Каран Андерс - The Book of Firsts

It would be impossible for me to not keep a mental tally. And too tempting to keep things even, to balance results so none of them lagged significantly behind. None of them would enjoy being last, but they wanted an honest competition, and so I would do my best to give them that.

Friday brought a brilliant blue sky and a warmth to defy the slide into autumn.

"Mika! Come eat with us. I’m not taking no for an answer."

Smiling at Lania, Carr, and a curly-haired girl I didn’t know, I casually flipped shut the cover of my phone. "You’ll have to, I’m afraid. I’m all booked up today."

"This is Hanni," Carr said. "Once Art Club, but we lost her to hockey."

I managed not to react to the name, exchanging greetings.

"You seriously need to play more often, Mika," Lania said. "Do you ever do anything except study?"

"Art Club."

"Where we work you mercilessly." Carr offered me a slow smile. "And, since the model for the cake stall was very popular, we’ve plans for several more. If you’re busy now, how about after school? We often get together on Friday afternoons down at the Tokley Centre. Surely your study schedule can manage a couple of hours."

"Have you seen my study schedule?"

"You’ll work better after a good meal and a bit of fun," Lania said. "And since we drive, you’ll probably get home only a little later than you would taking that bus."

The bus trip, though relatively short, was my least favourite part of my day, but it was the particular day of the year that made me hesitate. My nineteenth birthday, and I’d woken feeling the emptiness of my small apartment, and the long distance between me and my family. After a moment I said: "You make a good point. Thanks guys."

"Great! It’ll be fun!"

The curly-haired girl’s gaze was focused past my shoulder. "You should come too, Ky. The Tokley Centre fountain at four for the game centre and then dinner."

A familiar voice immediately behind me said: "I’ll pass." Direct, disinterested, and absolute.

Aware of a wash of unexpected cross-currents, I turned to discover Kyou and Carr in an exchange of not-quite-unfriendly looks.

"More important things to do, Westhaven?" Carr asked, surprising me with his flat tone.

"Other things."

"Have you met Mika, Kyou?" Lania put in hastily. "She’s new this year."

"Exam papers," Kyou said, looking at me. "Did you find what you needed?"

"Yes, thanks," I said, matching his casual tone, and I suddenly knew, just from the way he held himself, that I would be having Kyou for my birthday.

"You’re not doing mock exams already? Mika, you’re insane."

"Competitive course." I smiled at Hanni and felt a little awful for her, remembering Bran telling Kyou the girl was in love with him, causing her name to be immediately wiped from their list of prospects. I watched her face as Kyou nodded to our group and left, and let myself for a moment think about the number of people in this school who felt as she did for the three who were my lunchtime entertainment.

By the time I’d made my goodbyes and left the Art Club behind, a green dot had appeared on the phone app. I climbed over the wall, and was seated neatly at the table when Kyou emerged with the steaming teapot.

"No missed strokes this time?"

His expression didn’t flicker, but I could just imagine a virtual Challenge Level Increased sign over his head.

"None," was all he said, and set the tray.

We drank tea, and talked a little about exams, and the professor whose Engineering Physics course I was aiming for at Helios U, which would hopefully lead me into the Marden Institute, a government-funded physics and engineering lab which was my ultimate goal. All the time his eyes held mine, and the air filled with tense anticipation. We drank only one cup, and then Kyou took the tray back inside, and I looked up at the brilliant sky.

"You’re getting along well with the Art Club."

"Yes." I shot him an amused glance as he walked towards me. "That was a good suggestion of Rin’s."

He smiled faintly, then walked behind me.

My hair was currently just over shoulder-length, and I had it in a high ponytail. Kyou pulled the tie loose, and rearranged locks carefully, then circled to consider me. I matched him, stare for stare, but couldn’t resist a little juddering breath of anticipation when he reached forward to remove my tie.

"Feet," he murmured, placing the tie on the table.

I lifted one foot, and he dropped to his haunches to remove my shoes and socks. He put them neatly together beneath the table, looked up at me, and then slid his hands along the top of my thighs, up under my skirt, his thumbs lightly tracing the curve of flesh. Finding my underpants, he hooked fingers into either side of them, and I had to lift so he could pull them down.

One thing this competition had prompted me to do was invest in some nice underwear sets. Just matching cotton things, and today’s was a red tartan pattern which Kyou held up, cocking an amused eyebrow, before neatly folding them next to my tie.

Standing, he drew me up so we were very close indeed, brushing my stomach as he removed my skirt. He slid his hands up my spine to unhook my bra, and I had to wriggle a little to help him take it off while leaving my shirt on. Then he undid every button but the topmost, and stepped back a second time to enjoy the result.

"Something to keep the sun off?" I asked, glancing down. I rather liked this look. Kyou obviously did.

Deciding to redress the imbalance in clothing, I found his belt and made a slow business of unbuckling it, enjoying the way he kept his gaze fixed on the small glimpses he could catch of my breasts as I moved. In turn, I kept my attention focused entirely on his face, watching every nuance of his expression, not even glancing down at the body I was revealing, even when I knelt to remove his shoes, and then his underpants.

My shirt came off last. He settled it neatly over the back of one of the chairs, and looked at me expectantly. Always with him it was this challenge, this anticipation of pushing boundaries, of not backing down.

I stepped forward, still watching nothing but his expression as all those naked parts of us pressed together. He was hard against my stomach. My breasts flattened against his chest. Both of us inhaled, and then let our breath out at the exact same moment, and I smiled, and finally dropped my gaze as I lowered my mouth to the same spot in the hollow of the shoulder where I’d marked Rin.

I’d decided to put their hickeys in the same spots, for all that it would be problematic if they wandered around together with their shirts off. But the symmetry of it pleased me, and so I worked my way down Kyou just as I had Rin, though Kyou reacted differently at first, curling his hand around the back of my neck, and then tangling his fingers through my hair. He stopped that, though, as I worked on the third hickey, and I made sure to give him a particularly thorough one there, and when I was done, I looked up at him through lowered lashes, my cheek still pressed against him.

His eyes were very wide, but then they narrowed, and he stepped back. Reaching down to the seat of the unused patio chair, he picked up a folded blanket and, walking to the centre of the biggest stretch of grass, spread it with a flick of his wrists.

"Lie down. On your stomach."

Challenge upon challenge, and my own smile widened as I paced with slow deliberation toward him, keeping my eyes once again focused only on his. Stopping when I felt cloth beneath my bare feet, I knelt, and paused for a long moment gazing up at him. Even naked and erect he managed an appearance of calm control—though I suspected it was a thin veneer at the moment, as I leaned forward on my hands, and then lay flat, folding my arms beneath my chin.