Smiling When it Rains

Smiling When it Rains
an4@anon.lelnet.com

  Kevin was glad to be back. You could usually separate the teachers into two
groups- the single teachers who were glad that summer was over, and the
attached, who spent the first month bitching. Or at least that was the way
Kevin saw it. Frankly, he was glad to be back, satisfied just to have the
human contact again. You could only go the beach and take short vacations and
ride your bike so many times before it all started to get a tad redundant.
  Then again, there was another reason Kevin was glad to be back, The truth was
that not all the beaching and the driving around in the world could make up
for what he had right here at little Posoquat High School with its 200 hundred
students. 140 of them were girls, and of that number, eighty someodd were
smokers. Posoquat was part of the Brittonham school district, a remote
sattelite school which had refused to enforce the district's new anti-smoking
policy,
  Posoquat's crusty principal had taken her share of heat over the decision,
but that hadn't even slowed her down. Then again, the parents were behind her,
and despite the fact that the school's money technically came out of
Brittonham's general budget, they had their own school board, own PTA and own
teacher's association. All of them had stood behind her decision 100 percent,
which was why Kevin had declined an offer to move from Posoquat to Brittonham
Central High. 
  He'd been afraid that decision would give him away, but there were plenty of
reasons to stay at Posoquat beside the opportunity to watch pretty high school
girls  smoke.
  Just none as compelling. Still, he stuck to the story that he lived a few
blocks away from school. It did in a pinch.
  He walked out the front door. It was still early on this first day and kids
were just beginning to straggle in. Truth was, attendance was likely to be
low. The hurricane which had blasted the coast to the south was moving rapidly
north, threatening to do those typical hurricane things, washing out roads,
knocking down trees, making life miserable.
  Before he surveyed the true scenery he took a look up at the swollen sky. It
was grey, pregnant, and rather angry. But it was not raining yet, and that
meant that there would be at least a few minutes of worthwhile behaviour.
Kevin took his pipe out of his jacket pocket- at twenty six, he felt a bit
young to be smoking a pipe, but he didn't much like cigarettes and it was way
too early in the day to be smoking cigars.
  As he lit the pipe, doing it with a sort of slow enjoyment as his grandfather
had taught him, he started to look around. There was Angela Vanderwoort, who'd
been held back freshman year for reasons which were far from obvious. Six one,
blonde and busty, Kevin had a feeling that she might have earned better than
the four sixty-fours that he'd seen in her record that year, all from young
male teachers.
  He wasn't complaining. She was standing in a circle of juniors and seniors,
drawing deeply on a just lit Virginia Slims 120 and laughing politely at
something that Cordy King had said. It had to be polite laughter, because
Cordy was just about the meanest teenager on the planet. Still, when she
lifted her Salem 100 to her pouty lips and drew on it, one could forget her
shrill sense of the world.
  Kendra Anders looked his way, catching his eye on purpose.  Kendra apparently
still had the same crush on him that she'd ended last marking period with. He
swore that she knew what it was that he liked, because once she had his
attention, she brought a Benson and Hedges to her mouth and all but literally
sucked the smoke from it.
  He couldn't help but watch her as she exhaled for him.
  None of the other girls saw the exchange. He pulled on his pipe and turned
away slowly. He didn't want to- the thought that Kendra had nurtured her crush
for an entire summer and knew enough to smoke for him was- it was appealing,
but he knew that sort of appeal was best ignored.
  There were other groups of smokers clustered here and there, mostly coed,
twos and threes, looking comfortable because they were doing the same thing
they'd been doing all summer- hanging around, talking, slacking, and smoking.
It made him envy and resent them at the same time. 
  Then he saw something truly odd.
  Standing alone, almost around the side of the school, was one of his
favourite students- despite the fact that he'd never known her to be a smoker.
Tiffany Bathe. There she was, standing by herself, a vision on this first day.
She was wearing tight jeans, a red tank which seemed just barely strong enough
to hold together against the surge of her breasts. She was smallish, no more
than five four, but built in such a way that she could carry off the tight
clothes without looking trashy.
  She was wearing a golfer's cap which hid her often sad eyes without
disturbing her pretty blonde hair, which she had pulled into a tight bun.
  In her left hand was-	
  He had to look closely to be sure, but yes, it was definitely a just lit
Marlboro Lights 100.
  His interest was most certainly piqued. He walked in her direction, drawing
on his pipe as he walked. She looked up and he saw mild embarrassment on her
face, but it didn't last. Instead, she brought that wonderful cigarette to her
young lips and inhaled. When she was done she moved the cigarette aside,
holding it up by her right ear, and exhaled through that quiet little smile of
hers.
  "Hi, Mr. Lang. How was your summer ?"
  "Uneventful, Tiff. How about yours ?"
  "Boring. I'm glad to be back." She looked up at the sky, exposing her long
pale neck. She then did the most wonderful thing. Eyes cast towards the grey
overhang, she drew on the cigarette again, and Kevin recorded ever nuance of
the moment. The way the tip of the cigarette flared and smoke trailed from it.
The delicate inturn of her cheeks as she pulled the smoke, a real smoker's
inhale and not just posing. The throb of her neck as she pulled the smoke into
her young, eager lungs. Her green eyes, barely visible, sparkled as the smoke
hit her insides.
  Then she looked back at him, smoke pouring from her nose.
  "I didn't know that you smoked, Tiff."
  "Last time you saw me, I didn't. Well, that's not true exactly, but-"
  They'd run into one another at the grocery store a few times over the summer,
but that wasn't a place where you saw people smoke.
  "I know what you mean. Do you mind if I ask-"
  Tiffany was an odd creature. He liked her because she was painfully
intelligent, but she was also painfully shy in a strange sort of way. She
never seemed, as his dad would have said, to get on with the other kids. They
seemed to bore her. But that didn't mean she didn't understand them. All too
well, he'd observed more than once.
  "Kendra would love to have this conversation with you," she said archly, and
Kevin nearly swallowed his pipe.
  "Whatever do you mean ?"
  Tiff drew on the cigarette again and Kevin found himself worrying that he
might just give himself away a little here.
  She seemed to sense his nervousness, and it was a little annoying that she
was enjoying it. The word manx came to mind.
  "It's okay, Mr. Lang. It's perfectly normal, and the girls enjoy it."
  "Enjoy what ?"
  "Having you watch them smoke, silly."
  Kevin didn't really know how to play this game. He was like most people- not
above a little flirting with the girls, as long as it stayed well within
bounds. There was a line and like most teachers, he'd always thought he knew
where to draw it.
  "I'm not one of those dirty old men-"
  "Of course not," Tiffany said, a little lilt in her voice. "Is that what you
think ?"
  "Well, I know how you girls look at us. A bunch of old men and women."
  Her inhale was physically challenging. He had no intention of pitching a tent
here.
  "Not at all. Oh, I know how we talk, but you're not even thirty. Nobody
thinks you're old. Now Mr. Shockely- he flirts with the girls and that's how
they talk about him- but not you."
  Was he really having this conversation ?
  Of course, what she said about Shockely was true. The only thing which
consistently saved him was the fact that he was very married and everyone
passed off his flirtatiousness as part of his harmless nature.
  "So, how did you come to start smoking ?"
  Tiffany smiled her best smiled, inhaled again, and then laughed through her
exhale. 
  "The truth is, I got bored one day in July, took a walk down to the corner
store, bought myself a pack of cigarettes, and decided to try smoking. I
didn't really like it at first, but Mom told me that it takes a while to get
used to and that I should be patient."
  "Your mother encouraged you ?" he asked with mild disbelief.
  "Well, she's what she calls a social smoker. Most of her friends are people
she works with and they all smoke. She smokes with them- probably just two or
three packs a week, but she likes it enough to smoke a few cigarettes a day at
home. Dad smokes a cigar when he comes home and another one after dinner. My
older sister smokes- we're a very smoking-friendly family. When I started, Mom
figured she might as well make the transition easier. Which she did. I
probably smoke a pack a day, and that's the most smoking anyone in the family
does."
  Kevin drew on his pipe. "Then why are you standing off in a corner, looking a
little bit nervous ?"
  "Well, let's just say that I don't hang out with people all that much over
the summer and you know- first day back, new habit- I wasn't sure how people
would take that. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly one of the
popular girls."
  He couldn't resist as she inhaled again. 
  "That seems to be entirely your choice, Tiff."
  Her nose exhale was- he began thinking he should finish his pipe and excuse
himself, as he was enjoying this a little too much.
  "Yes, it is. I prefer the company of adults. Certain adults, anyway-"
  The look in her eyes might have truly disturbed him, but right then a loud
horn sounded. It took Kevin a moment to realise that it was the emergency horn
on the roof of the school, a throwback to the days of the cold war- the school
was, after all, the disaster centre for this little corner of Americana.
  "Everyone to the cafeteria immediately. The principal has a special
announcement."
  Kevin noticed most of the buses hadn't come in yet, and he wondered if they
were canceling school- and on the first day. Just then huge drops of rain
started to fall, and Tiffany took one final drag on her cigarette before
crushing it out on the walk.
  Kevin walked over to the wall of the school and gently tapped the bowl clean.
The rain was coming down now, and he opened up his jacket and offered to
shield Tiffany with it. She accepted and they hobbled into the school, both of
them soaking wet as they made the door. The cold rain did a spectacular job of
making her nipples taunt, and he quickly muttered an excuse and left her to
shake herself off in the lobby.

  Mary's announcement was typically brief. Unlike most principals, Mary spoke
few words and made the most of them. The torrential rains which were just now
hitting the school itself had already washed out some roads in the southern
end of the school district. Only two buses with kids from the immediate area
had made it in, and they were being sent back out immediately. Kids who'd
driven themselves in were to go home, kids who'd gotten rides from parents
were to ask teachers who lived closest to them to help out.
  Three minutes after making her brief announcement, Mary herself was on her
way out of the parking lot. As she'd said to Kevin on the way out of the
cafeteria, `This isn't a fucking ship, and I live twenty miles away. See you
later.'
  Of course, that was after Kevin had volunteered to stick it out. He could
always walk home. Once all the kids who'd driven in had left, many of them
taking friends with them, there were only four kids left, and three of them
had rides coming from not all that far away.
  The fourth, Kevin was surprised to learn, was Tiffany.
  She was standing in the lobby with the door wedged opened, smoking. The rain
was coming down too hard to smoke outside, but she'd come up with an
appropriate compromise, and there were no other adults left to complain. As he
walked out in the lobby the lights went out. Half a second later there was a
terrible clap of thunder and then the generator kicked in.
  "How'd you get here, Tiff ?" he asked.
  She turned her head towards him, smoke leaking from between her lips.
  "I walked."
  "You live almost ten miles from here, don't you ?"
  "Yeah. I left the house about five-thirty this morning. It seemed like it was
going to be a nice day-"
  "Both your parents work ?"
  "Yeah. Mom gets to work by seven, Dad by seven thirty."
  "So how are you getting home ?"
  She smiled. "I was hoping to catch a ride, but it turns out nobody's going my
way-"
  Kevin considered the various alternatives. Or tried to. But there weren't
any, at least none he could think of.
  "Once the other kids leave- I have to stay and lock the front door- I'll give
you a ride home."
  "You have the keys to the kingdom ?"
  "Yes ma'am, I do."
  Fifteen minutes later, everyone else was gone. Tiffany looked mildly worried
and Kevin asked what was the matter.
  "I called my mom at work and there was no answer. She's always either at her
desk or outside smoking a cigarette. I've tried four or five times."
  "Did you try your house ?"
  Tiffany looked at him.
  "You don't know my mom. She wouldn't go home unless they closed the
bookstore."
  "Maybe that's what happened. Look, I'm sure she's fine. But why don't you try
your house anyway."
  There was another loud boom of thunder, and when Tiffany picked up the pay
phone, she just shook her head.
  "It's dead."
  "Look, I have a cell phone at home. Why don't we stop there and you can call.
My bet is a lot of things were closed today."
  "All right. I mean, you probably think I'm being silly, but-"
  Kevin smiled. "Not at all. I'd be worried too, I guess. Look, do you need
anything from your locker ?"
  Tiffany gave him a long-suffering look. "I never even made it to my locker
this morning, and it's the first day of classes. My locker is empty."
  "Sorry," he said with an embarrassed laugh. "That was a dumb question."
  She reached out and tapped his arm playfully. "No dumber than thinking you're
an old man."
  
  They were soaked by the time they got to his car. The drive to his house,
which usually took all of about two minutes and was necessary only because he
lugged a Powerbook and a briefcase full of papers to and from school every
day, took more than five. The storm drains were flooded, there were limbs down
at every turn, and he couldn't see shit out of the windshield.
  At one point what seemed like half a tree came down directly behind the car
while he was sitting still, pondering whether or not to ask his venerable Saab
to chug through a puddle which looked just deep enough to kill his engine.
Tiffany didn't scream, but she did reach out and grab his arm convulsively. He
looked at her, met her soft blue eyes with his and they had a moment.
  She broke it by quietly saying "Drive, for Christ's sake."
  He did as he was told.
  The run from the car to his front door was hellish. It was raining so hard
that he had difficulty even keeping his eyes open and his keys became an
indistinguishable, wet lump of metal. Trying to unlock the door was an
adventure he soon regretted, because by the time he was done, they were both
truly soaked through.
  It was amasing how cold rainwater could be on an otherwise steamy day.
  Tiffany was so drenched that she hardly was recognisable at all. Her shirt,
once a solid colour, was now a slick mass which had become almost entirely
see-through. She dropped her pack in the hallway, took off her Nikes, and then
rescued her purse from the pack. Kevin watched with mild amusement as she
rushed to ensure that her cigarettes had survived in a dry state, which they-
thankfully for both of them- had.
  He handed her the cell phone and their hands met as she took it from him.
There was a metaphysical shock of electricity between them.
  They tried to ignore it, or at least Kevin did.
  She smiled at him and dialed the number, ready to leave a message.
  "Mom ?"
  "Well, yes I'm surprised you're home...no, I'm at Mr. Lang's house right now-
they closed the school and he's going to give me a ride...what do you mean..."
  She looked at him with a strangely pleased look on her face. "The road to my
house is washed out. I guess Mom and Dad just got home before it flooded. She
says there's no way I'm going home right now."
  Hearing her mom's voice, she listened for a moment and then handed Kevin the
phone.
  "Is it all right if Tiffany stays over, Mr. Lang ? I know that it's an
imposition, but whatever you want her to do, you just have to ask, and she'll
do it for you. Anything."
  "It's not an imposition, ma'am. Are you sure-"
  "Of course. As long as you don't mind sharing your home with a pretty young
girl-"
  Kevin thought that was a strange thing to say.
  "Not at all, ma'am. If that road clears up you let me know and I'll get
Tiffany home straight away."
  "All right, but don't hold your breath. Last time the road washed out it was
three days before they got around to fixing it again. Could you put Tiff back
on the phone ?"
  He did, and Tiffany listened to what, from the look on her face, was a set of
instructions.
  "Tell Dad I love him...yes, mom. Bye."
  "My mom," Tiffany said.
  "What was she telling you ?" Kevin asked, amused.
  "Just that I was to do whatever you told me to do. You know how parents are."
  "Well, I remember, more or less. But it's been a while since they told me
what to do. Look, you're drenched and shivering. Let's get you in the shower
and then I'll find you some dry clothing, okay ?"
  Tiffany smiled at him. "I'm sorry about this."
  "There's nothing to apologise for. We'll find some way to enjoy this, I'm
sure."
  Kevin just hoped they didn't find too many ways to enjoy it.

  He listened to her showering from beyond the closed door of the bathroom.
Listened attentively. This, he decided, was not what they would call a good
idea in Peoria.
  Kevin found himself shivering. When the girl was done, he would have to drag
himself into the shower, hope there was some hot water left, and get warm. One
good thing. His wet, cold penis had shriveled up to a tiny, harmless mass that
was mostly dominated by a single, rock hard mass of testicles. No danger
there, that was for sure.
  The water stopped, and the door opened much more quickly than he would have
liked. She was wearing nothing but his robe and a towel around her head which
gave her an exotic look. She headed straight for her purse and quickly lit a
cigarette, obviously getting some relaxation from the act. "Your turn," she
said with a wide smile, walking close to him.
  She saw that he was cold and stroked his arm with her free hand. Suddenly,
his cold-shrunk penis wasn't quite so small.
  "Thanks for waiting for me. I appreciate that."
   Her exhale was thanks enough.
  He walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him but not locking it.
He shed his clothes and got under the water quickly. Almost immediately he
heard the door open and it startled him. Of course, she was a woman, so there
would be things she'd need to do after showering- fix her hair, check her
face, that sort of thing- and there was only one bathroom.
  Still, it was the first time that he'd felt trapped in his own shower.
  Then it struck him. She'd been wearing his towel around her head, which meant
that he had no towel at all.
  Talk about trapped.
  He hoped he was wrong somehow, so he set to take a quick peek. He moved the
curtain aside and there was Tiffany, standing in front of the mirror, not
wearing anything. Not his robe, not the towel, not anything. She was
spectacular naked, a vision of curves and still glistening skin. Her long wet
hair was hanging down the gentle slope of her shoulders onto her firm, tight
back.
  Kevin tore himself away after about two seconds and sighed. He carefully
readjusted the curtain so there would be no sign of his sin.
  "Tiffany ?" he said tentatively, as though he might not know that she was in
the bathroom.
  "Yes, Mr. Lang ?"
  His heart sank at that. `Mr. Lang.' Ouch.
  "Call me Kevin," he said quietly.
  "What ? I can't hear you over the water, Kevin."
  He had to smile. He could hear her in the closet for a towel, reached for the
soap, saw the bar, which had been quite small, was now entirely gone.
  Suddenly the curtain parted and she was looking him in the eyes with her own
startling blues. She had a bar of soap in her hand. 
  "Almost forgot. I used the soap up. I swear that rain had sand in it."
  He took the bar from her. "It could have. They say hurricane winds sweep
beach sand up and carry it inland. Hey, you're still shivering."
  "I didn't want to use up all the hot water, Kevin."
  "There's plenty left," he grinned.
  What am I saying ?
  "I could put your robe back on-"
  "And if I told you to get back in the shower with me ?"
  Tiffany grinned. "Well, I'd have to get back in the shower, wouldn't I, since
my Mom told me to do whatever you asked ?"
  "This isn't how I pictured this happening," he said honestly as she stepped
into the shower with him and moved under the water.
  "How did you picture it happening ?" she asked as she reached out and cupped
his testicles in her hand. His penis was no longer suffering from shrinkage
and he was glad.
  "I thought you'd be smoking and-"
  "I'll smoke for you later, if you'd like," she said, her eyes twinkling. She
then dropped down to her knees and gently took him inside her mouth. Wet from
the shower already, he discovered quickly that this was the only way for this
to be done. She ran her tongue slowly around his head and then began working
her mouth back and forth, slowly at first, with more energy as he grew hard.
When he came, she slowed down again and worked him slowly until he realised
that he was simply going to stay hard.
  She began a gentle masturbation as she worked him hard again, and once it was
clear he was ready, she stood up. He turned the water a bit as it had grown
cool, and as the fresh heat washed down his back his slid inside her, working
with that same gentle patience until her orgasm came. They were kissing as it
happened and she bit his lip, drawing blood.
  There was no talking during the sex, and he found he liked that as well. She
never closed her eyes, not while they were kissing not during her orgasm, and
not during his. When they were finally done, he turned off the water and dried
her off with his towel, admiring her tight young curves. there didn't seem to
be an ounce of wasted flesh anywhere on her body.
  When he was done, she began to dry him off, starting with his previously
private parts. Finally he took the towel from her because there was something
he would rather see her doing. She understood and quickly lit a cigarette for
him.
  As the first smoke poured from between her sweet lips, she looked at him
archly and asked if he was ready to go again.
  The question surprised him because she seemed like such a sweet young thing.
  "Will you really do anything for me ?"
  She smiled a devilish smile and then drew deeply again on the cigarette.
"Just ask. I'm yours."
  He walked close to her, unwilling to ask this aloud even in the privacy of
his own home.
  She looked at him, nodded, drew again.

  Watching her masturbate while she smoked was everything he'd hoped and more.
He was lying on his back, already growing erect and she was straddling him,
taking one long draw on the cigarette after another. When it finished, she lit
another, her free hand working slowly. He understood that. She wouldn't quite
go to orgasm. When he was ready, he slid in side her and lay still as she
thrust up and down, lifting and dropping at the knees as she blew smoke down
over him. His orgasm and hers were in sync this time, just as she finished the
cigarette.
  Lying in his arms, she waited only a moment before lighting another.
  "Would you have been attracted to me if I wasn't a smoker ?" She asked,
bathing them in her smoke.
  "No," he answered honestly. "At least not until you starting walking around
naked."
  "Were you fantasising about me smoking in the shower ?"
  Kevin thought about this one. Would it be like admitting that he'd been
thinking about another woman ?
  He decided not.
  "Yes, I was."
  "Good. At least I know that it was all worth it then."
  "All of what ?" he asked as she blew more smoke.
  "Nobody starts smoking because they're bored. I started smoking because it's
so clear you get a jones from it."
  "You mean ?"
  "I didn't plan the hurricane, but the rest of it-"
  "You started smoking because of me ?" he asked, shocked.
  "Me and half a dozen other girls," she answered with a wicked grin as she
continued to smoke. "And if you're really nice to me, I'll make you a list."
  "What qualifies as nice ?" he asked.
  "Well, I really enjoyed masturbating and smoking for you. It would be nice if
you'd ask again later."
  Kevin considered, looked at the clock. It wasn't even one yet.
  "I think I can do that," he said with a smile.
  And that was exactly what he did. 
  Several times.