Chapter 13

We all went back to the house for lunch together where I gently inspected Cheryl’s hand and declared that I didn’t think it was broken. We were thankful about that and we all spoiled her. We raided the fridge for leftovers and had just finished cleaning up when girls started arriving. We welcomed them in and got drinks for everyone, opened up the sweets and shared them out before we got down to business.

“Thanks for being here, everyone,” I said. “I wanted to get together with everyone for three reasons. First, I wanted to thank everyone again for the cards and presents. If you didn’t have a chance to shop for me, don’t worry about it. I tried to convince everyone not to get me anything. It didn’t really work out for me. For those of you who DID get me something, thank you all. Many of your gifts were WILDLY inappropriate for opening in a family setting. You’ll be happy to know that I opened them in private. I haven’t had a chance to go through all the DVDs, SD cards and flash drives, but I suspect the contents are deeply graphic in nature.” I smirked a little. “My lips are sealed though.”

They all laughed a little at that and a few who hadn’t had a gift for me in return looked a little embarrassed. I moved on before that could get noticed. “The second and more important reason that I wanted to talk to all of you is that I got a Christmas visit from Patrick Waterman.” I paused for the anger to spread through the crowd before I went on. “Obviously, you haven’t been called to tell you he’s dead. He came to the house here to talk.”

“What the fuck does he want to talk about?!!?” someone in the back growled to much agreement.

“He came to plead with me for his family’s lives,” I said. I hadn’t told the rest of them that part before. “He wanted to promise me there would be no retaliation from him or his family for Vance and asked me to leave his parents alone. He also told me that he’s been offered a plea deal for what happened in September.”

“What?!!?” several people raged about that and I held my hand up for silence.

“Let me explain,” I said. “It’s actually a good deal for us. Patrick pleads guilty to sixty counts of rape, the drugs, unlawful confinement and human trafficking charges. He serves life in prison with no parole for twenty years in a prison for protected custody prisoners and registers as a sex offender when he gets out for the rest of his life. In return, he testifies against his drug supplier, all the guys that were there at the party and, more importantly, Marlene Garrett who hosted the party and apparently collected the money and drugs, dishing them out to the Watermans for their weekend parties after that night. Everyone else will get hard time. Most of them will die in prison as the ages of their victims get leaked to the inmates. There’s few things that they hate more in prison than people who victimize underage kids.”

That got a lot of them nodding. They liked the idea of their attackers going to jail and getting killed there.

“Patrick wanted me to tell you all that he’s sorry and that he wished he’d done the right thing a long time ago. I don’t think he expected anyone to forgive him, but he’s going to jail either way. This way he can make the other people who hurt you pay for what they did. He signs the agreement Monday morning.”

They talked about that for a little while and then I asked them for their attention for just one last thing.

“Cheryl’s decided to keep her baby,” I started. “She didn’t come forward to accuse Patrick because she wanted to protect her child from ever knowing that she was conceived at that house.” They nodded, understanding her reasons and agreeing. “I’m asking for your help in continuing to protect her baby. I’ve told Cheryl and I’m telling all of you that when the baby is born, I want her to name me as the father.”

“What?!!?” Jessie blurted out. “Why?!!?”

“Because someone talked about that party last term. I don’t know who or how it was spread, but you’ve all been treated like crap at school. I’ve been made aware that there’s some of our religious classmates that have been harassing you. I hope to put a stop to that, but at the very least, I can keep those people from connecting her pregnancy to that weekend. If someone asks, it’s mine. If you hear them talking, it’s mine. We’re going to tell hospital staff that it’s mine and I’ll be on her birth certificate when she’s born.”

“For real?” someone said, shocked.

I nodded. “For real. I need your help. Outside this room, only parents know the truth. It needs to stay that way. I’m asking each of you to please help us sell this fiction. Some people might not believe it and that’s fine, but so long as we keep our story straight, they should fall into a silent minority.”

“They’re gonna hate you at school,” Jessie said numbly.

“Fuck ‘em!” I said with a little snarl in my voice. “The people that matter are in this room,” I told her. “If the others hate me, they don’t matter. They treat you all poorly. I don’t want friends like that.”

A lot of the girls looked surprised that I felt that way, but nodded about it.

“Does that mean you and Cheryl are together now?” someone else asked.

“Yep,” I said lightly. “Her parents don’t approve, but I’m not turning my back on her and our little girl.”

“I thought you were with Tricia!”

“He is,” she responded and took my hand.

“You’re dating two girls at once?”

That opened the flood gates and Beck got her mouth into it, declaring Cheryl to be the ninth member of the Sorority. The whole thing turned into a full press conference with questions and answers. Some of the questions we skirted and others we answered freely.

“Does this mean that you won’t be using what I got you for Christmas?” one girl asked with elaborate casualness.

Cheryl fielded that one without knowing what she’d gotten me. “Oh, I’m not gonna stop him from using his Christmas gifts,” she said with a giggle. “I would hate to see him with gifts he can’t use.”

I could have kicked her ... or kissed her. I wasn’t sure which, but I was blushing. “Maybe next time find out what the gift is before you promise I’ll use it?” I suggested in a whisper when they were distracted talking about something that involved me and Valentine’s presents. “See what you’ve created?”

Gina seemed a little down about this turn of events so I left Cheryl to see if she could pull this out of the fire and talked to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said uncertainly. “I guess. I dunno. I feel bad. They all seem like they’re ready to have sex with you. I’m not.”

“You don’t need to have sex with me until you WANT to have sex with me. If that’s never, then it’s never. I’d rather wait ‘til we’re sixty than pressure you to do it before you’re ready.”

She looked like she was still anxious. “I’m just worried that you’ll end up replacing me with someone that’s ready for sex,” she confessed.

“I once had a conversation like this with Collie. She had a roommate that was a total sex doll. She looked like she’d been custom designed for porn. Collie was afraid to introduce me because she was worried that she’d take her place with me.”

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I told her that no one could take her place. It was HERS and that she BELONGED with us. It’s possible that someone else can make a spot for themselves with us, but no one can ever take yours. It BELONGS to you and you alone. No one can fill it and no one can push you out of it. Even if you decide that you need to find your own way and we say goodbye, that spot stays empty.” I kissed her softly and then hugged her tight. “You BELONG here with me whether we’re naked or not.”

She sighed and hugged me back, the tension easing out of her. “You’re SURE you’re okay?”

“Everyone recovers differently,” I whispered to her. “You need me to wait as much as I need you to stay. Don’t worry about it. The other girls will make sure I don’t go to waste. You love me and that’s all I need.”

She squeezed me harder and then we separated. Dawn had been beside herself with attention overload this whole time as the girls petted her fur, exclaiming about the new addition to the family.

Not long after that, Jessie managed to get a word with me. She looked a little upset about something. “What’s up?” she asked. “You never mentioned anything about Cheryl when we talked a few weeks ago.”

“She hadn’t told me how she felt about me,” I said. “She’s fallen in love with me.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you love her?”

I smiled and nodded. “She melted our hearts. She wrote me a long letter telling me how she felt and Emma and I read it together. It was a pretty powerful letter.”

“It must have been,” she said, surprised. “You just signed on for eighteen years of commitment for her.”

“Meh,” I shrugged. “I was planning on helping her with the baby anyway. This is just a little more formal than calling me ‘Mommy’s friend Matt’. This way she gets a dad that’ll teach her stuff and be there for her and Cheryl gets to know that she’s not alone.”

“And what do you get?” she asked, cocking her head to one side as she considered my answer.

“I get two princesses to make my life brighter,” I said with a smile.

She grinned at that and nodded. “Good answer,” she said then hesitated. “You were right about me,” she confessed. “I’m not after your money or anything like that, but that I wasn’t in love with you. I hope you can help me with putting this in the past. I’ve never had a guy treat me nice. You think that’s a possibility?” she asked, biting her lip.

I considered it and nodded. “It’s possible. Talk to Lana and Gina. Tell them what you need from me and how you see things working out. It’s possible, but I never do anything the girls don’t approve of. Lana and Gina know you best so they’re the ones you can count on to champion you to the rest of the girls if they like what they hear.”

She nodded and smiled a little. “Thanks. I just ... I hear Lana talk about how amazing you are with her and I think to myself that I want that just once. Even if I can never find it again, I just want to know what it’s like to wake up after sex so good I pass out.”

I nodded in understanding. “Talk to them. They’ll work it out and either tell me to take you to bed or that you weren’t able to come to terms with everyone. Either way, we’ll still be friends. I value your opinions, especially when you’re trying to get me to stop worrying about stupid shit.”

She nodded and hugged me again. I circulated a little and then I remembered a couple of other things I wanted to bring up.

“Hey, girls!” I raised my voice a little and things quieted down right away. “I just remembered a couple of minor things I wanted to bring up. I know a lot of you are getting shit on at school like I mentioned before. Do me a favor and let me know who’s bugging you. I can’t help if I don’t know, right? Also I’ve got double lunch this semester, so I’ll be around to hang out during late lunch too. If you’re getting a lot of crap at lunch time, come sit with me. Hell, come sit with me anyway. I’ll be with Tricia and Cheryl, but you’re all welcome to come talk to us.” I frowned. “The last thing I want to ask you is a little more difficult for me.”