The Misbegotten

Tirza’s gaze was on me now. “So, it was her you were thinking about that day and not Katy Emerson from school, huh?” She paused, gesturing toward Katie. “Jesus, Estefan, your cousin? Are you crazy or something?”

I sighed, knowing the truth was too obvious to ignore. “I’m not crazy, Tirza. I’m just in love with her. I have been for as long as I can remember, and the funny thing, Teezee, she’s in love with me too.”

If Ramona could grow as a person, then motherfuckers, so could I!

Tirza’s eyes slitted. “Is that true?” she demanded of my cousin.

Katie just shrugged, nonchalant, staring back at my ex- with a twisted grin on her face.

Tirza turned to me. “She does! Sonofabitch, she does!” Disgusted exasperation was dripping from her tone. “And you’re ok with it?” came the abrupt question directed at Ramona. Tirza’s look altered again, incensed, astonished, mistrusting – mashed together.

My girlfriend shrugged. “Just as I’m ok with him calming you down, with you and him holding onto one another as you cried. Yup. I remained calm. What can I do? What can you do?”

Tirza’s eyebrows rose.

“You know damn well, at some point, you’re going to stop denying what you feel for him. You gonna want him in your bed. But,” Ramona began, raising her hand when Tirza started to interrupt, “before you say anything, I will give you this. Yeah, I may not be one hundred percent ok with this, but I’m accepting of it. I accept the inevitability of what is to come, so should you.”

“I will never ‘want him back in my bed!’” declared Tirza, which made me flush with embarrassment. She even used her fingers to physically quote Ramona.

Both Katie and Ramona laughed at that.

“If he wants you, Tirza, you will go to him with open arms. And… with open legs,” countered my cousin.

“I will not! I’m not that kind of girl” Tirza crossed her arms under her pert breasts.

“You might think that now, but later, whether it is a few days or even a few months, you will think different. Trust me, you will,” rebutted my cousin.

My girlfriend preferred to stay quiet for the time being.

“I doubt it…,” my ex-girlfriend trailed off into silence when her eyes met mine. “I don’t mean to sound… Well, mean, because you’ve been so nice to me when you didn’t have to be. It’s just… well, that’s how I feel,” she said to me. She was already blushing. Likely at the recollection that scant minutes prior, she’d been holding onto me for dear life.

I hunched, non-committed, due to the fact I wanted nothing more than out of this conversation. “That sort of stuff is always up to you, Tirza. I’m just your friend. Thus, I have no claim on you, other than civility and kindness. A while ago, you seemed to need just that, I was here – or rather, you came here, and that was that.” I chanced a quick glance at my cousin. “I think the gist of what they are trying to say to you is just be cool and don’t judge. A lot has happened between the three of us and we know others might not understand or agree. If you want to hang around, then you’re gonna have to accept it for what it is. Right?” I asked the room.

“Right,” echoed Katie.

Ramona just nodded.

Tirza looked away, whatever sense of perversion she felt over me and the girls seemed to dissipate. Or rather, she swallowed it. Like bad tasting medicine, she took hers, whether she agreed or not. “It doesn’t matter all that much in light of the way things are going now… after…”

Before another awkward moment could descend upon our beleaguered group, Katie spoke. “So, guys – ah, what’s the plan?”

“The plan?” I queried.

“Yeah, cuz, the plan,” she repeated, as emphatic as she’d been over our relationship. “I mean what are we going to do about Tirza. We have short term shit to figure out, long term and all the other “terms” between the two.”

I still couldn’t comprehend the point she was trying to make. I shook my head and shoulders, one eyebrow raised above the other. I was clueless.

Katie huffed in exasperation. “Jezuz, Eff, if you weren’t such a fucking saint, you would understand that for all intents and purposes, Tirza is a fugitive. The NIA wants her bad, Estefan, that’s like half of the world! And when they find her they’re gonna shoot her on sight. Don’t you get it? What the fuck are we going to do about it?”

It hit me like a floppy cock upside my cheek…

(NOTE: For the record, I am speaking in a metaphoric sense right now. I’ve never felt a man’s dick along the side of my face. Thank you.)

…I stood there, as a flood of thought washed over me. I tried to solve each aspect of what Katie had purposed at once. The only thing I succeeded in doing was develop of an unwelcomed pain behind my eyes. There was so much to figure out. Too much was happening at once.

“Well, we are definitely not going to let that happen,” announced Ramona resolutely. “We might not see eye to eye on Estefan, but, Tirza, I’m not going to let some government assholes fuck with you.”

Tirza - and I think this was the first time it had ever happened – smiled a warm smile at my girlfriend. It was the sort that touched her eyes and made them squint. Her full cheeks just about shut them.

“She’ll have to stay here,” proclaimed Katie, glancing about the Loft as she did so.

All three of us peered back at her, flummoxed and uncomfortable.

“She will?” I quacked like an idiot, my voice was excruciating, high-pitched and cracking even.

“Where the hell else is she going to stay? Her house has been bum-rushed by a bunch of chink-goons with the complete authority of the NIA behind them. Her parents -,” she paused and reached out and squeezed the smaller girls shoulder, “– were murdered.” She said this in a much lower tone. “Her sister had been missing for days. Where else is she going to go?

“Besides…,” she added with a wicked gleam in her eyes, and then let her voice drop to nothing.

“Besides what?” wondered Ramona. Her hands clasped before her, wringing, furtive movements, disturbed. A sarcastic glare tried to surface upon her face with every ounce of strength it could muster . To her credit she held herself in check.

“Who the fuck is going to believe her ex-boyfriend is the person hiding her? She reputedly hates you, Eff, to the core of her guts. It’s fucking perfect!” came Katie’s enthusiastic response.

“I don’t hate his guts,” corrected Tirza, then she gazed in my direction. “I don’t hate you, Estefan.” She seemed adamant I know that.

I nodded in the positive, but that did appear to assuage what she was feeling. Only a half-sick cast etched her visage now.

“That part of it might be perfect. But, how in the hell are we all going to make it work when there had been so much bullshit between her, me and Eff?” outlined my girlfriend. “I mean that alone raises a lot of doubt in my mind. Plus, we still have to think about how we are going to keep her out of sight. Effy, this is your parent’s house. How are we going to keep them from seeing her? And what’re we gonna do about your brothers and sisters? Once the little ones find out, they’re gonna blab like crazy. You know little kids can’t keep anything from their parents. They’ll get excited and tell.

“Also, today is Saturday, your parents don’t go to work. In a few hours, everyone will be awake and no one is going to leave. We’re going to have to figure that out as well.” She looked at each of us in turn, her face plaintive, but not angry or jealous in any way. She appeared to have real concerns, and, as it turned out, she had more. “That’s only the tip of the iceberg, guys. How are we going to feed her? How are we going to make sure she has clean clothes? And what about all the other shit that goes into keeping someone alive and healthy? How are we going to do all that?” She put her hands over her head in frustration and stood.

I stared at Ramona, knowing I was going to have to walk a narrow precipice to convince her. I had already decided, there was no way Tirza was going to go back out on the streets. I wouldn’t let her out of my sight, if it meant someone might kill her. No way. True, I might’ve grown annoyed with her in the extreme. And because of it, I had decided months ago, it would be best to exclude her completely from my life. Still, that didn’t mean I wished her dead.

She and I had some good times together – real good times. We went on cute dates and camping trips with my family. We had many long languorous days where we sat before my flatscreen TV. We liked to make love throughout the morning, afternoon and night. I had many fond memories of the girl. I didn’t want her shot to death or worse, raped by some maniac trooper and then shot through the temple.

“I think we can work some of those things out,” I began. I wasn’t all that surprised when Ramona’s eyes flashed. Yet, amazing enough, it was only for a second – or two – and then she filed it away and forced her face blank.

I continued only after the briefest of a pause. “We’ll just have to tackle them one at a time and not all at once. That makes the entire situation a bit overwhelming. But, guys, I have to say this.” My voice took on the slightest of an edge. “Tirza stays if she wants to. I won’t turn away a friend in need, even if, at times, we wanted nothing more than to pull out each other’s hair.” I made a point to look at both of the other girls in the room.

Katie wasn’t going to be a problem. She’d been nodding through the entire exchange.

My girlfriend, on the other hand, cupped her elbow with one hand. She chewed on her lower lip as if the pain from her gnawing could prevent what she wanted to do and say. I could see the tears beginning to well at the corner of her right eye socket. She was in profile at the time, so I couldn’t see both.

I forced myself to gaze at my ex-girlfriend. In this matter, I would have to be strong. It was what Tirza’s mother and little sister would have wished. I wasn’t about to let them down. “Teezee, do you want to stay here… at my house? I promise I will try my hardest to keep you safe.”

Through most of the exchange she had been peering down at the comforter covering my bed. When I asked the question of her, she looked up at me. I could see she’d been silently, if not stoically, weeping the entire time.

“Is that something you could handle after everything that has gone on?” I inquired once more.

She sighed, loud and huge. Then she wiped at her face, fingers first, followed by her palms. For a few moments, she made her eyes slant. “I will try my hardest to not cause any problems for you, Estefan,” was all she managed.

I frowned for a heartbeat. “Does that mean you will stay?”

She bobbed her head up and down in affirmation.

Shot out of a canon, Katie was all action. “Good, so that settles, but first things first, girl, let’s get you cleaned up and out of those torn up clothes. Your boobs are just about falling out.”

“What?!?” screeched Tirza, covering her chest with her arms.

Katie giggled in her snide way. “It’s just a figure of speech, dude – chill. Come on I have some PJ’s that might not be too terribly big for you. You can wear them after you shower.”

A sense of relief, a relaxation of tension left Tirza’s shoulders. She seemed uplifted. She chortled not so nervous now, scooting off the bed to follow my cousin to the other side of the room and finally into the bathroom.

Above me, Ramona spoke, her tone abrupt. “Fuck, Steve, you are going to drive me bat-shit crazy with this attraction thing of yours. Trust me, I will go fucking insane.” Then she sat down upon the bed in a huff, so close to me her nice round ass was bumping against my knee.

“What shit, my dear?” I asked. I was watching the two other girls from across the Loft. Katie was going through her drawers, looking for the sleepwear she had for my one-time girlfriend to sleep in.

“She still loves you, Effy. It’s written all over her like graffiti on a wall, plain as fucking day. I could see it a mile away.”

“No way, Mona, you’re crazy. She doesn’t think of me that way,” I disagreed, but my eyes stayed upon the tiny form of my ex-.

“She doesn’t know any other way to think of you, other than that way. There is no ‘friend-zone’ for her, when it comes to you.” Ramona sniffed then.

I jerked my head in her direction, scared that she might be crying.

She wasn’t. She was just rubbing her nose as if it was itching, but she kept on speaking. “And soon Leda and Sandy will be there too, and then what? I’ll be sharing you with four other girls, that’s what!” She tried to add anger, but it only sounded like hurt in my ears.

I stared at her like I was seeing her for the first time. “Don’t you think you are exaggerating things just a little bit?” To me, she was being dramatic.

She grabbed a hold of my shoulder and turned me so looked her square in the face. She edged toward me, invading my “personal” space. She was serious, that and nothing more, no guile or sarcasm, no anger or angst. “Ever since I was sick, Estefan, I can see things in people,” she said, forceful as if to make me understand. “Not like I see them with my eyes. What I see is nothing like that. It is emotional, as though I can read their most central thoughts, feelings and desires. You know, the things that drive people to do what they do.” She raised her eyebrows, her hands splayed to either side of her. “I can sense them in my mind and my mind… I don’t know… can turn them into images. Only these have pictures have emotion attached to them, intent as well. They are real life verdicts, hard-wired choices that take root so deep in people, there is no changing them. No amount of dissuading will work. Once people make decisions on this level, they are ironclad. It would be like trying to stop an avalanche with a wall made out of Legos¹. It would be an attempt doomed to failure. There would be nothing you or I, or anyone else, could do.

“Well, it is the same with these feelings. They are too strong, too steadfast to hope to alter.” She came even closer and took me in her arms. She placed herself over me, straddling, so her public bone rubbed against my knee before she sat in my lap.

I felt a thickening in the center of me. I had a split-second thought that she actually wanted me to have a savage hard-on just so she could make her point.

“So what are you saying?” I asked, trying to stay interested in what she was saying, but my dick kept clouding my mind, even my pulse was betraying me. I wanted to fuck her, to feel her -.

Come on, man, stop! Focus now.

“What does that mean, Ramona?” I made myself ask, repeating myself to force my mind in a more sane direction.

“It means, Effy, when I look at every one of those girls and I open this… thing, this ability that I now possess, I see the truth. I can see that with time, they all will take you in their arms. They all will lay down with you and let you make love to them. It is an eventuality that you or I, or any of them, cannot escape. Whether they realize it on a conscious level or not, way down they have all already made the decision to do just that. They all want to be with you. They just don’t know it yet… well, some do.” She hugged me then, not aggressive or even tragic, but with a tender touch as if she were trying to garner strength from the warmth of my body.

I sat there, statuesque, halfway returning her embrace, moving more out of habit than anything else. “How can you say you know this for sure?”

She shrugged. “I just do.”

A long silence followed.

“Leda, too?” I asked in squeaky voice.

She broke away from me and leaned back, holding up a hand between us. “Katie.” She began ticking off the count upon her finger tips with her other hand as she said each new name. “Then Leda, then Sandy and finally Tirza. In that exact order, they will come to you by choice. They will tell you they would be willing to share you with the others and you will agree. Because when I look at you, I can see you already want them all – on some level or another, but it’s all the same in the end.” She shook her head as if fatigue overwhelmed her. “Katie already has, so you can see things are progressing quite nicely in that department.”

“Yeah, but we planned that out already, that doesn’t count,” I replied in haste. I didn't wanting to believe what she was saying, and yet… fuck, man! Who wouldn’t want to have FIVE chicks at once!

NO! I chastised myself. It was too good to be true. It was all conjecture and based on one of the flimsiest theories I had ever heard. Come on, Tirza? Leda? Why would those two give me a shot at their holiest of holies? Tirza was too appalled by me and Leda, well, she was way out of my league. There’s no fucking way!

“It doesn’t matter, Estefan, what you think. What matters is what I know! Each one of those girls is going to throw themselves at you at one point or another. And when they do, they won’t care about how they felt or what they said in the past. They will do so of their own free will.” She stopped then, grabbing my chin and gave me a quick peck on the lips. Her orbs stared right into mine. “You won’t even have to use your ‘powers’, because they have been yours since the day they were born.” She let go of me and stood of a sudden, half turning. Her arms once again she clutched before her, flipping and flopping them at the waist.

I stared after her, trying to put my head around everything she had just said, daring myself to believe even a shred of it. I felt set upon and a bit overwhelmed. I struggled to figure out how I was going to be capable of juggling that many women.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm obsessed with the opposite sex. The combination of a biting wit, a broad sense of humor and a nice, round ass is fucking irresistible to me. (And fuck, if you throw in a nice pair of feet… then I’m reduced to a quivering ooze of jizz). But let’s face it, you chicks can be as difficult as a motherfucker to try and understand. When you all group together with a common thought or goal or intent, it is like trying to stop an asteroid from hitting the earth. The sheer velocity is enough to shred most defenses.

Now, Ramona was telling me I was going to have five women!

I knew I was screwed, and I wasn’t even thinking about the amount of pussy that would be floating around me. Trust me – five against one didn’t sound all that good if the shit hit the fan. And like they say, at some point, the shit always hits the fan.

Yup, I was screwed.

“And you know what sucks even more, Effy?” asked my girlfriend, startling me out of my reverie. “It’s the same with me.”

I looked up at her.

She was, once again, peering over at me, her eyes so full with tears.

My thoughts scattered in a thousand different directions. What? I thought or maybe I had said it out loud, but even so, she continued before I could discern either.

“I too am foresworn to you by the simple fact I’ve been born.”

I shook my head then. She said it with an enunciation, an inflection, so unlike her own that for a moment I forgot it was her that was speaking. I was certain she’d become some sort of oracle direct from ancient Greece. I could see her twisting and writhing upon the ground in the throes of drug-infused ecstasy.

Ramona had never spoken like this before, who was this girl!?!

“All done!” came the shrill, if not over-excited announcement from my cousin.

Both Ramona and I jumped like the original Anal Intruder had goosed us (you know, the floor mounted one… oh, nevermind!).

My eyes jerked toward the sound of her voice, but stopped of a sudden.

“Don’t forget what I said, Estefan,” said my girlfriend in a rush.

Our gazes shifted toward the two others emerging from the bathroom.

“That was quick,” I commented, clumsy, feeling foolish. I was trying to cover whatever discomfiture I’d been feeling seconds before.

Katie nodded with a gleeful, if not wild, expression topped with a smile. It was so wide it look as though it was about to split her skull in two.

Something’s up, I though immediately. My vision shifted toward Tirza.

She stood before us wearing a long-sleeved, long-legged matching set of flannel pajamas. They had to be the least sexy sleepwear Katie’s parents had stuffed in her suitcase when they’d sent it to her. It looked like something right out of the 1950’s, or the “Sandra Dee²” section of the Juniors department at a JC Penny’s. It was pink, pin-striped with white. It had a random smattering of wide pedaled daisies that stood out above the pattern below. They fit my ex-girlfriend perfect. This made me wonder if they were garments Katie had worn to bed when she was younger. That would explain a lot - the weird print, the chasteness of the garments, etc.

Tirza herself was clean and I had to admit, beautiful, in her impish sort of way. Her hair she combed back, still damp, though not dripping. The style revealed her high forehead above her light brown eyebrows, framing her large oval, dark brown eyes. Her small angled nose was still more than a few shades redder than the rest of her complexion. The impression she’ been crying was still evident.

I hoped, she hadn’t felt the urge in the bathroom, while she showered.

She was barefoot and had bundled her torn, filthy clothing before her at her waist. She was gripping it with hands made into claws. The trepidation coursing through her was palatable.

“So now what?” asked Tirza, trying to keep her embarrassment from affecting her voice.

Ramona glanced at me and sighed. She turned back toward the other two teens. “Well, we have a shit load of crap to figure out, but first things first…,” she paused for dramatic effect.

I remember all our eyebrows climbing upon our foreheads.

“We,” began my girlfriend with a stern tone, “have to figure out the sleeping arrangements. If we’re going to all be together for an extended period of time, well, things could get a little weird. And I talking in like a heartbeat, especially during the night.”

I felt my stomach turn at that. I had just gotten used to the idea of a threesome, but the way things were going. I didn’t want to think about an outcome.

{ ¹Legos: was a popular line of construction toysmanufactured by The Lego Group, based once in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consisted of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, mini-figures and various other parts that could be assembled and/or connected in many ways. }

{ ²“Sandra Dee”: a fictional character in the musical Grease, who was portrayed as straight-laced and naïve. }