Waiting in Line for the New iPad Read online

  "I guess."

  "Sounds kind of nice," one of the other girls said. Sasha, Dylan thought.

  "Nice? Those poor guys! Probably scared out of their heads!" That was Ellie.

  "Not about the sex ed class - about liking girls telling them how to do it."

  "But it probably got the message through their heads about assaulting girls, though, huh?" Noelle said. But then she looked at Dylan, and her expression seemed to soften. "So what would you do if a girl asked you to?"

  He felt his insides turn to molten led, his manhood thickening up quite suddenly in his pants. Somehow, everything seemed to have gone quiet, yet his ears were ringing. Nothing quite seemed real.

  He heard himself say: "Anything she wanted me to do, if it was the right girl."

  Noelle's friends seemed to have gone deathly quiet.

  *

  He felt a little stupid when Noelle finally unrolled her sleeping bag, and it was quite clear that he was the only person in this part of the line who was going to be without any form of bedding to help him through the night.

  She was the last of them - by the time she'd got her sleeping bag in place, her friends were already bedded down, Ellie and Sasha already asleep.

  "You're going to be cold," she said, looking over at his modest little place between her sleeping bag and the nearest emo.

  There was a distinct chill in the air - his mother had been entirely correct about the heat suddenly evaporating after the sun went down. He was shivering a little already, though trying not to show Noelle.

  "I'll be okay - the sun'll come up in a few hours."

  "You're insane."

  Then suddenly she seemed to make a decision, silently to herself, looking at him and standing up, saying: "I have some emergency blankets in my car."

  "Huh?"

  "I have them in case I ever break down, you know? If I have to wait for roadside assistance in the cold. Come on, let's go get them."

  "Oh, really, you don't have to - " He protested, but she flashed her eyes at him.

  "I thought you were okay about the whole girl telling you what she wants," she said, tapping her feet. Dylan heard a stifled giggle from one of her friends.

  "Sure, of course I am."

  "So come on, then."

  Another soft giggle from somewhere over toward Chrissy's sleeping bag.

  She held out her hand for him, and for the first time he touched her.

  He tried not to show it affected him, though it was hard not to. It wasn't just that her hand was so delicate and soft - somehow the touch made her real to him. The evening had taken on a magical quality ever since he'd intruded on the girls' conversation, and Noelle hadn't turned her back on him.

  As an ordinary run-of-the-mill guy without any kind of lofty position in the school social hierarchy, he had been frankly astonished that these girls would give him the time of day, let alone share a meal and spend all night allowing him in their circle.

  Now, the prettiest girl he'd ever laid eyes on was helping him up, ushering him away from her friends, out toward a dark parking lot to fetch a blanket so he could sleep beside her.

  He felt so nervous walking away from the Apple Store with her - it wasn't that he might lose his place in the line, he was fairly confident that was safe, it was that now they were rounding the corner and heading away from the actual mall, into the parking lot, he didn't quite know what to say.

  Noelle stifled a giggle.

  "What?" he asked, worried he was supposed to have done something.

  "You really do do what you're asked, don't you?" she smiled at him - and now took hold of his hand again. Even in the low light of the street lamps, she looked so beautiful it made his chest tighten up so it was hard to breathe.

  She was holding his hand.

  Oh, it felt so incredibly right - but what did it mean? She really was interested in him? There was a storm of butterflies now howling inside his stomach. He felt a curious mixture of sheer excitement and a slight tinge of nausea from his jangling nerves.

  "Of course," he said, and then as he was going about the process of closing his mouth, it suddenly went off on its own accord again: "For you, I'd do anything at all."

  That secured another of her incredible smiles - dazzling, even in the half light.

  "Most guys would have sat there and probably grunted at me that they were all right, they'd be okay even though it's freezing cold," she said. "The guys I know, anyway."

  "I think your friends were amused that we've gone off together," Dylan said, thinking he might make her smile again at the thought that her friends were already making baseless assumptions that this whole trek to the car to find blankets was some kind of pretext for some kind of romantic -

  "They've been trying to set me up with various guys for months," she interrupted his thoughts. "I think they're just excited I actually found someone worth talking to."

  Dylan had to conceal a gasp.

  Found someone worth talking to?

  What was going on? He felt as though he was walking on clouds, somehow. Were his ears deceiving him now? She was excited about being with him?

  He tried to change the subject, if anything to distract himself from all the confused feelings he had, to calm himself down and prevent himself from misunderstanding this situation.

  He said: "So are you actually excited about this new iPad?"

  She gave him a blank look, and nearly dropped his hand.

  "Only, I'm sitting there in the line trying to mind my own business…"

  "And not doing so great at that, huh?" she flashed him a grin.

  He shrugged, "Kind of hard to keep my ears to myself when you're talking about vibrators and stuff like that."

  "I guess it must be. Pervert."

  "Hey, it wasn't me talking about sex toys in a queue for the new iPad." She smiled, and he said: "The emos sitting behind me in the line were talking about iPads the whole time - you can't blame me for trying to distract myself from that."

  She laughed. "That doesn't get you horny, talking about 4G and Retina display?"

  He couldn't quite tell whether it was going to turn her off that he wasn't completely obsessed with Apple products like his sister, or whether it was a good thing.

  "Well, I mean they're handy to have…"

  She laughed, "You're worried we're all geeky girls and I'll find you boring because you're not in the waiting list to work on the Genius Bar?"

  To be honest, he'd never thought any of them might be termed 'geeky'.

  She said: "It's Chrissy. She's a total tech geek. And she has to have the latest new anything the minute it's out."

  "Oh, right, I see. My sister's just the same."

  "Only it kind of sucks waiting in line on your own all night - so we all came along for the ride."

  "That's very nice of you."

  "Hey - it's the summer. Not like we have to do anything else tomorrow," she said. "Your friends didn't feel the same way, then?"

  "I didn't really tell them. Don't think they'd be quite so understanding about the whole sitting around all night for an iPad kind of thing."

  "You're very sweet to do it for your sister."

  "If it gets me in her good books for a few weeks, it's a price worth paying."

  "Hey," she said, as came to a halt between two SUVs. There weren't too many cars in the parking lot, but Noelle had pulled them over to a cluster that he'd assumed belonged to her and her friends.

  She stopped him, pulling him back to her.

  "Are you still up for letting me tell you what to do?"

  "Letting you?" he joked. "I don't think you get how to do this."

  She rolled her eyes at him again, but then she said: "Fine. Then I'll just tell you."

  "Sure."

  "Kiss me. Now."

  Something like a small hand grenade went off inside his upper chest. He couldn't hear it, but the burst of intense heat and shock from the blast was quite clearly detectable.

  What did she just s
ay?

  But he hardly had a moment to process what she'd demanded of him as she pushed him back against the black four-by-four vehicle, launching herself at him. Complete surprise and overwhelming confusion made him putty in her hands.

  "Okay…" he said as she pulled him down to her level, placing her hands on his chest.

  His chest filled with her sweet perfume, and his whole body trembled with pent up desire and shock. She was so close to him, he could see her individual freckles, even in this low light. Her eyes, highlighted by mascara and eyeliner, were astonishingly beautiful - so bright and sparkling with intelligence.

  Then suddenly he felt the heat of her face on his, and her soft breath dancing on his skin, and then her lips were nudging against his, so he could feel the slight waxy texture of her lipstick.

  She was kissing him. The most attractive girl he'd ever met. Kissing. Him.

  It wasn't quite his first kiss, but it might as well have been.

  She sucked gently on his lips, and then he found his hands moving up to hold her head, almost checking to see if she was real, solid, not some kind of wonderful dream as he lay sleeping crumpled in a queue outside the Apple store.

  More than a little insecure in his inexperience, he took his cues from her, he tried to learn from her, he mirrored her moves, gently sucking on her sweet lips, nudging his nose against hers, reveling in the velvet softness of her cheeks against his, inhaling her tantalizing scent with every fathomless breath.

  Time just seemed to slow down and stop, as they entered a little world of their own.

  Noelle smiled at him even while they continued kissing, and it sent his temperature skyrocketing. He felt her press against him, and to his horror realized she must be able to feel the massive erection that her incredible attention was causing. Yet she didn't seem horrified by it - she actively pressed herself tighter against him, and suddenly as her kiss lingered, he felt her tongue delving between his lips - oh God, she was so hot.

  "Oh my God…" she said, breathless like she'd just run the 100 meters in the Olympics, her eyes flickering all over his, her brow creased as though in confusion. "How did you learn to kiss like that?"

  She didn't give him a chance to answer - thankfully, since he didn't know what exactly to say. Probably not a good idea to tell her he'd only really ever learned anything from her. She was kissing him, pressing herself up against him, her tongue sliding inside his mouth, now, not holding back.

  He tried to give as good as he got, but her passionate energy was intense, and like lying under a refreshing waterfall, he just had to let the incredible power flow over him.

  As she kissed him, he found he did really enjoy her taking control. Ever since his blundering fumblings in eighth grade, the few times he'd been lucky enough to find another girl interested in a little smooching, the girl had always pretty much opened her mouth and sat there.

  This was electric. And now as he found himself sucking on her tongue, Noelle was grabbing his hands, and forcing them up her chest, demanding he touch her breasts.

  "Just there…" she breathed as his fingers closed around the sensational shape of her cleavage.

  Oh God in Heaven, he was actually holding her beautiful round breasts, and she actually wanted him to. He could feel the stiffness of her nipples, even through her bra and top.

  Dylan took direction from her, and at first she seemed to find it strange, leading him. Putting his hands where she wanted them, guiding the speed and intensity of their kiss. For a moment, she looked at him, her eyes open, trying to figure him out. Perhaps check whether he was only allowing her to lead as some kind of lame follow-up to his earlier suggestions, all one long strategy to get her interested in him.

  But he could see her come to believe that this was wonderful for him - he didn't feel any sleight against his masculinity, how could he? He was entangled in the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

  He touched her tenderly, and she seemed to respond to his gentle coaxing of her sensationally soft breasts, writhing and emitting the sexiest moans. But with the incredible sweetness of her kiss, he found himself slipping into a strange kind of dream state, lulled into a strange calm by the exquisite dance of the senses, and somehow he was losing himself in her.

  When he realized her shirt had ridden up, and her bra had slipped down, and his hands were sprawling over her smooth, soft bare flesh, grazing over her hard nipples without hindrance, he was surprised and a touch confused about how they'd got to that state. Noelle appeared ecstatic that he was touching her like that, however.

  "Kiss me down here," she said softly, almost a whisper, and he found himself kissing down her soft neck, breathing in the gentle sweet scent from her skin as he moved down.

  And then he was taking her nipple inside his hot mouth, tasting her soft flesh, brushing his tongue over her sensitive bud, drawing out a deep long sigh as he began sucking on her.

  "Oh, that's it… just like that…"

  Caressing her hot flesh with his lips, teasing her with his tongue, sucking with increasing intensity, her sighs turned to moans, and Dylan found that confirmation of her pleasure the hottest thing he could remember.

  "Oh, don't stop…"

  Why should it somehow demean a guy's manhood to make the girl's pleasure his priority? Surely succeeding in achieving this genuine delight should be taken as demonstrating real and proven manhood.

  After a while, her moans were almost yelps, and Noelle furiously pulled his face to hers, kissing him with wild abandon, her hands closing over his to force him to virtually crush her cleavage in his fingers.

  At last, she let out a big long groan, her body seeming to shudder as he held her, as though someone had switched on an electric current to flow through her shapely frame.

  "Oh my God," she said, completely struggling for breath. "Oh. My. God."

  "Are you okay?" he asked her, a little confused at the apparent look of shock in her face. Had he hurt her somehow? Had he gone too far?

  Was he in trouble for touching her breasts like that?

  God, all those warnings from his teachers at St Josephs came flooding back - he heard the words of some imagined judge somewhere: inappropriate touching, forcing himself upon her, non-consensual molestation…

  But then her pretty face broke out into the most enchanting smile, her big blue eyes so wide and filled with joy, and she looked at him as though he'd just given her the most amazing gift ever.

  "That's not supposed to happen," she breathed, her voice full of wonder.

  "I'm sorry…" he said, still not understanding.

  She shook her head. "It's a myth, an urban myth," she said. "You're not supposed to actually be able to do that."

  "I kind of got carried away, I guess…" he said, beginning to see that he wasn't in trouble, even finding it amusing how apparently slow his brain was being after being so doped up on the extraordinary experience of kissing Noelle.

  "I mean, I never did that before, not with a guy," she said, then kissed his lips briefly again. "And you did it just by kissing me and touching me."

  He felt incredibly warm inside. And how was it that making this girl feel this way felt more of a satisfying achievement to him than getting into Stanford?

  "We should get back to the line," Noelle said, pulling up her bra and pulling down her top. "They'll all be talking about us, I bet."

  "We haven't been gone that long," he said, but fishing his iPhone out of his pocket was rather startled to find they'd been gone nearly an hour.

  "I wish we could, but I will never live it down if those guys knew you just made me come, and we haven't even had a first date yet."

  Oh wow. He felt himself blush all the shades of scarlet as she took his hand and showed him over to where her car was parked. The undeniable confirmation he'd made her come seemed to set off fireworks inside his whole body - and her use of the word 'yet', suggesting that they would be having a first date at some point in the near future, that just made him fizz all over.


  He was vaguely disappointed that they couldn't just abandon the whole idea of waiting in line for an iPad. Go off and try a little more kissing, a little more touching. Only his mother knew he was there at the Apple store anyway - he'd just tell her the competition for iPads had been so intense, there hadn't even been enough for all the people in the queue.

  He'd think of an alternative present for his sister - sure it wouldn't be as great, but hey.

  He knew that was a selfish feeling, and his head was able to override his heart even before Noelle grabbed his hand and led him on to a tiny little beaten-up Volkswagen that seemed like a very down-to-earth car for a girl as hot as Noelle to drive.

  "It's my baby," she said, proudly patting the roof. "Say 'hi' to Rowena."

  "Hi, Rowena," he said, and made her giggle.

  "The others tease me about her," she said. "But she's the most reliable old girl you've ever seen."

  "Reliability's so much more important than anything else," he said, being nice about her car.

  "Completely. Having something that'll do what I want is so much better than something flashy that conks out after two minutes," she grinned, and he wasn't sure she was talking about her car any more.

  *

  Walking back, Dylan already felt better - and not only because of the most incredible kiss of his life. Holding those blankets made him feel so much better about how the rest of the night was going - it was getting seriously cold by now.

  They stopped off at the McDonalds on the way back to use the bathrooms, thankful the place was open 24 hours.

  Back in the queue, almost nobody was awake. Dylan found himself feeling a little down-hearted all of a sudden. They were going to find their places in the queue again, and then most likely get some sleep - and that would be it for the night.

  "That's horsecrap - guys don't like doing it."

  "Some do. I read about it in a magazine."

  "What, like you read about Sasquatch being seen in Tempersfield?"

  As they found their places, although Ellie and Sasha were still asleep, it was hard to miss the fact that Chrissy and Marie were still awake - Chrissy because she was so excited about getting hold of the new iPad, Marie because Chrissy couldn't shut up.