Casualties

It was seven o’clock and Kennedy had accomplished finishing every last piece of homework that was due for the next three days. Alex and Jack had gone downstairs to play video games. Most people would get pissed if they got ditched in their own home, but Kennedy honestly enjoyed the peace and quiet, even if the boys were less than 100 feet from where she stood.
She got off her bed and walked out of her room, down the hallway and down the stairs and saw them playing some fighting game that they decided to just leave over at her house so they didn’t have to play games like Crash Bandicoot or Tetris. They always complained that she didn’t have any ‘real’ video games so she finally got so fed up and told them that if they wanted to play ‘real’ video games at her house then they needed to bring them themselves and they had ever since.
“Hey guys,” she greeted them and stretched out her arms by swinging them back and forth.
She didn’t get a real response from them, just a few grunts and not even a full nod because they were too busy killing brain cells by staring at the TV screen for more than two hours.
“Are you guys staying over tonight?” she asked and that got their attention. Finally Jack looked up at her and Alex’s warrior character finished off Jack’s which proceeded in Alex jumping up off the couch and screaming ‘yeah, that’s right! Who’s your daddy?’ over and over again in Jack’s face who demanded a rematch.
“Hey, guys? Can we get back to the point? You staying over or what?” they both looked at her and then looked at each other like they couldn’t comprehend what language she was speaking.
“Um… I can’t. I asked my mom and she said absolutely not. Sorry Kenne,” Jack said with a shrug and he followed Alex’s example and got off the couch to turn around and look at her full on.
“It’s all good,” she said then turned to Alex, “I take it you’re not staying either?” she said even though she really didn’t care either way. Her mom was cool and knew that nothing would happen between her and either of these guys, so she usually let them sleep on the floor in her room, but it by any means wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for them to sleep with her on her bed.
“I can if I tell my mom that Jack’s staying over,” Alex said after slowly thinking it over. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“I don’t care either way, it’s up to you,” she told him with a shrug of her shoulders. Jack just stood there.
“Just give me a minute, alright?” he asked then stepped around Jack and made his way into the kitchen to use her phone.
Kennedy turned to Jack and gave a half smile, “Do you need a ride home?” she asked him while he was staring at the tile on her floor.
“No, I think I’ll just walk. It’s not really that far,” he told her and it brought him out of his daze.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m positive,” he said and gave her a nod.
Alex sauntered back into the room then punched a fist into the air, “She said that it would be all right,” he said with some major sense of accomplishment even though his mom let him spend the night at her house all the time.
“Sweet,” Kennedy said then turned back to look at Jack. “You sure you don’t want a ride?” she asked him, looking him dead in the eye.
“Kennedy, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s only, like, twenty blocks give or take,” Jack said.
“Yeah give or take, like, fifty,” Kennedy said.
“Don’t be such a smart ass,” Jack said.
“If I wasn’t a smart ass you wouldn’t love me as much,” she said while she leaned in to give him a hug.
“That is most definitely not the point,” he said then pulled away from the hug. “You’ll pick me up tomorrow morning, though, right?” he asked.
“Duh,” she said and rolled her eyes.
“See you later, man,” Alex said and they gave each other a man hug then Jack left and shut the door softly behind him.
Alex and Kennedy turned toward each other. “Hey,” Alex said with a hint of a smirk playing on his lips.
“Hi,” she said with a smile spreading across hers. Even though she was never really into commitment, she definitely didn’t mind the occasional flirting session between her and Alex. It never led to anything more, just flirtatious banter.
“I think that we should go watch a movie in your room,” Alex suggested as he started moving closer to her. It made her a little paranoid because this was the first night that they had spent the night together… alone. Jack had always been there to stop them from doing anything more than flirtatious banter so without him there to stop it, how far could it really go? Kennedy had never really thought about it before, but now that the opportunity was in front of her, she wondered if she might just grow an even bigger pair of balls and take it.
“Sounds good,” she said and led the way up the stairs, down the hall yet again, and back into her room.
Her mom worked as a bartender at a bar about a half an hour away so if she got off at ten she’d be home closer to eleven because she usually stayed at the bar for a half an hour to an hour after she got off work for a few drinks.
Everyone thought that being a bartender was a bad thing, but her mom had a degree in psychology. She became a bartender to help pay for her expenses through college and when she quit where she had been and actually tried to be a therapist it hadn’t worked out so well because she made more money at the bar than she did being a therapist so she went back. Depending on the bar that you work out you can make a lot of money in an evening.
Alex and Kennedy were in her room and he picked out a movie that she had on her shelf. They sat on her bed, backs to the wall, and sitting extremely close to each other and watched the movie all the way through.
Kennedy didn’t really pay attention to the movie because she had other things racing through her mind; Alex things. She’d always found him attractive, you’d be an idiot not to, but she knew he was a player and he definitely knew that she was a player. She was worse than him, tenfold.
The movie ended quick enough and by the time it was over it was already 9:30.
She scooted a little away from Alex and then turned toward him. “How are you?” she asked in an awkward sort of way.
“I’m pretty good,” he said as he scooted away from the wall, too, and turned toward her, “how are you?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m good,” she said when she actually gave it some thought.
“Well, I don’t know, but I guess that’s a good thing,” he said to her and it made her smile and kind of blush. She’d never been flustered before, let alone around Alex.
“Any new candidates?” she asked.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” he said and leaned back, propping himself up with his hands.
“I mean, are you seeing any new girls?” she asked.
“That depends on what your definition of ‘seeing’ is,” he told her. He had never been this cryptic with her before and it was kind of worrying her. This was how he got with other girls; girls he was planning on fucking.
“Anything; having sex, dating,” she said.
“Dating? Never. Sex? Always,” he responded with a mischievous smile on his face.
“Anyone I know?”
“Alexa,” he said.
“Oh my god, you didn’t!” she exclaimed.
“I did. Why? Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
“Um, yeah. She’s such a slut,”
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Alex said with a sharp tongue.
“I am not a slut,” she said with serious face and pointed a threatening finger at him.
“Then what would you say you are?”
“I would say that I am a player,”
“Why are you not a slut?”
“I am not a slut because a slut just has sex to make herself feel loved, like people want her. That is not why I have sex. I have sex because I want to and I make the men feel loved – therefore they are the sluts. I do it without wanting strings and I definitely don’t think that sex, fucking, needs to feel any love,” she told him in a very matter-of-factly voice.
“Well, you’ve certainly given that a lot of thought, haven’t you?” he asked.
“I’m sick of people calling me a slut when I’m not,” she told him.
“If it makes you feel any better, I know you’re not a slut,” he told her.
“I never thought you thought that I was one, because then you’d have to think of yourself as one,” she told him.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying,” she started, “that I am the female you; or you the male me. Take your pick,” she said with a shrug.
“I like you being the female me,” he told her.
“Fine, I am the female you, then,”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, of course not.”
They both sat there for a minute surrounded by utter silence. There was no wind outside, no creaks in the house, no crying babies, nothing. Just nothing.
Then she started laughing.
“What?” Alex asked.
“I feel bad for Jack having to deal with us. Because he definitely isn’t another version of you or me, he’s just… Jack,” she told him and then he started laughing along with her.
She looked over at the clock. 10:15.
“We should probably go to bed,” she told him and he nodded.
“Alright,” he agreed.
She took off her pajama bottoms and bra and got under the covers and had Alex turn off the light and he quickly joined her under the covers. “Oh my god, you’re hot,” she told him.
“I can’t say that’s the first time I’ve gotten that,” he said.
She smacked his bare chest. “I meant temperature wise,” she scolded him.
“Uh huh, sure you did,” he said.
She lay with her back toward him and he laid on his back with his hands behind his head in ‘blowjob’ position. Kennedy gave it that nick name because she realized that whenever she gave head they’d put their hands behind their head with their elbows out and it just looked cocky, so she started calling in the blowjob position.
She couldn’t get comfortable so she flipped until she was on her side laying toward him and she just stared for a few minutes and then decided to let her eyes rest because she had to wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning to get ready for school. She was just thankful that tomorrow was Friday and then she could work on extra credit homework on Saturday and Sunday.
She felt Alex adjust himself beside her and when she opened her eyes to see how he was laying, she saw a pair of dark eyes staring back at her. She gasped. “Yes?” she asked with a laugh, but he just remained stone faced and staring. He scooted a little toward her and she started to breathe faster and her heart started to quicken. She was getting paranoid.
She’d thought about having sex with Alex, who hadn’t? But she never thought seriously about it because she knew that it would ruin their friendship, but she never really considered the possibility. Maybe they could get away with it. They were both players and there would be no need for either of them to play each other since neither of them wanted a commitment. It could just be sex and no strings attached or trying to be attached.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a mere whisper because her throat had gone dry.
He moved his hands behind her head and pulled himself toward her and gave her a soft, passionate kiss that still had a little bit of roughness in it. She had never had a kiss like it and now she fully understood why he had the reputation he had.
She reacted immediately and let her hands roam his chest and she let him do the same. He was already shirtless and in nothing but boxers. She felt him between her legs and it made her smile.
He shifted and got on top of her and stopped kissing her only for a brief second to take off her tank top. Now they were both in nothing but their undies.
Kennedy quickly remedied that and slid off his boxers and then kicked them off the bed.
He kissed his way down her torso and slid off her lacy undies in one quick movement.
They continued to kiss because neither of them were ready for this moment to end and they wanted to preserve it just a little longer.
Finally he stopped kissing her and looked dead into her eyes, “Are you ready?” he asked and she gave him a quick nod and he paused and asked, “Are you positive you want to do this, Kennedy?”
She stopped and thought about it for a minute and then she bent his head to her mouth and whispered into his ear, “I’m positive,” and she felt him let go of the breath that he’d been holding since he asked the last question.