Chapter 200: The End of Chloe

Monday, May 9, 2005 (Continued)

At the base of the stairs I called loudly for Julia, who answered from the kitchen, which was only a few steps away. I jogged into the kitchen.

Julia was in the kitchen with Robert and a couple of the bug sweeper guys, who were doing their thing with an impressive looking bunch of equipment being wheeled around on a trolley. Despite my being dressed in only a towel, I'd been hoping that Julia wasn't alone, figuring that Chloe would behave herself better in front of strangers. I'd heard her open the bedroom door just as I entered the kitchen, so she was probably coming to look for me. I would've preferred her to go straight home, but I doubted that'd happen, as she had no transport and she loved me.

I didn't quite run to be 'hiding' behind Julia for when Chloe arrived, but I did rush up to Julia and put my arm around her.

"That bad?" asked Julia.

"Impossible. She's insane. I don't want to put up with her crap any more." I could hear her shoes running down the stairs (she hadn't even removed those).

"Get rid of her forever?"

"Yes please."

Julia called out, "In the kitchen, Chloe!"

Chloe came running in, skidding to a halt when she saw so many people.

Julia looked at Chloe for a second or two, then said, "Chloe, you said you wanted to come here because you wanted to have sex with Mark. So why have you still got all your clothes on?"

The bug removing guys had been curious when I'd come running in wearing just a towel. Now that a huge-titted pretty girl had come in, and her removing her clothes had been mentioned, their attention was totally on Chloe. One of them had been wearing headphones, but his partner had nudged him, and he'd dropped them to his shoulders, and they were both now unashamedly watching with interest. Robert, Julia and I were looking at Chloe too, which was way more attention than Chloe wanted, especially male attention, and even more especially with sex being the topic.

Chloe nervously said, "Umm, I'd like to talk with Mark alone please."

Julia answered, "Mark came down here because he was tired of talking to you. Isn't that right, Mark?"

"You can say that again!"

"Mark doesn't want to talk with you, Chloe. You've had weeks of talking to him. Today was 'put up or shut up' time, and by the looks of how fully dressed you are, you didn't 'put up' or 'put out', haha." We all laughed at that, including the bug removal guys (the "anti-buggers", to give them an anti-bad connotation that "debuggers" lacks).

"That's what I want to talk with him about. He only gave me five minutes, and that's not nearly long enough."

"You've had WEEKS of talking. At school today you were begging me to let you come here for sex with Mark, so why is it that Mark looks ready and you're still fully dressed?"

"Because he did it all WRONG! It's not supposed to be that way."

"You're absolutely right, you have to take your clothes off first." Laughter from around the room, which Chloe did not appreciate.

"NO! That's NOT what I mean. He made me do EVERYTHING."

"He can't have 'made you do everything' very well then, because it looks like you've done nothing. Do you, or do you not, want to have sex with Mark?"

"I want to be his GIRLFRIEND. That's the right way of doing it."

"I think that's the best way of doing it too. I'll call you a taxi to take you back to your bike, and from now on Mark will invite you out on dates whenever he's got time."

"But he's NEVER got time! He's too busy. And I want to get the chance to buy some beautiful, new dresses in Rodeo Drive this weekend. I don't have any dresses like that."

"If you can afford to buy several Rodeo Drive dresses, then you can easily afford to buy your own cheap plane ticket back and forth. If you've got thousands of dollars of spare cash, why don't you buy nicer clothes in Corvallis, rather than the secondhand ones you wear?"

"Umm."

"Let me guess," said Julia, not guessing at all. "You were expecting Mark to fly you to LA and back, put you up in a classy hotel overnight, take you out to fancy restaurants and a show, and spend several thousands of dollars buying you expensive, designer dresses, all at his expense, even though you're not his girlfriend and you refuse to put out. Have I got that right?"

"That's NOT FAIR! People shouldn't have sex before they're married! I'm willing to let him if I know he's my boyfriend, but he has to prove that first. I'm making a very big compromise, so he has to too. That's what people do in good relationships!"

"There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to start! I'm especially amused that you think someone buying you thousand-dollar dresses proves he's your boyfriend, and your saying that you'd 'LET' someone have sex with you if they did that. But leaving those aside, I'd say your major problem is that you might be 'willing to let' Mark have sex with you, but he's no longer willing to spend any time in your company. I think it'd be an excellent idea if you explained to me what happened upstairs just now. That way I'll know if Mark did anything wrong."

#2: <I kind of want to say that surely Rodeo Drive dresses can't cost "thousands of dollars", the way the girls keep saying, but what's the chance Julia doesn't know what the dresses cost?>

#1: <Yeah. It's absurd. Changing the subject, why is Julia spending so much time on Chloe? I thought she'd kick Chloe's ass straight out the door in her usual merciless way.>

#3: <Ask her afterward, I guess. If it doesn't become clear before then.>

Chloe exclaimed, "He did EVERYTHING wrong! He just lay on the bed and did nothing. Not even under the covers!"

"He was naked?"

"Yes! With his thing sticking up."

The spectators were already starting to laugh when Julia amused them even more by answering, "Oh no! How terrible for you." As soon the laughter had died down enough, a straight-faced Julia continued, "What did he do then?"

"Nothing! He just lay there."

"So all this drama is because Mark was lazy?" I couldn't help chuckling at that one. Chloe was proving to be a surprisingly good source of amusement.

"No, you don't understand. He did nothing! He insisted I had to take all my clothes off and, you know."

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you."

"You KNOW!" Chloe insisted.

"You mean climb onto his cock and fuck him?"

Good girls don't talk that way, but Chloe's reaction confirmed Julia's suggestion. (Chloe WAS a good girl: good and insane.) Chloe added to her litany of my appalling behavior, "He just lay there counting down five minutes. It was the rudest, most inconsiderate, egotistical and disgusting way to treat a girl that I've ever heard of!"

"You're right. I can certainly see why you don't want to be his girlfriend."

"Exactly! Ahh, no. That's not right. I DO want to be his girlfriend."

"Ahh, yes. The thousand-dollar dresses. I'd forgotten those."

"No! Not because of them. Because I LOVE him!"

"So during this five minutes that Mark was lying on the bed doing nothing, was he grabbing hold of your tits, or sticking his hands up your dress, or anything bad like that?"

"NO! I told you already. He was doing NOTHING! He should've been talking to me nicely, being sweet, telling me how much he cared for me, and all those things. Not just counting down five minutes."

"I see. So he never got anywhere near your panties?"

"What! Of course not. You're not listening to me. He lay on the bed counting down the stupid five minutes, then he ran down here. His behavior was terrible! I've never heard of anybody being so cold-hearted and immoral. There was no romance or loving or anything. It was just about sex, and that's WRONG!"

"He didn't rape you?"

"I KEEP telling you that HE JUST LAY THERE! Demanding that I take my own clothes off and get on top of him. That's NOT love; that's dirty sex. He shouldn't treat girls like that! I don't know how you can stay with him. He's a terrible boy!" Chloe had gotten herself worked up over the immorality of it all. Personally I enjoy immorality, but apparently Chloe doesn't, although I doubt her opinion is a well-informed one.

Julia answered, "He suits me fine. Now that you've told us all that he didn't molest you in any way, it's time you left. Do you want me to call a taxi or your mother?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I don't want to leave. I want to be Mark's girlfriend." Which earned her some chuckles from the bug guys.

"But he doesn't want you. You're not his type."

#2: <God help anyone that is her type.>

"But I love him! Mark, you tell her. You know I love you. I showed you my breasts at school, remember? I don't want to leave; I want to marry you. You're wonderful. You're the only boy I know who doesn't care about my breasts..."

Still ranting crap, Chloe rushed at me. I started backing away, but Julia said, "Hold her."

#1: <She better not grab our towel.>

Chloe rushed into my chest (more bruises) throwing her arms around me and blubbering stuff about her loving me and other crap that I tried hard not to hear.

Behind Chloe's back, Julia pulled out her phone and placed a call, then motioned me to put my arms around Chloe.

I did so, then moments later Julia said, "Mrs. Moon, it's Julia Williams here."

Chloe screamed, "NO!" and tried to run at Julia. I held onto Chloe tightly, as I knew she was good at cutting off phone calls.

Julia moved away, so she could have her conversation.

Chloe screamed, cried, pleaded, declared her undying love for me, and generally was a pain in the ass for the minute or so that Julia took.

On Julia's return, she waited for a moment of comparative quiet, then told Chloe, "Your mother's coming to get you."

"NOOO!"

"I just told her that you're emotionally upset and she needed to come get you, but I didn't tell her why. I suggest you calm down so Mark can get dressed, because if your mother sees him in a towel you're going to be in big trouble."

"I don't want to leave! I'm staying with Mark. I love him! I'm going to stay with him FOREVER!"

#3: <I give it five minutes, tops.>

"Don't be silly, Chloe, he doesn't want you. You ARE leaving. You don't have a choice about it."

After some more anguished sobs and incoherent blubbering, Julia managed to insert, "The five of us all heard you repeatedly complain that Mark didn't do anything to you upstairs. If you attempt to make some ridiculous accusation that Mark tried to rape you, or something like that, then we'll easily turn you into a laughing stock, just like Annette Neumeyer became."

#3: <How about we send Annette a gift basket rather than just a thank you note. She's single-handedly made it much easier to keep a whole town's worth of girls in line, which is a pretty remarkable achievement.>

Chloe declared, "This is ALL your fault! Mark and I were perfect together, until you ruined everything!"

#2: <I'd say Chloe and us were about "one-third perfect". The two lumps on her chest are perfect, but the lump on her shoulders counts as a minus.>

Julia countered, "If you don't behave yourself now and in the future, I'll tell your mother that you came here for sex, and were planning to go to LA with Mark on the weekend."

"You wouldn't!"

"That depends on whether you behave yourself. I suggest you calm..."

"If you tell on me, I'll tell everyone the secret I know about Mark."

#1: <Uh oh. What secret does she know? We've never used NP or light blobs with her, or even anywhere around her. That just leaves Carol, and she shouldn't know about that.>

#3: <I can't think of how she would, other than a guess. She wouldn't have any proof, but we don't want anyone's suspicions to be aroused.>

#2: <How about go-hards? I didn't think she'd know enough about male anatomy, but maybe we shouldn't have gone hard so quickly to put the rubber on.>

#1: <The authorities could hardly get suspicious about us getting hard thinking we were about to have sex with Chloe. Provided they don't talk with her first. If they do, our getting hard at all will prove we have super-human powers.>

I could see that Julia was trying to figure out which secret too. Julia looked at me, and I shrugged my ignorance. Julia asked, "What secret?"

"That Mark's rich!"

Julia and I burst out laughing, with relief and astonishment at her stupidity.

"What?" demanded Chloe. "You told me it was very important to keep it secret! So if you tell my mother, I'll tell everyone about Mark."

"You silly girl," accurately described Julia. "The reason we wanted to keep it secret was so hundreds of girls wouldn't start throwing themselves at him. If you think making that happen is a good way of getting revenge on him, then he's not going to complain; he's going to be too busy fucking them all, haha."

Chloe deflated. Her spirit did anyway; other parts of her retained all their inflatedness.

#3: <Remember we asked Vanessa for her advice about simultaneously telling Chloe and Ava about Carol and us being lovers. That was a narrow escape, wasn't it?>

#1: <Yeah. She could have used it for blackmail or revenge, both of which would have been bad news. Let's make a mental note not to tell that secret to any insane girls.>

Julia said, "I just had an idea. You want to be Mark's girlfriend, don't you, Chloe?"

"Yes!" an excited and rejuvenated Chloe happily agreed.

"There might be a way. Hmm, let me think."

Chloe looked on with happy anticipation, and me with confusion. I had no idea what Julia was on about, but there was nothing particularly unusual about that.

After a couple of seconds Julia said, "I think it'll work. The first thing you need to do is rush upstairs to get dressed, Mark. Come back as quickly as you can. You can let Chloe go, she'll be calm now, won't you, Chloe?"

"Yes. What are you going to do, Julia?"

"Let me think about it while Mark's getting dressed. Away you go, Mark."

I was feeling insecure in just the towel, so I was happy to get dressed. Chloe was in control of herself, so I let go of her to rush upstairs as Julia had instructed.

I dressed, thinking about the situation. I couldn't see any way that Julia could fix Chloe, and I was reasonably sure Julia didn't want me to agree to marry her, so I was still puzzled when I returned downstairs.

I stood beside Julia. The two anti-bug guys were working again, and Robert was watching a pot of coffee make itself.

[Not that it matters much, but while I was away Julia had refused to answer Chloe's questions about what she had in mind. Chloe had also asked what the strangers were doing (it was very electronic, with several pieces of advanced looking equipment). Julia had said, "They're doing some work for Dad. It's not our business, Chloe."]

Julia started unveiling her plan after I returned to the kitchen, "Chloe, you love Mark, don't you?"

"Oh yes! He's the most amazing boy I've ever met. He..." Chloe blathered on for some time. Especially because when she started slowing down, Julia prompted her to carry on, saying things like, "Don't forget how good he is at sports." Eventually Chloe's answer dragged to an end.

Julia said, "I can see you love him, and will do anything for him, but the question is how to convince Mark of that, right?"

"Yes. That's right. He's wonderful."

"VERY wonderful," corrected Julia. "I'd do anything for him, and I'm sure you would too, right?"

"Of course. That's what wives do for husbands. I know we're not married, but I'd do it earlier than I should for Mark, because he's so special."

"Yes, he is. I'm glad you understand that. A very large part of the reason Mark rejected you earlier is because you're far too sensitive about your breasts." Turning to me, "That's right, isn't it, Mark?"

I could easily see that Julia wanted me to agree, which wasn't hard to do, "Yes indeed."

"So, Chloe, all you need to do is show Mark that you're over that problem. That should be easy, because you said you'd do anything for him."

"Umm. There's no need for that. I'm happy being Mark's girlfriend already."

"That's not the issue. Everybody at school knows you're too sensitive about them. So you have to prove to Mark that you're over that now."

"Can't he just take my word?"

"Normally he would, but it was only a few minutes ago that you threatened to break your promise to keep his secret. It's hard to take the word of someone who'd break promises so easily, so it'd be best if you prove it."

"Oh. How?"

"Just copy what so many girls did in class this morning. If so many of them can do it, then it should be easy for you to do it now, because there are only three guys here. I won't count Mark, because he's already seen you."

"But I can't do it here Julia, there are men here!"

"That's the point. Doing it in an empty room wouldn't prove anything."

"But I shouldn't have to do this. It's not right to expose myself like that."

"You don't have to do it. I thought I made that clear."

Julia stood quietly for a few seconds, while Chloe struggled to put it together. I was similarly confused, but I didn't bother trying to understand. Chloe wasn't worth any more mental effort.

After a few seconds, Chloe said, "I don't understand. First you said I had to do it, now you say I don't have to. I don't want to do it."

"Then don't. No one made the girls do it in class this morning, and no one's making you now. It's your choice. You do whatever you want, and the consequences will be whatever they will be."

"Ahh, what consequences?"

"You think about it while we give all the guys coffees." (The coffeemaker had performed its function.) "There are several them in other rooms, so it'll take us a few minutes. Wait here for us."

Robert had been putting things on trays - several mugs, milk, sugar, etc. We made up coffees for the two guys in this room, then left to serve everyone else. Chloe was too nervous to be left with two unknown men, so she followed after us. She got appreciative looks from every debugging guy we found, which she didn't appreciate.

We were reminded that there was one guy up in my study. On the relatively long walk there, Julia said, "Chloe, you understand that when you make decisions, there are consequences, right?"

"I guess."

"I'll give you an example. If you want more money and decide to rob a bank, that decision would have consequences, probably your going to jail. Similarly if you decide NOT to do something. Say you were riding home from school and saw an old person on the side of the street having a medical problem. You could run to help the person, or run into a house to call 9-1-1, or you could decide to do nothing and keep riding home. Deciding to do nothing will have consequences, possibly including the old person's death. So deciding to do something, or deciding not to do something, both have consequences that you're responsible for, because it was your decision. Do you understand?"

"Sure. That's obvious. Why are you saying that?"

We arrived at the study. I'd expected the guy to be doing electronic stuff around the room, but he was working on Julia's computer. The same program was running on all three computers. Listing file names rapidly, with "Passed" alongside each. While he was being served his coffee, I took a guess, and worded my question vaguely, "Are you looking for software that shouldn't be there?"

"Including that, yes. There's a whole raft of things they can do if they..."

"That's okay. I just wanted my guess confirmed. I wouldn't understand the details anyway."

Chloe asked, "What are all these guys doing, Julia?"

"I've already told you that it's something for Dad and it's none of our business."

"I was just curious. It looks very complicated?"

"You've got more important things to think about, like taking responsibility for your decision to do, or not to do, something."

"What do you mean?"

On the way back to the kitchen, Julia explained, "Every time you're around Mark, you're making decisions about what to do or not to do, and those decisions have consequences. You don't even have to be talking to Mark at the time. When the other girls were exposing themselves, you decided not to join in. If you had..."

"Oh no! I couldn't do that. There were lots of boys who would've seen, and that..."

"CHLOE! You COULD have done it, but you DECIDED not to. That was your choice. Maybe you think it was an impossible choice, but the other girls didn't have any problem with it. They enjoyed themselves. There was nothing physically stopping you, it was all in your head."

We were back in the kitchen, and Robert started putting things away.

Julia said, "Your mother should have been here already, so you must have very little time left. What is your decision about doing what Mark wants to see you do?"

"I don't understand?"

"Are you going to do now what the girls did at school?"

"But you said I didn't have to do that?"

"Just like you don't have to stop to help a sick, old man at the side of the street. You don't 'have to, ' but there are consequences."

"But I don't want to do that. It's wrong."

"That's fine then. Not WANTING to do something is a personal decision, and if that's yours, that's fine. Do you want a drink of fruit juice, or something, until your mother arrives? She's very slow."

"She has to get a taxi because we don't have a second car. So I don't have to do that thing, you know, the bad thing?" She very weakly mimicked lifting her blouse.

"Mark and I have never made you do anything. All your choices are your choices."

"I can still be Mark's girlfriend and go shopping with the rest of you?" Chloe's upbeat voice indicated she seemed to believe it was going to happen that way.

Until Julia corrected Chloe's bizarre fantasy, "Of course not. We've told you several times what type of girls are going."

"But that's not fair!"

"It IS fair that Mark gets to choose who goes. He's paying!"

"But it's not fair that he's making me do a bad thing."

"It's only you that thinks it's bad, Chloe. Every other girl has no problem with it. Or maybe Mark is a bad man, so it'd be a good idea for you to avoid him in the future."

#3: <I agree with the last idea whole-heartedly!>

"But I want to be his girlfriend."

"You want to be the girlfriend of a boy who makes you do bad things. That seems very strange to me?"

#2: <We're a bad boy with millions of dollars. I think that equals "highly marriageable" in Chloe's book. For someone with such high morals, she compromises them pretty damned fast for money.>

"No. You don't understand. I LOVE Mark! He's the most fantastic guy I've ever met, and he's the only one that doesn't care about my, you know."

"You had a chance to demonstrate your love upstairs, and you DECIDED not to. Most girls show their love in better ways than getting their boyfriend to buy them expensive dresses."

"That's not what I mean! You're twisting my words. Mark didn't give me a FAIR chance upstairs either! He just lay on his back looking at his watch. He didn't do anything."

"Where on EARTH is your mother? It shouldn't have taken her anywhere near this long to get a taxi here."

"She has to get a taxi with a woman driver. There aren't many of those so sometimes we have to wait a while."

Julia looked at me and rolled her eyes. To Chloe she asked, "I'm afraid I know the answer, but why a woman driver?"

"Because the men taxi drivers are very rude. They stare and make indecent comments."

Julia looked at me, saying, "I can't do this any more. I'm going to explode."

I said, "I know EXACTLY how you feel!"

Chloe asked, "What? Taxi drivers are rude. Everybody knows that."

I had an idea, "Let's wait outside, so these guys can finish their job without our being in the way."