Candlelight City

by Jessica Tang Von Harper

  Emma’s wide eyes began to close and flutter, and her surprised gasps turned into muffled moans of pleasure. She wrapped her arms around Ricardo’s neck and pulled his face close to hers, letting him press a rough kiss against her mouth. Ricardo greedily kissed her while his hands reached down and squeezed her breasts. His long fingers tugged at her nipples, stretching them.

  Both Suzie and Brad were embarrassed by the erotic display taking place in front of them. Suzie worried that her parents would hear, so she quickly seized the remote and turned up the volume on the television, hoping that Pat Sajak’s voice would drown out her best friend’s moans. She and Brad tried to continue their conversation, but it was too distracting to see Emma writhing under Ricardo just a few feet away. Suzie kept glancing over her shoulder, convinced that her parents must have heard what was happening and would appear in the doorway at any moment.

  Brad’s hand rested against Suzie’s thigh, and she realized that part of her wished he would act more like Ricardo. Watching Ricardo do what he wanted with Emma’s naked body made Suzie conscious of her own scanty clothing, and she found herself wishing that Brad would climb onto her the same way, pushing her legs apart, hiking up her dress, using her body to satisfy his lust. She squeezed her legs together, wriggling in her seat.

  This was crazy! Her parents were in the next room! If they discovered her having sex in their living room, she would be in a huge amount of trouble. Suzie glanced over her shoulder. How long did it take to make dinner? Shouldn’t they almost be done?

  Ricardo thrust deep into Emma, grunting as he finally climaxed. It probably lasted less than a minute, but to Suzie it seemed like he stood there an eternity, filling Emma with his semen. Finally, he slipped out of Emma and stood. Swiftly, he pushed his penis back into his pants and pulled up his zipper. Emma lay sprawled on the recliner in a daze, her legs still spread wide and a trickle of Ricardo’s sperm seeping out of her.

  “Dinner’s ready!” came the call from the dining room. Emma hurriedly put her dress back on. A moment later, Mrs. Moore appeared in the doorway. “Come on in, guys, before the food gets cold.” Suzie and her friends stood up and filed into the dining room.

  Suzie was sure that her parents would notice Emma. It seemed obvious to her that Emma had just been having sex. Emma’s face was flushed and sweaty and her nipples were erect against the fabric of the disheveled dress. She and Ricardo took the chairs on one side of the table, and Emma’s dazed eyes followed Ricardo the whole way. After she sat, Emma turned towards Ricardo, her legs apart, as if displaying herself to him, and Ricardo eyed her openly. Suzie was really worried that her parents would notice Emma’s strange behavior, and she tried to think of a way to get Emma back to the bedroom to cool off and change her clothes.

  Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Moore didn’t appear to notice anything was odd. Once again, Suzie was grateful for the presence of Brad. He chatted easily with her parents and seemed quite at ease, and his sense of comfort proved to be contagious. It didn’t take long before her Mr. and Mrs. Moore were amiably conversing with him. Brad enthusiastically praised Suzie for her abilities as an actress to the point that Suzie was blushing and Mr. and Mrs. Moore beamed with pride.

  Best of all, Brad’s charm and conversational skill kept Mr. And Mrs. Moore focused on their side of the table, and kept their attention away from Emma and Ricardo. Neither Emma nor Ricardo seemed to be paying any attention to what was being said; they were too focused on each other. Their coupling in the living room left both of them in a state of high arousal, and it definitely didn’t help that Emma was still half-naked. Ricardo gazed at Emma’s body hungrily, and Emma seemed glad to give Ricardo any view of her that he desired.

  Suzie was impressed by Brad’s ability to keep the conversation flowing without being distracted by what was transpiring on the other side of the table. It seemed like every time Suzie glanced in that direction, something would be happening that she wouldn’t want her parents to see. Ricardo would be stroking Emma’s breasts, or Emma would be slouched down in her chair while Ricardo’s hand was up her dress, or Emma would be standing bent over, reaching back to pull up her dress while Ricardo felt her bare ass. Suzie was careful not to stare too long at anything she saw, knowing it would cause her parents to wonder what she was looking at. But it was difficult.

  She finally took control when her mother asked if anyone wanted ice cream for dessert. She stood up. “I think Em and I should go put some warmer clothes on. It’s getting a little cold.” Suzie put her arms around Emma and pulled her friend back to the bedroom. Emma was still in a daze, but started to recover as soon as she was away from Ricardo.

  “Oh my God, Suzie… I was acting so crazy… do you think your parents noticed?” Emma was really embarrassed, but Suzie reassured her that her parents hadn’t seemed to notice a thing. Emma cleaned up in Suzie’s bathroom and they both changed. Suzie’s relief at having Emma fully dressed again soon gave way to anxiety that she would be performing “Candlelight City” for her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Moore had missed seeing Emma’s sexual activities, but Suzie would be doing the exact same things, right in front of them.

  “Jenna will be doing them,” she corrected herself. “Just worry about being Jenna, and everything else will take care of itself.” The thought made her feel better.

  After ice cream, they settled into the living room. Brad and Ricardo pushed the chairs out of the way to give them a good stage, then the four of them left Mr. and Mrs. Moore waiting while they went to Suzie’s room to discuss how the remaining roles would be split. Suzie pulled some clothes out of her closet for her and Emma to switch into when they were playing different characters.

  Finally, they started the performance. Emma kept the script and read her parts from it, while the other three knew most of the lines by heart. From the moment Suzie said her first lines as Jenna, she knew everything would be okay. Jenna took over, and Suzie lost herself in the character.

  She knew her parents were whispering to each other during her first nude scene, that scene from the audition where she sat half-naked in Brad’s lap.. But it no longer seemed important to her what they thought. They were the audience, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted. She had to remain in Jenna’s mind, and do what Jenna would do.

  When they reached Jenna’s first sex scene with Elias, Brad seemed to be respecting her parents and he held back more than he did in rehearsal. Instead of delivering the last lines while they were actively having sex, Brad took his time so that when the scene ended, they had only just started to undress each other. Suzie thought the scene didn’t work as well that way, but she didn’t push it.

  Finally, they reached the scene they had been rehearsing earlier in her bedroom. Suzie stood in the kitchen with Ricardo and Brad while Emma set up a sheet over a bunch of pillows, which would serve as the bed in the scene. Suzie saw that Ricardo was starting to remove his shirt. “I can’t do this,” she suddenly blurted out. “I can’t do this scene.”

  “What?” Ricardo looked confused. “Sure you can. We were running it great just a few hours ago…”

  But Suzie was gripped in a rapidly growing panic. “I can’t do it in front of my parents. I just can’t.”

  Brad approached her. “Take a deep breath, Suzie.”

  “Brad…” She couldn’t find the words to express what she was feeling. “Not this time, okay? I’m not ready… I’m not ready for them to see this scene…”

  Brad put his arms around her. “Suzie. It’s fine. We’ll give them the PG version this time around. It’s not a problem. Right, Ricardo?”

  Ricardo hesitated, but then nodded. “Sure. No problem, Suzie.”

  “See? Now take a deep breath… relax…”

  Suzie inhaled deeply. She felt the knot in her chest loosen.

  “But, Suzie…” Brad put his fingers under her chin, gently lifting her face to meet his gaze. “It’s better the way we rehearsed it earlier, and you know it. Your parents are going to see the R version event
ually. You need to prepare yourself for that.”

  She nodded. She knew it was true.

  But not this time.

  She and Ricardo walked out to the living room wearing their clothes and climbed under the sheet. Their simulated sex was clumsy to the point of being comical, and it was a relief when Brad interrupted. Instead of staying with them, Suzie wrapped the sheet around herself and left the room. She listened to their dialogue from the kitchen, and felt disappointed in herself.

  They continued through the rest of the play, but after that point Suzie struggled to find her character. She remembered all her lines, but the words sounded wooden and unnatural to her ear. It was a relief when the play finished and everyone applauded. Mr. and Mrs. Moore looked impressed.

  “That was amazing,” Mr. Moore said. “I never knew you could act like that, Suzie. You were all very good.”

  “Thanks…” Suzie said. She knew it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

  “It was great,” Mrs. Moore agreed. She hesitated. “There was just one scene that seemed a little awkward… the scene where you and Carlos start out in bed…”

  Mr. Moore nodded. “Yeah, that scene needs a little more work.”

  Suzie felt embarrassed. “We haven’t really been rehearsing it that way. I messed up the scene… so we had to improvise.”

  Mrs. Moore looked at her sternly. “Well, I suggest you spend a bit more time rehearsing, so next time you don’t have to ‘improvise’.”

  “Maybe we can rehearse it some more tonight,” Brad suggested. “Maybe Ricardo and I could spend the night? That would give us more time to rehearse since we wouldn’t have to worry about heading home.”

  Mrs. Moore nodded. “I guess that’s fine, if it’s okay with your parents. And as long as you aren’t up too late.”

  Emma was still embarrassed by her earlier behavior, so she shyly said her goodbyes and left. Mr. Moore let Brad and Ricardo borrow some t-shirts and shorts to sleep in and Mrs. Moore made up the couches with sheets and pillows for them. Afterwards, Suzie’s parents retired to their room to watch TV, while Suzie walked with the boys to her bedroom, quickly stripping off her clothes so that they could rehearse having sex with her some more.

  As Suzie waited, naked and on her hands and knees with Brad behind her, preparing to enter her, she said breathlessly, “I’m sorry. I should have done the scene this way, this way we’ve rehearsed it. It’s the best way, the only way that makes sense.”

  “Yes,” Brad said. “But we should also keep experimenting, running the scene other ways, to see if something works better.” To Suzie’s astonishment, Brad shifted the head of his penis from her vagina to her asshole. Brad moved his hips back and forth, having anal sex with her while delivering his dialogue with Ricardo. Suzie clutched the bed sheets in her hands, fighting to keep her moans quiet.

  When they finally went to bed, it was almost three in the morning, and they were exhausted. Suzie had lost track of how many times the two boys had had sex with her, but she thought they had worked out the scene so that it was almost perfect. The boys said their good nights and headed to the living room to sleep on the couches, leaving Suzie lying naked and spent in her bed. She was asleep even before the door closed behind them.

  14. Rumors

  The following week, Suzie found herself going back and forth between Ricardo and Emma. Emma wanted to know if Ricardo liked her.

  “You saw how it was between us,” Emma said. “It was so passionate. He said he couldn’t stop himself from making love to me.”

  “He had sex with me a dozen times that same night,” Suzie reminded her. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

  “He has to have sex with you. It’s part of the play,” Emma said. “But with me, he really wanted to have sex with me. He wanted it so bad he couldn’t keep his hands off me.”

  Suzie still wasn’t certain. “He was really turned on… I think he got carried away…”

  Emma rolled her eyes. “Just ask him if he likes me, will you? But don’t tell him I asked.”

  So Suzie went to talk to Ricardo. Unfortunately, Ricardo seemed to support Suzie’s doubts.

  “It was a crazy rehearsal,” he told her. “So much sex... and your parents came home before I could orgasm… Emma looked so hot… I couldn’t stop myself.” He shook his head. “But I’m not trying to get involved… you know I’m a theater guy. I’ve always dated theater girls. I don’t think it would work, Emma and me…”

  Suzie tried to explain this to Emma, who was disappointed but not convinced.

  “He thinks he can’t be with me because I’m not in theater,” Emma said. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like me. He likes me, Suzie! But how do I get him to realize it?”

  Suzie wasn’t an expert on boys, and had no idea how to help Emma. She had her own problems. When she had said hello to Corine in the hallway, the other girl had brushed by her with a cold look.

  Brad explained it later. “Don’t worry about her,” he said. “She’s jealous because I told her I spent the night at your house and had sex with you several times. I tried to explain that it was for the play, but…” He shrugged. “Give her some time to cool down. She’ll realize in a few days that it was nothing, just rehearsal.”

  But Suzie knew that it hadn’t been just rehearsal for her. She really did like Brad, and when she had sex with him it really meant something to her. If only she could get him to feel the same way.

  15. Staying in Character

  Suzie was going to her Stanford interview after school, so she dressed as nicely as she could, in ironed black pants, a crisp white shirt and black jacket. She wore her best heels, and had her mother do her hair and make-up before school. Everyone teased her that day, saying she looked more like a teacher than a student. Suzie smiled, but she was too nervous to laugh along with them.

  She had rehearsal for two hours, and then she had an hour to kill before her interview. Mr. Belfast eyed her as she walked into the classroom where they were rehearsing. “If that’s your idea of something Jenna would wear, I think you need to revisit your character,” he joked. But they were just working on lines that day, so Suzie didn’t have to worry about changing into a costume.

  She started running lines with Brad and Ricardo. It was apparent early on that Mr. Belfast was dissatisfied with her delivery. Although she tried her best to make the lines sound real, something in her tone was bothering him.

  “Remember, this isn’t Brad and Ricardo you’re talking to. You barely know Elias in this scene, and you don’t know Carlos at all. They’re strangers, but they’re also potential customers. So you’re friendly but not friends. Let’s try it again.” Mr. Belfast ran his fingers through his hair, as if close to pulling it out.

  Suzie tried, but she still couldn’t achieve what Mr. Belfast wanted. “You don’t know them. You’re smiling at them like you know them.” Mr. Belfast repeated the same things again and again, but the more Suzie tried, the worse it got. When she looked at Brad, she couldn’t help but think about all the times he’d had sex with her during rehearsal. That always ended up coloring her tone.

  “Cut!” Mr. Belfast yelled. He stood up and regarded Suzie. “I can see you’re trying, Suzie, but it seems like you’re having a hard time understanding Jenna’s mind in this scene. She needs to have a certain mentality when she meets men she doesn’t know. They’re strangers, but strangers that she needs to be able to offer her body to.” He rubbed his chin, considering. “Maybe I have a method acting exercise that will help. Will you indulge me?”

  Suzie quickly agreed, and Mr. Belfast asked them to follow. He led them into the auditorium, where they could see the tech crew hard at work on the set for “Candlelight City”. Mr. Belfast brought them up onto the stage and clapped his hands for attention.

  “Excuse me! I’d like everyone to take a break for a moment and gather around.” There were ten or eleven boys in the tech crew, and they put down their hammers and lights and gathered in a loose circl
e around Mr. Belfast. Mr. Belfast beckoned Suzie into the middle of the circle.

  “Jenna,” he addressed her by her character name. “I want you to please strip off your clothes.”

  Suzie looked nervously at the faces around her. The boys seemed as surprised as she was at Mr. Belfast’s request. “Everything?” she squeaked.

  “Stay in character, Jenna,” he reminded her sternly. “Yes, everything. You can keep your heels on, but otherwise I would like you to be totally nude.”

  Suzie silently berated herself for breaking character. She took one last nervous glance at the boys around her then unbuttoned her pants.

  As she stripped, she noticed Mr. Belfast walking around the circle, giving each of the boys a dollar bill. She neatly folded her pants and set them on the stage. Next she removed her jacket and shirt and folded them as well. It was cold on the stage, and she shivered in her pink bra and panties. All eyes were on her as she removed her bra then slid her panties down her legs. The boys were staring at her as if the whole thing was too good to be true. Suzie set her underwear onto the neat pile of her clothes and stood up straight, completely naked. She made herself meet the eyes that were surrounding her, and stood with her breasts thrust forward and her legs slightly parted, letting them look at her body. She could hear them murmuring about her shaved vagina.

  “All right, everyone,” Mr. Belfast said. “Jenna, as you know, is a prostitute, and she has a special deal for you today. She will pose naked for you, any pose that you like, for a dollar. I’ve given each of you a dollar, so please go to her, one at a time, give her your dollar, and tell her what pose you would like.”

  Suzie felt her heartbeat fluttering, but resolved to stay in character. The boys were reluctant to approach her; although they seemed happy to have her pose for them, no one wanted to be the first. Finally a tall boy stepped forward and gave her his dollar.