Chapter 163: Donna Spills the Beans

Sunday, May 1, 2005 (Continued)

Inside, Julia gave me the shopping bag, instructing me to, "Choose which swimsuit you want to leave here, and we'll take the other one to my place."

I could have done without being reminded of them, but it was a fairly easy choice. I'd leave the black and yellow one here. I don't wear yellow, so I'd be stupid to leave it as the only Speedo choice at Julia's place. Carol had chosen the bright red one, so I'd wear that one when we went to the Aquatic Center next weekend. I was sure I'd be wearing one of them, and pretty sure we'd be leaving from Julia's place, so the red one was going there. Making sure that Carol wouldn't let Ava see which room was mine, I put the offending article in my room.

Then Julia took Mom out to the garage to talk with Dad about something. (During the weekend, if Dad's got nothing else he needs to be doing, and if there's no game of pretty much any sport on TV, he'll be tinkering around with something in the garage.)

Carol, Donna, Ava and I chatted for a few minutes; in the kitchen, so I could check out the fridge at the same time. I wasn't really hungry, and I was looking forward to my pizza soon, but I strongly believe that fridges should be checked frequently, as sometimes good things magically appear therein, and it's my self-appointed job to make them disappear again.

Julia and my parents came back after a few minutes, and she got us all to sit around the kitchen table. We were one chair short, so Julia claimed my lap. Then she told us, "Your parents agree that it's time to have a talk about Donna's wanting to have sex with Mark."

Donna's reaction was a groan. It was funny how Donna automatically assumed discussing this topic with Mom and Dad wasn't going to be good news.

Julia started repeating much of what she'd said in the car, so I won't bother repeating it here. It was in a different order, with different emphases, but the meaning was much the same. There were some variations though. When Julia mentioned the risk of Donna getting sex from other boys, Donna sat up and looked interested.

I think Donna's interest was more in the topic than actually carrying out the act, but that didn't stop Julia, Mom, Ava and Carol reacting fiercely! Dad and I just agreed with everything everybody else said. Donna was left in no doubt that if she even looked at a boy sexily, she'd be grounded until she was eighteen, and she'd never get more than a birthday kiss on the cheek from me ever again.

Julia told her, "Mark is willing to teach you about sex, but if you're stupid and dishonest enough to go elsewhere, then there's no need for him to do anything sexually with you EVER AGAIN. He wouldn't want to, because you would've betrayed his trust AGAIN!" No punches were being pulled.

Another aspect Donna didn't appreciate was, "Things will SLOWLY get sexier over time, but VERY slowly. Because you broke your promise to keep Mark's marathon run a secret, it's going..."

Donna interrupted with all the predictable protestations: "I didn't mean to", "I didn't know", "I've learned my lesson now. REALLY! I have!"

None of which Julia accepted. "Donna, you DELIBERATELY and SPITEFULLY broke your word. You couldn't even keep the secret for five seconds after you got home! Everyone here is frightened by the idea of your having sex with Mark and then boasting about it to your girlfriends at school. Your friends often talk about how sexy Mark is, so we can easily imagine you opening your mouth and boasting about how sexy you know he is. Your parents and Mark aren't going to risk going to jail on the word of a girl who just proved that she can't keep a small secret for even five seconds. The ONLY way you're going to get to have sex with Mark is AFTER you've repaired all the damage you've done to your reputation. That's what this discussion is about. We're going to slowly increase the amount of sex you see and do, and we'll see whether you can keep your mouth shut about small secrets before trusting you with the biggest one. Your failure to keep your promise about Mark's marathon has added many months to how long it's going to take before that happens."

"MONTHS!" from a very unhappy Donna.

"Yes, and many of them. Your parents and Mark could go to jail if you mentioned it to ANYONE. They're not going to let you have sex with him unless they are very, very sure that they can trust you. You're going to have to behave PERFECTLY about sex: only doing what you're allowed to do, not begging for more, not talking to anyone about it, etc. This is a very big and very scary secret, and you just proved you couldn't keep a secret, but if you repair your reputation by behaving perfectly then..."

"But it's NOT FAIR! I've kept the secret about Mark and Carol! I haven't told ANYONE about that!"

"What secret?" asked Ava.

#2: <Oops. I'd forgotten to be careful about Ava being here, just like Donna obviously did.>

#1: <Thank God it was only in front of Ava! I guess that solves our little question about when to tell her. Now would seem to be a good time, haha.>

I was about to speak, but was cut off by Donna's anguished cry, "OH NO! I DIDN'T MEAN TO! I'M SO SORRY!"

I started, "It's..."

Julia interrupted me. She raised her hand, pointing toward the hallway to the bedrooms, and commanded, "DONNA! Go to your room!"

"I didn't mean..."

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

"But..."

"GO! Don't say another word! You've said enough already. Go!"

Donna burst into tears, then fled the scene of the crime.

Julia turned to me, winked...

#3: <Huh? What's with the wink?>

... then immediately (quickly, before anyone else could talk), Julia said, "I guess you had to find out sooner or later, Mark. Now that Donna's let it slip, I should explain that Carol's not a very good lesbian."

#1: <Oh, so that's what she's planning. I think Julia's only going to go halfway. She's using Carol's plan about confessing her desire for us.>

#3: <Yeah. Let's look puzzled and unsure. I've got a good line. Let me.>

I answered, "Julia, I really don't want to get involved in this aspect of your sex-life with Carol. If she's not very good at it, you need to talk with her in private. Maybe Ava could help? Ava's very good at sex, so she could give Carol some lessons. Carol's young, so I'm sure she just needs some more practice."

By the look of amusement on Ava's face, she'd already worked out what Julia had meant, and was amused at my being so dumb. Julia was very amused by my answer, while Mom, Dad and Carol all looked relieved. Carol's expression had gone from very concerned, flying straight through relieved, and was well on its way to highly amused.

Julia, with a large smile on her face (she was facing away from Ava), patiently explained, "You misunderstand, Mark. I meant Carol has been developing romantic feelings for a guy."

"Wow! Who's the lucky guy? Who's the VERY lucky guy?" I couldn't resist, so I looked at Carol and quickly added, "He's got to be an AMAZING guy, if he's changed your whole orientation to who you love."

Mom, being both Mom and English, automatically said, "'WHOM you love', Mark. It's 'whom'."

"Sorry, Mom. It'll try to remember, but please let me find out who the lucky guy is before you correct my grammar any FARTHER."

Mom responded, "Haha, you ratbag."

"So Carol," I asked her again, "who's the incredible guy who's had this amazing effect on you?"

"You!" Carol declared. Adding a "{Giggle}," for good measure.

"Huh? Me? I've convinced you to stop being a lesbian?"

"Yes, {giggle}. You're..."

I didn't want Carol to spoil my next joke, so I interrupted, "Oh is THAT all! I thought you meant that you'd fallen in love with some guy already. If it's just that you're interested in guys now, I can certainly help you. There are several guys on my soccer team who've told me they're interested in you. They're soccer players, so they're good guys. I could introduce you to ... Why is everybody laughing at me?"

Mom and Dad were enjoying the joke, so were chuckling along. Carol and Julia were laughing happily, but it was Ava's suddenly losing it that'd stopped me talking. Ava was now holding her sides and laughing so much it was hurting her.

Julia was enjoying herself too, "I can't believe how blind you are, Mark. Carol loves YOU!"

"I know. I love her too. We have a WONDERFUL relationship."

"HAHA," from Ava.

Carol tried to make me understand, "Mark, I love you MUCH more than as a brother. I'm starting to love you as a boyfriend too."

"Huh? Me? As a BOYFRIEND?"

"Oh yes!" agreed Carol. "Like you said before, I've fallen for an 'amazing guy', and the guy is you."

"But you're a LESBIAN. And my SISTER. I don't understand how this is possible. Are you sure you feel this way? It's not... , I don't know, indigestion or something?"

"HAHA," from our audience of one.

Carol answered, rather sweetly I thought, "For the last few weeks I've been spending a lot of time with you and Julia, and I've seen what a wonderful boyfriend you are. I wondered what it'd be like to have you as my boyfriend, and I liked the idea very much. I wanted it to be a secret, but I think I asked Donna too many questions about her feelings for you, and I think she figured it out."

Julia said, "Sweetie, EVERYONE figured it out. Except for Mr. Genius here; he obviously didn't have a clue."

Ava managed to speak, "There was nothing to figure out; it was OBVIOUS! I've been biting my tongue so many times. In the car just before, when we were talking about Donna, I nearly said something about it. You two HAVE to get together. You love each other so much it hurts me that you're not together."

I objected, "But Carol's with Julia. Oh, it's even worse than that. I just remembered that the reason Julia wanted me to have other girlfriends is because she's been spending a lot of time with Carol. What happens if Carol breaks up with Julia? We've definitely got to keep our commitment to Ava, but I like having Ava as my girlfriend too. This is ALL too messy!" I was probably overdoing it now, as I was starting to run out of ideas for how to milk this.

Julia said, "No one has to break up with anybody, Mark. Carol's feelings for me haven't changed; she's just demonstrated very good taste by gaining extra feelings for you. I agree with her, and I'm very happy..."

A messy-faced Donna appeared in the doorway, asking, "Why has everyone been laughing?"

Julia got up, saying, "Let's go back to your room, Donna. I've got a few things to talk with you about."

"I didn't mean to..."

"The ONLY person who controls what comes out of your mouth is you, so you are totally responsible for it. Saying 'you didn't mean to', is exactly the same as saying that you were thoughtless and inconsiderate about other people's secrets. Now let's go to your room. Go on." Julia physically turned Donna around and pushed her in the desired direction, following her out of sight.

#3: <Poor Donna. It's not really surprising she slipped, given the subject matter and that we obviously trust Ava a great deal. I hope Julia isn't too hard on her.>

#1: <Let's concentrate on Ava shall we, and leave Donna to Julia's tender mercies, haha.>

To stall for time, I said something meaningless, "BOTH my sisters are attracted to me! That's going to take some getting used to."

Mom said, "I think Carol's feelings might be somewhat more mature and serious than simply attraction, Mark."

Carol answered, "I know what you're saying, Mom, but please don't try to convince Mark that my feelings for him don't include the physical. Donna and I DO have that in common, haha."

Now that I could no longer play the "blind, stupid, completely unaware brother," It was time to play the "hesitant, worried, cautious brother."

I said, "Oh dear. Ten minutes ago I thought you were my perfectly well-adjusted, happy, totally-out-of-bounds, lesbian sister. And the same ten minutes ago, I thought I had one and a half girlfriends: Ava plus Julia part-time. Now I don't know how many I've got, but it sounds like a lot more. And the physical side has gotten me totally confused too, Carol. I'm DEFINITELY going to need some time to think about that."

#3: <That sounds suitably unenthusiastic, unprepared, yet - somehow - still likely to lead to the desired outcome. It's a pity Donna ruined Carol's plan to get Ava to push us together, but I suspect it wasn't necessary anyway. Ava's totally supportive, isn't she?>

#2: <She's been thinking we're crazy for not being together. We're perfectly fine with Ava. I think the only real result of Carol's plan being preempted is that Ava won't be telling later girls that she brought Carol and us together. But she'll still be able to say that Carol desired us first, and we were very reluctant. We need to show lots of that reluctance whenever we're around Ava over the next several days.>

Carol joked, "If you think you're confused, try it from the point of view of a lesbian! I'd JUST gotten used to that when I started getting feelings for you. I've had a several days to think about it, but it's still very confusing for me."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Carol! I never thought about it from your point of view." I reached out toward her (she was sitting next to me, of course), as if to hug her, then visibly hesitated, half-withdrew my hands and said, "Maybe I shouldn't. I don't want to upset you in any way."

Predictably Carol jumped out of her seat and into my lap. I held my hands out to either side, unsure what to do with them. Seeing them not move - rather pathetically, I was proud to think - Carol grabbed them and wrapped them around her waist, declaring, "That's MUCH better."

Dad had a smile on his face when he said, "Fely. I'm sure I remember a discussion we had about three years ago. Didn't we decide that YOU were going to tell the kids not to get sexual with each other?"

Mom answered, "Ahh! So that's where we went wrong. I thought we agreed YOU were going to tell them. Looks like we messed that up."

"Yep, looks like it. Do ya think it'd work if we told them now?"

Carol said, "I'm too confused to handle any more complications. Maybe you could try again sometime next year. I expect I won't be so confused then, haha."

I persisted in my "I'm so innocent" act, saying, "Don't tell me anything. I'm too busy trying to get used to having my arms around Carol. It's a very strange feeling."

I'd been angling for Ava to make the obvious comment, but Mom beat her to it, "You hug Carol all the time."

I knew I'd invent something nice, and #1 came up with, "Umm, it's hard to explain. When I was hugging Carol before, I was always hugging her heart and was never particularly aware of her body. Now I'm conscious of her body and it's confusing me. That's literally silly, but you know what I mean don't you?"

Mom said, "We know exactly what you mean. That's very sweet."

Ava asked Mom, "Felicity, I'm surprised how relaxed you and Steven are. Even joking about it. You didn't even bat an eyelid when Donna spilled the beans?"

#2: <Great! Ava thinks that's what Donna meant. Not that I doubted she did, but it's still nice to have it confirmed like that.>

#1, #3: <Yeah.>

Mom said, "It wasn't a big surprise. Donna's made no secret of her having the hots for Mark. Carol's love for Mark, and Mark's for Carol, is very different; it's much deeper and very emotional. What I enjoy seeing is whenever one of them arrives in a room that the other's already in, the very first thing they do is look for each other, and then move to be together. Only once they're together will they move to Julia, or Julia moves to them. It's very sweet to see..."

Ava interrupted with her confirmation, "Yeah! I've seen them do that heaps of times. I've never seen two people who love each other as much as Mark and Carol. It's GREAT to see them together now. I've been thinking it's a terrible waste that they weren't lovers, and it's fantastic that you and Steven will let them."

To continue my act, I said, "Don't jump the gun on the lovers thing, Ava. I've got to do a lot of thinking about this yet, and God knows where my emotions are at. I think Carol's confused about this too, so we definitely shouldn't jump to any conclusions about what's going to happen."

Ava exclaimed, "You've GOT to be joking! You two are made for each other! It'd be a crime not to..."

Mom interrupted, "Ava, let them get there at their own pace. Especially Mark, because he's been taken by surprise so much. Personally, I think I know what will happen, don't you? So there's no need for us to say anything. Besides, a few days' pause will give Steven and me - as responsible parents - time to talk with them about some of the issues they're facing. Secrecy being right at the top of that list. You're aware of that aren't you, Ava? That you can't tell ANYONE, not even your parents?"

"Yeah, I know. People get all crazy about incest. I can't remember hearing any stories about brothers and sisters getting in trouble, but I'm sure it'd be a mess if people knew about it."

Dad said, "It'd be a HUGE mess, especially because they're underage. Not only for Carol and Mark, but Fely and I would be in very serious trouble with the police and social services for allowing it. It'd ruin everything if it got out."

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm going to be perfect at keeping Mark's secrets. Mark's, Julia's, Carol's. Everybody in their group."

I corrected her, "You should have said, 'everybody in OUR group.' You're part of it too."

"Thank you. I know, but I can't believe it. This group is going to be awesome now that you and Carol are going to be lovers too. That means ALL of us can be lovers together. We're going to have some INCREDIBLE times in bed! I can't wait 'til..."

I corrected her, "You're jumping the gun again, sweetie. I'm going to need quite a while to think about this, and I don't know what..."

"{Raspberry!} There's no way you two aren't going to become lovers! I'll do what Fely said, and not argue about it, but you're going to do it. It's PERFECT!"

Mom changed the subject, "I'm very glad you're good at keeping secrets, Ava. Much better than Donna I hope?"

"Oh yes! I hope so, Donna's terrible at it. You don't have to worry about me. Mark and Julia have made sure I know about keeping secrets." Turning to me, Ava asked, "I haven't let you down, have I, Mark? I'm not even tempted to tell anybody anything I shouldn't. I understand your secrets are very important."

Mom asked, "What the biggest secret Mark's trusted you with so far?"

Ava answered, "That he can..." I was amused to see one of her hands moving toward a nipple. At least, I think it was. I couldn't be sure, because early in the movement Ava stopped it, stopped talking, then looked at me in confusion. "Umm, Mark. I don't know what to say?"

I clarified, "You don't know whether you can tell that secret to my parents, you mean?"

"Yeah. Do they know already, or not? Now I'm worried, because I shouldn't have said anything, should I?"

"I think Mom was deliberately trying to trap you."

I looked at Mom, who nodded, adding, "Yes I was. If Carol and Mark become lovers, that'll be a very big secret. I wanted to test you, to see how good you are at keeping secrets."

I asked, "Who did I say you could tell about that secret, Ava?"

"Umm. I can't remember exactly what you said. 'No one', I guess?"

"Actually, I can't remember exactly what I said either, but I'm pretty sure it was 'No one.' I'd remember if I'd made the effort to give you any exceptions. Obviously you can talk with me about my secrets, but otherwise you should probably not talk with anyone. Ideally not even Julia or Carol - which is silly because they were there - but the best way to keep secrets is for no one to talk about them, even among ourselves.

^-- "Obviously Mom knows a great deal about me - mothers have ways of knowing far too much! - but even though Mom knows so much, you were right to stop so quickly. If Mom wants to know anything about my secrets, she should ask me, not you. She was deliberately testing you, and I think you passed pretty well. And if Mom or anyone else tries that trick on you again, I'm sure you'll do even better next time.

^-- "One more point, Ava and all the rest of you too. A good way to keep people from sticking their noses into my secrets, is not to let them know that I have any secrets. That means my having secrets is a secret, haha." I was the only one who laughed at that, which didn't surprise me, as I'm often the only person who finds logic amusing. (I didn't bother adding, "How many secrets I've got is a secret, even if I've only got one." I enjoyed thinking it though.)

[[I know that at one time the US Army was concerned about its internal culture getting so secretive that it was causing considerable damage to itself (causing massive inefficiencies, low moral, etc.), so they commissioned an in-depth psychological study into the problem. The resultant report was classified Top Secret and almost no one was allowed to read it.]]

I continued, "If someone asks you about my secrets, you could say, 'He doesn't have any secrets. He's a 15-year old boy, so what secrets could he possibly have?'"

Mom suggested, "Maybe where you hide your porn in the garage?"

"See Ava! I didn't think Mom knew I had any porn, let alone where it was hidden. Mother's know FAR too much!"

Ava said, "I'm surprised you have any. You didn't look at my pictures. Don't you think I'm sexy?"

Ava was smiling; she knew damned well that I thought she was very sexy. I'd proved that repeatedly, especially every time we were in bed together. She was pulling my leg, but it'd be a good idea to get rid of the porn issue because it did conflict with the way Julia had presented me to Ava. I answered, "Actually, with my having such sexy girlfriends, I'm surprised I have any porn too. I haven't looked at it for such a long time," it was months, but if she assumed I meant years, that'd be fine by me, "that I might as well throw it away next time I'm in the garage."

Mom said, "I'll get rid of it for you."

Dad objected, "Not so fast. Let me go through it first. There might be some good articles, haha."

Mom countered, "I'm sure you've read all the 'articles' already. I'll throw the pile away next weekend." Thereby giving Dad time to catch up on his reading.

On the same vein, I added, "Ava, I had to learn my way around a girl's body somehow originally. I assure you that I only used my old porn collection for 'educational purposes'. I much prefer to get my education from the real thing now."

Ava agreed, "Yeah. From me, Julia and CAROL."

"You are determined, aren't you?" I thought of something better to say than repeating the usual I-need-time-to-think line. Instead I said, "Think back to the times you've seen me and Carol naked together. Sometimes Carol has even sat on my lap, but I've never gotten hard, have I?"

Ava didn't have to think about it. She replied instantly, "No, not once. Not even half-hard for a few seconds."

I thought of joking about her keeping such a close watch on my cock, but thought better of it. It takes MUCH longer to explain in writing than it did to occur to me, but I didn't want to risk Ava's suspecting that I suspected her of suspecting me of being incestuous, in case that made her suspect I was being incestuous. (Did you follow that?) I simply made my intended point, "I don't think of Carol that way. I physically can't become Carol's lover today because my equipment won't work. I REALLY do have to think about things. Assuming I decide to do what you want - which I haven't had time to think about yet - there'll still need to be a great deal of intellectual and emotional change required before doing anything about it is possible for me."

Partly to reassure Carol, but mostly because I thought it was funny as reassurance wasn't really necessary, I'd done a go-hard. Carol had my hard cock poking her ass. Carol subtly let me know she appreciated my thoughtfulness.

Ava had no idea of that, of course. Her face lost all trace of humor, and she worriedly said, "Oh, you're right. I never thought of that. That's serious, isn't it? You might not be able to make love to Carol?"

"The best answer I can give you is that I need time to think about it and to talk with Carol. And - now that I think of it - I should probably talk with Mom and Dad too. It'd be a very big change of attitude for me, and a big change to how our family will behave with each other. The whole idea has been so sudden that I haven't got a clue about anything yet."

"Oh boy. I hope you can. It'd be terribly sad if you couldn't."

I was about to say something like, "It's not just a matter of whether I can, because I've yet to decide whether I want to..." and then whatever other stuff I'd make up, but I heard sniffling coming down the hallway toward us. I didn't bother answering Ava, instead waiting for Donna and Julia to arrive.

Unsurprisingly it was Donna who was the sniffler. Julia said nothing, letting Donna approach Carol and me to offer her apology: "I'm very sorry I was so stupid and thoughtless. It wasn't my place to blab Carol's secret about her desire for you..."

Clearly the apology was using words provided by Julia, except probably not the "blab", as that was more of an Anderson word. Donna's apology was fake in the sense that what Donna had actually been spilling the beans about (I prefer the phrase "blabbing about", as food should not be spilled), was that Carol and I were lovers. But her apology clearly gave the cover story as the reason. I would almost have suspected the whole apology as being a put-up job in its entirety, except that Donna appeared genuinely distressed and contrite.

I was therefore somewhat puzzled how to receive Donna's apology. Should I lighten the mood by saying "Don't worry about it," or treat her mistake as being a serious issue, as Julia appears to have done. As apologies go, it was one of the best I've ever heard from Donna. She accepted responsibility (for the cover story, but that was fine as it was intended to prevent further damage), hadn't attempted to blame anyone else, or to duck blame by saying something like, "I didn't mean to say it." It was clearly an apology inspired by Julia.

When Donna finished, I played safe by saying, "That was a very good apology, Donna. Normally you come up with all sorts of silly excuses, but this time you took responsibility for your mistake, which is very good. I'll think about it, and perhaps talk with Julia, and then we'll have another talk."

Julia said, "We'd better get going because we're already running a little late. We can talk in the car."

I didn't know what to say next so that suited me nicely. Hopefully Julia would explain in the car. We made our departure, Dad amusing me by saying, "The game starts soon so I'd better put the lawnmower back together." I've heard him say that exact sentence countless times over the years.

Mom said, "You kids certainly provide us with some unusual situations."

The five of us filled the car to capacity, so I wondered how we were going to manage when I got another girlfriend or two.

#3: <We could put a trailer on the back, for carrying excess girlfriends in.>

#4: <Perhaps slightly more practical, assuming the $1.75 million comes through, we could buy an SUV. Some of them have heaps of seats. Or we could even buy a van. Some of them are more like minibuses, with a dozen or more seats.>

#2: <I don't want to drive around in something like a minibus. That'd be a pain. How about we get more girlfriends who have their own cars, like Ava. That way there'll be someone around who can drive the other girlfriends.>

#4: <It's superficial and demeaning to choose girlfriends based on their owning a car. Breast size is far better.>

Julia asked," What did I miss out on while I was with Donna?"

I gave her a condensed version, with Carol and Ava adding expansions to parts they thought were too condensed. Ava particularly stressed how worried she was about the possibility of me not being able to get it up for Carol, not that she said those exact words, as she was thinking on a more romantic level.

Julia's comment was, "Mark's a very responsible and cautious person, and very protective of his sisters too, so we'll just have to wait and see."

Ava was seriously worried about Carol's and my relationship troubles, and she thought Julia wasn't taking the issue seriously enough. Ava insisted, "It'd be a HUGE tragedy, Julia! Mark and Carol love each other so much we HAVE TO get them together. There must be something we can do to help Mark?"

Julia whispered in Ava's ear for a minute, and then Ava giggled and happily dropped the issue.

[I later asked Julia what she'd said to Ava. Julia answered, "Mostly that, 'Mark is so protective and cautious that if we push him, he might resent it and go slower, or maybe even talk himself into believing that doing nothing is best. But if we leave him alone, his attraction for Carol should take him in the right direction. He loves Carol so much there's no way he could reject her, especially as their parents have already approved. If he hasn't made a decision in a week or two, we'll get Carol to start kissing him, and that should do it.'"]