“The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 04: Awkward Conversations and a Big Send Off
I was in bed with Anh and Natalie later in the evening. I’m
not quite sure how they worked it out, but they all managed to rotate in some
complicated manner so each night I had a slightly different combination of
women in my bed. We’d found five to a bed was pushing things, but I had a
feeling that would change as soon as the rest of the women arrived. Or maybe
not, depending on how things went with my potential upcoming dates.
We were having a good time. Anh was whispering advice over
my shoulder as I ate Natalie out, when the phone rang. I was initially going to
ignore it when Anh told me to get it, since it might be either Chalise or
Kitty. Sighing heavily, I left Natalie still gasping and answered the phone.
“Jennings Residence. Alex speaking,” I answered.
“Hey Alex, this is Chalise. Did I call at a bad time? You
sound like you’re out of breath, did you just run in from outside?”
“Nah, just a bit surprised is all, what’s up?”
She paused a bit. “Were you fooling around? With your
women?” she gasped loudly over the phone.
“Oops, busted,” I laughed, embarrassed and expecting the
worst. “Please, don’t worry about it, though; we haven’t progressed past third
base yet.” I started to wipe my wet cheek when Natalie sidled up to me and,
pushing my hand away, proceeded to lick her own juices off my face while I
continued to talk to Chalise.
“Riiiiiggggghhhhht, these are the women that are supposed to
be OK with us going on a date and possibly developing an intimate, exclusive
arrangement?”
“Yep, that’s them. Only there’s just two here right now. We
figured more than two were stretching things a bit, and my mother laid down the
law. Their names are Natalie and Anh. Want to talk to them?”
“What? Are you crazy? I don’t...”
“Ah, come on, they’re really anxious to talk with you. Here,
just say hello. Here’s Natalie,” and with that I quickly handed the phone off
before she could beg off. Natalie pulled her face away from mine and took the
phone. Although she had been busy, I felt Chalise would feel more at ease with
her since she was closer to her own age.
“Hey, Chalise is it? I’m so glad you called. We’ve all been
anxiously waiting for your call.”
“Nah,” Natalie replied to what I can only guess was a
question about where my face had just been. I was proved right when she went
on. “We were just having some fun. I was licking my juices off Alex’s face while you were talking to him. Don’t want him to catch pneumonia from walking
through drafts with a damp face or anything.”
I couldn’t believe she would be so blatant about what we’d
been up to. Maybe they were taking after my new hobby of always trying to
surprise people. She certainly had surprised me. I listened to the rest of the
one-sided conversation.
“Oh no, I’m sure you’ve got a wild side, too. And if you
don’t, maybe Alex can help you to develop one.” I guess instead of getting
pissed, poor Chalise was feeling insecure. Natalie continued to reassure her.
“No, he’s not very wild. I mean, I’ve been involved with him
for almost two weeks and we’ve never gone beyond oral, but I guess that’s more
due to Shani and the others. They all have this... yeah, that’s the one. I
guess he mentioned it to you already. Anyway, he’s just such a peach, he’s not
pushy, although he’s definitely aggressive when it counts, if you know what I
mean. Anh’s been instructing him on the proper technique in cunnilingus and
he’s been a very apt pupil.” Despite my merely listening to this conversation I
could feel a deep blush covering my face. I couldn’t believe she was telling a
girl I had just asked out on a first date, someone who hadn’t even responded
yet, all these intimate details. She laughed at a supposedly shared joke.
“Yeah, well, just think, you get the results of our
training. And if you’re very, very good, maybe we’ll give you some special
training of your own.” I hoped she just didn’t offer Chalise what she clearly
did.
“Oh, hope I didn’t say too much. I figured you’d guess that a
few of us are pretty bi by the fact that we’re all here together, but I’m sorry
if I made you uncomfortable.” I knew she was only putting it on for effect now,
as Natalie hadn’t yet fooled around with any of the other women. Still, I was
wondering if maybe this was a mistake. I should have followed my first instinct
and never answered the phone. Every fiber in my being screamed at me that it
was a dreadful mistake, but I just couldn’t seem to help reacting to people
honestly lately. I guess I just figured, ‘Joke if they can’t take a fuck’. I’d
been assuming both girls would drop me as soon as they got past being confused
by me anyway, so I really had nothing to lose.
“Don’t worry, you’re not expected to. But the offer is there
if you ever feel like taking us up on it,” Natalie reassured her. I realized I
could actually listen to the conversation if Natalie was willing to share it
with me, but I was almost afraid to listen in. Hearing just this side of it was
bad enough.
I considered what she’d just told Chalise and wondered what
she was trying to say. Was Natalie honestly offering to fool around with her?
Was she possibly intimidated by the other women and was thinking another newbie
would be easier to approach, or was she merely teasing her? I hoped it wasn’t
the latter, because I was making quite an effort to be completely honest with
them both. I guess I’d have to see how it all played out. There’s no telling
from listening to only half a conversation. For all I knew, Chalise might just
be goading her on, trying to get a return rise out of me.
“No, we’re quite serious. We value our friendship with Alex way too much to try to mess up his budding relationships.” Well, it was about time Natalie stopped digging my hole deeper for me and tried to straighten this mess up a little.
“OK, sweetie, here he is. Oh, wait, do you want to speak to
Anh? She doesn’t speak much English but I’m sure she’d like to speak to you.”
This suggestion made me even more nervous than the previous conversation.
“OK, one second.” I waited to see who she’d hand the phone
to. When she handed it to Anh I tried to listen in via our mental
communication.
“Hi, Chalise,” Anh cooed, my prompting her with the name
worked well, as her pronunciation was perfect.
“Hey, Ann, your English sounds very good,” Chalise said very
slowly, enunciating each and every word. Anh was able to understand her,
through me, but still responded in Vietnamese, so I leaned close and spoke over
her.
“She says, and trust me, this is in her own words, ‘Not so
good yet. But I practice. Soon I will be, what you call, cunning linguist?’”
Chalise laughed.
“You’re so bad,” she teased. “I can certainly tell you’re
American enough, you have our sense of humor. Even as tired as that old joke
is.” She slowly began talking in a normal speaking voice. Again Anh answered,
after which I spoke over her into the phone from a slight distance.
“She says: ‘America didn’t invent dirty jokes, and your
generation certainly didn’t invent sex’,” I laughed along with them both.
“Wow, you’re both sound so nice. I can’t believe you’re
trying to get Alex to invite me out.”
“She says that she thinks we might be good for each other.
If not,” I paused, just as she had, “then you’ll at least get a free dinner out
of it.”
“Oh, gosh,” Chalise blustered, “please tell Alex he doesn’t have to pay for an expensive dinner. I was just expecting a movie or
something.”
“Don’t worry, Char...” I started to answer her directly,
before Anh started speaking over me, so I instead returned to translator mode.
“She says: ‘Nonsense, we expect Alex to treat you like the
little princess you are. And if he doesn’t have enough money to do so, then
we’ll slip him a few bills as he heads out the door,’” I translated as I felt
myself blushing, but Chalise laughed again.
“Well, it was certainly nice talking to you both. Can I
speak with Alex now?” Anh managed the goodbye’s fine on her own, and I took the
phone she handed to me.
“Glad you all got along so well,” I told her. “One always
has to worry when one girlfriend talks to another.” She giggled; she seemed to
be in a better mood all the time.
“Maybe that’s just the case when a current girlfriend talks
to a past girlfriend. There may be a ‘multiple girlfriend exception’ to the
rule,” she joked. However it made as much sense as anything I could come up
with. There didn’t seem to be any other reason she’d go along with the current
conversation.
“Say, are you using a speaker phone? It sounded like you
were talking from a distance while Ann was speaking, but now you sound normal.”
I knew what the problem was as soon as she mentioned it. I’d been dreading it.
She wanted to know how I could respond to a question she’d asked Anh.
“Nah, I just guessed how you’d respond. That plus I could
tell from Anh’s response.” It was hardly a reasonable explanation, but it was
the best that I could come up with.
“So, do you have any good news for me?” I asked, before she
had a chance to question me about my weak excuse.
“I certainly do,” she announced, “Darrell says ‘Hi’,” she
stated happily. I blubbered for a minute before catching myself.
“You little sneak. You tricked me. You’re as bad as my
sister,” I laughed with her over the phone.
“Ha, now I know you were pulling my leg with all that, ‘my
friend Darrell’ nonsense.”
“Well, Darrell certainly doesn’t see us as friends, but I’m
hoping to eventually change that.”
“Maybe, we’ll have to see. It’s not looking so good right
now though. Speaking of siblings, your sister said she saw quite a bit in New Orleans.”
“That may or may not be, Chalise, but you’ll have to talk
that over with her. You’re not going to get me to either confirm, or sneak
additional information out of me regarding anyone else. I don’t tell other’s
secrets. It’s a matter of pride with me. So if you want any information
regarding Kitty, or from Kitty regarding how good your brother is in bed,
you’ll have to ask them yourself.”
“What? Why you, that’s a perfectly nasty thing to say. But I
get your point. I’ll stop being nosy. Do you at least want to know what she
said?”
“No, again, that’s a private conversation between the two of
you. She can say whatever she wants about me, but I won’t talk about her unless
we’re both here and we both agree. Now, about the previous allusions, I take it
you and Darrell don’t get along very well?”
“No, he’s a bit of a prick. He treats me like his bratty
little sister all the time. We don’t get along very well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Tell him I said he’s supposed to be
nice to you. He’ll do it, too. He listens to me when I tell him things.”
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, before I forget, I do want to go out
with you. And just like Kitty, I’ll manage to get over there somehow so I can
meet everyone. Is 8:00 OK?”
“Why don’t we make it 7:00 so we can get dinner at a
reasonable hour? And are you going to have trouble getting over here?”
“OK, that’s fine. And no, I don’t have a car of my own, but
my mother sounds intrigued by you. I kind of told her about you and Darrell getting into it yesterday. She thinks you’re a cad, a sneak, or even, gasp, a nice
guy.” I laughed again.
“OK, we’re on for Saturday then. Wear something nice as I’m
expected to take you somewhere fancy.” We both said our goodbyes and hung-up
before I turned back to the two girls as I rubbed my hands together.
“Now, where were we?” They laughed as Anh started to wipe
what was left of Natalie’s cum from my cheek.
“No way, buddy, we want all the details. What’d she say?” So
I proceeded to explain everything I could remember to them, while Anh kept me
distracted by going down on me while Natalie nibbled on my neck and chest. We
progressed from there to them both pretending they were ‘nearly virginal’ high
school girls, doing their best Chalise imitations. We had a lot of fun, almost
forgetting what we were doing we were laughing so much.
The next morning, after I’d had a quick shower with Natalie nicely offering to help me scrub myself, I came downstairs to discover all the women
clustered around Anh. Apparently she’d been telling them all the latest gossip,
a fact confirmed by my mother’s gleeful expression. It never failed to amaze me
how much she liked gossiping with my girls about my budding sex life.
When Natalie cleared her throat they all quickly got to
their feet and gathered around me, hugging me and congratulating me. I wasn’t
in very good shape to respond, though, as I still needed some coffee to get my
motor running, although the early activity with Natalie certainly left me in a very
good mood this morning. When the rest of the girls moved away, Cate came up and
gave me a big hug.
“You never cease to amaze me,” she said, as she cuddled
against me before quickly releasing me. “Though I’m still waiting to see how
you fare with Bulldozer today.”
“Don’t worry,” Shani laughed, “By the end of the day, Alex will have a date with him as well.” Everyone thought that was quite funny. I was too busy
pouring my coffee to worry about the implications overly much.
Once Cate and I were headed to school she turned to me and
asked, “So I guess there isn’t much need for me to find you a girlfriend after
all, huh?”
“What? Of course there is. These are just two introductory
dates. I’m not expecting much. After all, there’s a lot for them to have to
deal with. I’m coming into this with a LOT of baggage.”
“Yeah, but don’t forget, you’ve got a bunch of women all
perfectly happy to carry that baggage for you,” Cate snickered.
“Exactly my point, you don’t think that would freak someone
out?”
“I don’t think you realize quite the extent you’ve changed
in the past week, Alex,” Cate told me. “Frankly, I don’t know what you did with
my shy, quiet brother, but personally, I think I’ll take the new, improved
version instead.” I turned to her and saw her wide smile and felt good just
seeing her so happy.
“You don’t know how attractive a strong, confident young man
is, especially one who everyone else is panting over already. I think you’re
going to be surprised by how you’re treated now,” she informed me.
I groaned, “I know, every time I turn around someone else is
looking at me.”
“Ha, you should be used to that by now,” she replied.
“If they were watchers, I could deal with it. I know
how to handle them. I don’t know how to handle this new attention, and I can’t
help but think it’s a bad idea,” I told her.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Cate told me. “If
you’re going to make a big difference in the world, you’re going to have to get
used to it. With big ambitions comes a lot of attention.”
“Yeah, but I’d like to have some idea of what it is I’m
supposed to be doing before everyone starts looking to me for answers. Right
now, I don’t know what it is I’m supposedly doing. Maybe I’m just someone who
happened to be struck with an odd ability that will never be able to do
anything with it?”
“Alex, no one believes that. We all know
you have what it takes to make a difference, whatever it is you decide you’re
going to do with it. You’ve already begun. Look at how you took over telling Betty about ‘her’ people. You’re already gathering people to you, and you’re trying to
establish them into a united group. Even without any further ambitions, you’re
already moving toward something major just with that.”
“Maybe,” I reluctantly admitted, “but right now I just want
to focus on getting through the rest of the school year without getting into
too much trouble.”
“Says the man who decides to date both the supposed
girlfriend, and the sister of the guy who threatened him. Somehow it doesn’t
really sound like you’re trying to achieve that terribly hard, Alex,” Cate challenged my statement.
I simply grunted. “You’ve got a point there. Still, we’ll
see how it goes this weekend. So far, I think I’ve been lucky they’ve put up
with me this far. I’m not expecting to get much farther with either of them.”
“Good, that’s always the best way to approach it,” Cate
said. “Be thankful for what you get and don’t go putting on any attitudes, assuming
you somehow deserve what life hands you.” I looked at her and she was smiling again,
but whether it was because she was proud of herself for characterizing me, or
proud of me for my personality, I couldn’t figure out.
When we got to school, I attracted less attention since I
didn’t have any new women around me. I saw Darrell in the hallway. He looked at
me strangely but didn’t do anything else. I knew that Kitty was going to tell
him that I’d instigated her asking him out. I asked her not to just keep it
subtle, but, if a girl is going to give a guy a second chance, she’s going to
want him to know it’s a second chance, just so he’ll be on his best behavior.
Telling him I’d been behind it was a not so subtle reminder that he was on thin
ice, but had a decent chance to make good.
Of course, I didn’t really know if this was actually a
second or simply a first chance, Darrell and I never quite got that far into
details. But either way, the effect was the same. He’d know he had a chance
because of me, and that was the in that I was looking for, however slight it
was.
At lunch I sat down at the black table in the corner I’d sat
at earlier. That was where I’d first met Chalise when I joined Wanda Gerrard on Monday.
I hadn’t made the
connection initially. Cate also came over from her normal crowd and we joined
in with the rest of the group there. Apparently several kids already knew about
Chalise and my upcoming date, and it seemed that everyone knew about my run in
with her brother. They all thought I was just as “crazy as a white dude,” but
we all laughed about it. Cate told Chalise she’d wanted to meet her and asked
her about Kitty as well.
Since I now knew we’d be going out, I took a moment to
really look Chalise over. Before, I hadn’t known her from Adam and hadn’t
really paid her much attention. She was quite pretty but, like Kitty, it wasn’t
in that ‘I’m gorgeous, look at me’ style that always draws attention. She had
the same type of fine, silky skin Shani had, though she was darker than, but
not quite as dark as her brother was. Like him, she wore her hair in a more
natural style, unlike most black girls nowadays. I don’t know the name of the
style she wore, but it was like short cornrows that stuck out several inches
but weren’t as tightly packed. I guess I’d have to start catching up on ethnic
trends from now on. I also assumed her parents put a big emphasis on ‘natural’
looks, since both she and her brother had that type of style.
She also had a thinner nose than her brother, and a more
rugged physical presence than Kitty did. She was more traditionally packaged
than was Shaniqua in that she had slightly more of the typical African-American
build, with larger breasts, wider hips, thicker thighs, and a more substantial
butt than the various white girls I knew, but it wasn’t nearly as exaggerated
as it was in most of her peers. Unlike so many modern blacks, she didn’t have
the big caboose and breasts that are so common, something else she shared with
Shani and her brother as well. Not that I was checking out her brother’s ass,
by any account.
Her build was nice, but I’d become accustomed to judging
girls by white girl butt standards, so I figured it’d take me a while to get
used to the larger ass appreciation. Still, she was a cutie, with a beautiful
smile, but sad eyes with long lashes and nice dimples. Anyway, she and her
friends made us feel welcome, so it was a better lunch period than it was with
Cate’s friends. Something I think Cate was aware of as well.
In Physics, both our partners were back. I tried suggesting
switching partners, but they both scowled at me, so there wasn’t any graceful
way around it. We went back to our original partners. As a result, I couldn’t
spend any more time with Alice during class. A fact I wasn’t happy with, not
least because my partner wasn’t overly bright and I ended up doing most of the
work. It was something that hadn’t bothered me before, but now really annoyed
me.
After school, I met up with Cate again, no signs of Vicky, and we headed home. On the way, Cate turned to me.
“I really liked Chalise when we spoke today, and I enjoyed
speaking with Kitty last night.”
“That’s nice,” I replied simply, waiting to see where this
was going before saying any more.
“You’re really pretty good at choosing people. I think
you’ll do well with them both. You were so worried about finding someone to
date, but you didn’t have any problems at all.”
“Both? I think you’re putting the cart before the horse,
Cate. I’m just trying to find one girl that’ll put up with me. You think either
of them will actually go out with me? I figure, after everything I’ve told
them, I’ll be lucky to ever see them again. I think they only agreed so they
could actually talk to the girls and find out all of my dirt.”
“Well, there is that,” Cate giggled, “but I think they’re
interested in you, not the girls. I think they’re fascinated that someone would
be confident enough to admit everything you told them. They might not
understand it, but they know there’s more to you than meets the eye.”
“Good, so I might actually have a second date to look
forward to,” I replied with a laugh of my own.
“You,” Cate said, slapping my arm. “I think right now, you
could sweep just about anyone you wanted off of their feet. You don’t quite
realize just what a strong personality you have. You’re starting to, but it
hasn’t quite hit home yet.”
“Yeah, I’m feeling more confident after everything that’s
happened, but what’s more, I just don’t want to put up with much shit. I guess
that’s why I reacted to Darrell and your friends the way I did.”
“Please, don’t call those creeps my friends,” Cate replied
with derision.
“So, you’re going to give up looking for any other
possibilities?” I asked, trying to shift her attention away from that topic.
She replied seriously, “I don’t think it would be fair to
either Kitty or Chalise to undermine them by looking for someone else to
distract you with.”
“I wouldn’t do that, Cate. I’ll give each girl my entire
attention when we’re together. They each deserve my best and that’s what I’ll
give them.”
“I know,” she replied quietly. “I know. That’s why everyone
loves you so much,” she replied, smiling at me.
Friday finally rolled around. I’d taken the day pretty
easily. There were still looks, but since there weren’t any follow-ups with Darrell, most people had lost interest. It seemed there was some sort of new gossip, but I
didn’t care what it was, so I couldn’t really relate the details. Darrell seemed to be acting semi-civilly. When I passed him he simply tilted his head to
acknowledge me and that was it. Still, I knew he was fully aware of my role in
rehabilitating his chances with Kitty. However, I knew that was a two edged
sword. If he blew it this time, or if she simply decided she liked me more,
then he was likely to be angrier than he was before.
I didn’t run into either Chalise or Kitty, since I didn’t
share any classes with either of them, but I did notice a few of their friends
giggling into their hands as I passed. I just hoped it was excited giggling, as
opposed to the ‘laughing at the jerk who makes up weird stories to talk two
younger girls into dating him’ kind.
Then there was another incident. I was walking down the hall
when I suddenly heard someone say some gibberish in a loud voice. I turned to
him with a questioning look on my face to see that it was one of my sister’s
friends, one of those from the intellectuals’ table.
“What the...?”
“Ha, I knew it. I just said that you’re a fraud, a liar and
a cheat in Vietnamese, and you didn’t understand a word.” I just looked at him
while trying to think really quickly. The longer I looked at him the smirkier
he got.
“What, not bright enough to think of a defense?”
“Morons không nên chơi với
đồ chơi, hoặc ngôn ngữ họ không hiểu,”
I simply replied, before turning and walking away. It always helps when you
have someone who can tell you how to pronounce what you want to say. It takes a
little while to figure it out, but it was worth the effort.
“What? Are you calling me a moron? I’ve got a 4.0 average,
buddy!”
I could hear him whispering to his friend even from this
distance.
“What the hell did he say? No, and how the hell would I know?”
But I just left them to stew on their own. When I saw Cate later to drive her
home, I told her the line verbatim, repeating it several times to help her
memorize it so she could repeat it for her friends if she saw them on Monday.
“You’ll just have to tell me again Monday morning, because I’ll
never remember it. What’s it mean anyway?”
“Just that, morons shouldn’t play with toys, or languages
that they don’t understand.” She laughed. “There’s no translation for ‘moron’,
so I used it just so he’d recognize it for an insult,” I told her.
“That must’ve been Jeff; he’s a really
pretentious creep. Though I don’t know which of his friends he was with. I’m
suddenly starting to see a lot of my previous friends as just back-stabbers,
willing to do just about anything to make themselves look a little smarter.
They were rude and nasty to you the other day, and I’ve been purposely avoiding
them ever since. I don’t think they like that. Especially since a few rely on
me to help them understand the number theory behind some of the assignments.
“So, anyway, what’s up with your date tonight? Are you
excited? This is your first really official date. Well, at least the first date
likely to get as far as first base for a change,” she laughed.
“I’m trying to take it easy and see where it goes. I don’t
want to put any undue pressure on it. Of course, all the rumors around school
and what I had to tell them to explain it away, plus the bevy of beauties
around the house, haven’t helped. I’m afraid everything’s conspired to make her
expect a miracle sex god when I show up. If I don’t cause her to have several
major orgasms while holding her hand, she’ll just think I’m a major fraud.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Sometimes it’s a self-fulfilling
prophecy. If you expect someone to be a sex god, you get so excited about it
you’ll cum whenever he does anything anyway.”
“Humph,” I scoffed, “so it’s not like watching a movie
everyone else has seen and ranted about, and you think ‘this isn’t so
special’.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” she consoled me, though I
really didn’t believe her. “There’s a certain reassurance knowing that others
want what you have, or, in this case, what she has a chance at.”
When we got home the girls were all atwitter. They got
together with Cate and Mom to look through all of my clothes to pick out the
perfect outfit. This seemed like a bigger event for them than it was for me.
For me, it was a nervous anticipation, wondering whether we’d get along, or if
we had anything in common. For them it was a major event, a chance to show me
off.
When I found flowers in the refrigerator, I asked what was
up. Dad replied that it was a corsage the girls had picked up for my date
tonight. I sighed, and he just replied, “With as many girls as you have
following you around, you’re just going to have to give up on living your own
life. Women like to control things and change everything they already like. Get
used to it.” He walked off laughing about my consternation.
A while after dinner, shortly before Kitty was due to
arrive, the girls had finished dressing me and were busy primping and fluffing
me when we heard Cate yell from downstairs. I started to ask what she’d said
when I suddenly found myself pushed back onto the bed and Allison pulled my
pants open and started hoovering my cock.
“Cate was sent to keep a lookout for Kitty,” Shani
explained. “We wanted to do this before she arrived so you’d have a better
chance of avoiding any potential embarrassment later.”
“You don’t think the two times you’ve already drained me
today were enough,” I huffed.
“Not under the circumstances. If you go shooting off early
the first time you actually have intercourse, it’ll look bad on us,” she
explained. To which Allison mumbled “Umph Humph”. Her exceptionally talented
tongue had me shooting off into her hungry mouth just about the time the
doorbell rang. After I’d finished, they hurriedly zipped me up, after making
sure I wouldn’t leak any more, straightened me up again and escorted me down to
meet my new date. All of this happened with a single kiss, they didn’t want to
leave any lipstick, they assured me, since they were all dressed up for this
initial meeting as well.
We walked down the stairs, me in the lead, with Allison and Natalie holding my arms on either side of me, carrying on like I was a blushing
young maiden at a debutante ball, which I guess I was, for all intents and
purposes. Shani and Anh had preceded me down, and were standing watch at the
bottom of the staircase. We must have made quite a sight descending the stairs.
It would have looked more impressive if I wasn’t so busy blushing about all the
undue attention surrounding me!
Kitty smiled up at me and whispered something to Cate. When
we all reached her, the girls immediately enveloped her, hugging and kissing
her before giving me a chance to hug her hello, or give her the corsage they’d
instructed me to hand over. When I handed it to her, Anh cleared her throat, so
I instead made an effort to pin it to her chest. It was the old fashioned kind,
not the modern type that the girl slipped onto her wrist. After I finished,
they tsk-tsked me and swooped in to straighten it. The girls were all giggling
busily.
Shani and Anh pulled Kitty over to the couch, but when I
approached to sit beside her, they both waved me off and told me to get her
something to drink. I tried to listen as best I could from the other room. As
best I could make out, the conversion went as follows.
“So, are you excited?”
“More nervous actually. This isn’t exactly a normal date.
It’s not typical to be interviewed by the date’s current girlfriends when the
girl comes to pick the guy up,” she laughed.
“Hey, get used to things not being normal around Alex,” Cate cautioned.
“Yeah, and don’t think of us as girlfriends,” Shani
explained. “We’re just friends with Alex who want him to develop a romantic
attachment to a girl his own age. It’s a part of growing up he’s sadly been
missing. In fact, he almost missed it completely. Here he is almost ready to
graduate, and he hasn’t experienced much at all.”
“So Cate has told me. So how does someone who hasn’t done
any fooling around, manage to get four mature women to follow him home, with
his parent’s approval, no less?”
“Oh, he has a certain appeal,” Shani said mysteriously, but
not elaborating further.
“And it’s not just us,” Allison added, “there are a couple of
others we had to leave behind in New Orleans who...” Just then the phone
suddenly rang. Allison smiled, turned and clicked the speaker function on a
phone strategically placed nearby. “I believe that’s someone who’d also like to
speak to you,” she added.
“Hello? Is Kitty there? This is Brooke, Patricia and Rebecca. We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. We’re sorry we
couldn’t be there to welcome you personally.”
Man, I really wanted to have seen her response, but I was
still in the kitchen, not making much progress on preparations. I was spending
so much time listening to my girls bewilder my date with even more personal
details of my life.
“Uh, hello? I hate to ask this, but just how many people did
Alex meet while in New Orleans? You all must have been involved in some wild
parties or something.”
“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Patricia added. “He was always
the perfect gentleman and there wasn’t any partying involved. In fact, the only
time he went out was when the family came to watch my performance.”
“Your performance, are you a dancer or something?”
“No, no, I’m a professional singer. That’s why I couldn’t
follow the rest back yet, I’ve still got a couple of weeks left on my contract
playing at a blues club here on Bourbon Street. Brooke and Rebecca work as an EMT and a nurse, respectively, so they couldn’t get away either without
endangering a few lives.”
I made sure to hurry up my preparations, hoping to get into
the other room before someone said something unfortunate. As I rushed into the
room, Kitty’s eyes were large as she was watching the phone.
“Don’t mind them,” I said, apologetically as I handed her
her drink. “I wasn’t planning on bringing them up tonight. I figured you’d be
overwhelmed enough as it is without them.”
“Hey, Alex,” they called out happily over the phone before Rebecca spoke next.
“No way, man, we all wanted to be a part of this momentous
occasion. It’s like watching your little boy grow up.”
“Says the one without any kids of her own,” laughed Brooke. “Personally, it’s a little nicer than that, since we already know this little boy is
pretty handy with the ladies.”
Anh simply gave me a baleful glance, looked at my empty
hands, then told me, “You’d best get everyone else their drinks as well, Alex. We still have several things to discuss here.”
Kitty looked at us in confusion over this little side
discussion, but I quickly headed off on my assigned task. “I’ll be back soon,”
I told her. “I’ve just been ordered to make myself scarce.” She laughed as they
all began talking again.
Mom came into the kitchen with me, as she’d been trying to
avoid the confusion in the living room.
“Been chased away from your own date, huh?”
“Yeah, seems I’m not really needed,” I complained.
“Well, you did the hard part, you got her in the door,
despite her knowing there were a bunch of potential competitors waiting for
her,” she assured me. I wasn’t sure that was a very positive way of looking at
things.
From the other room I heard, “Oh, I’m fascinated by all
of you. I mean, did Alex just talk you into giving up your lives, or did you
all fool around some, or was it his looks, or...”
I had to walk back towards the door to listen to the
responses.
“Mostly he was just Alex,” Shani assured her. “Sure, we
fooled around a bit, but only after he’d already ensnared us. Otherwise we
wouldn’t have been interested in bothering to make out with a teenager. Not
that there’s anything wrong with teenagers,” she hastened to add, “but I always
figure it’s best to leave teenagers to play with each other, so the rest of us
don’t have to bother teaching them the basics.” They all laughed at that.
“Well, I’ll let you know how he does with the basics
you’ve already taught him,” Kitty told them. “But I guess you’re not going to
spill the beans on what the initial attraction was?”
This was what I was waiting to hear, whether the girls were
going to let any of our shared information slip, so I listened further,
ignoring the drinks even more.
“Nope, you’ll have to figure out that attraction for
yourself,” Allison told her. “What was your reason for being attracted to him?”
“Duh, the fact he shows up after Spring Break, a complete
nobody who no one’s ever heard of before, suddenly trailing women, impressing
everyone, speaking his mind, and not backing down when one of the biggest guys
in school threatens him.”
“Yeah, about that,” Shani replied, “Could you possibly
handle this whole co-dating thing a bit delicately? We’re not real fond of the
idea of having to drive down to the school to pick up his scattered pieces, if
and when Darrell might hear some potentially disappointing news.”
“Well, I’ll try my best,” Kitty replied hesitantly, then
brightened, “but let’s not speak too soon. I haven’t had a chance to put Darrell through his paces yet. Especially since Alex said it’s OK to fool around with them both
before we make up our minds.”
I was surprised when Mom handed me a tray full of
drinks, already prepared. Apparently while I’d been busy spying on my date and
my women’s conversation, she’d been doing what I was supposed to. I managed to
walk back just after this latest revelation, and knew from her expression that
she’d saved it for me, even though it was meant for the girls. She was
attempting to test their resolve. After I quickly dispensed with the drinks,
with some assistance of course, she stood up, came up to me, swung me around so
she could look at the girls over my shoulder, and gave me a big, grinding
French kiss right there in front of my sister and everyone. I didn’t doubt my
parents’ foresight in avoiding this initial confrontation between my date and
the girls.
However, to Kitty’s consternation, they didn’t get upset or
respond in any significant way, but simply smiled beatifically behind our
backs.
“You two look so cute together,” Natalie gushed. Cate whipped
out a camera to snap a couple of pictures. Hey, who needs parents when you have
a sister to embarrass you? The girls wrapped things up quickly after that, the
trio from New Orleans finally hanging up. They started shuffling us towards the
door.
“OK, you two need to hurry. Alex has reservations waiting,”
Shani told us.
“But hey, I just don’t get it,” Kitty complained, “Why are
you so willing to share him, or even give him up, to practically anyone who
shows an interest?”
“Look, Kitty,” Shani patiently told her, effectively halting
the rush to the door. “We don’t know you at all, aside from what Alex has told us about you, but we’ve grown to love Alex a great deal for what he’s helped us
to see, to feel, and to be. We feel like we owe him a lot. We owe him
everything, our entire future in fact. You don’t take gratitude like that for
granted. Sure, we could hover around him and keep him all to ourselves, but how
would that show our gratitude? Then we’d just to abusing our luck.
“No, we’re much more interested in helping him as much as
he’s helped us. Well, that’s not really true either, because we know we’ll never
be able to help him anywhere near what’s he’s done for us.
But we want to shower him with good fortune. And love is just one of those
things.
“While we love him dearly, we know a first love is much
different than the mature love we feel for him, so we really want him to
experience it. If you disappear tomorrow, we’ll be disappointed, especially if
you break his heart doing it. If you stay on and love him exclusively, we’ll be
pleased as punch, as you’d be doing him a real honor; and we only want the very
best in life for him.
“So don’t worry so much about our motivations. If it bothers
you too much, we’ll just act like matronly Aunts who twitter in the kitchen in
the background. If you want us to stay away from him then just tell him, and
we’ll keep our emotional distance. Of course, if you ask us to back away from
his life, you’ll be sadly disappointed, because right now, a LOT of our lives
is focused on him, but we’re willing to be flexible.
“Anyway, it’s time to go,” she announced, concluding her
little explanation. “We think Alex has everything he needs. Money, debit card,
breath mints, condoms,” they all laughed. “But remember, if you do decide to do
anything, don’t do it in the backseat of his crummy car. Just have him give us
a call and we’ll prepare his bedroom with flowers and candles and soft romantic
music, and we’ll make both ourselves and everyone else scarce, so you can have
a great time. Now go.”
Kitty looked at the girls in both bewilderment and
amazement. She quickly kissed and thanked them profusely, as well as hugging
Cate. When she mentioned she’d expected to meet my parents as well, the girls
told her they thought Kitty would be more comfortable discussing these issues without
them being in the way, and they’d gladly meet her later. Then we were off.
Feedback on my stories is always welcome. Please send it to crumblywriter@gmail.com. Also visit the Story Blog. You should be warned that the blog includes a lot of information regarding the story, like what I'm trying to achieve, various reader's responses to the material, subtleties in it's tellings, so it makes sense to visit it and get a feel for what's going on.