Chapter 15: Searching

I was in my room at Robert’s house using the weight bench and trying to unscramble my week of weird. I hadn’t put it together at the time, but it was the forthcoming wedding that was putting me off kilter. Mindy was due back in Tomorrow and the wedding was scheduled for Sunday and the idea of one of the three women I actually loved marrying someone else had been eating at me. I was also searching for something, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

I smelled strawberries and sighed, “Hello, Alex.”

She bounced through the beads and the chipperness caused a knot in my intestines, “You’ve got to tell me how you do that.”

I chuckled as I racked the bar, “No, I don’t.”

I set upright on the bench and she bounced over to the love seat and crashed onto it, “I’m surprised you’re here. It feels like you’ve been avoiding me.”

Have I been avoiding her? No, not really.

“Just a weird week. I’m still processing.”

“You’re not a computer.”

“Sometimes I feel like it. Something bought at radio shack and just having new parts tossed into it periodically.”

“So, what has you flustered?”

The previous Monday, Cheerleading Practice.

I was lifting Beth above my head, Jill had Stacy held aloft to my right, and Monica had managed to get Tracy up right. It was intended to be part of the grand finale for the upcoming competition. After I’d added weight training to the cheerleaders’ already insane workout plans and we’d practiced the positions, I was convinced no one was going to get dropped.

I pushed Beth fully up extending my arms, so she was just using my palms as a platform, and she flipped forwards and landed the dismount onto the mat. Jill did the same with Stacy who spun towards me, and I caught her before tucking her into a roll. Then I turned to my left to do the same with Tracy as Monica propelled her towards me in the air.

It would look great, but the timing needed to be perfect and there weren’t any safety mats on the stage where the competition took place last year.

I heard a voice from the back of the stage towards the hallway towards the band room, “So, you do actually practice?”

Beth turned and I watched her anger flare. I waved her off.

Have to handle this so Beth doesn’t get herself suspended.

I turned to face her, “That is what cheerleading practice is for Ms. Crane.”

She smirked, “I’m sure. How much longer are you going to be using this space for?”

“We’re finishing up. Another hour or so, ma’am.” I let a bit of acid slip into the ma’am.

“Alright.” She turned and strutted away. I moved towards my bag and grabbed my water bottle before sitting on the edge of the stage. The girl gathered around quickly. Mon, Stacy, and Jill in the first-row seating. Tracy and Lis huddled next to me and Beth paced in between.

Beth seethed, “Who does that bitch think she is? She barged in here twice last week and I swear I saw her peeking through the auditorium doors too. What the fuck did you do to her, Doz?”

“What makes you think I had anything to do with it? The band teacher is responsible for the squad. Maybe she is just taking an interest?”

I heard four immediate variants of, “Bullshit!”

Beth then went on a rant about how often I spent my lunch period in Amanda’s office.

“Fuck, Okay. I’ll handle it. We’ll just keep things professional here for now.”

Tracy squeezed my arm, “Want Mon to drive us to your place?”

“Sorry, Little one. I have to head over the river and through the woods today. Could still use the ride though.”

Mon nodded. We began clean-up with Beth occasionally giving me a death glare.

A few hours later; The grandmother’s house.

GG was on the edge of my bed with her legs kicked up behind her like a cliché 80’s Girl movie character with the exception of her being nude and having my jizz dripping from her.

We’d watched the video borrowing the VCR from the living room due to the grandmother’s rules about keeping the more amorous activities confined to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

She rewound to the first scene with Amanda cuffed to the bed, “I don’t know about it.”

“You seemed pretty interested in the second one.” The second scene had been filmed the morning after the first with me taking Amanda over my knee and had led to the deposit I’d made in my Aunt.

“Yeah, you were in control then and the technique was great, but the first one ... I’m not sure if you’re really going to be into this stuff. It seemed like it was more about you than her.”

I’d made peace with my tantrum and was able to answer quickly, “Yeah, I was ... going through something.”

“Maybe this lifestyle isn’t for you ... or maybe it’ll take the right girl to bring it out of you.”

“Are you planning on suspending our ‘lessons’ or my ceremonial position?”

She looked aghast, “No, of course not. Maybe if things get serious with that guy I asked about dating, we might slow down, but you’re the best outlet I’ve had in years. In fact, I have a surprise for you.”

“Some kind of toy?”

“No, come down to the first-floor bedroom when you’re ready?”

“You mean the room I refused to take?”

She nodded, “Don’t pretend you haven’t been going down there and sitting in it when you’re here. Why is that anyway?”

I sighed. There was something about my aunt I didn’t really trust. I knew she’d planned on me getting involved in Mindy and more than arranged my temporary status as her ‘master’, but I was completely in the dark about how deep the manipulative tendencies went or what her end goal was. I vacillated, but ended up on telling the truth, “It’s called systematic desensitization. I read a book on it. Basically, I’m trying to remove the effect the cedar scent has on me by exposing myself to it over time while maintaining a certain rate of breathing, heart rate, etc.”

She beamed and it occurred to me how similar her features were to my mother’s and Mindy’s for that matter. All three of them had the familial blonde hair with GG’s having darkened a bit as she aged and my mother having dyed her hair to keep that darkness from showing in her own. They all three had tight angular features with the exception of the obviously Irish nose.

“See, you do deserve a reward.”

“Is it a surprise or a reward?”

“Come downstairs and you’ll see ... and don’t bother with the clothes.”

She rolled off the bed and dashed calling back as she rounded the stairs, “Count to a hundred first.”

If this is a game like, “Hide and go fuck” I’m going to punish her for real.

I didn’t bother counting. Instead, I processed my life. I was searching for something. I just didn’t know what yet, but I knew I wouldn’t get it from Amanda or GG.

Eventually, I slipped off the bed and began my descent. I didn’t bother with my clothes, though I gathered up GG’s and tossed them in the hamper as I passed it. The grandmother was sitting in her chair in the living room and gave me an amused smile and gestured a finger to come speak to her, “What can I do for you?”

She reached out and pinched my thigh, “You are going to rub my legs later, right?”

“Of course, Grandmother.” The oddities of the rules were always a conundrum. Walkling around naked was fine. Sex outside of the bedrooms or bathrooms was not. Mealtimes were non-negotiable and skipping a meal or wasting food was worse than burning the house down. There was something nice about the structure of it, even if the actual rules only made sense to her.

I continued on through the dining room to the door to the room I’d originally been assigned. I braced myself and forced my breathing to regulate. I had been working on removing that trigger for months, but there was still a bit of apprehension as I faced the door to a room that I knew could set off a flashback.

I opened the door and wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The room had a queen-sized bed in the center and a television. It was the only room in the house with its own bathroom even if it was only a shower stall and a toilet. On the center of the bed was a refrigerator box or half of one anyway. There was a black cloth attached to the refrigerator box which was at odds with peach colored comforter beneath it and a pair of very pale legs sticking out of it. GG sat on the near corner of the bed smiling at me.

“What the fuck is this?”

I heard a “Language!” from the living room and sighed.

GG giggled, “This is one of my coworkers.” She reached over and spread the legs sticking out of the box and pulled the body a few inches back exposing an ass and pussy they were attached to. She reached up and removed what looked like a vibrating ring from around the body’s clit, then ran her fingers through the slit in a manner that told me she was very familiar with whomever those legs belong too. She brought her fingers to her mouth and sucked the two that had explored the furrow in turn before smirking, “She doubted my ‘new man’s abilities, so I brought her here and arranged this.”

“And she is half in a box?”

“Yep. I blindfolder and put a pair of earmuffs from the gun cabinet on her too.”

“Why?”

“So, you could prove me, right? C’mon, brand new fresh pussy. No string attached.”

I was appalled. I briefly wondered if the previous year when I was just getting started with experiencing the world of sexuality if I would’ve gone for it, before saying, “No.”

She looked amused and tilted her head to the side, “No? Really?”

I looked at the absurdity of the situation and wondered if she’d really expected me to fuck a stranger with no build-up. I took in the legs again and couldn’t help but glancing at the exposed crotch and one detail caught my eye. Whomever was in that box had the familial blonde hair with just a bit of darkening. A terrible thought crossed my mind and I turned, “Look, I don’t know what you think of me. I don’t really care right now, but this ... whatever the fuck this is ... is a definitive no. Call it a hard limit if you want, but I’m not fucking someone I don’t even know who can’t tell me if she even wants to be fucked and if you’re trying to pull a bait and switch with a certain member of this family I will never fucking touch you again. I’m going for a walk. You can get rid of her while I’m gone.”

I turned and walked I had opened the kitchen door before realizing I probably should put some clothes on. I headed upstairs.

I don’t know what the fuck that was, but I will never be the kind of man that fucking does that.

Thursday night; the week before the wedding

Alex spoke, “So, how bad was this week?”

I moved from the bench to the love seat sitting beside her, “Monday was fucked. Tuesday, I had dinner with Robert and my mother. Luckily, I didn’t have to talk much as they were consumed with the Mindy’s latest round of wedding demands ... Wednesday I bought Lucy.”

“Lucy? Like a dog? A cat, ooh do you have a kitten.”

I chuckled, “I always wanted a dog.” The bite mark on my shoulder reminded me why I didn’t have one. I watched her glance at it and remember the story and grimace, “No, Lucy is my car.”

“You bought a car? For how much?”