Chapter 10: First Meeting
Now that Thalina had been properly inducted into the ranks of Fred's Harem, he drove back to the dorm. Deb molded into him in the seat as they shared a large bottle of water.
The plan was to head back to the dorm, take Kelly to lunch in the cafeteria, move Deb into Kelly's room and Chloe into Deb's, then Fred hoped to get a couple hours' worth of sleep before the Ponytail Express party. Fred knew little about the specifics; he'd be manning the grill for the first part, then the group would move into one of the 2nd floor conference rooms. The Ambrose Spencer Aquatic Center was the cornerstone for watersports not only on campus, but throughout the region. Deb had the place from 4pm until early evening.
As they exited his ancient monstrosity of a truck, Fred felt inclined to issue a reminder to Deb, his girlfriend and constant companion since Monday.
"Deb, we're not going full David Koresh tonight, are we?"
She looked quizzically at him, flipping her sun-kissed, wavy blond locks nonchalantly to the side. Dried sweat mixed with other bodily fluids gave her hair a somewhat unkempt appearance, but she still looked gorgeous as hell. Her eyebrow rose inquisitively, causing butterflies to churn in his gut.
"Who is David Koresh?" she asked, while they walked through the parking lot. She handed him the water bottle, and he took a drink while she wrapped an arm around him, somewhat preoccupied with her cell. He opened the door for her.
"He was a cult leader. Things didn't go so well for him." Fred was about to further explain when he noticed her brow furrow because of something she was seeing on her cell.
"Something wrong, hon?"
Deb looked concerned. "Kelly's acting odd. Let's get upstairs and see how she's doing."
Minutes later they were on the 4th floor, finding out details from other people on the wing; no one had seen Kelly come out of her room today. Fred let Deb take the lead as she entered. Fred could hear water running and soft sobs. Kelly was sitting curled on the floor of the shower stall. It didn't look good. Fred decided not to intervene unless Deb wanted him to.
"I'll wait outside, Deb."
She turned to look at him. "Good idea, babe. Before you do, please get her robe, then go over to my room and get me some of my toiletries, okay?"
Fred was already getting Kelly's terrycloth robe. He ran his errands, then left to let Deb administer to the distressed upperclassman.
It was 15 minutes and another bottle of water before Deb texted it was okay to come in. Kelly, cheeks stained with tears, slept while Deb rose from the bed, her muscled back to Fred, clad in a pair of panties and a sports bra.
"Got you a water, dear," Fred began. She turned to him with a pained expression. He quickly put down the bottles and moved to hug her. He was pleased she let him, pausing for a few seconds before hugging him tightly, sobbing lightly into his shoulder. To Deb's credit, it didn't take her long to compose herself.
"Kelly still loves Edward," she explained. "She blames herself. She sees her feelings for other women as a negative thing that caused her relationship to end on a grim note. Kelly thinks she's going to pull us into her 'sinful sexual fantasies.'"
"Jesus," Fred responded, "we broke her and her fiancΓ© up, didn't we?"
"Yeah, that was us all right," Deb agreed, "dropping an emotional bomb on three people who didn't deserve it. We hurt them, Freddy. Hurt her," she looked at the currently dozing strawberry blond.
"In our defense," Fred offered, "we walked in on the three of them getting busy with each other. I'm prepared to say that overrode our sense of right and wrong."
Fred caught a look from Deb. "A poor-ass excuse, Freddy. And you know it."
He nodded, "Agreed. Any thoughts on a solution?"
Deb's brow furrowed, "I'll be honest babe; I'm still working out why I needed to have her."
"It's a question I was going to ask you," Fred admitted.
"Yeah. Remember how I came to live in this dorm?"
"Sure, you kicked Benji in the face when he got rapey with you at a dance. Your shitty sorority kicked you out and you had to settle for your own corner room."
Deb nodded. "I remember moving in and seeing Kelly on the wing with her fiancΓ©. She had everything I wanted and felt the farthest from. I guess I never forgot that. Seeing her Thursday night brought those old feelings up. I wanted to own her. When I suggested breaking them up..."
"I suggested that Deb," Fred corrected his girlfriend.
"And I agreed to it, throwing in the attraction to both me and you. Some couple we turned out to be, right?"
Fred thought about it.
"You know what really makes us outstanding, Deb?"
She chuckled ruefully. "I hope you're being sarcastic."
"Hear me out before you throw stones. We're not perfect, we made a mistake. It's acknowledged and we can course correct and move on."
Fred felt her stare. She was a mixture of emotions, mostly negative ones.
"I'll talk to Edward first thing tomorrow morning. We'll have him and Kelly make up; the two of them talk it out, like a mature couple. In the end, they agree to an open relationship. The perv in me says let her keep her attraction to us so we can usher her into the harem, but I leave that to you."
"You're seriously considering adding her to the harem," she looked amazed, not in a good way.
"I'm merely riffing off the old plan, Deb. I'm okay if it doesn't happen, I'm just letting you know it's still a possibility should you wish it."
Deb looked like she was tasting rancid meat. "As of now, Kelly Loeffler is off the menu. I feel like a world class shit for what we did, Freddy. We need to make sure this doesn't happen again."
"Is that a good enough punishment, Deb?"
"Fuck, no. I'm used to punishments that feel like punishments, Freddy."