A Dark and Stormy Night

Author's Note: This story first appeared in slightly different form back in 1996. I've always wanted to take another crack at it and since it wasn't included in my original postings to Literotica, here goes.

*****

A sudden flash of lightning filled the small cabin, causing the transistor radio on the table to momentarily crackle with static. A few seconds later, the early summer night was filled with a resounding crash as the sound of the thunderclap caught up with the light. The storm had been raging for a little over two hours, alternating between violent crashes in the sky and the steady patter of rain against the windows.

"That was a good one!" Robyn Grayson exclaimed as she clapped in appreciation of the sudden illumination.

"You wouldn't think that if we were out there on the lake," Valerie Carter replied as she pointed out the large bay windows to the large body of water beyond.

"But we're not, are we?" Robyn retorted with an exaggerated pout. "Sometimes you can be such a worrier."

"One of us has to be," Valerie said, "or at least have common sense. Otherwise you'd probably have us out there on the lake because you'd get a better view."

"Hey, now that's an idea," Robyn said in mock seriousness. "We could take one of the boats down by the dock and ..."

"Don't even think it," Valerie said, cutting her off in mid-sentence.

Both girls then broke out into laughter.

All in all, watching the storm and snacking on munchies and a bottle of wine that they'd liberated from the liquor cabinet wasn't the worst way the two of them could spend the night. Of course, it wasn't what they had in mind when they'd come up to the lake two days ago, but nature had a way of interrupting the best laid plans.

Robyn Grayson and Valerie Carter had been best friends for fourteen of their nineteen years, ever since they'd met on the first day of kindergarten. Back then, they'd both been pudgy little girls more interested in games and dolls than anything else. With slight variations, that had continued right up until they'd begun to hit puberty.

In Robyn's case, early womanhood had sprung upon her with a vengeance. She lost all her baby fat, and over the course of a long summer, went through a growth spurt that saw her fill up and out at the same time. She'd returned to school that fall no longer as the semi-plump tomboy that people remembered, but as an attractive young lady with a figure that began to draw boys' attention like moths to a candle. It was also over that summer that she finally gave in to her mother's insistence and let her dark hair grow out, replacing the almost boyish cut she'd previously preferred.

Valerie had also begun to fill out that summer, but unlike Robyn she lost little of her childhood fat. In fact, with the addition of a few inches to her height also came more than a few unwanted pounds. When she'd weighed herself a few days previously, the scale put Valerie at a hundred and fifty-one pounds. Her only saving grace was that her body weight was spread pretty evenly, giving her a mature, full-figured look, including a quite substantial bust.

Regardless of those physical changes, both girls had continued to remain steadfast friends. They'd seen too many friendships fall apart when one friend became part of the popular crowd and no longer had time for the other who hadn't been similarly accepted. Robyn did indeed become part of the in crowd, a cheerleader and the girlfriend of the quarterback. But she made it clear to anyone who even suggested that it would look better if she 'dropped' Val, that the crowd, the cheerleaders and even the quarterback would fall by the wayside before her friendship with Valerie did.

In actuality, it hadn't been Robyn's rise in prominence that required the biggest adjustment in their friendship, but Valerie's. Between the two of them, Valerie had always been the smarter of the two, at least as far as books were concerned. A constant presence on the honor roll, the short haired blonde had qualified for a full scholarship at Northern State, where she had been enrolled since last fall. Robyn, who'd graduated high school with less than full honors, had declined higher education in favor of joining the local work force.

Valerie had been home only a few days when her mother announced that they were going up to Morning Rock Lake to spend the week at their grandfather's cabin, while he and Valerie's father replaced the heating and air conditioning system in the house. Wouldn't it be nice, Mae Carter had further said, if Valerie invited Robyn to come with them? It would give the two of them a chance to catch up on the six months since they'd last seen each other.

The first days of the trip had been pretty routine, just some swimming in the lake, a little boating and a barbecue with the neighbors. Then, this afternoon, Val's fourteen-year-old brother, Bobby, had taken a fall and twisted his ankle while climbing a tree. It had swollen up pretty good and Mae thought it a good idea to take him into town to have it x-rayed, just to be sure it wasn't more serious. There was no need, she said, for the girls to interrupt their vacation. After all, she and Bobby would be back in a few hours - they'd hardly notice they were even gone.

The wait in the small hospital turned out to be longer than Mae had expected, and by the time they were finished, the thunderstorm had made driving on the old country roads an iffy proposition. The safe bet, she decided, was to stay in town overnight. So, she'd called the girls and told them that all Bobby had was indeed a sprain and that they'd be back in the morning. The girls said not to worry, the two of them would be fine on their own.

-=-=-=-

"I bet you wished you'd stayed home this weekend," Valerie said as, sitting on one end of the couch, she drained the last of the wine from her glass.

"I don't know, this is kind of fun." Robyn, sitting on the other end, replied as she quickly refilled Val's glass before topping off her own.

"More fun than Sally Kellerman's Summer Bash?" Valerie countered as she looked at the now empty wine bottle. It seemed like they'd just opened it. "That was tonight, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I think so," Robyn said in an unconvincing tone, "but I really wasn't planning to go anyway."

"The biggest social event of 1978, filled with the most popular people in school, and you were just going to stay home and do your nails," Val laughed. "If my mom hadn't waited until we were already up here before mentioning it, I'd never have invited you to come along. It wasn't fair to put you on the spot, having to make you choose between coming up here with us and going to Sally's party. It's not like I'd have been angry if you wanted to go to the party instead."

"I really mean it; I wasn't planning to go," Robyn insisted.

"You know, I almost believe you," Valerie said.

"I've grown up a lot in the nine months you've been gone," Robyn said. "Enough to realize what stupid assholes some of those people really are."

"Well, what do you know?" Valerie laughed, "There is a brain in that pretty head of yours after all. I wondered if you'd ever open your mouth and speak up."

"Go to hell!" Robyn shot back in mock anger. "There are a lot of times I open my mouth."

"True," Valerie smiled, "but most of those times it's usually liplocked onto some dumb jock."

"Oh, how sharp the tongue of a friend," Robyn retorted, now laughing as well.

"Speaking of heads and sharp tongues, maybe we should go a little easy on this stuff," Valerie suggested as she indicated the glasses they both held. "Wouldn't do to have mom come back and find us sloshed."

"You worry too much." Robyn said. "By the time she gets back tomorrow, we'll have had a good night's sleep and be fine."

"Today, you mean," Valerie corrected as she looked at the large clock on the fireplace mantle and noted that it was one in the morning.

"Whatever ..." Robyn said, taking another drink from her glass.

Deciding that perhaps her friend did have a point, Valerie took another sip from her own glass as well.

"This new asshole category," Valerie asked as she lowered her glass. "Does that include Brian Ward?"

Brian Ward, former quarterback of the high school football team, had been Robyn's on again off again boyfriend for the last two years.

"Brian, it turns out, is both a prick and an asshole," Robyn replied, a clear disdain in her voice. "It turns out that even after we got back together, he was still getting blow jobs and sometimes more from both Jenny Davis and Helen Myers."

"And that would've been on the nights that you were seeing someone else?" Valerie asked.

"Yes, I mean, that was different..." Robyn stuttered. "I mean, who told you that?"

"No one had to tell me, Robyn," Valerie smiled. "I've just known you too long."

"What about you?" Robyn asked as she changed the subject. "You haven't said one word about the guys at State. I've known you a long time too, and you can't tell me that you've been celibate all this time."

While Valerie hadn't had Robyn's experience with boys, she was hardly a virgin. There had always been guys who saw that she was cute in her own way as well as those who would prefer to date a girl whose idea of an intelligent conversation involved more than the latest fashions or celebrity gossip. That and the desire to get a really good look at the big boobs that filled out whatever Valerie happened to be wearing. Jocks, nerds, or somewhere in between, guys were still guys.

"Well, I've been really busy these past few months," Valerie said, looking more than just a little uncomfortable. "College course are a lot harder than high school."

"Bullshit!" Robyn replied. "I could always tell when you're lying, Val, so you might as well tell me. You know that you're going to do that in the end anyway."

"Well ... actually ..." Valerie hesitated, she was finding it hard to say the words that floated unbidden in her mind.

"Come on, Val, we're never had secrets from each other," Robyn insisted, "no matter what they were. Remember that night I fucked Mr. Peterson; didn't I share that with you?"

Valerie remembered all too well how excited Robyn had been when she called Val's private line one night, well after midnight, telling her that she'd just done it with Robert Peterson, the thirty-five-year-old manager of the local Burger Barn. Even today, Valerie still wondered why Peterson, who had a quite attractive and younger wife, had taken the risk of sleeping with an employee almost young enough to be his daughter. Why Robyn had done it held little mystery. She had already slept with a few boys; now she wanted to see what it was like to be fucked by a man.

"I remember," Valerie answered quietly, staring out into the darkness beyond the window where the storm had finally subsided. At least the storm out there.

"So, you know you can trust me. Come on, Val," Robyn insisted.

Valerie turned her gaze from the darkness back to her oldest friend. She could see in her hungry eyes that she wasn't going to stop until she knew. Still, the words wouldn't come.

"Is it a teacher, or a professor, isn't that what you call them?" Robyn asked. "Are you sleeping with one of them?"

"No," Valerie simply replied.

"Is it someone that's married?" Robyn quickly continued.

"No," Valerie repeated.

"See, so it can't be as big a secret as what I shared with you," Robyn said, as if that should've made it easier to say.

Valerie stood up and walked over by the window, staring at her reflection. She ran a hand through her short hair and sighed. It had been a long day and the need for sleep and the wine were beginning to be felt.

"Robyn, why don't we just drop this and get some sleep," Valerie suggested.

"Because I want to know, that's why," Robyn said. "I want to know what it is that you don't think you can share with someone who's been your friend since we were five years old?"

"You wouldn't understand," Valerie replied.

"What wouldn't I understand?" came Robyn's reply. "A guy's a guy. God knows I've slept with a few assholes. So, what's the ..."

Robyn suddenly paused in mid-sentence. She brought her hand up to her still opened mouth in surprise. The reason Valerie didn't want to talk about it suddenly seemed crystal clear.

"Oh shit," she exclaimed. "He's black, isn't he? What's are your parents going to do when they find out?"

Valerie shook her head. It was bad enough that Robyn couldn't let the matter drop; now she had to let her small-town prejudices create some non-existent scenario.

"No, he's not black, or brown, or yellow, or for that matter white," Valerie finally answered, suddenly no longer caring how her friend might react. "If you really, really have to know - it's not a guy at all!

-=-=-=-

A pregnant silence filled the cabin as Robyn found herself totally speechless for the first time in her life. It had taken her a few seconds to understand Valerie's answer, but once she did, it had taken her back like nothing ever had before.

Viewing the expression on Robyn's face, Valerie was certain that she'd just flushed a fourteen-year friendship down the proverbial toilet. And the thing that surprised her was, she really didn't care. Not if the cost of keeping that friendship was denying herself and who she was. She was tired of lying, and if Robyn couldn't handle the truth, well then, maybe their friendship had never been as strong as they'd thought in the first place.

"What's her name?" Robyn asked.

"What?" Val asked, not actually hearing Robyn.

"I said, what's her name?" Robyn repeated. "Your girlfriend, or am I supposed to call her your lover?"

"Whatever you're the most comfortable with," Valerie finally responded, surprised at her friend's calm reaction. "Her name is Beth Moskowitz."

The name called forth the image of a tall, dark eyed girl that Robyn remembered meeting the weekend she'd taken the bus up to State to visit Valerie and take a look at the school. There had been a number of people that Valerie had presented her to over the three days she was there, but for some reason, Beth had stood out. Now Robyn realized it had been because of the glow on Valerie's face when she had introduced her.

"I remember her," Robyn said. "She's very pretty."

"Thanks," Val answered, unsure what else to say, "but it's already over between us. Beth wants someone who can be out in the open about our relationship. I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"I'm sorry," Robyn offered, her voice clearly reflecting genuine sympathy. "You want to talk about it?"

It had been a good long time since the two women had really sat down and had such an intimate conversation. It felt good to both of them. Surprisingly neither of them felt tired anymore.

"I should apologize for what I said before about the guy being black," Robyn said. "I should know better, but sometimes the prejudices you're surrounded with are hard to ignore."

"Actually, I'm pretty surprised the way you've taken this whole thing," Valerie said. "I almost expected you to call me a dyke."

"I'm not that bad, am I?" asked Robyn.

"I guess not," Val smiled.

"True, lesbianism isn't really a subject that comes up a lot in my circle of friends, but I'm not totally ignorant," Robyn went on. "I know there's a lot more to a woman's interest in other women than the idea that she simply can't get herself a man."

Actually, that little tidbit was at the core of most of Robyn's friends' thinking on the subject. Dykes, as some of them preferred to call them, were ugly girls who couldn't get a man and so turned to each other.

Sex was something her other girlfriends talked about incessantly, and when they did, Robyn had found strangeness as to what was considered acceptable and what was not. It was always okay to talk about how you fucked your boyfriend or a new position you tried. In fact, she could recall a night that Betty Lieberman demonstrated on a banana the perfect blow job. Yet there was another night when Sally Keller asked one of the other girls how best to masturbate and found herself shut out of the group. Evidently, that was too close to sexual contact between one girl and another.

"Was Beth a one-time thing or are you definitely into women now? asked Robyn.

"I don't know." came Valerie's reply. "I still find some guys attractive, but I think I'm more attracted to girls. To be honest, I've been attracted to girls for a couple of years. This was just the first time I had the opportunity to do anything about it. If Beth hadn't been so open in her sexuality, I'd still probably just be thinking about it."

Robyn studied the face of her friend. The revelation that she had been attracted to girls for years sent her mind racing along a new track. It was almost a minute before she asked the question that repeated over and over in her head.

"Were you ever attracted to me?" she asked.

Valerie waited almost twice as long before answering, but then just saying the words seemed to take a great load off of her.

"I've been in love with you since I was fourteen," Valerie said.

"Then why didn't you say anything?" Robyn asked, handling the admission with no more surprise than if Valerie had said the sky was blue.

"What was I going to say that probably wouldn't have, at the very least, destroyed our friendship?" Valerie asked in reply. "Do you really think you could've handled something like that back then?"

"Probably not," Robyn admitted. "To be honest, I'm really not at all sure how I'm handling it now."

A long pause passed as the room got very quiet, the only sound the ticking of the clock on the wall.

"Maybe we should just drop this and turn in," Valerie suggested as she looked at the clock. "It's almost one-thirty."

"No, I'm not tired," was Robyn's quick response.

She took a long hard look at her dearest friend. For most of their lives, they'd been closer than sisters. Had one of them been born a man, she had no doubt whatsoever that they'd have been lovers. Now, it seemed, that really hadn't been a requirement after all.

"What's it like," she unexpectedly asked, "making love to another woman?"

It took Valerie a few seconds to even believe that Robyn had asked a question like that. Then another few moments to try and formulate a response.

"I guess I could say it was softer, gentler than being with a guy," Valerie said, "but it's really much more than that. It's hard to put into words when you don't have a common frame of reference."

"Like the time I tried to explain to you how to give a guy a blow job when you'd never even seen a cock up close before," Robyn said.

"Not exactly, but that's close," Valerie replied.

"So, I guess the only way to really understand it, then, is to do it," Robyn said, again in a calm, controlled voice.

"I can't have heard you right," Valerie responded, disbelief in her own voice.

"No, I mean, yes, you heard me perfectly," Robyn said.

"I have to be dreaming this," Valerie said, actually wondering if this might be a wine induced dream.

"If it's a dream, then it's one that we're both having," Robyn smiled. "Valerie, I love you, always have, always will. If that's the kind of love that involves having a physical relationship too, well, maybe I'm not totally sure of that, at least not yet. But when you think about it, it is probably the only thing we haven't done together. I'd never admit it to anyone else, hell, I probably wouldn't even have admitted it to you if you hadn't done so first, but I've always had a certain curiosity about being with another girl. That much I'm sure of."

Valerie sat silent, trying to take in all that Robyn had said before making a reply.

"Besides, we both know I've gone to bed with guys for a lot of worse reasons," Robyn laughed.

Valerie had to smile at the truth of that.