Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Lo & Behold by Diola Dragontail

   Chapter 5: Interlude, Jane's Story

   "I'm telling you, it's like the fucking twilight zone here."

   Jane leaned back in her chair as she listened to Cat complain.  This
wasn't anything new, Cat tended to complain a lot, but Jane didn't mind. 
She actually enjoyed listening to it quite a bit.  She knew that she was
the only person Cat felt comfortable complaining to, that made it even more
worth while.

   Jane's finger moved over her thin t-shirt as she listened, other people
might have called it whining, but to Jane it was almost musical.

   Jane's fingertip traced the outline of her right nipple, causing it to
respond immediately, poking up against the cotton.

   "Umhm." Jane murmured in reply, her mind only partially on the
conversation.  The rest of her mind was fixated on imagining what Cat
looked like while laying on her bed talking on the telephone.

   "I don't know what the hell is going on." Cat repeated into the
telephone receiver.  "I'm seriously thinking about checking all the closets
for those body snatcher things."

   "Pods." Jane absently replied.

   Cat used her free hand to scratch the top of her head; she wasn't really
listening to the conversation though.  "What?"

   "Pods." Jane repeated.  "They're called pods.  Body snatcher pods."

   "Whatever.  I know, she's always been weird.  But tonight she was
actually nice." Cat said incredulously.  "She didn't even give me the usual
riot when I was late for dinner."

   "Maybe she's just having an off day?" Jane commented, not really seeing
anything to be excited about.

   "I'm telling you, it's fucking scary." Cat stifled a yawn as she
listened to the reply from the other end of the phone.  She went to say
something, but was distracted by the faint sound of a knock at her door.

   "Umm.  Someone's at the door.  It's probably the pod people come to
brainwash me.  Got to go.  "Without waiting for a reply, Cat quickly hung
up the phone and rolled over to look at the door.

   "Good..." Jane started to say, but Cat had hung up before she could even
finish.

   "Night." She said into the disconnected phone line.  Her voice felt
pained even to herself, but she pushed the thought away.

   She looked at the phone for a moment and then exhaled a heavy sigh.  She
hung up the phone and leaned back in her seat a bit.  It was a big
oversized desk chair and when she pulled back in it far enough it felt just
like castle walls surrounding her, keeping her safe, keeping her thoughts
to herself.

   She felt removed from herself here, removed from everything.  Like
nothing else mattered except what was going on in her mind.  And to her,
that was the most important of all.

   All during her conversation with Cat, her free hand had been nestled in
her lap.  It was too short a conversation for anything but the smallest of
touches.  She smiled wistfully as she thought about a past conversation or
two.  Arching her back slightly as she let her fingers move a few more
strokes.

   She brought her fingers up to her face and looked at them for a moment,
watching the evaporating wetness that covered them.  She closed her eyes as
she delicately traced her fingers across her mouth.  She could smell
herself but fought the urge to lick her lips.

   The urge continued to grow, within seconds it was gnawing at her
resolve, nibbling off the edges.  When she couldn't take it any longer and
let the tip of her tongue move across her lips.

   "Mmmm." She moaned lightly.  She always loved the way she tasted.  She
slipped a finger slowly into her mouth and started to lick it clean. 
Enjoying the taste of it, like it was some fine wine.

   A thought flashed through her mind, uncontrollably.  "I wonder if Cat
tastes like this...."

   She beat back the thought just as fast as it had raced into her mind. 
Her cheeks grew warm with embarrassment even though there was no one around
to see her.  Her eyes glanced around her bedroom, as if she was double
checking that she was really alone.

   Satisfied that she was still entirely alone, she relaxed into the seat
again.  Leaning her head back and relaxing her mind fully, letting the
thoughts come back to her.

   "I bet Cat would like the way I taste too...." She smiled to herself as
she sucked her other fingers clean.  The thought still made her blush, but
it was a warm sort of feeling that accented the senses in her body.

   This was all Jane's secret.  Cat didn't know what Jane did while they
had their semi-regular evening conversations.  To Jane it didn't matter
what they talked about, just hearing Cat's voice was enough.

   She lifted her leg and placed it over the arm rest of her chair,
spreading her legs wantonly.  She reached down and slipped her fingers back
under the waistband of her panties, teasing herself.

   She felt the urge to just plunge her fingers in, to give in to the
urges, to satisfy herself.  She fought it back, forcing her anticipation to
build.  She knew that the longer she waited, the more she'd crave the
release, and the more she'd enjoy the moment.  But, most importantly, she
only wanted that moment when something specific was in her mind.

   The tips of her fingers touched hair and slowly wiggled into it.  Her
bush was thick and curly and seemed to fight off the intrusion.  It was
like yet another wall, guarding her most sensitive spots and thoughts.

   In her mind she fixed on a moment, a past chance where it seemed a dozen
different futures sprawled in front of her.  All she had to do was make a
choice and take the risk to pick one.  At the time she didn't, too
frightened to step out on any of the paths.

   But in her imagination she was free to pick one.  Explore it.  She knew
it was nothing more than fantasy and it would fade the moment she opened
her eyes.  But she thought if she did this, if she was better prepared,
that should the moment come again, she'd be ready then.

   It was the trip back from Ms.  Weiser's annual class expedition to the
art museum.  A trip where the new age whacko always ranted about how
important it was to find themselves, being inspired and all these lofty
goals that seemed just too vague and insubstantial to mean anything to the
majority of the teenage minds in her charge.

   Unlike the rest of her classmates, Jane had found something that
afternoon, but she didn't think it was what Ms.  Weiser had in mind.

   As her mind recounted the events, she slipped her fingers further, deep
in the jungle of hair now.  Tantalizingly close.

   Cat had been grumpy and cranky all morning.  This was just the sort of
event that Cat always had a problem with, a chance to act up and rebel. 
This one was particularly worse than usual, she even managed to annoy
Brandy enough to send her off in a huff.

   These moments weren't important though, only in the fact that it left
Cat and Jane alone together.

   Jane could feel her need building, causing her to fast forward her
memory to what was important.

   The ride back on the bus, just Cat and herself.  The slow rhythm of the
bus on the highway, up and down, up and down, a smooth momentum forward. 
The background noise of other students and Cat slowly nodding off.  Then
she was asleep, her head laying on Jane's shoulder.  Comfortable.  Warm. 
Perfect.

   Jane just sat there, watching her sleeping friend.  She couldn't see
Cat's face, but she could feel her breath on her neck.  She could tell she
was asleep, but Jane had never been more awake than at the moment.  The
world fell away, there was nothing but Cat and herself.  She was acutely
aware of everything about Cat, but totally removed from the rest of the
world.

   In that one moment, everything was perfect.  Everything seemed to make
sense.  All of Jane's confusions, loneliness, regrets, they all seemed to
melt away.  All the problems she thought she'd have to deal with later all
disappeared, meaningless.  In that one moment, nothing else mattered.  Just
the sleeping friend next to her, the sleeping friend that she wanted to be
so much more.

   Then Cat stirred and for one mind numbingly painful second, it seemed
that the moment was broken.  That Cat would sit up, complain about
something, and it would all be gone.  But she didn't.  Instead Cat's head
nuzzled slightly closer and her hand... her hand moved.  Her hand landed on
Jane's thigh, clutching her closer.

   Still lost in her memory, Jane thrust a finger deeper, touching her clit
in a much more direct fashion.  Her pulse racing at the sudden touch,
mimicking the rush of blood that she felt when Cat had touched her.

   Jane wanted to put her arm around her friend.  She wanted to confess her
innermost thoughts.  Wanted to tell her that this moment could be just the
start of many more moments.

   But Jane did nothing.  She just sat.

   Jane pushed her finger deeper, roughly running the length of it against
her clit.  Curving her finger into herself as her thumb came to rest on her
clit.  She rocked her finger in and out of herself in slow movements, her
thumb grazing her clit with each thrust.

   Her mind picked one of the paths she had envisioned and her imagination
started unrolling it in front of her.  All sense of reality was lost as she
turned her to kiss Cat's ear.  Whispering "I love you" to her just waking
friend.  Her hand reaching down to Cat's hand, not removing it, just
holding it against her own thigh.

   Cat's eyes opened slowly, dreamily.  Her mouth smiling up at Jane.  And
the words that Jane longed to hear slipped from between those pink lips.

   "I love you too."

   Jane thrust a second finger into herself now, her hand starting to move
faster.  Her breathing rocked and shaked as she slumped in her seat.

   In her imagination, Jane had no other reply to this than but to lean in
closer.  Kissing Cat's lips lightly.  Not pushing her, not full of lust. 
Just the softest of kisses, one that she felt encompassed all her thoughts,
dreams, and needs.  In her lap, her hand clutched Cat's, pulling it higher
up her thigh.  Holding it close to herself, to her heat.  To show her
willing submission to anything that Cat might want of her.  To show her
what Cat's presence did to her.

   Back in her room, Jane felt the orgasm begin to crest in her mind.  At
first she fought back the urge to moan out, but then just let it go, just a
soft whimper of pleasure now.  Her other hand reaching down to cup her hand
close to herself.  All the while imagining that it was Cat's hand she was
clutching.