Chapter 17

The next couple of weeks were basically disastrous at home, but extremely promising at school and work.

Mom and I were playing hide-but-do-not-seek. She was obviously embarrassed about her direct overture, and no doubt mortified that I had -- at least in her mind -- rejected her. She was working longer hours, partly due to the need to keep away from me (as I was doing with her), but also because of the continuing success of Dr. Faizal’s project with my pheromones. The trials were experiencing rapid and spectacular success, so the marketing department had gone into overdrive preparing for their marketing campaign.

Jut in case everything Dr. Faizal predicted came true, there would be two completely new lines of products to sell, one to women, but the more lucrative one would be to men. That was very promising financially. One of the unfortunate consequences of that was that I hardly ever saw Alice. In a way I guess that was good because it avoided any more potential conflict with Mom after she had discovered Alice’s panties in my room, even though she wasn’t really sure of who they belonged to.

At school, I was getting A’s from both Ingrid and Jacqueline, and Ingrid and I were figuring out how to have a sleepover, or maybe even a long weekend so the three of us could spend some quality time together. Due to Mom spending so much time at work, both were a distinct possibility. Since Mr. Franklin retired, my new teacher, Ms. Finklestein, had been very encouraging and helpful. She was plain and dowdy, not at all the type I would want in my bed, but she also seemed to be mildly affected by my scent, so I was happy to get the benefit of her easy grading.

I had already been getting an A in P.E. due to my natural athleticism, and the only challenge had been in science. I had never done well in either science or social studies, both coincidentally taught by men. It seemed that since the two beautiful single teachers had taken a ‘shine’ to me, it had become noticed in the teacher’s lounge. Fortunately for me, the two men must have been trying to have some dating success with Ingrid and Jacqueline, because they rapidly became much more friendly with me and gave me better grades. Whatever the cause, I wasn’t going to complain.

Because the controlling Carlos was at home most of the time, there was no chance of meeting up with Angelica, and Maria was also keeping very low-key to avoid getting her father suspicious. She still flirted with me, but no more frequently than Kim, who was still wavering between making a full commitment to sex with me or just sucking me off while I played with her bare breasts. That was fine; I had enough things going on in my life that I didn’t need to complicate it more with Kim.

The only thing keeping me from doing something crazy with any of those women was Dr. Faizal -- and, on most occasions, Daphne. Dr. Faizal was not only mentoring me on pheromones and my own psyche, she was also helping me out with science and psychology. A lot of our discussions about psychology involved how to deal with my mother as well as the other women in my life. All the while, she was working very hard to make herself famous and me very rich. Well, and of course the company. But a couple of times a week I still had sex with one or the both of them, ranging from a nice blowjob to a crazy threesome that usually included anal with one or both of them.

I was musing on all of this as I wandered into the cafeteria, not really noticing what they were serving that day. Suddenly Maria rushed up to me, her face all flushed and her breathing kind of ragged.

“Uh, hi, Maria. How ya doing?” I was a little flustered by her unexpected approach, especially as she seemed so wrought up.

She looked around quickly, as though worried that we were being observed. Well, what the hell, we were in the school cafeteria, right?

“Okay,” she panted.

“Uh, okay, great. You, uh, you wanna join me for lunch?”

She looked at me very seriously. “No. I just wanted to tell you my dad’s going out of town next week. On a long business trip.”

“Ooooh,” I breathed. My face lit up with expectation, but then I put on a serious expression. “Oh, well. I, uh, hope he has a real successful trip. Maybe we can get together sometime.”

“Yeah. Thanks. I’ll let him know.” She stressed the ‘him’ to imply she really meant ‘her’.

“Okay,” I said. “Well, if you’re sure you don’t want to join me?”

“Yeah, I can’t now,” she said. “Maybe next week?”

“I’ll be around,” I promised.

She gave me a shy smile that radiated happiness. “Great.”

Then she walked off, as if afraid her father might walk into the cafeteria and catch us making out. Okay, that was a little weird, but I certainly understood that she was in a very new and weird situation. I would try to make it as easy as possible for her.

I didn’t taste a thing I was eating. After all of the turmoil of the past few weeks, both the ups and down, I was in kind of a euphoria at the thought of getting back together with Angelica and Maria. It wasn’t just the kinky sex; I really did have an affection for the both of them. Of course, it was also about the kinky sex.

Still drifting on my private cloud, I hardly noticed the strange girl who met me at the door of the cafeteria and walked by my side toward my next class.

“Hey, Mark.”

I shook myself out of my reverie and looked down at her. She had dark hair with purple and blue streaks, heavy eye makeup, and a ring in her nose. Her short, petite figure was draped in a long black dress made out of some shiny material. Her voice was kind of familiar, but I had no clue as to who she was. After a few seconds of my blank stare she caught on.

“It’s Marcy,” she said

Oh, good grief! Marcy Meuse had gone Goth. I would never have figured that one. When I got over my shock I responded intelligently.

“Oh. Uh, hi there. Uh, Marcy.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised you didn’t recognize me. Y’mind if we go somewhere and talk?”

I looked around as if to imply that we were somewhere, but instead I said: “Well, unless it’s quick, we only have a few minutes before class.”

“Yeah, okay. It might take a little while to explain it. How about right after school by the big oak?”

“Uh, sure. I have about fifteen minutes before I have to jet for class.”

She looked perplexed for a second, then nodded. “Right. You do some kind of martial arts. Yeah, that should be fine.”

“Fine,” I agreed.

All afternoon I wondered what the hell that was all about. In fact, it bothered me so much it almost totally took my mind off of pleasant thoughts about soon getting back together with Maria and Angelica. I found myself musing on Marcy Meuse, whom I hadn’t even noticed in months. It kind of amused me that this mousy little nerd had suddenly gone Goth and decided that for some reason she wanted to talk with me about something that might take more than a couple of minutes. But why the sudden urgency? Then I shrugged and wrote it off to the basic incomprehensible nature of women.

After school I got my bike stuff out of my locker, unlocked my bike, and headed out to the big oak. Marcy was already there pacing nervously around the tree. Fortunately, nobody else was nearby.

“Okay, Marcy,” I said by way of greeting. “What did you want to talk about?”

She took a deep breath and evidently decided to launch right into it. “Mark, for the past couple of years I’ve been having strange feelings. Many of them were related to you.”

Oh, good grief, I thought. My sexy smell strikes again. The last girl I ever thought would be attracted to me was this nerdy plain Jane, and I already had too much going on to spend a lot of time on this. Still, Marcy had always been very polite to me, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if I could avoid it. I already had enough angst going on about my mom. And a few other women.

“Oh,” I said carefully. “Yeah, well, what kind of feelings?”

Marcy looked at me, and her eyes widened and blinked rapidly. She had large eyes for her tiny face, and the heavy makeup made them look huge. Her body was kind of vibrating with nervousness.

She gulped and blurted it out. “You know, like, sexy thoughts. Uh, kind of nasty sexy thoughts. About you ... uh, doing things to me.”