Malibu - Gen 3 Ch 3

A few days after our birthday, it was time for graduation. I could hardly wait to get started on my new goal in life - becoming a superstar athlete. Benji, on the other hand, was just glad to have graduated. He kept staring at his diploma in disbelief. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do, he was only sure about one thing - he really, really wanted to be famous - oh, and have a lot of money, too.

Mom was so excited. She couldn't stop giggling when I told her about my sports career ambitions. She said she'd always wanted one of her kids to be an athlete. I had to let her down a little, by confessing that right now I was only a snack hawker at the stadium, but she was confident I would be on the starting team before long. I only hoped she was right.

To celebrate our graduation, I decided I wanted to take Benji out on a real date. We were tired of Lars' Disco, so we thought we'd try Han's Tavern and Cafe, a little mom-and-pop place on the other end of town.

The place was completely dead when we walked in; the only person there was the bartender - not the best first impression, let me tell you. And the decor was nothing to write home about; between the outdated wallpaper and the worn butcher block counter, the place had obviously seen better days.

I wanted to turn around right then and there, and find a more lively venue, but Benji convinced me to at least sit down and try their drinks. The drinks were fantastic, actually, and very reasonably priced. I  wondered why this place wasn't packed. 

One drink led to another, and before long, the little tavern started to fill up. I guess we had just arrived too early. The bartender kept pouring, and we kept drinking. We just couldn't get enough of them. I was surprised when the bartender did her last call. Was it that late already?

It was getting pretty late when we arrived back home, but I wasn't ready to end our first real date quite yet. We settled into the hot tub for a while, and for a fleeting moment I contemplated taking our relationship to the next level. But he seemed so content, just sitting there so relaxed, staring straight ahead, that I lost my nerve yet again. So, just like every other night, we both yawned, and said good night, and headed off to our respective rooms to sleep.

The next morning I woke up late. In fact, it was almost noon. I didn't think anyone was around; the house was quiet as I wandered down into the kitchen, still in my underwear. I opted for mac and cheese instead of breakfast - I figured the carbs would do me good in case I found a chance to work out in the stadium's state-of-the-art gym on my dinner break later.

"Hey there, beautiful. Come here a minute."

Startled, I turned to see Benji leaning on the door frame, eying me with a funny little grin on his face. I quickly wiped my hands, and stepped toward him.

"Sure, Benj. What do you need?"

He didn't say anything, just gently pulled me close until his face was only inches from mine, that funny little smile still dancing across his face. I smiled back, my heart pitter-patting. Then he kissed me - but not the tiny peck like I had given him a few weeks ago. This was a full-blown, never-want-it-to-end, more-amazing-than-anything, kiss that left me breathless.

When we finally broke apart, he smiled again and whispered, "I should have done that a long time ago."

"Yeah," I whispered back, and kissed him again. This time we were interrupted my the timer going off on the stove.

"Arghh.. my lunch is done. I really need to eat.. have to go to work soon.."

He followed me into the kitchen and we shared the mac and cheese, grinning goofily across the table at each other the whole time.

Then he followed me again, as I padded up the stairs to get ready for work. And again, as I stepped into the shower. I'll leave what happened next to your, I'm sure, very vivid imagination. Suffice it to say, that it was the most amazing shower ever, in the history of showers.

After that, things fell into a routine for us. I spent most of my spare time working out, hoping to attract the attention of some of the coaches at the stadium.

After a while, Benji even asked if I would train him. He's always been the athletic type, and I offered to try and get him a job at the stadium, but he wasn't interested.  I didn't want to bug him about it, but it had been a while now since we graduated, and he still didn't have a job. I tried to explain that if he wanted to be famous, he needed something to be famous for, but he was pretty sure he could be famous just for being buff. All I could do was smile, and admire his abs...

...and oh yeah... afterwards there was always the shower...

Then one day, Benji met me at the mailbox, all excited, as I returned from my workout at the gym. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me, then gave me his big news.

"Guess what? I got a job! I am now a police officer in training! I start tomorrow!"

"Oh, wow! That's great news, Benj. We should celebrate! What shall we do?"

"Hehe. I have an idea.... Rain's at work, no one is using her bed right now..."

Mom was spending more and more time at the library. Sometime she would meet Marina there, but mostly she spent her time reading. She had finally decided to complete her life long goal of maximizing her charisma skill. I thought she had completely given up on it when daddy died. But Marina was there to witness, when she finally completed her life's wish, at the ripe old age of 106.

About that time, Mom had taken to sleeping with Rain, in the apartment over the garage, saying it was too lonely by herself in the bed she had shared with daddy.

Rain spent all her spare time in the little garden she had started in the back yard.  She never had anything to say about the whirlwind romance she had had with her friend from work, only that 'they had both moved on, end of story.'

Before I knew it, the day of Peri's and Seashell's graduation was upon us.

It made me feel so old, standing there talking with the adults, while the new grads celebrated together.

After the ceremony, Marina stopped by to drop off a gift for Peri.

He shared with her his plans to become a teacher.

"Of course, what I really want is to be famous, but I think it's possible to be a famous educator, don't you agree?"

"That sounds great! I'm sure you'll be a great teacher, you've always been so logical."

Later he pulled out his guitar, and entertained us all with his music. I hadn't realized he was so talented. Suddenly a far out idea popped into my head.

"Hey, Bro. You know what? We should form a band! What do you say? It'll be fun!"

I was a little surprised when he agreed wholeheartedly. I suddenly realized I knew absolutely nothing about running a band, so I was relieved when he suggested that he could manage everything. In fact, it seemed he had given it some thought before, as he went on about venues, gigs, advertising, and so on.

"Sounds good, Per. Just let me know what you want me to do."

After our little impromptu graduation party, Marina decided she was too tired to drive home, and asked to spend the night.

And as for Benji and me? Well, we've concluded that there is no reason for mom and dad's old room to just stand empty...

There is nothing I enjoy more, after a long hard day, than snuggling up to my Benji.

"Night Benj...love you."

"Night, Mali...love you too."

****************

Notes

I redid some of the hangouts in HS, and added some of the LN stuff. I made Lar's Disco a dance club, and Han's Tavern a dive bar. I kept the original decor, just added bars, speakers and instruments.

I was getting resigned to the fact that Erika was never going to complete her LTW, Golden Tongue Golden Fingers. She had completed the guitar part ages ago, but never rolled any charisma wishes at all (probably because she's a loner). Then out of the blue, when she was 106 days old, she wished to max the charisma skill. I sent her to the library immediately! Now she's 110 and still hanging in there.

Next up - Mali-Benji babies???