[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 128 & 129. (Patreon)

Chapter 128: The drive back home.

We stayed for about one more hour, talking about trivial things. I knew they did it to take my mind off of what had happened before, but soon we were all into whatever we were talking about. We dropped the subject of Thomas’ breakup and started talking about the popular shows and movies that everyone seemed to be watching. Turns out Thomas and the girls are far more into superhero movies than I am. Then one topic led to another and we finished with Thomas telling us a story of this time he went camping with some friends and they almost got lost.

At one point, Grace went to the bathroom and returned after a long while. After that, she became quieter than usual, slowly sipping her drink, chuckling softly while we laughed louder and answering questions with short answers. I started to believe she was tired, but…

It was close to 12:00 am when we left. Sarah was driving the girls and she’d had very little to drink over all, and drank nothing after that dumb game was over. Naturally, she offered to drive me home too.

My house was the closest, so we headed there first. I resisted my impulse to apologize again for… well, everything. The girls had made themselves clear, and I wasn’t going to insist and continue being annoying. Surprisingly, the apology didn’t come from me.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” Grace said, sitting at the back with me, yet all the way towards the other window. She was looking down at her knees. “If we hadn’t come, the guys wouldn't have pestered you so much. And I was the one who suggested we come.”

“Yeah…” Sarah said. I caught her grimacing expression in the mirror. “Things seemed to be going well until we got there.”

“No, it was… They’d been asking things since I met them. They stopped when Thomas asked them to, but now they just went on and on.” I shook my head. “I can understand them being curious. I guess I would be too, in their shoes. I think. Maybe if I knew how to deflect questions, or take a joke like Thomas does, then… Well, It’s fine. I had a better time with just you four there.”

Sarah sighed. “We talked about something like this, remember? You don’t wait until you meet flawless people and decide to be friends with them. Sometimes those we meet have flaws that we can overlook, and sometimes we can’t overlook them. I don’t think anyone here disagrees that Kevin and Ben stepped out of line, but it might be too soon to write them off.”

“I agree,” Mila said. “I don’t think they’ll spread this around. They like to gossip, but I’ve never heard them say anything that would hurt anyone. It’s always silly things, and we made it clear we didn’t want people to know.”

“Give it some time, Oliver,” Sarah said.

“I suppose.” What else could I do? I wasn’t going to apologize. I knew I wasn’t in the wrong here.

I turned to look at Grace, who’d gone silent again since her apology. She had her hands together on her lap, staring down at them, downcast. I felt like she was going to start crying at any moment.

I moved closer to her and put my hand over hers. “Grace?”

“I really am sorry,” she spoke weakly, her voice near the point of cracking. “You were trying so hard to hang out with others and I fucked it all up. I’ve been… Shit.” She rubbed her eyes with her wrist. “I’ve been saying more than I should, even though I keep insisting we stay quiet. I suggested we go to Thomas’ place because I wanted to see you, but I made things worse. I…” She swallowed, and it looked like even that was difficult. “I put on a confident front to look like I know what I’m doing, but I don’t know shit!”

I held her hand a little tighter and smiled. I didn’t know what to say to her, I didn’t know what to do. My smile wasn’t there to comfort her. It was there because I was happy that she’d admit this in front of me.

“I wanted to see you girls, too,” I told her. “I was really happy when you got there. I wanted to rush to you, hug you, kiss you… I wanted to retreat to our own little corner like always and just talk about dumb things. But there were others around, so I had trouble meeting your eyes. I almost didn’t come to this, you know?” I chuckled. “But I thought you three would be disappointed in me if I backed out.” I kissed Grace’s cheek. “I’m glad you came over.”

That got a small smile out of Grace, and she chuckled with teary eyes. “Sorry. That came out of nowhere. I started thinking when I was alone in the bathroom and realized this was my fault.”

“It wasn’t. So no more of that,” I told her, now kissing her forehead.

“Forgive her, Oliver. She gets like that sometimes after she drinks,” Mila casually explained.

“H-Hey, I’m not drunk!” Grace argued.

“That sounds like something a drunk would say,” Sarah teased.

“I’m not! Oliveeer!” Grace pouted, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with Sarah and Mila.

I held Grace close and kissed her face all over. Before long she was laughing with us and kissing me back.

We were at my house soon after that, sadly. I would’ve liked to stay with them for a little longer. I said goodbye to each of them with a kiss and went into the house.

Mom was still awake, half-waiting for me, half-engrossed in the show she was watching on TV. When she saw me, she checked the time and nodded. “An hour earlier than we agreed.”

“We all wanted to leave early,” I told her.

“How did it go?”

“...Not great,” I told her with a grimace. “There were some… disagreements.”

Mom frowned. “You okay?”

“I think so. Two people I still don’t know well left earlier than us and I stayed talking with my friends. The mood improved when it was just the five of us.”

“I see. Don’t let it discourage you, okay?”

I nodded. “My friends said the same.”

“Will you invite them over this weekend?”

“I want to. Can I?”

“Saturday or Sunday, whenever you want. Just remember we’re going to the gym tomorrow at 9:00 am. You better get some sleep.”

I looked at the TV and shot mom a smirk. “You too. Don’t fall for the ‘one more chapter’ thing.”

She winced and turned the TV off. “You’re right. And you’re having an easier time than me with mornings these days.”

“Goodnight, mom.”

“Goodnight, dear.”

I texted the girls before I went to bed. I told them my mom was okay with them coming over either Saturday or Sunday. They all replied immediately, saying they’d be here tomorrow. We agreed on the afternoon.

It was hard to fall asleep that night. My girlfriends would be coming over to my house, and that was cause enough for my insomnia, but it was the never-have-I-ever game that kept me awake. I kept thinking of ways I could’ve avoided answering, ways I could’ve deflected questions, stories I could’ve made up to lie. All useless after the fact, of course.

Nevertheless, sleep did find me eventually, and I dreamt of going to the gym with Sarah, Grace and Mila.

************

Chapter 129: Going to the gym with mom.

On Saturday mornings I usually slept until 10:00 am, if not 11:00. Staying in bed was just too nice, and my sister agreed because she would never leave her room before 11:00 am unless she had very specific plans. Things would change for me from now on, though. I was up by 8:00 am, which was a couple of hours later than during school days. When I considered it that way, it felt pretty nice.

I went down to the kitchen to make breakfast. Mom came down not five minutes later with a shopping bag in hand. She looked more awake than any day of the week. The couple extra hours of sleep seemed to make a difference to her. Though she was up late watching TV… Maybe it’s a matter of mentality? Knowing she doesn’t have to go to work is a relief in and of itself, I guess.

“Good morning, Oliver,” she greeted me with a smile. “Good to see I didn’t have to drag you out of bed. We’ll see how long that lasts.”

“You have zero faith in me, don’t you?” I joked.

“Not at all. In fact, here.” She set the bag on the table. “I forgot to give these to you yesterday. They should fit.”

I raised an eyebrow at her and looked inside the bag. There were some black, sporty shorts and a red t-shirt.

“Seriously? Do I need this?” I asked her.

“No, but better to feel as comfortable as you can when you’re working out. Go get changed. I’ll finish up here.”

I was surprised at how reluctantly I left the kitchen. It had nothing to do with getting changed. I just… didn’t want to give up making breakfast? I was getting used to it, and I think I’d started seeing it as my way to help around the house a bit more.

The black shorts reached just the middle of my knees. The T-shirt was of a stretchy material that felt comfortable, but… It was a little tight. It was easy to move in, so that wasn’t the issue. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that the fabric pressed against me, showing my figure more than I was comfortable with. I was slender and toned, with a body shape that was like an inverted triangle, meaning shoulders that were wider than my waist. The short sleeves were tightly wrapped around my biceps, too. The shorts stopped at the middle of my knees, so they still showed my legs, just as toned at the rest of my body. It’s embarrassing to say, but even I thought I looked like one of those dudes posing for sportswear. Only the glasses looked out of place.

It reminded me again that… this wasn’t me. Two weeks ago, these clothes wouldn’t have fit me like this. My stomach used to have a bit more fat to it. Not much, but now it was mainly muscle. My arms used to be softer and thinner, as were my legs. I certainly had no muscle definitions that would’ve shown through a T-shirt, or at least none that could be generally considered attractive.

What a fucking impostor, huh? People don’t wake up one day with a physique and abilities they didn’t deserve, that they didn’t earn. But somehow that had happened to me, and though I liked it and didn’t want it taken from me… When I stopped to think about it, I remembered none of this was mine.

But that was the reason I was going to the gym, right? To make it mine. I didn’t know where this came from, which meant I could lose it at any moment. The thought frightened me to the core. But if I put in the work, then maybe… maybe I could stay like this, with the body my girlfriends liked. If they were willing to share me, then I had a duty to be the best boyfriend I could be, right? At least I thought so.

The ride to the gym was about 20 minutes long. It WAS a little embarrassing to get out of the car and walk into the gym with my mother of all people. The fact that she was a little taller than me didn’t help. But I did my best to push that thought aside. What did it matter if somebody made fun of me for it? I could bet none of the guys here had three consenting girlfriends or even had a foursome.

…

That was a depressingly comforting thought.

The gym mom had been going to was a commercial gym, and it was huge. I called Sarah’s basement a gym, but this was easily 30 times the size of that. Probably with 30 times as many machines, too. The sounds of metal on metal were prominent. Plenty of people were lifting weights, and a good bunch of them looked like pros. Seriously, even Thomas had nothing on how swole some of these guys were. A few women, too.

I walked slightly behind mom. It was hard not to spare a glance or two her way. I knew her enough that I could swear to anyone that she wasn’t trying to look attractive, but she managed it anyway.

She wore a light-green tank top with wide straps and a high neckline, but the size of her chest was something no sports bra would be able to completely hide. She also went for comfort with those black leggins, but… How do you say your mom has a perfect ass without sounding like the creepiest fucker in the world? It brought back memories of strange dreams I’d had.

They had started around the same time my body changed and I hooked up with Sarah, Grace and Mila. Dreams of my sister, and even my mother. I had chalked them up to my hormones being all over the place due to finally having sex, and they HAD stopped, but… It was an undeniable fact that my mother was an attractive woman.

…

ANYWAY. I’m gonna go lift 250 kilos now. Maybe all that weight falling on my head will fix me. Or kill me. I might be okay with either.