Schlock Cinema — Steve Isaak

Kat looked up from behind the customer service counter as the dangling door bell chimed above the video store doors.

Her heart beat faster when she recognized the hot girl with pallid skin and dark eyes.

The girl seemed to recognize her, too, her cupid lips quirking into a smile, followed by a nod.  Holding Kat’s gaze, the girl with the reddish-brown bangs headed toward the counter.

“Two questions,” the girl said.  “Are you hiring?  And, do you have The Vampire Lovers for rent?  I saw it here last week.  The older guy was working – then it disappeared.”

Kat blushed; the girl’s lips quirked further.

“That was rude of me,” she smiled.  “I’m Mirah.  You are. . .?”

“Kat.  We have algebra class together.”

Mirah looked amused.  “Well, fuck me.”

I’d like to, Kat thought, blushing even more.

Seconds passed.  Kat, dazed by lust, didn’t notice, until Mirah, amused, said, “You didn’t answer my questions.”

“Oh,” Kat shook her head.  “Sorry.  Uh. . . no, Dave – the older guy you saw, who owns the store – isn’t hiring, and, yes, the store carries that lustalicious Ingrid Pitt film.”

“A fellow horror fan.  Nice.”  Mirah paused, continued: “It is available?  I’d like to rent it.”

“It’s out, but it’ll be back tomorrow.”  Kat looked embarrassed.

Mirah smiled knowingly.  “So you have it.”

Kat nodded, evaded Mirah’s sex trap eyes.

“What time do you get off work?”

“Hunh?”  It just came out of her.  Goddamn it, Kat mentally kicked herself.

“I said, ‘What time do you get off work?’”  Mirah smiled.  “One of my friends – you probably know her, Ellen Peake – is having one of her ‘Schlock Cinema’ nights.  It was suggested that we watch that, as a double feature with Lurking Fear.  Since you not only have The Vampire Lovers, but seem cool, it makes sense for you to come.”

Kat, still lustbound, focused on Mirah’s last word.

Mirah laughed.  “Guests are allowed to invite anyone they want, as long as the invitees are cool – like you – and it doesn’t get too crowded.  But I have to know now, so I can tell Ellen that you’re coming – if you are. . . coming.”

There was that last word again.  Mirah’s flirty smirk and direct panty-wetting stare worked its magic.

“Sure,” Kat agreed, a hitch in her voice.  “I get off work at 9:30 – 9:05, if I start straightening stuff now.”

Mirah turned to look at the midsized store with shelved, disorganized video tape boxes.  “Doesn’t look that messy,” she said, facing Kat.  “I can help you clean up, if you want.”

If anybody else had offered this, she would’ve accused them of being pushy.  With Mirah, bluntness worked; it suited her.

“Not necessary.  Thanks, though,” Kat smiled.

“Fair enough.  How about we go together?”

“Sure.” 

“What time should I be back here?  It’s 7:45 now.”

“Five after nine works.  It’s been a slow night.  It’s only messy because one of my co-workers didn’t straighten the movies before they left.  No biggie.”

She caught Mirah sizing her up, and said, “What?”

“You have a pretty smile.  I’m going to have to watch myself with you.”

Kat’s face went hot; she glanced downward.

Mirah laughed.  “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.  I see a pretty, cool girl, and I tell her so.”

“Thanks.”

Mirah smiled.  “See you at 9:05.”

After Mirah left, Kat, happy butterflies in her belly, straightened the store.

#  #  #

Mirah showed up at 9:05.

When Kat saw her pull up in front of the store, she grabbed her backpack, turned off the lights, turned on the alarm, and dashed for the front doors.

Outside, locking them, she turned toward Mirah, who stood on the sidewalk next to her car, a little banged-up foreign job.

“How do you want to do this?” Mirah asked.

“We could drive our cars to my house, a few blocks away, then head to Ellen’s in one vehicle?”

“Sounds good.  I’ll drive to Ellen’s,” Mirah smiled.

Kat got in her car and drove to her house, Mirah’s headlights behind her.

When they got to Kat’s, she hopped out of her car, locked it, and went over to Mirah’s driver side window.

“I’ll be right out.  Got to grab the movie.”

“I figured.” 

“Be right back!” Kat said, more chipper than she meant to.

Keep cool, she told herself, before thinking, Too late for that!

Kat unlocked the front door of her darkened house.  No one was home.  Her parents were probably out on a “date.”

Like me, she laughed, giddy.  Neither she nor Mirah had called it a date, but Kat knew it was.  It’d been five months since she’d gone out with anyone – namely Lisa Cordry, a.k.a. Jealous Goth Girl.

In her bedroom, she stripped off her Rocky Horror tee, went to the bathroom, washed and applied deodorant to her arm pits before putting on a scoop-neck black tee that showed her small breasts to nice effect.

Lastly, she grabbed The Vampire Lovers cassette, in its blue and red striped Hot Flicks plastic cover, lying on top of her VHS player.

#   #   #

On the way to Ellen’s house, Kat asked Mirah, “Was Ellen was cool about me coming along?”

“Clearly.”  Mirah shot her a snarky look.

Kat flushed.  “What I mean is. . . was she completely cool with it, or is it a ‘put up with another guest’ scenario?”

“Ellen was completely fine with it.  She said she should’ve invited you herself, a long time ago.”

“I keep to myself a lot,” Kat said.  “I’m usually studying or working.”

Mirah made a right turn, and stopped the car.  She unbuckled her seat belt.  “We’re here.”

#    #   #

Mirah led Kat past a two-story house into a backyard, via a six-foot wooden gate.

“Schlock Cinema happens back here,” Mirah said.  “Ellen’s parents – whom you saw watching TV through the living room window – are fine with it, as long as she keeps the noise and the ‘attendance numbers’ down.”

“ ‘Attendance numbers’?”

“Ellen’s mom is a college professor.  Hence, the brainy-speak.”

Kat laughed.  Mirah gave her a warm look that made Kat gut-gooey and crotch wet.

“You’re eighteen, right?” Mirah asked her.

“I am.  Why?”

“In case we ‘click,’” Mirah deadpanned.  “Don’t need any statutory rape charges, you know?”

Kat, heart pounding fast, followed Mirah into the backyard, with its wooden deck, BBQ grill and short-cut grass.

Near the back of the backyard, faint light spilled out from an underground vertical tunnel.

“A bomb shelter?” Kat asked, incredulous. 

“Yup,”  Mirah smiled.  “According to Ellen, it was built in the Fifties, and spans most of the backyard.  Come on.”

#   #   #

They descended the seven-foot solid metal ladder to a rubber-mat covered cement floor.

The narrow ladder tube was narrow, tight for two.  When Mirah knocked on the steel metal door, making hollow-echoic clang noises, her arm brushed Kat’s left breast, making it nippular.

If Mirah noticed, she didn’t show it.        

Kat wanted to kiss Mirah’s lush lips, but she didn’t.  Too soon, she told herself.  Remember what happened the last time you rushed things? 

The door opened.  Loud voices and rock music blasted from the room behind Ellen, who, blue-eyed and cute-curvy in a purple hippie dress, hugged Mirah.

“You made it!” she exclaimed, including Kat in her gaze.  “Good to see you!”

“Thanks for the invite,” Kat smiled. 

Ellen stepped back as Mirah entered a huge room. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t invite you before,” Ellen apologized.  “You always seemed busy, when we started this last winter, so. . .”  She paused, continued.  “Lisa is here.”

Kat answered Ellen’s unspoken question.  “I made my peace with her.”

“Good,” Ellen said.  “C’mon.  You probably know everybody here.”

Kat did, for the most part.

Rock and cult movie posters covered the wide, metal circular walls of what appeared to be the main room, fifty feet across, both ways.  A beige carpet covered the floor; a kitchen lay at the other end of the room, where Mirah mingled with Matt, Ellen’s twin blond brother, Lisa – who shot her intense looks – and four other people from school.

Before they reached the kitchen, Kat told Ellen, “This is amazing.”

Ellen smiled. “Bathroom’s to the right.  There are a couple of bedrooms to the left,” she winked.

Kat laughed, her eye catching Mirah’s sex-trap gaze.

No mistaking that look, she thought, as that familiar gut-gooey, wet crotch feeling returned.

Lisa, watching Kat and Mirah, had caught that look, too. 

Kat ignored Lisa’s frown.

“How’s the video store?” Ellen asked. 

“Still fun,” Kat replied, distracted by what had just happened.  “It’s less busy since Smashfilm Video took up residence a few blocks away.  It’s only a matter of time until they steal all our business.”

“Corporations blow,” Ellen sympathized.  “I should start one of the movies.   We’ll talk later?”

“Of course,” Kat said, handing her The Vampire Lovers. 

“Thanks,” Ellen smiled, and moved near the large boxy television in the center of the room, clapping her hands, and yelling, “Movie’s starting!”

Mirah had laid claim to a comfy-looking naugahyde couch facing the television.  She lay across it, smiling and waving Kat over.

Lisa sat on the floor to her far left, next to a pretty, purple haired girl she didn’t recognize.  The girl leaned against Lisa, intimacy in her closeness.

Looks like she found somebody, Kat thought, briefly meeting Lisa’s stare. I hope it works out for her.

Lisa didn’t return her friendly nod.  The girl next to Lisa, speaking to Matt on the couch behind them, ignored her girlfriend’s fixation.

Kat claimed the other end of Mirah’s couch, and accepted the large plastic cup Mirah handed her.

“What is it?”

“It’s a Mystery Drink.”  Mirah’s cupid lips quirked seductively.

She didn’t question that I’d accept it.  A zing shot from Kat’s sex to her heart, as she sipped the fruitiness that was her Mystery Drink.

Mirah said, “Matt told me you favor fruit-flavored fare.”

“I do,” she agreed.  Setting her cup on the woodblock table next to her, she took off her shoes, like Mirah had done.

She curled up sideways on the couch, as Ellen, standing next to the stand-supported television, spoke.

“Thanks to Kat, whom you all should know, the first film of the night is a Hammer film gem, The Vampire Lovers.”

She raised a cute kitten mug in Kat’s direction.  When the whooping stopped, Ellen continued.  “The second film is Lurking Fear.  It’s a direct-to-video film, starring Matt’s favorite horror babe, Ashley Laurence.”

“Fuck you, sis,” he said, grinning at Ellen, before kissing his girlfriend, Joanie, on her mouth.

Joanie laughed. 

Mirah, smiling, hit the play button on the VCR below the television set, shut off the lights and took her seat on the couch next to Mirah and Kat.

#   #   #

 Partway into the film, Kat, head-swimmy from her Mystery Drink and her proximity to Mirah, accepted Mirah’s offer to lie in her skirted lap.  She’d been reveling in  Mirah’s lingering glances and wanted to snuggle with – among other things – this girl with dark eyes and reddish-brown bangs.

 While a half-naked Ingrid Pitt, suntanned and ruddy-teated, ran around a bedroom after an apple-cheeked, pink-papped woman, Kat stroked Mirah’s exposed leg and inched up her skirt.

Kat smelled Mirah’s perfumed muskiness; Mirah’s fingers brushed over her breasts and belly, and pinched her hardening nipples though her t-shirt.

Kat, in order not to alert everyone to her panty-wetting arousal, curled her legs tightly onto the seat of the couch.  She unbuttoned the top buttons her pants and slipped two of her fingers under her panties, down into her moist sex.

Kat came almost immediately, Mirah’s earthy sex scent pervasive in her nostrils.  She managed to keep her orgasm to a few jerking motions and shudders, while Mirah’s hands fully cupped and nipple-thumbed her breasts beneath her t-shirt.

Mirah kissed the top of her head.  Kat, blissed out, sighed, beyond caring if anybody had seen them make love.

____________________

This story is indirect sequel to “Hot Flicks” and “Wreck Room”.  It is an indirect prequel to “Kat and Mirah’s Midnight Show”. These stories and more from Steve Isaak can be found here.

Steve Isaak is the author of three anthologies, Can’t sleep: poems 1987-2007, Charge of the scarlet b-sides: microsex stories & poems, and and the forthcoming  Nightwired: poems.  He is also an online book reviewer, poet  and editor of the blogs, he can be found here; www.readingbypublight.blogspot.com.

Schlock Cinema -- Steve Isaak, 4.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings