The Big Tits Club: Chapter 49

-- CHAPTER 49: Power --

****

Sam didn’t show up for our shared first period.

Or second period.

Or recess.

She didn’t show up to school, period, and nobody knew where she was. So naturally, everyone asked ME. I mean, she was living at MY house, right? I told them truthfully that I had no idea where she was. Since she’d eaten dinner at Zofi’s house and had a conversation about the status of her relationship with me last night, Zofi was quick to ask if anything had “happened” between us since then.

I didn’t have to respond verbally. Everyone could read the answer on my face.

I mean, I didn’t admit to the girls that I’d told Sam I was in love with her. I didn’t admit to the girls that I’d told Sam she was my favorite. I didn’t admit to the girls that my last thoughts before falling asleep were of Sam, or that nothing in the world made me happier than waking up to find her in my arms.

Sam was the total package: intelligent, funny, kind, hard-working, and of course: ridiculously gorgeous and sexy. She was an onion, but in a good way, because every time I peeled back another layer, she made me fall in love with her a little more.

I couldn’t say any of that stuff out loud, of course. Naimh and I had just gotten to a comfortable place accepting our friends-with-benefits relationship knowing there would’ve been a time limit on a romantic relationship anyway. Belle walked the razor’s edge between content “little sister” and obsessive clingy Yandere. And even Mari still wanted to enjoy the time she had left with her “boyfriend”. Any admission of love for Sam would throw a monkey wrench into all three of those relationships. Things were different from the time when Naimh and I had asked for (and received) permission to try “dating”.

The key difference, of course, was the fact that at that time Naimh had been equally interested in dating me. Sam, on the other hand, had almost literally run screaming out of the room and was still AWOL at this very moment.

At lunchtime, I pulled Zofi away from the others for a bit to have a private conversation. “You’re her best friend. She’ll come to you first, maybe even come over to your house. Will you please call me when she does that?”

Zofi gave me an apologetic look. “Like you said: I’m her best friend. If she comes over to my house, I’ll ask her whether she wants me to call you or not.”

My shoulders slumped, but I nodded. While I didn’t like her answer, at least I understood it.

“What happened?” Zofi asked. “What did you do?”

I sighed and shook my head. “She’s your best friend. I’m sure she’ll decide what she wants to tell you. But this one you can’t get from me.” I turned around and walked back to the table.

It was “Zofi and Sam Wednesday”, but neither girl came over to my house that afternoon. Zofi didn’t call me, either. But that didn’t mean I spent the afternoon alone.

Normally in such situations I’d talk to Belle. But I knew better than to light a match and toss it into a canister of gasoline like that. Instead, I called Alice.

“Hey,” I began with a weary sigh. “I know you’re probably busy, but--”

“I’ll be right over,” she interrupted, and then the line went dead before I could say anything else.

Alice showed up ten minutes later, gave me a fist bump, and sauntered into my family room. She dropped her backpack on the floor and slumped onto the couch. Her left arm went to the armrest and her right draped across the top of the backrest. And she kicked her legs up along the length of the couch before fixing me with an interrogative look. “So the way I see it, there are two most likely scenarios. Stop me if one of them is correct.”

Curious, I folded my arms over my chest and sat down on the padded armrest of the armchair, not the seat.

“So we both know Sam’s in love with you, only she doesn’t have the time to be in love with you with her busy schedule and all. But spending all this quality intimate time together ever since she moved in stripped down the walls she’d put up from actually being in love with you, but then you realized how much things were escalating and you tapped the brakes, kicked her out of the house Saturday morning, cut her off for a few days, and now she’s mad at you.”

I frowned and arched both eyebrows expectantly, leading, “Or…”

“Or…” Alice scrutinized me with narrowed eyes for an extra few beats. “Or spending all this quality intimate time together ever since she moved in made YOU fall in love with her, you tried to tap the brakes but couldn’t help yourself because… well… Sam’s kinda awesome… and you admitted you were falling in love with her and she went running for the hills.”

I scowled and looked away.

“Thought so.” Alice smirked. “I have to admit: Can’t really blame you. Like I said: Sam’s kinda awesome. She’s perfect for you. You love strong women who take charge but that little Master/Slut thing she does is just… nngh!… She’s super-smart, independent, obviously has no problem sharing you with her friends, fuckin’ sexy, and for the most part requires no relationship maintenance because she just wants to go off and do her own thing most of the time. It makes sense that you’d fall in love with her.”

“I wish I hadn’t.” I rubbed my face with my right hand. “This whole thing is a disaster. Years of building up the BTC into this incredible circle of friendship is about to get flushed down the toilet because I can’t keep my emotions in check.”

Alice frowned. “Why would you think this would flush the BTC down the toilet?”

“Neevie and Belle, for starters. Mari, a little bit. You and Zofi are the only two I can trust to not be bothered by this. Zofi would wish for Sam’s happiness--”

“As would I,” Alice confirmed with a nod. “But I think you’re overblowing the way the girls would react. Mari doesn’t believe she has a real shot with you anyway. Neevie’s not competitive with Sam - well, okay she’s still a little peeved that Sam got your cherry and not her. But she’s made her peace with going to UCLA with me and knows there’s no future there. She’s content with what she gets from you nowadays and as long as she doesn’t get pushed aside and lose what she currently has, she’ll be fine.”

“I can’t say the same for Belle. Two weeks ago she was mentally decorating the apartment we were going to share together in Berkeley without the rest of you and she actually cracked a joke about us getting married.” My eyebrows went up. “And I’m pretty sure she was only half-kidding.”

Alice sighed. “You said Belle was more terrified of you leaving her than anything else, and you said yourself you believed your relationship was much better (and more stable) as siblings with benefits than with her as a romantic partner. I think what she fears most is you hooking up with some hottie she doesn’t know who might take you away from her. If you end up dating Sam, she already knows Sam wouldn’t do that to her. I think that she’d actually welcome you starting a relationship with Sam.”

“Maybe,” I conceded. “Belle herself said something similar when we found out Sam was coming with us to Berkeley.”

“See?”

“Not that any of this matters. I told Sam I loved her and she took off. I don’t think becoming my girlfriend is part of her master plan.”

“Well, maybe not. You and Sam may never formally get together. The two of you and Belle might end up just fucking each other’s brains out for stress relief for four years and never date anybody else until you graduate.”

“Yeah, right. My relationships with those two haven’t been stable for four months, let alone years.”

“Perhaps. But for all you know becoming your girlfriend IS part of Sam’s master plan. Maybe she’s gonna walk through that door in five minutes saying, ‘Matty, I love you too, but we need to talk.’ And then she’s gonna lay out her detailed multi-year itinerary for getting her Bachelor’s Degree, interning at some hoity-toity law firm (maybe your Mom’s), and then getting her J.D.” Alice smirked. “And then after banging you on the side for like ten years, she’ll say, ‘Okay, I’m finally ready’ and then you two can start dating.”

I made a face. “I hate that every word you just said makes perfect sense.”

“Can’t wait that long?”

I rubbed my forehead. “How the fuck should I know if I can wait ten years? I’m eighteen. Ten years ago I thought girls had cooties and I was memorizing dinosaur facts.”

“A surprisingly mature thought out of you. I half-expected you to get some dreamy faraway look and reply, ‘She’s worth waiting for.’”

“She IS worth waiting for, but at this very moment I don’t even want to date her NOW, let alone ten years from now. I’m serious: me dating Sam is NOT a good idea, and I told her as much this morning. I’ve always known she doesn’t have time to date me--”

“Even though we’ve all got our colleges lined up,” Alice cut me off, “so there’s really no reason why she can’t spend more time with you. It’s not like she needs to do anything else for the rest of the year to pad her applications.”

“That’s beside the point.” I waved her off. “She’s made clear from the beginning she doesn’t want to date me. Show up when convenient for her, get a coupla nice orgasms, and go on her merry way: THAT’S what she specifically asked for. The idea of keeping the BTC ‘in balance’ wasn’t total bullshit, for me OR her. The BTC is too important to both of us, and regardless of how we may or may not feel about each other, NOTHING is going to change. I’m the BTC’s boyfriend because I love ALL of you, collectively, and I’m NOT gonna do anything to fuck that up. Alright?”

Alice sighed and shrugged. “Alright.”

Just then, the sound of a key jiggling in the front door made my heart start racing. Both Alice and I sat up straight and looked over in that direction, even though the door itself was out of sight from our current vantage points. A few moments later, the door opened and closed in rapid succession, and excited footsteps came echoing down the hall.

But to my surprise, Belle and Mari turned the corner and came in. I sighed, shook my head, and muttered, “I never shoulda given you that key back.”

Belle pouted. But Mari was already chirping enthusiastically, “Okay, we figured it out. I mean, we think we figured it out and we just need Matty’s confirmation.”

Alice looked up at them and drawled, “He’s not gonna wanna talk any more about this.”

“Well we already know Matty won’t tell us anything,” Belle commented nonchalantly. “But he can’t stop us from speculating in front of him while we watch the way his expressions give him away.”

I groaned and covered my face with both hands. “Speculate on THIS expression,” I muttered.

Alice gestured towards me and explained, “He fell in love with Sam, told her, and she freaked out.”

“We KNEW it!” Belle exclaimed. “But he’s probably all terrified I’m gonna go crazy stalker and murder Sam in her sleep if I find out or something, right?”

I groaned and rubbed my forehead a little harder.

Belle laughed. “C’mon, Matty. Didn’t I TELL you I’d be thrilled for you to date her so I wouldn’t have to worry about some greedy bitch at Berkeley taking you away from me?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I insisted. “Sam and I are NOT gonna start dating. No way, no how. The BTC means too much to both of us.”

Mari chimed in. “Why not? Were you worried about how the rest of us would react? Because I actually think everybody would be fine with it.”

I shook my head and looked over at Alice. “Are we really gonna have this whole conversation AGAIN?”

Alice threw up her hands. “We could skip past rehashing the same conversation, all get naked, and have a wicked foursome instead,” she suggested. “It’s not like any of us is gonna get any homework done.”

“Works for me,” Belle chirped, reaching for the buttons on her blouse.

Rolling my eyes, I stood up and started walking out of the room.

Behind me, Belle drawled. “Did we seriously just offer to have a wicked foursome with him and he just up and walked away?”

Mari sighed. “He’s actually in love with Sam. I think it’s sweet.”

Her comment brought me up short. I stopped walking at the edge of the room and turned around. “Sweet?”

Mari blinked twice. “Yeah. It’s sweet.”

I frowned. “I would’ve thought you’d be disappointed.”

The light in Mari’s eyes dimmed just a little. “I fantasized about you and me falling in love, sure. But I always knew it was a long shot we’d end up like that. I’m not your type.”

Belle reached out and hefted one of Mari’s big breasts. “Well these are definitely Matty’s type.”

Mari blushed and batted Belle’s hands away. “He likes the confident, outgoing, sexy types.”

I smirked. “You’ve always been sexy. And you were pretty confident and outgoing for your week as Queen Mari.”

“Around the BTC, sure. Not in public.”

Belle pushed her bestie in the shoulder. “You’re getting there. You’ve grown so much this year.”

Mari blushed again. “Maybe. But while getting a week to play Queen Mari was fun - and I wouldn’t mind another week, if that’s on the table - I’d never lose my head enough to believe you and I would walk off into the sunset together, especially now that I’m going to Caltech. I think you and Sam would make a great couple, and I genuinely hope things work out for you two.”

I arched an eyebrow. “What happened to Team Belle?”

Mari exchanged a loaded look with her best friend.

Alice leaned forward. “Yeah, what happened to Team Belle?”

Belle herself screwed up her face and finally answered, “I’d be a horrible girlfriend for you.”

Alice sat up straight and frowned. “What makes you say that?”

Belle pointed at herself with both index fingers and deadpanned, “Crazy stalker. Murdering Sam in her sleep.”

I waved her off. “I never worried about you murdering Sam in her sleep.”

Belle cocked her head to the side. “But if I told you I’d intercepted Sam’s Berkeley paperwork, shredded it, and then forged a letter declining the offer, you’d believe me capable of doing so, wouldn’t you?”

My mouth went dry. “Please tell me you didn’t do anything like that.”

“Of course not, and you’re proving my point.” Belle sighed, looked up, and took a deep breath. “The fact that you want me to reassure you I didn’t shred Sam’s paperwork proves just how little you trust me right now.”

“And that means you decided you’d be a horrible girlfriend for me?”

“I would be a horrible girlfriend for you. If you were mine - as in ‘officially mine’ - I’d turn into a possessive jealous bitch. We saw how I acted around Holly, and that was me TRYING to be nice and let her in.” Belle sighed and gave me an apologetic look. “Even as it stands, I’m gonna have to control my impulses to judge and hate every other girl you so much as look at for the rest of my life.”

I made a face at that pronouncement.

Mari chimed in again, “Hence, Matty getting together with Sam solving all your problems.”

Belle looked glum. “Much as I would agree, so again I wouldn’t have to worry about some random greedy bitch taking you away from me, it’s not gonna happen. Sam’s never gonna date you.”

Alice’s eyebrows went up. “So sure? She clearly loves him.”

“So do we all,” Belle remarked. “But she’s still not gonna date him until after she’s graduated college at the earliest. She’s been VERY clear on that point.”

“She has,” I agreed. “And I told her flat out I wouldn’t ask her to be my girlfriend or in any way try to change the status of our relationship.”

Alice frowned. “You didn’t?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t.”

“Then why’d she freak out?” Alice cocked her head. “Just you telling her you were in love with her?”

I waggled my head, replying, “More or less.” I did NOT want to tell the other girls that I’d deemed Sam my ‘favorite’.

“It’s enough to freak her out,” Belle muttered and stared out into the middle distance. “It’s the same reason she wouldn’t become a Girlfriend of the Week. She’s focused on this master plan of hers, and she knows the only thing that would derail it would be starting a relationship with Matty. He’s the one thing that would tempt her to give it up. She told me: if given a choice between going to some awesome law school across the country that would put her on the perfect career path, or settling for some second-tier law school that would keep her close to him, she’d be VERY tempted to stay with him.”

My eyes got big. “Waitaminute. Is THAT the real reason why she chose Berkeley over Stanford?”

Belle shrugged and gave me an uncertain look. “I dunno. I’d like to believe she meant every word of trying to get out of her dad’s shadow at Stanford. But… maybe?”

Alice raised both eyebrows at me. “And yet you two still aren’t gonna date each other?”

“Well, certainly not for the rest of high school,” I said. “The BTC means too much to both of us. I belong to the collective, and vice versa. That’s not going to change until college finally separates us.”

Mari leaned forward, eyes twinkling. “And then what happens when it’s just the three of you at Berkeley?”

Belle answered, “She’ll still want to focus on her academics.”

Mari’s eyes narrowed. “So what: the three of you just fuck each other’s brains out with no formalized relationships?”

“For Sam, Matty would be a dependable booty call to get uncomplicated stress-relief. For me, Matty would be my big brother with benefits.” Belle smirked. “Is it really any different from what we’re doing right now?”

“I suppose not,” Mari conceded with a sigh. “But the romantic in me still hopes at least ONE of you two pulls her head out of her ass and finally loves this gorgeous man the way he’s meant to be loved.”

“Well, you could always pull your head out of your ass,” Alice teased, “rescind your Caltech admission, and love this gorgeous man the way he’s meant to be loved.”

“I AM tempted.” Mari blushed and fiddled with her fingers. “Neither Alice nor Zofi seem interested, Belle’s withdrawn her application, Neevie didn’t get into Cal and seems content to just fuck your brains out as friends for the rest of the year, and Sam outright refuses to date you. The position would seem to be available.”

Belle looked down and muttered, “You’d come to Berkeley with us, I wouldn’t have to worry about greedy bitches stealing him, and obviously I know you’d share.”

Mari eyed Belle warily. “YOU were the one insisting Caltech was too good of an opportunity for me to pass up.”

“I was, and I still do.” Belle sighed. “My head knows it’s the right decision, but the selfish bitch inside me wants what’s best for Belle. You coming to Berkeley would solve a lot of my problems.”

Mari looked up at me, her eyes quietly intense. “So let’s just say I can relate to how hard it is for Sam to make the decision between her personal goals and being in love.”

Mari’s eyes narrowed for a brief moment as the room went silent. Alice and Belle exchanged glances with each other, and I took a deep breath and gave Mari an apologetic look.

My expression apparently sealed the deal for her, though, and she stared shaking her head. I knew I was in love with Sam, not her, and she knew it too. I apologized, “I’m sorry, Angel.”

Mari was already waving me off, saying, “The difference for me is that I know he doesn’t have the same depth of feelings I have for him; it makes my decision easier. I can rest easy at night knowing I didn’t miss out on the greatest love of my life because… well… I know I’m not the greatest love of HIS life. But for Matty to tell Sam he DOES love her like that?”

Mari turned to face me and shook her head sadly as she finished, “Good lord you’re fucking with that girl’s mind.”

****

After Mari’s pronouncement about how much I was fucking with Sam’s mind, I finally did get up and walk away from the conversation. I went up to my room, opened my textbooks, and proceeded to stare straight at the wall for far too long.

Near as I could tell, the girls remained in my family room talking for over an hour. You’d think we’d have already covered all the salient points, but never underestimate teenage girls’ ability to continue a conversation well beyond the “beating a dead horse” stage. In the end, though, they all went home.

Around dinnertime, Belle called to ask if I was coming over to join her and her dad. I told her I wasn’t hungry, and she correctly guessed that I wanted to be here just in case Sam came home. About an hour later she walked over a plate full of food for me, kissed my cheek, and thankfully left me alone.

I devoured the food, decided I needed to get out of my own head, and parked myself in front of the big TV playing video games in an attempt to distract myself.

I must’ve lost track of time, because the next thing I knew the bass rumble of the garage door rolling up vibrated through the house. My shoulders slumped, because Sam always parked outside and used a spare key to come in through the front door. I checked the clock and found that it was shortly after 9pm, and when Mother came inside, I didn’t bother looking up to greet her.

But she came over to check on me.

“I can’t remember the last time you were playing video games this late at night,” she remarked thoughtfully. “What’s wrong?”

I glanced at her for half a second before returning my attention to the screen. “Why does something have to be wrong?”

“I may not be very maternal, but I can tell when someone is withholding information,” Mother stated in an even voice that was nevertheless laced with subtle insinuation. She walked directly in front of me, blocking my view of the TV, and folded her arms across her chest. All subtlety then flew out the window when she gave me a cold glare and asked, “Where is Sam right now? I noticed her Escalade isn’t parked outside.”

My eyes were suddenly moist. My attempts to distract myself had only worked to a degree, and the pang I felt inside at her absence had been eating away at me for hours. “I don’t know,” I muttered thickly.

Mother sighed. “What have you done?”

I pursed my lips and glared at her. “So quick to assume it’s MY fault?”

“It’s always the man’s fault. Even when it’s not.” Mother cracked a bit of a smirk at that.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, well, maybe it is my fault,” I conceded.

“So I will repeat: What have you done?”

Already at my wit’s end, I had no strength to deflect or otherwise skirt around the truth. Setting the controller aside, I sighed and explained, “I told her that she’s beautiful, both inside and out. I told her she was the most amazing person I’d ever met. I told her she was intelligent and so very kind, so warm, and so hard-working. I told her I knew she didn’t want to have a romantic relationship with me and I told her I’d been trying to keep my feelings at bay ever since Friday morning but that in the end I couldn’t help myself.”

“Oh, shit,” Mother cursed, sensing what was coming next.

“I told her I was in love with her, which is the absolute truth,” I continued. “I told her she was my favorite in the BTC.”

“Please tell me you didn’t ask her to become your girlfriend.”

I snorted and gave her a perplexed look. “I thought you WANTED me to tell her I loved her. All those quips about marrying me and staying in our house forever or becoming your daughter-in-law.”

Mother was aghast. “You DID ask her?”

“No, of course not,” I insisted with a sigh. “She’s made clear from the beginning that she didn’t want to become my girlfriend, and I was very clear that I wasn’t asking her to start dating or anything like that.”

Mother looked only slightly relieved. “But you DID tell her you loved her. You even used the word ‘favorite’.” They were accusatory statements, not questions, and I felt like I was on the witness stand.

I sighed and confirmed, “Yes.”

“And she ran away, of course.”

I sighed again. “In my defense, I tried to emotionally withdraw and keep her at bay for a few days to avoid having this happen.”

“And then you went ahead and let it happen anyway.” Shaking her head, she muttered, “Stupid, stupid boys. Always making dumb decisions without properly thinking through all the consequences.”

I scowled. “You know for a mom, you’re doing a real shitty job of making me feel better.”

Mother gave me a funny look. “Whatever gave you the idea I was trying to make you feel better?”

I just rubbed my forehead and sighed.

Mother started rubbing her forehead and sighed as well, and for a moment we were like mirror images of each other.

But Mother recovered more quickly than me, and she turned and came to sit down beside me on the couch. Reaching out, she actually took hold of my hand and held it atop her knee between both of her hands. “Matthew, I can’t say I have ever been there for you in a time of emotional need, and I’m not about to magically transform into your source of guidance or reassurance. But in this particular instance, I think it would be fair to say I understand more about Samantha’s feelings for you than you do.”

I blinked twice and looked at her curiously.

“Samantha loves you. Please don’t doubt that. But she’s extremely conflicted about those feelings and it’s not solely because she wants to focus on her academics or future career.”

I frowned. “It’s not?”

Mother shook her head. Taking a deep breath, she gave me a serious look and prefaced, “What I’m about to tell you are things she’s said to me in confidence - things she could perhaps get quite angry with me for revealing – things you may not enjoy hearing. But it’s important that you understand the problem in order to properly provide a solution. Otherwise I fear the two of you could do irreparable harm to your relationship, and that’s not something I want for either of you.”

I took a deep breath, exhaled slowly to calm myself, and forced myself to focus. “I’m listening.”

“Sam is in love with you now, in love with the man you’ve become, but things were not always this way. For years you were just the safe ‘boy’ she had wrapped around her little finger. I told you before that she loved how obedient you were to her.”

I chuckled. “I remember.”

“She relished the adrenaline rush of teasing you mercilessly. It gave her quite a sense of power to be able to manipulate your arousal, to push your buttons, and to stretch the boundaries of your relationship without fear of you pushing back. Your obedience made her feel safe, safe enough to test her own limits, because she knew with absolute certainty that she had all the power in the relationship.”

I shrugged. “I remember those days.”

“She didn’t love you back then. She appreciated you, and she valued your friendship. But you were just a toy to her, a favored toy perhaps, but still just a toy. She was still attracted to the bad boys and craved the validation of their attention, not yours.”

I scowled. “I see what you mean about telling me things I won’t enjoy hearing.”

“Patience.” Mother gave me a stern look. “At the same time, you were her salvation. Much as she may have craved the validation of the bad boys, after her first few horrible experiences, she never let them touch her because she could never feel safe with them the way she felt with you. Every time some greasy fuckwit got close to her, she panicked and backed off.”

I blinked. “Did the phrase ‘greasy fuckwit’ just come out of your mouth?”

Mother smirked. “Sam’s term, not mine.”

I chuckled and gestured for her to continue.

“Then came the ‘Holly incident’, as she put it. I understand that you were offered sex, but turned it down in favor of saving yourself for the BTC girls.”

I made a face. “Has Sam really told you ALL our secrets?”

Mother shrugged. “The saying goes that you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone, or in this case, nearly taken from you. I recall that it was not too long ago when you believed Sam had gone out on a date with another man and the sudden jealousy consumed you.”

“I remember.”

“So it was for Sam. The unexpected wave of jealousy surprised her and forced her to reevaluate your relationship. She recognized how much you’d grown, realized how much she enjoyed finding physical pleasure with you, and began to consider you as a serious partner for the very first time and not just a plaything so easily cast aside. She no longer craved attention from other men; she craved YOUR attention. And the competitive drive she has always possessed made her crave to be your ‘favorite’.”

“I know that part. But she got over it.”

Mother shook her head in the negative. “She still wants to be your favorite.”

I frowned. “She said she got over it. She even credited YOU with helping get her head on straight.”

Mother pursed her lips and thought about that. “I helped her realize it would be more productive to redirect that competitive desire, to channel her aggression into her career rather than get caught up in… girlish cattiness.”

A fond memory came to mind, and I hooked my hand into a claw, muttering, “Meow…”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

Mother arched an eyebrow, but continued. “I could see she was on a path to undermining her relationships with her friends pursuing you. At the same time, the balance of power had shifted. Instead of being the one in control, she found herself craving your validation, and she didn’t like that feeling. I told her that her love for you might be teenage infatuation, not real, and that she’d be better off taking a step back a bit to regain control of her emotions.”

I frowned. “YOU told her to withdraw from me?”

Mother shrugged. “It seemed what was best for both of you at the time. You were clearly more infatuated with Naimh than Samantha anyway.”

I frowned. “Do you NOT want us to end up together?”

Mother’s eyes glittered. “I would be overjoyed if Samantha found lifelong love with my son and became my daughter-in-law. Someday.”

I keyed in on the word ‘someday’. “You’re playing the long game. You think that me and Sam crashing and burning after a doomed high school romance where neither of us was ready would ruin your little dream.”

Mother smirked. “You said it, not me.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you still don’t think we’re ready for a relationship now.”

Mother took a deep breath. “No, you’re not. You belong to the BTC, not to any one girl, at least through the end of high school. And Samantha is going through a very difficult period of her life where she needs the stability of dependable friends, not the inherent instability of a new and uncertain romance.”

I shook my head. “I’m not asking her for a new and uncertain romance.”

“And I’m very glad you’re not. But we still haven’t addressed the crux of the problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Power.”

My frowned, not yet understanding.

Mother took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She hugged herself and looked away for a moment, collecting her thoughts. And only once she was fully prepared did she finally turn and look straight at me.

“I know what it’s like to be a girl like Samantha: beautiful, desirable, intelligent, and ambitious. All of those things give me power, give me the ability to control the world around me. But at the same time, for any woman, that power can still be easily stripped away. Samantha believed she was in control of the boy who got her virginity right up until he got her in bed and stripped away her power. She can’t go home right now because her father still expects her to fall in line. She can be physically manhandled if she lets a man get too close. She’ll tell you she’s lost count of the number of times someone has grabbed her ass while walking through the school hallways. Men she has no interest in will leer at her and devalue her down to… well… three holes and a pair of tits.”

I swallowed thickly and averted my eyes.

“And of course… a powerful young woman can end up pregnant.”

I blinked and picked my head up. There was a rich note of emotion in Mother’s voice, and I immediately knew she wasn’t talking about Sam anymore.

Mother pursed her lips when she caught my gaze and she sighed. Furrowing her eyebrows, she gave me an apologetic look and explained, “It’s not that I never wanted you. I DID want children… eventually. I wanted the same dream Samantha wants: a loving husband, a fulfilling career, a nice house in which to raise my family.”

She looked down at her lap and closed her eyes for a moment, clasping her hands together.

“Your father whisked us away to a surprise tropical island vacation. Straight to the airport, no warning, nothing but my purse and the clothes on my back. He thought he was being romantic.” Mother picked her head up and stared at me evenly. “I didn’t have my makeup or my clothes… or my birth control. I found bikinis and sheer dresses from beachside vendors. I found cheap makeup and condoms at a drugstore. One broken generic condom later and I found myself in an unhappy marriage and almost fatally behind on the firm’s partner track. My power had been easily stripped away.”

I’d never heard that story before, and I didn’t know what to say, so I remained silent, just trying to process what Mother was telling me.

She took a deep breath, sat up straight, and within moments was right back to the imperious, confident woman I knew. With an almost casual shrug, she continued, “So I doubled my efforts on the one thing I really could control: my job. By the time I finally got rid of the man I had come to hate, my relationship with you, unfortunately, became a lost cause. Being distant with each other had already become habit, for both of us. I am sorry for that, you know. I wish I had found a better balance between mother and lawyer. I wish I had never gotten married and simply embraced being a single mother from the start. But it’s much too late for that now. You’re old enough and independent enough that you’re much happier with my absence than my presence, and my career has become my life.”

We both went silent, but rather than feel awkward, the intermission gave us both time to collect ourselves.

Eventually, though, I picked my head up and said, “Thank you for the explanation. It helps me put things in perspective.”

Mother pursed her lips and waved me off. With a slight shake of her head, she said, “I didn’t mean to get sidetracked. We were supposed to be talking about Samantha.”

I nodded. “And her need to feel like she’s in control – like she still has the power in our relationship. I certainly know Sam liked things better when she could play me like a marionette on strings.”

Mother mused on that. “More or less. There was something she told me after that first morning you two went for the 5-mile run.”

“And I barely made it back home.”

Mother chuckled, but schooled her features a moment later. “Samantha said she was just starting to see you as just another pathetic male who couldn’t keep up with her. It made her feel better about losing ground in the power dynamic between you.”

“And then I told her she was beautiful and she ran away.”

Mother raised both eyebrows and head nodded out the door. “Sound familiar? Samantha needs to feel in control of her situation, especially at a time like this with everything going on with her parents. Her inability to control her emotions with you terrifies her. She thinks about you all the time. She falls asleep every night wishing she could be in your arms, and from what she’s told me these past couple of weeks, she couldn’t help but leave her bed to go cuddle with you before the sun came up. That’s power. That’s leverage. Saturday night when you brought Mari home, you locked your door. Samantha came crying to my room when she found out, did you know that?”

I blinked. “What? No.”

“She was happy to let Mari have the night alone, but in the morning she wanted to surprise you. When she tried the door, she found it locked, and you have no idea how much that affected her.”

I frowned. “As if me locking the door symbolized my ability… symbolized that I had the power… to shut her out. To hurt her badly.”

“Compounding the situation, you left for the day instead of staying for brunch when Belle and Samantha returned from their run. Sam was devastated, and to later find out you’d gone on a date with Naimh?”

I pursed my lips. “I thought I was doing what was best for our relationship by withdrawing from my emotions the way she’d been withdrawing from me.”

“You made her panic is what you did. She wanted you. She NEEDED you. And she felt so utterly helpless to do anything about it.”

I sighed. “I knew I was hurting her. I didn’t realize how much.”

“For a young woman who craves to be in control, you were really stressing her out.”

“I know, I know.”

“She’s in love with you.”

“I know.”

“And she HATES being in love with you.”

I blinked. “What?”

Mother shrugged. “She hates how much she loves you. She hates how much she needs you. But she can’t stop herself. She can’t let you go. And the more she tells herself to stop, the more she can’t get you out of her head.”

“It’s like telling someone on a high cliff, ‘Don’t look down,’” I mused.

“Something like that.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Tell her I don’t love her when I really do? Kick her out of the house and tell her there’s no chance of a relationship so she can move on without me? Go to USC or Cornell to save her the misery of seeing me at Berkeley?”

“No, no, none of those things. Haven’t you been listening?”

“I’m trying.”

“What’s the crux of the problem?”

“Power. She wants it, and I apparently have too much of it.”

“Precisely.”

“What am I supposed to do about that? Give her back the power somehow?”

“Find a way to make the girl who needs to feel in control… feel in control. Reassure her that even if you do have this power over her, that you won’t abuse that power. She fell in love with you because she believed you would never do anything she didn’t want you to do. Stop doing things she doesn’t want you to do.”

“Like locking my door.”

“Obviously.”

“Reassuring her I won’t use my ‘leverage’ to try and manipulate her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

“Yes.”

“Even though she’s spent years manipulating me into doing anything she wanted me to do.”

Mother’s eyes sizzled. “Tell me you didn’t enjoy it.”

“Convince her that I won’t interfere with her career goals or become the kind of guy who would ever ask unfair questions like, ‘What’s more important: that exam or me?’”

Mother perked up. “That’s a good one.”

“Respect that she doesn’t want to get tied down by a romantic relationship, not even with me. So I need to reassure her that just because she’s the most incredible young woman I’ve ever met and I love her to pieces, I’m comfortable keeping things the way they are: friends with benefits.”

Mother nodded.

“Help her not feel so powerless. Help the control freak feel in control.”

“Can you handle that?”

I gave Mother a shrug and a hopeful smile. “I love her. I have to try.”

****

Something tickled my balls, and with a start, I jerked awake.

“Mmph!” somebody grunted, and as I sat up, I realized I’d just shoved my dick an inch into a girl’s throat. She gagged a little but didn’t quite pull her head off. Continuing to suck my mushroom head and twisting her hands around the base of my cock, she pumped them together up and down the length of my shaft until she recovered enough to push her face back down.

My eyelids flew WIDE open, and I gasped aloud, “Sam?”

But when I looked down, I saw Belle’s strawberry-blonde head in my lap, and she looked up at me with a bit of a smirk. Popping off my prick, she grinned and remarked, “You know, almost any other girl in the world would be really annoyed at you for saying that.”

I grimaced. “Sorry, B.”

“I get it.” She shrugged and took a lollipop lick along my shaft from base to tip. “You’re in love and you’re worried about her. I noticed her bedroom is still empty. So don’t sweat it.”

I was still a little stunned as Belle casually resumed her blowjob, but after a few seconds’ thought I relaxed. She was right: almost any other girl would not be only annoyed, but livid to hear the guy she was blowing gasp another girl’s name. But then again, the rules were different within the BTC.

Moments later though, she pulled off again and narrowed her eyes. “If there was something for me to be annoyed about, it’s you calling Alice to come over and talk yesterday afternoon instead of me.” And then she started sucking on me again.

I sighed. “It’s not that I didn’t want to talk to you about it.”

“It’s that you can’t trust me to be impartial about something like this, hence why you’ve gone out of your way to stop sharing your feelings about the other girls. Plus, I’m like… liable to murder Sam to remove the impediment to getting you all to myself.”

Now it was my turn to narrow my eyes. “You know, you keep bringing up the notion of murdering Sam. It’s not exactly reassuring.”

Belle had already resumed the blowjob, and she promptly choked trying to laugh with my dick probing her throat. She picked her head up and coughed a bit, but collected herself quickly and flashed me a grin. “You’re right: I need to stop using that example. The point is: I need to earn back your trust; I know that. I’m glad you have someone like Alice you can still depend on.”

“Me, too.”

Belle grinned, pushed her face as far as she could go, and I could feel the tight constriction around my spongy head as it entered her throat. But while she was able to hold that position for a pretty long time, there was still only so far she could take me. And after a few more seconds she backed away having still come up short of completing the deep throat.

Not that she seemed to mind. Rather than obsess about her inability to take me all the way, Belle started sucking powerfully on my knob while rapidly pumping both hands up and down my shaft. I recognized her technique as the one she used when she just wanted me to cum, not as foreplay. I was appreciative, since it had been about twenty-four hours since my last ejaculation. And instead of worrying about saving myself so she could climb aboard and go for a ride, I just lay my head back down on the pillow, reached up to hold Belle’s head, and let the pleasure flow.

Within minutes, I grunted, “Fuck B. So good. You’re making me… I’m gonna… nnnnnnGGGGGHHH!!!” And I began spewing sperm straight into my “little sister’s” stomach.

A minute later, Belle finished nursing out the last dregs of jizz from my deflating prick and she flopped onto the bed next to me. I reached out to caress her cheek and sighed.

“Enjoy that?” she asked brightly.

“I did. Thanks, B.”

She preened, clearly happy to make me feel better. But a moment later, concern crossed her face as she asked, “Have you heard from her at all?”

I nodded. “I called Zofi last night. Spoke with her mom and told her I needed to talk to my ‘girlfriend’, so Zofi wouldn’t have been able to refuse without coming up with some explanation why.”

“That works.”

“Zofi told me Sam didn’t want to talk to me, but I promised her all I wanted to know was whether or not Sam was safe and sound. Zofi told me Sam was crashing with her overnight, but that she’d come back in the morning to change and get ready for school. So… that could be any minute now.”

Belle’s eyebrows popped. “Good thing I didn’t go for more than a blowjob. She might’ve walked in on me riding you and gotten mad.”

Somebody snorted over by the doorway, and Belle and I both whipped our heads around in surprise. Sam leaned against the doorjamb, a smirk on her face. “In the sum total of our entire friendship together, what would EVER give you the idea I’d get mad if I walked in on you riding him? You should have been riding him; I would’ve joined in.”

Belle giggled. I was still too stunned by her arrival to react. My mouth flopped open and I eventually stammered, “H-How long were you standing there?”

Sam shrugged. “Like thirty seconds before you gave Matty’s Little Cumslut everything she wanted. Maybe I should’ve spoken up sooner and asked her to share.”

Sam’s playful giggle REALLY confused the hell out of me. I was still trying to wrack my brain for everything Mother and I had talked about last night and organize it into a coherent dialogue-slash-apology for telling her I loved her. I’d expected her to still be upset, and yet…

Sam checked her watch, shrugged, and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her with a smile. “What the hell. We’ve still got time.”

And then she started pulling her clothes off.

****

What followed was not the greatest sexual experience of my life or anything. Don’t get me wrong: there’s no such thing as a BAD threesome with Belle and Sam. I was just a little too stunned to fully enjoy the experience.

Sam casually got naked and tied her hair back in a functional ponytail before climbing onto the bed and crawling across the mattress to park herself between my legs. She almost lazily slurped my semi-hard prick into her mouth, her lips forming an air-tight ring of suction as she slowly tugged and coaxed my penis into growing back up for her. I watched, mesmerized by the gorgeous blonde orally making love to my dick: first with just her mouth, and then with her right hand, and finally by taking my renewed erection all the way into her throat, forming a tight ring of suction with her chin resting on my balls.

Her seductively beautiful brown eyes stared up into mine, searching for my approval. What did Mother call it? Validation. She wanted my validation, my affirmation that she was doing a good job. And I reached down to caress her cheek and non-verbally express just how pleased I was with her.

This, at least, was something within Sam’s control. She knew her skills and knew her ability to make blissful sensations flood my brain, and she certainly utilized those skills this morning. She played me like a marionette on strings, sucking and humming and pumping and licking every inch of my cock, my balls, and even my inner thighs. She teased me and titillated me, almost toying with me, and I was happy to let her have this simple power over my reactions.

Sam brought me close to the brink only once. Belle had stripped herself naked and currently reclined against my side, feeding me her nipples and letting me play with her pussy with my hand on her ass. I suddenly felt a fresh surge of energy as my balls prepared to uncork. My arm tightened around Belle and I grunted around a mouthful of perky D-cup titflesh. But Sam sensed it too, pulled down hard on my balls, and actually bit my dick a little to divert the pleasure. I squeezed my Kegels and held myself back, and after thirty seconds or so I sighed with relief and set my head back against the pillow.

The girls mounted up then. Sam straddled my hips and slowly sank her incredible nude body down around my shaft. She gyrated in wide orbits with my upright shaft as her center. Belle parked her ass in my face and her pussy on my tongue, facing back towards Sam. I couldn’t see what they were doing but I could hear the sounds of wet lips smacking against each other, hums of erotic satisfaction as the girls mewled their arousal. And there was no mistaking what was going on when Sam groaned, “Suck my tits… suck my tits…”

-I- wanted to be the one sucking Sam’s tits, but I settled for letting my hands scoot up Belle’s petite firecracker body and palm her impossibly firm titties instead. I wanted to grab Sam’s bigger boobies and go honka-honka to my heart’s content, but some part of me still feared what might happen if I took the initiative. I was half-terrified she was nothing more than a figment of my imagination and would evaporate into a fine mist if I so much as reached out to touch her.

As it was, my brain’s logic decided that the sooner I got Belle her orgasm, the sooner I could get her off my face and verify with my own eyes that Sam had truly returned home, and not only returned but was also fucking herself on my dick. So with that in mind, I gripped Belle’s hips, tugged her down on my face, and REALLY ate her out just as furiously as she’d blown me earlier this morning.

When she sensed my increased focus, Belle stopped messing around with Sam, let her head fall back, relaxed her spine, and let the pleasure flow.

Within minutes, she grunted, “Fuck, Matty. So good. You’re making me… I’m gonna… nnnnnnGGGGGHHH!!!” And she began drenching copious amounts of girlcum straight down into my waiting mouth.

I waited an extra minute to let Belle get over her climax before somewhat unceremoniously tossing her aside. I had to see Sam with my own eyes, remember? If Belle minded, she didn’t show it. She was rather more interested in watching the busty blonde take one look at the girlcum smeared all over my face and immediately drop herself down to start licking her cream off my cheeks.

Three times, and then four, Sam’s lips and tongue brushed across my mouth. Each time, I SOOO wanted to grab her head and spear my tongue through her lips and express all my pent-up passion through a frenzied kiss. But I clenched my hands and resisted the urge as best I could. I couldn’t touch her. I WOULDN’T touch her, lest she evaporate into that fine mist. I felt like I was a sophomore once again, not allowed to make the first move, and yet knowing somehow that in the end it would all be worth the wait.

She WAS worth the wait.

Finally Sam did take my head in her hands and kiss me. I moaned and groaned and finally allowed myself to hold her in my arms as we made out like a pair of teenagers in love. I set my feet flat atop the mattress and started thrusting upward, really driving my dick in deep. The increased sensation made Sam break our kiss and plant her forehead on the pillow beside me, moaning and groaning her ecstasy. But after a couple of minutes of that, I started to slow down and she sat up once more.

Belle was suddenly behind her, turning Sam’s face to hers so the pair of hot babes could share a Sapphic kiss. Sam grabbed my hands and pulled them to her breasts, and I happily went honka-honka while watching two gorgeous examples of femininity make love to each other with their mouths. Belle also slid her hand down to the junction of my loins with Sam’s, and her little hand started vibrating it seemed as she began furiously rubbing the platinum blonde’s bare-shaven twat.

Overwhelmed, Sam finally broke Belle’s lip-lock and set her forehead against the other girl’s. Clenching her eyes shut, she rode me harder and harder, moaning as the pleasure built up inside her. “Mmm… Belle… so good… Fuck me, Matty… Fuck me… Ohmigawd… We’re gonna be doing this every fuckin’ day in Berkeley, aren’t we? You two are so fucking hot together. I wanna get sandwiched between you two all day long.”

“All day long,” Belle crooned, kissing Sam’s neck. “Every day.”

Sam turned to face Belle. “You really won’t mind? Look me in the eyes and tell me it’s okay that I love him. We both know you love him as much as I do. Two weeks ago, you thought you were gonna have him all to yourself. Is it really alright that I’m coming with you?”

Belle bared her teeth and playfully nipped at Sam’s nose, her teeth snapping together well short. “It’s alright with me, but I do have one condition.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked in the same playful tone.

Belle turned Sam’s head so that it was facing forward, so that Sam was looking down at me. And in a husky voice, Belle intoned, “You have to let me slurp his cum outta any of your holes whenever I want. That’s my only condition. I want you to fuck his brains out every day, all day. And I want you to share his sperm with me.”

Sam giggled. “Of course. Is that all?”

Belle glanced at me, and then glanced back at Sam. “Actually, I do have one more condition,” she said much more seriously. The playful tone was gone, and it made Sam grind to a halt on top of me.

“What’s that?” Sam repeated, her tone just as serious.

Belle’s expression was almost a plea. “Don’t break his heart.”

Sam’s eyes opened up wide, but she shook her head immediately. “Never in a million years.”

“You mean that?”

“With every fiber of my being.”

Belle took a deep breath, pursed her lips, and then suddenly lurched forward, grabbing Sam’s head and pulling her close for a fierce kiss that ended as abruptly as it started. “Then you have my permission.”

Sam’s eyes watered. “Really?”

Belle nodded, her own eyes watering. “I’m happy for you. For you both.”

I was still stunned that Sam was even here, and at the moment quite confused. One minute, it seemed like Sam was ramping right up to orgasm with Belle helping her along the way, and I had started to relax myself in preparation for giving the gorgeous blonde an internal combustion. The next minute, we’d ground to a complete halt. My brain was complete jello at the moment, and I was feeling very, very confused by what was going on. After all, even though my fat cock was still imbedded in Sam’s wet box, both Sam and Belle looked on the verge of tears.

I blinked, looking up at both girls, and finally wondered aloud, “What’s going on?”

Teary-eyed but smiling, Sam barked a short laugh and bent forward to give me a quick kiss. And after pulling back just far enough to gaze into my eyes with an expression of utter adoration, she stroked my cheek and said, “I love you too, Matty. Will you be my boyfriend?”

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For anyone who can’t wait, the VIP folder also now has through Chapter 57. The rough draft is complete and the Beta Tier readers have all the BTC chapters as well as the first few chapters of ASL2. Remember that all authors thrive on feedback, so let me know how you're enjoying the story!

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