Chapter 178

“Sex, whatever else it is, is an athletic skill. The more you practice, the more you can, the more you want to, the more you enjoy it, the less it tires you.”
—Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

AS SOON AS we got back to the farm Sunday night, Desi and I were thoroughly inspected. Each of our girlfriends wanted to see our tats. I was experimenting with flexing my pecs to see if I could make the guitarist symbol look like it was strumming. All right, that had been Chantelle’s suggestion. Then I’d been goaded on by Desi, Remas, Rachel, and Livy in our hotel room. The rest of our pod had to get their digs in after we ate dinner Sunday night. I’m not sure yet why looking at Desi’s tat on the inside of her upper arm or mine on my chest required us to both be completely naked but I didn’t object when the rest of the girls joined us.

“Tell us all about what happened,” Beca said as we all lay in a pile on the floor. “Joan says #rightfuckingnow has been trending since Friday morning. You must have been way out of control.”

“I had no idea the testimony was being broadcast on the cable network. At least they only broadcast the audio with photos of us instead of video,” I said. “I just got carried away.”

“You’re a public figure now, Jacob,” Donna said soothingly. “You’ll have to start assuming everything you do and say is broadcast.” I feigned looking around the room then bent over to suck one of Donna’s prominent nipples into my mouth.

“Hashtag tastes like heaven,” I said. Instead of pushing me away, she put an arm around me and held me to her breast.

“Hashtag feels like you might not get any sleep tonight,” she said.

“So, how did the audition go?” Brittany asked. “I got a letter this week from Margaret Apple, the dance director at the school, suggesting I might want to prepare an audition for spring break when other members of my pod would be in Washington.”

“We will?” I said.

“The contract I received says your spring concert will be an intimate setting featuring just you and Cindy for a single performance,” Sophie said. “The location was not disclosed at the time. I’ll see if I can get more info.”

“The audition,” Beca prompted.

“Right,” Desi said. “It was almost more like a lesson. I prepared all this stuff to take with me. It included monologues and music pieces. I did “My Angry Vagina” from The Vagina Monologues. I thought I was being really daring, but an acting coach jumped up on the stage and sat down with me—just two chairs facing each other. She made a few suggestions and then said we’d do a little exercise. I would say one sentence and she would respond, ‘I hate you.’ It changed the entire tone of the monologue and how I interpreted it. Then we did the same thing and she responded ‘I love you.’ The difference was like night and day. And she explained that she was providing a subtext for me to work with and that was what an acting coach could do.”

“I’m not sure I get it,” Emily said.

“You be the coach and respond to each line I deliver with ‘I hate you’,” Desi said.

“That will be hard. I don’t hate you.”

“Fake it.”

My vagina’s angry.

I hate you.

It is.

I hate you.

It’s pissed off.

I hate you.

My vagina’s furious and it needs to talk.

I hate you.

It needs to talk about all this shit.

I hate you.

It needs to talk to you.

I hate you.

It was obvious Emily was struggling to say the words. Her eyes kept shifting away from Desi as if she was embarrassed to say it. Desi kept getting more and more frustrated.

“Now do the same thing saying, ‘I love you’,” she instructed.

My vagina’s angry.

I love you.

It is.

I love you.

It’s pissed off.

I love you.

My vagina’s furious and it needs to talk.

I love you.

It needs to talk about all this shit.

I love you.

It needs to talk to you.

I love you.

The interpretation changed. It was more pleading and less frustrated. It was amazing and when they got that far, Desi opened her arms and Em flowed into them for a deep and longing kiss.

“Mmm. Jacob has his appointment set for tonight. I think I have mine set, too. Hashtag my vagina loves you,” Desi said.

“That was really hard,” Emily said.

“Well, the entire audition went pretty much like that. I’d sing and a vocal coach would stand up and change my breathing or a director would give me stage directions and I’d sing again. We went for three hours!”

“That’s much worse than Jacob and I had. They just shouted out things for us to play and we played them,” Cindy said.

“They explained that they were looking to see if I was so set in my patterns that I couldn’t take direction and if they could teach me. It was amazing,” Desi said. “I learned so much in one afternoon. It demonstrated, by comparison, what a jerk Henderson is. He treated the actors in Twelfth Night like puppets. But the big thing was getting back to what Ava said when she saw the show. They not only reaffirmed the offer, they asked me to consider moving to DC in January and taking my last semester at the National School so I’d be better prepared for my role in service. I don’t know what to do!”

Desi and I had talked about it a lot with Livy, Rachel, and Remas as we made love Saturday night. Going to the National School six months early was an honor and an exciting prospect, but it meant Desi would be separated from us. Rachel is pretty sure she’ll be in Washington as her permanent station and said she’d be there with Desi and not to worry about being separated. Remas offered to room with her.

“I wouldn’t be here to perform with you,” Desi said, looking at Cindy and me. Emily had her cradled in her arms, rocking gently.

“I get it,” I said. “Sophie, what did you say about our spring concert?”

“That it would be an intimate setting featuring just you and Cindy for a single performance,” Sophie said.

“Sneaky bastards,” Nanette said. “They already planned for Desi not to perform with you in the spring.”

Being Sunday night, Cindy had to go home at ten. It was a rule her parents had set. She could stay at the farm on Friday and Saturday nights, but not on a school night. She stretched her naked body out on mine for a long and intense kiss before she got dressed and left with Sophie and Brittany. Beca came to bed with Donna and me. Nanette joined Emily and Desi.

That didn’t prevent Nan from dragging my ass out from between Donna and Beca to run at five o’clock in the morning. I officially had less than two weeks before the Hoosier Classic Half Marathon in Bloomington, which was the state championship for high school half marathoners. I’d done no running in DC when we were there and pushing out 13.2 miles before school Monday morning was a real task. I made it to school in time for physics at 8:35.

I’d managed to write the thousand-word essay about the setting of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and how the story would have been different if it was set in a nice sterile hospital instead of an imposing castle. Had the monster been created in the hospital setting he would automatically be somewhat less monstrous. I think Ms. Pixler was a little disappointed that I had the assignment completed after missing all week of her class lectures.

I went to the gym for a workout on weight machines after school since I’d already had a major run that morning. Upper body strength is as important as leg strength in distance running. I never realized how much arm and chest movement help you run. It’s not just an aerobic exercise. As I did curls and presses, I marveled at how my body had changed from two arms and a leg in casts just three years ago to the body of an athlete now. That tattoo artist had left more than an ink impression when she said I was ripped. I’d never really thought about it, but I realized that running and working out had given me more energy for other things in my life, including playing the guitar.

And sex. I couldn’t think of another high school boy I’d ever known who had such a ramped-up sex life as I had. I had eleven girlfriends and was sexually active with all of them, even though I didn’t have vaginal sex with either Cindy or Beca. Hmm. Thirteen lovers if you counted Remas and Lacie. I certainly had to count Remas. I thought Lacie would fade away now that the season was over. She’d given me back my watch the last time we were together.

Thinking about all that as I continued my reps made me think of us all entering service together next summer. Basic training. By nature, Beca, Desi, Brittany, and I were all pretty fit. Brittany and I, especially. I wasn’t sure how physically fit Cindy was. I don’t mean she wasn’t healthy, but I was worried about my girlfriends being able to stand up to the rigors of basic training. Both Emily and Rachel had stressed how physical basic was and even though both felt strong and fit when they entered the service, basic changed their weight and strength significantly. I decided that once I had this race out of the way, I’d encourage my lovers to work out with me after school each day.

19 November 2021

We’re having guests arrive tomorrow. Remas is bringing two guys with her for a few days. I’m not sure what to think of that. Of course, we want to be welcoming to the vocalist and percussionist she’s bringing. But it’s hard to imagine having two guys in the house. That will really inhibit our behavior and mode of dress.

And we’re not really set up to give two guys separate rooms and have the rest of us crammed into two bedrooms for the weekend. Remas said not to worry and suggested we give them the game room with the futon bed. She said they were used to bunking together on the road and would be okay with it.

It seems like the least we can do is make the room over the garage a little more comfortable. We moved the foosball table out of the way and after school yesterday, Emily and I went out and bought a proper box spring and mattress for the room, a small dresser, and a rack for hanging clothes. They’ll have to share the hall bath with us, but we can double up in the en suites.