XIV

Steve had been the anchor for Laurel’s days, she decided. Mornings were about consultations with Jennifer and Theo, but she’d always felt like her day started with lunch and sex with Steve. Now that he was gone, she didn’t know what to do.

She did get a latte at the coffee place at which Steve had worked. Then she walked around for a while. She stood across the street from the pet food store, but she didn’t dare approach any closer for fear that Dylan would see her.

A middle school girl escorted by a high school boy put up fliers outside the pet food store. The girl was taking the matter much more seriously than her brother. Laurel found a flyer that they had already put up on her side of the street: it was about a lost cat - black and white, barely an adult.

She texted Tyler to see if she could meet them before band practice, but he said no: they had a gig out of town.

She shuffled on toward the library. A trio of boys approached her. All were giggling, lending each other courage for the confrontation, but only one spoke. “You’re that girl who likes to party, right?”

She didn’t answer. They looked like they were fifteen. Laurel couldn’t remember ever feeling older than anyone before. One of them reminded her of Billy, her first boyfriend. Except he hadn’t been her boyfriend: she’d never had a boyfriend. Billy had just been the first boy she’d screwed.

“‘Cause, you know, we like to party,” he went on. Then he dug in his pocket and pulled out a three-pack of condoms. He held them out as if they were a holy relic.

Laurel gave them a sad look and then shook her head. “Please don’t be like this.”

The boys stopped laughing and looked at each other, confused, and then scampered off.

Later a policeman watched her suspiciously as if she were about to start selling her body on the street corner at any moment.

At the library, Laurel sat down in front of her laptop and began typing a letter to Jennifer. She explained why she was quitting, leaving the project in Jennifer’s hands. She wished them well and knew that her successor would help the world in all the ways she had failed to. She knew that Jennifer could find someone more capable - someone who wasn’t a screw-up. It was a relief to finally make the decision and release herself from burdens she wasn’t built to carry.

Laurel would, of course, write up some notes to help her successor step into the role. What those notes should contain, once she began writing them, seemed endless. She had so much advice on so many aspects of the research, and everything she wrote seemed to beg for more details. The team had been documenting their findings all through the project, but she now found that everything she had written up until then was worthless - hopelessly out of date or naive compared to her current understanding.

Theo joined her. She couldn’t look at him, but thankfully he didn’t force her.

The specific challenges of dealing with multiple men simultaneously was a tricky topic. She had to keep throwing away what she wrote and starting over, which was stupid because all she had to say was don’t do it - it’s impossible. Except it wasn’t impossible - not in theory. There were probably ways to deal with the inherent challenges. Or at least there should be. And, in fact, in theory, there were certain efficiencies to gain if someone could just ... Well, that was something her successor would have to deal with.

A rain began. Theo looked at the time - it was early evening. “Did you want to stop by Riley’s and see Rick?”

“No - let’s just go home,” Laurel answered.

She would leave Jennifer’s letter on the breakfast table, maybe.

Theo asked if Laurel was planning on going out anymore. She shook her head. She was curled up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea listening to the rain. That seemed like a good plan for the rest of the night. She told him to go see his boyfriend and not worry about her.

It was funny - now that she had decided to quit the project, her mind wouldn’t stop coming up with more questions that needed to be asked and tests that needed to be performed. She would amend her notes when she got back home to her dad, far away.

She got a text from Tyler.

Tyler: The gig was fucking awesome! Wish you could have seen us!

Laurel: I’m happy for you.

Laurel: Hey, are you guys free? Could you maybe do me like you did before? All at once?

It would just be one last reading, to clarify her notes on multiple simultaneous partners for the next girl. The next girl might not be comfortable with this sort of thing, after all. And she might have trouble finding three willing partners. Truthfully, though, it was all about the intellectual itch that writing her notes had brought about.

Even that wasn’t entirely true, she realized as she drove to Kevin’s house. The more she thought about it, the more she admitted that the sex act itself was pulling her. Once she was back at college, hopefully, she would have normal college sex. And hopefully, she’d even get a boyfriend - a really good one who cared for her and gave her all the sex she wanted. But back at college, she wouldn’t get the chance to do three guys at once. Even though that was part of what she was running from, she would miss it. So just this once more before she left: she would let the boys team up on her. She would beg them to use her if she had to. And she would surrender to all the wonderful sensations that there were no words for.

She wasn’t dressed sexy, she realized as she pulled into the driveway. She had changed into her comfy clothes when she and Theo came home from the library when she thought she would be staying home: gym shorts and an oversized T-shirt - not even a bra. She did take her time adjusting her glamour though. She had a pretty good idea what these boys responded to by now, and she was going to give it to them, turned up to eleven. When that was done she fished around in the back seat for her umbrella and scampered up to the front door.

“Jesus, Laurel, you are so fucking hot,” Tyler told her once inside. He’d been drinking, but probably not enough to hinder his performance. He reached out and touched her face and it sent a shockwave of good feelings through her body.

Kevin helped her with her coat and umbrella. “Can you believe after his date with you, he described you as, ‘cute, if you’re into that sort of thing’?” Laurel giggled.

“Yeah,” Bruce added. “Cute if you’re into that whole ‘sexiest girl in the entire state’ thing!” She blushed.

“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Tyler admitted.

“Thanks,” she said graciously. She wondered, though, if they’d be attracted to her all without her glamour.

“You want a beer?” Tyler said, presenting a can to her. “We’ve sort of been celebrating a damned good gig.”

She shook her head. “No thanks - I’m going to have to drive home after.”

“You could stay. All night...” Kevin offered. “My roommates are in Seattle.”

Laurel shook her head. “Skye didn’t want to celebrate with you?” Laurel asked.

Tyler looked like a guilty child. “She was here ... until we got your text.”

Kevin explained, “We tried to get her to stay. Said it could be one hell of a party. I mean, I don’t know what you’re into, but...”

Bruce took over. “Yeah, but she just kept going on about ‘my boyfriend’ this, ‘my boyfriend’ that.”

Tyler took a deep chug. “It is so cool to meet a girl who’s above all that relationship crap. I love that you get it. There’s friendship and sex! Until you’re ready to have kids, there’s no reason to make it any more complicated than that!” He crunched the can he’d just finished in his hand. “I wanna put my dick in your mouth.”

Kevin’s room was uncluttered, with a queen-sized bed. Undressing her went quickly, of course, but it took longer for her to undress the boys. She smiled a little bit more every time she exposed another section of boy-flesh. They were all hers, for the evening. She frequently rubbed her thighs together, responding to the feeling of her dripping pussy.

Laurel ended up on her side giving a warmup blowjob to Kevin while Bruce took a fascination with fingering her pussy. He’d never done it before, he said, and wanted to “figure it out”. And he did. Laurel had to abandon Kevin’s dick and lay on her back while Bruce’s finger inside her made her flop around like a puppet. His bandmates watched approvingly as he teased out a nice long climax accompanied by many soft short girlish moans.

“Can I have your ass this time?” Bruce asked after Laurel retrieved the bottle of lube from her coat. “I’ve never done that.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said with an affable shrug. “I want us all to come together this time. So two of you can come inside me, but whoever’s at my mouth still has to pull out and paint me, okay?”

“Worth a try,” Tyler responded, “but all coming together? Seems like a longshot.”

“We can do it,” Laurel said, full of optimism. “We almost did last time, by accident.”

“Okay, so, where do you want us?”

They began with Laurel on her side. Bruce penetrating her ass produced a squeal and jump alarming enough that they asked if she was okay. She responded with a coy smile and an enthusiastic nod. “Use me as hard as you want, okay? I can take it!” She said to all of them.

Managing her legs so that Tyler could fill up her pussy took some experimentation. Her left leg ended up under his midsection but he tucked her right leg in his armpit and held it there.

“Oh my god, so fucking full!” She muttered. “I’m so glad that you guys have penises!”