fresh in his mind. Her rounded breasts once hot in his hands, now burned in his mind. The Red Fox dancing around his thoughts, mocking him, howling that he'll never touch its fur again.

They had dated for four months. He had asked her out because he heard she was easy, and he stayed with her for convenience,
'sex on tap'
as he called it. He played the role of boyfriend well, and kept the game of Good Guy going as long as he could. But that all ended last week when she caught him in the ladies room with Lucy. He wasn't even sure how it happened.

Not quite, anyway.

He was waiting for Leaf at the local Cafe when Lucy walked in. She had followed him there but acted like it was just a lucky chance. Fortunately for Lucy, he wasn't that hard to fool.

When he saw her walk in he told himself:
Berkley doesn't want anything to do with Lucy. Berkley is the man—he has a sex bomb as a girlfriend—Berkley definitely doesn't want what Lucy is offering.
He often spoke to himself like this in the third person. He thought it sounded classy.

He'd told himself the same thing last week, and the week before. But when Lucy had a determination to get what she wanted—and she wanted Berkley.

Lucy was obsessed with Berkley. She had been ever since Junior High. For years she had dreamed of being with him. Until recently, that dream had failed to materialize. However, she was like a block of iron, and what she wanted, she got. Train hard, play hard, take no prisoners. There was a reason they called her the Terminator.

In recent times, she had developed a strategy that produced some remarkable results. At first it was just another strategic attempt to finally get it on with him, but their bathroom rendezvous had sparked off some of her inner electronics. So much so that she found it hard to contain her primal instincts—but of course she did; she was always in control. For years she wanted Berkley. And now, with the help of a few public places, she had been making out with him, too. But not too much, not yet. She knew his type well. Once he got the full love pie he'd be gone. No, only one little piece at a time. She had a plan and she was outworking it with precision. Slowly, and systematically, she would lure him in.

One day,
the Terminator had often thought, her pupils flashing red with desire,
I'll have him for good
.

It was just bad luck, Berkley told himself. Had Leaf arrived five seconds later she wouldn't have seen him follow Lucy into the toilet, she wouldn't have also followed them in, and she wouldn't have caught him with his tongue down her throat.

But now that he couldn't have Leaf he wanted her more than ever. He thought once she cooled down she would take him back. However, to his surprise, she was adamant that he couldn't have her. Never again. But how could he not have her? That was the question that was ruining his mind. He was Berkley.
The
Berkley. He was the guy who could have any woman, but now there was a forbidden fruit in his garden. Now there was a Red Fox consuming his mind, and every attempt to catch it again blew up in his face.

“
Do me a favor,” Berkley said to Brick, “and find out why New Guy left his old school and moved here.”

Brick nodded his moon face in obedience.

As Jay and Leaf exited the school grounds they walked past a group of girls, all of them with an eagle eye on Leaf. A few of them called her names under their breath.

One of them, the ring leader, Jay recognized immediately.

“
Hey
pervert
, where you going?” Lucy called out.

“
None of your business,” Leaf replied on his behalf.

“
I wasn't talking to
you.
”

“
Come on,” Leaf said to Jay, grabbing his hand. They began to run, leaving the group of girls behind to watch them disappear into the woods.

“
Enjoy her, like all the other boys have,” the Terminator called out from behind them.

Jay ran after her as she darted into the woods. He tried to keep up with her, but he wasn't used to such terrain. He was a city kid, and he was afraid he might fall and break his leg at any moment. Regardless of his anxiety he kept on her tail.

“
Where are we going?” he called out.

“
To my secret place,” she replied.

They had been walking at a good clip for twenty minutes when finally she stopped.

“
We're here.”

Jay pulled up beside her. He crouched down and took in as many deep breathes as he could. When he felt revived, he stood back up again, even though he was still out of breath. Before them was a giant lake and they were completely surrounded by the thickness of the woods. They were standing on a stone platform, about three meters above the water.

“
It's beautiful here,” Jay said.

“
Yeah, it is,” she replied.

“
You come here often?” he asked.

She didn't really want to answer that question.

“
Take off your pants—
now.
”

His eyes popped out of their sockets. He quickly swung his head around, paranoid someone was watching. In New York, there was always someone around. Back there, even when he thought he was alone he couldn't help but feel he was being watched.

However, this wasn't New York, and they were most definitely alone.

“
How about I introduce myself instead?”

She shook her head. “You saw me naked today, now I want to see you naked. Fair's fair.”

He looked up to the sky above and then back at Leaf.

“
I'm not much to look at, really.”

“
What can I say. Payback's a bitch.”

He bit down on his lower lip. This was really embarrassing. He slipped off his sneakers and unbuckled his belt. He pulled off his jeans, followed by pulling his plain white T-shirt over his head.

“
You're not as skinny as you look when your dressed,” she said.

“
Steroids,” he joked. They both smirked.

He was now down to his socks and underwear.

She shook her head again. “I wasn't wearing underpants when you saw me, remember? Off with them.”

He cringed. He was going to kill Rick next time he saw him.

He pulled his underwear down in one move and on the way back up was quick to cover his privates with his hands.

She looked at him with a sly grin on her face. “Now, when you stormed in on me in the locker room, did I cover myself up?”

He gulped.

“
No.”

“
So what's this,” she mimicked his hands over his privates. “Fair's fair. Let's see you in all your glory.”

His heart pounded. He was sure she must be able to hear it. Slowly, he raised his hands, not knowing what else to do, he held them up as if he was being arrested.

She stood there and studied him.

“
My, my,
someone's
happy.”

He cringed.

“
Sorry, I have no control over 'him' in situations like this.”

She looked at Jay, half grinning, half frowning.

“
None of you do. You're all the same.”

“
Not completely the same.”

“
You're
all
the same,” she replied. It was an angry reply and it made Jay feel rather uncomfortable.

“
Can I put my clothes back on now?”

“
No.” She pointed to a tree off to the right. “Do you see that tree?”

“
Yeah,” he replied, looking at her awkwardly. “It's a nice tree.”

“
I want you to take me over there and give your happy friend,” she pointed to his groin, “what he wants.”

Jay felt his stomach cramp. It felt wrong. Not the thought of sleeping with her. He had already done that twenty times in his imagination. But now that it was happening it felt all wrong. It looked wrong. He continued staring at her, trying to pinpoint what was different, what was it about her facial features that had changed? The change was almost invisible to the naked eye, it was the kind of subtle changes that only an artist would pick up on. Her glow had faded a shade. The softness he had seen in her skin was harder, colder. Her eyes—that was it, that was the main change. Her eyes were telling a different story, like an actress taking the stage.

Jay took a step back, squinting with his eyes. The subtle changes had turned a masterpiece into just another painting, the extraordinary into something less than it was meant to be.

“
Maybe we could just sit down and talk,” he said, taking a step back.

“
Talk? What do you want to talk about?” she asked, taking a step closer.

“
Well, I don't even know you. I just want to talk about . . . anything.”

“
You just want
one
thing.” She was smiling at him, but it wasn't real. It wasn't deep enough to be real. It was as if she was acting out a rehearsed performance, and he was now feeling very uncomfortable.

“
I'm serious. You seem like an interesting person,” he said.

“
An
interesting
person?” She laughed before shaking her head.

“
Do you know what everyone in this town thinks I am: a
slut
.”

The word sent a shiver down his spine. He had always hated that word.

“
You're new here,” she continued, “so maybe you haven't formed that opinion of me.” She drew closer to him and grabbed his buttocks. “Let me make it easy for you.”

She tried to kiss him, but Jay jerked his head back. She pounced again, but once again he resisted.