The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Party of Five, Chapter 13

Previously: "Party of Five, Chapter 12" 

IT WAS A MISERABLE NIGHT FOR DOUG.

It started with the sofa, which was soft and didn't give any back support. But it was quickly made worse by the noises from the master bedroom.

There were, of course, the squeaks and groans of the bedsprings, clearly audible even though muffled by the walls. They were irregular at first, so that Doug was constantly surprised by a new one, or a new battery of them, just when he was starting to hope they had settled down and stopped.

And then, after he was good and awake because he couldn't get comfortable, the noises became regular and rhythmic and mechanical. Skwunch-skwunch-skwunch-skwunch-SKWUNCH ... Pause. Skwunch-skwunch-skwunchskwunchkwunch ... Pause.-Skwunch-skwunch-skwunch-skwunch-SKWUNCH-skwunch-skwunch-skwunch ... SKWUNCH! Skwunchskwunchkwunchskwunchskwunchkwunch-skwunch!

Then there were the voices. No words, just giggles and laughs and little shrieks. A whoop, quickly muffled. A door opening, some whispers, the door closing, some more laughter.

The worst moment was when he heard Alfie go yip-yip-yip like a coyote, following it up with a soft, happy howl.

Doug wondered what Tanya and Scarlett, in the bedroom across the hall, thought of it all. He imagined Scarlett describing to Tanya, in anatomical detail, everything that was happening in the master bedroom. And so he came to imagine and describe it to himself.

When he finally passed out, he had his forearm draped over his eyes as tears of frustration and self-pity ran down his cheeks.

He woke with a start when Scarlett and Tanya came out of the bedroom: light was streaming through the front windows. After forcing himself awake, Doug got up, pulled on his jeans (he'd slept in his shirt and underwear) and padded in to help Tanya start some breakfast. He was tempted to ask her if she'd heard the noises coming from Alfie and Susie's bedroom. But she said nothing, so he said nothing either.

Neither did Scarlett say anything at breakfast, where it was just the three of them, unless her talk about some of the other wrestlers, and how they were likely passing spring break, was a veiled comment on how Alfie was now passing his. When Doug asked if there were any plans for the day, Scarlett said she was going to wait to see what Susie and Alfie had decided; in the meantime, she was going to sit out on the deck in her bathing suit and catch a little sun. "You could stand to get a little color too, Tanya," she said.

She and Tanya then left him to clean up from breakfast. While he was doing that he heard Susie and Alfie come out and go into the bathroom, where they were a long time about it. He stood a very long time in the kitchen, leaning against the sink, staring unseeing into the murky dishwater and trying very hard not to resent Alfie and the sex he was finally scoring.

He deserves it, he told himself, a guy like Alfie. He's got all the right stuff. Good-looking, ripped with muscles, cheerful personality, a smooth and confident style. And he's a good guy, a really good guy! Some of the jocks back at the school were jerks and meatheads, but Alfie and Brad and them were smart and cool and not at all conceited. Doug was lucky to have them as his friends (so he sincerely felt), because it wasn't luck at all. They liked him just as he liked them.

He just wished they admired him as much as he admired them.

He felt that admiration being dented, though, and he hated himself for it. Alfie had been so consumed, even obsessed, by Susie that he'd had no time for almost anything else. Or anyone else, Doug least of all. Even at the grocery store he had wandered off with Tanya, presumably—so Doug sensed—so he could talk with her about her sister. With Alfie one hundred percent focused on Susie, and Scarlett and Tanya having nothing to say to him, Doug felt not just like a third wheel, but like the third wheel to another set of third wheels.

That had been bad enough. Now that Alfie had finally battered down Susie's resistance, he was bound to be a thousand percent focused on her. Loudly focused on her too. The trilling warble that rose over the rush of water in the bathroom told Doug that if Alfie and Susie were soaping each other down, they were using more than just their hands.

Then, after they came out, Doug felt all his courage crumple. He couldn't stand the thought of facing them, at least not right away, and while they were in the bedroom he dove into the bathroom and took a very long shower of his own.

All the bedroom doors were open when he reemerged, and after dressing in some khaki shorts, sandals, and a Hawaiian shirt thrown over a t-shirt, he searched the cabin and found it empty. He went out the front door and came around to the deck, where he found Scarlett and Tanya laying out on a couple of lawn chairs. Tanya was reading a book—vampire-romance novel; he'd asked her about it last night—but Scarlett was draped out on her chair and drinking in the sun. Neither took any notice of him.

"Where'd you get the chairs?" he asked.

"From the shed out back," Tanya said without looking up from her book.

"There's a shed out back?" Doug asked, but Tanya said nothing. "Where's Alfie and Susie?"

"Out taking a walk."

"They gonna go check out those caves everyone's so jacked about?" He glanced over at Scarlett, but she said nothing while Tanya only answered with a grunt.

"I can't believe they're talking and hanging out again," Doug went on. He was aware that he was prattling, filling a silence that seemed to bother only him, and probably irritating the other two, but he couldn't help it. "She was so mad at him until yesterday."

"Scarlett had a talk with her," Tanya said, her eyes still on her book.

"That's right," Scarlett said. She had been lying so still that Doug was wondering if she was asleep. "I just told her that a man has his needs. We all do."

"That's what I always say," Doug said.

And as soon as he said it, he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He had only meant to express his agreement with Scarlett, but it had come out sounding gross and needy.

The silence that followed was bad enough. But then Scarlett made it infinitely worse.

"Maybe I can help you with your needs, Dougie," she said, still unmoving in her chair. "I can be very helpful with that kind of thing."

Doug's jaw slackened, and he felt his face burning. His blush deepened when he saw Tanya turn toward Scarlett.

"We all have our needs," Scarlett went on. "For instance, right now, I really need a mojito." Her lips twitched into a faint smile.

"Coming right up," Doug stammered before he quite knew it, and he ran back into the house.

Fuck fuck fuck dammit fuck! he cussed to himself as he stood trembling in the kitchen. God, why am I so stupid? He looked at the stove, wondered briefly how long it would take to kill himself if he put his head in the oven, then remembered that it was an electric range.

I shouldn't have even gone out there, he told himself. I should have stayed inside, done some gaming on the laptop. They don't want me out there.

He took his glasses off and rubbed his face all over until the urge to weep had passed.

Well, he had to face her again, and he might as well get it over with, he told himself. She had asked for a mojito—a drink much favored by the gang, and Alfie had made a point of bringing a bottle of rum with them—and it would be rude if he didn't make one for her. But his hands shook the whole time.

He was carrying it out—on a little tray, even—and had just stepped up to the deck when Scarlett's voice burst out in a loud cry.

"Oh, Dougie!" she groaned. "Dougie! Right there, yes, right there!"

He froze and stared, uncomprehending. Scarlett had her legs spread wide, with one hand resting on a half-exposed boob. She didn't seem to be talking to him, even though she was calling his name. He wondered what she was going on about.

Then he saw that her other hand had slid down the front of her bikini bottom. "Oh, Dougie, right there, Dougie, ooh! Oh God it's so big, and I need it, I'm gonna— I'm gonna—!"

The tray fell from Doug's numb hand, and the glass shattered on the edge of the deck. Both Tanya and Scarlett leapt up to stare at him.

Then—as his face burned—they both burst out laughing.

Before he could run away, a stern, dry voice sounded behind him.

"Excuse me, I hope we're not interrupting anything."

* * * * *

It's suppertime when you publish this chapter, but you've got a lot of energy in you still, and after gobbling down your dinner you bolt back upstairs to get to work. The next chapter is one you're eager to get to: it's one you know that Sean will be pretty excited to see.

That's because it will be the one where Alfie gets replaced. Sean is into MtM, and this will be the first MtM involving the main characters. Also, Alfie is the kind of character—strong, handsome, popular—that Sean likes to use in his own stories; in fact, Alfie is one of the reasons Sean likes the original webcomic so much. He will be keen to see how you handle it.

And because you've got Sean lodged, like a sliver, inside your own brain, you are too.

Next: "Party of Five, Chapter 14" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"