Chapter 128: Ava's Commitment

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 (Continued)

Julia and I shot up to Julia's room, the teapot completely forgotten. Ava was sitting on the bed, with a face containing several emotions. A dominant one was worry, and I didn't want her to worry for a second longer than she had to, so I said what I'd thought of on the way up, "We're going to do this even better than Julia said before, Ava. Not only are Julia and I going to support you, but all of Julia's family want to be here to witness it, and to show you that they'll provide you with support too. We don't want you to be naked, so you'll be doing it just as you are now." We hadn't discussed that on the way up, but I was using my Lordly prerogative. It wasn't often that I'd be using it to keep clothes on a girl, but this was definitely one such event.

Worry was no longer a dominant emotion on Ava's face. "REALLY?" squealed Ava.

"Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it." I figured this was one of those situations like not saying "Eww" when you went down on a girl. There are times you have to show enthusiasm, whether you feel it or not. In this case, "not": I had zero expectation that this would work out as well as pussy licking had. I was actually terrified of being around Ava when her parents were dying and for the following months, as I hate to see people in pain and I expect I'll be totally useless at helping her handle it.

I had time for my thoughts to ramble because Ava was all over me, expressing her joy and love. This was the first time she'd seen me since she'd arrived this evening, and my absence must have been bothering her greatly. She was showering me with appreciative kisses and expressions of joy and love. I was happy to hug and kiss her back, and to say nice things, but I couldn't say "I love you" back to her. It's a hell of a weird phrase, as it felt wrong to say it and it felt wrong to NOT say it. How is that logically possible? (It involved a girl.)

After expressing her joyous appreciation of me for a minute or so, Ava pulled Julia into a three-way hug and started expressing appreciation to her too. Julia got several "thank yous" and even some "I love yous", but not so emotionally as mine had been and still were. We let Ava express herself while she slowly unwound. It was fair to say that tonight was a VERY big deal for her. Eventually the excitement and relief had wound down, and she started talking in sentences more than two or three words long. Among her other sentences, she said, "I was so worried. It was taking so long and I..."

I replied automatically, "Sorry about that, Ava. That was my fault."

I'd gotten about 80% of the way through that before I realized what I was saying. It was my absence that Ava was talking about, and it seemed automatically obvious for me to apologize for it. God knows I was feeling sorry for all sorts of other reasons, so I had to apologize for something, and this was simply the first opportunity. There was nothing bad about the subject, or the words per se, but at the 80% mark I realized I was contradicting the "Mark knows everything" theme we'd had before. Then I realized that our (I will say "our", Julia's AND my) arrogance had gotten us in into this mess, so I did finish the sentence as intended.

^-- I was thinking about the messy, accidental consequences of my not being all-knowing, as I was advertised to be, and decided to add, "I didn't know your parents were sick." I wanted to use it to explain why I'd been absent for so long - which I was truly sorry for because I could easily imagine how much it must've worried Ava - and to give us a reason for why the ceremony was going to change. I also realized that it was a little dig at her for not telling me about their sicknesses earlier. Which made me wonder how different this mess would've been if she'd mentioned her parents sicknesses to us a day or two ago. How could she think I "knew everything" if she didn't tell me this! I could create colored light blobs, not read minds!

I had to cut that train off thought off, because I could feel myself getting angry. Let's hope Vanessa is right about this mess turning out well, because I was scared me shitless. It was going to be horrific for her, and I had absolutely no experience comforting people, not even for minutes, let alone for months or years. I wanted to run away, but couldn't, and that could very easily make me angry at Ava. It wasn't fair to blame her for my being in this position now. Apart from anything else, her parents had told her not to tell anyone. This was Julia's and my doing, simply because we'd been too greedy and had opened our mouths too wide (I considered the "we" was justified, even though only Julia had talked). I'd been thinking too long, so I quickly added, "When I found out your parents were sick, that made me realize that your commitment to me was even larger than I'd thought it was. We had to discuss how to make our response larger."

I wasn't sure where I was going with this thought, and while I was sort of rambling, looking for a final point to make, one of my minds reminded me, #1: <Katelin's downstairs, so how are we going to juggle the sex tonight? One thing's for sure, we can't ignore Ava all night while we boink Katelin. Also, when we spend time with Ava, do we have sex with her or just cuddle and get all mushy? Then there's the issue of what to do about Katelin? It doesn't seem right to put Ava and Katelin together, and it's awkward to send Katelin straight back home again, especially as we're making good on her prize. I'd really like to ask Julia what she thinks, but it's not going to be easy to disengage from Ava, and the rest of the family will probably be up soon.>

#3: <Let me speak.>

I said, "Ava, sweetie. We're no longer going to do our previous plan of me thrashing you with a belt, so you're not going to be lying prostrate on a bed unable to move. But we previously invited another girl here tonight thinking you would be out of action. Julia knows Katelin much better than I do, so what do you think we should do, Julia?"

Julia said, "It's up to you, but this is what I think: Katelin's been waiting since Sunday to collect on the prize that you agreed to, she likes you a lot and she's very excited, so it'd be cruel to disappoint her. You should spend an hour or two making sure she's very happy. Ava and I will talk in your study while you're doing that. Ava understands that you're going to have lots of girls coming and going, and that's perfectly fine with her, just like it's perfectly fine with me. Ava's going to be spending more time with you than almost any other girl, because you're accepting her commitment, so she's not going to miss out in the long run. I'm sure there will be some nights she'll be begging you to let her have some rest. Right Ava?"

"{Giggle}. I wish I had begged for a rest the LAST time. Mark, I will do anything you want tonight. Or any night. Or day too, haha. Just tell me. Don't worry about me tonight. Just do as much as you want with Katelin. I'm very happy already."

Julia hugged Ava, saying, "Isn't she wonderful?" Then continued, "Mark, just have sex with Katelin as much as you want, then come and get us from the study. We'll push Katelin to one edge of the bed and the three of us will use the rest of it. Ava might not be in the mood for sex, or she might want to celebrate her pseudo-wedding wildly. We'll let Ava choose depending on how she feels at that time. Katelin can do whatever she wants: join in, lie there with her eyes open or closed, or go hide in the study. That's her choice, although she won't be able to monopolize you because most of your attention should be on Ava. You promised to sleep with Katelin overnight, so when you've finished with us, we'll go get her from the study if she went there. Then we sleep - the bed's big enough for the four of us. In the morning, after your studying, you can have sex with whoever you want. It'd be nice to give Katelin a pleasant 'Good Morning', so she can go to school with a smile on her face, but that's up to you. I'm sure Ava and I would like to go to school smiling too."

#2: <I think that's a good plan. How about the rest of you?>

We all agreed it was a good plan, especially because Ava looked happy. Her happiness had to come first because this was a very important evening for her. With Ava so happy, the boinking sounded good. It'd also make Katelin's stories to the lunchtime crowd tomorrow rather interesting. Ava particularly enjoyed cracking a couple of jokes about the surprises Katelin was going to get tonight.

Julia added to Ava, "Imagine how she's going to talk about it at lunch tomorrow."

I wasn't surprised Julia had thought of that. Julia's comment set Ava's laughter off again. Ava was in a very good mood so laughed easily. After a couple of silly suggestions about what Katelin might say, Ava asked, "Will I really spend a lot more time with Mark than other girls, the way you said, Julia?"

Julia said, "Yes, you will. That's a consequence of Mark's accepting your commitment. I hope you're not asking because you want to compete with the other girls?"

"Oh no! I didn't mean that! I just meant that I'd be spending so much time with Mark. I can't believe how lucky I am." After a small pause. "Mark could spend his time with a LOT of girls, if he wanted, couldn't he?"

"Of course," nodded Julia. "I'm sure he will too."

"Yeah, but he's going to spend a lot of time with me. That's amazing." Another little pause, then, "But why would he want to be with me when he can be with so many other girls? Some of them..."

"Ava," interrupted Julia. "That's a 'Why' question. You are questioning one of Mark's decisions."

"Oh no! I'm sorry. I never meant to..."

"That's okay," interrupted Julia again. "You haven't made your commitment yet, and no one's angry about it. I'm just pointing it out to you, to help you get better at stopping them in the future. I can tell you the answer if you want? It's a very easy answer."

"Why? Oh no! - I said 'why' again."

"Haha. Relax Ava. I asked you to. You don't have to be afraid of doing anything Mark and I ask you to do. The reason Mark's going to accept your commitment, and agree to spend a lot more time with you than normal, is because he thinks you're a lovely person and he likes you very much. It's pretty simple, isn't it?"

"Really? You like me, Mark?"

I answered, "Ava, sweetie. You wouldn't be here if I didn't like you. In fact, you wouldn't even be here if all I did was like you. You're here because I like you VERY MUCH." That set off another round of hugging, sweet statements to each other, and the like.

Julia was the first to say something substantial, "Ava, yes you'll spend much more time with Mark than other girls will, but you still have to be very careful not to waste his time, get in the way of what he wants to do and cause problems for him, and all the other things we talked about." Ava tried to protest, but Julia kept on going, "I know, I know. But there are a couple of points I have to make. First - and I'm sure you know this already - while you can, you should spend as much time as possible with your parents."

Julia wasn't going to stop Ava's response this time, "Oh YES! They're both SO WONDERFUL. I'm going to..."

Seeing the predictable path Ava was on, Julia jumped in, "Ava, tonight's a night for HAPPINESS, not for SORROW. My point is that Mark and I don't expect you to spend a lot of time with us like a normal girlfriend would. You should spend most of your time with your parents. We will BOTH be available for you when you need us though. If you're having a tough time, especially in a few months, and you need us, then we'll be there for you. Another thing that will happen is that all three of us - you, me and Mark - will be spending quite a lot of time with your parents."

"You will?"

"Sure. That's very important. They have to see that you are very happy with us."

The rest of the Williams family came in. It'd taken them longer than expected, but maybe Katelin had needed some reassurance, or something.

Julia motioned them that she wanted to finish this off first, then she continued to Ava, "They have to get to know us well enough that they trust us to look after you when they've gone. And we need to talk with them about what their dreams and desires for you are, how they want you to be brought up, any advice they can give us about you, and many other parental issues. Mark and I will be taking over from them, so we need to know what they want us to do."

"Wow. I never thought of all that..."

#1: <That makes two of us.>

#3: <Make that "five of us," because I'm sure the rest of us> (my four minds) <didn't think of it either.>

" ... You're taking this seriously, aren't you?" continued Ava.

Julia answered, "Ava, darling, I spent a lot of time tell you how seriously important Mark is, and how serious and total your commitment to him has to be. You are offering yourself to us that seriously, so we cannot be less serious back."

Tonight was a night for happiness, according to what Julia had told Ava, although I was still trying to come to terms with the scary size of what we'd committed ourselves to. With females, happiness often comes with tears, starting right now. Fortunately Prof and I both had hankies immediately available.

Vanessa said, "Well-spoken Julia. Ava, you can be very proud of yourself."

"{Sniff}. I can?"

"Your parents wanted you to find someone to care for you after they've gone. Not only have you found someone, you've found TWO someones. They'll both be exceptionally good at looking after you, better than anyone your parents expected you to find. Your mother and father are going to be very surprised initially, but they're going to become extraordinarily proud of you."

While Ava was reacting to that, Vanessa and Julia quickly exchanged a couple of funny faces with each other. I was trying to decipher them when Julia told her Mom, "Ava knows all about Katelin, and all his other girlfriends." With a little bit of extra emphasis, Julia added, "That he met at school." It took me a while, but I figured that was a hint that Ava didn't know that Carol was one of my "other girlfriends".

^-- Julia continued in a normal voice, "The plan is that we'll have the ceremony, which will be very quick. Ava and I will have some great girly talks in the study while Mark pounds Katelin into submission. Then he'll come get us, and we'll come back here and Mark, Ava and I will celebrate her commitment. Then we'll all sleep here. It's entirely appropriate that Ava waits for Mark to finish with Katelin first, as she has to learn that whatever Mark wants to do goes first, whether it's having sex with another girl, his studies, or anything else."

"Oh, I already know THAT! That's EASY!"

Robert and Andrew exchanged a look, and shook their heads in amazement.

Vanessa said, "Good girl. I had a slightly different plan in mind though, Julia. I was thinking that after the ceremony, Prof and me, you and Ava should go over to the Andersons, introduce Ava to them, and talk about the situation."

Julia agreed, "That's an excellent idea, Mom! Actually they've already met Ava when Ava and I spent the night there with Carol a few nights ago, but they need to be told what's happened and doing that in person would be best."

Before Ava could work out how to react, Vanessa said, "Good, that's agreed then. You'll probably be away an hour or so. Prof and I will go in a separate car, because we want to stay longer and discuss our plans for the dinner party for Ava's parents."

Julia said, "That's great. Thanks, Mom." | Ava asked, "Dinner party?"

Vanessa answered, "Yes, Ava. There's going to be quite a large group of us for your parents to meet, so a dinner party would be the best way to introduce your parents to everyone. It'd be much nicer to do it in a friendly way like that."

"Well, yeah. I just didn't realize so much was going to be happening so quickly."

"The sooner your parents meet and get to know us, the better. We want you and them to stop worrying about your future as soon as possible."

"Wow."

The pause that followed gave me the gap I'd been waiting for. I jumped in with, "What happens to Katelin when we all go to my place?"

Vanessa said, "You don't have to come, Mark. We won't be away long, and Julia and I can explain our side of it perfectly well. Ava can explain about her parents and their cancers too."

"Umm..." from Ava.

Vanessa said, "Ava, when we have our dinner party, the main topic we'll talk about is going to be how to support you after your parents are gone."

"Oh. It's just that..."

"Yes, I know, they asked you not to tell anyone. Mark and Julia aren't after your money, Ava. No matter what house you live in, they will pay their full share. Probably more than their full share, to be sure they're not costing you anything. They won't take a dollar from you. ALL of that money is yours. Prof and I insist on that, not that we need to with Mark and Julia. So the reason your parents gave you for keeping it quiet no longer applies. Plus I'm sure they always expected you to eventually tell the guy you found and his family. It just happened now rather than later.

^-- "Back to Mark. Mark, you don't have to come. If you had nothing else to do, then I'd expect you to come, but you've got Katelin waiting downstairs. You shouldn't keep a girl waiting too long when she's come over to have sex with you; it's impolite! Haha."

Julia joked, "I'm SURE you read that in an etiquette book somewhere, haha."

During the laughter, I questioned, "But SURELY I have to speak to my parents. We're all taking on a long-term commitment with Ava. It's just WRONG that I'm not there..."

"Actually, Mark," interrupted Vanessa, "as unusual as it seems, it is okay that you won't be there. It's strange, but it's not wrong. God knows there are plenty of other strange things going on, so what's one more!"

Prof added, "You've made a commitment to Katelin, and you should keep your commitments, especially in front of Ava because you want her to know that you take commitments seriously. Plus the rest of us can fully explain everything to your parents, so we don't need your help with that."

#1: <That's for sure! They'll be able to explain it far better than we could, because we don't know why we're doing it! I know I don't understand, and I imagine the rest of you don't either, about the choice we had to make in Prof's study between breaking up with Ava or supporting her. It seemed to have been made when we blinked, and I don't understand how that was possible. I don't disagree, but I sure as hell wouldn't be able to explain it to Mom, Dad and Carol.>

Vanessa continued, "That's all settled then. Before the ceremony, I should be polite and make sure Ava knows the names of everyone here." Turning to Ava, Vanessa said, "Ava, we are the Williamses, and I am Vanessa. We call this old gentleman Prof, but his real name is Archibald." With a twinkle in her eye, Vanessa added, "That's a shameful family secret, so if you tell anyone you'll be in BIG trouble, haha."

Prof extended his hand, and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ava, and to be able to help Mark and Julia support you."

Ava took his hand, then said, "Thank you, umm ... What do I call you?"

Vanessa said, "The last time Julia called him Archibald, she was 10-years old, and he tickled her until she wet herself. Do you want to take that risk?"

Ava did not. "Haha. I think I should call him Prof. Thank you, Prof."

Prof answered, "Wise decision, Ava."

Vanessa said, "I don't believe you've ever meet these two troublemakers. This is Robert, and this is Andrew. These are your two new brothers."

Ava exclaimed, "Brothers! Really..."

Andrew said, "Gee, is that right? Ava is just the sort of girl I like, and I was thinking of asking her out on a date." I was shocked! I never expected either of The Boys to do something like that. Andrew knew Ava was one of my lovers too, so he was poaching on my territory! Admittedly I had a lot of territory, but still! And what about Sophia? I thought they were in a serious relationship.

Julia was surprised, but didn't react nearly as much as Ava, who stepped back, looked at me guiltily, looked back at Andrew, and then said, "Oh no. I could never do..." Ava's speech trailed off.