Chapter 11: Living the Fantasy

9th Grade: December 14th, 1985 - January 1st, 1986

As the limo pulled out of the gate, I said, “I wish I didn’t have to babysit this afternoon or we could have tried out the pool.”

Joey said, “The grounds are so huge, we could have gone go-karting for hours too.”

“Did you see any go-karts?”

“No, I just thought if there were some, that’s all.”

Suzi said, “It’s a shame they didn’t have some horses. That would have been fun as well.”

Joey asked, “Maybe this spring, your dad would let us get some go-karts.”

I said, “Or maybe for someone’s birthday, we could go horseback riding?”

Suzi smiled and leaned up against me. I wiggled my eyebrows at Joey who rolled his eyes.

Suzi said, “That was the perfect night and morning. I wish we could sleep together more often.”

Joey yawned and said, “We wouldn’t get much sleep if we did.”

I grinned and asked, “Speaking of sleeping, are we going to have our regular three-way tonight?”

Suzi said, “I don’t think so. We can talk, though. We’ll need to figure out who to invite to the party.”

I said, “If my mom will agree to let us have it.”

Joey said, “Why wouldn’t she?”

I shrugged and said, “I don’t know. But you know how parents are. They can think of a lot of reasons you would never have thought of not to do something you want, but all sorts of reasons why you should do something you don’t.”

Joey said, “Isn’t that the truth. I nearly had to use a point to come with you.”

I asked, “Why?”

“I don’t know. Something about me intruding on your spending time with your father.”

Suzi said, “I almost couldn’t go too because my mom was suspicious of what we’d get up to.”

Joey grinned and said, “If she only knew.”

Suzi whined, “NO! That’s the last thing I want. I’d never hear the end of it. I’m not even supposed to really date until I’m sixteen.”

Joey and I stared at her as that was the first we’d heard of that.

Suzi sighed and said, “I had to tell her you two were gay.”

“GAY!” Joey and I exclaimed.

“Well, it isn’t that far from the truth, is it?”

Joey said, “Yes, it is! Just because I want to fuck his ass once doesn’t mean I get excited about it.”

I said, “That’s not really helping.”

Joey said, “You’re the one who fucked himself in the ass with a dildo and couldn’t stop talking about it.”

I opened my mouth to retaliate, but then changed tracks and asked Suzi, “So we’re what? Your gay best friends or something?”

Suzi said, “Closeted gay best friends.”

Joey asked, “Why didn’t you talk to us about it before you told her?”

Suzi looked at Joey and said, “You do know that Ted and Jason are both seniors, right? They used to hang out together in junior high. They have a few classes together and sometimes talk. Ted saw us getting picked up by Jason the other day and mentioned to Jason how interested you were in anal sex. Jason told our mom. What was I supposed to say? Jason bought you two were gay. He’s actually okay with that, by the way. Oh, and Ted’s bisexual. Most of the butts he’s had were probably guys.”

Joey looked a little green, upset by both the news about Ted and the idea someone thought he was gay. I wasn’t that upset since it would give Suzi more freedom to be with both of us. But I was a little worried about what would happen if the rumor mill got hold of this.

In the mid-eighties, freshmen didn’t come out of the closet, and only if you were naturally effeminate did usually anyone really pick up on the older guys being gay. There were only two openly gay guys I knew in our school, and they were both popular enough by the in-crowd that they were shielded from any significant bullying.

I teased Suzi, “Do you want us to come in with you and maybe sneak a kiss when they’re looking?”

Suzi licked her lips and said, “You might need to practice first.”

Joey rolled his eyes and said, “I’m not going to kiss Tim in front of anyone.”

Suzi asked, “Not even me?”

Joey looked at her and said, “I would much rather kiss you.”

I asked, “Can we talk about something else?”

Suzi sighed and asked, “You can’t tell me that if we had a second girl, you two wouldn’t want to watch us kiss.”

I asked, “Are you offering?”

“No!”

Joey said, “Neither are we.”

Suzi sighed and said, “Okay, okay, I get it. But Timmy, you started this whole thing by kissing him. I feel like that was false advertising.”

I laughed, but then said, “Maybe we should include Brad and Brook in on our secret.”

Surprised, they looked at me questioning looks.

I shrugged and said, “Joey and I talk all the time, but Suz doesn’t have another girl to be candid with.”

Suzi said, “Brook wouldn’t be my first choice. She’s Brad’s girlfriend because it gives her popularity a boost. He is one of the hottest boys in our class.”

In the past, Suzi had had a thing for Brad too. If I hadn’t shown so much interest in Suzi, she probably would have become Brad’s first girlfriend. I couldn’t wait for next semester to start so we could eat lunch with Brad again. I had him only in one class, and we didn’t sit anywhere near each other.

Out of everyone I knew, Brad was possibly the most levelheaded and calm person I knew. If there were anyone I could trust not to react negatively to my secret, it would be Brad.

I asked, “Who would you want and trust among the girls?”

Suzi bit her lower lip a moment before saying, “I don’t know, Timmy. Not Brook, though. She’s a bit shallow. The only reason she hung out with my group was because we were popular in junior high. But I haven’t spent much time with the girls since school started. I don’t really feel that close to any of them right now.”

Joey took her left hand, intertwined his fingers with hers and said, “We’ve had the same thing happen to us, you know. Lex is gone, we never see John anymore, and Brad is just someone we see in the halls.”

I said, “Now we have Vito and Jeremy eating lunch with us.”

Jeremy was an old friend from third grade before we changed schools. He and Vito, a sophomore, sat with us because their girlfriends were part of Suzi’s old gang who still ate with her. I liked them both well enough, but they weren’t Brad, John or Lex. There was no bond.

Joey, echoing my thoughts, said, “Like they give two shits about us.”

Suzi said, “I thought Vito fit in pretty well with you two. Especially you, Joey. You’re always talking cars with him.”

Vito just turned sixteen and already had his own car, a sand-colored 1975 Buick Regal. He had an afterschool job at the movie theatre and was always talking about the car and the movie theatre at lunch. He was a funny guy, and we all liked him well enough.

Jeremy was okay. He was more interested in keeping his hand either on Christine’s thigh or back to motivate her into making out with him after lunch than participating in conversation. Christine liked him because he was easy to control. He pretty much did anything she asked. But Jeremy did have his moments of pure hilarious, witty sayings.

All of Suzi’s old gang had steady boyfriends except for Marsha and Tina. We had previously talked about including Marsha and Tina in on our threesome, thinking one of them might pretend to be my or Joey’s boyfriend at dances, but we didn’t know how to broach the subject without making it weird.

After dropping Suzi off, Joey and I discussed going public about the threesome. Everyone who knew us knew we were close friends, and we thought it would be a huge boost to Suzi’s image if people knew she had two boyfriends. Neither of us were that worried about people thinking we were gay because of that. Bi maybe, but bisexual wasn’t really something people though a lot about back then. The only problem we saw was people thinking we were weak instead of Suzi being strong.

Once we were dropped off at home, we had to go our separate ways. Instead of lounging around at home for a few hours, my mom took me shopping while pumping me for all the details about my father. We spent the rest of the morning Christmas shopping then had lunch at a mom and pop Italian place instead of eating at the zoo known as the mall’s food court. With Christmas being the following Wednesday, the mall was crammed.

Babysitting little Johnathan was precisely what I needed after the mall. He had just turned three the previous Saturday, and his little sisters (twins!) were only three months away. That evening I spent twenty minutes just listening to the primitive thoughts of their developing minds, sometimes getting glimpses of what it was like inside their mother’s womb.

I talked more about that than anything else with Joey and Suzi when we had our Saturday night link. The party was looking dead in the water, though. Joey and Suzi had done some calling around and it was clear while everyone was interested, nobody could commit to a date. My mom told me the next morning we would just send out invitations for New Year’s Eve and those who could come would.

One of the ladies at church worked at a small print shop that did everything from business cards to banners and did invitations of all kinds. We followed her after church to her brother’s business and she helped us design and set up the press to print the invitations out. This was back before computers ruled the printshops. We used an honest to God printing press that applied three different colors separately.

I hand-delivered them at school the next day. That last week before winter break seemed to creep by, the only highlights were Joey and I sneaking in some making out time with Suzi in the mornings and our three-ways Wednesday after school and Saturday night.

By lunchtime the following Monday, Joey and I were horny again, but Suzi was out with her mom shopping.

Frustrated with what little was on TV, Joey asked, “What if we did some mind hopping?”

I asked, “You mean for sex?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. That sort of feels like cheating. Besides, you’ll just want to hump my butt and legs again.”

Joey grinned and said, “And that is probably the only reason why it would be cheating. Suzi loves it when I do that sort of thing when she’s in the link.”

I sighed and said, “I know. If we do this, you should go home.”

Joey groaned and said, “Fuck that then. If it wasn’t so damn cold, I’d want to ride our bikes up to the mall and hop around there.”

I frowned, then looked at him and asked, “Why ride our bikes when we could just hitch a ride?”

“From who?”

“Anyone headed that way.”

“You mean, push someone to give us a ride?”

“That was one idea. I could also just make them ignore us but stop where we want them to.”

Joey grinned and said, “I’ll call my mom and let her know we’re heading to the mall.”

“Let me find someone first.”

I spent over an hour before locating someone. I had to do more than push them to take us, but Peter Kepler, a junior, was just aggravating his younger siblings on purpose for no reason other than he was bored. Seeing he had nothing better to do with his time, I made him excited to pick us up, wanting to show off his brand-new Cutlass Supreme.

Joey and I had a blast at the mall. Between developing a couple of mind hopping games and arranging several spontaneous outbreaks of complete strangers joining together to sing Christmas carols, we also had a lot of tits being flashed at us. While we were there, I helped Peter get a job at the mall’s food court just during the Christmas break. Peter was so grateful he agreed to take us with him to the mall whenever he worked. We also made arrangements to receive free food and drinks.

Suzi, Brad and Brook went with us on Tuesday. Peter was happy to pick us all up and take us. His parents were pleased he had had such a change of heart and was doing something besides make his little brother and sister miserable, but Peter’s biggest motivation for doing it was the chance to hook up with someone.

Brad was a little irritated with Brook. We had picked him up before the girls and he spent the three minute drive telling us all the shit Brook wanted him to do. Brad could tolerate a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid. Brook was more into Brook than Brad. He was seriously thinking of dumping her, but his little head kept overriding his big head as Brook had given him a few blowjobs since the Halloween party.

Joey said, “Dude, you need to let her go. If you need a blowjob, I’m sure several girls would love the chance.”

“Man, it’s not just the blowjobs. She’s so hot. We make a good-looking couple.”

I said, “Since when do you care about that? I think you’ve been listening to Brook too much.”

Brad frowned and said, “You think so?”

Joey and I both nodded, and Peter said, “Girls like that will dump you eventually anyway. I’ve had seven girlfriends since my freshman year. Trust me. Getting a girl to blow you isn’t that difficult. There are some that won’t do it, but plenty will.”

Joey gave me a questioning look to which I only gave him a shrug. I guess we’d have to do some research after Christmas. All in the name of science, of course.

After picking Suzi up, she announced, “Some of the other girls are meeting us there. We’re going to have so much fun!”

Then she thought to me, <And if you’re good, the girls are planning on giving the guys a reward.>

I connected Joey and sent back, <What kind of reward? Blowjobs?>

Suzi looked at me a little irritated and said, <It was supposed to be a surprise.>

Joey thought, <No shit?> Then he asked aloud, “How many girls are going?”

“Brook, Christine, Krystal, Mindy and Tracy.”

I asked, “Not Marsha and Tina?”

Suzi shrugged and said, “They were busy.”

Brad asked worriedly, “Are their boyfriends coming too?”

“Of course. Though Vito works at two, so we’ll have to be finished by then.”

Brad asked, “How come?”

Suzi looked at Brad and said fondly, “For the reward, silly. Brook has something special to give you today.”

Brad sighed and said, “Suzi, if I ask you something, can you keep it to yourself and not blab it to the other girls?”

Suzi got a slightly worried expression for a moment, but then glanced over at me and gave me a questioning look.

I shrugged.

Frustrated by that, Suzi looked at Brad and said, “It depends, Bradley. If it’s about Brook, then maybe you shouldn’t.”

Brad sighed and said, “Man, my dad told me women were trouble. Do me a favor, Suz. Remind me of this if I ever try to hook up with one of your girlfriends again. Dating advice from a ten-year-old only goes so far.”

I grinned and said, “That ten-year-old has a network of friends with older brothers and sisters. She’s pretty damn smart and has probably already figured out shit we’re just getting into.”

Peter said, “Rule two about dating girls. Don’t piss off their girlfriends. That’s the quickest way to get dumped.”

Suzi said, “He’s not wrong.”

Suzi then asked Peter, “What’s rule number one?”

“Girls talk. Everything you do is reported eventually.”

“How did you come up with these rules?”

Peter grinned as he pulled into Brook’s driveway and said, “My dad. Rule three is to keep the parents happy. Brad, go and ring the bell. Honking the horn to pick up a girl makes a bad impression with the parental units.”

Brad opened the door but then said, “Man, I want to hear the rest of these rules.”

I said, “We’ll fill you in.”

Peter said, “There’s only one more, but I can’t say it in front of a girl.”

Joey said, “Let me guess, give her what you want in return?”

Peter shrugged. As Brad turned and left to go to the door, Joey and Suzi both looked at me with questioning looks. I rolled my eyes but then popped into Peter’s head and pushed a thought.

Peter frowned, then turned around and asked Suzi, “How much experience have you had dating?”

Suzi, a little started, said, “I ... I guess not that much. Tim’s my first boyfriend.”

Peter glanced at me and said, “And she’s your first as well?”

I grinned and said, “In every way.”

Peter’s eyebrows shot up, understanding my meaning, but then he frowned, looked at Joey and asked, “What about you?”

Joey asked, “What about me?”

“Have you or not?”

Joey looked at me, uncertain what he was truly asking.

Suzi said, “He’s as experienced as Timmy. We all are.”

Peter looked at Suzi, his turn at being uncertain.

I pushed another thought, and Peter looked back and forth between Joey and me before deciding to turn forward and say, “I don’t think rule four will make a difference with you three.”

Suzi asked, “And that rule is?”

“Stick with virgins before college and get as much experience as you can with them. When it gets old, dump them and move on. But always keep rule 1 in mind. Sometimes it’s better they think they’re dumping you.”

Joey said, “And how do you do that?”

Peter said, “That’s the hard part. Look, I already broke the unspoken rule. By telling you that much, I’m taking the risk of being branded a womanizer. I’m not. I don’t chase after girls looking to get laid. Three of my exes are still virgins, and I didn’t break up with them because they didn’t put out. When it stops being fun and starts becoming an effort not to argue, that’s when it’s over. Nothing you do in high school matters long term.”

Suzi said, “You might think that, but if you wait until college to learn how to stick through the harder part, don’t you think you’ll have missed that opportunity to learn?”

Brad and Brook were approaching, so Peter said, “When I learn what I really want in a girl, then I’ll stick it out. Otherwise, I’m just wasting my time on girls I know I won’t end up with.”

Brad opened the front passenger door, and Brook slipped in to sit in the middle of the front bench, then Brad slid in after her.

The conversation from that point on was Suzi and Brook talking about where to start their shopping at and what they were looking for. They had obviously already discussed it on the phone earlier, but they seemed to think it was necessary to explain their thinking to the males in the vehicle. Not that we had any say. They clearly expected us to go along with whatever they had planned in exchange for the reward.

An hour after we had met up with the rest of the couples, Vito managed to convince the girls we would be better off shopping apart from the girls for a while.

We carried their packages out to his car to lock up, then as we all headed back to the mall, Jeremy finally said what we were all thinking.

“If I ever agree to do this again, someone please shoot me.”

Vito said, “I said the same thing over the summer when I went with my ex and her friends.”

Bryan, Krystal’s boyfriend, asked, “Then why did you agree to come today?”

Vito said, “Having a car opens up a lot of opportunities, but it can also be a liability.”

Vito had driven the other two couples to the mall.

Reggie, also a sophomore, said, “I can’t wait until I get my license next month.”

Joey said, “I hope this isn’t what New Year’s Eve will be like.”

Vito asked Joey, “Yeah, about that. My mom’s giving me a lot of grief over it being out the middle of no-where. Is it an old farmhouse or something?”

Joey said, “Fuck no. It’s Tim’s dad’s childhood mansion. The place is the size of a hotel and it even has a ballroom and an indoor pool.”

Reggie asked, “No shit? Your dad really is rich?”

I shrugged uncomfortably and said, “He is, but I’m not.”

Joey said, “Not yet.”

I said heatedly to Joey, “I’m not, and I plan on staying that way. The last thing I want is to have that sort of thing complicating my life any more than it is.”

Vito asked, “Complicated? How is your life more complicated from anyone else’s? You don’t even have to work to pay for car insurance.”

Bryan said, “Or play on any teams.”

Bryan was a jock.

I said, “My dad has a lot of beautiful women working for him and they’re very ... friendly with him. Money can change how a girl thinks of you. I don’t want that, okay?”

Brad asked, “Man, when did all this happen? You never said a word about it to me before.”

I sighed and said, “I know, and I’m sorry. Look, my dad just dropped into my life suddenly earlier this month and ... Well, my mom and he ... Shit. Joey?”

Joey said, “Short version is, his dad has more women than Hugh Hefner, but he still has a thing for Tim’s mom, and she has the same thing for his dad. Tim’s worried his mom will get hurt.”

Vito asked, “So, you think this party is just a way for your dad to score points with your mom?”

I shrugged and said, “Yes and no. His own dad was a shitty father to him, and because he doesn’t have any other sons, I’m like his chance to ... shit, I don’t know. Show his dad up or something.”

Joey said, “Tim, I still say you’re worrying about nothing. Your mom’s not stupid, and your dad isn’t heartless. He genuinely cares about his people. You said so yourself.”

I said, “I know.”

After a moment, I added, “Like I said, my life suddenly got complicated. I never knew who my dad was until I literally met him face to face.”

Joey said, “You can’t miss the family resemblance. If Tim’s hair was Vito’s or Brad’s color, he’d be the spitting image of his dad.”

Brad asked, “So, like, will we meet him at the party?”

I said, “No. He’s out of the country until the second. He and my mom have a date that Friday. While they’re doing that, Joey, Suzi and I will be getting to know my dad’s adopted daughters a little better.”

Joey grinned and said, “They’re identical twins and they’re really hot.”

As Joey gave them some more details, I noticed Cindy Fowler, one of the girls Dream Girl and I had played with that summer, was sitting on a bench outside the restrooms scoping out the guys. Cindy was in eighth grade but had turned fourteen in August. I had made the rule not to mess with anyone younger than thirteen and a half, and we had given Cindy an extra special fourteenth birthday gift: her first orgasm. Dream Girl had kept Cindy around for nine days, longer than any other girl. Cindy wasn’t the only eighth-grader we’d done that with, but she was most rememberable simply due to her enthusiasm for exploring the possibilities during our group fantasies.

Cindy was hot looking, and the way she was scoping the guys out, I was tempted to go flirt with her. I found it very arousing that a girl I had helped discover her sexual pleasures was now looking to explore more with someone else. I felt this need to be that someone else.

I forced myself to walk away without looking back, but by doing so, I separated myself from the guys for a minute. I stooped over to retie my shoes as I struggled to push the need, tinged with the power-lust, out of my system.

I must have taken longer than I thought as just when I finished retying my right shoe the second time, Joey thought to me, <Where did you go?>

I stood up and found they had passed me. I found them out of the side hall we had entered through in the main mall. I hurriedly caught up with them, thankful for the distraction from the need.

We ended up in the arcade where Brad, Joey and I spent more money than we probably should have playing a new game called Gauntlet. The game allowed up to four players to play at the same time, the first video arcade game we’d ever seen to do that. Reggie played with us a while but quit after ten minutes when it ate one too many quarters.

I was the wizard and loved it. Brad was the elf, the fastest character, and Joey was the valkyrie at first but then switched to the warrior when Reggie quit. Afterward, Joey commented the roles suited us in the sense I was the magic and Brad was the speed.

When I asked him which role his was, and he just shrugged and said, “Whatever you need me to be.”

Then he gave me an evil grin and thought, <Like on your birthday.>

He actually made me blush.

We met up with the girls at 11:30 in the food court where I started pushing thoughts into people’s heads to give us a big enough table to sit together.

After Joey and I sat down on either side of Suzi, Krystal and Tracy - who didn’t have our lunch period - looked at each other before Krystal asked, “Okay, you three. What’s going on?”

Suzi crooked an eyebrow at them. She might not be the queen of the group anymore, but she knew how to express her authority, so to speak.

Christina said, “I told you, didn’t I?”

Suzi asked, “What did you tell them?”

Christina said, “Suzi, don’t play games. Since when do male best friends not sit next to each other?”

Without hesitation, Suzi said, “Since I got tired of them constantly whispering things to each other like little kids with a secret.”

I frowned grumpily to which a few of the others snickered at.

Christina said, “Really? Then why when Joey smiles at you, you smile back?”

Suzi crossed her arms and said, “How is that anyone’s business?”

Brook gasped, “Woah. So it’s true?”

Mindy said, “I still say...”

When Mindy didn’t finish, Suzi said a little angerly, “What? What do you say? You all have apparently been talking behind my back. Come on. I want to hear it.”

Brook looked at Mandy and shrugged, then when the other girls did the same thing, Mandy groaned and said, “I’m not the one talking about it. Whenever they talk about it, I say it’s probably innocent and they’re reading too much into it.”

I looked at Christina and asked, “What exactly is IT?”

I then pushed her to respond.

Christina said, “We don’t know. That’s the thing. When you had that ... episode and were out of school, we all thought Suzi cheated on you with Joey. But then when you made up with them both, it was like ... like ... Well, you both can’t be her boyfriend, now can you?”

I grinned, and when I glanced over at Joey, I saw he was grinning a little too.

Suzi wasn’t, though. She was pissed off.

Suzi exclaimed, “What the hell is wrong with you all? You better not have been spreading that ... that...”

I said, “Truth?”

The guys started expressing their disbelief while the girls only seemed emboldened by that. Suzi, however, wasn’t ready to go public like that.

She glared at me, then looked at Joey and said, “Well? Aren’t you going to deny it?”

Joey shrugged and said, “Why lie about it?”

Suzi groaned, “Joey!”

Joeys said, “I’m tired of pretending I’m a third wheel, Suz. I love you, and I’m your boyfriend.”

I said, “And I love you, and I’m your boyfriend.”

Then both Joey and I said, “We’re not gay.”

Brad groaned, “Man, what the fuck? I know you two are close, but ... sharing the same girl?”

I said, “Suzi’s more than just a girl. She’s...”

When I failed to come up with something that felt appropriate, Joey grinned and said, “She’s Suzi.”

I nodded, but then I looked at each of them in the eyes before commanding, “This is private, and you won’t gossip about us. Understand?”

When everyone nodded their heads automatically, I relaxed. I had felt the command go out, but I had no idea how I had given it to all of them simultaneously.

When they all remained quiet, I got concerned and looked in Vito’s head to see if I fucked something up. I sighed in frustration when the command had made it impossible to even speak about it. I had to make a quick patch to let them talk about it around us.

At that point, the silent bubble burst, and we spent the next half hour linked in a three-way thought channel working together to answer their questions on how it happened.

Everything ground to a halt when Christina asked, “So wait. Does this mean you’re going to blow both of them later?”

The other girls shouted at Christina while the guys pretended to be startled by the news. Apparently, they all had been clued in at some point what the reward was about.

As the chaos distracted everyone, I popped into each of the girl’s head and checked to see if there was anything obvious that might make me responsible for their interest in giving out blowjobs. I couldn’t find anything specific, but I was startled to discover Brook was planning on dumping Brad after the party. While she hadn’t necessarily cheated on him, she was very interested in upgrading to a sophomore who had a car and had made some progress in that goal.

I shared that with Suzi and Joey but moved on to scan the rest.

The only thing I found definitive was Krystal, who I had long ago found erotic. While we didn’t have a lot of black students at our school, the ones we did have were from middle and upper-middle-class families. There wasn’t a lot of racism in our school. You were more likely to be made fun of based on what neighborhood you lived in rather than the color of your skin. We didn’t have slums per se, but we did have trailer parks, and they were famous for their drug and domestic abuse issues. You could say most of us were racist against white trash.