Chapter 60

Bobby covers my open fly with his hand and sighs. “Amber, we’re sort of busy here.”

“Ryan’s driving,” she says, as if we don’t know, “and since Ican’t do anything until he pulls over, I’m going to make damn sure that youtwo don’t do anything, either.” Widening her eyes, she lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “You know who’s out here, don’t you?”

My blood is singing in my ears, Bobby’s rubbing small circles into the front of my briefs, I’ve got him in hand jeans or not, and I’m not even sure where Iam at the moment…does she honestly expect an answer? Apparently she does, because she slaps Bobby’s hand away from my crotch and whines, “Come on, stop it! Listen to me!”

Into my neck, Bobby mumbles, “You stop it.” His hand returns to my open fly. “Tell your boy-toy to pull over already. Some of us don’t have balls of steel, you know. I can’t hold it all night.”

She frowns at him and turns her attention to me. “You’ve heard of the Jersey Devil, right? What’s your name again?”

“Jacob,” I sigh. I’m surprised how steady my voice sounds, when every other part of me is quivering with anticipation. “Jersey Devils, hockey team, right? Didn’t they win the Stanley Cup last year?”

“No,” she says, then shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe. But I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about theJersey Devil. Living, breathing spawn from hell? Lives in the Pine Barrens? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the stories.”

Despite her interruption, my interest is piqued. “Wait a minute,” I say, trying to think around Bobby’s hand down the front of my pants. “Wasn’t there a movie about it or something? I heard the Blair Witch Projectsort of copied the idea.”

Amber waves her hand, dismissive. “Oh I don’t know about that. I can’t standhorror films. But…” She turns around fully in the seat, savoring what she’s about to tell. “Okay, it’s like this. There’s a lady, right? Back in the day. And she has like fifteen kids—”

A voice comes from the shadows in the driver’s seat. “Twelve,” Ryan corrects.

“Twelve,” Amber says, “whatever. Anyway, she gets pregnant againand she’s all sick of this shit, right? I mean, after twelve kids, you know? Oh, yeah, it’s twelve, because that would make this next one thirteen and that’s how it goes. So she’s just tired of having kids and she’s got so many already, so she curses the last one to the devil.”

Beside me, Bobby snuggles closer and scoffs, “I don’t believe you buy that shit. It isn’t real, Amber. Can’t we just get back to what we were doing?” He humps my leg so she’ll catch his drift.

But Amber’s already started the story, and she’s not about to stop just because we’re horny. “Listen,” she says. “We’re going to pull over soon, you can get off then. Just listen to me.” Then she falls silent, waiting for us to pay attention. Beneath her stern gaze Bobby rolls his eyes and crosses his legs, catching my hand between them. Amber picks up right where she left off. “So she has this kid, right? And damned if it wasn’t a devil child, because she cursed it and all. It practically rips out of her womb and flies straight up the chimney and into the woods.” Lowering her voice, she leans closer and confides, “And now? Since that day, there’s been so many who have seen something in the Pine Barrens. Dead animals just torn apart, and strange footprints, and people are alwaysdisappearing. Shrieks in the woods late at night that no living creature could possiblymake. My grandfather? Said one time he was out hunting, and he saw the Jersey Devil rise up out of the bushes right in front of him. He put like fifty bullets into it and it didn’t even budge.”

Frowning slightly, I ask, “Did your grandfather hunt with semi-automatic weapons? Because I can’t imagine any kind of rifle that holds fifty bullets.”

Bobby snorts with laughter. “I don’t know what kind of gun it was!” Amber cries. “You’re not listening to my story.”

“I heard your story,” I tell her. “There’s a devil in these woods that’s somehow lived for hundreds of years without getting caught, even though everyone in New Jersey has seen him or heard him or knows someone who knows someone who has and even though they named their state hockey team after him. I think he was on an X-Filesepisode once too, right?” Amber’s full lips pull into an ugly pout—do straight guys actually fallfor that? “Let me guess. You tell us all this and when we finally pull over, you two will just happen to head off into the woods for a little privacy, but really you’ll just wait until Bobby and I—” My mind numbs at the thought of just what it is he wants to do to me, and I sure don’t want to tell her, so I gloss over it with, “You get my drift. Once things get hot and heavy, you two jump on the car and scare the shit out of us so you can tease us all the way back to campus. That’s how it works, right?”

For a moment, I think she’s going to cry because I’ve called her out. Beside me Bobby can’t breathe for laughing, and I even see the sliver of a grin on the side of Ryan’s face, though he turns away when Amber glares at him. “Fine,” she says. She tugs at the emergency brake, just enough to throw us all forward, and announces, “Pull over, Ryan. Right here.”

“Amber—”

She’s pissed. “Right here.”

No one speaks as the car glides to the shoulder of the road and coasts to a stop. Amber pulls up the brake, opens her door, and folds her seat up so we can get out of the back. “I was goingto be nice,” she tells us, “and let you two have the car, but not now. Come on, move it.”

I climb out, sure this is where they leave me and drive off laughing—I knewit was too good to be true—but Bobby keeps a hand on my waist and clambers out after me. He must be thinking the same thing, because he leans back into the car and threatens Ryan. “If you two leave us stranded out here, man—”

“Oh please.” Amber shoves Bobby aside and flops back into the front seat. Poking at his crotch, she says, “Just go take care of thatand give me like a half hour to take care of this.” She points to Ryan’s lap, where his jeans are open and his boxers unsnapped. In the car’s harsh overhead light, his uncut dick juts from his crotch at the same angle as the emergency brake. Amber sees me looking and smirks. “Don’t worry, Bobby,” she calls out in a catty voice. “I think the Jersey Devil only goes after virgins, so you should be safe.”

“Oh, hey,” Bobby retorts, “you too.”

She nods at me and adds, “Your friend won’t be so lucky, so you might want to do him quick.”

Without answering, Bobby slams the car door shut. Then he takes my hand and pulls me along after him into the woods. It has to be close to midnight by now, and the woods around us are eerily silent. I tell myself that Amber’s full of shit, which she is, and that story she fed us was just talk, that’s all. The scariest thing out here is probably nothing more than a bobcat or brown bear…yeah, and that’sa comforting thought. I focus on my dick instead—it’s still throbbing, and Bobby’s hand is so warm in mine. Dry leaves and brittle grass crunch under our feet as we drift among the trees. My fly’s still open and there’s a chill breeze to remind me that it’s the end of October. When I glance over my shoulder at the car, Bobby tugs my hand and says, “They ain’t going anywhere. Come on.”

We go a little farther, kicking through the bushes down a slight incline that’s littered with soda cans and broken beer bottles. I toy with the front of my jeans, unsure if I should zip up or what, and I’m just about to ask Bobby if he knows where he’s going when he stops in front of a large, dead tree. Turning around, he leans back against the trunk, legs splayed, and reels me in between them. His arms lock around my waist and for the first time all night, our erections crush together through our clothing. Bobby kisses the hollow of my throat as his hands ease beneath the waistband of my jeans to smooth over my ass. Only the thin fabric of my briefs separates us. He trails tiny kisses up my neck and around my jaw until finally, finally, our lips meet. His mouth is hot on mine, his breath alcoholic, as his tongue slips into me. My hands bunch uselessly in the front of his shirt. I’m not sure where to put them or what I’m supposed to do—when I talked myself into going to that damn party this evening, I never imagined I’d end up here.