Mae spent most of the rest of the car ride back home talking about all the sex stuff she wanted to 'overhear' while making her Let's Plays.
"I'm still really surprised everyone's just cool with this," Trent said as he pulled into the driveway and they got out.
"I mean, I might freak out a little about it at some point," Bea admitted, "but to be honest, I trust all the people involved. And again, no one can prove anything, if it really comes down to it. We can just play it off as a joke if we really have to. Honestly, having listened to it, like, it's hot, but it's also a little ridiculous. We sound ridiculous if you aren't horny."
Mae giggled as they walked in through the front door. "Yeah."
"Hey best friends, how'd it go?" Ann asked as they came into the living room. She was laid out in the recliner, laptop in her lap, wrapped in a blanket.
"You know, about as well as can be expected. I got some meds I'm gonna start today," Mae said. "Um...it just occurred to me, like, how am I going to remember to take them?"
"You remember to take your birth control...right?" Trent asked.
"Yeah, I haven't missed it yet, but that's just one pill."
"I was looking up ideas online for just this situation," Trent said. "If you're worried about it, we'll help remind you, but there are things you can do. Training yourself, mostly through repetition. Putting the pills somewhere really specific after you've taken them. We'll have to work out something specific to you, but don't worry, we'll all be here to help...actually, we should just get one of those trays. The ones that are divided up by days? I think that might eliminate it."
Mae looked at him for a long moment, uncertain emotions playing across her face. Suddenly, she hugged him tightly, hard enough that he fell back onto the couch. "You take such good care of me. Like, why? Why?!"
"I love you," he replied.
"I love you, too," she murmured into his chest.
"This is really cute," Bea said.
"We take care of each other," he said, rubbing her back.
"Yeah, but...I feel bad because it's like, you all have to take care of me a lot more than I do you. I told you I'm always gonna be someone's problem, and I still think it's true. I don't know, maybe things will be like miracle better with the drugs and therapy, but I doubt it. And, I get it, you love me, and that's amazing. I just...wonder about how things will be a year from now. Or a decade. How about when we're forty?"
"Mae…" Trent hesitated. "I was reading something once, no idea who said it but whatever, the message matters. Someone asked their college professor of anthropology what she considered to be the first sign of civilization, of society. She thought it'd be an invention or something. Agriculture maybe. Written language. But that wasn't it at all. She said, the first sign of a society was discovering someone with a broken bone that had been reset, who had lived to old age. Because usually, when an animal gets a broken bone out in the wild, it dies. But there are examples of cavemen, cavemen, who sacrificed valuable resources and time to care for the wounded. Math, science, art, language, music, it's all fantastic, but at the end of the day we're all here for each other. I love you. All three of you. And, honestly, from where I sit right now, I want these relationships to be my legacy, what I do with my life."
"Wow...like...I don't even know what to say to that," Mae murmured.
"That's really sweet, and beautiful, and thoughtful, Trent," Ann said.
"Yeah. Also, like, really arousing," Bea murmured.
Trent laughed. "Really?"
"Uh, hearing about how much my boyfriend loves me and wants to take care of me and dedicate himself to my happiness and safety and well-being? Fuck yes."
"Speaking of all this, like...I was thinking about something," Mae said. "Something we've only really kinda joked about before, but going to the doctor's made me think of it a bit more seriously. Uh...marriage," Mae said, growing more serious.
"Oh. Wow. Big topic," Ann murmured.
"Yeah...sorry. Figured we might as well just talk about it. Before all this went down, I was pretty much like 'fuck getting married, I don't need rings and a piece of paper and some fucking religious douchebag to tell me who I love'. I'm still like that, to be clear, but actually encountering a situation in which I wanted Trent or Bea in the room with me, and I couldn't really, because we weren't married, has made me think about it. I mean, I think, if I'd seriously pushed, I could've got them to let one of you in, but I didn't want to argue. But what if I get in an accident or something? None of the three of you could come see me, or make medical decisions for me?"
"Yeah, and there's a lot of tax stuff, too. Marriage is financially the better decision," Ann said.
"She's right," Bea agreed.
"I just thought we should talk about it. Given you're the only one of us who's actually been married, what do you think?" Mae asked.
"Well, my thoughts on it are largely 'been there, done that, I'm cool not doing the whole marriage thing again'. But I do love you guys, so it's not like I'd be opposed to it. And it does make sense...Bea?" she asked.
"You know how I feel about it. I've got that stupid pretty princess fantasy wedding thing. I want the ceremony and all the people there and the white dress and the big cake...ugh, I'm such a fucking loser," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
"It's not a bad thing to want," Mae said. "And I'd totally be your kickass maid of honor. And Ann and Jackie could be your bridesmaids!"
Bea laughed. "You're like, really into this for someone who's all 'fuck marriage'."
"I like the idea of you getting married!"
"So the question obviously becomes, if we all agreed this was a smart thing to do, who would marry who? Because we can't all marry each other," Bea asked.
"I thought that'd be obvious," Ann said. "Bea, you can really only marry one of us: Trent. So you'd marry Trent, and Mae would marry me."
Mae's eyes went wide. "Oh my God, you'd be my wife, Ann!?"
"I mean if we decided this was a road we wanted to go down, yeah, I could see that."
"Oh wow...that'd be so cool!" She grinned broadly, then looked over at Trent and lost the grin a little. "Oh, I just realized, uh, we haven't asked what you want…"
"I'd marry any of you," he replied. "But I agree with the point."
"Oh...man," Bea murmured. She sat down beside him and wrapped him in a hug. "I'm thinking of you in a suit, and me in the white dress, and just...mmm. We should do this. Mainly just to cover our bases, but also because I want to…" She looked around at the other two women, frowning suddenly. "This won't like...cause problems, will it? Marriage is a big commitment. And...I don't want it to come across like...I mean, you two were with him first," she said, hugging herself suddenly.
"Bea," Ann said, her tone gentle but firm, "...can I be real with you for a moment?"
"Yeah," Bea murmured anxiously.
"I think...I feel like there's always been this part of you that has never gotten completely comfortable with your relationship with us all. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. I think there's a part of you that has never fully become comfortable with this relationship. You still think you're taking Trent from us, even if you don't mean it that way. And I understand, because it took me awhile to get over it when I joined the relationship," Ann said.
"Really?" Mae asked. "I never realized…"
"I'm good at hiding my feelings," Ann said. "It's gonna take time to adjust, but you'll get there, Bea. I don't know if I'm off my mark, but maybe you feel it's a little different, because you're just dating Trent, while Trent, Mae, and I are all dating each other. But I think of us as a household. I don't care that you and I don't have sex, that the feelings we share aren't romantic. You're my friend, and my partner. You're a part of the household. We're a unit, all of us together. Trent told me, more than once, that he wants to create a home with an atmosphere of safety and trust, a place where we feel we can say anything to each other, where we can solve problems together…"
She frowned for a moment, setting her laptop aside and sitting up straighter. "I had to live with Dennis and he'd get pissed a lot. And I came to hate the feeling of having to walk on eggshells around him. I hated it. I hated feeling like...my home wasn't safe for me. It's such a bad feeling, being at work or somewhere else, and wanting to stay late because you don't want to go home. No one should have to face that. Home is where you can let your guard down, where you feel safe. I didn't have that with him. And I never want to live that again. And I feel like, with you three, I won't have to. Or, at least, not for very long. If we have a problem, we'll face it, and figure it out. Now matter how ugly it is, because it's going to get ugly sometimes, that's just life."
"You're right," Bea said. "This house is...a dream. I love it here. I wake up and...I don't have a gut-wrenching bout of misery, or a mini-anxiety attack. I just wake up, like a normal person. I wake up sleeping next to my boyfriend and my best friends and it's just...paradise." She pursed her lips. "I don't really believe in mysticism or anything, but I do know about vibes, and the kind of energy people bring to relationships, or conversations, or just about anything, I guess. And it takes work to create this atmosphere, and I really appreciate that you all do that…" She hesitated as a thought seemed to occur to her and she looked suddenly at Trent.
"What?" he asked.
"So...I want you to propose to me. Eventually. I guess I'm realizing that now: I wanna marry you. I want a wedding. But it can wait. I don't want some kind of exact timeline, but I really specifically do want this: don't propose to me while we're still living in Possum Springs. I want to wait until we move to Bright Harbor...is that too much to ask?"
"Not at all," he replied. "I can wait."
"Man...I don't know if my mom's gonna be ready for me to marry a girl," Ann murmured.
"We're gonna have a tough time explaining all this...everyone knows I'm dating Trent. But then I'm marrying you? And we're all living together?" Mae laughed wildly. "Their heads will all explode. They won't understand."
"Yeah...it's gonna be a mess," Bea muttered. "I imagine we might lose some acquaintances."
"If they can't handle it, then oh well," Mae replied. She sighed and looked down at the paper bag she was holding. "Guess I should take my pills…"
"Here, let me see them," Ann said as she opened back up her laptop. "I want to double-check that there's no potential negative interactions, and also see about interactions with weed and birth control and those headache meds you're on. You did tell them about all that, right?"
"I did," Mae replied. "I told them everything."
"Okay. Good. Don't worry, I'm sure they did their due diligence, but I will double check." Ann began typing.
"Can we all like chill out now? I'm done, mentally," Mae said. "I got nothing left in the tank...actually can we talk about getting married? Bea, you'd look amazing in a wedding dress-what are you smirking at?" she asked, looking at Trent.
"Ignore me," he replied.
"No, I wanna know," she said.
"I kinda do too," Bea said.
"It's just...you've kind of oscillated between 'OMG marry me' and 'weddings are fucking dumb', but also you're so...weird, Mae. Like you're really weird. And I love it. But I've also gotten kind of used to your weirdness. So to see you gushing over something as normal as a wedding is just kind of funny."
"Are you giving me shit for it?" Mae asked.
"If he was, that's fair game," Ann murmured. "You have cited the right to give each other shit more times that I can count."
"Ugh, fine!"
"I'm not giving you shit," Trent said. "Like I said: ignore me, go ahead."
"I think you'd look pretty good in a wedding dress, Mae," Bea said.
"I wanna wear my Witchdagger thing to my wedding," Mae replied.
"Mae...I would appreciate it, if we are going to have an actual ceremony, if you took it seriously enough to wear something close to a wedding dress. Your parents probably would, too. Although I am open to negotiation. Also, I am totally okay with no ceremony at all," Ann said.
"Wow...it's so surreal to hear you talking about marrying me. Like...man. I'm excited." She opened her mouth, then suddenly closed it, her eyes going wide as she looked at Trent. "Oh wow!" she said, and shot to her feet, then ran out of the room, up the stairs.
"Now what?" Bea asked.
"With Mae, it could be literally fucking anything," Trent replied.
Mae came running back downstairs a moment later holding something. She plopped back down on the sofa beside him and dropped it in his lap.
"Your...journal?" he asked.
"Yeah. My one before the one I'm writing in now. It's sort of like...a time capsule of everything that happened just before you showed up. I started writing in it like literally the night I got back into town," she replied. "We were talking earlier, about the journals, and why I have them. I said you could read it if you want, and you said you wanted to at some point, and...I don't know. I just thought, you know, it's-this is like really personal to me. And I want you to read it. I know it'll probably seem stupid, it's just a bunch of drawings, but it's kind of getting into my head, and I like it when you're in my head," she explained.
"I'll read it, Mae," he replied and kissed her.
She laughed and kissed him back roughly. He cried out as he fell onto Bea's lap, Mae climbing on top of him, still kissing him.
"Wow, you two," Bea murmured.
"Mae," Ann said.
"What?" she replied, looking up.
"There's no bad interactions with anything you're taking. I double-checked. You're safe. You should go take them now."
"Yeah, that makes sense." She got up off of him and began heading back upstairs at a much slower pace this time.
"And I will put in the order for the pill-sorter. I wish we would've thought of it sooner," Trent said, grabbing his laptop. As he began hunting down what they needed, his phone buzzed. He found what he was looking for, put in the order, then checked it. "Whoa...nice."
"What is it?" Ann asked.
"Jen."
She had sent a picture of her pussy from the top down, her legs spread open a bit, obviously in a bathtub.
She also sent a message: idc if you show your girlfriends just don't show anyone else or you'll eat pavement, capciche?
"Nice pussy," Ann murmured.
"Yep," he agreed as he typed a response: Understood, and fucking hot. And appreciated.
She fired off a quick response as well: Dunno why I'm doing this, but I figured why not? This doesn't mean we're dating. I date no one.
Yeah I know, he replied.
"Fuckboy…" Bea whispered with an amused smirk.
"Oh you little fucking-" He grabbed her suddenly by the hips and pulled her roughly into his lap. "I'll fucking show you a fuckboy."
"Trent!" she gasped as he pushed her up into a standing position and yanked her pants down.
"You want me to stop?" he asked.
"...no," she murmured.
"Wow, this is hot," Ann said.
"You brought this on yourself," Trent said, undoing his pants and pulling his cock out. He was mostly erect already and as he pulled Bea back into his lap, maneuvering inside of her, he found her to be extremely wet.
She moaned loudly and gripped his knees. Trent spread out his legs a bit more to get more leverage, then grabbed her hips and started bouncing her on his erection.
"Oh fuck!" she cried.
"Holy shit, are you guys having sex down there?!" Mae called.
"Yep!" Trent called back.
Bea tried to say something but cried out and began panting.
"Really hot," Ann murmured.
"I will fucking teach you to call me a fuckboy," Trent growled, thrusting up into her and making her shout.
Mae came bounding down the stairs and skidded to a halt in the living room. "Whoa...holy crap. So hot! Get her tits out!"
"You heard her," Trent said, pulling on her shirt.
"Fuck...so hard...to concentrate," Bea moaned loudly as she kept riding him.
They managed to get her shirt up and then her bra and her firm breasts fell out. He couldn't see them but he could imagine them bouncing in rhythm with her.
"I'm gonna fill you up, Bea," he said.
"You fucking pervert…" she moaned.
"You brought this on yourself."
"I...didn't…" she groaned, panting.
"You know what you did."
"You know what you did! Oh! OH TRENT!"
He pulled her down hard into his lap as he started cumming and she moaned as he unloaded inside of her, fill her up. "Shit! Oh you goddamned fuckboy!" she yelled.
"Take it, you fucking whore!" he snapped, wrapping his arms around her and holding her against him as he came deep inside of her.
After a long moment he was finished and he let her go.
"Mae...papertowels...tissue...something," Bea groaned. "He came so much! You fucking pervert! You bad fucking boy!"
"You asked for it," Trent replied.
"Man, that was some of the hottest sex I've ever seen you two have," Ann murmured as she passed Bea a wad of tissues.
"Thanks," she murmured, getting up.
"My turn!" Mae said, dropping her pants and climbing onto Trent.