Chapter 133: I Couldn't Even Eat the Pizza

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 (Continued)

When Katelin and I got back to the bedroom after our shower, my clothes for today were already laid out on the bed, right down to the socks and underwear. Julia decides what I'm wearing every day, so there was nothing unusual in that. I don't even cringe too much at the thought of her going into my underwear drawer anymore.

Katelin had a set of clothes hanging in one of the closets, so we were soon dressing ourselves, during which Katelin remarked, "Julia must be an amazing girl. I never realized that before."

I wasn't paying much attention, and asked, "How do you mean?"

"To be good enough to be your girlfriend. I've known her for quite a while, and I knew she was an unusual girl, but I never realized how special she must be."

I had no hesitation agreeing with Katelin. Julia was certainly a lot more special than I was. All I had were some freaky mental powers that I got through blind luck: the astronomically unlikely possibility of getting déjà vu just as I was dying. I agreed, "Yes, she is special."

Katelin and I were the last to arrive at the breakfast table, which I took to mean that we had to make up for lost time. I immediately proceeded to do that. I was hungry!

^

Every now and then I'm reminded of how little I understand my abilities. I had used a LOT of energy last night, plus some more this morning. I had been actively having sex for hours, and I mean ACTIVELY! as well as HOURS! Yet I wasn't as hungry as I should have been. I was hungry, no doubt, but by the usual morning amount, not by enough to replenish the calories I'd burned through. Food intake doesn't correlate with energy expended.

When I run within my optimal rate, I don't get short of breath. From my Biology classes I knew that oxygen is required by the process that delivers energy to the muscles. From what I remembered, sugars are delivered to the muscles, 'burned' with oxygen, which releases the energy the muscles need. I might have that wrong, but it's something like that. In any event, I know oxygen is necessary. So how come I don't seem to need much oxygen?

I don't get fatigued much either, not unless I'm exercising particularly hard. Part of fatigue is lactic acid (I remember that name), a waste product of muscle action. Why don't I get lactic acid buildup and need to rest while it dissipates? Whatever happens in me is very weird. GREAT for sex though!

[[The above paragraphs have a few scientific errors, but they're minor enough to leave as I thought at the time.]]

^

Julia had introduced or re-introduced Katelin to everyone, and general breakfast time conversation was occurring. I was eating. This may make me sound anti-social or even a pig, but the truth is that the amount of food I eat does take me longer to consume than everyone else takes to eat theirs. If I stop eating to talk, then it results in my breakfast taking even longer, which delays clearing the table and leaving to go to school. To avoid taking longer at all my meals, I talk less and eat faster. Plus I'm often hungry! I particularly didn't want to be late today, because I wanted to touch base with Mom and Dad at home this morning, when I stopped to collect my sisters. It seemed to be a good idea, as my actions had resulted in their having to spend the next few years helping look after Ava.

In a pause in the conversation, Prof asked, "So Mark, how was the new computer system?"

Oops. I'd made a mental note last night, just before going to sleep, to be the first person to mention my failure to use it. I'd been busy eating and had forgotten my note. Prof's having raised it seemed even more embarrassing. Fortunately I had a mouthful of food, so Julia answered for me, "I'm sorry, Dad, but we kept him busy for far too long. Last night was a very special night for Ava."

"I'LL SAY..." started Katelin's interruption, her voice trailing off in puzzlement when Julia ended with "for Ava."

Julia said, "There were things happening last night that you don't know about, Katelin. Remember we couldn't let you come early because I said we were very busy, and we kept you waiting even after you arrived on time. Ava was sort-of adopted by my and Mark's family last night. That's why she referred to Andrew as her brother just before."

"Adopted by TWO families?" Which had to be even more puzzling.

"Not really adopted. Ava's nearly an adult, so adoption isn't the right word, but she's become special to us in a way it wouldn't be appropriate to explain now."

"She's pregnant?"

"Haha," from several people.

Julia added, "No, nothing like that. Until Ava is willing to talk about it at school we'd appreciate your not talking about her 'adoption', please."

^-- Turning back to her dad, Julia said, "We kept Mark up far too late last night, so he didn't have time for any studying at all this morning. I'm sure we'll have a much earlier night tonight, so Mark will do better tomorrow morning."

Vanessa said, "That's fine. Wild, rampant, four-way sex is a good way to welcome someone into the family. Not how we did it in my day, but times change, haha."

Julia protested with mock-indignation, "Mom! What sort of girl do you think I am! We only had wild, rampant, THREE-way sex. Katelin fell asleep, haha."

When the resulting joking around ended, Andrew said, "I've got a concern. Ava, I want to make sure that you're not worried about my 'dating' comment last night."

Ava said, "I'm not worried at all."

"I've got a long-term girlfriend, and I'm no threat to you. It's important that you know our relationship will be like that of a real brother and sister."

"That'd be wonderful. I've never had a brother, so it'll be great to have you two. Already it's fun. I enjoyed teasing you in the bathroom with Julia."

By the look of Andrews face, Ava had enjoyed it more than he had, but he settled for concluding with, "Just so long as you feel completely comfortable with me, and in this house. That's the most important thing."

Ava alerted me by squeezing my thigh, as she was saying, "Oh. You want me to be comfortable TOO! That's even better. Thank you very much, Andrew. That's the best of both worlds: brother AND comfortable."

Ava got up and walked around to Andrew, gave him a good hug and kiss on the cheek, then wormed her way between him and the table so she could sit on his lap, still with her arms around his neck. "You're SO wonderful," Ava declared.

"Umm. I'm confused. Robert's your brother too, but you didn't thank him like this?"

"But Robert never said he wanted me to be comfortable. You said that, so you're my favorite brother." Ava looked around, saying, "Umm, it's okay that I have a favorite, isn't it?"

I suspected Ava was having fun, so I quickly played along, "Sure it is. Go with your feelings."

"Great. Thanks." Ava turned to look back at Andrew, saying, "Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I'll come to straight to you. I feel uncomfortable a lot, so it'll be super-convenient having you as my brother. Can I have your cellphone number please, like you said last night. I'd like to be able to call you whenever I get uncomfortable."

"Ahh, Ava, what are you talking about?"

"When I get uncomfortable! Sometimes I get terribly horny, and it makes me uncomfortable. But you're going to make me comfortable again. That's why you're my favorite brother now!"

Ava gave him a kiss, but his heart wasn't in it, so she changed to just hugging him cheek to cheek.

While the rest of us laughed out loud.

As soon as I could, before someone else spoke to ruin my opportunity, I adopted a stern voice and said, "Ava! Andrew's got a girlfriend and Sophia is a very nice girl." I could see Andrew relaxing; excellent.

^-- "Sophia stays here overnight some nights, so she could easily be with him. It'd be VERY rude to knock on his door and ask him to leave her just because you're uncomfortable. So if Sophia is here, make sure you politely ask both of them whether they'd like a threesome with you."

Ava called out, "Neat!" while Andrew's face blanched in panic.

But only for a second or two, then he suddenly relaxed, "Oh! You're winding me up. Very good. Thank God for that. You had me going there."

I would've liked to milk it just a little bit longer. I even knew roughly what to say, something about "Ava's having threesomes far more often than not, so it's perfectly natural for her to jump into bed with you and Sophia," but I worried about making Andrew too uncomfortable - in the usual sense - with Ava in the future. Instead I simply said, "Well done, Ava! That was very funny, especially because it wasn't at my expense, for a change."

Ava got off Andrew, gave him another hug and kiss on the cheek. Then said to Julia, "You're right Julia. It's a LOT of fun teasing brothers. Thanks for letting me use yours."

"You're welcome, sweetie. That's what they're for. You've got seventeen years of teasing to catch up on, so go for it, haha."

As Ava was walking around the table, I noticed that Robert was particularly enjoying Andrew's victimization, and that wasn't fair! So I said, "Ava, it's good that Andrew's your favorite, because I know another girl that Robert's been very nice to. She got him dead in her sights, and when she decides it's time, he's going to be VERY busy fending her off."

Robert had to ask, "Who?"

"Donna." Robert had been nice to Donna - taking her to bowling one day, and doing a couple of other little things - and Donna had teased him about her wanting him sexually, the memory of which immediately returned to him. To make it worse for him, I said, "Donna's obviously going to be sexually active VERY soon, and she's very up-front - if not downright aggressive - about it. She's got her own vibrator and makes no bones about talking to the family about how much she uses it. Every second meal she's asking Mom to buy her more batteries. And your name has come up more than once, Robert."

Robert, no longer laughing at Andrew, asked, "Really?"

"No, but you were laughing at Andrew so much I thought it wasn't fair that only one of you got teased." I turned to Ava, sitting next to me by now, and said, "It IS fun teasing brothers, isn't it? Even someone else's. We should do this more often."

I went back to my meal, merely listening to the resultant laughter, follow-on teases, and other banter.

Normality returned, and the conversation moved on to other matters. Soon the topic was the dinner party for Ava's parents tonight. At one point I had to say, "I'm going to be busy right after school. I'll drop Julia home first, but then Ava and I are taking off. We'll back sometime around 6:30 or 7:00."

Ava said, "That's right! Julia mentioned that last night. What are we doing?"

"I spend far too much time lying around in bed, so I want to go for a good run to get some exercise."

Katelin made the mistake of accepting such a normal sounding sentence as face value. This was fine, until she realized that my version of "lying around in bed" entailed an impossible amount of exercise. When the realization struck her, she gasped in surprise. It wasn't a good idea while eating milky cereal. The resultant spray further delayed breakfast, and embarrassed Katelin considerable. She apologized several times.

Robert reassured her, perhaps not very effectively, "When I was a boy, I would have LOVED to be able to shoot milk that far out of my nostrils. That was VERY impressive. I can see why Mark likes you."

I hadn't originally intended it, but I had the opportunity to, so I said, "Katelin, why did you react like that. I HAVE been spending too much time in bed, and I DO need the exercise."

"Haha."

"No, I'm serious. Did you see me out of breath or tired last night or this morning? Even a little bit?"

"Ahh, no."

"So it wasn't real exercise then, was it. What I did with you three didn't come close to pushing my limits."

"But you were REALLY going for it sometimes. You were..."

I didn't really want Katelin to be too specific about what I was doing, not while we were trying to eat breakfast, so I interrupted, "I did get SOME exercise last night. Obviously, because I was moving my muscles, but it wasn't a good workout, so I'll go for a run. I've been thinking of running a marathon, so I think I'll do that."

Katelin said, "Wow," at the concept of anyone needing exercise after what she'd seen me do.

Ava was excited about my mentioning running a marathon, and she immediately asked for the most important piece of information, "When do you want to run it?" [I didn't know this at the time, but runners LOVE talking about marathons. It's probably even more exciting to them than talking about shopping is to girls; which is both frightening and should give you a good idea how interested Ava was in my comment. She was greatly looking forward to helping me train for it. Her, "When do you want to run it?" meaning "How many months do we have to work on a REALLY fun training program together?" It takes extensive training and preparation to be ready for a marathon, and therefore provide runners with countless hours of enjoyable running and talking about running.]

"After school today."

"No, I meant when do you want to run your marathon? There's one in Corvallis in September, but there are plenty going on in other clubs in nearby cities, so we could find one happening almost whenever you want."

"After school today. I don't want to train, Ava; I just want to run one. We'll do it after school and you'll follow me in your car, time me, give me water, and whatever else needs to be done. Is there anything else? I don't know much about marathons."

"But you can't..."

"Ava, I didn't train for the 10k. Not at all. And I did pretty well in that, didn't I?"

She was lost for words, so I just carried on, "We've got about three hours before the dinner party, so I'll go for a run. Three hours is long enough to run a marathon, isn't it?"

"But Mark, 26 miles is a LONG way. It's a LOT longer than a 10k run. The effects on your body are much worse. It can be very unhealthy to try to run one when you're not ready. People can get seriously sick, even die, if it goes wrong."

Ava was genuinely concerned and sounded knowledgeable, so I probably shouldn't have approached it in this way. I was VERY sure I wouldn't have any troubles. Maybe not 100% sure, because Ava was scaring me, but even if I had some troubles, I was sure they'd be minor. I didn't want Ava to be worried sick all day, so I said, "Let's do it this way. From time to time you can drive ahead, get out of your car, and run alongside me for a few yards to see how I am. If you think I'm having trouble, I'll let you call it off. You'll have your cellphone if something really bad happens, but I'll make sure I never push myself that far. I'm just doing this for exercise, not for glory. And I don't want to be so tired that I can't talk with your parents properly. Remember that I'm a pretty smart person, sweetie, so I won't do anything stupid."

#1: <We better order her not to tell anyone our time BEFORE the run starts, otherwise I can imagine her on the phone telling her friends while we're running the last mile or so.>

#2: <Good point. Here's another issue, she's going to start freaking out when she sees what our pace is. She's going to frantically insist we slow down, and when we don't, she's going to get even more frantic when we start breaking world records for some of the shorter distances.>

#1: <Good points, but let's not worry about it now. We can't talk details here, and we want to get to our place to talk with Mom and Dad. We can think about it during school.>

#2: <The point about the shorter world records makes it important to order her not to tell others. We should do the first 10k in a world-record time, and we don't want her calling around. So make sure we order her very clearly before we start.>

#4: <We don't want either Katelin or Ava mentioning to anyone during today that we're doing a marathon this afternoon, because when people start asking us about it later, we might think Ava blabbed. We need to backpedal the marathon thing for now.>

I said, "You're probably right Ava. Cancel the marathon idea. I'll just do some jogging."

Ava was considerably relieved. She really had been worried about me.

The rest of the breakfast conversation was relatively normal, especially by our recent standards. Katelin was very thankful to everyone she could think of thanking, especially Julia, who she now treated with some reverence. [Later, in the car, I explained to Julia that it was for her being "good enough to be my girlfriend," and - after I'd teased her enough - what the background to that meant.]

Katelin's parents had dropped her and her bike off last night, so Katelin could make her own way to school, as could Ava because she had her own car. Katelin was very reluctant to end the date. I got a slightly teary "Goodbye," despite the fact that'd I'd be seeing her again in less than thirty minutes. I wanted to talk with Mom and Dad - or, more accurately, listen to whatever they had to say to me about Julia and me landing them with helping look after a soon-to-be orphan - so Katelin had very little chance of holding me back for long.

Julia and I had an interesting talk in the car, much of which has already been described or referred to in the "Ava's Loose Threads" chapter above, so I won't mention it again. I did suddenly remember to ask Julia, "Oh, did you get an acceptable email from Laila?"

"I forgot to check. I'll ask her at school. Would Katelin be a good Liaison do you think?"

I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea because I wasn't all that attracted to Katelin. I didn't dislike her, but her "normal sex only" fixation even about something as simple as a threesome diminished my interest in her, because I'm VERY interested in SOME forms of un-normal sex! I said, "I honestly don't know. She seemed stupid about some things, but I think that was largely her being self-centered, which my 'love your brothers' thing kind of blew away..."

Julia chuckled at that, and we diverted into a little discussion about how unsafe Julia now realized it was for her to tell me to be "sweet" to a girl, and then leave the room. "I'll have to teach you that 'sweet' has limits. It does NOT include turning her world upside-down, okay? Haha."

"Back to the Liaison question. I don't think she'll be as self-centered in the future, unless she backslides back into it. But I'm not sure she'd want the job, because I effectively told her she had no chance of being my girlfriend for months."

"She'd leap at it, don't worry about that. She worships the ground you walk on and would do anything to be around you."

"Isn't she far too prudish for the job though? She only wants 'normal' sex. She doesn't like even being around any other sort. Although, in fairness, in the shower she told me I could use her juices if I wanted to lubricate a girl's 'you know'. She volunteered her juice, but couldn't name the location I'd be using it."

"If Laila admits she didn't send anything, I'll fire her, but I think we can do without a replacement for a few days. I'll tell Laila to refer any girls who want to talk with her to me. We're seeing most of the girls at the lunches anyway, and can disseminate information there. I might hold off on the pipeline idea until I've had a chance to talk with mom about the things I did wrong with Ava."

I tried to talk about that. I didn't really want to, but I was concerned about Julia being in trouble, or feeling down about having made mistakes, or something. But Julia interrupted me with, "I don't want to talk about it until I've had a good think. I haven't had a moment to myself since Ava's ceremony, so it's way too early. Today won't be much better. Give me another day or two."

When we got to my place, we went inside to talk about Ava.

Carol said more than anyone, all of it supportive. Donna was happy too, including because, "She's a GOOD runner."

I'd half-expected Mom and Dad to try to talk me out of it, for some reason or other, but they made no such attempt. Mom was far more concerned with checking that I understood the emotional cost this was going to have. I had no trouble realizing that losing two parents, and having no one else left, would be horrendous for Ava. Julia's comment about Ava probably needing to sleep with me night after night when each of her parents died had also made a strong impact.

Dad talked more about practical things, for example, that it was expected that I'd be moving out of Corvallis after I graduated in just over a year, and that might be the time when Ava most needed Julia's and my support. I remembered Vanessa saying that Mrs. West probably wouldn't last that long, and Mr. West had a 50/50 chance of doing so. I knew that those timeframes were only guesses, but it was probably unlikely they'd still be around by the time the graduation summer had finished (obviously I wouldn't want to go anywhere until I'd enjoyed the summer after graduation). At one stage the word "convenient" crossed my mind, but I very quickly quashed that appalling thought. I told Dad, "We'll just have to wait and see."

As we were leaving, I had to ask Mom, "How come you haven't tried to talk me out of it?"

"Ava seems to be a nice girl, and it's a very nice thing you're doing for her. It'll be a valuable experience for you. Hard at times, but valuable. I'm proud of you."

We didn't have time for more, but that was pretty good. It wasn't until we were driving away that I realized how proud I was of everyone else too. I could immediately tell Julia, Carol and Donna that I was proud of them, so I did. I wanted to tell Mom and Dad too, but might not see them until everyone was at the dinner party. I decided to send them text messages. It's the modern way.

On the way to school, I somewhat worriedly told my sisters about my offer to Katelin, for the three of us to visit her family and help her with her brothers, if she asked us to. To my surprise both girls quickly and easily agreed, "Sure." | "No problem." Personally I was hoping it'd never happen, but the girls took it in their stride. That was nice of them.

Julia had a conversation with Laila early in the school day. Laila had not sent an email, so Julia said, "Regretfully that means you can no longer be a Liaison. Sorry about that, Laila; you had very good potential."

Laila tried for a second chance, but Julia was predictably firm. At the end Laila asked for what the email should have said.

Julia answered, "There were two reasons. The first was that you are a very loyal person. Unfortunately, that loyalty is fixed on your sister and your lover, so it's at Mark's expense as you were willing to use him to give your clique a good time. But, nonetheless, you proved yourself capable of considerable loyalty, which is a trait that is very high on my search list. It's a great pity you couldn't have transferred it to Mark, but that was your choice. The second reason I'm not going to tell you. There's information in it that's too private." (It was that I would've enjoyed the kinky sex with two sisters, which Julia didn't want to talk about with someone who might feel bitter and revengeful about having been fired.)

^-- "Thanks for everything that you did for us since last Thursday, but it was only a few days and you can go back to normal with your little group. Almost everything I learned about you was a good thing, so I hope there are no hard feelings between us. There shouldn't be, because I think you're a better person than I used to think you were. It's just that loyalty to Mark is my paramount consideration. I'd appreciate it if you send to me any girls that come to you as Liaison."

There was a little more remonstrating from Laila, but it was pointless. One of Laila's last statements was, "I'm going to regret my mistake, aren't I?"

"I imagine you'll be kicking yourself for years, whenever you learn of Mark's accomplishments. On the other hand, there are so many girls around him that each has only a very small chance. You got as far as being Liaison and had some unique experiences, so you can enjoy the memories."

I saw Alexis before the class began, which reminded me of my little mental note to thank her for being so open and honest, so I yelled out to her, "HEY YOU!"

She turned, as did quite a few others. I pointed at her, then at the floor in front of me, "Get your butt over here!"

Alexis bounced over, smiling happily. I don't know if girls going for the grunge, tough-girl look should bounce, but her image is her concern.

As soon as she was in reach, I grabbed the top of her jeans just above the fly, and supporting her weight I kicked her feet apart. I slapped my other hand over her pussy and started rubbing it through her jeans (a symbolic action from my side, given the toughness of jeans, but hopefully it provided her with some pleasure). My jeans-holding hand pulled her hard forward into my body, and into a kiss.

That action took barely a moment, and Alexis fully participated in the kiss. She didn't seem the slightest bit fazed by my treatment of her, making me wonder whether she was used to it. I wouldn't have been surprised.

I'm fairly strong these days, so for fun I slid my pussy rubbing hand farther between her legs, then lifted her entirely off her feet and into the air, pushing her sideways and dropping her butt first onto the desk beside me, surprising the guy sitting at it. To make doing that act easier, I'd created three NP-fingertips under the hand between her legs, and max pushed up against the back of my hand. That provided 10.5 pounds of lift without any physical effort from me. Other than inertia, which was a minor issue, it effectively reduced her weight by 10.5 pounds, making it more likely I'd be able to perform the action without making a fool of myself. As she thumped onto the desk, I let go with both hands, and casually wished her, "Good morning, Alexis. How are you today?"

"{Giggle}..."

#1: <She's going to have to do some image repair.>

#2: <Especially as the whole class is looking at us.>

" ... Great!"

I looked around the class, then said, "That's how I pickup girls. It works pretty well, doesn't it?" I ignored their responses. Lots of laughter and stupid comments, the latter mostly from guys, because that's what guys do. Turning back to Alexis, I said, "I decided yesterday that I liked your openness and thought I should show my appreciation. How was that?"

"Hot. How much more openness do ya want from me?" She opened her legs as far as they went. Black jeans completely ruined the visual, but the symbolism was understood by everybody.

I was out of material, and wasn't used to these types of conversations. The best I could come up with was, "I'll let you know."

"You got my number. Any time, stud." Actually I didn't have her number, but my #1 wife did, and that was just as good.

I'd been looking for Chloe, and was happy that when she saw me, she gave me a good smile. I gave her a smile and waved back, but didn't attempt to approach her. She had to come to me, much like a fly to a spider.

Later Julia told me, "I've talked to Chloe. Don't hurry to lunch after the last morning class. When the bell rings, pack up your gear then amble to your locker. If she still hasn't caught up to you, amble to our usual meeting spot. I've already told Lily."

"Great! What's going to happen?"

"You'll enjoy it more if you don't know. Haha, good expression, Mark. The real reason is so you'll have the right look of surprise. My first reason is still true though, if your surprise fools her you'll certainly get a great deal of enjoyment later."

"Rats! That phrase of yours is ENTIRELY too useful."

"Ava thinks so too, she had to use it on her mother an hour ago."

"She called her Mom, right?"

Julia nodded, "Sure. She had to clear the air before the dinner."

That explanation didn't explain anything to me. Quite the reverse. "What air wasn't clear?"

"Mostly about Ava telling us about her parents' illnesses. But she also had to rev up her mother, so her parents would arrive in a more friendly, positive mood."

"Oh." Can't say I really understood that too well either. I gave it up as not worth pursuing, instead asking, "Did the call go well?"

"Katie - Ava's mom - is still bursting with curiosity, and is frustrated not to have any details beyond your first name, but otherwise everything is good. Ava insisted that she's very, very happy, and that's what mothers are most concerned about. I didn't have time to talk with Ava for long, but we'll talk a lot longer during your run. Are you still intending to run a marathon, or did you change your mind at breakfast?"

"I'll run it. I just downplayed it so Ava and Katelin don't go around telling half the school today. That'd make it too hard to know if she blabbed afterward, other than in front of us at dinner."

"I thought it might be something like that. I was thinking about your physical safety. It'd be safer to do your run on secondary roads than the main highway. There are some straight roads with good visibility over by..." We discussed a good place for my run, choosing a road that had open fields on one side so I could run beside the road if cars came, and there were very few houses on the other side so little chance of anyone getting curious and timing me. It was probably about five or six miles long so I'd run back and forth until I'd reached twenty six miles.