Chapter 85: Planning the Liaison Structure

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 (Continued)

Tuning out the girls recounting my many humiliations at Rocky's left me free to contemplate important matters. First dinner, then thinking about what we'd do afterward, how many times we'd do it, and in what positions. Important stuff. It'd been far too long since I'd had sex, and I badly needed to compensate for being in Rocky's company for so long. We'll have to take Donna home before we could start our celebration of the end of the trial-imposed sex-ban. Or maybe we could twist someone else's arm to return her. I wondered about the new bed for Carol's and my room (yippee!), so I interrupted whatever it was the girls were talking about to ask, "Julia, Carol, what's going to happen about a new bed for our place? I'm with Carol about wanting it as soon as possible."

Julia answered, "I had an idea about that on the way to the store. I just need to check it with Mom first."

#4: <How come our sex-life always needs to be checked with Vanessa first? She's helpful and nice and all that, but it's becoming a bit of a habit. What's she got to do with the Anderson's buying a new bed, anyway?>

"Ahh, Julia. Don't you think your mom's getting involved in too many of our decisions? We should be able to sort out the bed by ourselves, surely?"

#3: <Damn! I just remembered another decision we have to make is about that Ava girl. I CERTAINLY have something else I'd much rather be doing after dinner than worrying about her! Two something else's, actually. Talk about a perfect example of how creating expectations can upset our plans. Double-damn!>

Julia answered, "I was going to ask Mom whether we could give you the bed that we took out of the spare room when we turned it into our study. It's not a huge bed, but three of us could sleep in it. We could get it delivered to your place tomorrow, with its bed linen so you could use it tomorrow night. Buying a new bed and everything else you need to go with it would cost quite a lot. A thousand or more, I guess. Something like that. I thought ours might be good enough for your place until we moved into a mansion, but I need to ask Mom before I can offer it to you."

I felt more than a little foolish. "Sorry, Julia. Your idea's a good one. Especially as I'd hate to get Mom and Dad to spend a thousand dollars if we didn't have to, and if the roul ... and if the moneymaking scheme I have in mind doesn't work."

"I'm not so worried about the money. If your current idea doesn't work, we'll find another one. As far as I can tell, you're the world's best at everything, so it shouldn't be hard to come up with another way to make money. Maybe not as quickly and easily, but I'm sure we could do it. I can't see Mom refusing, as the bed's only sitting in storage in the basement, so it might as well be used. The only real question is whether you and Carol want it, as it's probably a little smaller than what Carol had in mind."

I looked at Carol. Carol looked at me. I said, "Our moving in together was your brilliant idea."

"But you're the boss."

"I don't want to disappoint you."

Julia pointed out, "If you keep this up we'll all have moved into the mansion before you make up your mind. Mark, YOU are the boss, so make a decision!"

"Umm. We'll take it then. If it's all right with Vanessa. And Mom and Dad, I guess. We can call them to ask if Vanessa says it's all right."

"Good," declared Julia.

"Is that all right with you, Carol?" I asked.

"Argh!" From Julia. "Let me try this another way. Mark, what reason did Carol give for wanting a big bed in her room?"

"She wanted me to move into her room with her."

"Yes, but that doesn't require changing of beds at all. You and Donna could just swap beds."

"I'm pretty sure Carol wouldn't have been happy with that! Me neither. I get your point: she wanted to be able to sleep with me. And with you too, I remember Carol saying she wanted a big bed for all three of us."

"And did you not hear me say that the bed was big enough to sleep the three of us?"

"Yes."

"So it should have been a decision you could make in less than a second. Our bed meets Carol's requirements. You don't have any extra requirements of your own that I'm aware of, so the answer should have been a quick, 'Yes, thank you'. Simple wasn't it?"

"Umm, basically yes, but what if Carol had new requirements I didn't know about. That was why I was asking her."

"In that case you should have said, 'Carol, do you have any new requirements? No? Okay we'll take Vanessa's bed then.' All over in five seconds. Not to mention that Carol had ample time while you two were going back and forth to mention anything new she wanted to say. If she failed to mention something important then that was her fault, and she'd learn to speak up next time you're about to make a decision."

"That's a good point. I never thought of that."

"Let Carol make mistakes so she can learn. If you ask her everything twenty times, or talk every issue around and around for hours, then you'll hardly ever get anything done. If it's not important, or it's easily fixed, just jump in and do something. If it goes wrong, sort it out later. If our bed turns out to be too small for you, just send it back and go out and buy a bigger one, which is what you would've done anyway. Hardly a major disaster, is it?"

"Umm, no. You make it look like I was pretty silly."

Julia was not as bad as I expected, "You were silly. You had all the information you needed to make a quick, easy decision, but you muddled around. The reason you were silly was that you're always far too worried about making everyone happy, all the time. By the time you've got two hundred girls seeking your attention there'll be no way you can survive unless you learn to be much more decisive. You need to learn to decide and act a great deal faster than you do now."

"I get your point. I know I don't want to do anything wrong that'll hurt anyone, especially Carol."

"The way you avoid doing 'anything wrong' is to spend ages on every single decision. That's fine if you only have to make one decision a day, but it's going to be impossible later. Don't try to be perfect all the time because you don't have time for that. Yes you'll sometimes make mistakes, and sometimes Carol, I or you might be upset, but we'll forgive you, you'll learn and we'll move on. Okay?"

"Okay. What you're saying is right, as usual. Thank goodness we're starting slow."

"How do you mean?"

"Just starting with those fourteen girls at lunch to get the bugs ironed out, and later going on to more girls. Like the two hundred you joked about earlier. More realistically maybe another dozen or so."

Julia laughed, which was not a good sign. She said, "Mark, you'll have two hundred eager girls begging for your attention by the end of the day tomorrow."

"Tomorrow! But when we talked after lunch about your little problem with how to manage them, I got the impression we had time to get ready?"

"That was before we learned the trial was off. That changes everything! That's why we had to go shopping for you. There's already a huge number of girls who admire you for your handsomeness, intelligence and emotional maturity, especially after hearing your speech, or even just hearing about your speech. When you go to school in those clothes tomorrow, all the girls who already admire you for those reasons are going to see your body properly displayed for the first time. To quote Carol, 'they're going to freak'."

"Big time," clarified Carol.

"BIG TIME," agreed Julia.

"Ahh, maybe I shouldn't dress like this for a while then? To give us a few weeks to get ready."

"Tomorrow!" insisted Julia. "The best way for you to learn is to be thrown in the deep end. My verbal lessons aren't working well. You keep falling back into your normal passive ways. Having a few hundred girls chasing after you will keep you on your toes."

"And back," added Carol, helpfully.

"That's for sure. Which is a good point. You don't have time to handle all the mess that's going to happen. I'm going to make Ava your liaison in 11th grade, Donna for 6th grade, Carol for 7th and 8th. We'll deputize the first girls from the 9th and 12th grades that express interest in you, which leaves our main grade, the 10th. That's going to be the worst by far because they know you the best, have heard your speeches, etc. I'm going to deputize three of the girls we had lunch with today. They can have a third of the alphabet each. I'm going to put all the girls that want you into a holding pattern until we're ready. Then you can pick and choose whomever you want. You'll have to bed your liaisons to keep them happy, so tell me which three girls from lunch you want to bed over the next few days?"

"Huh?"

"Was I too subtle? Which three girls from lunch do you want to fuck?"

"Ahh, I could see they liked me, but none of them are going to cold-heartedly leap into bed with me just because I pick them as 'liaisons', which I guess you mean as your deputies?"

"Stick to the main subject. MOST of them will leap into your bed given half a chance. That's true of a much higher proportion of the girls at school than you think, and it's even more true for the fourteen that I picked to have lunch with you because that was one of the reasons I had for picking them. Those proportions are going to leap upward when they see you dressed properly tomorrow."

#3: <Her wording is misleading. I think by "properly" she means the clothes she just bought for us.>

"Why ON EARTH would ANY of those girls agree to have sex with me! I still can't believe you and Carol want to, but at least you know me, for what that's worth. The others have barely talked to me all year."

"They've seen you all year. They know you're a genius and they know you never behave immaturely. Your speech about loving Carol taught them that you're at least as emotionally advanced as you are intellectually advanced, and they'll be kicking themselves for being fooled by your silence over that. They've always known you're intellectually superior to any boy at school. They've just found out that you're emotionally superior, and your soccer and running abilities have proved that you're physically superior. The physical side is too indirect for most of them to appreciate yet, but that'll change when they see you in proper clothes. They've seen how wonderfully you treat me, plus Carol and I are going to be raving about what a fantastic brother and boyfriend you are..."

Carol clarified, "I've been raving about Mark for months already. Donna too. That's why so many of our friends are eager to meet him."

Julia continued, "Girls don't trust boys' claims about what great boyfriends they are, but they believe what the boys' girlfriend and sisters say about him. You've got the best brain, best heart, best body and best recommendations of any boy in school. Your quietness means the other girls will feel safe around you because you're never aggressive. Other than the girls who're already in strong relationships, there'd be very few girls who wouldn't leap at a chance to be your girlfriend, and the sexually active ones will happily include leaping into your bed."

"I've NEVER seen anything like that, other than what Dad calls the fame groupies, but that's about their egos and not about me personally and has stopped now anyway. Maybe one or two sluts would go to bed with me willingly, but none of the other girls KNOW me."

"They know everything they need to know about you, including that many other girls find you very attractive, which motivates all of them to go faster than they normally would. Part of the reason you never would've noticed how appealing you are is because you hid most of yourself until recently, and I bet also because you refuse to see it. You saw how quick the girls were to offer you sex at lunch, so why can't you believe they'll have the same attitude tomorrow morning?"

"They DIDN'T offer me sex. A couple of them made broad offers to be 'very friendly', but they weren't explicit and could easily back out. The only person who actually talked about sex was you."

"They were doing everything but leaning back and spreading their legs. Carol, were they hot for Mark, or not?"

"Scorching! They'd be all over you if you gave them half a chance, Mark."

"I can't see it. Guys are always trying to have sex with girls and girls are always refusing. It doesn't make sense to me that they'd leap for it now, especially not with me."

"It's blindingly obvious to Carol and me why they would, but I can't be bothered bashing my head against a brick wall. You'll see for yourself over the next few days so I'm going to give up on trying to convince you about it. Back to my initial question: Which three girls from lunch do you want to take to bed?"

"Wouldn't it be better to find out if any of them want to, and pick from that group?"

"It's a safe assumption that all of them want to, especially when they see that most of the others want to. School doesn't last for enough hours to have this conversation with you there, so let's try to get it finalized sometime before breakfast."

#2: <Uh oh. Julia's getting exasperated with us. We'd better do what she wants.>

"Just pick three girls?"

"Yes."

"Ahh, I need to talk with the girls first. To see what they think, and things like that."

"No you don't. They all want to fuck you and that's the only important thing. Just pick three and I'll call them with the good news and to tell them about their new job as your liaison." Julia paused for a second, then added, "Actually I am being a bit premature. We should talk with Mom first, to see if she has a better idea."

"Phew."

"But I doubt she'll have any ideas that mean we don't need liaisons. Think about which three you want and tell me after dinner. Maybe pick a reserve, in case one gets cold feet, although that'll be unlikely after they see you tomorrow."

The conversation ended because we were arriving at the Williams', which was just as well as I was more than a little shell-shocked.

Donna asked, "Your new bed will be big enough for me, some nights, won't it?"

I was still frazzled, so Julia answered, "It can sleep three comfortably, Donna. Which three is up to Mark."

"Mark, I can still sleep with you some nights can't I? Please? You said I could before. Please?"

Over the last few hours I'd become increasingly overwhelmed by the size and suddenness of the recent developments:

• Having to dress this way, which I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable about. I was embarrassed about walking in on Vanessa and Prof, so you can imagine how I felt about the idea of wearing these clothes to school! I HATED the idea of being ridiculed at school.

• The fourteen girls today and the hassle they were shaping up to be, and God knows how many more tomorrow.

• Ava. What to do about her, how and when.

• Having to pick three or four girls to fuck. No working up to it, but going from nothing to fucking in seconds, without my talking to them first to reassure myself that they really wanted to.

• My making a complete mess out of my recent conversation with Julia. I honestly hadn't seen that the girls wanted to have sex with me. I've hardly had any experience with discerning that signal from girls who're virtual strangers, and I'd annoyed Julia because of it.

These pressures, and my annoyance at Donna going on about stuff we'd already discussed, made me snap a little. I told her, "No, not for a month because I'm very unhappy that you blabbed in front of Rocky."

Donna cried out, "Oh no," then started bawling.

I felt like a heel. We'd made her follow us around all afternoon rather than taking her home, and now I'd gone back on my previous agreement. So I corrected myself, "Okay, make that a week because you still need to be taught to be careful." This was my biggest concern about Donna: she seems too likely to blab something secret in a moment of thoughtlessness, unlike Carol and Julia, who're much more careful and dependable.

Julia jumped onto my case again, "NO Mark! You have to make it a month. If you instantly cave in every time a girl cries at a decision of yours that she doesn't like, then you're going to be surrounded by hundreds of crying, whining, complaining girls trying to manipulate you into changing your decisions the way they want. Can you imagine how horrible that'd be?"

I could, and QUICKLY told her I could imagine that. The image was horrific for me. I don't handle girls crying very well, especially not when they're crying at pain that I've caused them.

Julia continued, "It's a standard girl tactic and I'm sure you're a total sucker for it, so you HAVE to stand firm. Which means Donna gets a month."

"But I already told her a week."

"You had no trouble changing a month into a week. Now have no trouble changing it back."

I hesitated. Donna started crying louder than before. I'd parked the car by now, and we sat there while I summoned up the courage to tell Donna it was going to be a month. Ouch!

Julia added, "Girls ARE going to try this on you, Mark. Not only do you have to show them it doesn't work, you also have to teach them - and every other girl - that trying to manipulate you gets them punished. If I was you I'd be telling Donna that if she doesn't stop crying in one minute, then you'll make it two months." Double ouch!

^-- Julia turned around to face Donna. "Listen to me, Donna. You're not being punished for blabbing to Rocky."

#3: <She's not? I thought Julia just insisted we made it a month, if not two.>

"{Sob}. I'm not? {Sniff}." Donna was rapidly cheering up, thinking her punishment was being rescinded.

Julia said, "You might be punished for crying too much, if you don't stop quickly."

Donna stopped quickly, and started smiling at Julia.

Julia said, "You did many good things today. You were fun to shop with and I know you enjoyed seeing poor Mark have such a hard time in the store."

"Yeah. It was very funny, {giggle}."

"But you made three mistakes today."

"I... , I did?" asked a suddenly worried Donna.

"First, you blabbed in front of Rocky. That was a very bad thing to do. You have to be more careful. But that's not why you're being punished."

"It's not?"

"No. If Mark was going to punish you for that, he would have told you off and made up a punishment back in the store, or as soon as we were outside it. He didn't do that, so that's not why he's punishing you. He's really doing it for the other two reasons. Do you know what they are?"

"N... , no."

I was interested in hearing this myself, so I listened to Julia's explanation carefully, "You made both mistakes at the same time. You asked him three or four times whether it was still okay for you to sleep with him some nights. If he'd already agreed, why keep asking him? A smart person would have kept her mouth shut because all you were doing was giving him an extra chance to say no after he'd already said yes. Do you understand?"

"I guess so, {sniff}."

"You're not really being punished for that either. It was annoying of you, but Mark puts up with a lot of annoyances because he has almost no temper. What you're being punished for is your timing. Poor Mark's has had a very tough day. You saw how hard it was for him in that store. I know you did because you spent most of the time giggling at him. Then in the car we were talking about him having to handle lots of girls. Some guys would say 'yippee' and rub their hands together in glee, but Mark just got worried. That's what Mark does: he HATES making decisions or doing things that might possibly upset someone. He couldn't even decide whether to accept a free bed for a while, so how's he going to manage hundreds of girls chasing after him, asking him for dates, wanting his time, complaining and being unhappy about not getting his full attention, and all the other problems girls could cause him. His temper was nearly broken, and then you started bothering him over and over again about something he'd already agreed to, so he lost his temper and snapped at you. He made up a reason, but really he was punishing you for making him lose his temper. You're being punished for selfishly thinking only about what you want rather than thinking about what Mark needs."

"But that's too much to think about. I just wanted to sleep with Mark because he looks so wonderful. I couldn't think about all that stuff. I'm not as clever as you. It's not fair! {sniff}."

Julia offered, "I guess I have been unfair to you, haven't I? After all, you're only a little girl, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I don't know any of that stuff yet. I'm still too young."

"I thought you were a big girl now. Very mature and grown up."

"No. I'm still young. It's not fair to punish me for not knowing so much."

"But didn't you tell Mark that you were a big girl now, and it was okay for you to have sex with him?"

"Umm."

"You can't be both. Which are you, a big girl or little girl?"

"Arr, {sniff}"

"If you're a little girl, Mark won't punish you, but he won't have sex with you until you grow up, maybe in three or four years. But if you're a big girl then Mark will have sex with you sooner than that, but you have to take your punishment like a big girl should."

Julia paused for a couple of seconds, to let Donna contemplate the rock and the hard place she was between, then she added, "Let's go inside. Mark must be hungry by now and I think we've spent long enough explaining these very simple things to Donna. She must be too little to understand properly."

That decided Donna! "I'm NOT little; I'm BIG!"

Julia got out of the car without saying another word. I will still thinking about a couple of the earlier words she'd said ("Mark" and "hungry") so I followed her example. Carol naturally did so too. Donna hesitated, then leaped out of the car too. We grabbed our bags and headed inside. I could tell that Julia was deliberately saying nothing, so I followed her lead.

Donna was on tenterhooks, and she's not the most patient of people at the best of times, so even before we got to the front door she blurted out, "What's going to happen to me?"

"If you are a big girl then your punishment is not to sleep with Mark for a month. You know that. That's what you agreed to by saying that you're a big girl. If you keep asking questions about things you know the answers to, or keep trying to wiggle out of your punishments, or keep crying every time you don't get what you want, then people are going to think that you're still a little girl."

Donna didn't want people to think that! She carefully answered, "It's not going to be easy to wait a month."

Julia said, "Bad things happen when you make mistakes, and you made three of them in a row today. I want you to think about them while we're having dinner, and then after dinner I will ask you to explain your three mistakes to me. If you explain them well enough, I'll ask Mark to reduce your punishment down to three weeks. How's that?"

Donna thought that was a great reprieve, and thanked Julia very much. Which I thought was a great trick, considering it was Julia that had insisted her punishment be reset back to the original value of one month.

Julia said, "Shall we go in?"

I agreed, "Yes, please! I'm VERY hungry." Hoping to get the conversation onto something pleasant for a desperately needed change. Also hoping to get dinner too.

Our going into the kitchen caused Vanessa to do a double-take when she saw me. "Wow. Who's your hot new boyfriend, Julia?"

Julia was saying, "He scrubs up well, doesn't he?"

"You can say that again." Vanessa was looking me up and down, and she rubbed it in my asking me, "What happened to 'Modest Mark'?"

Cringing, I answered, "He's still here, now renamed to 'Mortified Mark'. I'm sorry to dress like this in your home. It's Julia's fault, she made me. I've got my old clothes in a bag if you want me to get changed?"

Vanessa had a good laugh at that, while Julia said, "He's going to wear this outfit to school tomorrow, and to OSU for lunch with Dad's faculty. What do you think?"

Vanessa replied, with me listening VERY carefully, hoping to get a sane, adult, non-hormone flooded opinion. She said, "I can't believe you're sorry you look like that, Mark. You've got NOTHING to be sorry about. Every other boy in school will be sorry though, haha. You should be proud of how you look. I've seen you in a swimsuit in the hot tub, but dressed like that is a whole different ballgame. Somewhat literally, by the look of your pants."

^-- Vanessa turned to Julia while I turned to red, "I see you went to Rocky's. They must have been drooling when they saw Mark?"

"Nigel was away buying fabric today, but Rocky closed up and had a GREAT time getting Mark to try on half the stock in the store."

"I can imagine. Nigel's not going to know what's hit him when he gets back, haha."

#4: <SURELY Vanessa didn't mean what it sounded like she meant? Surely! Please tell me she didn't?>

#2: <I refuse to think about it. Whatever you do, do NOT ask Vanessa to explain!>

Julia and Vanessa had a good laugh at that. Vanessa asked, "Was Mark like that the whole time?"

#3: <Like what?>

Julia answered, "Yeah. He had a terrible time. I thought he was going to make a run for it a couple of times. He's not homophobic exactly, but he sure is homo-uncomfortable."

"Perhaps it was just as well that Nigel wasn't there..."

#4: <Oh God! I don't like the sound of that.>

" ... Julia, you know that if Mark goes to school dressed like that tomorrow, there'll be no way to put the genie back into the bottle. There'll be lots of girls who'll be slammed in the vitals when they see him. They'll be head over heels in lust, and they'll try their hardest to win him from you. You won't be able to stop them by putting him back in his old clothes."

"Yeah, I know. Carol and I have talked about this quite often. We, especially me, can't avoid this risk. All we can do is delay it, and not by much because his body will be seen over summer. The first time he goes to the Aquatic Center he'll have the girls mobbing him. We have to hope Mark is the sort of guy we think he is."

I was the sort of guy who was uncomfortable hearing this type of conversation.

Vanessa added, "Some of the girls might be very nice. They might suit Mark's tastes better than you do."

"They'll never exceed my dedication to him."

Vanessa said, "That's for sure!"

In all of my minds, we echoed that sentiment. They also echoed the discomfort at hearing this type of conversation sentiment, so I suggested, "Ahh, I think I should leave this conversation to you. I'll take our gear upstairs."

Vanessa had a VERY different opinion, and she glared at me while stating it, "My daughter is placing her ENTIRE emotional well-being on the line for you. The LEAST you can do is listen and learn to appreciate the risk she's taking!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

#2: <Christ! Now I feel REALLY uncomfortable. Let's never breakup with Julia, or Vanessa will kill us!>

Julia responded, "The more I get to know Mark, the safer I feel. Today we had lunch with fourteen girls who are very interested in him and dressed to impress. In the car ten minutes ago I asked him to pick three to take to bed, and he couldn't do it, and I bet he hasn't given it another thought since. He's just not sexually motivated the way most guys are. I'd think he was homosexual except that I saw his reaction to Rocky, haha. I'd think he was asexual except I've been on the receiving end of his VERY convincing attentions. I don't think I'll lose him because of sex. I don't think he'll go power-mad on me because he's still the most terribly reluctant decision-maker when it risks even the possibility of hurting someone's feelings. He twisted and turned rather than make a decision and risk hurting Carol's feelings when I suggested the Andersons take the bed we removed from our study. I should tell you the trial was canceled today. Everyone plea bargained, so Carol and Mark can share a bed at their house now."

"Yes, Felicity told me. Congratulations, Mark. You must be very happy?"

"Umm, I would've thought so, but it's not exactly working out the way I thought. I didn't expect to go shopping, and apparently we still have to make some phone calls to organize some girls for tomorrow for some sort of management structure, which Julia wants us to talk with you about. None of it is what I imagined we'd be doing."

Vanessa chucked, "I can easily imagine what that was. That Julia is doing those things for you rather than dragging you off to bed should give you some idea of how committed she is to helping you."

#4: <That's not how I was thinking of it!>

Julia said, "I don't think he really gets that yet. He doesn't see himself as anything special. Just as an ordinary guy with a few special abilities."