Alfred Nobel Day

"All I want for Christmas is you..."

John's suspicions, evoked by the vague sound of pop music from within his house, were, unfortunately for the mild headache he was already failing to ignore on the way home from work, confirmed upon entrance into the house, at which point the dulcet tones of one Mariah Carey went from muffled and vague to all too real.

"Hi, honey, I'm home," he called out over the music, already on his way over to the stereo to turn it down, if not entirely off before Chloe had popped into sight, coming out of the kitchen, a bowl of cereal in one hand and spoon in the other.

"Hi baby," she greeted him. Or at least that's what he guessed she said through the cereal in her mouth. She continued to crunch it noisily as he looked her over: a hoodie that he had all but forfeited to her and a pair of pajama pants adorned with, among other Christmas paraphernalia, cute little reindeer. She had completed the ensemble with a pair of red and green socks. "What?" she asked after swallowing the cereal.

"Nothing," he said. "I just didn't realize that when you asked if you could stay over for a while that I was inviting this much merriment into my life."

She pouted adorably. "You don't like Mariah Carey?"

He flopped down onto the couch, kicking his shoes off as he did so. "I'm fine with Ms. Carey," he answered, "in small doses, anyway. Just didn't realize we had already entered the most wonderful time of the year."

She moved over to the couch, putting the bowl down, the spoon's handle protruding from it, on the coffee table. "Sorry," she said as she placed a hand on his leg. "But Christmas cheer is a non-negotiable part of this relationship."

"Like I said," he replied, "it's fine. Bring on your Grandmas Got Run Over by a Reindeer and all your various Christmases, blue or white." He let out a sigh. "Just kind of wanted to lie down before we hit the road. I see you're dressed and ready for the trip."

"Yeah," she said. "Gotta be comfy and have a nice full tummy if I'm going to pass out in the car."

"Oh, you weren't going to share the driving?" he asked, feigning surprise.

"Do you want me to?" she asked. "Because I think we kind of both know I'm going to fall asleep by the time we hit the interstate."

He sat up. "Nah, it's fine, I'll have coffee and podcasts to keep me company."

She made a cute little face at him. "Ugh, podcasts," she said. "Should I bring the Mariah Carey?"

"Nah, I'm good with podcasts," he replied.

"Aww," she said. "Carrie wouldn't be such a Grinch." She sighed and looked at her half-eaten cereal. "I wish she were coming."

"Yeah, me too," John sighed. "But since we can't even find her I don't think there's much chance for a spur of the moment road trip. At least we know she's alive."

"Yeah, great," Chloe grumbled. "A single text two weeks ago saying 'I'm fine. I'm sorry. I'll pay for the mailbox.' It doesn't really..." She drifted off without finishing her thought.

"Yeah," he said, "I know. To her credit, she did leave money for the mailbox in the car when she brought it back. Had to do it while I was at work so I couldn't even see her for that. I guess she really doesn't want to be found."

Tears were already welling in Chloe's eyes. "I know. And maybe we should respect that. But it just sucks so much. I miss her. I don't know why she has to be so... just like that. She won't even answer my texts, they all just go unread."

He got to his feet, partially just so that he could avoid seeing Chloe cry for the umpteenth time since Carrie had confessed her love for him and then drunkenly stolen his car and driven off into the night, apologizing the whole time. "I know," he said, "She's just..." he shook his head. "She's just Carrie. And goddamn if I don't love her for it, but she is who she is. She thinks she knows better than we do, even, and so if she thinks disappearing from our lives is what's best for the both of us, that's exactly what she's going to do."

"But she doesn't," Chloe responded, her voice almost a whine. "She doesn't have to go anywhere. We could have worked it out. It's not even complicated. I love you and she loves you and I love her and you love her. It's not even... it's not even complicated."

"Yeah, I know," he said, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. He fully understood her position: they had been over it multiple times in the last few weeks, each time Chloe breaking down into tears about how simple it all was, how easy it could be if only Carrie would just stop being Carrie. "And I'm on board, you know this. But Carrie is, like I said, she's Carrie. She doesn't share your faith in the power of love. Or the flexibility of it, maybe."

"Yeah," Chloe sighed. She fell back into the couch. "If only we could get her to listen." She covered her face with her hands for a few moments, then removed them and sat back up. "I guess there's no reason to sit around talking about it any more. We should probably get going if we want to get to that motel before midnight."

"Uh huh," he answered, gazing out the window to the empty streets under the gray December sky.

Where are you, Carrie?

***

"Wake up, sweetheart, it's time for bed."

Chloe blinked herself awake in the passenger seat, looking first at John and then turning to take in the view outside the parked car. "This is the place, I guess?"

"Oh, it's the place, alright," he responded. "Practically hopping tonight." He gestured out to the almost entirely vacant motel parking lot, sweeping his hand back to the motel in front of them. Lights illuminated a handful of rooms in the two-story building, dim behind curtains that he guessed had probably been hung in the previous century. "We'll just get the keys from the office and then luxury awaits."

"All the amenities, I'm sure," she said as she stretched her arms. She unfastened her seat belt and he did the same. "Shower and bed and... did I mention they have showers?"

"Yeah, I think you might have said something about it when you were making the reservations," he said as they made their way to the motel's front office. "But jokes aside, shower and bed sounds like the lap of luxury right now."

The process of getting the room keys from the older south Asian man behind the desk went smoothly and soon they were pulling suitcases from the trunk of John's car.

"Sorry about making you drive the whole way," Chloe said.

"What did I say about apologizing?" he said as he heaved her wheeled suitcase onto the surface of the parking lot.

"Say it again," she said with a smile.

"I said, 'I love you,'" he paused, waiting while her smile grew wider, "'but you have to stop apologizing.' It is not a problem."

She giggled. "Thanks. Oh and sorry about the crappy motel. Still living on a temp's salary and everything so even half of a decent place is..."

"You know," he interrupted her, "if you want me to say 'I love you', you can just ask. I'm happy to say it as much as you want to hear it. I love you I love you I love you. Now stop apologizing."

She smiled for a second before unlocking the motel room door. "I love you, too," she said. "Now, why don't you let me prove it by sharing a seedy motel room with you."

"Ooh, I like the sound of that," he said, closing the door behind him.

"Just as soon as I take advantage of that luxurious shower I've heard so much about," she smiled.

***

"Squeaky clean," John announced, stepping out of the motel room's tiny bathroom and into its main area. "Ready for that proof of love now."

Chloe, wearing a towel on her head and one around her body, turned from her phone as she sat on the edge of one of the beds. "Huh?" she said, then a second later, after a little laugh, "Oh, right. Sorry, just texting with Nat."

"Oh, no," he said as he moved over to the bed, readjusting the towel around his waist. "Don't tell me you two are still planning the weekend's itinerary."

She shot him a playful little scowl as he sat on the corner of the bed beside her. "We're just ironing out details."

"I do not like the sound of that," he said. "'Details' makes it sound like this is going to be an involved weekend."

"It will be," Chloe said. "So you're just going to have to deal with it. I haven't seen Nat in months and we're going to make the best of the time we have. Besides, you can lie around in bed and do nothing any other weekend."

"I wasn't thinking we'd do nothing," he said. "There's a few things I can think of to do while lying around in bed with you."

She put her phone down purposefully on the little nightstand between the two beds that took up the majority of the room's space. Turning back to him with a smile she asked, "Such as?"

"Such as," he said, finishing his sentence with a kiss on her lips, which she readily returned, her hands moving immediately to his bare arms. His own hands moved over the still damp cloth of the towel, around to the front where it was folded loosely over itself on her chest and yanked it free, sending it crumpling to the floor beside the bed.

"Wah!" she squealed in surprise at the sudden change in temperature, breaking off the kiss. "So cold..."

"Then get under the covers and let's warm you up," he answered. He gave her bare ass a little slap of encouragement as she scurried over the little single bed, then roughly yanked the covers down as well as she could despite them remaining tucked under the mattress, before squirming her way inside.

"Brr," she shivered. "Lose the towel and come warm me up."

She didn't wait for him to get fully situated under the covers before letting her hands explore his body, her fingertips brushing over his skin lightly as he pulled in close to her for a kiss. "So I guess all the details have been ironed out?" he teased as he pulled away from the kiss, leaving his forehead pressed to hers.

"Not even close," she replied, pushing him back against her and deftly rolling onto her back as she did so. Her tongue danced lightly with his as she guided him between her legs.

His cock, already growing harder by the moment, pressed against the warm skin of her pussy lips and as it stood at attention, it gently parted those lips. It grew harder and harder as she grew wetter and wetter, sliding slowly up and down her slit, his hips moving of their own slow, purposeful volition as their kiss lingered.

"Put it in," she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, her lips almost brushing his as they moved. "Please."

He smiled, took his cock in hand, and located her entrance with the tip. Her fingers pressed gently into the back of his neck at the sensation of his engorged cock head squeezing into her. "Nnn..." she let out a little whimper, her breathing unsteady as he moved ever so slightly, letting her adjust to his girth.

"Are you ok?" he whispered to her as he stopped.

"Mmmhmm," she answered. Her fingers pressed into the skin of his back, drawing him into her more. "Mmm..." she moaned as he sank into her deeper and deeper still.

As his thrusts increased in speed, the sound of his flesh against hers grew louder and louder, wetter and wetter. Her hips began moving in time with his as she strained to take him deeper and deeper. Her juices flowed around him, slowly spreading from his shaft to his thighs and balls as he fucked her harder and harder.

He buried his head into her neck and she let out a little whimper as he kissed her soft, warm skin. "Oh... oh..." she moaned as her pussy somehow tightened around him even more.

Her fingernails dug into his back and he thrust one more time into her as deeply as he could. Around him she began to quiver, then to shake as an orgasm exploded through her, escaping from her body in the form of a high-pitched whine.

When he felt her orgasm subside he pushed himself up to get a look at her and she smiled up at him warmly, taking the opportunity to push a strand of long, brown hair from her face.

"That was fast," he said with a smile.

She tried and failed to suppress a smile. "Shut up." She pressed a hand against his shoulder in a signal he had figured out a while ago meant it was her turn to be on top and so he rolled onto his back, letting his cock fall out of her in the process.

She climbed on top of him, letting the sheet fall away and exposing her beautiful, pert little tits while she took his now slippery wet cock in hand and with a few small adjustments, reinserted him into herself.

"Your turn," she said.

"Are we in a rush or something?" he asked.

She answered him with a kiss, bending down to plant it on his lips. Apparently satisfied with her answer she rose up again and began gyrating atop him. Her hands crept gently over his chest and neck as she rode, moving first in a slow, back and forth motion, sliding him in and out of herself, increasing her speed, only to suddenly change gears and slow down.

Her tight little pussy worked him with practiced skill as she began moving her hips in a circular fashion, slowly savoring each stroke in and out and sending wave after wave of pleasure through him.

He reached his hands up to her chest and began toying with her tits, squeezing them gently and then rubbing her perfect little pink nipples with his thumbs. They responded with a pleasant elasticity, bouncing back to attention each time he pushed them to one side or the other.

"Does that feel good, baby?" she purred atop him.

"Mmmhmm," he answered. "You feel great."

"Can you cum for me, baby?" she asked. "I want to feel it inside me, please. Please, baby?"

He let his hands drift from her breasts around to her back and pulled her down on top of him, meeting her with a kiss.

"You want it?" he asked.

"Mmmhmm," she moaned into his cheek. "Let me feel it, please. Fill me up, baby..."

"Mmm," he pretended to consider for a moment, "... not yet."

She stopped moving and sat up, pouting at him for a second, and then said "Come on."

"You gotta work for it," he teased.

She made an adorable little harrumph, then climbed off him, leaving him to wonder if he hadn't been just a little too playful for a second before she turned around to face his feet, once more straddling him. With a practiced ease, she took his cock in hand and gracefully inserted it into herself, then sank down onto it. "Alright, come on, baby," she said as she began working him in and out of herself, "Give it to me."

He let his hands move to her round, bouncing ass, enjoying the sensation of her soft skin moving under his fingertips. "Come on," she grunted, grasping his legs to let her push back against him more easily.

"You want it?" he asked again.

"Uh huh," she grunted, "give it to me. I want it inside."

"Alright," he responded with a smile she could not see. He extended his pointer finger and moved it swiftly to her asshole. When she pushed back against him again, he sank it into her; it slid in in a single, fluid motion, eliciting a yelp of surprise from her and a subsequent pause in her motions atop him.

She looked back at him with a faux pout on her face. She wiggled her hips rapidly back and forth for a moment, working his finger in deeper and sending a jolt of pleasure running up his cock and into his guts, then snapped her head back around to face his feet, resuming her prior rhythm.

He noticed that while her left hand remained clamped on his ankle, her right hand moved up to her face, out of view for a few moments before she dropped it back down, but rather than return it to his leg, she moved it to his crotch. He felt it, her fingers now wet, presumably with her own spit, gently toy with his ballsack for a moment before pushing it out of the way as she proceeded to his asshole. He felt a hard, wet, warm sensation against his opening and then a moment later, she was inside.

The pain of the sudden intrusion quickly phased into pleasure as her finger wiggled within him, her hips never stopping their relentless effort to drive his cock in and out of her tight little pussy. She withdrew the finger almost entirely, leaving only a tip in, and then a moment later, a second spit-coated finger joined it, wrenching his asshole open once again. This time she skipped the cautious wiggling and went right for full-on finger fucking his asshole as she rode. "Give it to me," she groaned.

She needn't have demanded anything, as the steady massaging of his cock had already put him near the edge even before she had so forcefully stimulated his prostate: he exploded within her, barely managing a strained "I'm coming" before his load began filling her, one hot spurt after another, only gradually dying down as he forced his eyes back open.

She climbed off him, leaving a tiny, sticky trail in her wake as his thick, softening cock thudded against him in the cramped single bed. He looked longingly for a second at the other bed a few feet away, identical except in that its sheets were undisturbed as she wiggled against him, searching for a comfortable position. Why did she not get a room with one double bed? he wondered.

She snuggled up against him, her face pressed to his shoulder, evidently having found her favored position pressed up against his side. "Can you get the light, baby?" she asked.

"Didn't you just wake up like an hour ago? You want to sleep again already?" he asked.

She looked into his eyes with a completely innocent expression on her face. "Yeah," she answered, "but we've got a big day tomorrow."

"Right," he answered as he reached over to the nightstand and flipped off the light.

***

"Welcome to scenic Bumfuck, Nowhere," John announced, "home of the biggest corncob in the county."

Chloe rolled her eyes at him from the passenger seat. "The sign said Norfield," she said. "Not Bumfuck."

"Sorry," John answered, taking a second to gaze over at Chloe, who had pulled one bare foot up onto the seat and was inspecting, with visible disappointment, her painted toenails. "Must have just had bumfuck on the mind after this morning."

Her eyes flicked over to him again as she did a poor job of suppressing a smile pressing her lips together into a tight little pucker.

"Home of only the county's second biggest corncob." Fortunately the lack of traffic on the little state highway leading into Norfield proper had obviated the need to keep his eyes on the road and thus off his effortlessly beautiful girlfriend. At what point between this morning's activities and now did she have time to paint those little toenails?

"I thought you grew up in a place like this? Or was that just a way of seducing a small-town girl?" she asked, switching feet.

"Like this?" he asked. "Oh, no no no. This place is a bustling metropolis compared to where I grew up."

"Aww, come on," she said, sliding her foot back into her shoe, "It's not that bad, right? I mean, you kinda found me in a place like this."

"I know, I know," he said as he pulled the car to a stop at the first stop sign they had seen in at least a half an hour. It appeared to serve little if any purpose, as no other cars were on the road, although a gas station just ahead indicated they had not entirely fallen off the map. "It's more like, I don't know. I feel like we're trying to run away from a problem instead of solving it."

She sighed and turned to look out the window at the houses which had begun to appear along the street for a few moments. "Yeah," she said. "But I don't know. I told Nat months ago I'd come visit her. I think she's probably going a little bit nuts out here." She turned back to him. "She's not like us, you know. She's city folk."

"Is that midwest for gay, or midwest for black?" he teased.

Chloe responded with an extended tongue, then pulled her phone from her handbag. "Ok, I guess I should figure out where exactly we're supposed to meet her." She swiped at the phone a few times, grumbled something incomprehensible, then said, "I think we just go this way for a little and then..."

"Stop right here, maybe?" John answered. He pulled the car to a stop.

She looked at him with confusion on her face until he nodded toward the windshield, when she followed his gaze out to the charmingly small town square, where Nat stood, excitedly waving and bundled in a coat that looked to be at least two sizes too big for her.

Chloe let out a squeal of delight and practically flew out the car. By the time John had his seat belt unbuckled, the two girls were already locked into an embrace.

"... missed you soooo much!" John was able to make out a partial sentence of Chloe's, though her voice was muffled by her face being buried in Nat's puffy coat.

"I missed you, too, sweetheart," Nat replied. She looked over at John, held the hug for another second, then released Chloe, who seemed to be literally vibrating. "Hello, stranger," she said to John, "what brings you to these parts?"

"Just passin' through," he replied with a smile. "I don't want any trouble."

Nat smiled at him, her white teeth a beautiful contrast with her smooth, dark skin. "As long as you don't break my girl's heart again, there won't be any," she said.

"Aww," Chloe said, "he's not so bad."

Nat shot him a wink. "Uh huh," she said. "We can discuss his shortcomings over lunch, alright? You two hungry?"

"Mmmhmm," Chloe nodded enthusiastically. "The motel said it had 'continental breakfast' but it was just a bag of mini donuts. Can you believe that? I was, like, so disappointed."

Nat shook her head, smiling. "What's the world coming to? Maybe you ought to take it up with the better business bureau."

"You think?" Chloe asked without a trace of irony.

"Sure, after lunch," Nat replied, shooting John a knowing look.

He took a look around the little town square; there was an assortment of shops, a bookstore, a bank, but nothing that looked like a restaurant. "So, where should I drive us?"

"Well," Nat answered. "There's Phil's, which is kind of a diner, I guess. And then there's..." she pretended to consider for a moment, "Well, there's Phil's."

"Sounds great," John said.

***

The car had turned out not to be necessary, however, with Phil's which was clearly and charmingly marked with what appeared to be a hand-painted sign on the window touting some kind of farmer's breakfast special to be had within. Unfortunately, the contents of said special were to be forever a mystery to John, as it was apparently only available in the early morning hours. He had satisfied himself with the strangely comfortable smell that all such mom and pop restaurants that dotted the Midwestern landscape seemed to share while gazing around at the seemingly nearly as universal fake wood paneling on the walls while the girls talked over the remainder of what had turned out to be a more than adequate meal.

"... so, yeah, I figure we have a few hours before I have to be at the school to set up. There's not really a ton to do around here, obviously, but you can distract yourself with facile electronic entertainment at my place, right?" Nat was saying something but John only caught the end of it, as he had been letting his mind wander.

"Oh, we can just, like, hang out with you," Chloe answered as John returned to the conversation, "Unless, like, we're not allowed or whatever. We can just, like, you know, chill or whatever. Right, John?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, uh, sure, we're down for whatever," John replied, unsure of what he was agreeing to but fairly certain he had come off as paying a reasonable amount of attention.

"Oh, you're like, totally allowed," Nat replied. "I mean, if you want to help put out folding chairs, you're more than welcome."

At another table off to their right, a small child was ignoring his mother's pleas to concentrate on his meal and had instead turned his attention to the table where John sat. John suspected the kid, who looked to be under five, was curious about Nat, who stood out amid the handful of other customers in the place, despite her hair having been toned down to a normal, if perhaps quite short, style, devoid of the bright dye that she had worn when John had first met her. The fact that her skin was a few shades darker than the kid had likely ever seen in real life, John suspected, was likely the reason for his interest, but John tried a little wave anyway.

To his mild surprise, the kid waved back.

"... just watch out for the low brass," Nat was saying. John turned his attention back to the girls, but, finding them engaged in their own conversation, he turned back to the kid at the other table, who was now very much focused in on John himself.

John stuck his tongue out at the kid for a moment, rolling his eyes to complete the effect. The kid seemed pleased, smiling at it while his mother tried unsuccessfully to turn his attention back to a plate of french fries.

"... you're a certified hottie, sweetheart," Nat finished a sentence. "And it hasn't been that long since you were regularly in the company of sixteen year old boys. Right, John?"

"Huh?" he said, returning to the conversation at hand. "Oh, yeah, right."

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "What was Nat just saying?"

"Uh, you're a hottie," John answered. He paused to try and replay the conversation in his head. "'Certified', I think was the word she used."

Chloe narrowed her eyes slightly more, but her smile remained in place and she turned back to her conversation. Out of the corner of his eye, John could see more motion from the other table so he turned to find the kid had now positioned a french fry on his upper lip and was now pretending to be some sort of mustachioed character, moving his head from side to side as he pursed his lips to hold the fry mustache in place. John couldn't help letting out a little chuckle at this.

And idea occurred to him and he turned back to his own mostly empty plate, finding a couple uneaten french fries which had grown cold as the girls' post-meal conversation had stretched on. He dipped one end of each into a blob of ketchup and quickly inserted them between his upper lip and gum, turning to show the kid his french fry vampire. The kid laughed. Behind him, his mother acknowledged John with a nod and a look of mild amusement before physically removing her son's makeshift fry mustache and inserting it into his mouth. John swallowed the fries, finding them not bad despite the temperature.

"So what do you think about it?" Chloe asked, snapping his attention back to his own table.

"Uh..." he began, looking first from Chloe, whose expression he would characterize as "vaguely happy" to Nat, who was slightly further toward the annoyed end of the spectrum. "I think, uh, it's, well, you know, I'm kind of of two minds about it."

"You have no idea what we're talking about, do you?" Nat teased.

"Not no idea," John said. "Something about this, uh, event at the school tonight. I might have missed some of the details."

"Uh huh," Chloe nodded. "The concert tonight. Which Nat's students are having. Which we are going to."

"Specifically," Nat continued for her friend, "whether it's ok to play religious music at a quote-unquote 'winter' concert."

"Right," John said, looking back and forth between the girls. "And Chloe said... it's... fine?"

"Uh huh," Nat nodded, the same sarcastic nod her friend had just given him. "And I say it's weird. But maybe I'm just sensitive to the maybe one kid out there who's not like the others and feels out of place amidst all this messiah stuff."

"And I say it's not a big deal," Chloe said. "I mean, it's like, whatever. Nobody really cares right?" She looked at him as if waiting for an answer, joining Nat in silent expectation.

"As I said, I'm kind of of two minds about it," he said.

"Boo," Chloe said.

"I echo your girlfriend's sentiment," Nat added. "Boo. But whatever, we should probably get going if I'm going to give you a grand walking tour of Norfield before set-up time."

"So I guess I'd better get the check, then," John said.

"Uh huh," replied Chloe with a smile.

***

"So, what do you think?"

Nat, gesturing vaguely to the band room she had ended the improvised tour of the high school that employed her with, seemed to genuinely want an answer, and when Chloe was not immediately forthcoming, John felt it had fallen to him. "Nice," he said, looking around. "Why do all band rooms smell like this, by the way?"

Nat shook her head. "Valve oil," she answered, "Decaying instrument cases, brass. Adolescent hormones. You spend a lot of time in the band room in your day?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say a lot," he said. He glanced into a room that seemed to be designed for holding instruments, its walls made up of cozy little nooks, each holding a "It does bring back some memories, though."

"You play?" Nat asked, her eyebrows indicating interest.

"Oh, just the skin flute," John answered. "But it's been a while, actually."

"Skin flute?" Chloe's face twisted up in a show of adorable confusion.

"Your boyfriend's a pervert," Nat answered for him. "My impression was that you picked that one up more recently."

"Oh yeah," he replied, "I was just screwing around." He looked to Chloe, who was looking at him with playfully narrowed eyes. "Did once make out with a girl in a room weirdly reminiscent of this one, though." He indicated with a nod towards the instrument room. "I think she played clarinet. But you know, that was many moons ago in my misspent youth."

"Ah ha," Nat said. She began moving to a small room in the corner that was separated from the main band room by a door covered with various stickers; a rainbow flag, in particular, stuck out to him. "Well who doesn't have a story about a clarinet player in their past, right?"

"Is that like a thing?" Chloe asked as Nat opened the door.

Nat smiled. "Oh, you sweet summer child," she shook her head. "You, I have to imagine, are one of the few who have never practiced embouchure with a clarinet player."

Chloe's face indicated that even if she did not understand the jargon, she got the idea. "Whatever," she said, "you don't know, maybe I have a clarinet player in my past. Or like a fluter or whatever."

"Flutist," Nat corrected her with a smile.

"Or whatever," Chloe said, pouting.

"Oh, Chloe, you're adorable," Nat said. She moved into the office and sat down at the desk, which had an array of papers spread seemingly without any particular organization across its surface. She surveyed the papers, picking up a pen. "You know I love you but..."

"I've made out with girls," Chloe blurted out. "Well, girl. I've made out with girl. A girl, I mean."

Nat blinked, otherwise motionless for a few seconds, then, bouncing the pen in her hand. "You? Chloe? You made out with a girl?"

"Among other things," Chloe smiled, flipping her hair back with a motion of her head.

Nat smiled. "Really?" When Chloe responded with a little nod, Nat's smile only grew wider. "Ok, Chloe bear, if you say so." She spun the wooden chair to face her interlocutors. "Now, as interested as I am in hearing all the details of this very real thing that definitely happened, maybe we table that for now. There should be some very adolescent trombone players here soon who would probably explode at the thought of you with another girl."

"Tromboners?" John offered.

Nat smiled politely. "So we will be setting up some chairs for the audience in the gym and also some risers and so on, so if you really don't mind helping, I'll let the kids know we have some volunteer assistance. Alright?"

"Sounds good," Chloe answered.

The words had barely left Chloe's mouth when the sound of a door opening drew all of their attention back out to the main band room. They made their way out of the office to find a girl, dressed in a pretty but modest blue dress which matched a band in her dark brown hair; her thick-rimmed glasses and the small, roughly rectangular instrument case she carried in front of her, gripping its handle with both hands completed the image of a band nerd. "Am I early?" she asked, punctuating her question by biting her lip in a fashion that struck John as very Chloe-esque.

"No, Libby, you're right on time," Nat assured the girl.

"Oh, ok," she responded with a momentary smile. She moved past them, giving only a quick glance to John and Chloe before she took one of the wooden chairs arranged in a roughly semi-circular pattern around the small platform that John imagined Nat conducted the students from.

"This is Libby," Nat introduced the girl, who did a poor job of pretending not to overhear her teacher's words as she assembled her clarinet. "My superstar. First chair clarinet as a sophomore."

"Nice," Chloe said, shooting the girl a smile which she sheepishly returned. A moment later another student entered through the same large wooden doors Libby had just passed through, a boy this time, carrying a trombone case and already yammering with some other boys who made themselves visible a few moments later. They continued past the group of adults; only the first boy, his dirty blond hair a mess sticking out every which way from his head stopped momentarily to give Chloe and John a look: the latter only briefly, the former lingering and with a lopsided smile on his face.

"Raymond," Nat introduced with a smile. "My last chair trombone."

"Tied for last," the boy said with a smile, that was, John had to admit, all the more charming for its adolescent goofiness.

"Keep walking, Ray," Nat shook her head at the boy. As he made his way to a chair in one of the outer rows of chairs, she added "And put on your tie."

"Yessir, Ms. B," he called back without looking.

From there the trickle of students turned into something of a flood, or at least as much of a flood as such a small school's band could produce. Nat and Chloe fell into a conversation which John could barely follow over the sounds of chairs, music stands, and the occasional honk of a horn. John did his best to recall the names of various composers whose pictures adorned the upper walls of the room while pretending not to notice the occasional stare from a student.

Fortunately he did not have to wait long, as the students, dressed in an assortment of button-up shirts that mostly looked like they were fresh out of the packaging, ties, most of which were tied either incorrectly or not at all, and either dresses or tasteful skirts for the girls, apparently had all arrived, as Nat left Chloe for a moment to take her position in front of the chairs. "Alright, everyone, quiet down," she said.

John was a bit surprised at how well this worked. "First things first," she continued, "we need to get the chairs set up in the gym so all your parents have somewhere to sit while you show them what they bought those expensive instruments for. You may have noticed a couple of new faces here." She turned and indicated for them to step forward a bit and they complied. Turning back to the students, Nat continued. "This is my friend Chloe..."

"Friend?" one of the kids, his anonymity safely hidden by the numbers asked loudly.

Nat smiled. "Yes," she said, "my friend Chloe..."

Womp... womp a tuba sounded, eliciting a round of laughter from the students.

"Knock it off, Otto," Nat rebuked the tuba player even as she suppressed a laugh.

You give your kid a name like Otto, seems like you're pretty much guaranteeing you'll get a Tuba player, John thought.

"This is Chloe, and her friend John. They volunteered to help us set up tonight and they'll be in the audience so try not to embarrass me too much, alright?"

"You got it, Ms. B," called out another voice. Nat looked in its direction for a moment before turning back to Chloe.

She rolled her eyes. "Ah, teenagers."

***

"Expecting a full house?"

John looked out over the sea of folding chairs and beyond to some wooden bleachers which had been pulled out into the gym. A few of the students were straggling, wasting time before warm-up, but beyond that the place was almost entirely empty save for himself and Nat, who had just finished setting out the last of those chairs.

"Hardly," she answered, joining him for a second in looking around. "But between the parents and siblings and at least a handful of staff looking to show their support for the arts, it should at least not be so pathetically vacant an hour from now."

John nodded in agreement, unsure what else to offer conversationally. He looked up on the stage which sat on the opposite side of the gym. Some kids were already setting up their music stands on the hastily erected risers while Chloe stood around, looking only slightly lost with nothing left to do. A couple of kids wielding trombones were not so subtly ogling her, but she seemed blissfully unaware.

"I appreciate you guys making the drive all the way out here," Nat continued, drawing his attention back her way. "I know it's hardly an exciting weekend out here in Norfield. And sitting through this concert."

"It's that bad, huh?" John asked.

Her face took on a wry look. "Norfield, or the concert?"

"Either or," he answered. "It's hardly the type of place I would think would have a, let's say vibrant gay scene."

"Yeah," she sighed. "You're not wrong. At least about the town. It's not exactly the place I always dreamed of ending up in." When he met her partial explanation with a look he hoped cam off as sympathetic, she expounded further, "I mean, I kind of always imagined being a music teacher, you know. So in that way it's kind of the dream. Well, excepting the long hours and meager salary. And the general American disdain for education that doesn't focus on profit." She paused to watch the kids on stage. "I just kind of always imagined my student body being a bit more, I don't know, diverse?"

"Ah ha," John replied. "The rural Midwest is many things, but I would not count diversity among its strong suits."

"You can say that again," Nat answered. She started making her way back to the band room.

"The rural Midwest is many things... " he began before she cut him off with a look, stopping short to deliver it.

"But, you know, not all diversity is visible." She looked pointedly to the stage, where the girl in the blue dress from earlier, whose name John had already forgotten, was already deeply focused on the sheet music in front of her, her eyes locked on as she worked her clarinet, drowned out by the clatter of other students' motions.

He followed her gaze for a moment, then turned back to her. "Aww, did you find yourself a little gayby to take under your wing already?"

"As a teacher and trusted confidant, I'm not at liberty to say," she smiled at him, then turned and began moving again. When they had reached the hallway, evidently safe from the prying ears of students, she added, "Speaking of all things queer, how have you been? From what Chloe tells me you've had a wild ride since we met but also a distinctly hetero one."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," John replied.

She shrugged. "No judgement from me," she said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but if anyone can straighten a guy like you out, it's Chloe."

"You think so, huh?" he asked, eliciting another shrug before they moved to the band room, narrowly avoiding a small gaggle of flutists engaged in some heated and very giggly conversation on the way in.

"You don't?" she responded, making her way over to the conductor's platform and grabbing some sheet music from the stand there.

He drew in a deep breath. "I don't know. I'm happy. Or, well, you know."

She looked at him for a moment. "And Chloe?"

"Happy," he said. "I think."

"And this Carrie girl?" Nat asked.

Oof The thought evidently played out over on his face even as he tried to formulate a more coherent verbal version of it.

"Yeah," Nat said. She searched his eyes for a moment, then let out a breath. "Well, anyway, I need to get these kids warmed up if it's going to sound even halfway decent. We'll have more time to talk about you breaking my girl's heart after the concert, alright?"

With that, she moved back out the door towards the gym, leaving John to watch the last few stragglers, instruments in hand, rush after her.

***

"I question the classification of Feliz Navidad as jazz."

Chloe responded to John's statement, made while the subgroup of students that made up the jazz band rustled their sheet music in preparation for the next piece with a half-amused glare, followed by an exaggerated shushing.

"Our next piece," Nat announced through a microphone to the audience that had, in John's opinion, applauded just the expected amount for their children during the full band segment of the program and now was beginning to fidget its way through the jazz band segment that followed, "was, I will warn you, foisted upon me by some of our more vocal students."

"You rock, Ms. B!" a student, likely unknown to all but Nat herself, called out, eliciting a shake of the head and a smile.

"So, as a special treat for you, or possibly punishment for me, I will be handling, at their behest the vocal part personally." She turned her upper body around enough to see a student, who had taken up a position at the piano near which the jazz band students had gathered, and give a tiny indication of a tempo. A moment later, a passable, if not professional intro began.

I feel like I recognize this one...

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas..." Nat's velvety voice filled the gym.

Ah, that's it. John sat back, as well as one could on the stiff wooden bleachers, happy that attendance was sparse enough to afford him that luxury, and took in the first verse while he gazed at Chloe. My god I'm a lucky man. He sat up again to bring himself closer to her, eliciting a sideways glance and a tiny smile.

"Make the yuletide gay..."

Heh, gay...

He leaned over towards her, was met with a stern if playful glare, and returned to his upright position to let the rest of the song wash over him.

"Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days..."

He felt Chloe's hand slightly cold, creep its way onto his, and he turned slightly to find her, still looking straight ahead. He watched her lips move slightly with the music, "... will be near to us, once more..."

"Through the years, we all will be together..."

A tear made its way out of the corner of her eye and down, slowly, slowly over her cheek. It lingered at her jaw, vibrating slightly, as Nat finished the final verse. Chloe reached up with her free hand and wiped it away as Nat stepped away from the mic. The clarinet player in the blue dress stood and launched into a solo and John felt Chloe's hand squeeze his.

***

"Dinner and a concert, this might be one of the best dates I've ever had."

Nat sighed as she began clearing away the plates from the little table in the kitchen. "So sad," she replied to Chloe's declaration with a shake of the head. "Although I can't talk; this is the closest I've come to a date since June."

"Really?" Chloe put down her now almost empty glass of water. "You're like, what was it you said, a 'certified hottie'? Plus you can cook."

"My mom can cook," Nat corrected her as John joined her in setting the dishes in the sink. "I can follow recipes. And neither is going to land me a lot of dates out here in the land that time forgot."

"Aww," Chloe replied. "I'm sure you'll find somebody."

Nat dumped the plates in the sink and began the process of dealing with leftovers. "Oh you sweet summer child. You sweet, sweet, hopelessly straight, sweet summer child."

Chloe grumbled but did not vocalize her complaint, instead standing and adding her plates to the pile that John had begun washing.

"But maybe you're right," Nat sighed. "Gotta hold out hope. No matter how bleak the prospects get."

Looking back over his shoulder at the girls as he washed, he asked. "You ever think of maybe switching teams?" He shot her a wink.

She rolled her eyes. "Not that bleak yet. I'll be sticking with women, I think, or, more likely, Jessica."

"Jessica?" Chloe leaned back against the counter beside John. "Who's this and why didn't you ever introduce us?"

"Oh, you've met," she replied. She smiled at Chloe's confusion. "Pretty little thing, about this big," she held up her hands approximately five or six inches from each other, "Real magic touch. But she goes through batteries like a son of a bitch."

Chloe's expression, which started as amused interest, had morphed into confusion as Nat spoke, and then, a few seconds later switched immediately to embarrassed realization.

"Sorry, sweetheart," Nat replied. She put the now packaged leftovers up onto the counter and joined her friend in leaning against it. "I don't usually sound this much like Zoe but I really might be losing it out here. I am in desperate need of a good lay."

"It sounds like it," Chloe said as she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

John finished rinsing off the last plate and slid it into the rack beside the sink for drying. "So, what's the plan for tonight?" he asked as he dried his hands. "I'm assuming you two came up with something."

"Well," Nat answered, "for nightlife around here we've got Monopoly or... I think I have a puzzle we could put together?"

"Monopoly sucks butt," Chloe said. "No strategy. Puzzle?"

Where have I heard that before?

"One puzzle and one bottle of wine, coming up," Nat answered.

"I think I'll stick with water," Chloe said, eliciting a questioning look from her friend. "Oh, but, like, don't let me stop you or anything."

"Alright," Nat said hesitantly as she made her way to the kitchen door. "But there goes my plan of getting you drunk and having my way with you. I think the puzzle is probably down in the basement."

"Aww, you don't have to get me drunk," Chloe responded as she followed her friend around a corner and from there down some stairs, leaving John to trail them both.

"You'd better watch yourself," Nat said, reaching the bottom of the stairs and waiting for the others to join her. "I already told you, I'm getting pretty desperate for pussy."

"I can handle myself," Chloe responded with faux indignation. "Ooh, you have a furnished basement."

"Yup," replied Nat. She wasn't lying. It was indeed furnished, although the furnishings looked to have come straight out of the seventies, with the standout feature being an exceedingly ugly orange couch which sat on a brown shag carpet. She moved over to a bookshelf which was packed to overflowing and pulled off a puzzle, then blew a layer of dust off the top. "Came with the place."

"Nice," John commented.

Nat's eyebrows responded sarcastically as she put the box down on a coffee table that looked like it probably weighed around a ton and slipped off the top, then dumped out the pieces. "No idea if the pieces are all here. But it's supposed to look like this." She propped the box top up on its side, displaying what appeared to be an oil painting of various flowers. "1000 pieces, more or less."

The girls immediately set about moving puzzle pieces about the table in the quest to find those that formed the edge. "So I guess I should get the beverages?" John offered.

"Only if you're joining me," Nat said. "At least I can get somebody drunk tonight."

"I doubt you have enough wine for that," he responded, "but I encourage you to try." She smiled in response and he made his way back up the stairs. After a short search for glasses and then another for the bottle and then yet another for a corkscrew, he managed to assemble all the pieces required for assembling the pieces.

"... so yeah the kids are great. I mean, they're never going to be musicians or anything. I doubt most of them will ever even touch their instruments after graduation, but they're sweet. And I feel like probably they like me well enough."

"They love you," Chloe responded to Nat as John poured wine into the first of the two glasses he'd set down safely away from the jumble of pieces. "That was so obvious. You're probably, like, the best teacher. I bet they all have crushes on you, too."

Nat rolled her eyes as John started to pour another glass. "Unlikely," she replied.

"I take it that you're officially 'out' here, then," John said, the girls turning to look at him.

"You could say that," Nat answered. "I mean, they kind of figured it out."

"What gave it away?" Chloe asked. "Was it your hair?"

Nat shot her friend a look somewhere between amusement and disbelief. "It could have been the rainbow flag stickers, or it could have been the Doc Martens or..." she rolled her eyes, "it just might have been the principal stating how proud they were to have hired their first queer black teacher."

"Oof," John said.

"Yeah, well," Nat replied. "I think he was genuine about the pride so I can't be too upset with him. It was bound to come out sooner or later, anyway."

"Very gracious of you," John remarked.

"Eh," she shrugged in reply. "He meant well, and that counts for something. I have a certain degree of affection for well-meaning but clueless white doofuses."

"Can you get me some water, baby?" Chloe asked, her adorable face making it out to be a huge burden rather than the minor task it was.

"Baby..." Nat teased.

"Sure you don't want any wine?" John asked.

"Nah, I'm fine," Chloe responded.

"Alright, one water coming up," he replied before heading up the stairs.

By the time he had returned to the basement, the girls had already constructed a couple of corners of the puzzle.

"... so like, yeah, I guess, I mean, it's good to get away. Like, I thought it would be good to get away, but, I mean..." Chloe turned her head to watch John re-enter the basement, glass of water in hand, then quickly turned back to Nat, "I mean, it totally is good to get away. I'm like super happy to be here. I didn't mean anything like..."

"Chloe, baby," Nat assured her friend, "breathe." She watched as John placed the glass of water on the table and waited until Chloe had picked it up and put it to her lips to begin again. "I know what you mean. We lived together for two years, remember? I always know what you mean. Even when you don't."

"Yeah, right, sorry," Chloe said, replacing the glass as John took a seat on the couch behind the girls. "It's more like, you know, what if she chooses today to, like, come back or whatever and here we are having, like, a weekend in the country and you know, like, that doesn't, like, bode well or whatever, right?"

"Nothing ever 'bodes well'," interjected John from the couch. "You ever notice that? You never hear that, 'this thing bodes quite well, actually.'"

"That degree of affection," Nat responded, shooting John a look, "for clueless white doofuses is not that high."

"Aww, he's just trying to lighten the mood," Chloe said. She rotated the glass of water on the table's surface with both hands. "I've been kind of a drag since... well, you know."

"Since your roommate, who, if I'm getting this straight, is also your boyfriend's ex, confessed to having pushed another girl between you two to see whether it would cause you to break up, and then when you did in fact break up, told that girl to come running just to make sure? And then upon confessing that, she literally ran out of your life, stole your boyfriend's car and drove it while hammered to god knows where?" Nat asked. "Sorry if I got any of that wrong, you know Zoe is always spamming the group chat with her own nonsense so I might have gotten it mixed up."

"No, you got it," Chloe said. "I mean, like, yeah, that's what happened." She returned to her previous task of flipping puzzle pieces so that the image showed.

"Right..." Nat drew out her response as she watched Chloe carefully. She picked up a puzzle piece and examined it. "So the thing I don't get is, well, like, why exactly do you care? Are you that desperate for her half of the rent money or something?"

"What?" Chloe's face showed genuine surprise.

John sank down into the couch. Time to see if an old friend is any better at anticipating Chloe than a new boyfriend was.

"I mean," Nat continued, "Obviously that's kind of a lot to have dumped on you, sweetie, and you know I love you but you seem a little bent out of shape over something that ultimately leaves you with the guy you," she paused to give John a playful look, "for some reason were already into. Like, rent aside, maybe just take the win?"

"It's not a win," Chloe answered. Tears had begun welling up in her eyes. "I don't want to win anything. I want Carrie back."

Nat's expression softened. "Oh, sweetie, I'm here for you. I mean, I don't get it, but I'm here for you. But why on God's green earth do you want her back? I preface this by saying I am a proud woman who proudly loves women and stand by my sisters against the patriarchy, but honestly this Carrie seems like a crazy b..."

John frantically cut her off with a gesture, leading her to end her sentence prematurely and with a confused look on her face.

Chloe, whose tears had already begun the long, slow march down her face, sniffled. "I want her back because I love her."

"You love her?"

John wished he had a camera in that moment to capture the look of utter befuddlement on Nat's face. He couldn't help smiling just a little bit.

Chloe reached for a tissue from the box that sat on the far corner of the coffee table, wiped away a tear, and answered, though it came out more like a question, "Yeah?"

The confusion ran away from Nat's face as it broke into a smile and she stifled a laugh, closing her eyes. "You?" She asked when she'd managed to get control of herself again, "Love her? You, Chloe, God's perfect little straight choir girl, are soaking my terrible shag carpet with tears over a girl?"

John sighed, amused. "As funny as it is to watch you stumble your way through the same conversation I had a couple weeks ago, maybe I can help," he said. The girls turned their attention to him and he continued. "Just to speed things along, yes, Chloe is serious. It certainly took me a while to process it, but yes, she does, 100%, no foolin', honest injun, love Carrie."

Nat let out another chuckle as Chloe smiled beside her.

"And frankly I feel like kind of an idiot that it took me so long to figure it out. Or not even really figure it out," he continued. "Just literally accept the thing that she said."

"Is it that weird?" Chloe asked. She turned back to her friend. "I mean, I love you. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, sweetie, but it's just..." Nat shook her head; John could almost see the wheels turning in that head. "But at the risk of sounding like one of my students, like, you love love her? I mean, we were roommates. And I would not trade those years with your or Zoe for anything in the world. But, like, are we talking platonic, 'you're a sister to me' love, or are we talking, like, wedding bells?"

"I don't know," Chloe shrugged. "I mean, you were roommates with Zoe, too, right? What if, I don't know, she wanted to... you know? Would it be, like, the wrong type of love for that or something?"

Nat let out a short little laugh. "Maybe me and Zoe are not the best example," she replied.

"Why?" Chloe asked. "I mean you guys could have, like, you know. I mean, you know Zoe."

"Yeah, I know, sweetheart. I'm saying it's not the best example because I'm guessing you've never even considered, let alone actually gone through with the whole, you know, let's say romantic kind of love with this Carrie girl."

Now it was Chloe's turn to put on a confused face. "Wait... you and Zoe? You guys?" Her face lit up. "You guys, like, did it?"

Nat could not stifle the laugh that came next; John was unsure if she even tried. "You're serious? Chloe bear, you seriously lived with us for two years and somehow missed out on that era?"

"What era?" Chloe asked, her face showing genuine interest.

"You literally walked in on us together in bed. Do you not remember that?"

Chloe's eyes rolled upwards as if she was literally searching her memory by looking at it while she bit her lower lip. "I guess," she said. "I mean, I guess I just thought you two were, like, hanging out. I sleep with Carrie like that all the time. At least I used to. Isn't that just, like, a thing girls do with their friends?"

"Naked?" Nat asked. On receiving only a shrug from Chloe as a response, she let out a sigh. "Oh my god, baby, how are you... I just... You know what, actually it makes total sense. I take back my earlier doubt. I did not realize the full extent to which you are truly Chloe."

"Um, thanks?" Chloe responded.

Nat picked up her glass of wine, downed almost the entire thing, and then threw her head back with a sigh.

"Yup," John said, evidently reminding the girls of his presence. "Pretty much exactly how it went when she explained it to me. Minus the whole lesbian college experience bit, of course."

Nat, her face now showing nothing but amusement, turned her attention back to Chloe. "So, I guess you're the exception that proves the rule. It had to happen at some point. A girl would come along who somehow managed to sneak her bisexuality past even my finely tuned gaydar. I kind of have to hand it to you. Does Zoe know? I'm going to die if she figured it out and I didn't. I'll have to hand in my dyke card."

"Oh," Chloe's face took on that adorably confused look again, "well, I mean, she probably figured it out because we did it."

"What?!"

"Did she not tell you?" Chloe responded innocently. "I kind of figured she would." She focused her eyes on something that wasn't there. "Yeah, I mean, we, John and me, I mean, we kind of, like, did a foursome thing with her and her boyfriend. She definitely told you, right? She never shuts up about who she's doing."

Nat's eyes grew wide and she began rubbing her temples as she stared at nothing. "This is unreal. This is... this is not real. How did...?" She snapped back to reality after a moment of trailing off. "You had sex with Zoe? You? The same girl who freaked out when Zoe touched your butt while dancing? You? And you're just, like, into girls now? You? This cannot be real. This is some kind of prank, right?" She turned her attention to John. "Did you do this? Is this your doing? Some kind of performative lesbian thing to excite the boyfriend?"

John put up his hands and smiled as he shook his head.

"I'm not like, into girls," Chloe said, drawing Nat's attention back to herself. "I'm into people. I guess, like, it doesn't really matter, right? Like I love Zoe just like I love you just like I love John and she was there and he was there and her boyfriend was there and... I wonder how that guy is? Zoe hasn't mentioned him in the group chat in a while, actually..."

"Oh my god," Nat continued speaking to nobody, gesturing with her hands as if laying out a complex series of ideas. "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Zoe and I talked about this. We used to talk about this. In college. We had a bet about whether you would do the whole lesbian for a day thing at some point before graduation. And I bet no!"

"Well, I mean, I guess you won, then, right?" Chloe answered innocently.

"I'm sorry if I'm... I just..." Nat interrupted her speaking to attempt a futile drink from her empty wine glass, showing no sign that she had even noticed the lack of wine. "I just... Zoe? When did this... like, when did you... were you always into... people? How could I have missed this?"

"I don't know," Chloe shrugged. "I mean, I guess. I never really thought about it."

"Ok... wow..." Nat shook her head, evidently dispelling the fugue state. She turned to John. "And this, this whole thing with this Carrie girl and everything. This makes sense to you?"

"Yeah, I mean, believe it or not, it actually makes more sense to me now. Like, why would Chloe, this certified hottie, as you say, who could have any guy she wanted wrapped around her finger..." John began.

"Hey," Chloe interrupted. "That's like, I mean, I'm not like, I'm not even that hot."

"Sweetheart," Nat placed a hand on Chloe's jaw and forcibly, if gently, wrenched the girl's face towards her own. "You are hands down the hottest girl I have ever met. I would have sawed off my own foot for a night with you back in freshman year."

"Right," John said. "So why would a girl who could have any guy she wants agree to an open relationship with a schlub like me? And not even care that my ex was living with her?"

"You're not a schlub," Chloe objected.

"Because," Nat answered, physically waving off Chloe's interruption, "she's Chloe. Jealousy is a foreign concept to her."

"Exactly," John continued. "And I'm an idiot. She kept saying she didn't mind the casualness. I didn't believe her. Carrie didn't believe her. I don't know why. This is the girl who literally gets sick at the thought of keeping a secret. She says she loves her roommate and we somehow don't hear it."

"Well, we're both idiots, then," Nat said.

"You guys," Chloe interjected. "You say it like I'm, like, some kind of, I don't know..."

"You are," Nat said. "You are some kind of a... whatever it is. It's perfect."

"Aww," Chloe said, the tears welling in her eyes again. She slumped and her eyes turned down to the floor. "If only Carrie could understand it."

Nat came in for a hug and the girls embraced, leaving John to sip his wine and wonder. She let out a long breath as they ended the hug and she reached for her wine. "Well, sweetie, at least now I guess I get what you're going through. Still don't know how to help, but I wish I did." She shook her head again. "God, Chloe of all people being some kind of polyamorous... pansexual... I don't even know what to call you."

"Um, Chloe's fine," Chloe let out a little giggle. She, too, took a deep breath and let it out. "So anyway that's me. I feel like I've been talking about me and my dumb problems all night. You're so sweet, Nat. I'm sure you're bored of listening to me cry about dumb stuff."

"It's not dumb, sweetie," Nat replied. "It's confusing. But it's not dumb. Look at my problems. Very simple, very dumb in comparison. How to get pussy in a small town? A problem many a hapless sixteen year old boy has solved all on his own."

"Aww," Chloe responded. She looked at her friend with affection lighting up her eyes. "You know," she said after a moment, "Since I guess roommates were on the table the whole time..."

Nat's mouth began to curl once more into a smile.

"I mean," continued Chloe, "I don't have, like, big boobs like Zoe or anything, but like, if you want... I mean, unless you think it would be weird? 'Cause I guess we're just like friends or whatever..."

Nat blinked a few times. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

Chloe looked concerned. She blinked a couple times, then asked "What do you think I'm suggesting?"

"It sounds like," Nat said, then after a slight pause, "It sounds like you're suggesting that the two of us have sex."

"Oh," Chloe said. "Then, yeah, that's what I was suggesting. I mean, if you want to? We can totally just do the puzzle or whatever if you'd rather, if, like it's the wrong type of love or whatever."

"John?" Nat asked without taking her eyes off Chloe. "You're ok with this?"

He leaned back into the couch, swirling his wine around in the glass. "Who am I to object to two people who love each other?"

"Ok," Nat replied, her eyes remaining on Chloe the entire time. She reached out and took the other girl's hand. "So, now's good?"

"Mmmhmm," Chloe nodded vigorously. And with that, they both stood up and Nat led Chloe up the stairs, neither of them saying another word.

John took a sip of his wine, then clambered off the couch and set the glass down on the coffee table, looking over the pieces; the girls had managed to get the corners put together, as well as a random blob that looked to be one of the flowers somewhere in the middle. He let out a long breath and set about searching for more edge pieces.

"John?" Nat's voice rang down from the floor above.

He got up and walked to the foot of the stairs, finding Nat's head poking around the corner up at the top. "Yeah?" he called back.

"You know, you can, like, watch, if you want," she said, and then with a smile, disappeared back around the corner.

I guess the puzzle can wait.

John flew up the stairs so quickly he was a little surprised he didn't face plant. When he'd gotten to the top, he found Nat, already topless, but trailing her bra behind her as she made her way to the bedroom. She turned and disappeared inside before he could catch up, but he followed her into the dimly lit room, where she, facing away from him and towards the bed, began shimmying out of the smart slacks she'd worn to the concert. On that bed, Chloe watched her, having already stripped down herself to her bra and panties.

As Nat stepped out of the slacks which she left on the carpet next to her now discarded bra, John suddenly realized that he had no idea what exactly he should do with himself. Should he just stand? There was a chair off to one side of the room, awash in the moonlight of the window it sat in front of. Should he sit? Should he also remove his clothes, or was it one of those times where one just pulled their jeans down the bare minimum amount required to stimulate oneself? Or was he expected to just watch? Now this is the type of thing they don't teach you in sex ed classes. The state of education in this country truly is atrocious.

He decided that he should do the girls the favor of at least closing the blinds and so made his way over to the window. Having given them a bit more privacy at the cost of some moonlight, he opted to sit in the chair. If the girls noticed the illumination, they didn't mention it: Nat was already on top of Chloe, between her legs as they kissed.

John watched as Nat's hand drifted slowly down Chloe's side. She gently stroked the skin of Chloe's bare thigh, then made her way back up, finding her way to Chloe's chest. Her kisses dropped down to Chloe's neck. Chloe threw back her head, moaning as Nat caressed her breasts through a silky pink bra.

As John's jeans grew more and more cramped, that bra slid up and a brief flash of Chloe's left nipple was visible before it disappeared under Nat's palm. Soon the kisses had dropped lower and lower, eventually reaching Chloe's right nipple.

Chloe's hands, meanwhile, seemed to be searching for something to do, aimlessly wandering around Nat's arms and back as Nat's continued teasing led Chloe to moan all the more.

Nat kissed her way back up Chloe's chest and buried her face in Chloe's neck as her hand abandoned the nipple and made its way further down, over Chloe's taut little tummy and then out of sight, hidden from John's view by Chloe's thigh. It was not difficult, however, to imagine what that hand was doing from the way Chloe's face contorted and her body writhed this way and that.

Alright, the remaining clothed thing is just not a viable option, John concluded. He worked his fly and slid his jeans down to his knees, taking his boxers with them and freeing his fully hard cock into his hand. I kind of doubt Nat will even notice, he thought as he began slowly stroking his member.

She evidently did not as she continued kissing her way down to Chloe's now exposed left nipple and began sucking on it. Nice technique, John thought to himself as he watched the way Nat worked Chloe's perfect little tit, her tongue making brief appearances as she alternated sucking and kissing, all the while her hand in Chloe's crotch continuing its steady motions.

Chloe let out a little squeak and then another and another, seeming to react happily to something Nat was doing to her. Her own hand finally found a place to rest, on the right nipple that Nat had yet to pay any attention to. She pinched it, then twisted, then moved on to simply flicking it, all the while keeping her eyes tight shut, despite her head and neck writhing with pleasure.

"Oh my... oh... I'm gonna..." Chloe's voice came out breathy and high pitched, as if she could barely focus enough to form the words.

"Mmmhmm," Nat responded without removing her mouth from Chloe's breast.

Suddenly Chloe's hips jumped up off the bed, pausing only a brief moment before jumping up again as her broken exclamations morphed into a high-pitched whine. Truly pro-level technique, John had to admit as Nat seemed to anticipate every seeming random jerk, her hand never leaving from its obscured position between her partner's legs, her mouth continuously latched onto her nipple. She did not let go until Chloe had calmed down, smiling as she finally pulled away, her eyes fixed on Chloe and apparently paying John's stroking no mind.

"Wow," Chloe sighed. She pushed herself up onto her elbows. "That was... wow." She smiled, ran a hand through her hair, and pulled herself back to the head of the bed. "Ok, your turn."

"Chloe," Nat laughed, "we don't have to take turns. We can just..."

"Your turn," Chloe cut her off. "Come on, lie down. Unless you want to like... I don't know, I don't really know what girls usually do."

Nat's smile evolved from pure amusement to amusement mixed with befuddlement, evident even in the low light. "There's not really a handbook," she said. "You kind of just do what feels good. Just like with a guy. Did you ask Zoe how to do it?"

"Zoe just kind of did stuff," Chloe answered.

"I can imagine," Nat said.

"Oh, ok," Chloe nodded. "Then like, lie down and I'll, like, do you, ok?"

Nat moved to Chloe's side, turning to lie face up while Chloe wiggled out of her panties and deposited them and the bra on the floor. To John's surprise, Nat looked to him as she lay down. "Is she like this with you, too, or is it just a girl thing?"

John chuckled, cock in hand. "She's Chloe regardless of partner, as far as I can tell."

Nat smiled as she slid off her own panties and dropped them on the floor. Chloe moved between her friend's legs and lay down on top of her, planting a kiss on her lips and pressing her little pink nipples against Nat's beautiful dark ones in the process. When she pulled away from the kiss, she was wearing a big smile. She searched Nat's eyes for a moment, then said. "You don't mind if I use my mouth, right?"

Nat let out a short laugh. "No, sweetie," she answered. "Knock yourself out."

Feeling increasingly hot as he watched, he stripped off his shirt and slid his jeans the rest of the way off before replacing his hand on his cock. It throbbed hot against his fingers a small, sticky trail of precum already oozing from the head, which he smeared onto the shaft as a bit of lubricant for his stroking.

Chloe smiled again and then slid down the bed, wasting no time with foreplay and instead diving straight into her friend's crotch, first kissing and then excitedly licking it, big, long licks that we clearly visible to John even from a few feet away in the dim moonlight of the room.

Nat reacted with a little squeal that might have been more surprise than pleasure, but certainly not devoid of the latter. When she had regained her composure, she let her hands play along Chloe's outstretched arms, moving them up to the shoulders and then down, then back up, continuing up to Chloe's hair before she changed course, spreading her arms across the bed and then drawing them in once again to her own chest as her hips began responding with slow, subtle gyrations. She toyed with her nipples for a few seconds before, to John's surprise, turning her attention from the rather enthusiastic motions between her legs to himself. Leaving her far hand on her chest, she reached the near one out towards him and, with a curled finger enticed him to get up and move towards the bed.

She watched his cock bounce as he stepped towards the bed and gave no indication that he should stop. Cautiously he climbed up onto the bed, trying to meet her gaze but receiving nothing in return. Instead, she simply took his cock in her hand, silently guiding him toward her face. When he had managed to get close enough, moving on his knees, she opened her mouth and wrapped her lips around his cock head. He watched as she began sucking him, her tongue moving cautiously around his cock head, but still her eyes stayed fixated on her own work, jerking him slowly while she sucked his cock head, so he turned his attention to Chloe. Even with her tongue extended and probing her friend's slit, she was able to smile as she returned his gaze.

He reached down and timidly touched her nipple, twirling his finger around it slowly and appreciating the way it could be soft and hard at the same time. Her writhing had become more excited, and so any effect that this had had was lost in the gradual buildup of pleasure emanating from between her legs. He glanced down at Chloe again and found that her motions had largely stopped, but from the position of her lips, he could guess that her tongue was doing plenty of work on Nat's clit.

"Mwah," Nat made a smacking sound with her lips as she pulled them from his member, ignoring a trail of spit that hung briefly from the tip of his dick to her lips as she turned her attention back to Chloe. "Oh fuck, I'm gonna... fuck!" Her legs began shaking and this shaking seemed to radiate down to her feet, where her toes curled before she pulled her legs in tight, squeezing Chloe between her thighs; for her part, Chloe did not seem to mind and continued to suck Nat's clit even as Nat's body jerked this way and that.

Chloe waited until Nat had calmed down, her hips finally coming to a rest, to pull away from her pussy. She licked her lips and smiled at Nat, who was still catching her breath, even as her had remained tightly gripping John's member.

Nat let out a satisfied sigh. "So I guess it's your turn again?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh," Chloe said, "I thought we weren't taking turns."

Nat's smile grew wider. "Or I guess it could be this guy's turn..." She returned her lips to his cock head and began teasing the tip with her tongue.

"I'm just happy to be included," John smiled. "I thought I was just going to have to watch."

She popped her lips off him with a satisfying smacking sound. "I'm flexible," she said. "Especially when I haven't gotten any in months." She once again started stroking him as she turned over, getting on all fours, then returned her mouth to his member, beginning a steady sucking, her head moving up and down the length of his shaft, her eyes focused on her work.

John shot a look over at Chloe, who just smiled before she began planting kisses on Nat's beautiful, round ass. After only a few of these gentle kisses, her mouth made its way to Nat's crack.

"Waah!" Nat's reaction was funny enough to make up for the slight pain of her yanking John's cock hard as her head snapped around to look at her friend.

Yeah, she'll do that...

"Chloe?" Nat asked, clearly stifling a laugh. "Did you just put your tongue up my butt?"

"Um..." Chloe's eyes avoided her interlocutor's, drifting up to the ceiling and then back down. "Yeah? Is that ok?"

Nat let out the little laugh she'd been holding in. "No, baby, it's better than ok," she said. "It's great." She turned her attention back to John, beaming a message into his eyes with her own. You're a lucky man.

I know, he thought back just before Nat returned to sucking John, moving her lips back and forth over the ridge of his cock head.

"Oh, cool," Chloe replied. "Because you have a really cute butt." John could feel Nat's lips curl into a smile around his cock as Chloe returned her mouth to Nat's crack.

Very quickly the sound of Nat's steady sucking was joined by a wet, squishy sound that John, looking over at Chloe and finding her arm moving almost imperceptibly could only guess was caused by Chloe's fingers slipping in and out of Nat's pussy. He reached down to Nat's ass and let his fingers enjoy the sensation of her soft skin, causing Chloe to lock eyes with him.

"Oh god, baby," Nat moaned, letting John's cock fall out of her mouth, "that feels so good..." Her fingers grew tighter around John's cock and she pressed her face into the mattress. "Oh my god, don't stop... oh fuck, right there... oh god!"

The next words out of her mouth were garbled and morphed into a formless moan as she came on Chloe's fingers while Chloe continued her relentless licking of Nat's asshole. Under John's fingers he could feel her muscles tighten as the pleasure shot through her, and they did not relax until more than a few moments later; when she finally let out a sigh indicating it had passed, he let his hands slide up the smooth skin of her back, finding it coated with a thin layer of sweat.

"Oh wow," she sighed, finally pushing herself back up onto her arms as Chloe finished with her asshole, smiling as she wiped spit from her chin. "Don't tell me Zoe taught you how to do that."

Chloe giggled and Nat continued, turning her attention to John, "Sorry I kind of took your turn there, boy." She breathed heavily a couple times, then added, "I'd love to help you out but I think my jaw might fall off."

"No problem," chuckled John. "I know what you mean."

"Yeah, it's been a while," she replied. "I'm more than a bit out of practice." She sat up on her knees and turned to Chloe. "If you want to, you know, help him out, I'm cool with sitting out a turn."

"Nnn," Chloe shook her head. "We can do it, like, any time. Tonight's about us girls."

Nat let out a little laugh. "Chloe, you're adorable, really. But why don't you..."

Chloe shrugged. "Why don't you?"

Nat's lips curled into a subtle smile. "You mean...?"

"Yeah," Chloe answered. "Is it weird? I mean, it's cool if you don't want to because he's a guy or whatever. I just mean, I thought, like, Jessica and everything. It's like that."

"You're not wrong," Nat replied.

"Baby, lie down," Chloe commanded John gently before quickly turning her attention back to Nat. "So you can just, like, sit like here."

Nat smiled at John for a moment, saying "She really is so Chloe it hurts," before turning back to her seemingly confused friend. "It's been a while but I think I remember how it works."

"Oh, cool," replied Chloe. "I guess it's like riding a bike or whatever but it's, you know, like, a guy."

"Uh huh," Nat, clearly amused, replied as she straddled John. "I hope you don't mind this position. Maybe a bit impersonal."

That she was saying this while holding his engorged cock and sliding it up and down the length of her wet slit amused John to no end. "Oh, it's no problem"

Nat sank down onto his cock with a wet squishing sound accompanying her little grunt at the initial penetration. Chloe watched, her eyes aglow, one hand resting gently on her friend's arm as Nat adjusted herself, wiggling her hips as she worked him into herself more comfortably. "Mmm, nnn," Nat let out little sounds as she worked, then, evidently satisfied, said "Wow. A little bigger than Jessica."

"It's alright?" Chloe asked, her face showing an adorable concern. "It doesn't, like, hurt or anything, right?"

"Mmmhmm," Nat responded. She looked back over her shoulder to John beneath her. "It's not that much bigger than Jessica," she said with a wink before turning her attention back to Chloe.

Chloe looked genuinely relieved, only then letting her hands begin to explore Nat's body as the latter began grinding on John's cock. "You look so hot like that," Chloe purred. Her left hand had found its way down to Nat's crotch, her fingers brushing John's balls as she began toying with Nat's clit. Nat shuddered in response, her pussy briefly clamping down even more tightly on John.

He tried moving his hips in time to Nat's motions, as always finding the position leaving him feeling a little useless, so he contented himself with simply enjoying the sensation of Nat's tight, wet pussy milking him, only using his hands to softly rub her shapely ass; if she noticed, she did not respond, too busy was she kissing Chloe passionately. As she rode she grew tighter and tighter around him, squeezing and milking him so that he had to focus his attention on not simply shooting his load inside her.

"Oh god," Nat groaned between kisses, "I'm gonna fuckin' cum... oh god... yes, baby, right there, right there, oh..."

It took all of his ability to hold in his load while Nat went wild atop him, her orgasm causing her tight little pussy to squeeze him repeatedly. "Oh fuck," he groaned, losing himself in the pleasure.

Suddenly she snapped her head back around to him. "Are you gonna cum?" she asked.

He held up a hand and indicated with a finger and thumb "a little bit."

To his surprise, she quickly climbed off him, her body still twitching from the orgasm. "You're up, baby," she told Chloe plainly.

"It's ok," Chloe answered. "You should. It feels really good, actually."

Nat let out a little chuckle. "I know, baby girl," she said. "I'm just not on the pill."

Chloe's face twisted up into a look of confusion. "Really?"

Nat smiled. "Yeah," she said. "I'm a lesbian. Why would I be on the pill? You can't get knocked up from scissoring."

Chloe's look of confusion morphed into a smile. "Oh, right." Without another word, she took Nat's place, only she faced John as she straddled him. "Come on, baby," she purred. "Don't hold back."

As she rode, Nat began running her hands all over her friend's body, kissing her shoulder as she fondled her breasts. "That's it, baby," she encouraged Chloe softly, "ride it just like that. Take that cum for me, baby."

"Mmmhmm," Chloe moaned as John finally lost the battle with biology and a flood of cum rushed out of him and up into Chloe's hot little twat. "Ohh..." she reacted as his seed poured into her, filling her and overflowing, oozing down his shaft as their thrusting grew irregular.

When her eyes opened, it was to Nat, watching her with a loving smile. "That was really hot," she said. "Even if it was a guy." She shot John a wink.

Chloe smiled, then planted a quick kiss on Nat's lips. As she dismounted John, his now softening cock landed with a wet thud against his belly. "So, like, who's turn is it?" she asked.

Nat chuckled. "We're not done yet?"

"Oh," Chloe's face showed surprise. "I mean, we can be. If you want. I just figured..."

"Oh, no, no, no," Nat answered. "Your boyfriend may be out of commission but if you're offering, I'm going to keep you up all night."

"Oh, cool," Chloe asked. "But he'll be good to go in a couple minutes. Or we can just, you know, do girl stuff or whatever. I'm good, either way."

"Really?" Nat smiled warily.

"Oh, yeah, I mean, like, do you want to do, like, I don't know? What's scissoring, by the way?"

Nat laughed out loud, then turned to John. "I'm never letting this girl leave, by the way. She's mine now."

John just smiled and shrugged.

She turned back to Chloe. "Oh, Chloe bear, I've got so many things to teach you."

"Cool," Chloe replied, then looked down at John. "So, like, you can just like, take a break, ok? And then we'll just like, wake you up when we need you again, yeah?"

"Alright, sweetheart," he answered, already closing his eyes.

***

Ding, dong, ding, dong.

John looked up from his phone and turned to his side. Surely church bells will wake them up. He waited for a few moments, finding to his disappointment that this particular call to fellowship was no more effective at rousing either of the two beauties with whom he had awoken to find himself sharing a bed than the sunrise had been an hour earlier.

"Sharing" was a perhaps generous way of describing the situation, as it carried the connotation of at least some degree of equality. The present distribution of space would seem, on the other hand, to be less than equitable, with Nat flat on her back, extending one arm so far across the bed, which, to be fair, had probably never been intended for more than two occupants, that John had had to gently push it away to keep her fingers from poking into his ear; that extended arm was functioning as a makeshift pillow for Chloe, who rather than simply accepting the warm, cozy position she had evidently been allotted between Nat and himself, had at some point decided that an angle of approximately 45° to the side of the bed was the more comfortable option.

This had all led cumulatively to John, who had evidently been the first to open his eyes, having spent the last hour or so, after getting up to use the facilities, in a precarious half sit-up position on one edge of the bed scrolling his phone for lack of anything better to do or the ability to return to that sleep that both of the girls seemed to be permanently ensconced in. These are the real dangers of sex that they should be teaching high schoolers about, he mused as he reluctantly brought his phone back to life.

"This isn't a false awakening, is it?"

He turned to find Nat, blinking as she awkwardly rolled onto one side while managing to leave Chloe undisturbed. "No, I'm pretty sure you're awake."

She blinked at him again. "If you're a figment of my subconscious, you have to tell me."

"I am certain, to the extent that anyone can be of such a claim, that this is not, in fact a dream. I don't feel like a butterfly, anyway." He watched as she slowly extracted her arm from under her friend's head with the practiced care of an experienced lover of sleepy women.

"So the whole Chloe thing..." Nat began.

"Yes, that was, believe it or not, also real," he answered. She let out a sort of half laugh, so he continued, "Still seems a bit unbelievable, I guess?"

"What, Chloe's thing with this Carrie girl? Her whole love without labels thing?" Nat asked. "Because, yeah, that's weird. I mean, in a good way. Or at least if you can make it work. Are you two actually trying to make it work, or is this just a sort of 'if only' thing, by the way?"

John sighed. "We'd like to. But it's kind of up to Carrie and she's not exactly been responsive."

"To the whole bisexual thing?" Nat asked. Beside her, Chloe shifted her weight and her lips moved as if speaking, but she remained steadfastly asleep.

"To anything," John answered. "She's incommunicado. I literally got one text from her apologizing for running over my mailbox two weeks ago and then nothing since. Poor Chloe's checking her phone every couple minutes in case she's gotten some response to any of her million texts, but it's just nothing. Sometimes I think she might literally drown in tears. She is, as you probably realize, not well-suited to this kind of thing."

"Uh huh," Nat replied. "And this Carrie girl? What's with her? It sounds an awful lot like a one-way street here. Does she even care about Chloe, or is this going to end up like me and my first crush on a girl?"

"Didn't go well, I take it?" John asked. He placed a hand on Chloe's bare thigh and let his fingers explore the smooth, warm skin.

"You could say that," Nat replied. "I suppose it's probably something of a rite of passage for us queers."

"Coming to the game kind of late, I can't say I've experienced that particular rite," John replied. "But in any case, Carrie's just, well, Carrie. Not that I'm in any way confident she would take to the idea, but you know Chloe. She's not going to give up on this. So maybe they can... we can work something out."

"What does that even mean, 'work something out'?" Nat joined him in casually exploring Chloe's sleeping body, her own hand making its way gently up and down the girl's arm.

"To be honest, I don't know," John shrugged.

"Best of luck with that," Nat said. "Really, I mean that. I just don't share Chloe's... optimism, let's call it. You want some coffee?" She turned in the bed, letting her legs hang off the edge and in the process revealing her naked body.

"Nothing would make me happier," he answered.

"Nothing?" she asked as she rose to her feet.

John's eyes remained pointedly focused on her shapely, round ass. "Well, I can think of one thing..."

She caught his eye. "Coffee first," she said. "We'll see how flexible I'm feeling once I have some caffeine in me." She walked to the door, swaying her hips in a way that John could only imagine was at least a little performative, then stopped in the door frame. "You take it black, right?"

"Black and hot," John said, adding a wink.

She rolled her eyes and disappeared out into the hallway. Cautiously, John pushed Chloe over towards the side of the bed that Nat had just vacated. For a second he thought he had succeeded, but evidently this movement was enough to finally nudge her back into consciousness. "Nnnn," she groaned before sitting up, pulling the sheets up with her to cover herself. "Morning, baby."

"Good morning, sweetheart," he replied. "Sleep well?"

She shrugged and scratched her head, pushing her already mussed hair around even more. "Where's Nat?"

"Ostensibly making coffee," he answered. "Although I suspect she's probably peeing at the moment."

"In the coffee?" Chloe squinted her eyes as she looked at him.

"What?" he laughed. "Two separate things. I would hope."

"I hope she's making a lot," Chloe said, finally letting her hair fall back down; much of it refused to obey gravity and remained standing at impossible angles. "I feel like I didn't sleep at all."

"What time did you two actually fall asleep?" he asked.

Her eyes searched the ceiling in vain for an answer. "Um, I don't know. I think after the third time, or maybe the fourth. It's kind of hard to count after two because after we woke you up for round two it was just us girls and there's no like splort count." She made a little gesture with her hand vaguely over her crotch in an imitation of ejaculation, her expression betraying nothing but sincerity.

He chuckled. "Fair enough. I guess you two were really making up for lost time, then."

She smiled at him. "You're not getting jealous, are you? Because this thing with Carrie is never going to work if you're already getting jealous."

"No, no, no," John replied. "Not at all." He felt his own smile fade involuntarily. "Do you really think this thing will work with Carrie? I mean, Nat is one thing, but I've never heard Carrie express anything but the most hetero of sexual desires. And she hasn't expressed anything to either of us since... yeah."

"It'll work," Carrie answered, her smile stiffening into a determined expression. "Even if she is straight or whatever. I just want her back." She drew in a breath and John could already see the tears forming in her eyes again. "Even if it's just as a friend. I mean, it's not like I need to do it with her or anything. We never did before and that's fine. If she wants to share you, we'll work out a time schedule or something. I don't know. But it'll work out. It has to."

"What if she doesn't want to share?" he looked her in her watery eyes.

Fortunately Nat's sheets remained tear-free as she returned, distracting Chloe. "Good morning, sleepyhead," she said. "Coffee?"

"Oh, did you make a cup for me?" she asked.

"Uh huh," Nat answered, carrying two mugs over to the bed and handing one gingerly to Chloe, who accepted it with a smile. "John was just going to get his own." She shot him a wink as she blew the steam off her own mug and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Right," he said and swung his legs off the bed. "I suppose I kind of have to pee again, anyway."

"Ooh, actually," Chloe said as she reached past him to put her mug down on the nightstand. "I kind of really have to pee. Do you mind if I...?"

John chuckled and indicated his assent with a vague gesture towards the bedroom door, swinging his legs back onto the bed. Chloe took the time to plant a kiss on his cheek before bounding off the bed and out that door, revealing her naked body in the process. John couldn't help noticing out of the corner of his eye how closely Nat's attention had followed her friend's shapely butt. Her eyes remained pointed toward the empty door frame even as she sipped her coffee until he evidently interrupted her reverie with a "So..."

"Hmm?" she replied, blinking.

"So, plans for the day? I mean, anything you wanted to do before the two of us city folk have to make like a tree and leave?"

Her tongue hesitated in between her lips for a few moments. "Well, I had originally planned on taking you guys to the Christmas market."

"Sounds fun..." John replied with a smile.

"It's not," she said. "It's cute. It's kitschy. I wouldn't say it's fun."

"Not as much fun as, say, tongue punching Chloe's snatch?"

"Pfff," Nat replied, shaking her head. "God, 'snatch'. Men..."

"I take it that means the caffeine has not done anything for your flexibility."

She smirked at him over her mug but said nothing.

"Ah, that's alright," he said. "Just let me know where this Christmas market is and I'll leave you two to your girls' day."

"I don't think that'll be necessary," Nat replied. She set the coffee mug down carefully onto the night stand, then turned back to him. She looked him over for a moment, leaving John to wonder what exactly she had meant. Fortunately this moment of confusion was just that, a singular moment, as in the very next moment, she threw her leg over him, straddling him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He could feel the heat of her crotch on his member, which was already beginning to react, slowly growing between her legs, and he reached behind her, pulling her towards him for a kiss. She accepted it, but a second later, gently pushed back, twisting her face away from his while making no effort to get off him.

She evidently read the confusion off his face. "Guys," she answered his implied question. "It's not you. Just kissing a guy, you know?" She made a comical little "yech" face.

He chuckled. "Alright, understood. But you still want to...?"

As an answer, she placed her hand on the back of his head and gently guided him to her right nipple. He took it into his mouth and began circling the hardening nub with his tongue. She responded with a light cooing sound and moving her hips back and forth, pressing her pussy lips against his cock.

Just as John had finished kissing across Nat's chest to her other nipple, he was shaken out of his reverie by the sound of Chloe's voice. "Hey, so, I guess the coffee can wait?" He took his mouth off of Nat's breast and looked up to find Chloe standing, still fully naked, with a mug of coffee held between her hands.

"Thanks, sweetheart," he managed.

"Yeah, it can wait," Nat explained calmly. She removed the hand that had been slowly exploring his back and used it to coax Chloe over to the bed.

Chloe smiled and followed Nat's beckoning finger onto the bed, from where she proceeded to embrace her friend, the two of them locking lips. John couldn't help smiling as the two girls pressed their chests together, causing their pert little tits to squish against one another.

As they kissed, their hands slowly drifting over one another's bodies, Nat continued her motions, sliding her increasingly wet pussy lips up and down his now fully hard cock. A moment after they had broken off the kiss, he felt a hand, instantly recognizable from the feeling of its dainty fingers as Chloe's, begin its own gentle process of caressing his member, drifting down to his balls before slowly grasping him by the base of the shaft.

She smiled at Nat. "Do you want to...?" In lieu of finishing her sentence, she simply bit her lower lip.

"When in Rome," Nat answered, "... or Norfield, I guess."

Chloe let out a little giggle and John felt her jerk him into a better position. Somehow she was able to find Nat's entrance without ever breaking eye contact, placing the head of his cock between her friend's pussy lips. Nat wiggled her body down and the cock head slipped inside her, eliciting a barely audible groan from the girl.

Beside them, Chloe's other hand had drifted down between her own legs and as Nat worked John's dick into herself more and more with each slow, purposeful movement of her hips, Chloe began her own motions, her fingers lazily circling on her clit. He felt her hand slip away as Nat sank herself down on him as far as she could go and the motions of Chloe's arm told him she was caressing Nat's back.

"You look so sexy riding like that," Chloe said. Her eyes remained locked onto her friend as her tongue and lips moved hungrily.

"You're not... just going... to watch... are you?" Nat asked between gyrations. The skill with which she worked him in and out of herself made John wonder just how many guys she had been with before discovering it wasn't for her.

At least not mostly for her...

Chloe shrugged, her nimble little fingers uninterrupted in their motions.

Nat shook her head, stopped her hips, and placed a hand to John's chest. "Down, boy," she teased.

He lay back, not even bothering to suppress the goofy smile he could tell was adorning his face.

"Come on," Nat encouraged Chloe, "get up there."

Chloe covered her giggle with a hand and did as asked, awkwardly straddling John's face. "Hold on," she said, then adjusted herself, trying and mostly succeeding to bring her sweet, shaved pussy right above John's face.

"If I'm going to approve of your boyfriend," Nat said, once more starting to rock her hips, "he's not going to be one of those guys who never goes down on a girl."

Chloe's laugh was interrupted by a startled squeal as John's tongue made initial contact with her pussy lips. When she had settled down, he slid his tongue up and down the length of her slit, savoring the sweet taste of her juices. After a few initial passes he began to tease her clit with the tip of his tongue. For her part, Chloe, moaning softly, pushed her hips back, grinding her clit against his tongue.

The sounds of a cock slipping in and out of a wet pussy were soon joined by the distinct sound that could only be produced by two girls in the heat of passion groaning through sloppy kisses; John's brain registered it but only faintly, so focused was he on pleasuring Chloe's tight little slit and suppressing the urge to fill Nat's with his seed. In fact it came as a bit of a surprise when Nat's voice cut through all the noise. "Oh fuck I'm gonna cum," she groaned. Her gyrations switched immediately to a more vertical movement, driving his cock in and out of herself rapidly until she suddenly stopped, holding him balls deep inside herself, and shuddered. "Oh fuck... oh... fuck!"

The kissing resumed again briefly before Nat climbed off, leading Chloe to follow suit and leaving John to wipe off the mixture of spit and pussy juices that was now coating essentially his entire face.

"That was, like, so hot," Chloe said as the girls gently fondled each other beside John. "Did you really...? Like, that fast?"

Nat let out a little laugh. "Yes, sweetheart," she answered. "Don't tell anyone this, but every once in a while, dick is, like, the thing. Just, like, very occasionally, you know?"

"Mmmhmm," Chloe nodded enthusiastically, "I know, right? Like the first time with John, it was, like..." Her eyes rolled towards the ceiling as she replayed the memory of their first night together in her mind.

John sat up. "So, are we... done here? Is this like the post-game show or something?"

The girls both turned to him and made John wonder for the umpteenth time in his life if women didn't have some special form of telepathy by rolling their eyes simultaneously.

Chloe was the first to un-roll her eyes, saying, "No, baby, not even close." She turned back to her friend. "Do you mind if I...?"

Nat smiled and gestured, palm up, toward John, who took the signal to lie down once again. Chloe, taking her cue, climbed atop John and, reaching between her legs to find his very sticky cock, guided it expertly to the entrance of her sopping wet pussy.

Nat, taking a position behind Chloe, reached around the girl and began fondling her chest as she kissed her neck. Chloe's hips started moving and she closed her eyes, throwing her head back to give her friend better access to her neck as she worked John in and out, in and out of her pussy.

Nat's other hand had disappeared behind Chloe, letting John know where it was when her fingertips briefly grazed his balls. A familiar groan from Chloe told John all he needed to know about what Nat was doing; he could swear that her voice always took on a slightly different tone when someone was touching her asshole.

"Mmm," Chloe she moaned, "oh my... oh yeah right there..." Nat's hand, obscured in this position, moved rapidly, then stopped. John could feel Chloe hesitate; she drew in a breath and a moment later let it escape, first as a little squeak of surprise, but then rapidly transforming it into a sigh.

Behind her, Nat smiled. "You're really into butt stuff, huh?"

Chloe's mouth twisted into the little sideways smile John had long recognized as her attempt to ward off embarrassment. Nat leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "It's ok, sweetie. It's hot."

Chloe beamed and resumed her gyrations atop John, moving faster. She turned her head and the girls kissed, taking turns softly squeezing one another's lips with their own. As they kissed, Chloe moved faster, driving John's rigid cock in and out of herself, her pussy seeming to grow tighter with each motion.

"Can you cum for me, baby?" Nat purred a question to her friend. "I want to feel it."

"Mmmhmm," Chloe was barely keeping her voice from degrading into a whine.

"Cum for me," Nat whispered between short, wet kisses. "Cum for me, baby..." She took hold of Chloe's head and held it in place, kissing her hard as the latter began quivering with the onset of an orgasm.

John just watched and tried to hold on as Chloe's tight little pussy squeezed him, desperately trying to milk the cum from his balls; it took all his effort not to let it.

Evidently sensing the same fading of the orgasm with her finger that John could feel with his cock, Nat pulled her finger out. To her apparent surprise, Chloe grabbed her friend's hand and pulled it to her face, hungrily clamping her lips onto Nat's still extended finger. "Mmm," she moaned and she sucked the digit.

"Wow," Nat said, her face showing surprise but also a smile. "You like that?"

Chloe, climbing hesitantly off of John, released her friend's hand and bit her own lip. "Is that, like, weird?" She snapped her head around to John. "Is that, like, weird?" she repeated. "You told me it was not weird."

"It's weird," Nat answered for him, placing a hand on Chloe's jaw and gently guiding Chloe's face back to her own. "You're kind of a freak, actually." She paused, smiling wide. "But I love it." She pulled Chloe towards herself and once again they kissed, leaving John to idly stroke his now very wet cock and watch.

"Nat..." Chloe pretended at annoyance as she pulled away. "Am I really a freak?"

"Mmmhmm," Nat nodded, "but you're in good company." She cast her eyes to John, then back up to Chloe. "Butt stuff is hot. You'd be surprised how many of us dykes are into it."

"Really?" Chloe asked. She, as always, seemed genuinely surprised.

"Uh huh," Nat seemed almost proud.

"Oh, so do you, like, want to..." Chloe began.

"No," Nat cut her off. "Well, not right now. But I bet you do."

"Is that ok?" Chloe asked. "I mean, it's kind of your turn."

"John," Nat said without taking her eyes off Chloe, "will you please shove your cock up this girl's ass before I fall even more in love with her?"

"Yes, ma'am," John replied happily. As Chloe once more excitedly climbed atop John, this time facing away from him, Nat hopped off the bed and stepped over to the nightstand beside it.

"Where are you going?" Chloe asked, pausing with John's cock in hand.

Nat pulled open the drawer of the nightstand and pulled out a bottle of lube. "Here," she tossed it to Chloe, who with one hand occupied could not manage to catch it, rather picking it up from the bed while Nat closed the drawer and walked over to a closet. "You two get started. There's something I need."

Chloe turned her head to shoot John a look that perfectly expressed "I don't know what's going on, but I like it," while Nat rummaged around in the closet.

"There you are," Nat said. When she emerged from the closet a moment later, it was with a black device that John quickly identified as a strap-on.

"What's that?" Chloe asked, even as she smeared lube onto her asshole.

"Helga," Nat answered while putting the device on. "She hasn't gotten any in even longer than I had before last night." She stepped over to the bed, causing the rubber cock now extending from her pubic region to bounce. "Are you going to fuck this girl, or do I have to do everything myself?"

"On it," John replied. He pressed his now generously lubricated cock head to Chloe's asshole, then with his free hand pulled her down atop him. With practiced ease, Chloe made the final adjustments necessary to allow his engorged cock head to pop inside her tight ass. She groaned as they began working him deeper into her, steadily relaxing her hole while Nat, having climbed back onto the bed, watched intently.

Soon Chloe was bouncing steadily on John, driving his thick cock up inside herself over and over again. Nat alternately cautiously fingered Chloe's twat and smeared the resultant pussy juice onto her cock a few times before calming her friend with a gentle touch. She kissed Chloe softly, taking a position between her spread legs. "Can I?" she asked.

"Please," Chloe responded, not stopping, her voice thin.

For a moment the room was silent except the barely audible, wet sound of a rubber cock head gliding up and down the length of a juicy slit while they all held their breath. And then, with one more wet sound, Nat was in; John could feel her artificial dick press up against his through the thin layer of tissue separating them.

The girls locked eyes and then lips as Nat began moving, thrusting in and out of Chloe; John took the signal to move his own hips, at least as well as he could given the position and soon they were working in tandem, one cock sliding into Chloe while the other slid out, filling the room with the deliciously sloppy sounds of two deep penetrations.

"Oh god, oh god," Chloe whimpered, tearing her mouth away from Nat's as she reached another orgasm. It had not taken long to achieve it, and it took even less time to achieve the second one; after she had cum a third time, shaking and crying out incoherently, the orgasms blurred together, an appropriate phenomenon for the tangled mass of sweaty bodies they had become.

When her ass clamped down on him during the throes of her nth orgasm, John could no longer resist: his own orgasm pushed its way out of him, a wave of pleasure radiating out from the base of his cock. "I'm coming," he grunted, barely giving any warning before he filled Chloe's tight ass with his hot, sticky seed.

Nat did not slow her own thrusting until John's cock had fallen out of Chloe, followed by a heaping load of his own cum which oozed out of her and join the various other fluids that were coating his crotch. When Nat did pull out of the trembling Chloe a few moments later, she was breathing heavily and the sweat on her brow had formed into large droplets.

Chloe collapsed onto the bed beside John, periodically spasming as the pleasure died down. She looked first to John and then Nat, saying nothing but smiling through her heaving breath.

Nat, on her knees, stroked the rubber cock with one hand. "So," she said, "I guess Chloe's gonna need a break."

Chloe confirmed this with an enthusiastic nod, pushing sweaty hair from her face.

"Which means," Nat continued, a smile playing on her lips as she locked eyes with John, "it's your turn."

***

"As much as it pains me to say this," Nat sighed, leaning back in her chair, "I think this boy of yours might actually be a keeper."

"Nat..." Chloe rolled her eyes, regarding her friend lovingly as she twirled the fork on her now empty plate.

"I mean," replied Nat, "he can cook. That's not nothing." She turned to John and regarded him with a smile. "And he eats pussy. Not as good as a girl would, but, you know, he's alright."

"Nat!" Chloe pouted adorably. "You sound like Zoe."

"Sorry," she shrugged. She got up from the table and picked up the plate she had just finished. Adding it to that which John had just left in the sink, she said, "you just brought my inner Zoe out. Do you really have to go? I've just got the one week of finals left, and it's not like we have a real final for band. So add that in and I've got about three weeks of even more nothing to do than usual."

Chloe got up, taking her plate with her. "Sorry, we don't all live the life of luxury afforded a public school teacher. I wish we could stay longer. This was a lot of fun, and it really..." she sighed. "Talking to you always helps me get my knotty feels straightened out."

Nat leaned back against the kitchen counter. "You sure you can't stay just a few more hours? I could help work out some more knots..." She added a wink, which elicited a giggle from Chloe.

"I'll even be nice and let John watch again," Nat added.

"How kind of you," Chloe answered as she ran some water over the plates. "But if we don't get back by my bedtime tomorrow's going to be even worse than a usual Monday."

"You know you're just going to fall asleep in the car, right?" John, leaning against the opposite counter to Nat, pointed out.

"I promise," Chloe pouted towards John. "I will drive part of the way."

"Uh huh," John replied.

For a few moments they just smiled, nobody saying anything until Nat piped up. "So you're gonna be alright, kiddo?"

"Yeah," Chloe said. She stepped over to John and put an arm around his midsection. "We're gonna be alright."

"Even if this Carrie thing doesn't work out?" Nat asked. Her smile had mostly faded and her eyes, locked onto Chloe's face, were warm.

"It'll work out," Chloe said. She shrugged.

"If you say so," Nat replied, keeping her eyes on Chloe, who was pointedly not meeting her gaze. "I just worry about you. If I had a nickel for every straight girl I fell for..."

"I thought you said nobody was 100% straight," Chloe responded, forcing a little smile.

"I stand by that characterization," Nat pointed out. "I just hate to see it every time an up and coming lesbian gets her heart broken."

Chloe giggled and shook her head. "I'm not a lesbian, Nat."

Nat pretended to wince. "Oh how it pains me to hear that," she said. She sighed, looked back and forth between John and Chloe, and then added. "But you two do seem to have a good thing going. I hope you're right about this whole free love, polyamory, let's not label anything thing. Whatever it is. I really do."

"Thanks, Nat," Chloe responded. She pulled away from John and embraced Nat. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too, sweetheart."

***

"Corn!"

The sudden outburst from Chloe, which had caused John to pull his attention to her from the road, had been all the more surprising given that she appeared to be sleeping soundly. "What's that?" he asked.

She offered no verbal response, only a pursing of her lips, followed by a wiggle of her body, adjusting her sleeping position as well as she could given the restrictions of the passenger seat and its seat belt.

He chuckled. "Alright, then, sweetheart," he said. He picked up the cup of coffee, now lukewarm, that he had been nursing since their last rest stop a few hours prior. "I spy something beautiful."

He turned his attention back to the road, which had gradually morphed into the familiar one of the city and took a sip of the coffee, reflexively making a face at the bitter taste that put him in mind of nothing more than a muddy boot. "Give up?" he asked nobody. "It's you, sweetheart. Haha, if only you were awake. You probably would have found that very funny and not at all old since it was only the third time I used that one since we left Norfield."

"Nnnn," Chloe's voice once again drew John's attention.

"Oh, hey, you are awake," he said. "You missed a good game of I, Spy. I won handily."

"Pfff," she feigned annoyance as she blinked herself back to consciousness. "Was it the thing about me being beautiful?"

"Hey, were you just pretending to sleep so you didn't have to drive?" he asked. He pulled the car to a stop at a familiar red light.

She pretended to pout. "No," she answered, "I was getting my beauty sleep. And apparently it paid off."

"That it did," he replied. He turned the corner onto the street with his house, finding it, unsurprisingly, empty as the sun faded below the horizon. "But I would have been happy with some company."

"You mean some road head?" she asked.

He nearly destroyed his mailbox for the second time in under a month as he swerved into the driveway in front of his house, then turned to find her wearing a big grin.

"I wouldn't have objected..." he chuckled.

She leaned over and planted a soft kiss on his cheek as he shut off the ignition. "Sorry," she said, "but I'll make it up to you."

She sat back in her seat and then released the seat belt.

"Oh really?" he asked, following suit.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll make up for making you drive the whole way by making dinner." She smiled and hopped out of the car.

"So, spaghetti then?" he called after her uselessly as she unlocked the house's front door. "Spaghetti it is," he said out loud to the now otherwise empty car, then began the process of moving bags into the house.

When he had dragged Chloe's wheeled suitcase, his own backpack on his back, into the house, he found the air slightly more humid than usual, the sound of boiling water coming from the kitchen. "You want to unpack anything, or should I just leave this here?" he called out.

"Just leave it, baby," she called back. A second later her head popped into view in the kitchen doorway. "We're not going to need clothes tonight, anyway." She winked and popped back out of view.

I'm going to marry this girl if she'll have me. He hung his jacket up near the front door, flopped down into the chair, threw his head back and closed his eyes. The thoughts of the plausibility of a polyamorous marriage in his head had just reached the point of that incoherence one got in the moments before falling into a deep sleep when he was suddenly awoken by the sound of a doorbell.

"Can you get that?" Chloe called out from the kitchen. "Sauce emergency in here."

John chuckled and with more effort than he would have liked, rose to his feet. Various joints made themselves known with popping sounds as he made his way to the door. As soon as he had placed a hand on the doorknob, the doorbell rang again, causing him to wince for a moment before he opened the door.

On the doorstep, bundled in a coat that was fit for the season and sporting a pair of big, dark sunglasses that definitely were not, stood Riley.

"We need to talk."