Chapter 7: A Few Personal Revelations

Nothing was said on the way out, since both girls knew how much I liked my 'silently walking out' statements. Allison, however, was quick to bring me up to date on what they'd been doing earlier.

"Last night Anh and I went out and bought a bunch of balloons and toys for the kids in the hospital. This morning while you were in school, Shani and I gave them out while we watched the results in the children's auras. We watched their happy reactions and their disappointment at some of the lesser toys. We surprised them by popping balloons and tossing out little plastic bugs. We've managed to learn a lot more about the various emotions we see in people's auras since children tend to have less conflicting motivations. I'm proud to say I think we've broken the back of many of our aura identification problems. I think we can more accurately evaluate what we see now."

"That's great. I know that has been a mission of yours and it will be a huge help to everyone. Rebecca and Brooke will especially benefit from it. Now if you could teach me to tell when someone I'm with is faking an orgasm... ," I joked.

"Sorry, but there's no crossover with these abilities. Actually, I'd love to document all of this, but without the ability to paint the appearance of the auras it would be meaningless. No, this will have to be passed on to each Seer on a one-to-one basis. And no, it can never be used as a lie detector. Lies are neither an emotion nor a physical condition. It's why automated lie detectors are so easy to fool, they just measure nervous responses, which can be easily faked, or could reflect nothing at all. Besides, I don't think you have anything to worry about in the faking department. I'm pretty sure all your girls are quite satisfied."

"Yeah, even Gail seems to enjoy your attentions," Shani offered.

"I was just teasing, but it brings up a good point: we shouldn't try to read more into these abilities than we can be sure of. But what we have so far has been useful and I'm sure what you've discovered is even more helpful yet. You've done some excellent work here, Allison."

She positively beamed at my praise, and it made me wonder if maybe I hadn't been complimenting my girls enough. They'd been working on a variety of things for me lately, and I had to remember to keep encouraging them. I'd been learning about management on the fly so far, and it's not a good educational method. I'd really have to find someone to explain a few things to me about keeping everyone happy with what they were doing for me. Maybe Ryan could help with that.

On a related note, there was still a lot yet to be done. One thing we hadn't addressed yet was space. With the recent addition of Jennifer we were facing a significant space crunch.

"Shani, I was thinking about the different things we have to accomplish. We've grown a little too big for our house. I know you've been looking for apartments, and while I know that's just for show, what's the prognosis on that front?"

"Actually, there's a nice one we plan on taking possession of soon. We'll just move enough into it to make it look 'lived in', although we may use it for other things. Plus we might just use it for overflow, since, as you say, your house is getting a bit crowded lately."

"What about some alternatives?" Allison asked, perking up at the topic. "With all of us pitching in, it wouldn't take much to rent out a nice studio or loft space in Carbondale. That would give us our own space with plenty to spare, and it would be nearby the hospital."

"Yeah, but it's a long way from home. I'm not sure Mom and Dad would appreciate seeing the last of their children bolting for the hills. Plus I've still got another month or so of school. Carbondale is a little far from Eldorado," I countered.

"But not as far as Shawneetown is from Carbondale," Shani reminded me. "It could reduce your travel times to Carbondale. Plus it would take a while to arrange anything, so it makes sense to get started now. I could set up a corporation, just so your name isn't associated with it. We could all contribute to it and it could cover things related to your actions, including everything from car rentals to newsletters for the Watchers in New Orleans. We could call it the 'Angel Corporation'."

"Ha, I'll bet you anything that name was taken a long time ago, especially since it would have to be a national company. But it's a good idea. Since you know about business practices and planning, could you get that started for me? I don't know where we'll eventually want to settle, but Carbondale would be close to both the hospital and SIU for Allison, Cate, Becky and Melinda. It would also provide Chalise and Caroline a place to live, assuming they don't find somewhere before then. I'd say go for it."

This seemed to please Shani no end, as she quickly fished out a spare notepad from somewhere and started to make several hurried notes.

Of course everyone was excited about what had happened once I got home, so I sat down at the dinner table and explained what had transpired at the hospital.

"You know, it's upsetting that Dr. Palmer figured out what was going on so quickly," Shani said. "I mean, I know that Gail taught you to lie, but even with that, you end up tipping your hat an awful lot!" There were nods all around at that, as everyone looked worried about what my next revelation might subject us to.

"She's right, I worry about you honey," my mother added, placing her hand over mine.

"You know, maybe it would be better if you stop taking so many chances," my father suggested in his sagely 'voice of the ages' voice. "You've been lucky so far, but your luck is only likely to hold out for so long."

That was met by a chorus of both agreements and objections, and the conversation quickly degenerated into what was and wasn't safe for me to do until I finally put an end to it.

"OK, enough!" I insisted, slapping my hand on the table to cut the discussion short since it didn't seem to be heading anywhere. "So far my approach, as unusual as it is, seems to be working for me. I don't know if Anh's theory is correct about my gut being a better judge of things than my conscious mind, or whether I just managed to skim by on luck, but so far nothing has quite exploded in my face yet. Yes, I needed to be cautious, but I needed to continue to make the call on an ongoing individual basis.

"I can't handle new things happening to me every day with a fixed response to how I approach everything. A cautious approach is what you do when you can coast. We aren't there yet, and each crisis has to be met with a different response based on the circumstances. Since I've had such 'luck' with it so far, I'll continue to trust my judgment of people!"

That ended that pointless discussion. Even my parents accepted my decision, even if they might still harbor reservations about it, but Anh sagely nodded her head, letting me know she approved of my choice in the matter.

Of course Cate had to call Becky to discuss the new results of my recent MRI. She didn't bother me about it, apparently she wanted to check everything out with our sister first. I figured that was all right, as I couldn't figure out what I seemed to be doing during my activations anyway.

Afterwards, I ended up sleeping with Anh, Shani, and of course Cate. My girls easily understood Cate's point of my allowing my poor abused dick a little rest, as it was getting a bit raw after all the use it had seen in the last week, so we managed to keep our hands off of each other. It was nice to relax and simply sleep for a change. Having Cate's arms around me while I did so certainly didn't hurt.

I was still nervous about potential fallout over Monday's events the next day. However, both Kitty and Chalise were much more concerned about the surgery from the previous day, so we spent all our time talking about that and how they interpreted the various events. But in the end there really weren't any new insights. Basically, Dr. Palmer was apparently holding his opinion based on my results and, for now, had promised to remain silent. Any other speculation was spurious. Cate then described the new information about my scans. They were impressed with the new information but also had no way of processing it, but there was no end to the speculations about it.

There were numerous looks as we made our way into school. I had apparently shaken things up quite a bit with Detective McCallister's appearance at the school. The students seemed pretty divided over me, but the tide seemed to be moving in my direction, at least, thanks in no small part to Ryan's outreach program. It seems Michelle's threat that the principal needed to address schoolyard bullying had also had an effect amongst the other more unpopular students. A fact that was brought home several times during the day when various students came up to thank me for what I'd done. However I didn't think the various bullies were likely to feel the same way.

Lunch was ... interesting, as everyone wanted to hear the rundowns from each of Monday's participants.

"So, can't you tell us what actually happened?" one girl I swore I'd never seen before asked after stopping by the table with a beseeching look accompanied by a very pleasant smile that was hard to resist.

"Sorry, there's not much to tell," Chalise insisted, shrugging her shoulders. "Tony tried to make a scene, a few of us defended Alex—over his objections. End of story."

"Come on," the girl pressed. "There had to be a lot more to it than that. What was Tony so upset about? Who else was involved? What did everyone say?"

"Forget it," Ai told her and the others surrounding the table attempting to listen in. "You know Alex's position. Kitty and Chalise aren't going to gossip about anything, and they certainly won't do it without the permission of the people involved."

Both Kitty and Chalise nodded at this, and I was proud of them both as it was clear they'd learned the lessons of my own experience, although I wasn't so sure they'd be so circumspect if cornered privately. After all, they might just not have wanted to upset me, but I chose to believe that they felt the same way about attention at school as I did.

"Well, you're all here. Tell me what you know at least?" the girl urged.

"Again, there was a minor altercation, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Someone had a few words with Alex, that's all that happened," Kitty said in a clearly exasperated tone.

"But I heard that you knocked him flat on his ass," the girl pressed, seemingly desperate to get the details.

"Hey, I'm not going to talk about someone when they're not here to defend themselves. Everyone has their own perspectives," Kitty responded a little harshly.

"So I guess you've got nothing to add?" the girl asked, turning to me.

"Hey, people are already talking about me," I responded, leaning back and crossing my arms. "Nothing happened to me and no one was hurt, so there's nothing more that needs to be said."

"But what about the police presence and the school's response?" some guy at a nearby table who'd clearly been listening in to our discussion asked.

"Again, that's out of my hands," I responded, shrugging my shoulders as if I couldn't possibly know what had happened. "That's up to the Principal, though I must say that I think it's about time. The bullying of people here has been out of hand for way too long."

"I should have known you wouldn't say anything," the girl complained. "You didn't say anything on Monday, and you were hiding yesterday. All we want is to know what happened. But I guess I'll just have to ask Tony!" she insisted, as if that were the ultimate threat. The girl turned and stalked away, angry at having been denied something she could discuss with her friends, but I doubted that Tony would be suckered into discussing how he'd been humiliated either, so I thought we were doing fairly well.

"You realize you can't keep them from talking?" Mia asked.

"Yeah, I realize I can't change human nature, but I can change how I respond to it. If I don't cater to it, maybe it won't fester quite as long."

"I must say, I've been getting questions like those all day," Chalise admitted, to which the other girls all nodded.

"Don't worry, it'll blow over before long. Just put up with it for a little longer, and soon no one will ever remember it ever happened," I assured them, even though I doubted it would be that simple.

"You know, Chalise and I are both looking forward to Prom," Kitty announced, hoping to change the topic to something a little more innocuous.

"So which of you did Alex finally ask?" Amanda asked eagerly.

Kitty's grin grew like the Cheshire cat's. "He actually asked us both. We'll be the school's only threesome." Chalise grinned at that as well, as the two of them leaned in together.

"Oh, neat. I couldn't really see him doing anything else, though, as it's clear he's crazy about both of you," Amanda responded, grinning back at them.

"Say, if you don't mind, could I have a dance with him myself?" Ai asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I'd love one as well," Mia asked.

Both Kitty and Chalise glanced at me, looking for some direction so I just smiled as all the girls turned to regard me. "I'll dance with anyone that Kitty and Chalise allow me to, just as long as they don't insist on dancing every dance with me," I assured them. "You know, maybe Alex would be willing to help out by keeping at least one of my two girlfriends busy?" The other Alex grinned at that, as I was sure he wouldn't be able to dance at the Prom with who he wanted to, but would probably enjoy dancing with someone who he knew didn't expect anything romantic from him. "But you know, I may have to drag in a couple more guy friends to free me from both girlfriends' clutches long enough for free dances," I added. Everyone thought that was quite humorous and they took it as I intended. I figured that gave us enough latitude that we could decide on whatever we wanted to do.

Everyone at the table suddenly quieted, glancing up expectantly. Curious, I turned and saw Julia finally showing up at the table, apparently to formally apologize to Kitty I assumed. I didn't think I needed to be there for that, and I sure didn't want it to look like I'd arranged it, so I slid over next to the other Alex for a bit and figured I'd try to embarrass myself if I could.

"Hey, Alex, can I ask you a potentially offensive question?"

"Sure, I won't promise to answer, but you can always ask."

"Sounds fair, what I wanted to ask is: what's it like to suck on a guy's penis? I don't mean any offense; I'm just curious what it'd be like." He just looked at me for a few seconds then laughed.

"Sure, I'll answer that one; it's much better than the one I thought you were going to ask me. But in answer, why don't you just ask anyone at the lunch table? I'm willing to bet that all of them have just as much personal experience in it as I do. Why not ask your girlfriends?"

"Good point, but I just thought I'd like to hear it from a guy's perspective. Isn't it strange?" He thought for a moment about how to answer.

"I guess it's a lot like playing with breasts, they're basically just fun to play with. They're designed for manual access, they're just big enough for a handful or two, and they generate a lot of appreciation and fun expressions when you do it right. They're like toys, you just can't put them down. But seriously, are you really going to tell me you've never tried to suck your own cock?" He got his answer when I laughed and blushed at the same time. He just smiled at me and nodded his head.

"So, what question did you think I was going to ask?" I inquired.

"The anal question; it's usually the central question everyone wants to know. What most people can't seem to accept is that not all gays engage in anal sex. It's like assuming all lesbians fuck each other with strap-ons, or engage in fisting. It's unique for each person. Some people like ass play while others simply don't. I don't seem to have much sensitivity down there, so I just don't get excited when someone tries to play around with my ass. That's not to say the right guy couldn't convince me to try it someday, and from what I've heard, the stimulation to the prostate would be likely to both maintain an erection and help you get off, even if you don't enjoy it, but it's not something that I want to do."

"You know, you seem to be awfully young to have had that much experience for that amount of detail," I pointed out, curious just how he seemed so self-assured when everyone always talks about teens committing suicide over being gay all the time.

"Well, frankly, I haven't had a lot of experience myself. A friend and I, who I won't name, played around a bit last year, but most of my knowledge comes from talking to older friends and from reading about it online. That's the thing about coming out at an early age. It takes away the shame and self-doubt, but it also allows other people to offer their support."