Part 11 (2/2)

”O.k., baby. I didn't want to do no talking anyway.” With that he grabbed me again and brought his mouth down toward mine. I twisted my head violently away from him.

”You're forgetting that I'm one of those 'queers' you're contemptuous of!”

”You ain't no queer,” Mike said. ”Trouble with you is at you've never had a good man. Just relax and I'll show you what you've been missing. I've known lots of d.y.k.es. After they been with me they didn't want no more girls.” The same old line. I'd heard that one all my life. I suppose it's true in a few cases but it wasn't in mine. Why do all men think that all a woman needs is a good roll in the hay and she'll be cured of everything from h.o.m.os.e.xuality to scurvy?

Mike tightened his hold on me. He had one ma.s.sive arm around my waist. It was like steel. I couldn't break his grip.

He kissed me hard. He hadn't shaved closely and the bristles burned my face. I tried to pull my mouth away but he was holding me too tightly. I couldn't move an inch.

He was plastered right up against me, his body flush with mine. Mike was at least a head taller than I but I'm long-legged. That made it convenient for him.

He caressed me with his free hand. I guess he thought it was a caress but it felt more like punishment to me.

Against my will I was getting aroused. It wasn't just that he was touching me. Mike was a slob but he was manly in his love-making. Too many men made pa.s.ses at me as if they were afraid that I would submit. I went for girls but that didn't mean that I couldn't respond to a man. The difference was that one thing was emotional and the other a matter of glands.

My body was getting limp. I wanted to get away from him, to escape from his brutal touch and his bruising mouth. But I felt myself beginning to tense and release rhythmically against him.

”What's keeping you two? We've been waiting for those beers. I...” Sylvan's voice broke as he saw us.

Mike looked up in surprise at the interruption and I seized the opportunity to break away from him. I ran to Sylvan.

”Come into the other room with me,” I told him. ”I want to talk to you. Mike, you stay here.”

Allison was in the john so Sylvan and I could talk alone in the living room.

”I'll kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” Sylvan said.

”Oh, stop being dramatic, Sylvan. He didn't hurt me. Besides, Mike would brush you off like a gnat if you tried to attack him. You must have known that he was bis.e.xual.”

”Yes, most trade is. But I thought he'd restrain himself because you were friends of mine. I know he's just been using me.” He stopped and looked away. When he turned toward me again there were tears in his eyes. ”I've done everything for him and this is the thanks I get. My G.o.d, what does he want from me?”

”His kind doesn't know the meaning of grat.i.tude,” I said.

”You should see him, Sloane. Sometimes he gets me all worked up. Then he says he's tired. He makes me plead. Other times he goes on all night. I can hardly keep my eyes open at work the next day. I thought he must like me. Otherwise, why would he be so pa.s.sionate?”

”You answered that one yourself.”

”That isn't all,” Sylvan went on. ”I've done lots of other things for him too.”

By this time Mike had come out of the kitchen and had seated himself in a chair facing us. We ignored him.

”Sylvan, have you given Mike any money?”

”Not much. Just a few dollars. He told me he was broke.”

”Are you telling me the truth? Are you sure that's all?”

It was too much for Sylvan. He began to cry openly.

”That's what I thought.” I said.

”He said he needed the money to buy clothes. He said he didn't have anything besides his uniform.”

”And has he brought these clothes that he supposedly bought back to your apartment?”

Sylvan dumbly moved his head in negation.

I got up and crossed over to Mike. As I walked across the room I noticed that Allison was standing in the doorway observing us. I didn't know how long she had bee there.

”Do you have the money with you?” I asked Mike. ”I want you to give him back every cent you haven't spent. If you don't, I'll call the police in on this. I'm not kidding!”

Mike looked up at me with a poor attempt at an expression of candid honesty on his coa.r.s.e features. ”I don't have it no more. Look.” He pulled a wallet out from the waistband of his trousers and showed me it. ”See? I've only got a buck left. I need that to get back to my s.h.i.+p.”

”What did you do with the rest of it?”

”I sent it to my mother.”

At least it broke the tension. Allison, Sylvan and I collapsed in laughter. Mike stared at us blankly.

When I had recovered myself, I asked Sylvan, ”Does he have anything back at your apartment?”

”No. He just had the clothes he's wearing on him when we met. He's been using my shaving things and everything.”

”Probably got his kit in a locker somewhere. I'll bet that's where the money is too. How much money did you give him?”

”Twenty bucks,” Mike said.

”A little over a hundred dollars,” Sylvan said.

”Not enough to risk making a scandal over.” I put the rest up to Sylvan. ”After what you've seen tonight I don't suppose you'll be wanting this character around any longer. But that's up to you. You have to make the decisions. I can't run your life for you. Just let me say that as your friend I wish that you'd get rid of him as fast as possible.”

Sylvan got up off the couch and walked over beside me. We were both standing in front of Mike.

The sailor tensed and seemed to be gathering himself together as if he expected to be in a fist fight shortly.

Sylvan just looked at him as if he were a complete stranger. There was no anger in his face and his voice was gentle as he said, ”Mike, I'd appreciate it very much if you'd leave right now. I'm going to stay a while longer. I don't know when I'll get home. When I do, I don't want to find you there. I think it best if we never see each other again.”

The sailor looked bewildered. He had expected Sylvan to get violent. He didn't know how to cope with the other man's calmness.

Mike got up slowly as if he were in a state of confusion. He walked to the door and opened it. He walked out to the hall but before closing the door, stuck his head back in and shouted, ”G.o.dd.a.m.n bunch of perverts! You queers all ought to be put in jail. You're a menace to society!” Then he slammed the door shut behind him.

”I'll make coffee,” Allison said. ”I think we could all use a cup.” She went out to the kitchen.

”I'm sorry, Sloane. I'm ashamed to have involved you and Allison in this sordid business,” Sylvan said.

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