Just Say Us
Six Ways to Sunday
So on Valentine's, he visits Grace with his girls and guys in tow and just holds her in his arms as he kisses her by the door. And when he smiles into the kiss because Grace has a giggle bubbling down her throat, it's not a smirk like Ricky's and it's not goofy like Ben's, but it's knowing and promising more to come.
He backs away and Grace sighs against his lips, smiles when she looks at her boyfriends and girlfriends. "I, um, hi!" She greets enthusiastically. This is all so new, so incredible, and she's not really sure of the protocol for dating several people at once. Should she kiss them all as they come in, or wait until after dinner-
But Ricky answers her question because he kisses her after Jack steps in, sure and firm, and then Adrian laughs at the pink on the blonde's cheeks before kissing one of them, and Ben leans in halfway while Grace takes control, more sure of her intentions this time, and Amy kisses her other cheek as the door closes.
"So," Adrian drawls, dipping her French fry into ketchup, and of course, making the act appear as sensual and provocative as possible as she bites the tip off the end. "How does this work out for you? I mean, doesn't God have some sort of rules against multiple people humping each other like bunnies and calling it a relationship?"
She's looking at Jack and Grace, but everyone else in on the conversation just opens their mouths in disbelief –Amy and Ben- or facepalms –Ricky. Jack, known for not keeping his cool at times, somehow does.
"Have you ever heard the story of Job?" Jack asks coolly.
"What?"
"He was loyal to God, even when he was subjected to disease and his family dying because of the Devil testing his loyalty. In the end, God rewarded him with children and ten more wives. So, I guess what I'm saying is that polygamy wasn't a bad practice in Christianity, and I think that no matter what, God will still love me, and all of us," Jack explains.
Adrian rolls her eyes with a chuckle. "So, in other words, you're bullshitting and justifying all of this because of some martyr from a book written by a guy from some time that was never really documented?"
Grace appears like she was just slapped.
"No, I'm saying that God would send a sign. A sign that would show what He thinks about all of this." Jack says confidently, and Adrian just shakes her head with a condescending laugh.
"Adrian, you can't keep doing that, if this has any chance of working," Grace says with a straight face.
The Latina scoffs, "Doing what?"
"Challenging our beliefs!" Grace exclaims. "It's not right; Jack and I can believe in what we want to believe in, and someone who supposedly cares about us, shouldn't be making fun of that."
Adrian sobers up, all amusement gone from her face. "I do care, okay? Would I even be here right now if I didn't?"
"Then prove it," Grace challenges. "Come to church with us."
Adrian visibly cringes, and Ricky snickers at her obvious discomfort. "Yeah, Adrian, in church? I don't think that's happening again."
Adrian looks over at him, straight-faced with a glare, "It could happen again. Maybe."
"For Jack and I?" Grace grins hopefully and reaches Adrian's hand with her own from across the table.
Adrian sighs as if the largest weight in the world was just dropped on her lap when Grace looks at her with those overly happy blue eyes. She wants to say no, or anything really, to shut her down, but she can't because she guesses she really wants to try this whole being a good girlfriend thing and she finds no real reason to be a bitch about it. She rolls her eyes, sighs, and then nods begrudgingly, "Maybe. One day."
Grace squeals in delight, and Jack can't help but admire the power she has over the Latina.
Grace gets that anxious sort of fluttering down in the pit of her belly. She wouldn't call herself nervous, but she is expected to entertain her five significant others, and the task, while she's up to it, is proving to be very daunting.
She takes the ham she prepared out the oven, which she happens to be very proud of, and starts slicing it. She almost feels really bad for practically shooing her mom and Tom out of the house, but she wanted this to be special and going out to eat is a moot point. It's not that they haven't all been out to eat, but in the privacy of a home, there's more freedom to speak and act freely, rather than in a restaurant with curious eyes and even more curious ears.
"Need some help?"
Amy leans on the island, smile on her face. Grace blushes and looks back at the ham, determined while drizzling on more glaze. "No, I'm fine, dinner's about to be served."
Ricky strolls in, wraps his arm around Amy's waist. "What's the hold-up?"
"Ricky!" Amy hisses.
Grace huffs, but doesn't answer. Instead she takes the banana pudding out of the fridge to let it sit and the tossed salad to go on the table. She flusters, looking about the kitchen, until she remembers that the fully loaded mash potatoes she made were warming on the stove to be served. She opens the pots and stirs, perfect, not too watery but not overly thick either.
Ben comes in. "Something smells great."
Grace grins momentarily. "Thanks, dinner's about to be served." She grabs the ham platter, Amy helps by holding the salad, and the two girls rush into the dining room. Ricky shakes his head and looks at Ben, "They could've asked for help."
Ben shrugs, getting the pot of mashed potatoes. "I think she's nervous."
Ricky snorts, grabbing onto the banana pudding Grace has laid out on the counter. "Don't see why, considering everything."
The boys head for the dining room and Grace is serving drinks, busily trying to entertain, and she's talking at 100 miles per.
"Dinner looks great, Grace," Jack indulges.
"Thanks!" Grace beams, "I'm so glad that it got done in time, and luckily, mom didn't ask too many questions –I mean, it's a lot of food and she thinks it's just for us two, and I don't know how I'm going to tell her that everything got eaten. And Tom is already so suspicious and -"
Adrian leans over and covers her mouth, and Grace, in her shock, shuts up. Finally, she looks over, "I was talking too much again, wasn't I?"
"Just a little," The Latina smirks.
Grace takes a deep breath to calm herself and takes a forkful of mashed potatoes to fill her mouth so that she wouldn't have reason to talk.
Cherry red fingernails press against his varsity jacket as the hand attached holds him up against a long row of lockers. Adrian's sharp eyes peer up at him, and Jack sighs.
"I can't believe perfect Grace is going for this –what did you say to her?"
"I didn't have to say anything," Jack looks down at her hand, and finally takes it off of his chest. After a moment, he tilts his head. "I guess she…I don't know. I think she wants to have sex, but she's stopping herself."
"And it's a wonder why," Adrian muses with a smirk on her face. "We've all practically been with each other already, so why don't we stop screwing around, and just do it."
"Not all of us are fine with this polygamy thing Adrian."
"Oh, but you are, Jack." She leans up to his ear, taking care that her entire torso languidly presses up against his, "I can tell."
And as she walks away, he doesn't know if she meant that cruelly, as if to say that he couldn't be monogamous and this was probably the only way he could handle being in a relationship with Grace, or if she was just being herself, up to her own little tricks.
Probably a bit of both.
Why did he agree to this again?
Striding down the hallway with a quick gait, comes the reason why.
Ricky and his dumb ideas.
The drummer looks at him cagily. "What part of low profile did you and Adrian not get? Do you want people to find out about…" He waves a hand carelessly between them. "This?"
"She practically grinds me up against the locker, and I'm to blame?" Jack asks incredulously.
"Adrian can be reined in, you on the other hand," Ricky looks down suddenly, and raises an eyebrow, thrusting his binder in Jack's direction to cover up the noticeable bulge in front of Jack's jeans. "Get a grip, man."
And his face heats up because, yeah, even though Adrian's lithe body was pressed up against his not even five minutes ago, it's the back of Ricky's hand brushing against his crotch that gets him all hot and bothered.
He has to go home and seriously think about that because there's no way he's gay –he got in this for the whole dating three girls at one time and it being totally okay thing and the whole sharing three girls with two guys thing took a backseat to that. But it's only now that it occurs to him that he's not just sharing with Ricky and Ben.
He's dating them too.
And what's worse is that he's kinda turned on by that.
He takes a long, long cold shower after practice that night, not too sure what to think about that, and waiting for that sign.
Grace feels… bubbly? Giddily? Happy enough to drown in oblivion without a life preserver in sight as she was consumed in a sea of hands and flesh.
Jack had gotten his hands on a bottle of wine and she may have indulged herself in a glass or two at the insistence of the group. Everything appeared very fuzzy and initially very muddled –lips lazily caressed down her neck, a hand creeping up her inner thigh past the hemline of her skirt, another pressing possessively against the cup of her padded bra- it was hard to tell who was pleasuring whom and where one patch of skin ended, and another began. Grace's face broke into a goofy smile as fingers brushed against her belly in a way that tickled her.
Actually, if she thought about it, or had the capacity to do so at the moment, this entire situation was funny –a group of sexually active and horny teenagers in a dry humping orgy on her small couch in her very modest and Christian home?
She starts outright laughing.
She hears a couple of shushes that she doesn't concern herself with, or maybe they just seem equally as silly, but either way someone –Jack? Ricky? Covers her mouth to stifle the laughter with their own. A hand reaches out and holds her face closer and she feels that warm, tingly feeling overtake her again, tampering down her giggles.
"We should probably move this somewhere else," a deep voice states clearly and logically, and oh, it sounds like Ricky so Grace mentally crosses him off her mental list of people who could be kissing her.
"The guesthouse?" Another lighter, feminine voice asked sensibly. Amy. Another name off the list.
There's a lot of shifting as she feels bodies rising from the couch. She loses her breath when she feels a shy tongue draw out the hollow of her inner cheek; Adrian's automatically out as she tastes no flavored lipgloss, and the lips are far too thin. And now that she thinks about it, the kiss is tentative, tender.
She pulls back with a smile, and opens her eyes, knowing that soft brown eyes would be on the other side of her gaze.
"Is that okay with you, Grace?" Ben inquires, always so considerate and non-pressuring.
She smiles even wider. "Of course," and allows herself to be led to the guesthouse.
Verrrrrrry fillerish chapter.
Sigh.
Thank you to everyone who has followed, faved, and reviewed.
DAC
