"So, what'd you get?" Ann asked.
"Some clothes from my mom and dad, giftcards and cash from most everyone else, some Stephen King novels from Lori's mom, and some video games," Mae replied. "Red Faction...three?"
"Yeah, three. We'll get a PS2 so you can play Red Faction one because it's an absolute must," Trent said.
"Sweet. And also Elder Scrolls Four...I'm pretty sure on that one."
"Yeah, Oblivion. I'm so fucking jealous you get to experience that for the first time. That game blew my fucking mind a decade ago," Trent said.
"And also the Gears of War trilogy and Mass Effect trilogy, although I know there's more games now."
"Honestly, for those two, the trilogies are all that matter," Trent said.
"Okay, cool. Man, you guys went all out on this. And also, just, fucking thank you! Like, holy shit, that was the best birthday of my entire life. Not even for all the presents, I mean they're awesome, but people actually, like, listened to me? And didn't do shit I didn't want? No one sang? Everyone was chill? Fuck. Oh, and also, what the fuck is up with you two?" Mae asked, staring at Trent from where she sat with Bea in the backseat.
"What? Who?" Ann asked.
"Bea and Trent," Mae said. "Are you, like, mad at each other, and you're just pretending not to be because it's my birthday?"
Bea snorted. "No, we aren't mad at each other...okay, Trent might be a little mad."
"Beatrice Santello! Are you being mean to my boyfriend?!" Mae cried.
"He's my boyfriend, too," Bea replied.
"She's being...irritating," Trent replied, crossing his arms.
"Whoa...I don't think I've ever seen you irritated at one of us," Ann murmured. "Now I'm real curious about what's up."
"For the record, this is your fault, Margaret Borowski," Bea said.
"What is my fault!?" Mae demanded.
Bea laughed. "You're the one who's all 'oh we should be allowed to tease each other!'."
"Well...shouldn't we?!"
"I mean yeah, we should, it's just…"
"It's just evolved in Bea," Trent said. "Into something a lot more than teasing."
"You don't sound mad about it," Ann murmured.
"Good reason for that," Bea said, then laughed again.
"Okay, come on, spill. What is this all about?"
"I found out that Trent was annoyed by me calling him a certain word. I apologized when I realized it actually made him upset, but he admitted he'd overreacted and that it was fine, and that he even encouraged a little teasing among us. And, somehow...that word evolved into something more. Now, whenever I call him it, it gets him really riled up, in a very sexual way, and-"
"Oh! The fuckboy thing," Ann said. "I thought that seemed a little weird."
"Oh...right, we did do that in front of you," Bea said.
"Wait...when you two were fucking on the couch and he was bouncing you on his dick? Man, that shit was fucking hot," Mae said.
"Yes." Bea looked a little annoyed.
"Why does it bug you that we know the word?" Mae asked.
"It's...my word," Bea replied, a little awkwardly. She shifted in her seat. "I'm sorry, I just like things that are, you know...between just me and Trent. It's, like, our thing. I'm sorry if that's selfish-"
"No," Ann said, "it's not. We all have special things with each other. Mae and I will respect the word, right?"
"Yeah, totally," Mae replied. "Well...I'll try to. It's a fun word to say, now that I'm thinking about it."
"...yeah, you've got a point," Ann agreed.
"Yeah, well, that's all well and good, but Bea called me a fuckboy right about the beginning of the party, knowing full well I wouldn't be able to do anything about it, because like everyone is here," Trent said.
"Bea! You were supposed to calm him down!" Mae cried.
"Yeah, Bea, that seems a little cruel. To be honest, if Mae or Trent did something like that to me, I'd be a lot more than irritated," Ann said.
"Noted," Trent said.
"I...it made sense at the time. I was just teasing," Bea said. She looked a little worried. "You aren't seriously mad at me, are you?"
"No, I'm not mad," Trent replied, now adopting his own smirk. "I told you: I'll remember this."
"Oh?" Bea asked, immediately thrown back into her slightly antagonistic persona. "Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"
"You'll see."
"...okay, your guys' relationship has definitely evolved a lot," Ann said after a silent moment passed.
"Yeah it has," Mae murmured. "This is hot. I fucking love this sexual tension. I also…" She hesitated, looked at Bea a little weirdly. "Is it weird if I say that I like watching Trent do, like, dom-sub stuff with you?"
Bea coughed. "Uh…"
"Ha ha, are you blushing?" Trent asked.
"Shut the fuck up!" she snapped.
"You are! Holy shit!"
"I will end you," she growled.
"I thought turnabout was fair play...right, Bea?" he asked.
She sighed heavily and crossed her arms.
"Sorry," Mae said. "I just-"
"It's fine," Bea mumbled. "I just get weird actually talking about it. I don't...I feel weird. I don't want to admit that I...like it."
"I understand, Bea," Ann said.
"You do?...I just realized, I've never heard of any of your kinks," Bea replied.
"Yeah, me either," Mae said.
"Well, I'm pretty vanilla, but there's one thing I haven't brought up yet. I'm still, um...wrestling with it, I guess? Which, I know, is hypocritical of me, given my philosophical views on living life on your own terms."
"You can figure it out on your own timeline, but I will...probably be down to give it a shot," Trent said. "Probably. It really depends on what it is."
She laughed. "The ironic thing is, it's not even that weird. It isn't gross or anything. Once you hear it, you'll be like 'for real? This is what she took so long wrestling with?'. I mean, okay, I know you won't be saying it to me, but it would be a fair reaction. Mmm...I'll tell you soon. I have to admit, seeing you and Bea doing some of this stuff together, it's made me think about it again."
"You guys don't think I'm, like...lame, because I like being…" She heaved a sigh. "Submissive? Do you?"
"No!" Mae cried. "Of course not, Bea. You're fucking hardcore and badass. That's never gonna change. You get shit done, you do what needs doing, and during your downtime, you hand yourself over to your boyfriend and act like a fucking brat."
"That's it!" Ann said. "Knew there was a word for it, I was just forgetting it. You're a brat who wants to be punished."
"Is that the actual phrase for it? It sounds kinda...I dunno, weird. And not entirely in a good way. I think I just prefer submissive."
"Except you aren't submissive," Trent said. "You are specifically a rude little bitch to me."
Mae's mouth dropped open into a huge smile as her eyes widened. "Oh my God. I can't believe you just said that to her."
Bea mumbled something.
"What was that?" Trent asked.
"Shut up," Bea replied.
"Keep it up. See what happens."
"Prove it," she said.
"I will."
"Yeah, Mae's right, this is really hot. You two have such good sexual chemistry," Ann said.
"I know, right?!" Bea snapped. "I didn't know it could be like this. Spent years, actual years, thinking sex was just this thing people blew out of proportion."
"Same," Mae said. "Okay, so, sorry to just whip the conversation around, but what's actually going on with this party? I don't know anything about it beyond it's a Jackie Party."
"It's at a town called North Fields. It's at someone's house. A fan of Jackie's, I think," Bea said. "Their parents are in, like, Peru or something for a week, and they're taking a semester off at college because they can afford it. But, unlike some people we've encountered, this person isn't a rich bitch jerk. We've talked over chattrbox and she's actually really cool. Her name is Melody."
"And Jackie thinks Bombshell will be there?" Mae asked.
"She thinks it's possible, or that someone who recognizes Bombshell will be there. Melody might. She's a social butterfly," Bea replied.
"Sweet. How much longer?"
"Another half an hour or so," Ann said.
"I hate waiting," Mae complained.
"We'll get there," Bea said.
"Whoa...fancy," Mae murmured as they walked slowly up a path lit with blue lights along the sides towards a large house.
Trent was tempted to call it a mansion.
"Very fancy," he said, and slapped Bea's ass hard enough to make her stumble.
"Whoa!" Mae cried, spinning around. "I heard that!"
"I felt that," Ann murmured from behind them.
Bea whirled around to stare at him in open shock, blushing fiercely.
"I told you I'd remember that," he said.
"You...fuckboy," she whispered, staring at him with intense surprise, strong frustration, and deep horniness. He'd gotten so good at reading her he could see all that.
"I'll remember that," he said.
"I fucking LOVE this dynamic between you two," Mae said.
"Let's keep going, we have a party to get to," Bea replied, turning back and walking forward.
"Yes we do," Trent murmured, thinking of what he had planned for her.
It was a really fancy place. Three stories, fancy windows, actual pillars on the front porch, a long-ass driveway leading up to a six-car garage (that they hadn't parked in, opting for the street instead, he didn't want to be boxed in), several balconies, and Bea had mentioned a pool in the back. There were already several dozen people about, mostly his age from the looks of it.
The four of them walked in through the front door and almost immediately Jackie and a smiling, rather attractive ferret with blonde fur and blue highlights in her hair approached. She was wearing some designer clothes that sat well on her body, which was fit and hot. He made himself focus. He had enough girlfriends right now.
"You're here," Jackie said.
"Welcome to my party...to our party, it is a Jackie Party, after all. I'm Melody. This is my home," she said.
"I'm Mae. This is my boyfriend Trent. This is his girlfriend Bea, and this is my and Trent's girlfriend Ann," Mae said.
"Oh my fucking God, Bea, you were spot on with that Force Awakens meme," Ann murmured, and Bea laughed.
"My," Melody replied. "It's...a pleasure to meet you all. I've never actually met a polycule before. This is fascinating."
"We are pretty weird," Mae agreed. "So, uh, any news on Bombshell?"
"Nothing yet. Sorry," Jackie replied.
"It's fine, I'm really glad you're helping, and, uh, thanks. For the help, and for coming to my party," Mae said.
Jackie laughed a little awkwardly. "Yeah. There was something I never thought I'd be doing. But, it was nice."
"It was."
An awkward moment passed.
"So, uh, who is Bombshell, exactly? Jackie told me some of it…" Melody asked.
"Right. She's a girl I met at a party last year and we, like, super hit it off. But then I kind of, uh, well, I never got her contact information because I had to leave all of a sudden. And now I'm looking to reconnect?" Mae explained.
"Oh. All right, cool...oh wow, she's pretty. She's beautiful," Melody murmured when Mae showed her the drawing.
"Yeah, and that's not an exaggeration or anything, I drew her as best I could, it's realistic." She paused and studied the drawing. "I mean, I think so. I guess it's been long enough, and I don't trust my memory on the best of days, so…"
"Now that I've seen the drawing, she does look familiar, but nothing immediately springs to mind. Come on, let's go ask around and I can introduce you to some more people. They want to meet you. Both of you, actually," she said, looking at Trent.
"Why me?" he asked.
"I may have mentioned the Demontower thing to a few people," Jackie said.
"I've never had a successful author at one of my parties before." She seemed to consider that. "Well, that I know of. You both sound so interesting. I mean, you all do."
"Go on," Bea said, "Ann and I will hang out with Jackie."
"Have fun," Ann said with a small smile.
Trent shot a glance at Bea, who shifted and blushed intensely. "I intend to," he replied. "Let's be shown around," he said, returning his attention to Mae and Melody.
"Come on, I'll give you the tour," Melody said.
They followed in her wake, Mae taking Trent's hand.
The mansion was quite impressive, and he felt very odd being there. On the one hand, it was bizarre to see what real wealth looked like from the perspective of someone who grew up poor in the Midwest and now lived in the Rust Belt. Well...sort of poor. More like, his parents had money, they just pissed it away on drugs and booze and expensive crap.
The mansion just seemed to keep going and going, so many rooms, so full of stuff. And expensive stuff.
The living room by itself featured what had to be a hundred inch 4K screen mounted on one wall above a fancy fireplace.
On the other hand, he felt some of what Bea explained feeling when she walked into the Pickaxe, knowing she no longer needed to be there.
A kind of freedom.
Although Trent had always considered himself a bit of a pragmatist, growing up in a materialistic, capitalist society with a fetish for consumerism and garish displays of wealth did damage. And before coming to Possum Springs, probably before the past month or two even, he'd feel dwarfed by this place, and likely envious and jealous, and worthless by comparison. Because wasn't that the silent message being put on display by people who owned mansions? That if you didn't have a mansion, if you didn't have this type of wealth, you were worthless.
But he didn't care. Or, at least, he cared much, much less than he used to.
Maybe it was because with the Demontower deal, and the thousands of dollars sitting in an account that, before six months ago, was in the red more often than it was in the black, made wealth feel closer. Or maybe it was because he'd been shot and had faced down an actual cult intent on actually murdering him, and that put things into perspective?
Or maybe, he thought as he gave Mae's hand a gentle, affectionate squeeze, as cliched and trite as it sounded, he had found genuine 'wealth' in his relationships with her, Bea, and Ann.
Dating someone who wasn't driven by materialism or by how much money you had in your bank account or wallet was…
Very freeing.
Let alone dating three people like that.
Trent spent the next hour moving through the mansion, talking with people, meeting a strange collection of individuals, several of which seemed interested in his work, or in Mae. Apparently word of her and their strange group had been sweeping the party circuit, which he was curious about. He wasn't sure how he felt about them being put under a microscope, especially when, despite all the strides they'd made in being more open about their relationship status, they still had something to lose, potentially, back in Possum Springs.
They didn't have much in the way of success on their Bombshell investigation. Several people recognized her, and he thought they'd had a breakthrough when someone remembered her name, but several other people vaguely remembered her name, and it was always something different. Not like Sally or Shelly, but like Mandy or Evangeline. Totally different. So she was almost certainly giving different names, which only confused the situation more.
And, all through the tour, he kept getting texts from Bea.
Fuckboy.
Pervert.
What are you really gonna do about it?
"You are really popular, huh?" Melody asked after the fifth text.
He laughed, trying not to grit his teeth too much. Bea was really pushing his buttons and he wasn't even sure why. Maybe because he'd escalated so publicly. She probably hadn't been expecting that. Well.
"It's actually my girlfriend," he replied. "She is...testing my patience."
"Has to be Bea," Mae said with a laugh. "Can't imagine Ann testing your patience."
"I can," he said. "But yeah. It's Bea."
Mae laughed again, harder. "Oh man. Lemme see." He passed her the phone. She snorted. "Wow, dude. She is gagging for it. Like damn."
"What is she gagging for, exactly?" Melody asked. They both looked at her. She looked...very interested. "Sorry if it's inappropriate to ask, but you're talking about it so openly…"
"No, I mean, that's fair," Trent replied. "She wants me to hold her down and fuck her hard."
"Oh. My."
Mae laughed again. "Yep. Bea and Trent have an, uh, interesting relationship."
"We do," he agreed. He looked at Melody for a long moment, then decided to go out on a limb. He was going to go out on one anyway, but at least this way, he'd have permission. "How weird would it be if I asked if there was a place I could fuck my girlfriend in this house?"