[Leopard]

4. The Bus

The bus trip to Katie’s house typically took around fifteen minutes, with a few minutes walk after that from the bus stop to her house. So twenty minutes total.

It was one of the longest twenty minutes of my life so far.

Every part of my soul ached to reach out and grab her, to wrap my arms around her and kiss those soft lips with my own, to clutch her tight against me and just try to sink into her skin. Of course, I couldn’t do that; we were in public, and neither of us were so brave as to risk being shunned over being openly gay.

There was also the small matter that we’d never kissed each other. Or the fact that she was the beauty queen, the cutest little cat in the entire school. I was just Miss Awkward. The new girl, and the tomboy; not important enough to be loved, not even important enough to be hated. I might be aching for her, but there was no way I’d actually have the guts to make a move.

Katie, however, seemed to be well aware now of both my need for her and of my shyness. Hence the seemingly endless journey: she used every minute of that bus trip and final walk up to her house to drive me wild.

I’d taken a seat near the back of the bus, and instead of sitting next to me, Katie had taken the seat in front, on which she knelt perched with her arms on the backrest like a curious kitty peeking over a fence. She showed no signs of any sort of headache from her fall still bothering her, which led me to believe that the whole thing had been orchestrated to get us out of school early, and an excuse to invite me over. Katie was, after all, a drama student. But then maybe I was just over thinking the whole thing. As the bus trundled away from the school district, Katie watched me with wide, innocent eyes - an innocence that moments later was proven to be all about a joy for all things in life and nothing to do with actually being innocent.

The bus was passing through the quiet network of streets that led up into Hillview - the appropriately named suburb where Katie lived - when Katie suddenly leaned back against the next row of seats. She then gave me a wide grin and pulled her top right up, revealing a sky blue triangle bikini top beneath. Her breasts were quite small, the rise of them beneath the bikini barely evident, but then she was a little kitten all round, and it wasn’t as if I were in the running for Miss Boobs 2005 either.

After a few seconds - all of which I spent staring at her chest, my mouth hanging open - Katie lowered her top again, suddenly blushing. She moved closer, hiding the bottom half of her face behind the seat back, watching and waiting for my reaction.

I just kept staring at her like an idiot.

‘You’re beautiful,’ I finally managed to say.

Katie looked down for a second, noticeably flustered, before grinning wickedly at me.

‘Prefer me walking around in just that as a top?’ she asked slyly.

My eyes widened. ‘You wouldn’t dare,’ I gasped.

‘Would too! Wait, no, maybe not, mew - wouldn’t want to embarrass you too much making you walk around with a daring girl in just a bikini top.’

Okay, there was no way in hell I was letting her pin the whole thing on my cowardice.

Completely forgetting my usual inhibitions, I thrust my hand out towards her.

‘Hand it over,’ I said with uncharacteristic authority.

Katie just blinked at me, her grin fading to a look of puzzlement. ‘Mew?’

‘Your top,’ I said. ‘Hand it over. It’s going in my bag until we get to your place - it’ll make sure you don’t just ditch me in the middle of nowhere, too.’ I was only half joking, but I guess a bit of my insecurities were showing through.

‘Would never ditch you,’ Katie muttered, her cheeks going red.

But the hurt look was only there for a moment, and then her face went determined. Her hands disappeared down to her waist, then she quickly peeled her top up and off over her head, pulling her long, pale hair free. Her upper half covered only by the bikini, Katie handed her top to me.

I took the top from Katie and stuffed it into my bag, grinning back at her.

‘You can have it back when we get to your house,’ I said.

‘Won’t need it then,’ Katie muttered. Then she grinned at me. ‘My turn.’

‘Eh?’

‘You dared me to take my shirt off for the trip home,’ Katie replied, smiling wider. ‘Now you have to do a dare for me.’

‘Uh…’ Well, crap. I had no real way to get out of it; especially not with her top in my bag. ‘Fine,’ I muttered. ‘What’s your dare?’

Katie leaned forward, sitting up enough that her breasts were pushed up and forward by the seat back, making them too obvious to ignore.

‘You were masturbating in class,’ Katie murmured, her cheeks hot, but eyes twinkling. ‘I dare you to unbutton your jeans and play more - no stopping or doing them up until you can’t keep from moaning.’