Chapter 14: Confrontations

The library became the group's de facto information center. Lesa met with her co-conspirators in one's and two's throughout the day collecting and disseminating information and suggesting assignments for the next step.

Jake stopped by mid-morning with a magazine article about Dr. Grayson that had a picture of his staff and graduate students. Lesa started a dossier on each of names. The project looked very promising. She even risked kissing Jake as he reluctantly left for his next class.

The kiss didn't go unnoticed. Gloria Sanchez couldn't believe her eyes. Right there on the mezzanine in full view of the main floor, the ultra-conservative Lesa Crews kissed a boy too young to be a student right on the mouth! Could he be related to her? No, there was too much passion, the kiss lasted too long for him to be her son or a nephew. This deserved closer examination. As she watched the boy leave, she was sure she had seen him in the library before.

Jake and Ralph spotted Marvin heading into Starbucks. Looking at each other they reached a non-verbal agreement that now was as good a time as any to brace him. They were in the line when Marvin stepped back to wait for his order.

"Hey, Marvin, if you've got a minute, Ralph and I would like to share some ideas with you." Jake spoke up when he caught Marvin's attention.

Marvin's expression clouded, but he nodded assent. "I'll get us a table outside where it's less crowded." When his name was called, he collected his order and stepped outside without looking at either Jake or Ralph.

As Jake and Ralph approached the table Marvin had staked out, he opened fire. "What the hell is going on between you two and my women? They've been out all hours and not telling me shit. I'm sure that librarian bitch is involved."

"It sounds like you'll not be interested in the project that 'the librarian bitch' is proposing." Jake responded with a sigh. "As far as your problems with women are concerned, that's most likely something between you and them, whoever they are."

"I know that you've been fucking Leslie, needle dick." Marvin glared at Ralph. Turning to face Jake he continued, "I can't imagine why either of them would be interested in a geek like you, but I know you've been spending a lot of time with them at that librarian's house. Stealing my women can get your scrawny asses kicked." Marvin was fuming, shifting his glare from one to the other.

"I haven't touched Leslie since you dumped her on me Saturday. She was a wreck after you left. It took me an hour to get her calmed down, cleaned up, and out of my room. I thought you might like to know what has her so upset. But, if you're going to be a belligerent asshole, I'm out of here." Ralph stood to leave. He hesitated when Jake raised his hand.

"Hang on a second, Ralph. In the battle of the sexes, Marvin needs all the help he can get. It isn't right for us to let him go down in flames by withholding vital information from him." Jake turned from Ralph, who remained standing, to look Marvin in the eyes. "I don't believe that someone else could lure them away if you weren't doing such a fine job of driving them off. Do you realize how much humiliation you've been subjecting them to?"

"What are you talking about? Cunts like them get off on humiliation." Marvin retorted hotly. "They're ungrateful bitches, too. They're both lousy lays. One is too loose for me to feel it except in the ass. The other is too dry and frigid to be worth the effort."

"Just stop right there," Jake was clearly disgusted with the self-centered athlete across the table. "First of all, I've run into some 'cunts' on the campus, but haven't bothered learning their names. I know the names of the women I've seen you with, and NONE of them are 'CUNTS'!"

Jake took a deep, cleansing breath to calm himself a little. He held up his hand to tell Marvin to remain quiet. "Secondly, I may be an inexperienced geek, but I know women don't appreciate being talked about, and they certainly don't like public reminders of their supposed shortcomings. When you make it clear you don't like them, why in the Hell should they hang around?"

Ralph spoke up, "You're a very smart guy, Marvin. Use your brain, man. Step back and take an objective look at your behavior and tell me why any woman would want to be around you when you treat her as I've seen you treat Sara, Leslie, or even Sasha. Lately you've starting giving her the same disrespectful treatment you've been giving Sara and Leslie for weeks. I'm guessing that Sasha finally gave it up to you; so, you don't feel like you need to be nice to her any longer."

"That's not true!" Marvin glared at Ralph for the ending barb, but settled back. "Okay, maybe you're right about part of what you said. I've been thinking about this all week and would really like to blame you, Ralph. But I was a real ass to you on Saturday and basically gave Leslie to you. Maybe I do have issues. It could be that I'm making my problem their problem, and I've been punishing them because they know about my ... deficiencies. I'm embarrassed; so, I embarrass them. It's worse when I've been drinking."

Ralph sat down and looked at Jake. Neither of them could believe Marvin could admit his issues, even to himself. "I'm no expert, Marvin." Ralph continued to run with the ball. "But, I don't believe there are any performance issues that can't be overcome with technique, if not with modern chemistry."

"You know!" Marvin jumped to his feet so fast he knocked over his chair. "What did those bitches tell you? I'll break their necks!"

"I was there, Saturday, remember. Sit down! You took the backdoor while I went through the front. Don't look at Jake. Even if he knows, he'll keep his mouth shut. Jake's a true gentleman. You and I fall pitifully short of that distinction. Just look at the things you and I have said at this very table in the last two minutes." Ralph was being brutal, and brave. He didn't recall ever being this angry.

Marvin just blinked. Both Ralph and he knew that Ralph couldn't last five seconds against him, but the skinny guy was in his face showing more backbone that anyone would have thought possible. Marvin picked up his chair and sat back down.

When Marvin was settled at the table, Ralph also calmed himself and continued in a softer voice, "Our partner in Saturday's fuck fest told me that she loves having you up her ass. You're the best she's ever had back there, but you get too rough with her tits and twat. When your fingers get a little better education and skill, and when you start paying more attention to your fuck-buddy than to yourself, women will be clamoring around you wanting it up the ass." This oratory was crude even for Ralph.

"What can I do?" Marvin asked equally quietly.

"See a doctor," Jake suggested pulling out is PDA and pulled up a listing. "Lesa gave me the name of a specialist here in Atlanta." Jake sent the information to Marvin's phone. "Then, start repairing self esteem, both yours and theirs."

"It's too late for that." Marvin sighed.

"I don't think it's too late to see a doctor, and it's never too late to be concerned for others. Even if it's too late to reestablish a relationship with your current partners, it's not too late for the next ones. There's plenty of fish in the sea if you don't shit in the water. You guys are a bad influence," Jake observed reflecting on his own unaccustomed crudeness. "I'm out of here," he said as he extended his hand to Marvin, who accepted the offer of friendship.

"Thanks, guys," Marvin said as he also shook hands with Ralph.

Before they separated for their next class, Ralph offered, "Janet tells me Lesa has some grand scheme to start a specialized colony. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I'm sure there is," Jake offered, "check with Lesa. She's coordinating everyone's efforts. Toby, Janet and I are submitting thesis proposals that need a lot of research. Someone with your Internet skills can certainly help with that. We also need help with 'people skills'. A large group of Type-A personalities is going to be a powder keg. You've certainly proven your talent in that arena today." Jake smiled at his friend has they parted company.

At three o'clock, Jake made his way to the library. His mind was focused on the problem of a pulse weapon's cycle time. Non-destructive pulse weapons required some kind of recharge or cooling-off time between firing. Destructive pulse weapons consumed the emitters. They had to be physically replaced between firing. Something on the order of the old Gatling gun principle made really fast rapid-fire weapons feasible, but they were bulky, slow to aim, and too small to be effective against fast, shielded or buried targets.

Climbing the steps in his mental fog, Jake's autopilot didn't register the slender figure that stepped into his path and stopped in front of him until it was too late. He walked right into Susan Delaney and almost knocked her off of her feet. Jake's backpack slipped off his shoulder and acted as a counterbalance on his left arm as his right arm reflexively wrapped around the small girl's shoulder. His right leg had gone between Susan's as she had tried to sidestep out of his path, and the majority of her weight was on Jake's thigh. Fortunately his foot reached the next tread of the steps before they collided again.

Susan's books and papers went flying as she grabbed Jake's arm with both hands and closed her legs on the surprisingly muscular thigh she found pressing against her crotch.

"I guess that's one way to sweep a girl off her feet," Susan said in good humor. "Am I so tiny that I didn't register through those thick glasses of yours?"

"I'm SO sorry," Jake apologized. "I wasn't watching where I was going. A hazard attributed to trying to walk and chew gum at the same time when your skill set doesn't fully support both at the same time."

Susan added, "Um, if you're finished feeling me up, do you think you can put me down?"

"What? Oh! Sorry, again." Jake turned bright red. As he was getting control of his faculties, he noticed Susan bite her lower lip as she slid over his knee when he released his grip on her shoulder. He asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm just a little shaken," she answered.

When she was safely on her feet, Jake stepped back and helped her gather her things. He looked up after retrieving the items that had tumbled down the steps behind him. Susan's heart-shaped butt filled Jake's focus. She was bent at the waist, and for a thin girl she appeared to have a smooth round butt and soft thighs. Jake scrambled up the steps to help her organize her scattered possessions.

He added the items he had retrieved to the stack on the steps just as Susan picked them up, trapping his hand between her small breasts. The startled girl almost dropped the stack again.

"Oh, I thought you weren't interested in feeling me up any more," She said with an impish smile as she gripped her books even tighter pressing Jake's trapped hand tightly against her chest.

"I'm sorry, I was trying to ... and you..." Jake couldn't think. Susan clearly had nothing on under her thin blouse. He could feel one of her nipples harden against the back of his hand, and too much of his blood supply was being diverted to his southern parts for him to form coherent sentences.

Susan laughed again, "You're so easy to embarrass. With all the hot babes that hang around you, I should think that you would be immune to a plain-Jane like me." She shifted her grip on her burden and allowed Jake to retrieve his hand.