Chapter 19

"Mother, please."

Janet Woodrow spun around, her wavy black hair spilling over one shoulder. She brushed a few errant strands out of her eyes with a swipe of her hand. "I said no, Diane, and that's final."

Her voice was more tired than angry. She was at a loss as to her daughter's recent streak of recalcitrance. She liked to think that she had a better relationship with her daughter than most parents had with their teens. Now Diane had become a stranger to her.

Janet let her stern gaze linger on her daughter for another moment before turning back towards the stove. "Really, Diane, I hardly get to see you anymore outside of the weekends, and even then you're spending more time with your friends than your own family."

Diane started to sigh, then caught herself and let out a slow breath instead when her mother gave her a warning look. "Mother, I won't be gone long."

"That's what you always say, and then you're never home on time. No, I want you to stay home and have the nice dinner I'm making for all of us. Your Aunt Betty is going to be here as well."

"I'll be home for dinner, Mother."

"No, you'll be home now, because I want you to help me cook."

Diane glanced at the stove, then watched her mother fetch some spices from the cupboard. "But you don't need me for this, you've always done this dish by yourself."

Janet clenched her teeth to stop herself from making the very sound that she hated hearing from Diane. She never felt this frustrated with her daughter. Even when Diane was a child, she was usually well-behaved and minded her parents.

And never did she remember Diane talking back this much.

Janet slapped the bottle of oregano on the counter and turned to face Diane, one hand on her hip. "All right, Diane, I want to be fair about this. Just what is it you need to do that's so urgent?"

Diane hesitated. She was tempted to reveal the Harbingers, but that relied on her mother's recollection of the events surrounding Nyssa. Janet had fallen afoul of Principal Bendon when she had attempted to complain about the nurse's medical program. Soon after Nyssa was defeated, however, Diane realized that her mother had either forgotten or blocked it from her mind.

"Well?" Janet said, folding her arms. "If this is really so urgent, you can tell me what this is about."

"I just ... I just want to see Heather, that's all," Diane said. She let a morose sigh pass her lips, as her mother's reaction no longer mattered. She assumed her reason would not pass muster and turned away.

"That's it?" her mother said. "I mean, I don't want to trivialize your relationship with her. I'm glad you have someone that's such a close friend, but it comes back to what I said about family over friends."

Diane just nodded and looked towards the door.

Janet tilted her head. "No, that's not it, is it?" she asked in a more gentle voice.

"It's what I said, Mother. I want to spend time with her."

"But you want to do that all the time now."

Diane turned, her eyes glistening and pleading.

Janet stepped forward and touched her daughter's shoulder. "Diane, what is it?"

Diane was in too deep now to get out. The tone of caring concern was also a declaration that her mother knew something was upsetting her and refused to let it go until Diane confessed. "Mother, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, honey, you know you always can."

"If ... if I were dating ... if I told you I wanted to go out because it was a date, you wouldn't think twice about it, right?"

"But in the middle of the day?"

"All right, say it was at night. You never let me go out at night."

"Not alone, honey, that's all."

"But what if I wanted to go out with Heather?"

Janet considered. An alarm sounded in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. She was not as ignorant of events at Haven High as Diane believed. She had heard rumors about her daughter and tried her best to give them no credence. "You never mentioned you wanted to go out at night with her."

"But if it was a date, you wouldn't think twice, right?"

Janet paused. "Is that it, Diane? You have a boyfriend you haven't told me about?"

Diane shook her head. "Mother, please, just answer me. Would you let me out at night on a date? Or even now if this was a date?"

Janet let out a slow, contemplative breath through her nose and refused to call it a "sigh." Her own parents had objected to the boy that eventually became her husband, and she had to fight with them to see him. She didn't want to see herself doing the same thing to Diane. "Well, I suppose if you were really serious about him, I would try to give you a little more leeway."

Diane swallowed. Her heart pounded. "This is what this is, Mother. A date."

There was a long, heavy silence. "With?" Janet prompted, but received no answer. Her eyes widened. "Not ... not ... Heather?"

Diane nodded.

Janet stared. The struggle in her head between realization and acceptance was all too apparent. "Wait ... Diane, you ... you're not saying that ... what you really mean is..."

"That I'm a lesbian, Mother," said Diane in a quavering voice.

Diane fell against the counter, one hand rising to her forehead. "Oh dear."

"I'm sorry!" Diane cried. "I-I mean, I'm not sorry, not for being that way, just for not telling you before now."

Janet had no idea what to say. She was not prepared. It would have been easier to hear that Diane was drinking or doing drugs, or cutting school, or even having sex clandestinely with a boy.

It reminded her too much of what she wanted to forget: her encounter with the school principal. It had faded enough in her mind to be no more than a surreal dream. She could come close to convincing herself that it had never happened.

The silence was killing Diane. Her eyes blurred with unshed tears. "Mother, p-please tell me you don't hate me."

This broke Janet out of her emotional paralysis, and she pulled Diane into a tight embrace. "Diane, of course I don't hate you! I'm sorry, you just caught me a bit by surprise. I just don't know what to say."

Diane let out a relieved sigh. This was enough to chase away most of her fears.

Janet pulled back from the embrace, but kept her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "So is this what it's been about for the past month? Is that why you've been so secretive?"

Diane nodded. She didn't trust her voice to properly reinforce the partial lie. "I actually feel a little better now that you know about it. I mean ... you're not going to stop me from seeing her are you?"

"What? No, of course not. I doubt I could stop you even if I wanted to. I just ... I just don't know what to tell you, is all. I can't relate to this." Janet shivered at the memory of the principal again, but shook it off. "I can't relate to this," she repeated, forcing her voice steady. "I can't give you any advice."

"I know, Mother, and I don't think I need any."

"I assume Heather knows about this? You're not just admiring her from afar?"

Diane blushed. "No, definitely not," she said in a low voice.

Janet knew what that blush meant. "Oh my."

Diane's lips twitched into a tiny smile. "Look at it this way, Mother. At least you don't have to worry about me getting pregnant."

Janet managed to return the smile, but her hands squeezed Diane's shoulders. "Diane, honey, even though this is ... um ... safer than doing it with a boy, it's still sex, and it still has to mean something. Don't treat it as something casual."

Diane remained quiet and drew her feet together. Heat had sparked in her sex, and Heather's distant siren call now teased her thoughts.

"And it needs to be mutual feelings as well," Janet said.

"It is, Mother. Heather and I love each other."

Janet smiled and lifted her hand to her daughter's hair. "So would you consider bringing her over for dinner some time?"

Diane's eyes widened. "What? But ... uh..."

Janet stroked Diane's hair. "Dear, I'd ask the same thing if it were a boy you were going with. Work with me here, Diane. This is the only thing I can think of to do to show you some support."

Diane relaxed somewhat. "All right, I'll ask her about it."

"Just maybe not tonight." Janet paused. "I'm pretty sure I can get your father to understand, but I really don't want my sister to get wind of this right now. I mean, I am not ashamed of you, it's just that she's such a busybody anymore."

"I know, Mother, I understand," Diane said. A faint smile crossed her lips. "I just never heard you come out and admit that about her."

"She is your father's sister, and I would rather not complain about her if I can avoid it." Janet lowered her hand. "All right, Diane, you can go, so long as you promise to be more up front about where you're going, and you stay home every now and then to be with your family."

Diane smiled and hugged her mother. "I will. Thank you."

Janet squeezed her eyes shut as she embraced her daughter.

"I better get going, Mother, I told Heather I would meet her in a little while."

"Just be home by dinner, and that's non-negotiable."

"I will, Mother. Thanks."

Janet smiled as she watched her daughter leave. Only once the front door had closed did she collapse against the counter again and rub her temples.

She would not let it dredge up that terrible memory. She had to keep pretending that it never happened, that it had been some strange waking dream. She shuddered and forced herself to return her concentration to preparing dinner, though her head spun with the question on how she was going to break this to her husband Ralph.

"Look, all I want to know is exactly what happened to me in that class," Heather declared. She glanced towards the back door of the house and sighed. "It was real. I could taste those cocks in my mouth! I could feel them against my tits! I--"

"We get the point, Heather," Cassie said, squirming in her seat.

"And I know what I saw," Richie drawled. "Yeah, maybe you were movin' like you were doing all that, but no one was there."

"And there ain't no one willin' ta fess-up ta havin' part of a class orgy yesterday," Ned said.

"I know! I know!" Heather cried, grabbing her hair as if intending to tear it out. She turned away from the others and looked towards the kitchen again. "And where the hell is Diane?!"

"I already said she called me on my cell and told me she's on her way," Cassie replied. "Please, she'll be here soon, there's no point in getting upset over it."

"Yeah, you'll have plenty of time to boink her later," Melinda quipped.

Heather stopped herself from lashing out at her sister. She came very close to making Melinda so horny she would fall off the sofa and masturbate in an insatiable frenzy. "I'm not even thinking about that right now."

"Liar."

"Don't provoke me, runt, okay?"

Cassie let out a quavering sigh. She could feel Heather's renewed desire like waves of heat. Her gaze flitted to the others. Jason tugged at his belt. Melinda shifted in her seat as if unable to get comfortable. She glared at her sister, but it was weak, her eyes sharing some of the lust growing inside Heather.

She didn't dare risk a look at Ned or Richie.

"All right, please," Jason finally said. "Arguing about it will get us nowhere."

"I know what happened, Jason," Heather said in a lower voice. "It was real. Or at least it seemed real."

"Yes, and what Richie saw seemed real to him as well. What we have to figure out is which version is the correct one. You can't both be right."

"But we felt it too!" Melinda piped. "When Heather tried to call us, I thought I saw some of it, too."

"Diane did," Heather said. "Really strong. She ... there she is!"

Heather rushed towards the kitchen and intercepted Diane as she stepped into the room. "Cassie said you had trouble with your mother," said Heather. "Is everything squared away with her now?"

Diane nodded and even smiled. "Yes! In fact, I have good news, but let me talk to you later about that. What did I miss?"

"We were talking about how Heather connected with some of us when she was in Ms. Hollis class," said Jason.

"Yes, I remember that."

"Diane, tell them what you told me over lunch," Heather said.

Diane shuddered. "It was like I was in Heather's body for a few seconds. I could ... um ... well ... what the guys were doing with her, I could sense that."

"She said she could taste it at one point," Heather declared.

Diane wrinkled her nose. "I really don't want to experience that again. It convinced me I'm just not into guys."

"I didn't get it that strongly," Jason said.

Richie smirked. "Lucky you. Not enough mouthwash in the world for me if I had to taste that."

"I could see and maybe hear a little," Jason said. "I knew something was happening, and then the sensation afterward, like energy draining from me."

"I had that, too," Melinda said.

Diane nodded. "Yes, so did I."

"Wow," Ned said. "It's like ya all jump-started her willpower or somethin'."

"It wasn't enough to make me stop," Heather said. "I was still horny as hell and wanted to suck those cocks just one after the other."

Cassie sighed again, half in frustration and half in unbidden arousal. Melinda folded her arms to hide her raised nipples and tried not to squirm.

"But I still knew it was all wrong," Heather continued. "Something was trying to make me believe everything was normal. That's what you all helped me stop."

"Okay, so here's the million-dollar question," said Ned. "Why just Jason, Melinda, and Diane? I woulda been glad ta lend my noggin' ta help any one of you."

"No, that's not the question!" Melinda cried. "The question is, why didn't she have a freaking Aura?"

The room became silent.

"Well, c'mon, isn't that more important?" Melinda demanded.

Cassie took a deep breath. She finally risked a look at Ned. He was standing with his arms folded, his brow creased in thought. His body looked tense. She could not tell if it were simple agitation or repressed sexual desire.

Richie stared at the lot of them, sitting backwards on a chair he had swiped from the dining room, his chin resting on his hands. He shifted his eyes towards Heather until she happened to look his way, only to avert her gaze a second later.

Richie frowned. It didn't matter if Heather were ignoring him. His cock stirred anyway in response to his own feelings.

"I think you're getting too hung up on that, runt," Heather muttered.

"Why? Because you're afraid you might really have one?"

"I don't have one, Melinda! Stop sounding like you want me to have one!"

"Well, it would make a hell of a lot more sense!"

"Is that all the two of you know how to do is fight?" Diane said in a weak voice.

Heather sighed. "Diane, I'm sorry. I'm at my wits' end right now, okay?"

"I know what it is, she's getting horny again," Melinda muttered. "I can already feel it."

"Yeah, and what if I am? What if I just can't control it?"

"We're getting off the subject," Cassie declared in a quavering voice. "Please, let's not talk about that right now. Let's get back to ... to..."

She trailed off. She and Melinda exchanged a glance and realized they both had come to the same conclusion. No matter what subject they chose, it was all one and the same. Cassie looked towards Jason, who fiddled with his belt.

"All right, enough of this tip-toeing 'round the facts," Ned finally said. "I'll say what everyone else won't. Diane, Melinda, and Jason were the only ones tuned ta Heather's frequency. They're also the same ones that were invited inta Heather's little love-fests."

Another heavy silence.

"That's really circumstantial evidence at best," said Jason, though his voice was tentative.

"Yeah, Ned, you're the one that still thinks the school counselor is the bad guy," Melinda snapped.

"Hey, ya wanna think I'm nuts, fine with me," Ned said. "But it was gettin' a might musky in here with the big elephant in the room that everyone was ignorin'."

"But that's crazy, Ned!" Heather cried. "It means I'm just ... that I'm just using everyone to protect me!"

"Hey, and why the hell not? If ya didn't get that little burst of energy when ya needed it, ya might not be talkin' ta us about it. Ya woulda been convinced it was another wonderful day in Ms. Hollis' class."

Heather wanted to protest, but she had no other explanation. She was suddenly reminded of that fleeting moment in the throes of passion the day before, when everything had come together in her mind.

"Ned," Cassie said in a small voice. "It's ... it's a wild theory."

"Yeah, babe, but doesn't it kinda fit with some of the stuff Mrs. Radson was tellin' ya?"

"That's a bit of a stretch, really."

"Yeah, mebbe. But mebbe not. Look, I dunno if I'm right, I jus' want us ta consider it."

"All right, it's certainly a possibility, " Jason said. "But I would need more proof before I'd believe there was a direct connection between the two."

Heather trembled, her breathing a slow, deep pant. She no longer knew whether Ned was right or not, only that talking about it was making her pussy wet.

"There's another thing, too," Ned said. "What about Heather's precog shtick?"

"What about it?" Heather said.

"It's gotten stronger since ya started do the fandango with more of us, right?"

"We sort of knew that already, Ned."

"Yeah, but what if that an' the thing today is all wrapped up in the same package? It's not jus' the amount of sex yer gettin', it's how many people yer doin' it with that really--"

"Stop it, Ned!" Cassie cried. She bolted to her feet and took a few steps away. She heaved a shuddering sigh.

Ned stared in surprise. "Huh? What'd I say?"

"I-I'm sorry," Cassie said in a small voice and visibly trembled. "You didn't really say anything. It's what you're implying about Heather, that her power gets better each time she includes more people in her ... her s-sexual circle."

Ned fell silent. He glanced at Heather for a moment, then back at Cassie. He understood Cassie's issue, but no words would come to him that he did not fear would upset Cassie further.

Richie narrowed his eyes and focused them on Heather in quiet accusation, but of what he was not sure.

Cassie turned towards Heather, her eyes pleading. "I can't do it, Heather," she said in a weak voice. "Don't ask me, because I can't."

"I wasn't going to," Heather retorted with little conviction.

"But you want to. You want me."

Heather turned her head as if intending to look away, but kept her dark gaze on Cassie.

Cassie shivered. "S-see? You're doing it now." Her eyes darted towards Ned. "I'm already going to have to do something about this or I'll just be a mess for the rest of the day."

Ned's jaw tightened. He didn't want to mention that he had no guarantee of privacy back home.

"I'm sorry, I-I have to get away from this for a few minutes," Cassie said in a weak voice. Ned turned towards her, but she shook her head and waved her arm, her eyes blurred with unshed tears as she stumbled into the kitchen and out into the back yard.

Ned watched her go, looking deflated.

"Way to go, bubblehead," Melinda muttered.

"Shut the hell up, runt," Heather growled.

Jason ran his hand through his hair. "Stop it, please. We're getting all worked up over something that might not even be true."

Richie tensed. He felt like he was watching a movie of a secret meeting, where he could only shout at the characters on the screen. He dared to think that the Darkness might have been right after all, that none of them really gave a shit about him.

Stop it, you asshole. Thinking like that is what got you so fucked up by Nyssa.

Yet the thought remained and festered like a sore.

Ned spun around. "Okay, fine, Mr. Brainiac. Then figger out a way ta prove it or disprove it. Otherwise, yer not doin' a whole lot ta solve the problem."

"Oh, shut up, Ned!" Melinda piped. "Where do you get off talking like that to--?!"

"Melinda, you're not helping," Jason declared.

Melinda was shocked into silence long enough for Ned to continue to vent. "Look, we can go debatin' this til the cows come home, and it don't mean shit unless we figger out what's right and what's not."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Melinda demanded. "You going to volunteer to join Heather's next boink-fest? See if it charges her up or something?"

"And have Cassie upset with me? No freaking way."

"Then what's the point of bringing it up?"

Richie bolted from his chair, which tipped over with a muffled thud against the thick carpet. He barreled towards the back of the house.

"Richie, wait, where are you going?" Jason called out.

Richie turned. "I'm gonna go join Cassie. I need some time away from all the fucking hot air in here. And y'know, I just might keep on going. See ya in the funny papers, all."

"Wait, Richie, don't," Jason said, reaching for his arm.

Richie leapt back. "No, forget it, man! I'm tired of this shit! It's like it's become a freaking private club with Heather and I'm tired of waiting for some gold-trimmed invite to arrive in the fucking mail. I'm tired of being looked at like I was something that the butler scraped off his fucking shoe when he went to answer the door."

Heather took a half-step forward. "Richie, I never meant anything like that. You don't understand."

"Yeah, you're right, I don't. News flash: I don't wanna fucking understand. I just want to be treated like everyone else in here."