Destiny Taken (Destiny Lost Book 1) Read online

  "Then come here, Destiny, and meet everyone!"

  I felt frozen in place. I eventually stumbled forward, through the crowd that parted for me like the Red Sea parting for Moses. I realized I was finally standing in front of Tia and staring right into her intelligent, shiny brown eyes with my deep blue ones. Dark, heavy bangs and a thick, straight, shoulder-length bob framed her face. She was exactly the same height as I.

  I can't remember a single thing she said to or about me. I remember answering questions somewhat robotically, and I remember that she introduced me to all of the other students gathered around her. I was overcome with the strength of her presence and the charisma that was flowing off of her and splashing wonderfully onto everyone around. Who was this girl?

  She was, of course, the most popular person in the sophomore class, and perhaps in the entire school. For some unfathomable reason, she took an immediate liking to me, tucked me securely under her wing, and made my acclimation to tenth grade and a new school effortless.

  Tia was dominant by her very nature, by her reputation, and by the strength of her broad accomplishments. I would have thought that might have caused a conflict between us, since I'd always considered myself to be a dominant personality. It came as a surprise to me that we never conflicted, and I never felt that I was hidden in her shadow. That might have been partially me, but it was, probably, largely Tia. It would never have occurred to her to promote herself, at the expense of anyone else.

  Tia was truly one of those "let's raise everybody up" people, versus those who get ahead at others' expense. I probably assumed a subordinate role with her naturally, but I never felt submissive. Perhaps I was, maybe not. What I did know was that Tia was impossible not to like. For myself, I found her impossible not to love as the best friend I'd ever had.

  We hung out together, studied together, went out together, double dated, and did everything else best friends do. Somehow, Tia managed to spend all that time with me, get all her other things done, and never alienated a single one of her other friends or admirers.

  Sophomore year led to junior year, driving and partying and studying even harder. Tia and I shared almost every class and we were friendly rivals for the top spot. Someone else might be tops say three times out of ten, Tia five and me two. I think if it weren't for Tia, I probably would have been strong, but never at the top. She lifted me up with her.

  We were both interested in archeology and, to a lesser extent, anthropology, as potential careers. As senior year dawned, we started thinking about college and whether or not we should try to go to the same school and share a room or apartment.

  I had hopes, but I couldn't see how that was going to work. Tia was good enough to probably land a full ride at a major archeology school like Yale, Stanford, or Penn. I was very good, not great, and my parents couldn't afford those places on their own. Sometimes I felt like Salieri to Tia's Mozart; I was good enough to appreciate how great she was.

  I was looking to stay close to home for college – the big university Uptown, in the city that anchored the southern part of the metroplex, or perhaps, a very good private university in the north metroplex. I didn't think it was fair to Tia to hold her back in our state, which has fine schools, but not programs as impressive as she could land elsewhere.

  **********

  The year progressed with the usual senior activities. Tia and I remained as close as two pieces of tape stuck together. After the holidays, we both decided to get an early start on our science fair projects, which were a major part of our grade in the Earth & Space Sciences class. We were both doing archeology-oriented projects, but each of us had a very different focus.

  We helped each other through the projects, setting aside every Monday and Thursday evening to work on them. I recall that Tia and I had turned eighteen the previous week, Tia on April 4 and me on April 6. It was on the following Thursday, right before the fair, that something happened.

  I was at Tia's house that night. Her parents had theater tickets and had gone Downtown for dinner and a play. We were down in their rec room, doing online research, and working on the presentation displays of the few but exciting findings from a Native American site dig we'd attempted in a gully near the densely tree-lined, scenic river that River’s Edge sits on the edge of. We'd been fortunate to have a couple early, warm weeks in late February when we could get out to do the field work.

  Tia's project was oriented toward the anthropology aspects of the findings, while mine was more of an archeological analysis of the dig. Both projects were based on what we each thought were pretty good hypotheses. I thought we'd claim an A+ for each of us, and I thought we both had a good shot at winning locally, and making it to the district fair.

  We were working away on our separate displays. I was trying to get a video to play from my iPhone to a small screen I'd put in one of my project posters, when Tia asked for my help with holding something she was trying to affix to hers.

  I set my little screen down and moved over to hold the stuff for her. She was struggling with tightening a fixture into place and we were both in each other's face, gathered around her display. Suddenly something snapped and whatever she was doing fell apart. She yelled a stream of curses unlike any I'd heard from her before.

  I was standing there, right in front of her, and I could feel the spittle generated by her string of colorful epithets. I suspect that my mouth was hanging open in surprise. She glanced up at me, red-faced and angry, her long brunette hair still in her face from bending over.

  She looked at me, fire in her eyes, but just stood there for the longest time. Then, simultaneously, we both burst out laughing, tears running down our faces from the hilarity of the moment. I put my hand on her shoulder to try to steady myself and regain some control. We finally managed to slow, then stop our giggling. At this point, we each had a hand on the other's shoulder. I lifted my hand first, intending to bend down to start gathering the pieces of her project from the floor.

  Before I could move my hand back, Tia's had left my shoulder, gone around my neck, and pulled me towards her. She tilted her head and our lips met in a spontaneous kiss that was equally surprising to both of us.

  My first thought as we pressed our bodies together, one of her arms around my neck, the other around my waist, was how full, moist and warm her lips were. Both of my arms were around her neck as we kissed over and over, sometimes in short, sweet pecks, sometimes deliciously long. My little tongue slipped into her mouth and hers and mine circled about each other.

  Without me noticing it, we had moved over near a sofa, still standing, each enfolded in the other's arms. "Take off your clothes, Destiny, I want to feel your warmth against me," Tia whispered and she bent down to unfasten her own shorts.

  My best friend was taking our affection for each other to some other level. I had never been with a female before for anything seriously sexual. I felt as though I’d stepped onto a commuter train that was already in motion. I supposed there was a way off of it, but did I want to take it?

  Of course not. I wanted to charge ahead with Tia. I looked into her eyes and I told her with my own, in no uncertain terms, that I wanted her. I wanted everything with her. I was destined for her. I could see in her expression that she heard and understood me as well as she would have if I shouted it out loud. My light touch of affirmation on her arm was like an electric shock to both of us. I was somewhat surprised to realize that I was exactly where I wanted to be right then. I didn’t feel any angst about the sudden turn our relationship had taken.

  I sensed her warmth, her proximity, her musky, heady aroma. I was captured and I wanted to be. I knew I was ready. This was the time for us. There was nothing better for me right then than what Tia was proposing. The moment was ripe and I couldn’t let the fruit of our passion wither on the vine. My desire for Tia right then was a consuming passion, not to be denied.

  In moments, we were facing each other naked for the first time.

  Tia was as beautiful without clo
thes as she had been while casually dressed. Her breasts were larger than mine but equally firm. Her shoulders were broad, her stomach flat, her hips shapely but not large; inviting I would say. Like me at that time she had no pubic hair, having had it lasered off earlier in our senior year; she’d come along with me when mine was done. I could feel that she was silky-smooth as my hand moved down to cup her pussy. I could only barely feel her inner labia protruding from her outers, definitely less than my own.

  With one hand holding mine, she used the other to take the back pillow cushions from the sofa and tossed them aside, giving more room to lie down. She laid me on the sofa and straddled me. As her head bent to my breast her hair enveloped my upper chest. Her lips were on my nipple which, though already erect, began to harden like a small pebble. She worked both breasts, sucking and biting me.

  Tia surprised me by saying, "I haven't done this before. I'm only playing with your breasts this way because it's something I like. If you want something different, please tell me."

  "I want you to continue what you're doing, exactly like you're doing it," I replied.

  My hands were cupping her pussy again, which had gotten very wet. Two of my fingers easily parted her lips and slid along between her small inners, down to her opening and up to her clit, which I circled with my fingertip, trying to avoid scratching at the little nub with my medium-length nails. Her pelvis began a slow rotation on my hand. She laid on top of me and I moved my hand around to her pert, muscular bottom. She pressed against me, her hips still rotating, her lips now on mine once more.

  Tia held each of my breasts in a hand, while her body pressed down against me. She squeezed and massaged my areolas and nipples. I slipped a finger within her, trying to divide my attention between her lips and tongue enmeshed with mine, and administering to her pussy with my right hand.

  Tia slid off me and moved me partially to my side and down, my lower legs up on the padded arm of the sofa. She lay next to me in 69. Our mouths touched each other’s sexual center and out tongues probed beneath our hoods and around our clits.

  I had never felt a woman’s pudenda other than my own, and never had thought of doing it with my mouth. Tia tasted nice – slightly musky and a little salty, with a faint fragrance of body lotion. The pheromones she was releasing were sparking fireworks in my mind. I wanted her then like I’d never wanted anyone before.

  I sensed her responding best with a firm pressure and slow movement of my tongue around her clitoris, while I sucked on her upper vulva, my lips evenly surrounding her pleasure center. For me, her lighter touch was the key. I felt us both begin to move up toward climax at about the same rate.

  The feeling of intimacy with Tia was thrilling, increasingly consuming. I felt myself slip away into her and we merged as much as two women could. It was sweet and loving and impossibly arousing at the same time.

  One of Tia’s arms had reached around me and her hand was squeezing my small butt cheek. Her pelvis moved toward me and back in a slow rhythm, which increased in tempo as she neared the top. I felt her release my butt cheek and barely tap my bottom. I instinctively slowed my ministrations, to stretch the buildup - an inexperienced teen’s attempt to make this better for her. It seemed to work.

  I was actually quivering with arousal. My own build-up was both awesomely pleasurable and intensely exciting. It was much more exciting than any of the episodes I’d had with boys to that time. Every movement with Tia was tender, loving, unhurried.

  I thought I must be on some other plane of existence. My attention was so focused on me and Tia together that the world receded into the distant background.

  She was getting very juicy and I realized I was also. My tongue easily slid around her clit and along her slit, licking the insides of her inners and sucking them into my mouth too. She did the same with me, and that was the first time I ever realized how pleasurably sensitive my inners were.

  I flicked the tip of her bud with my wet tongue in between drawing circles around it. We were both getting very close. Suddenly, I realized I was about to crash into climax and I knew I couldn’t stop it. I felt the orgasmic wonder tingling from my back and shoulders to my thighs as I tried as hard as possible to hold back. I lay my tongue flat against Tia’s clit and pressed as she began to shake in an attempt to slow her own arousal. Then she gripped my bottom and came, blasting my face with a squirt of juice from her pussy. That was enough and I went over the top into a blistering climax that was the best ever at that point in my life.

  Waves of overwhelmingly gratifying pleasure-pain washed over me, along with an undertone of even sweeter pleasure that seemed to entwine around the deliciousness of the mainline of orgasm. I realized we were both shaking violently, using our only remaining presence of mind to continue to attend to each other’s sex. I have no idea how long we lingered in the amazing bliss of togetherness and release. Time had stopped for us.

  Afterward, we partially sat up, weak from what we’d done, and simply looked at each other. Tia’s mouth was hanging open. I don’t know what I must have looked like, but my long, blonde hair seemed to be everywhere – in my face, down my back, wrapped around my neck, in my mouth.

  Finally Tia, looking as surprised as I’d ever seen her, mumbled, “That was something else …” Then she slumped over against my naked shoulder as she fainted.

  **********

  The weekend that followed was great in several ways. On Saturday, we both scored Excellent on our projects, and we each received an A+ from our Earth & Space Science teacher. Even better, I won with the most points in our category! I beat Tia, who came in a few points behind me. That meant I'd get to go on to the district science fair in the state capital, about 65 miles northeast, in three weeks.

  Tia was a gracious loser, as she was gracious with everything. We celebrated by finding alone time and continuing the physical intimacy we'd discovered on Thursday. Though I'd known her as my closest friend, I was only now discovering my sexual attraction to Tia. She was obviously feeling the same way about me. This was weird because we'd been best friends for two and a half years, and nothing like this had ever happened. I'll add to that by saying that we were both totally into boys too, and neither of us was a virgin on that count. In fact, we both had boy dates for the senior, all-night party after graduation in six weeks, though we were double dating.

  A couple weeks passed and we were having a lot of girl-on-girl sex. I think some of our classmates were beginning to suspect that the two of us had become more than best friends, and I didn't want it to get out. At lunch that Monday, I mentioned my concerns to Tia, who blew them off by saying she didn't care if they knew everything. She said she was hot for me and that we could post it on the event sign in front of the school for all she cared.

  I said I was equally into her, but I didn't want our relationship to become a public spectacle. I don't know why; I just didn't want it out there. I think I hurt her feelings, though I'm sure I didn't mean to. Anyway, one thing led to another, and we had our first big fight ever.

  Somewhere, in the midst of the argument, she said something to the effect that because I'd won the science fair, I'd become an uppity bore. I'm sure she didn't mean that either – because she said it in the heat of battle – but it was out there anyway. That really hurt, so I told her I would drop out and, since she was in second place, she would go instead of me.

  I stormed off and went to see our Earth & Space Science teacher. I told him something had come up, and I couldn't make the district fair this coming weekend, and that he could send Tia as my alternate. At the end of the day, I heard her called to his office so he could tell her the news.

  She caught me after school and immediately started to apologize for what she'd said while angry. She wanted us to go see our teacher so I'd once again be the school representative to go to district.

  I accepted her apology, but told her to stick the science fair where the sun didn't shine. To her credit, she didn't get angry, only sad. We sat outside of school and
talked for a long time, but I wouldn't give on that, and I couldn't find a way to explain why I was interested in keeping our sexual relationship secret. That was probably because I didn't fully understand why I felt that way.

  We parted and both went home unhappy. Tia called me that night. I didn't feel like talking, but agreed to come over to her house the next day, after school. That next night her parents were out with friends so we grilled a little salmon and had a salad with the salmon on top for dinner. We talked, but neither of us would give an inch. We actually tried to make love, and did, but we were both sad and our hearts weren't in it. We were both still hurt that neither of us agreed with nor understood the feelings of the other.

  After we had our paltry sex, we sat quietly for a while, then I made some stupid, hurtful quip that I can't even remember. I saw tears form in Tia's eyes as I got up to leave. "Good luck at the science fair," I said in a sarcastic tone of voice, and I left. I could be a bitch like that sometimes.

  As I reflect on my actions that evening with Tia, my only excuse is that I was a young, still immature, eighteen-year-old. What was about to happen would make me look back on those last moments with my friend over and over as the years went by.

  I avoided Tia over the next few days. I received several texts from her asking me to meet her, and urging me to do the science fair, but I sent back only a single word, "no."

  On the weekend, I had made plans to go out with a guy in my class and two other couples for Saturday night. I wanted to get my mind off Tia. She'd headed up to the state capital for the fair anyway.

  My mother called me down for lunch about one o'clock. As I walked through the family room, I saw a news bulletin on the flatscreen about a shooting. I stopped to stare at the newscast and realized that the shooting had occurred at the high school in the state capital, where the district science fair was being held.

  I shouted out, "OH NO!" and collapsed onto the couch. Tia was there! Was she alright? What was happening?