Chapter 10
Much to her surprise, Laurie awoke in her own bed. She had a screaming headache, her body was sore, the phone was ringing in the living room, and the sunlight that poured through her open-draped bedroom window was all but blinding her. Other than that, everything was fine.
She stumbled through the apartment and picked up the phone. "Hello."
"With profuse apologies, genuine concern, not to mention my humble commiseration, this is Eddie Prohaska; and if you hang up, my head goes in the oven."
Laurie checked her anger. She said, "It should."
"You hate me, of course."
"Almost"
"We got carried away."
"Slightly."
"Reprehensible cads, huh?"
"Bastards."
"No, parentage we have."
"You're still bastards," she said lightly.
"But nice bastards."
"That's debatable."
"Then our deep contrition means nothing?" he hammed.
"I'm hard-hearted."
"That you are. But we're still sorry, and we hope you're all right-" in
"And we hope you'll be at The Cave tonight!" Eddie's hippy-friend interjected.
"You're both a couple of jerks," she said.
"You forgive us?"
"I'll take it into consideration."
"Do."
"By the way, how did I get home?"
"Vehicular locomotion," Eddie joked. "We found your address in your purse-pardon us for being snoopers-and we drove you home."
She thanked them.
"We will see you tonight, won't we?"
"At The Cave?"
"Yes."
"If I can walk or crawl, I'll be there."
He blew her a smacking kiss and hung up. Strangely, and in spite of her hangover, Laurie held no animosity toward Eddie and his friend, Al. Going the sex route with two men at the same time might be wrong, but, nevertheless, it was fascinating. Fascinating, and then once you got past the revolting side of it, it was also fun. And, she told herself, I'm ingratiating myself with them and I'll soon know what's going on about this LSD.
She showered, dressed, had three cups of black coffee, slowly began to look and feel like a human being again. She'd missed an entire morning of classes-a first for her-but since her grades were high, it was not serious.
At noon, Danny called.
"I used to go with you-remember?"
"I was going to call you."
"But you were busy," he said sarcastically.
"Kinda like," she replied, trying to keep the conversation pleasant. "I got this baby-sitting job in the evenings," she lied, "and between that and all my homework...."
"I've missed you."
Laurie grew suddenly speechless. His terse confession surprised her. He'd always been so quietly boy-like, so disappointingly unresponsive.
"Did you hear what I said?" he asked.
"Yes, Danny, I did."
He waited and she knew he wanted her to say the same thing. "What have you been doing with yourself?" she asked evasively.
"Looking for liars!" he snapped at her.
"Danny!"
"You bitch!"
"Danny!" The line was dead. "Danny...." She cradled the phone. He knew. He'd learned that she was dancing at The Cave, knew that the baby-sitting excuse was false, and while her first reaction was one of guilt, her defense mechanism took over seconds later and she thought, the hell with him. I don't need him. I never did. But all the same, she had the feeling that a small part of her had just died.
She immediately tried to reach Jim by phone, leaving a message at the Registrar's office. Some thirty minutes later he returned her call.
"Your special spy is slightly beat, suffering from severe sexual exhaustion, and anything else you care to think of."
"I'm proud of you. You'll save the Alma Mater," he joked.
"And kill myself doing it."
"But you've had fun, haven't you?"
"I suppose. But I'd rather make it with you," she added quickly.
"And I thank you from the bottom of my you-know-what, and the feeling is mutual."
"Do you miss me?" she asked, remembering Danny's blatant confession.
"I miss all my spies," he said noncommittally. "Now tell me, what have you learned?"
"Loads." She brought him up to the present as quickly as she could. "And I go along with you about this Eddie Prohaska. He acts the type and if there's any LSD being circulated, him and his oddball roommate are the ones that'll have it."
"Anything else?"
She told him what else she knew. Carbo ran the lewdest of lewd joints, he peddled booze to minors, was continually trying to feel her up, as well as do "other things," which she'd describe to him later, she said-"And I've the funniest feeling that something else is going on?"
"Else?"
"Don't ask me to tell you what it is, because I don't really know, but after the place closes ... well, it's just a feeling, but something's happening in the back room"
"But what?"
"I told you, I don't know. It's just a hunch."
"Which tells me exactly nothing."
"I can't help it. A girl gets hunches and this is a hunch."
"Any more hunches?"
"One."
"What is it?"
"I think there might be something shady going on between Vince Carbo and Eddie Pro "No idea what?"
"No."
"And that's it"
"All except the trifles." She told him about Danny and how mad he was.
"I can patch that up," Jim offered. "When this is over with, I'll just take him aside and explain."
Laurie didn't answer him. She didn't much care about Danny, she'd just about decided, and if she could just get Jim to get that certain feeling about her....
"What's your next move?" he asked.
"For one thing," she said, "I'm going to follow up this hunch I have. I want to get in Eddie's apartment when he isn't around."
"Sound's risky."
"But it's the only way I can search the place."
"D'you think he's going to have that stuff lying around?"
"I suppose not," she said a little dispiritedly, "but I'm still going to look."
"And I still think it's risky."
"I'm going to do it, anyway."
He was silent briefly and then he said, "You know I'll be worried, don't you?"
"I'd be hurt if you weren't." And then wanting to tease him, she added: "Is your concern, Jim, indicative of...." She stopped herself.
"Indicative of what?"
She wanted to say of something deep and profound. But she felt suddenly stupid. And she was afraid he'd perhaps laugh at her, tell her to "grow up," and so she said nothing.
"You were going to say something," he reminded her.
"I was," she said, accenting the tense.
"Then why don't you?"
"Because I'm frightened of what your answer'll be."
"Try me."
She summoned her courage. "Very well." She took a deep breath. "Do you care for me, Jim?"
"What kind of a question is that? Of course I care."
"A lot?"
He stammered somewhat. "W-well ... Laurie, you don't measure the degree of your feelings. I ... I...."
"I've said the wrong thing, haven't I?"
"No-no, you haven't."
"But you'd rather not talk about it, is that it?"
"Well...."
"I'm sorry I put you in such a difficult position."
"But you haven't." He paused. "And may I remind you, my sweet little princess, that from small acorns...."
"Are born mighty trees," she finished.
"It's true," he said.
Laurie felt close to tears. She said, "I may not be a big thing in your heart, Professor Jim Richardson, but I'll tell you one thing: I'm the big thing in your pants!" She slammed the phone down in the middle of his reply, then ran for the bed and had a long hard cry.
When Laurie reached The Cave that night, her attitude was: the hell with everything! She'd broken up with Danny, was making no progress with the professor, and all this disenchantment at the same time was just too much to bear. She felt like getting stoned, letting her already tarnished principles go the rest of the route. In fact, the whole world could make out with her if they wanted to, for no one cared, she convinced herself. Not a single soul.
She very quickly perpetrated her self-pity, allowing' Vince to feel her up right after she came in, and not particularly mindful when he followed her to her dressing room, Sid Laska hotly on his tail.
In another instance, Laurie would have asked them to leave so she could dress; however, tonight, deeply embittered, she didn't care if they watched her or not.
"You look terrific," Vince said, as she slid her dress over her head, revealing herself in panties and brassiere. "Don't she look terrific?" Vince asked Sid.
"It's doesn't not don't," Sid corrected.
"Don't, doesn't, what's, the diff? The kid's got a shape."
"Right."
"Curvy and bouncy and young...." He rubbed his hands together. "A regular gold mine."
"24-carat," Sid added.
Laurie faked a smile. She knew these two weren't here for the express purpose of paying her compliments. They wanted something. Some tail. An orgy for three. But the thought of it failed to warm her. She said:
"I'd like to finish dressing, if you don't mind."
Vince came on with what he thought was a funny: "Why should we mind, Laurie? You wanna finish dressing go ahead."
"Yeah," Laska beamed, "go ahead."
Laurie shifted her glance from one to the other. Creeps, she thought. The kind of gooks who'd probably be found lurking around playgrounds, hoping to see young girls hanging upside down from the monkey bars, revealing their underclothes.
"Maybe Laurie's chicken," Vince suggested, his mouth twisted to a wry smile.
"Is that right, Laurie?" Sid challenged her.
"It doesn't bother me any," she said rebelliously. "If you guys want to watch me, suit yourselves." And then much to their bewilderment ... they hadn't, of course, believed she'd go throught with it ... Laurie whipped off her brassiere and skinned out of her panties. .She heard the quick intake of their breaths, smiled somewhat vainly at them, and padded to the make-shift wardrobe closet in which the costumes were kept. Her breasts jiggled with every step, and just so these two idiots would be really stunned, she swept back her shoulders, swelling her creamy, rose-petaled mounds to even greater prominence. Her young bucket twitched as she stood at the closet debating what costume she'd wear. Sid and Vince were gripped in a passionate and wordless silence, and when she turned to them, held two brightly sequined costumes in the air and asked them which they liked the best they were so awe-stricken by her loveliness that neither of them could register a single word.
Laurie glowed with pride. She had the defenseless stance of a very young girl, the countenance of a budding teenager; her equipment, on the other hand, advertised a young but mature woman: Her blushing-pink nipples were hard and erect; the dark shadow of her sex was copious, excitingly defined.
"Can't you talk?" she grinned impishly.
Vince cleared his throat. "The one on the left...."
"Yeah," Sid gulped, "the one on the left."
Laurie's eyes dropped. Her effect on the two clods was visible. Vince was throbbing like a wind-up toy. Sid had his hands in his pockets, trying to quell the uprising. He finally gave up.
"Well since you both like the left one," she hung the other one up, "that's the one I'll wear." She pirouetted in front of the mirror, holding the costume in front of her, inspecting the result.
"T-There's no ... no hurry, kid. I mean, the crowd's just getting warmed up and ... well, Laurie, if you want to start a little later than usual...."
Laurie shot Vince a cynical grin. "But I don't want to keep them waiting." She slid the costume from its hanger.
"They won't mind," Vince offered.
"Right, Laurie," Laska added on. "They've got all night."
"And we could just stay in here and play huh?" she said.
"Yeah," Vince breathed loudly, rubbing his hands together.
"But I've got a better idea," she said, wanting to tease and smiling to prove it, "instead of playing with me, why don't you play with yourselves?"
"We're almost considering just that," Sid answered, his voice in a tremble, "but isn't that kind of childish?"
Laurie felt devilish. "Who cares, so long as it feels good."
"Laurie!" they shouted in protest.
But Laurie wasn't listening. She was climbing into her costume, squeezing and wiggling her young breasts into a sea of imprisoning sequins.
"Laurie, we're hot!" Vince complained.
"I know it," she said.
"Then can't you do something for us?"
"Can't now," she smiled evasively, "but like they always told me in school: You should learn to do things yourself!"