"Marie, listen I am sorry I put so much on you right now. I know I made things weird, and I am very sorry about that. There is no pressure to give me your answer. Take as much time as you need ok. Sam and I are not going anywhere and besides before I know what Sam thinks, I cannot commit to anything in any form yet myself. You now know my thoughts; I will wait for yours. Remember you are only 16 and have a couple years before you could even get married, so you have all the time you need. If you choose not to marry at all, we will still be here for you and that will not change EVER. So please, just come out of the bathroom and stop hiding. This hiding is not you and you know it. You attack things head on and with such a passion that everyone is bewildered and dazed." Josh said with caring.
"What the hell is going on up here? The Baker told me I couldn't come up here until the door was opened. So, I snuck up here while he was distracted only to find Marie hiding in the bathroom, you are apologizing and asking her to come out. What is going on right now? Did you do something to Marie, Josh? I want answers right now." Sam said seriously and with feeling.
Before Josh could say anything, I flushed the toilet, took a deep breath and opened the door.
"Josh, What the hell man. I use the restroom and you act like you did something wrong. Listen if you want to test Sam or something like that. Do NOT use me to do it!!! Got it? Sorry I took so long in the BATHROOM. Did not know that a girl had to be quick or she seemed like hiding out. God, you men can be so annoying sometimes." I said with drama and an eye roll. "Also Sam, you need to chill. I needed to talk to Josh one on one and make sure he was ok and no side effects from that drug before I had him interact with anyone else. Remember that I am the only one here with experience with that drug and possible side effects. I did not want him jumping on you or anyone the moment he say them and was attracted. I am not his type after all, so I was the only one safe unless you wanted the baker's wife trying to handle him. I know her baking though and even I could not promise that there wouldn't be attraction even with her. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go and see about some actual food and what it will cost."
"Marie, I"
"Marie, You"
Both said in unison and discord at the same time.
"Sam first, go ahead. What was going on down there?" I said with interest.
"Well Cindy, from the orphanage brought your gear here and has it downstairs for you. Apparently, she was being paid to gather it up for those men but when she saw you get free she tried her best to follow us to make sure that we got it instead of them. Sister Amy told her she could have 3 months of no chores if she packed up all of your stuff." Sam said.
"OK, good to know. I will go down and get it in a moment as well as talk about food and what they have and do not have right now that they could spare. With the wolves outside still and there being the six of us now, we will need to be careful with what we have. Your turn Josh and it better not be another apology or whatever or I will smack you." I said with a look that made Josh realize that I was not going to discuss what was said before. I made sure Sam could not see me do it too.
"Marie, I, ummm, well. Since I can't apologize again, I guess I will just say thank you for making sure I was ok and helping me wake up from that daze." Josh said stuttering a bit with what he was going to say changing so fast.
I nodded, glanced at them both and walked down the stairs to the bakery. Arriving in the bakery, I saw little Cindy standing there holding a large bag tightly in her arms. She looked over, saw me and ran over to me. Putting the fairly heavy bag in my arms she smiled at me.
"This is yours not mine. I am glad I could give it to you. I am so sorry that I went in your room and went through your things. I couldn't get the books and all your clothes but I did get you the VR stuff and a few sets of clothes. Looks like you could use the clothes right now. I hope you are not mad at me. Sister Amy told me to do it. She seemed to know that it would be hard for you to not have some of your stuff. It seems really weird that I was told before your screams for help first happened. Could I by any chance work for you? I know I am only 10 but I will wash your clothes, I am good at that and I can dust and clean the floors and bathrooms. And I can learn anything else that you might need me to do. And, and, well anything else you desire from me. I will be your loyal, PAID slave. Please?" Cindy said to me as she dropped to her knees in front of me.
"I have no need for a slave. I am a bit upset about you going through my things but I am glad I have them now. So I am not mad, ok. Give me a bit to think about your offer before I give you an answer. Now if you want to be useful, go see if our hosts the baker and his wife need anything. We could be here for a few more hours or for maybe even a month or so. It will depend on when the wolves will leave us alone." I said looking around and noticing not a lot of food on the shelves which made me worried.
Sitting on third to bottom step and setting my bag of stuff next to me, I decided that I needed a bit to think. With my VR stuff, I could work and make some money and get away from both men for the moment, but I also would not be able to act if the wolves start to break in. Their poison will only not affect me and maybe it won't affect Josh now that we both had that drug affect us. This is the first use though with Josh so it is no sure thing he will be safe.
Josh, what the hell am I going to do about him. If he actually decides that he prefers me over Sam, it is going to crush Sam. If I marry Josh, Sam has no place to be with me unless I make him staff and to have him as staff would be odd. He is my best friend and I do love him. I would be ok with him being my husband as he can cook and clean. I was ok with Josh being my bodyguard but now, I can NOT trust him to keep his hands to himself now that I know he has feelings for me. If I make him my husband that should keep him at bay for when I am in the VR world, but he already brought up kids. I am not ready to even think about that. Nowhere in my plans for the future did it have me breeding little ones. Hell, I never thought I would do more than clean or teach with my life. Getting this VR set, changed my entire life plans. I could do so much more with my life now. So, would having kids be a new change as well? I haven't even had a chance to sit down and figure out what having a VR set would even mean to me now.
Before I could decide what, I was going to do with my life, I needed to know what I was going to do in the VRMMO for work. I could then plan my life based on my income and time requirements in the game. If I needed to be in there for 8 hours a day, it would cut into what I would do with my life but if I was something like a farmer, I would need months at a time where my life was mostly in the game for planting seasons and harvesting. If I was a package carrier it would only take me a few hours at a time in the game to do my work.
I stood up, picked up my stuff and headed back up the stairs. On my way up I heard Sam telling Josh not to screw things up, so I stopped there so I wouldn't be seen and decided to listen.
"Sam what do you mean? Screw what up? I am so confused. I just told you how I was feeling and what I came to realize. If you can not accept that then we need to look at us. I love you with most of my heart and soul, but there is another person that I like as well now. I would love for us to be a trio. I am not trying to break up with you or anything. You know what my dreams were since I was young. I have watched you from afar for the longest time before I made my feelings known to you. Did I ever expect you to accept me, hell no. When I found out you liked me too it meant the world to me. I would have never guessed that you would like another man. Never once have I found anyone but you that I had feelings for, and I tried everything in the world to find that one person. I dated so many before you, but I could not get attached to them at all. Now I have you and I found another person as well. Please think about what I said. " Josh pleaded with Sam.
"Josh, Darn it. I love her AND you. We talked about ME marrying her. We had a plan and now you want to change that and it leaves me with nothing. I can't be simple staff, that would cause huge ripples around here. I need to be the husband for the sake of the town and public opinion. You make the perfect bodyguard and eye candy. The world knows you are into men and not woman. They don't know it about me. I do not mind if it comes out but I already made my intentions to most of the town that I was going to ask Marie to be my wife. The town knew I was waiting for Marie to become 18 before I acted in that way. This was before you and her even suggested that I marry her. It kept people from trying to set me up with their daughters and kept Sister Amy from trying to use the younger girls as a seducing tool to help them keep me around as I have a stable job and would help the orphanage. You though, if you start dating or courting Marie, how would the town think about that? People always wondered if Marie was actually a woman as she never developed into a girly girl. She acts like a boy. If you are seen courting her, it would destroy Marie's image I have worked so hard to protect over the years." Sam said back.
I was shocked to hear those words from Sam. Never did I know what he had done for me that changed the towns treatment of me so much. I knew I was hated for the longest time and then they started accepting me and befriending me and I made this town my home. Thinking about what was said. Could I make us a trio? I do not see why not. The question is who my actual husband would be. I do not want to undo what Sam has done for me, but I also do not want to lose the chance of having kids. If I married Josh, the whole town would feel the effects. He is a few years older as well which could get him in trouble if he was seen as trying to take advantage of me and possibly lead to him getting stoned. Well, it looks like I will need to talk to them both as I think I now have my answer to the issue.