Chapter 34: Damage Control

I watched Tim closely during practice but could see no sign that anything unusual may have come up. Then it hit me. Duh, like she would talk to him about it. Bob had us running a seven-mile course over varying terrain and while we made good time we were definitely feeling it by the time we finished. We chatted while we were stretching.

"Talked to my parents this morning. They said it's okay for you and Angie to come over on Saturday. Everything okay on your end?" I asked.

"Yeah, we'll be there. Can we bring anything?"

"Just your suits. We're probably just going to do burgers and chips and stuff. We have some soda but if there is anything special you want to drink then bring that. Or if there is a special movie you want to watch, or I have a PS2, so if there is are any games you guys like, whatever. We're not big on planning."

He grinned at me. "So, you think you can handle Angie in a bathing suit?"

I grinned back and said, "Think you can?"

"Come on, I grew up with her. I've seen it before."

I had to laugh at that. "Dude, don't even tell me what you've seen before. This is a whole new ball game and you're not looking at her as "just your sister" any more than she is looking at you as "just her brother." As for me, I'll be fine; I've got Allison to distract me. This ought to be fun to watch."

Allison was in her usual spot out by the pool doing her homework when I got home. Not wanting to repeat past mistakes I made sure she knew I was coming. And, to make a proper greeting before I started talking, I leaned over the back of her chair, shielding her from the sun with my body and kissed her. Upside down kisses are very different. I broke off after a few interesting seconds.

"Well that was certainly different," I said. "Missed you, sunshine, how was your day?"

"Okay I guess, for a school day," she said without looking up from the equation she was working on. "I thought I was going to have to hurt Shannon though."

"Yeah, what's up with her?"

"Bad case of the hornies. She can't wait for the weekend. I had to pinch her twice in PE. Like I said, I may have to hurt her."

"Well, you may feel like hurting me too."

That got her attention. She looked up. "Why? Did you do something?"

"Not intentionally but, you remember what I told you about last night?"

"Your little trip to Angela's? I told you, that's not an issue. Why do you keep bringing it up?"

"Because I talked to Bob about it today. Nothing specific, just that I bridged and what the circumstances were, how I handled it and why. You know, just bringing him up to date on latest developments."

"And?"

"Well, he thinks I may not have been successful in defusing the situation. In fact, there is every indication that I may have made it worse."

"How? I thought you did pretty well."

"Yeah I thought so too. Apparently it's the usual problem guys have of not understanding women. Without naming names or anything he posed a hypothetical to Susan and Coach Jenkins and they were not encouraging."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let me give you the hypothetical he used and see what your reaction is. Okay, you have a friend, not one you're hot for but you wouldn't kick him out of bed either. This person does something really nice for you. So nice that you decide to invite him over for a horizontal thank you party. Being the really nice guy that he is he tells you that he loves and respects you too much to take advantage of you that way."

I could see the gears turning in her head as I talked and the grin wasn't far behind. "Oh yeah! You're in trouble."

"Thanks a lot! Coach Jenkins told me I should wear old clothes for the next week because whatever I'm wearing when "she" catches up with me is going to need replacing."

"Big time! Ooh what she's going to do to you!"

"So you agree with them. I blew it. I'm sorry, sis. What am I going to do?"

"Not much you can do, and it's not that you blew it. It was a no win situation from the beginning. You did the best you could. Just wait and see what happens. It may go away by itself but I kind of doubt it. One thing though?"

"What's that?"

"If it does happen, don't worry about what I'm going to think, okay. It's not your fault and I'm not going to be upset. And whatever you do, don't hold back. If she says "Thank you" make darn sure you say "You're welcome." You know what I mean?"

"So treat her the way I would treat you if it was you with me?"

"Yes. Like I'm sure you did in the dream. Do your best to make it just as special for her as you would for Shannon or me."

"Bob suggested that was what got me in trouble in the dream. My God, what am I going to say to Shannon?"

"Jimmy! It's Shannon. She'll be fine. But while we're on the subject, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think we need to tell her the truth."

"You mean?"

"Yep, everything. Like I said, I've been thinking about it. I feel like we've been lying to her and I don't like it."

"Yeah, when you put it like that. Mom and Dad is one thing, they just don't need to know. But when it's someone you love..."

"Exactly, and love is the key word. Not that we don't love Mom and Dad, but that's different. We love Shannon and it hurts us to deceive her even a little bit. I don't like keeping secrets from her. Besides, she loves us just as much and would never do anything to hurt or betray us."

"Okay. So how do you want to do it?"

She sat up and put her books down. "Well, I've been wondering, and this will also be a bit of an experiment. You know how you brought Rebecca and I and Amy to the beach? Do you think you could bring Shannon to the glade? Or maybe take both of us to the beach, at the same time?"

"Wow. I have no idea. I hadn't given it any thought. Going to the glade is no different than going into someone else's dream. Taking one of you to the beach is bringing you basically into my dream. I never thought about bringing two people at once, I guess it should be possible. Taking someone into a "third party" dream? I have no idea whether I can or not. It's an intriguing idea and definitely worth experimenting though. How about this? I'll try to bring her to the glade first. If that works then the other should be easy. If it doesn't work then I can take her to the island and then see if I can bring you too. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a plan, you thinking tonight?"

"Might as well."

"Bad idea. Well, not a bad idea, but maybe I have a better one. Wait until she's here for the night. We can spend a little quality time ravishing her and then while she is coming down from the endorphins we'll give her the basics. She probably won't believe it but will at least listen. Then, when we all go to bed, you do your thing. Hopefully you can bring her to the glade because she should recognize it from the many times I've described it to her. And this way she won't wake up in bed all alone and wonder if any of it was real. This way, if she wakes up and wonders, we'll be here to talk to her about it, and to apologize in person for deceiving her all this time. You know, a little 'make up' time." The way her eyes lit up when she said that left no doubt as to what she meant.

"Okay," I said, weighing her words in my mind. "I guess that does sound like a better way to do it. I wouldn't want her to wake up alone and wonder if she was losing her mind. I'd at least like to be around to help her find it."

Shannon was spending the night Friday so it was only one more day either way.

My "friends" at school were still laughing at my dilemma the next morning at break. As I walked up to the table Susan grinned and said, "Still standing. I'm impressed." That was enough to set Bob and the coach off.

"Very funny!" I said, setting my books down and taking a seat. I turned and confronted her as seriously as I could. "For your information, Miss Swann," I let the attitude balloon deflate, "she hasn't found me yet." That set off another round of laughter.

Suddenly Bob stopped and looked hard past my shoulder, "You may have spoken too soon." I whipped around like I'd been stung. No one was there. They were all in danger of convulsions by now. I turned back and glared at him. "Oh, very funny!"

Coach Jenkins poked me in the arm and said, "Lighten up, Matthews, it's not like you're waiting to be executed. For goodness sakes; someone wanting to jump your bones is not the worst thing in the world. What's the matter? She fat and ugly?"

Bob stopped laughing and said, "Melinda, you don't even want to go there. You'll regret it."

She looked back at him. "You bastard! You know who it is, don't you?"

Now Susan turned on him, "You do know who it is! That is so not fair."

"Now, ladies," he said, the shark's grin once more stretched across his face; "the personal lives of our students are none of our business unless they come to us with a problem. And if a student comes to you with a problem it should be kept in the strictest confidence."

Coach Jenkins looked at Susan. "That's asshole for 'yeah, I know and I'm not gonna tell you.'"

"Well I for one am glad," I said, "considering how you've handled the part you already know I sure don't want you to find out who she is. I thought I was your friend and look how you've treated me."

Susan looked sad for a second and put her hand on mine. "Jimmy, of course we're your friends. Why else would we be doing it?"

"Yeah, what else are friends for?" asked Bob.

I just laughed and nodded my head. "Just checking, but I'm giving you fair warning. I've got four years at this school and someday my chance will come and it'll be payback time."

We had one last laugh and headed for our afternoon classes.

Shannon and Allison were already at the house when I got home. There was a note from Mom on the counter with the phone number of the hotel they were staying at along with the usual stuff about not wrecking the place and to have a good weekend. They had left us some cash for emergencies as well as some extra for snacks and movies.

I put on my suit and went out to look for the girls. I expected to find them soaking up sunlight. Instead I found them at the far end of the pool trying to extract each others tonsils. Shannon had Allison backed against the end of the pool supporting her against the side. There was something wrong with the whole thing but I couldn't place it. You know, it's that feeling you get that something is missing from a room, but you can't quite put your finger on it.

Allison's eyes were closed and she was obviously concentrating on the task at hand. Suddenly I realized what was missing. There was no strap around Shannon's neck. I looked closer. Nope, none on Allison's either. I glanced down into the water and confirmed what I suspected. No bottoms either.

Neither of them had noticed me yet so I quietly slipped into the near end and went submarine. The pool is not that big so it didn't take long and I was underneath them. I decided that safety may be preferable to surprise so I discarded my first idea, tickling, and instead just reached out to stroke my hands over the two most perfect bottoms I've ever seen. Keeping my hands full, I surfaced next to them.

"Hi, girls! Hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

They both turned to me, smiling.

"As a matter of fact you are, and if you were anyone else we would probably hurt you. But since it's you, why don't you join us?"

With that they opened their arms on the near side and drew me in next to them. I kissed Shannon first since it had been longer since I had seen her. I felt Allison's hand sliding down my side. I turned to kiss her just as it reached my suit. She pulled back when I tried to kiss her.

"Oh, this just will not do!"

"What?" I asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I'll say you did! Shannon! He's got his suit on!"

"He what? Eeewww, and I kissed him!" She started to pull away but I still had a hand on her butt and I held on tight.

"Okay, okay," I laughed, "I get the message, but there's nothing I can do about it. My hands are full." I gave them each a gentle squeeze. "Very nicely full at that."

Allison smiled and said, "Maybe I can help." With that she ducked under water and I felt hands at my waistband, struggling to untie the knot holding my suit up. It must not have been going well because she came back up sputtering. She took a breath and dove under again. This time I just felt hands pulling and tugging. It may have worked except for the fact that my erection was in the way. She came back up. "Shannon, dearest, could you give me a hand with this?"

"Love to." She kissed me and then went under with Allison. A hand snaked into the waistband and pressed my cock up against my stomach and suddenly my trunks were pulled so hard they almost took me under. A second pull had them around my knees and from there they just drifted off. The hand on my cock began playing with my balls lightly. It would have been an interesting sensation if not for the normal reaction to being immersed in cool water. Again I was reminded that water is a really poor lubricant. Fortunately, she gave up quickly and both of them returned to the surface.

"That's better." Allison declared as she brushed her hair back. She then plastered her body against me, throwing her arms around my neck and twining her legs around mine. It felt great but I had to grab the side of the pool to keep us from sinking like rocks. She didn't seem to care as she started rubbing herself all over me and attacking my mouth. After about 30 seconds she pulled back just long enough to say, "Welcome home, sweetie, I missed you so much." She began showering my face and neck with kisses and went on, "I was so lonely, I don't know what I would have done if Shannon hadn't come over, why, I might have just died." All the while she was pressing and rubbing herself all over my body. It was really nice.

"Well then, we should thank her for saving you. Don't you think?"

"Absolutely. Come here, cutie." Allison kind of rotated around to one side and now Shannon moved in to tangle herself up with the two of us. She kissed Allison hotly and then the two of them started on me. Shannon worked my mouth over while Allison nibbled at my neck and ear. It was awesome. Four firm breasts mashed against me, four hard nipples tickling gouges of fire across my chest. If it weren't for the fact that I was having a hard time keeping us above water I would have really enjoyed it.

"Thank you for keeping Allison safe."

"My pleasure," she said as she kissed my neck.

"No mine," Allison argued as she lightly bit my ear lobe. By this time the cool water and the distraction of trying to stay afloat was the only thing keeping me from defiling the pool.

"Oh God I love you two! I love you so much that I am going to suggest that maybe we should move this somewhere less life threatening before we drown."

"I'm not afraid," Shannon said. "My big strong Jimmy would never let that happen."