Awakenings - SF1 (21 page)

Thanks for the marvelous lesson in how to fill up a weekend. I'll think of you all day...
especially every time I have to sit down!
Love,

Ryan

She hopped on her Harley with a grimace and rode directly to the MUNI station to catch a ride to school
. I'll be much better off standing the whole way,
she thought with a grimace.
Why did we have to try out every new toy she's bought since I saw her last? Will I never learn?

She barreled into class about 5 minutes late and took a seat near the door. Jamie caught sight of the grimace as she sat down and wondered if Ryan had hurt herself on their bike ride. But when she looked at her again she noticed how terrible she looked. She was very pale and her eyes looked dull and bloodshot. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and shoved haphazardly under a baseball cap. As Jamie cast another glance at her Ryan's head hit her chest and she jerked in her seat as she startled herself awake.
She looks injured alright
, she smirked.
But not from biking.

After class Ryan waited for her outside the door. She was leaning against the wall and looked like she might fall asleep right where she stood. "I don't want to belabor an obvious point, but you look like you could use some coffee,"
Jamie teased when Ryan forced her eyes open.

"I don't think coffee will help,"
she moaned. "I think I'm going to find a nice shady spot and take a nap until I have to go to work."

"Don't you have your bio lab?"

"Yeah, but there's no way I could safely perform any experiments today. I don't want to endanger my fellow students."

"Come on,"
she said as she slipped her arm around Ryan's waist. "I can help you out."

After a relatively slow and silent walk they were climbing the stairs to Jamie's house. "I take it that you figured out how to fill your weekend,"
Jamie asked casually as she led her friend up to her bed to allow her to crash.

"Oh, it got filled all right,"
Ryan said, thinking to herself,
Along with every other orifice.

The workout schedule that they had agreed on was meeting their needs perfectly. It allowed Jamie to tax her legs 4 times per week, which allowed a full day of rest between workouts. Jamie rode her long distances on Monday and Wednesday. Her hill climb was on Saturday or Sunday depending on her weekend plans. She found a good set of hills near Jack's apartment, so she was set. They worked her trunk and shoulders on Monday, her arms and back on Wednesday and her legs and chest on Fridays,

After two weeks of this regimen Ryan decided to leave her mountain bike at Jamie's so they could ride together on Monday and Wednesday. As much as Ryan loved her new gym she could no longer go on her morning bike rides, so she had to use whatever time she had available in the afternoons. She began to ride her motorcycle to Jamie's and leave it in her driveway at 5:00 a.m. She would then fetch her bike and ride to work, and later to class. Cassie was not very happy to be roused from sleep every morning at 5:00 by the thrumming engine of the Harley, but she eventually stopped complaining when Ryan agreed to turn off the engine at the curb and walk the bike down the drive.

Cassie was also not particularly happy when Jamie gave Ryan a key to the house.

"Jamie, I don't want that woman to be able to barge in here whenever she pleases," she huffed.

"Okay Cassie," Jamie agreed. "She needs to come in to change out of her boots and heavy jacket before she can ride her bike, so I'll just tell her to ring the bell every morning. You are a really light sleeper, so would you run down and let her in?" she inquired sweetly.

"Fine Jamie, just give all the sex crazed lesbians in town a key to our house," she fumed. "You know, I talked to some people who know her and they say she is a real slut. I can't believe that's the type of person you like to associate with."

She pursed her lips and regarded her roommate for a long moment. "Cassie if all of my friends were as kind and as generous and as honorable as Ryan, I would be one happy woman," she stated with narrow, flashing eyes, as she turned on her heel; hoping that Cassie understood the true meaning of the jibe.

As the term progressed the demands on Jamie's time increased until she felt like she didn't have a moment to herself. She spent a massive amount of time reading for her 4 English classes and she occasionally kicked herself mentally for taking so many classes that required so much reading. When her face was not actually buried in a book she was either at the gym or riding in the hills. But she found that no matter how much time she dedicated to her workouts she did not regret one minute of them. When she was on her bike she was able to free her mind of every concern about her classes and her future. She didn't worry about her relationship with Jack or think about their life together. She merely put her mind on hold and let the wind fly past her face as she pedaled along the steep hills of Berkeley. Having been away from bike riding for so many years she realized that she had forgotten the freedom that two wheels afforded. No matter how bad traffic was she could scoot right past the stalled cars and be home in a matter of minutes.

But the workouts with Ryan were what really kept her motivated. They worked together 3 hours a week but she had to admit that they were among the most enjoyable hours of her busy week. Even though they spent lots of time together having coffee or a quick meal the workouts were when Jamie felt truly special.

When she really allowed herself to think about it Jamie was the one who usually spent her time making other people feel special. Sometimes it seemed that her entire relationship with Jack was spent making sure that his needs were met: making him lunch and dinner; being with him while he studied; never making demands to go out to dinner or a movie; and being available to him sexually. But for 3 hours a week the world revolved around Jamie and her slowly developing body.

One of the things she had grown to appreciate about Ryan was her ability to intensely focus on a task. As the weeks passed she realized that focus was never welcomer than when it centered around her.

Jamie had observed many other trainers during her weeks at the gym but she had never observed anyone who concentrated so fiercely on their clients. Without a word from Jamie Ryan would automatically remove 5 pounds from the weight stack if it was a tiny bit too heavy; she would order her to stop at 9 reps instead of 10 if she detected too much fatigue; she would skip a certain exercise if a related exercise was too difficult on a given day. All in all she was just so highly attuned to Jamie and her body that after a while they spoke very little during the sessions.

After most sessions they rode to Jamie's home on their bikes. Ryan was always vigilant to make sure that Jamie's muscles were warm enough to handle the short trek and once they arrived she would invariably order her client into the shower. Ryan would wait patiently for Jamie to finish in the bath and then she would give her a thorough massage on whatever body part they had stressed. During the massage Ryan would usually spend at least 10 minutes praising her performance in the weight room. Jamie knew that part of the reason Ryan did this was to keep her motivated; nonetheless, she ate it up greedily. She just felt so unique and special when they spent this time together that she began to wake up in a very happy mood on every workout day.

On a cool and overcast Wednesday
,
Jamie arrived at the gym for their usual 4 o'clock appointment. She looked around for Ryan but did not see her hanging around the front desk as was her usual habit. She dropped her things off in a locker and entered the main part of the gym, looking for her friend. After she was about to give up and have her paged she spotted her in the far corner of the gym.

Jamie had never even noticed the boxing equipment located on a slightly raised platform in the corner. But Ryan was standing in front of a heavy leather covered bag, banging the stuffing out of it with her hands which were encased in bright red boxing gloves. She stood for a second and observed her friend, watching the sweat fly from her face as she delivered one strong blow after another. Jamie mused that she would not hit the bag the way her friend was doing it. But when she watched carefully she could see that Ryan's technique was the proper one. She punched from her shoulder, getting the force of her entire torso behind each blow. Jamie noted that she was nearly standing on her toes while she punched the bag and that her body followed her arm, with even her hips helping provide thrust. It truly amazed her that she could stand and watch her friend for such a long time without her being aware of her scrutiny, but Ryan was so intent that she was obviously unaware of anything other than her furious assault on the heavy bag. "Um
…
mad at someone?" she finally asked to break the spell.

Ryan whirled to face her, sweat flying from her hair and hitting Jamie in a light spray. "When did you get...what time is it?" she asked as she looked at her watch. "My God!" she gasped. "It's 4:15!"

"I know," Jamie said with a smile. "I've been watching you for 15 minutes."

"You have?" Ryan asked with a truly perplexed look on her face.

As she said that Jamie realized how odd it sounded to just be watching her so she explained, "I've never seen anyone work on a bag like that. I've always been fascinated by boxing."

"You have?" Ryan asked dubiously as she grabbed a small towel from a stack and wiped her face and neck down.

"Yeah, I have. That was pretty impressive, by the way," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," Ryan said as she blushed a bit. "My 3 o'clock cancelled and I wanted to do something aerobic for a few minutes. I thought this would be something that I could do and not sweat too much," she said as she looked at herself rather helplessly. Sweat was still running down her face and into her black shirt. Rivulets ran down her arms and even her thick black golf shirt looked drenched.

"Um...you were wrong?" Jamie hazarded.

"Well, I started out just playing around with the speed bag," Ryan admitted. "But when I was finished I still felt kind of twitchy so I thought the heavy bag would tire me out."

"Twitchy?"

"Yeah," she said as a blush covered her face and neck. "Sometimes I just need to...I don't know...like let off some steam."

"I think you were successful," Jamie observed wryly.

"I didn't look too bad after the speed bag," Ryan insisted.

"Well as long as you're doing a demo let me see you on that for a minute," she begged, truly interested in seeing her friend work her magic again.

Ryan graced her with a quirky grin. "You sure?" she asked dubiously.

"Positive," Jamie insisted. Ryan shrugged her broad shoulders and stuck out her hands. After a second Jamie realized that she could not take the gloves off herself. "Wow, these would have been a good way for my parents to make me stop sucking my thumb at night," she laughed.

"Hmm, I didn't suck my thumb but I could have used these for a little self control at night myself," Ryan mused as Jamie slapped her firmly in the stomach.

"Some of your dates probably wish you had them now," Jamie chided her.

"Ooo, that's cold," Ryan muttered. She pulled off the gloves that Jamie had unlaced and put on a pair of very lightweight hand protectors. Facing the bag she centered her weight and raised her fists almost to eye level. "My brother Conor put up a speed bag in the garage when I was about 10," she revealed as she started to slowly tap the bag with each hand in sequence. "I had to stand on a box to hit the darn thing but I was much more dedicated than he was. Of course he was 14 and just starting to get into girls so his attention was diverted," she smirked. "Anyway, I loved working on that bag and it really helped me enormously with my hand/eye coordination as well as my concentration. I was so skinny that bag would have knocked me right off that box if I didn't pay attention."

By the time she was finished recounting this insight into her youth her speed had picked up to such an extent that the bag was a mere blur as she worked it easily with her fists barely moving. It was truly mesmerizing to watch and Jamie mused that she could stand here all day and just watch Ryan flail away. But after a few minutes she slowed and eventually stopped the bag by grabbing it with both hands. "Look like fun?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Yeah, when you do it," she said with a laugh. "Why doesn't anybody ever use this stuff?"

"Well, it is a lot harder than it looks and most women don't grow up around the stuff so they don't know where to start. But I'd love to show you how if you want. It would be good for your upper body."

"Let's stick with the machines for awhile, Pal. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew." She regarded her friend for a moment and asked, "Do you have another shirt? That one's a mess."

"Good point," she agreed as she plucked at the limp garment. "I think I can grab another from the office. Be right back."

A few minutes later she trotted back over in a much too small shirt. Jamie guessed that she normally wore an extra large and this one could not have been more than a medium. But she didn't have any complaints and neither did the two women on the stair climbers who followed Ryan's progress across the gym. "The only one they had was from someone who quit earlier this year," she said with a scowl. "She must have been a 9 year old."

"You look fine," Jamie assured her. "Now let's get busy, Coach. I've got my work cut out for me if I'm going to keep up with you!"

After their very strenuous workout Jamie asked, "Do you have time for dinner? I could whip something up?"

Ryan appeared to consider the offer for a moment, but finally said, "I'd love to, Jamie, but I can't squeeze it in. My father made a brown bag dinner for me, so I'm just gonna go study."

"That's okay," Jamie said, trying not to sound like she cared. In truth, she cared a great deal. As much as she enjoyed the workouts she equally enjoyed the post shower massage and the praise. But she didn't feel comfortable admitting how much that special time meant to her so she tried to appear casual.

Ryan caught the small look of disappointment in her face. "If you need some company tonight, I'll make time for you," she said kindly.

Jamie felt a little busted, and tried to cover it up with a careless reply. "No, I should study too, I'm just looking for a reason not to."

"If you're sure, Jamie," Ryan said with an intense gaze as she squatted down a bit to make eye contact.

"Positive," she replied, immensely glad that Ryan cared enough to meet her needs.

4 hours later Jamie was hard at work on a short paper for 'The Lesbian Experience' when she realized that she did not have an important book.
Darn, I must have left it at Jack's
. The paper wasn't due until Friday, but she had plans to study for a 'Romantic Poets' class the next day. This was really the best night to write the paper, but it was 9 o'clock and she wasn't sure where to buy the book. She called around and found that 'Daughters of Sappho' had the only copy in the area so she hopped in the Porsche and drove to Oakland.

As she circled the block, looking for parking, she noticed an unmistakable vehicle. A turquoise and cream Harley.
Hmmm, what's she doing here, 'Little Miss I Have
to
Study'?
She was a trifle annoyed when she entered the bookstore side of the store. She looked around furtively but didn't see Ryan anywhere.
Well I guess there could be two women who ride that Harley. That is within the realm of possibilities
. She found her book, stopped at the counter to pay for it and was getting ready to leave when she paused to take a quick look around the coffeehouse.

The room was quite a bit darker than the last time she had visited. A woman was on the small stage singing some contemporary ballads in an adequate fashion. Jamie scanned the crowd in the dim light and noticed that only 3 of the small tables were occupied--none of them by Ryan. As she turned her head slowly, trying to adjust for the differences in brightness between the two rooms she caught what looked like a familiar form in the farthest corner of the establishment. Two women occupied a small loveseat in the very dark corner. You couldn't really say they were sitting, because neither of them was upright. An attractive black woman with very close cropped hair was half reclining on the loveseat and Ryan was practically lying on top of her.

Jamie stood slack jawed in the bright light of the bookstore, staring in shock at the pair. Ryan was kissing the woman deeply and moving gently against her whole body as she did so. Jamie did not think she had ever seen anything that was more erotic but every fiber of her being wanted to run out of the store and never think about the sight again. She watched as Ryan gripped the woman's face and kissed her even more passionately. She was completely unable to move but equally unable to stop watching.

Ryan began to sit up and the woman came right with her, latched on to her mouth like an eel. When they were both upright Ryan put one arm around her shoulders and another under her knees and pulled the woman onto her lap. Jamie saw those strong tanned hands begin to caress the woman all over her body. She knew she would faint if she did not look away, but she felt rooted in place. She watched as Ryan's hands again moved to either side of the woman's head and held her still as she began another round of deep kisses. Jamie saw tongues passing between mouths as they drew back an inch or two and then fell right back into each other. The woman's hands slowly slid up Ryan's torso and Jamie had to grasp for something to steady herself as she saw one small dark hand firmly grasp Ryan's left breast and begin to knead it. Ryan's head rose slowly and dropped back against her shoulders as a look of absolute pleasure crossed her beautiful face.

As the book slid from her now nerveless fingers Jamie heard a voice ask, "How ya doing kid?" The question, which came from directly behind her right shoulder, nearly caused her to scream. She used all of her composure to focus her attention in the direction of the voice. Babs, the owner of the shop, and Ryan's friend, looked at her in sympathy. "Don't be mad at her, hon," she said. "Ryan's not a bad kid, but she just can't get tied down to any one woman. She's just not the type."

"What?" Jamie looked at her in total confusion. "Why would I be m...? What?" Never in her 20 years had she felt so completely inarticulate.

"It's okay, kid. You aren't the first and you won't be the last. Don't let it get to ya."

"B
…
b
.
..but, we're not...she isn't...I'M NOT...I didn't..." Jamie truly wanted to sink to the floor and cry. She was so frustrated with her inability to form a coherent sentence and her chaotic feelings about Ryan that she was truly at a loss.

"All I'm saying is that there are plenty of women who would love to date a good lookin' girl like you. And most of them wouldn't give you up so easy as Ryan did," at this she patted Jamie on the back and walked back in to the coffeehouse.

Jamie was even more stunned now. As if in a trance her eyes traveled on their own accord back to the dark corner. She watched as Ryan and her date disentangled themselves from each other and stood on wobbly legs. The woman had her arm wrapped around Ryan's waist and Ryan's arm was draped across her shoulders. Their heads were very close together as they stumbled out into the darkness.

In order to give herself time to collect her feelings Jamie picked up her book and sat down at one of the small tables. She sat motionless and dazed for at least 15 minutes with her mind a complete jumble. She was angry, puzzled and curious and although she hated to admit it...totally aroused.

Finally, she felt as though she had enough control to drive. She walked outside and was very surprised to see the Harley still in its space. She made her way around the corner and saw Ryan and the woman leaning up against a car, continuing what they had been doing in the coffeehouse. The problem was that the car was right in front of Jamie's.

Now Jamie was able to sort out her feelings--she was angry!
I want to leave for god's sake! And I don't want her to see me.

Her quandary was solved a moment later when the woman opened the rear door, crouched down and slid across the seat. Ryan dove in and obviously landed right on top of her. Their heads immediately dropped below the windows and Jamie felt like she could leave and not be seen.

She ran to her car and got in quickly. After a moment of fumbling with her keys she started the engine and roared off as fast as her little German wheels would take her.

Once at home, and safe in her room, she let her mind ruminate.
It's not like I didn't know she was with a lot of women. It's just that actually seeing her with a woman was such a shock. But why did I feel so turned on?
She pondered that question for long minutes.
It must just be the shock and the thrill of seeing someone do something that is kind of forbidden. I would probably get turned on from watching Mia and her boyfriend really go at it, too.
She could feel her body flush as she considered just how passionate Ryan had looked with her date.
God, she sure was going at it. She looked so powerful and strong. Her hands just possessed that woman. She kissed her with a fierceness that I have never felt. She just looked so intense. God, I wonder what they're doing now?
Her mind only paused a second before it delivered the obvious message.
What do you think
,
Jamie? They're having hot sex in the back seat of that car! Oh god, why didn't I take abnormal psychology like everybody else?