CHAPTER 28

"Six months, huh?" Lili asked, unfolding her napkin and carefully placing the white linen on her lap.

We were at Morton's, about to dig into our orders of lasagne and linguine marinara. She was having the lasagne, I the linguine.

"Yup, six months," I said, twisting an elusive strand of pasta around my fork.

"Amazing, your patience."

"We've had at least 14 resignations over the past four months."

Lili shook her head, her mouth busy chewing.

"I'm staying not because I'm patient, but because I haven't been able to find another job yet," I explained.

"Have you tried similar other agencies?"

"Some. But they don't have any suitable vacancies. Besides, the timing is rather bad."

"Yeah."

We were both quiet now, only the clicking of stainless steel against porcelain breaking the silence.

"Oh, look who's here!" Lili said suddenly, waving her arm. I turned around following her gaze. It was Jean-Claude, walking towards our table and politely refusing the attention of a waitress.

"Bon soir, mes amis," he said, his face breaking into a grin. "Comme d'habitude ... ah, les amoureux..." He pulled a chair and sat across Lili on my left, cupping his chin in his hands.

"Jean-Claude, we are not 'les amoureux'," Lili protested, "we are just good friends. Besides, I'm not exactly Gabriel's type."

"Ah oui? So, what is your type?" he turned to face me, one eyebrow raised, ready to tease.

A waitress glided by to take his order, saving me from his wrath.

"Coffee, and a piece of gateau du chocolat, please," he said in his heavily accented English.

"Uhmm, yum. Can we share?" Lili asked.

CHAPTER 27

I returned home a week later, after securing a promise from Kyle that he would come and visit some time during the holidays.

The O Levels' results were at least two and a half months away, so I found a job waiting tables nightly at a hotel in town. The pay was miserly, the job lousy, but the tips from diners made up for everything.

Kyle and Ben came to visit in the middle of February and stayed for two weeks. We spent the days swimming, playing badminton and at nights shooting pools at the town's only bar. I knew the owner, so we managed to patronise the premises despite our age.

Both of my friends immediately hit it off with my mom, giving a hand in her vegetable garden almost on a daily basis. Sometimes we would cycle to my family's fruit orchard and feast on rambutans, mangosteens and other fruits that were in season.

Kyle loved durians, and he would attack the spiky fruits, savouring its yellow pungent flesh, with relish. Ben and I would look at him, our noses crinkled in distate, for durians were never our favourites.

We said goodbye towards the end of the month but would see each other again when school reopened in three weeks, in time for the announcement of our O Levels.

After they left, my old nagging feeling came back. I was a nervous wreck worrying how I did in the exams.

The results were announced towards the end of March, but it wasn't until a week later did I gather enough courage to call the school's principal to find out. As expected, I flunked Chemistry and Calculus but were rather brilliant in other subjects. My overall performance was good, and I might stand a chance of getting a scholarship to study at a foreign university, the principal told me.

He was right. An offer from the government for a six-year study programme in International Relations at a university in the US came six months later.

CHAPTER 26

Christmas that year was a rather sedate affair. Since there were only three of them, Kyle's mother decided that Christmas dinner was to be prepared and held at his grandmother's.

So the morning before Christmas, we arrived at Bea's country-style home, arms laden with goodies, groceries and gifts, much to Bea's delight. Kyle's mother did not waste much time before she started with dinner preparation. Kyle and I helped whenever we could, while Kyle's father busied himself with Christmas decorations.

Later on, while the turkey was baking, we were all in the main family room, putting up the Christmas tree. It was a perfect picture, Kyle and his parents at the tree, putting on their favourite pieces of ornaments, supervised by Bea in her rocking chair. My mind wandered to Trish.

We did not see each other again after that fateful encounter at Kyle's den. Lisa had mentioned briefly that both she and Trish would be leaving the day after Christmas for Thailand, where they planned to meet up with some friends. I would not be seeing her again, and I felt a pang of regret.

On Christmas morning, Kyle roused me early, saying that everybody was waiting downstairs to open the Christmas presents. I quickly brushed my teeth, splashed some water on my face and made my way down. I received a Seiko from Kyle's parents, and a complete set of English-French reference books from Bea. Kyle got a brand new tennis racket from his parents, and a novel by his favourite author from his grandmother.

Later, when we were in our room, Kyle produced a small box from a drawer and handed it to me. "From Trish," he said.

I took the box and gingerly untied the tiny string that held it together. Inside was a delicate gold chain, and the small card attached read, "Love, Always. Trish."

CHAPTER 25

"Are you a virgin?" Trish asked suddenly, her pale blue eyes intensely looking into mine.

I was taken aback, embarassed at first. But, remembering all the exploits I had had in school, I told her that I was not. She looked sceptically at me, and after a while, held out her empty lemonade glass. "Would you get me a refill, please?"

I got up from the sofa and took the glass from her. As she let go of the glass, her hand deliberately brushed against my crotch, stirring a familiar sensation in me. I quickly went out to the poolside to get a refill for my thirsty new friend.

When I returned to the den, Trish was lying on the sofa clad only in her pink panties and strapless matching bra. I handed her the lemonade. She sat up, took the glass from me and placed it on the coffee table. Then she coyly looked at me and smiled.

"Why, you look flushed!" she remarked. "Are you uncomfortable?" Without waiting for my answer, she went on, "It's OK, we'll soon fix that..."

She slowly unzipped my tennis shorts and pulled them down, together with my underwear, slipping them off one ankle, then another. "My, you are nice, very, very nice," she murmured, and without looking up, started to kiss me there, her mouth a soft, warm receptacle entrapping me in a tingling embrace.

I gently pulled her up, my lips seeking hers. With my free hand, I unfastened her tiny bra, exposing pert boyish breasts. I pushed her back onto the sofa and began to nibble on her rosy nipples. Trish shuddered as my lips traveled downwards, getting acquainted with her navel and her smooth belly.

"Hold on," she gasped, quickly slipping out of her damp, filmy panties. I seized the moment to take off my own clammy T-shirt.

We had barely finished putting our clothes back on when Kyle poked his head into the den about 20 minutes later. He eyed us curiously.

"Well, I see that the air-conditioner has not done much good to you two," he said, looking at our flushed, sweaty faces. "Wanna join me and Lisa for a swim?" Without waiting for an answer, he made his way to the pool, Trish and I a few paces behind him.

Later that day, propped up in bed in Kyle's room, I closed my eyes and smiled to myself as I gave out a long, deep sigh. Kyle threw me a suspicious look.

"Knowing you, I'd say that you've had sex!"

I opened my eyes and sweetly asked him. "Why Kyle, whatever do you mean?"

He put down the book he was reading, his limpid eyes narrowing as I turned my back to him and drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 24

I like Kyle's family immediately. His father, a hefty, broad-shouldered and handsome retired army officer sometimes indulged us with amusing tales of his army days.

While Kyle inherited most of his father's good looks, the soft limpid brown eyes were definitely his mother's. She was a petite, youthful lady, and stood a good foot shorter than her husband. Even so, it was clear from the first night I was with them that it was she who ruled the household, the pillar of strength not only to her three sons but also to her doting husband. Kyle's two older brothers were studying abroad.

The first week I stayed with the family, Kyle introduced me to Lisa, his Caucasian neighbour's 19-year-old daughter who was back from college for Christmas. She brought home her room-mate Trish, who wanted to spend her first Christmas in the tropics.

Lisa was a vivacious girl who had a habit of tossing back her long, blond tresses whenever she laughed, showing off her white, elegant neck. She was pretty, but I found Trish more intriguing. A brunette, she was about five-foot-four, and weighed not more than a hundred pounds. Her pale blue eyes were carefully penciled with eye-liner of the same shade, and her lips were glossed pink.

That day, when Lisa invited Kyle and I over for a game of tennis, Trish was wearing a white tube top and a very short tennis skirt. The pink panties she had on underneath matched the colour of her lips.

After a couple of games, we declared Lisa and Kyle winners of the day and adjourned to the poolside where the maid had placed a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses before she went off to the market. Lisa and Kyle then opted to resume the game, to work out more sweat. Trish and I decided to cool off in the den instead.

We took our drinks along, and once inside Trish pushed the sliding glass doors shut and turned on the air-conditioner. We sat down apart on the sofa, facing each other, kicked our shoes off and got to talking about school, college, and eventually ourselves.

Trish propped up one foot onto the sofa, her toes touching my knee. Her skirt was hiked up in the process, revealing a generous view of her pink panties.

I shyly looked away.

CHAPTER 23

I returned to school the following January very excited to be reunited with friends and classmates. Ben had spent the holidays in Bali and took loads of pictures to show me. Kyle was in Adelaide to visit his aunt and uncle and came back sporting a nice tan.

Although I no longer needed to sleep in Kyle's room, we saw each other almost everyday. Sometimes he would stop by my room after meals and would talk to Ben and me for hours. The three of us then decided to form a study group to prepare for the O Levels at the end of the year.

The school Yearbook came back from the printers in the middle of February. Adrian stopped by one day and dropped me a copy. I eagerly leafed through it. Everything looked good. The school principal was extremeley pleased, Adrian said.

"Adrian," I opened my mouth as he was about to leave my room.

"Yes?"

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. Only sometimes I get nervous thinking about the O's. Especially when last year had been a complete honeymoon."

"Well, me, too. I wish I had spent more time with the books. Listen. Kyle, Ben and I have formed a study group. Would you like to join us?"

"You, and I, together? In a group? No, I think I'll pass...," he smiled.

"Erm, yeah. I suppose that's not a good idea," I said.

"Well, goodbye Gabe, and good luck."

"You, too."

And then he was gone.

The O Levels were extremely important as they would determine the academic future of a student. Good grades would secure a place in a local university or a bursary for further studies abroad. Mediocre or poor performance would get students almost nowhere.

I was understandably nervous and promised myself to work hard. Often times, Ben and Kyle would find me at our regular study place ahead of schedule, already buried in books. I would also be the last to leave.

December came and we sat for the exams. I felt such a strong relief once it was all over, although there was always a nagging uneasiness at the back of my mind. I found Chemistry and Calculus extremely difficult.

Kyle and Ben asked me not to worry too much. The results would only be announced in March, so there was no sense in ruining the long holiday now. I could worry later, they said. We had better start packing, anyway.

Two days after the exams were over, Ben's parents came to pick him up. After he left, Kyle and I resumed packing our things. I had accepted Kyle's invitation to spend the first couple of weeks of the holidays with him and his family.

I sent word home and received no objection. I was, after all, seventeen years old.

CHAPTER 22

When we were obliged to break apart for air, Adrian had managed to slip out of his shorts and was tugging at my jeans. With the last of our clothing items removed, we were at each other again, grappling and gropping. Flesh abused flesh. Our minds were blank, concentrating only on reaching an explosive end of our journey.

It seemed like it went on for hours. Months of separation (and celibacy) had brought on a thirst for each other that took forever to quench. But in the natural way of things, thirst, once quenched, tends to return again and again. So as soon as the first was satisfied, another would soon come to be pacified.

Our efforts were such that we both came away with second-degree sheet burns, and my lips bled a little.

Later, as we laid together bruised and spent, Adrian breathing softly in heavy sleep, I realised then that would be the last time we were to be together. I slowly lifted his arm off my waist and swung my feet to the floor.

Adrian stirred. "Heyyy...where are you going?"

"I'm taking a shower."

"Come back here," he pulled back into bed, my back to him, and put his arms around me.

"Adrian?"

"Hmm..?" his forefinger traced the hollow of my back.

"You realise that this will be our last time..?"

His finger stopped.

"Yeah," he said after a while. "But, as long as we are here, tonight, let's make it as memorable as we can!"

The following week, after we finished putting together the yearbook, the editor got us together to celebrate a job well done. I shook everyone's hand and bade Adrian goodbye. I would leave for home the next morning.

As I was getting into a taxi to take me to the railway station, I saw Nicky at the school gate. He waved at me through the wrought iron bars.

That was the last time I saw him. Nicky didn't return to school in the new year. They said he didn't do very well in his exams.