Chapter 11: The Power of Friends

It was still early, so Gail gave us directions to a place to go for some refreshments. We all pulled up to a place called "The Abbey". It seemed both pleasant and quaint, hardly a fitting structure for its name since it looked like a small, unimposing building. As we trooped in we found it to be a nice quiet place with several tables, a few big couches, and I noticed a bar along one wall. I didn't worry about it because I assumed Gail knew of any restrictions. Besides, most restaurants had bars, so it really wasn't a big deal. We were led over to an empty couch, it really wasn't very busy yet and we crashed; me in the middle of course, surrounded by Chalise and Gail while Cate sat in one of a few chairs facing the couch. We were sitting and talking for a bit before Chalise leaned in and whispered "Alex, notice anything unusual?"

I had to think for a moment but didn't notice anything. True, it was much more relaxed than usual. More of a homey feel than you'd normally run across. It certainly wasn't like the typical bar with sports pictures and the televisions blaring news or a ballgame. When I didn't respond she leaned and added, grinning, "You're the only guy here." It was only then that it occurred to me, and my eyes practically popped out of my head. Cate and Chalise both laughed at me and Gail just shook her head.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to figure it out," Cate laughed.

I felt pretty foolish, but Gail just patted my knee. "Don't worry about it. They generally try to make it not stand out. No blacked out windows, no all pink decor, just a nice lounge that looks like a nice homemaker designed it."

A waitress walked up at this point, but as she drew near her face lit up.

"Hey there, Gail, nice to see you again. I see you've brought some friends with you today."

"Hi, Betsy. Yeah, these are a few friends that are visiting me for the weekend."

"Well it's nice to meet you all," she said politely, smiling and seemingly genuinely happy to meet us. She turned back to Gail. "We've missed you. You haven't been by for what; a couple of weeks now?"

"Yeah, I've been kind of distracted. I've been involved in some things that have kind of taken precedence over the usual things in my life," Gail answered simply.

"Nothing serious I hope; police stuff?"

"Nope, actually it was this bunch. They've been teaching me several things about myself."

"That's nice," she said, grinning at us before turning back to Gail. "I was thinking maybe it was some new girlfriend," she laughed.

"Well, there are a few friendly women involved with this bunch, not to mention how cute these folks are."

"They sure are," Betsy said, winking at the girls. "So can I get you anything?" We ordered various drinks, apparently a variety of teas were popular this time of day. Gail also ordered us some appetizers that she thought we'd enjoy, and Betsy was off again.

"So what do you think? Are you disappointed there's no outrageous bull or fem dykes?" Gail asked us.

"Nonsense, it's like my wanting to come along this weekend," Chalise explained. "I just wanted to see Alex in his element. This is similar in that I wanted to see what it is you do. I haven't had much experience with this lifestyle, and I'm just curious what the typical lesbian does in her normal life."

"Well, this is largely it. There's a regular group that I talk with, several ex-girlfriends, but mostly it's just people that share common interests. Of course I'm always on the lookout for a new relationship, but mostly it's just friendly camaraderie. Especially when I need to escape the overly testosterone based machismo found in the police force," Gail explained.

While we were talking, another quite attractive woman came up and excitedly hugged Gail, and after the innocent introductions started talking quite excitedly to her about her new romantic interest, though it wasn't readily apparent whether her love interest was male or female, and I wondered whether that was based on our relative ages. While they were talking I looked around the place and considered everything.

"You know, given the environment, you should probably sit with Cate," I teased Chalise, whispering softly to her.

"Nonsense, Cate's not my girlfriend. That honor resides with you," she teased me back, poking me in the ribs. "Though if you'd brought Kitty you might very well be sitting by yourself now. But seriously, you heard Gail, they're not offended by normal straights. Most of them have families. I suspect they even know of a few young girls with boyfriends. And besides, I'm not here to fit in. If I was looking to fit in I would never have gotten together with you. I'm interested in you because you're such an enigma, but also a little 'cause you're cute," she added with a wink.

When Gail's friend finally wound down, she told us she was pleased to meet us and headed off, Gail apologized for her friend, stating that she just needed a close friend to confide in.

"Forget it," I told her. "I never intended for any of you to give up your lives for me. Ideally I'd like each of you to just continue to lead your lives as you always have. We're just here to help teach you how to live with these new abilities we share. That should be the end of my influence in each of your lives," I tried to explain to her. Gail just looked at me for a moment before committing to what she wanted to tell me.

"I hate to break it to you, but you're just dead wrong about that, Alex. While I've always appreciated being able to relax among like-minded women who share the same interests and problems that I have, most of that ended the day you dropped into my life. There is no way any of these women can possibly share the most central and important parts of my life with me anymore, and none of them could even begin to grasp it. No, the camaraderie that I once used to share with them I now feel for my fellow Sisters that you've introduced me to.

"Maybe someday I'll meet somebody cute that I get along really well with. Someone that I'll feel confident won't think I'm a complete wacko if I tell a tiny bit about my new life to. But it's unlikely they'd be able to relate, even if they were deeply in love with me and fully supported me. Personally, I'm just hoping that maybe you'll find an attractive lesbian I can get along with one of these days, but I realize that's highly unlikely given the numbers that we're dealing with. So that essentially leaves a few central people in my life that I'm going to depend on, and their gender doesn't particularly matter. What matters is that you are now the center of my universe." And with that she leaned forward and kissed me.

Feeling a bit self-conscious, I quickly scanned the room while she was kissing me, just to see if anyone showed any particular interest, but everyone simply ignored us. So I went ahead and kissed her back, but I still restrained myself by keeping it short. I guess I just wasn't as free thinking and confident enough to let myself completely relax after all.

After we'd sat around talking and saying hello to a few friends we decided to go get some dinner. We paid our bill and were heading out when we met three beautiful women around Gail's age, give or take a few years, who immediately surrounded her. Their names were Beverly, Sara and Julie. Each was beautiful, but quite different. Sara was a typical blonde, bubbly and cheery. Julie was darker and more full figured, but seemed quieter and more introspective. Finally Beverly, or Bev as the others seemed to refer to her, was perky and always up for a challenge. It looked like they made quite a trio.

They asked all the usual questions and appeared to be close friends of Gail's from before I disrupted her life. They asked where we were going, and Gail told them we were off to get something to eat. When they suggested we should go together and that they knew just the place to take us, Gail started to make excuses.

"Nonsense, there's no reason that you shouldn't come with us," I told them, much to Gail's carefully concealed chagrin. "I'd love to know what kind of friends she has, and to learn more about her from her closest friends."

"Oh, we're all close," Beverly confided with a sneaky grin, glancing playfully at Gail. "We've known each other for years and years, through thick and thin."

"Then you're definitely coming to dinner with us," I insisted. "Our treat. Any long-term friends of Gail's are always welcome with us." They smiled, and we split up between several cars to head to the restaurant they'd suggested. I was sure they wanted to quiz Gail about us, and Julie agreed to ride with us to provide us with directions to the restaurant. I didn't bother to mention that Gail could direct me from their car. I just agreed and she came with us.

I invited the girls because I trusted Gail's judgment, and if she had been friends with them, then they were likely decent people. I couldn't see her losing close friends without a fight. She might feel isolated from them now, but that was no excuse to lose all your ties to people.

It's easy to invite friends and offer to pay when you aren't actually the one doing the paying. I realized that I had misspoken. The fact of the matter is, since my parents realized what I was trying to achieve, they'd been allowing me judicious use of the funds they'd set aside for my college education. Not only that, but my girls would frequently deposit spending money in my slacks when they laid out what I should wear for these events. I realized that wasn't terribly honorable, essentially making me a kept man, but I'd have a hard time trying to do all that I was doing if I was working a 20 to 40 hour shift at the Jamba Juice.

While Julie gave me directions and tried to maintain a conversation, I largely ignored her while speaking telepathically with Gail, trying to make sure she wasn't having trouble with her friends and also wanting to see how she was taking my interference with her life. Luckily Cate and Chalise figured out what I was doing, so they kept Julie occupied as they carried on the conversation in the car.

Gail was getting peppered with questions about us, mostly why they'd never heard anything about us and what she was hiding from her friends. While trying to help Gail fend off their friendly inquiries, I also picked up that Gail wasn't entirely happy to be mixing her two worlds together. I wondered whether it was embarrassment of either of our groups, or just that she no longer felt connected with her prior life. If that was the case, I wanted to try to make amends so that Gail could at least continue to associate with her friends in the future. When I haltingly tried to convey some of this to her, she wanted no part of it.

'You're just being silly, ' she insisted. 'I'm not embarrassed by either one. I just didn't want to make anyone feel ill at ease.'

'Nobody seems ill at ease, besides you, ' I told her. 'Again, I'm interested in learning more about you from your closest friends.' She had no immediate response to that.

When we arrived at the restaurant, a little Greek place, we all trooped inside and they found us a table large enough for us. Gail was immediately surrounded by her friends, leaving me between Chalise and Cate on the other side of the table, and Gail looking forlorn amongst her friends. They immediately wanted to know how we knew each other.

"Oh, Alex is my Godson," she began the established line. I could see some furrowed brows indicating confusion that she'd never mentioned me before.

"That's just what she tells everyone to explain why someone from so far away suddenly popped into my life," I explained to them, figuring the only way to include Gail's old friends in her new life was with a good deal of honesty. Not complete honesty, by any stretch of the imagination, but as much as I could afford.

"So just how did she appear in your life?" the cute blonde named Sara asked.

"She heard I'd been injured while driving past my home, and stopped by to check it out. We got to talking, and I like to think I was able to help her see some things in her life a little clearer. I've recently helped a few women I've met reorient their lives."

"I'd say," Cate interjected, getting into the idea. "He met several women on our vacation to New Orleans, and they left their families behind to move in with us." This raised a few eyebrows.

"Well, are you planning to abscond with our little Gailie?" Beverly, a sweet brunette, asked, smiling sweetly, apparently thinking there wasn't much chance of that.

"I wouldn't dream of—" I began.

"Actually she's already initiated inquiries with the local police department about openings in our area," Cate informed them, completely unhelpfully; which resulted in shocked expressions from her friends.

"Really," Julie, a rounder Hispanic woman with much shorter hair, gasped. "You'd consider moving away without even mentioning it to us first?"

"That's part of why I wanted you to come eat with us," I tried to intercede. "Gail's been feeling conflicted in that she's putting out feelers about a possible change of venue, but has been afraid to mention it to you." They all ohhed and ahhed to her, expressing their sympathies and telling her they understood.

Finally the question I'd been expecting came up.

"So what was it about you that would cause our Gail to want to relocate to be closer to you?"

"Or was it someone you know that was the influence?" Julie asked in an oblique reference.

"Oh, the women living with him and I have become fast friends," Gail insisted. "There's an older woman who is working as a live-in accountant, mainly because she doesn't speak English very well. There are two that are a nurse and an EMT at the local hospital who live nearby. Finally there are a cute Jamaican girl and this nice little redhead that really knows her way around," she explained, leaving enough insinuations to make it clear what she was trying to use as her excuse.

I listened to Gail's description, seeing where she was hoping to lead the discussion. "Let's not stand on formalities or invented stories," I calmly told them. "While it's true that Gail has certainly enjoyed all of their company," I looked at them meaningfully as I said this, "the fact is that it's largely a hoax to throw people off the scent." Gail rolled her eyes at me.

For as many reservations as Gail had about revealing her new life to her friends, I felt comfortable about them, and they undoubtedly knew a thing or two about living partially in a secret world that others wouldn't understand. I felt they'd be a good support system for Gail. I certainly couldn't see them rejecting her over it.

"And just what's the real story?" Beverly asked as they all leaned forward in fascination.

"The women in question are, forgive me for saying this because it's going to sound incredibly self-involved, but they feel incredibly obligated and thankful to me for helping them change their lives in unexpected ways. As a result they keep trying to compete with each other in trying to improve my own life." They all spun on Gail.

"Is this true?" they asked. She hemmed and hawed a bit, so they instead turned to the girls.

"Is he just spinning a story? Why would several mature independent women want to take up with a young boy?"

"No, it's completely true. I don't think I've ever seen such complete devotion," Cate informed them. "They help him pick out his clothes, they give him advice; heck, they'd probably wash his feet with their hair if they thought they could get away with it."

"That's how my girlfriend and I got involved with him," Chalise contributed, joining in on the fun. "They all wanted him to avoid missing his big first girlfriend experience, so they pushed him into dating. As a result he asked both Kitty and me out, thinking either one or both of us would simply turn him down. However he continually underestimates his appeal, and we surprised him when we both insisted he couldn't reject either one of us just for appearances sake, so now he's stuck with us both."

I wasn't quite sure what Chalise's motivation was in offering this information. Cate, I could understand, since she'd pledged to always follow my lead and to trust my decisions about things since we didn't understand why they seemed to be so accurate. But Chalise didn't seem to fit in the same boat. But I wasn't going to complain, since she was playing all of my cards for me. Chances are these women wouldn't accept the prideful boasts of a high school kid, but they would if everyone else volunteered the information for me.

They of course wanted to know all the details, intrigued by the idea of my two girlfriends being involved with each other. This included, of course, the full description of my run-in with Darrell, then the subsequent involvement of Brandon, and my trip to the hospital where I met Gail. They were all clearly fascinated, still trying to wrap their heads around what Gail's fascination was. Finally Beverly tackled the subject head on.

"So just what did this life changing new 'view of the world' of Gail's entail?"

"I'm sorry, normally I'd insist that you'd have to ask her, as I always make it a point not to talk about other's personal lives, but she's been around me long enough to pick up some of my nobler sentiments. As a result she probably won't tell you either. I'm a real stickler about privacy issues and trying to play down all the various rumors that have been popping up since all these attractive women have begun popping up in my life."

"Yeah, I can see how that would cause a lot of fascination," Sara agreed. "A lot of our own school lives revolved largely around various rumors and trying to manage them."

"My brother has kind of had a mixed reaction to his high moral ground response," Cate told them. "A large portion of the school hates him, mostly the male half, about five percent thinks he walks on water, and the rest are just waiting to see if he sinks or swims before deciding."

"Actually you're exaggerating," Chalise corrected her. "Besides, those sitting on the fence are beginning to come over to our side. I'd say it looks like he's finally won over most everyone, but there are still quite a few diehards that wouldn't mind seeing him meet an untimely end.

"You should see our lunch room grouping. There are about ten to twenty girls, a cute gay guy and Alex," Chalise continued.

"Alex is the gay guy," I explained.

"We call him the other Alex; kind of the alternative Alex," Cate giggled. They all thought it was quite fun.

"He sounds like quite the ladies' man," Bev teased.

"Oh, it's not that so much," Chalise explained. "As you can tell, he's kind of cute, but not enough to attract that much attention. It's just his way of conveying encouragement, safety and acceptance, that just makes you feel you can accomplish things you never thought you could before."

"OK, what's the long and short of it? Have you or haven't you slept with Gail yet?" Beverly pressed, clearly intrigued and more than a bit confused about the answer. I took a deep breath, causing all the women to lean forward in anticipation.

"Sorry, but—"

"He never talks about anyone's personal life," Cate, Chalise and Gail stated, completing my sentence for me, causing laughs all around. I just shook my head while trying to wipe the tears from my eyes. Gail was giving me a 'you deserved that' look as she was still exasperated that I'd put her into this position.

"Anyway," I continued, "You can see why Gail felt odd telling you about this. After all, it's hardly the kind of thing you can confess to your girlfriends. It's the sort of thing you really can't expect anyone to understand or relate to," I explained, turning Gail's own words back on her. They immediately began assuring her that they understood and would all work hard to deal with it, which is what I'd been looking for when I spearheaded this entire exercise.

After they'd started talking I excused us and pointedly asked the girls, "Pardon me, but would you care to accompany me to the bathroom? I suspect they'd like a little privacy for a bit." They all tittered at my blatant comment, and I ushered Cate and Chalise out of the room and into the lobby so Gail and her friends could be alone.

'I'll get you for this little man, ' Gail insisted, sounding serious about her implied threat. Still, I thought I'd risk it, as I couldn't see her maintaining her anger at me for long.

'I'll look forward to it, ' I replied, laughing to myself.

We walked outside and hung around just talking for a while. They didn't bother to ask why I was interfering with Gail's life decisions; they already knew what I was like and about my various obsessions. We finally decided we'd left them alone long enough to have a quick discussion, and staying any longer would be rude in case they weren't speaking honestly.

When we came back they were still speaking animatedly but were glad to see us again.

"Alex, we can certainly see where all the rumors come from," Beverly told me. "You could have easily just avoided us, or simply suggested Gail tell us some silly story, or even maintained the godchild tale. But instead you choose to explain in great detail what must be potentially embarrassing for you. We're all suitably impressed. And yes, you were right, the normally quick to gossip Gail is suddenly silent as far as you're concerned; which is quite an accomplishment in itself."

"That just wouldn't have been right," I insisted, "I think you should try to maintain friendships if you can. You seemed to be willing, so I just wanted to see if maybe I could open some communications between you."

"Now you see, that's just not the way you'd expect a teenager to speak," the third woman, Julie said.

"It is if they're well educated," I told them.

"But that's just it, we understand you aren't even going on to college," Sara stated, making me wonder whether we'd given them too much time to talk if a subject like that had time to come up. I felt my cheeks getting warmer.

"No, an unfortunate series of events led me to decide to put that plan on hold but not to completely abandon it."

"No, just the interesting 'let's all get naked and learn about life, love and philosophy' part," she grinned. Again I felt myself blushing, although I wasn't so sure why I was.

"I keep a book on Sartre hidden in my closet at home," I offered, which lead to a few smiles between them.

"So, Chalise was it, I know these two won't reveal any of each other's secrets, but surely a girlfriend is allowed to brag about her boyfriend; have you anything to say on this 'not quite that cute to attract a series of women' young man?" Julie prompted. I started wishing I could use telepathy on girlfriends as well, when I noticed Chalise grin like a Cheshire Cat.

"Well, not going into any great detail, he does pretty well for a relative beginner. He has the whole enthusiastic willing-to-learn and/or try-anything approach," she told them, again leading to a few laughs. "Plus, needless to say, he's not so shy as to be intimidated by someone else watching him perform," she teased, smiling at Cate.

"Well, I think we'll pass on the watching part," Julie said. "While you're certainly cute enough to want to take to bed, I'm not sure we're as interested in the comparative sexuality lesson."

Just then I happened to glance to the side where I notice a young woman standing by the bar, completely ignoring her companions and staring at me. I nudged Cate and pointed her out, so Cate quietly got up and walked over to her.

Sara seemed to notice this and leaned in to ask, "I thought Cate was supposed to be straight?"

"She is," Gail told her.

"She's running a mission for Alex," Chalise calmly told her. They all turned and glanced back at the bar.

"But that's Melissa," Julie observed. "She's about as gay as they come. Are you telling me she's giving her your number or something?" she asked.

Chalise looked at me and I merely nodded to her.

"She's giving her some basic knowledge on her new life, what she needs to learn, and how to contact us. It's more than getting friendly, there's a whole indoctrination process," Chalise informed them.

They all turned and looked again, noticing that while Melissa was attentive to what Cate was saying, she never took her eyes off of me.

"What's the fascination?" Beverly asked again.

"It's complicated, but it's mostly instantaneous," I explained. "They don't even need to see me to feel this attraction. Very often someone will come looking for me, having felt me from outside. Pardon me, I should go make an appearance," I said, getting up to go join Cate.

As I was talking to Melissa, telling her about what she was and how it would impact her life, I glanced back at the table. They were all casting surreptitious looks our way. Not enough to be obnoxious, but it was pretty obvious to everyone they were watching what was happening, which only focused even more attention on me. Hoping to head off any further discussion I gave Melissa a hug hello, welcomed her to our world, and headed back.

"So, she's officially on your team now? Just like that?" Sara asked.

"No, she's still gay and she'll remain that way, but I hold a key to a lot of her life, and so she'll look to me for a lot of information. I haven't changed her, I've just given her some information about her life that she didn't have before." They all looked at me without saying anything for several minutes. By then Cate returned.

"She says she'll be down to visit next week," she told me as she sat down.

"Damn, you've got to tell me your secret! I'd love to be able to pull something like that off whenever I see someone I like," Beverly told me.

"That's just it. I don't choose any of them. They all seek me out, or as in Melissa's case, they just stop dead in their tracks and stare. That alerts us that they have something they need to learn about."

"And you teach them this information?" Sara asked, still in an unbelieving tone of voice.

"It's not like that. I'm serious about giving them information about themselves. Due to recent discoveries I may have to get a little 'friendly' with her, but that's strictly a necessity. As much as I love all the women around me, I've got no desire to add any more. It's really more of an obligation than anything else at this point."

"Whew, you are just too much," Julie told me as they watched Melissa, finally sitting now and studying the material that Cate had given her, but still actively watching me.

"We call them Watchers," Chalise helpfully added. "You should see the other ones."

I figured we'd attracted enough attention. We'd become much more relaxed before that little scene, and now it appeared they didn't know how to handle it. We quickly excused ourselves, and Gail's friends were full of good wishes and promises to call or talk in the future. They were very personable, though I'd have to find out later just how their view of me had changed. Chalise and Cate both received plenty of hugs and kisses, and soon we were headed back to Gail's apartment.

When we finally arrived back at Gail's place after dinner I was feeling tired, but the girls were all feeling romantic. Gail hadn't been pleased with what I'd just pulled over dinner, but she'd been looking forward to tonight for a long time so she wasn't about to be denied. Besides, it's hard to feel too tired when the little head's in charge of all your thinking. While Chalise was cuddling up to me and kissing me from the side, Gail walked up to us with a serious expression.

"Chalise, do you know what's going to happen tonight?" she asked.

"Well sure," Chalise responded, looking at us both curiously. "You're finally going to get your chance to screw Alex like we promised you could." Gail looked at me questioningly and I nodded my head, preparing to tell her that she already knew but Gail jumped in with both feet first.

"Chalise, honey, there's more to it than that. Normally I'd just leave the two of you to have fun tonight, but there's more than just sex involved." Chalise released me and grinned at Gail. I knew she was planning on having some fun with her.

"You mean the whole demonstrating your appreciation for all he's done thing?" she asked with an innocent expression.

"No, I mean he's going to make love to me in order to trigger something in me that'll better allow me to protect him in the future, and to communicate with others like me."

"You mean like Anh and Shani?" Chalise asked hesitantly.

"I mean other's like me. Other Sisters, both those we've found and those we haven't—" That was as far as she got before Chalise broke out laughing.

"Sorry, but I couldn't resist. Don't you remember I was there for the whole discussion last Saturday? Don't you think Alex and everyone else would have mentioned what was happening after he already told us everything else? Yeah, I'm aware of what will happen when he makes love to you tonight, and I know just how important it will be. Thus I'll give you all the freedom you want, in case you want to be alone when you make love with him. I know your time with Alex is special and I don't want to intrude on that. Let me know if I was being pushy in suggesting we all share the bed," Chalise said by way of an apology.