Black Knight

by Svetlana Ivanova

  "You really want to know where my boy's part is?"

  "Not anymore," I muttered. "Hide it all you want."

  Allecra made a noise that sounded like a snort.

  "Well, for your record, I did not hide it. I don't even have to," she said. "My anatomy is different from humans. When I get aroused, it comes out."

  "How?" I said. "How is that even possible?"

  She sighed, but I noticed a slight blush on her cheeks.

  "Actually, I'm similar to humans in a way that I was a female first before my Y chromosome kicked in, except that my X chromosome is still activated. That's why I have both sex organs. My male part is also from my female part. Now, go figure!"

  Oh, goodness. I should have remembered that from biology class. I sank back into my seat in realization. Everyone on this planet was born female before the sex chromosomes determined who got to stay female and who got to become male. In short, each person was born with an X chromosome. Only when it got paired up with a Y chromosome did that person become a boy. In Allecra's case, she had evolved with both sexes in a strange genetic evolutionary way.

  "So it just grows out of your girl's part when you want sex?" I asked coyly.

  Allecra gave a stiff nod back.

  "You'll know when you see it. It takes years of practice in self-control," she said. "But it's harder now whenever I'm with you."

  "Back in the house, you seemed so..."

  "I know," Allecra cut me off, and I nodded. "It happened when I go too long without sex. But when you walked away from me, I felt instantly deprived inside and realized I wanted you more than just sex."

  This had to be the most unlikely romantic thing I'd ever heard.

  "Are you still hot and bothered now?" I asked.

  "Yes, but not as much as before."

  "Oh." My breath hurled in my chest. Allecra was horny now, but not hella horny like she was back in the house. "So does it mean there is still a chance it would come out?"

  "If you shove your hand inside my pants again, then yes."

  I felt the heat in my body rise up at an alarming rate.

  "What if I kinda wanna see it?"

  "No!" she cried with a frown. "If I let it out, I can't guarantee that you could walk straight out of this car!"

  My hands went to my mouth, trying to stop a gasp from escaping through my lips. I could feel every part of my body tingle at the thought of us doing the naughty.

  "Do you still have any more questions?" Allecra said, looking a bit amused by my reaction.

  "Nnnno...no." I gulped.

  We stopped. I looked up and realized we were at a traffic light. Another car rolled up beside ours. It was a pink minivan with a bunch of girls and guys inside. They looked like typical beach-goers. One of the boys was playing his ukulele. They glanced at our car and the guys were awestruck by my blonde girl.

  "Oh, shoot, now I'm gay," one of the girls blurted while the others giggled to each other. But Allecra acted like she didn't hear, or maybe she just ignored them.

  When the light turned green, she stepped on the accelerator and zoomed off with a loud screeching noise from the spinning of the rubber tires.

  "Why would you act like that? That was so rude!" I said. Allecra looked at me with a blank expression.

  "What?" she asked.

  "Just because you are good-looking and rich doesn't mean you should be rude to people," I scolded.

  "That's how I put people off," she said casually. "Men are so afraid of confident girls, it's just so funny. And girls...well, they all just want me, whether they realize it or not, sometimes I have to pretend to be mean."

  "Well, you are mean!" I said and made a face at her, which made Allecra chuckle.

  "Looks like the functional Nina is back!" she said. "No longer wanna get your hands in my pants, sneaky kitten?"

  The remark made the heat to rush up my face again. I bit my lips from yelling at her. Allecra smiled handsomely at me. I had to train myself to deal with that tremendous amount of hotness and sexual frustration at the same time.

  "Did you call your other potentials that, too?" I murmured. Allecra's cheery smile faded. I wanted to kick myself for ruining the mood.

  Allecra swerved the car to the left and went down a quiet lane. We had reached an out of the way restaurant. The label read Steve's Steak House. Allecra parked the car between a black mustang and a beat-up camero. The whole place looked more like a movie set.

  "Let's have something to eat. I'm hungry."

  We walked inside and sat at a table by the window.

  "The steaks here are excellent. They have a special recipe," Allecra said after we settled in.

  "You don't normally cook, do you?" I asked.

  "Why should I cook when I can always order foods?" she shrugged. "Besides, I don't know how."

  I smiled. At least, there was something Allecra Knight was incapable of.

  A middle-aged woman came to take our orders. Allecra asked for medium-rare steak with sweet and sour ribs, some mashed potatoes and mixed salad, also some corns and green beans.

  When the meal arrived, I began to eat with great appetite. I hadn't realized I was starving, too. John Lennon’s Imagine was playing through the speakers.

  "Nina, tell me why you asked me that?" Allecra asked all of a sudden. I almost forgot about what I had said.

  "I don't know. Since you had been with the other girls before, I guess there must be someone who struck you as more fascinating, or someone whom you enjoyed taking on cute dates, or saying nice things to just like this. Obviously, all the seven girls were special in their own ways — and even better yet, they all wanted to have your babies. I just don't see why I'm worth any more than them."

  Allecra listened to my long tirade of low self-esteem and then sighed heavily to herself. A sound of a beach bus pulling up at a gas station across the street stole my attention. Allecra took my hands in hers to make me look at her again.

  "How I wish to spank you right now for thinking like that all this time." She exhaled loudly. "Listen to me, Nina, you're not like other girls. Actually, you're nothing like other girls, and that girl you just saw getting off that bus isn't like other girls either. It's not surprising, really, it's almost as if everybody in the world is different from each other. You should stop comparing yourself to anyone else anymore. A flower never compares itself to other flowers. It just blooms in its own right and beauty."

  We both looked at each other as the lone bus drove by.

  "But I'm afraid I'm not someone you're scared to lose," I murmured.

  "Nina," she said in a gentle tone. "I have decided since the first day we met, that even if there are other potential ones out there, I only want you. The moment I felt like a complete being in existence was when I first saw you. And I would never be the same again without you."

  I felt a smile tug on my lips then.

  "You sound more and more like a human, you know," I said.

  "Oh, really?" she raised her blonde brows, but she was also smiling. "Triton used to make me read a story about what humans were like in the ancient time. You want to hear some of it?"

  I nodded with eagerness like an engrossed child waiting for a storytime.

  "Well, according to the Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium, it said that in the ancient times, people weren't just male and female, but one of the three types. In the past, people were male-male, male-female or female-female. In other words, each person was made out of the elements of two people. Everyone was happy with this arrangement and never really gave it much thought. But then the God took a knife and cut everybody in half, right down the middle. So after that, the world was divided just into male and female, the upshot being that people spend their time running around trying to find their other halves. Sometimes, they find each other again; some other times, they get mixed up with someone else's half."

  My mind was engrossing in the story. Male-male, male-female, and female-female?

  "So that meant each of us was separate
d from our other missing self, who could be a male or a female? It all made sense now," I said.

  "I felt like I had been searching for my other half all my life," Allecra said again quietly. "But I don't have to look anymore. My other half is right in front of me. I never could grasp the meaning of complete until I met you. Suddenly, everything makes sense, and each time I spend looking at you, you just take my breath away. "

  She took my hands and squeezed them warmly.

  "I never knew we were cut in half and got separated so far that you had to travel all the way through time and space to find me," I said.

  Allecra laughed and reached over to pinch my cheek in adoration.

  "Hello, nice to see you again, my lovely other half," she said and we both burst out laughing.

  ~*~

  At last, we reached my aunt's house. The driveway and the front garage were empty. No one was home. My aunt had left with Robert and would be back late at night. The twins were still in school. I had skipped my entire school day to be at Allecra's house, but now I still didn't want to leave her.

  "Do you want to go inside?" I asked her. Allecra smiled sweetly and shook her head.

  "I don't think it's a good idea."

  "I will be alone for at least a few more hours," I told her. It was a heartfelt plea. Allecra stared at me, considering it.

  "Alright," she said afterward. I almost jumped up in joy. We walked into the house together. Allecra looked around with a passive expression.

  "Do you want something to drink?" I asked as I led her to the kitchen. Seeing her around the house like that was kind of strange. The two separated worlds were somehow overlapping each other. Allecra just shrugged as if to say she was okay with whatever.

  We sat down at the kitchen table together. I had brought out a piece of chocolate ice cream cake and poured us some warm tea. Aunt Vikki couldn't stand coffee just like me. And she preferred to have her favorite brand of teabags well-stocked in the cupboard. Allecra and I ate the cake and washed the sweetness down with the light tea in silence. Then my mind wandered to the afternoon event.

  "Allecra, about the thing I offered you back in your house..."

  "That's okay," she said.

  "No, no, let me finish," I said. "Xenon might have egged me on subconsciously, but I feel like I am also ready. I want to take our relationship to the next level."

  "You don't have to rush, Nina. In fact, I pretty much enjoy the way things are now. What we have are genuine emotions with a little mix of deliriously heightened sensation, like this nice cup of warm tea and chocolate cake — sweet, pure, and simple."

  With a passionate tug on my heartstring, her words made me rise up and came around the table to her. I then sat on her lap, so that she could do nothing but stared at me with wild eyes. Allecra squirmed underneath me a little, but my hands encompassed her neck.

  "Nina...wait..." she half-gasped. Her lower part strained to avoid the intimate contact.

  "Tell me something, Allecra," I said. "Do you want to do it with me?"

  "You have no idea," she said, her voice thickened with passion.

  "Then I want you to do the thing you did with the seven — no restraints, no hesitations," I said. "But I also want you to be patient and really, really gentle. You have to do it with me differently. You know that this is difficult for me to give my intimate part of my being to someone. I don't want you to just have sex with me. I want you to make love to me. Do you understand? —because I love you, Allecra."

  "I love you, too," she whispered back. We both sort of lost in each other's eyes after the confession. It was the first time we said the magical words out loud. The three-word declaration was finally signed and sealed by two meeting souls. We couldn't wait to merge and become one again.

  "Please take care of me, Allecra," I whispered. "I will be a nervous wreck when the time comes."

  "I promise I will never hurt you," Allecra said and smoothed my hair. "When we decide to do it, I will hold your hands while we join our bodies like two long lost halves because then we can be as free as we want with each other. But always remember that me holding your hand is my way of reminding you that I love you gently from my heart."

  We kissed.

  "After my birthday, we will do it," I said, pulling away from her soft sweet lips.

  "Three more weeks," Allecra whispered back breathlessly as we stared into each other's eyes.

  CHAPTER 25

  so there we were, carrying on our temporary platonic relationship. It had been five days of just us sitting side by side and talking about a million little things whenever we had the chance.

  Spring had begun to settle over the world. I could see the leaves of the trees slowly changing into bright pigments. Red dragonflies fluttered around the quadrangle, being chased by the neighborhood children with swinging nets.

  There were a number of things people plan to do in spring, like drinking apple cider, making a friendship bracelet, or planning a party during spring break. But my plan had taken on a slightly adventurous turn this year. Sometimes, my stomach did a somersault at the thought of how it all was going to unfold.

  Long story short, it was now confirmed that I was going to lose my virginity to Allecra Knight in three weeks. The prospect of having my body in sync with hers made me flush all over. In the end, I would rather want it to be with Allecra than anyone else in the world.

  I put on my most cozy knitted scarf and tugged my hair out. As the weather was breezy, I wore a denim jacket under a camel wool coat and skinny jeans with my boots. Spring was a perfect time one dressed for looks, as well as for comfort.

  Now, I devoted a great deal of time and attention more than usual to my daily appearance. Setting a deadline to plunge into a sexual odyssey had its downside. A small insecure part of me couldn't stop caring about how I looked to Allecra. I wanted to be in my best form for her and only her. And for me, my body was sacred, like a shrine to be kept clean and protected without a speck of dust or the slightest stain.

  I left the house and brought along a mason jar, which I had prepared a special parfait filled to the brim with layers of fruits topped with yogurt. When I saw the black car parked in front of the garden, I knew the real world had blended with fantasy before my eyes. The epitome of perfection that was Allecra herself, standing singularly in form and brilliancy with symmetrical grace, caused my heart to swell up like a balloon ready to burst.

  Before I could work myself up to a full-blown attack of hyperventilation, I walked over to her with my hands clutching the jar, cold and fresh with delicious fruit aromas. Allecra looked at me and her bright greenish blue eyes lit up. There was this weird pleasure stirring up inside me just by getting raked over by those eyes.

  "What's this?" her voice drew me back to my senses.

  "I made it especially for you," I said and held up the jar of breakfast-dessert shyly to her like a little school girl. Allecra started smiling. Her smooth fingers came to wrap around mine. Then she unscrewed the lid and took a sniff of the pleasant scent.

  "Is this gonna be as sweet as you?" she said good-naturedly.

  "You and your teasing need to stop," I said but Allecra leaned over until she was close to my ear. I held my breath.

  "My tongue can do a better job of teasing you than my words can," she said.

  "Allecra!"

  "Alright, alright—just kidding!" she said and laughed as I glared hard at her. "We're gonna be late. Let's get going!"

  Recently, Allecra started picking me up more often. It was a good thing that we both were early birds, so no one in the house actually noticed this.

  Along the way, I spoon-fed Allecra the parfait while she drove.

  "It's official now," she began, "your body is meant to sit in the passenger seat of my car and your hand is meant to hold mine while I drive."

  "I can't hold your hand at the moment," I said. "I'm busy feeding a big baby."

  "So to fit your description of me, next time you can feed me when I'm in my bir
thday suit."

  I had to pause and think for a moment then I gasped.

  "Allecra!"

  She laughed out loud, and I tried not to hurt her while she was driving.

  "There is a word, 'basorexia' Do you know what it means?"

  "No, my English is still poor," I said sulkily. Allecra chuckled again.

  "It means an overwhelming desire to kiss,'" she whispered and tried to lean into me, but I pushed her away.

  "You better take the traffic seriously, young lady," I scolded her.

  "Did you just tell a person who had been on a spaceship to mind her driving?" she said mischievously.

  I shot her a look.

  When we reached our school, Allecra walked me to my locker as usual. As we were about to leave, I heard some snickering and murmuring around us. Then I saw Jack with some of his friends and some cheerleaders laughing amongst themselves.

  "What are they laughing at?" Allecra noticed my reaction to the group. Jack was staring at me with a cold look so Allecra walked up to him and his friends.

  "No!" I cried out loud and came to pull her back. "Don't bother with them. Let's go!"

  I tried my best to steer Allecra away. Luckily, the school bell rang and the group left. They looked over their shoulders at us and continued to whisper.

  "They really gave me a bad vibe," Allecra muttered. "I want to know what that was about."

  "I will tell you if you promise not to do anything reckless," I said when we entered science class. Allecra didn't look too happy with the deal, but she agreed nonetheless. By the end of class, I reported to her everything that had to do with Jack Conner.

  "On one condition, Nina - if he ever comes within ten feet from you, he'd be on a receiving end of bad luck from me," Allecra declared.

  "But you promised!"

  "I didn't say I wouldn't break my promise," she said. "All I know is no one messes with my girl."

  I wanted to say something but the term of endearment just made me smile.

  Allecra promised to see me after class. Today I had a special lecture — the unbiased lesson in sex ed. Luckily, I attended it with Jordan. The rest of the lecture was about abstinence, peer pressure, contraception, abortion, and abuse. It was the same old thing I already knew, but this session was different because, during the Q&A time, it ended with a guy being sent to the nurse office after three girls attacked him with their backpacks and textbooks as their weapons. The whole affair began when he shared his opinion on abortion.