Music of the Soul 1, 2, & 3 Starter Bundle

by Erik Schubach

  Then the blonde babbled out at superhuman speeds “I got bored over the pond. Running large businesses on your own is like, so lame. When I heard a few months back that the prior owner of this gallery was selling I jumped at the chance to come home again. I've always had a soft spot for the arts, and I figured I'd make a friggin' amazing gallery owner, so I bought it. I arrived here last night and am livin' outta a hotel till I get settled. Now I'm here for good. I heard you were turning down galleries left and right, but approved mine and...”

  Mia had a permanent smile plastered on her face now as she interrupted, “Slow down Vickster! Breathe!” The younger girls were outright laughing at the exchange now. Mia was reveling in the contact of her hands with Vicky's. She knew this flushed, tingly feeling from somewhere.

  Mia offered, “Well, welcome home! You simply must come stay at the house tonight so we can chat! We can get your stuff out of that stuffy hotel tomorrow. You are staying with us until you get situated!” Their eyes met, and both women bit their lower lips, staring hungrily at the other. This was not lost on either of the young girls as they mouthed “Oh my God!” to each other excitedly.

  “Definitely! I've missed you so much!” Vicky said. Mia smiled in relief. “Great! So we'll see you at home soon!” She leaned in to kiss Vicky on the cheek, but she stopped short when she finally realized what she was feeling. Could it be true? Mia pulled slightly back and locked eyes with Vicky again, asking silent permission. When Vicky's eyes flickered down to Mia's lips and she leaned slightly forward, Mia closed the gap and they came together in a passionate kiss. The familiar sensual merging and sliding of their lipstick leaving each of them craving more.

  Abbey and Sam each had their hands pressed together against their lips like a silent prayer as happy tears started flowing down their cheeks while they watched as lightning struck twice.

  Dating Game

  By Erik Schubach

  Copyright © 2013 by Erik Schubach

  Self publishing

  P.O. Box 523

  Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

  Cover photo © 2013 Piotr Marcinski / ShutterStock.com license

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-9889998-2-4

  Chapter 1 – The Breakup

  I was desperate to cheer Beverly up after that bitch Lori had unceremoniously dumped her for some vapid pillow princess. Bev and Lori had been together for over six months, a record relationship when it came to Beverly. The girl had the propensity for the “Love 'em and leave 'em.” lifestyle, but I seriously thought things with Lori were going to work out for her. She had finally got serious about someone, though Lori was extremely pushy, controlling and demanding. I never thought I'd see the day when a girl tamed my best friend.

  But now, here I am, left picking up the pieces of her first heartbreak. Bevi and I had been best friends since before I can actually remember. With us living next door to each other since we were toddlers, it was only obvious that we'd gravitate to each other.

  As we grew up, the entire neighborhood knew us as Beverly and Crystal, double trouble. Wherever one was, the other was sure to follow.

  Early on, she had bestowed me with the nickname Krustallos, or Kru for short. I, of course, had no clue at the time what it meant, so I retaliated by christening her with the nickname she still shudders at today, Bevi. Of course, now I know that krustallos is Greek for crystal, but didn't know it back then.

  I was always the shorter, shy and more reserved one, with my signature chestnut tresses and my single blue eye that sparkled like my namesake, my other eye, green as a result of my heterochromia iridium. My unusual eyes polarized people, either they loved them or they thought they were freaky.

  Now Bev... she was the yang to my yin. A tall and lanky, fiery freckled redhead with emerald green eyes, who was outgoing, boisterous and fearless. Ready to take on the world and make it hers.

  She was a fierce friend who wouldn't back down from anything to protect me. We were inseparable in school. I was a late bloomer but nobody teased me because of that or my strange eyes, they knew they'd suffer Beverly's wrath if they dared. Just ask Kenny Watkins. Shudder.

  It was near the end of our freshman year of high school after Scott Taylor had asked me to the Spring Fling school dance that Bev had pulled me to the side with the most serious look I had ever seen on her face.

  Her eyes pleaded with mine to hear her out, in one of our silent conversations complete with point and counter point that we'd had this innate ability to read in each other for as long as I could remember. It ended in me silently bidding her to continue and not to worry so much.

  That's when she came out to me, she was terrified as she spoke, “Krustallos... Kru... I need to tell you something. I don't want you to find out from somebody else, or when we go to the dance... but I'm scared you are going to hate me.” She was shifting her weight from side to side nervously which of course caused me to subconsciously reach up to fidget with the end of my trademark, high, sloppy ponytail.

  She was scaring me as I spoke, “Bevi, you're kind of freaking me out. Find out what?” I searched her shocking green eyes with my blue and green, trying to conjure the answer from their depths. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to start, but shut it and paused, looking at me. I gave her a reassuring but nervous smile.

  She straightened and smiled her patented lopsided smile and started, “I'm thinking on asking Wendy Timms to the dance.” She found her shoes extremely fascinating suddenly as she continued, “Kru... Crystal... I... I like girls. I'm gay,” finally rushed out of her mouth. She looked back up at me and shied away in a motion like she was expecting someone to strike her.

  I blinked at her and exhaled the breath I didn't know I was holding as I dropped my hand from my hair in relief. Then I laughed. “Oh, that? God Bev, I thought you were going to tell me you were dying or something. Don't ever scare me like that again!”

  It wasn't often that I could shock Beverly, but there she was just standing in front of me with her mouth hanging open, stunned. I almost laughed again at the sight.

  She shook her head once and looked at me in confusion, “You... you knew?”

  I rolled my eyes at her and smiled, “Duh. Like you could hide something like that from me. I've seen the signs and the clues over the past couple years.”

  She blinked rapidly at me again putting all the pieces together, “You knew? You didn't say anything? And you're not mad? You don't hate me?”

  I laughed at her, putting my hand on her shoulder like I always did and gave it a little squeeze and said, “Of course I don't hate you, your my fracking best friend, I love your sorry ass. Why would I be mad? Who the hell cares which two people like each other? Aaaaaaand... with your hot self off the market, it just leaves more boys for me.” I waggled my eyebrows at her.

  Instantly I was in a bone crushing hug with her speaking over my shoulder, “One, don't ever use those lame SciFi cuss words again. And two, why the hell didn't you say anything, brat? I've been stressing about this moment for months!”

  I shrugged and spoke matter of factly, “I just assumed you knew that I knew.”

  She broke the hug, shaking her head in amusement and looking at me like I was crazy. “You're damn lucky I love you too or I'd kick your ass for making me do t
his.”

  After that, our roles in the school kind of reversed, I was the one defending her once the school found out about her liking girls. I mean, how immature can high school kids be? Donna Barnes found out the hard way never to call Bev a dyke when I was within earshot. It was worth my two day suspension to feed her own teeth to her.

  Of course, the inevitable rumors circulated that Bev and I were lesbian lovers. I didn't pay much attention since it didn't matter. Even if it were true, then hey, I'd have a smokin' hot girlfriend and how could that possibly be a bad thing? Bevi brought up on more than one occasion that she loved that I couldn't care less about anyone's sexual orientation, that more people should have my attitude.

  The rumors faded over the years as Bev started dating as many gay girls as she could find in the school, she had even stole a couple straight girls away from some of the jocks.

  With my new confidence, being Bev's protector, I was on quite the dating spree myself. It seemed like the boys lined up to date me, in no small part to get close to my hot lesbian best friend. What tools!

  It was in our senior year, on one of our weekly sleepovers, we were both between relationships. We were reminiscing about our friendship and everything we had been through together. Sexuality came up and heavy questions about how one knows if they are gay or straight or none or all of the above were discussed. My openness to the idea that most of it was more of a fluid, gray and fuzzy line, even though most people fooled themselves into believing it was black and white, piqued her interest.

  That's when she asked me, “Kru, you ever fancy a girl? Or even been curious?”

  I thought for a second and shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes I have like, girl crushes, but I'm sure that's normal. But I do really crush on guys more. Ever since I realized you were gay, I've always been curious, but never curious enough to test the waters. I find women and men sexy, but just never leaned far enough over the 'fuzzy gray' since I haven't been disappointed with dating guys yet.”

  She got suddenly shy and looked at me innocently. “You... you want to try? Like, with me? Just experiment, I mean?”

  This piqued my own curiosity, but I hid it for a chance to tease her, “What? Bev? Do you like me?”

  She held her hands up in defense. “No, I don't mean like that, well maybe, well I don't know. But I mean, like, you can just test the waters with me to see if you like it. With someone you can trust. It's only an experiment after all.”

  I grinned at my success in flustering her, then I shrugged again and locked eyes with her and leaned half way into her. She hesitantly closed the gap. Our lips were an inch apart and she shot me a questioning look with her eyes. Indecisive much, Bevi? I rolled my eyes at her sudden timidness and closed the gap and kissed her desperately, trying to feel passion.

  I had seriously been curious if I could possibly be gay or bi for the past year or two. Any type of sexuality really doesn't bug me. But this was not the sexy, sensual, passionate experience I had envisioned in kissing a girl. We both pulled back smacking our own lips like we had just eaten something distasteful.

  “Ewww.” Bev said.

  I scrunched up my face and agreed, “Yeah, eww. That was seriously like kissing my own sister. Now I feel like I had just attempted incest.” I shuddered. She nodded in agreement, wiping her lips multiple times. Our eyes making a non-verbal pact NEVER to try that again.

  “So, I take it you're not going to be riding the rainbow?” She laughed out.

  I nodded, trying to suppress my own laughter. “Yeah, guess that certifies me as straight. For some reason I'm a little disappointed about that. I would make a hot lez.” It was her turn to shrug with a smirk as she recalled our conversation from years back. “Yeah, but with your hot self off the market, it just leaves more girls for me.” We shared a giggle.

  Fast forward six years to today and we are still the best of friends. After college I started my own business as an upscale party planner here in Redmond, Washington, and am making a very comfortable living. Since my hours are so lax with a huge monetary return, I get plenty of time to party with Bev, who is now the premiere convention planner here in the Seattle area.

  Last night I woke up to the sound of a key in the lock of my condominium, I wasn't alarmed as there is only one other person with a key. A moment later a disheveled Bevi came walking into my bedroom. I could see her mascara running down her cheeks and her eyes puffy and red from crying, even in the dim illumination from the nightlight by the bedroom door.

  She looked at me like a beat puppy. It wasn't hard for me to fathom what had happened. I wordlessly raised my covers invitingly and she slid into the queen sized bed with her back to me.

  I pulled her into me and just stroked her hair and held her as she cried herself to sleep on my pillow. I knew there would be time enough to talk in the morning. Right now my best friend just needed comfort. I was already cursing Lori's name in my head, I never liked that controlling bitch.

  Early the next morning I quietly started to get up, but as I untangled myself from Bev, she grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the big spoon position, my arm protectively wrapped around her waist.

  “Not yet, sis.” she said sleepily.

  I kissed the top of her head, smiling. “Just let me know when you are ready.”

  A few minutes later, the sun was sneaking through the window and warming us. Bevi stretched like a jungle cat, making a satisfied sound.

  “Ahhhh... thanks Kru, I needed a Crystal recharge.” She spun around on the bed to face me with a silly grin, “Me hungry.” She pouted like a little kid as I laughed and slid out of the bed and wandered out the door.

  I returned a few seconds later, she had wiped much of the makeup damage off with some tissue. I tossed one of the two chocolate pudding cups I was holding to her. She deftly caught it with one hand.

  “Mmmm... my favorite!” she said.

  We pulled the foil tops off and just started licking the contents out of the cups without spoons. Nothing was said until we had licked the cups dry, completing our breakup ritual.

  She tossed me the empty and I round filed them beside my computer desk as she stood and wandered toward the bathroom, not shutting the door. I followed and sat on the toilet seat as she started up the shower and began stripping. I prompted her, “So spill girl, do I need to go over and mess Lori up?”

  She looked at me through the mirror as she examined her own naked form in it. She, like me, had a slight figure and smallish breasts, but like all things, it isn't quantity, it's quality. I've always thought she looked statuesque with her cute girl next door (literally) face, and that wild mane of red hair coupled with her veil of freckles that drove many a woman crazy with lust.

  She finally spoke, her voice husky, on the verge of crying, “She kicked me out last night when I caught her with that Candice ditz, you know 'Candy' the barista from the coffee shop? I walk in, and there's Lori munching away at that pillow princess, then she has the nerve to scream at ME for walking in on them. I mean, what the hell?”

  I was clenching my fists and I saw her eyes drop to them in the mirror.

  “Don't do anything Kru. I still love her, even tho she made it quite clear we are over. This is so messed up. This is why I vowed to never fall in love. I mean, the one time I do, look at what happens. Only one night stands for me from now on.” She wandered into the shower as we spoke and pulled the curtain shut.

  “At least let me take Candy down a few pegs.” I called out to her, and I heard her giggle.

  She replied, “No, it isn't her fault. She's got the IQ of a thumbtack and will spread her legs for anyone. I swear she wouldn't get any if she wasn't a stone cold fifteen out of ten. I mean seriously, even you almost orgasm when she smiles at you. I'm sure she didn't even realize Lori was supposedly in a committed relationship.”

  I heard the soft crying over her false bravado. I waited, letting her get it all out again. I hated this, I hated Lori, I hated the fact that Bev was right about Candy. But nobody
should be able to make my best friend cry.

  I heard her sniff and knew she was gathering her wits. “You didn't turn my room into like a sex dungeon or a mini golf course yet did you? She kinda gave me till the weekend to get my stuff out.”

  I laughed out loud, “Well your room kind of IS a sex dungeon hon, it's exactly how you left it five months ago when you moved in with Lori.”

  She popped her wet head out from behind the shower curtain with a grin, though I knew she was just pretending to be brave, and she said, “Awwww... you missed me!”

  I laughed. “No, I'm just too lazy to throw your crap out.” I winked at her. “Really though Bevi, you know that you ALWAYS have a room with me.”

  Her brave facade cracked a little, she sniffed then she walked out of the shower leaving it running, and leaned down to hug me, getting my bed clothes all wet. Then she grabbed a towel off the rack and started drying herself. I couldn't stop myself from smiling. “You really gotta do something about your overwhelming shyness and modesty, Bev.”

  This got the desired laugh from her as she wandered out to get some clothes from her room as I started stripping and stepped into the still running shower to prep for the day. Coming up with a plan to cheer her up and get her over Lori.

  ***

  That afternoon I went to get little miss mopey butt out of her room, she had been barricaded in there most of the day. “Okay, get yer sorry ass gussied up. We're hitting Ballyhoo tonight!” This brought a flicker of excitement to her face, but I could also see the shadow of sadness over Lori in her eyes.

  The Ballyhoo Club was an elite lesbian bar in downtown Seattle, with live music and a large dance floor. It leaned heavily toward the lipstick side of the lesbian spectrum. It was one of our stomping grounds before Lori tamed my Bev. We would alternate between Ballyhoo and straight clubs like the Steam Plant Club to make hookups. Taking turns on being the others wingman.