I let Savannah/Amanda take down my number after she removes her hand from my jeans and wait for her to quietly exit before sending Natsuko out to check that we're clear before exiting myself. We head back towards my bike with smiles on both our faces and once we're back home I relate my story to Kori about what was said between Natsuko and me at the park. I tell her everything else, mind you but the important thing is the Natsuko joke and her wanting a child with me.
"I honestly think later down the road it'll be fine by us but your girls come first," Kori tells me and I nod in agreement.
My next two weeks are mostly me just trying to keep busy while I wait for news from Detective Escalante. I get good news after a couple days that Jackie isn't dead or in the hospital which makes me feel better and sadly a little worse. I'm stuck in limbo, if she were in a hospital I'd be able to get to her. I try to stay positive about it but it gets difficult, thankfully I have my friends, girls and family to keep me occupied after Natsuko made me promise to not go running around randomly looking for Jackie. Regular trips to the gym along with tattoos and meets at the airfield keep me busy doing errands for the Old Man.
Mark and Vicki are doing a lot better, I can tell she's anxious to try more things with him but they're at least settling around each other. Mr. Delauter actually spends half of his time when he's home talking with Lilly who is soaking up all the legal advice that she can. Devin and Masha are a peculiar pair, they hang out with us but spend a lot of time talking and just plotting their own future. Hanna is buzzing around being the little girl on girl sexual butterfly that she was when I first met her but I can tell something is looming. As for my girls they are in 'Love the boyfriend' mode after Katy helped me get my body going again. She's been a bit of a no fly zone as per the other girls and I will have to ask her why. As for the tattoos they are coming along nicely still and we're down to the finishing touches on all of the work, Matty is the biggest whiner surprisingly but she is getting it done around her spine which Smitty said hurts a lot.
It's a Tuesday at about midday and we've been here for almost three weeks total. I'm chilling with Rachael and Kori when we hear what sounds like an argument from upstairs. I immediately grab a bag of chips and both girls follow me as we see most of our friends watching as Natsuko is tearing into Ben.
"You think that I'd even want to have sex with you after you said that you thought I should be out of the group," Natsuko yells, ready to take Ben down.
"Calm down, you're making a scene," Ben says, noting the people in the area.
"Yeah I'm making a scene with MY friends around and you. You who show about as much loyalty as a fucking snake to me let alone Elizabeth who is back home waiting for you," Natsuko says turning up her anger.
"Liz and I have an understanding, besides you think Guy would let me fool around on his sister if he didn't know it was okay," Ben says now pleading to the rest of the crew.
"You want to have fun Ben that's your call but you turned on Natsuko then think she'll just hop into bed with you because 'hey nobody else I can fuck is around'," I hear Katy say backing Natsuko off and stepping up to Ben.
"And now everyone needs to back off Ben," I say, stepping into the fray and having all return to their own rooms.
I watch my friends and girl disperse and I can tell everyone is in a pretty tense mood. I wait and watch Ben as he heads into his room. I let him get a lead before catching the door and stepping inside, closing it behind me.
"Thanks for that out there man," Ben says sitting on his bed.
"Didn't do it for you. Why are you still doing all this man," I ask, wondering about all the women he keeps trying to get with.
"Doing what? Trying to have some fun while I'm down here like you seem to be," Ben says frustrated.
"I wasn't having fun when Marta decided to come after me. And what I do I do with permission, permission you don't have. If my girls wanted me to stop then I would stop," I explained, setting down my chips.
"Yeah well Liz will be fine with it and we'll talk about it face to face when we're back home," Ben tells me.
"Why can't you tell her about it now, come clean and just tell her what has happened so far," I say to Ben hoping to get him to come clean.
We sit quietly and I pull out my phone to have Ben call but he brushes it aside. I shake my head at him, he's being a fool and sadly I'm letting him. I start to leave and I can hear him thinking.
"You won't tell Liz will you," Ben asks as I reach the door.
"Here's your real problem Ben, you want to keep a secret but you display everything you're doing for everyone to see. The only reason I haven't turned everyone loose on you is because somewhere I'm hoping you'll do the right thing and be honest," I tell him, opening the door," With everyone."
I head back to my room and all my girls are there with Natsuko who is still angry. I move up onto the bed and grab Kori to cuddle up with someone who is more honest than I am. I feel a bit like crap not just outing what is going with us telling Liz about Ben's actions. I watch Imelda close the door. I settle in for a little while just appreciating the closeness of having my girls and my truest friend as they talk about small things and fun times. I know dinner is going to be coming up soon and I figure it's about time to take all my girls out and do something together that doesn't involve needles and ink. I'm getting dressed and it takes Kori a second to figure out what I'm doing but as soon as she sees the nice shirt and me heading to the bathroom to wash up she's in full swing getting everyone on board for date night. All my girls are ready and while it's not super formal, all of them are looking nice as we take over Bethany's vehicle save for Imelda and I on our bikes.
We head into town and I let the girls pick the location for us and after a while they settle on a restaurant and an above average one at that. We all get settled into a big corner booth and I'm in the middle as we sit down and order. It's a wonderful thing having all of my girls sitting at the same table going over our little plans and debating about what we want to eat. Simple things make me feel like everything will be alright. We get our appetizers and I eat lightly when a topic I don't want to discuss comes wheeling around into my world again.
"So Guy I am still thinking about senior year and honestly I want you to take the presidency," Kori says, causing me to lose my appetite.
"Really, I thought I said I am not even remotely interested in having this conversation. I will talk about anything else but if we keep this topic I will do everything in my power to piss you off," I tell Kori, getting a determined look.
"I'm not telling you to take it baby; I would like you to take it. I'm just saying I'd like to be one of the first ladies at our school," Kori says, trying to plead her case.
"Kori maybe it's just me but honestly what good will it do," Matty says taking the conversation out of my hands," It's a status thing, Guy doesn't care about that and he's said so. Guy has power; people listen to him without him being the president. I'm just wondering why you are so hung up on this."
"Because maybe we deserve some recognition. He stood up and showed everyone that he wasn't to be fucked with. Then he waged war for everyone, not just me but everyone. They are telling us they want him to lead and we didn't ask for it or demand it. They're giving it to him because he is who he is," Kori says, putting a decent point on the argument.
"And this is where we stop right now," I say, getting a grumpy look from Kori," I said I'm not thinking about it while I'm down here because there are more important things I'm looking at for myself and for us while I'm down here."
"Guy, what have you been focusing on if the presidency isn't important to you like it is to Kori," Rachael asks, trying to calm everything.
"College classes, I've been going over what I want to major in at college," I say eating a mozzarella stick.
Apparently my college plans and the simple fact that I've been working out going to college has everyone of my girls staring at me like I just grew a penis out of my forehead and it started singing to them. I finish my one stick of deep fried cheese before I figure on explaining.
"I don't care about the presidency because I might not be there the whole year; I want to front load my classes and do college courses. I hope to graduate by February so I can get right into college classes and I don't plan to walk at graduation," I tell all my girls and gauge their reactions.