CHAPTER 3:
"This is insane," Brian's father declared.
"Batshit crazy," Brian agreed.
"I'm holding your evidence in my hands and I still don't believe it. It's just too contrived."
"I wish I had taken your advice about wearing a bodycam."
"I wish you had too."
"It's just... I never expected to need it again. I thought of all of that as a one-off."
"The events that led to your expulsion and near-arrest back in California? That might have been true, but given your record because of that..."
"I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."
"Teenagers make mistakes, Brian. Even if you had knocked Susan up here without any coercion, we'd still be here for you."
"Disappointed in you, yes," Brian's mother added, "but we'd still support you."
"Now those three girls are going to get away with..."
"Rape?" Susan contributed to the conversation. While Susan was secretly thrilled at the idea of Brian taking his pleasure from her, having the Fureys get involved didn't please her at all.
"I guess the word still applies," Brian's father agreed. "They forced you two to have sex, and forcing someone to have sex is rape. But as far as the cops will look at it, absent hard proof they'll look at Brian's past and decide he set the whole thing up. And given how much premeditation has gone into this, I'd be willing to be the girls have manufactured an alibi too."
"I believe him," Brian's mother stated. "I know my boy. He wouldn't do this."
"While I can agree with that, nobody else will. This is a lot of effort to go to, just to prank someone you hate. It's why you don't see this happening, well, anywhere. What's next? After all, there's a 'Plan B' at the drugstore."
"I choose life," Susan stated. "There is no "plan B" for me, I'm not aborting, and they know I'd be this way." It was true, too; Even without the problem of "abort the baby, lose your magic," Susan couldn't bear the thought of trashing 'Brian's Gift' within her." Plus, this was a way they didn't have to tell Brian's parents about magic.
"There's always the chance you'll get lucky and not get pregnant."
"Sometimes, a woman just knows," Brian's mom said.
Brian's dad sighed. "And your own mother has sent you to us, to stay through the weekend? It's not even Friday yet."
"She wants me safe. This family feud I'm now a victim of has gone from cold to hot, and the Fureys don't know where you live, at least not yet."
"Wait. Fureys?" Brian's mom asked.
"That's right."
"Fuck." Brian's dad replied, and while his mom didn't say anything she too was upset.
Brian's dad continued. "What is your mother planning?"
"She didn't tell me what exactly she was going to do. She said she was going to negotiate peace, but I'm... I'm afraid. Peace has never worked before with them. And the triplets are used to throwing their weight around school; I'm sure they learned that from their family."
"Bullies?"
"Yes."
"And you went to an empty classroom of your own accord?"
Brian snorted. "Yeah, that was a dumb move on my part. I wanted to talk to Susan about the volleyball game, it was convenient, and there was nothing stopping us from going there."
"Just talk?"
"Well I wouldn't have minded making out with her a bit, but you know I wanted to wait on sex. Like you did."
"And here your mother and I have been more worried about your sister."
"Sister?" Susan asked.
"Brian's big sister is in college in Massachusetts," Brian's mom explained. "We've been worried she'll come home with a child growing in her belly; she was always wilder than Brian. Instead, we have...this..."
Susan shuddered; while it was true this wasn't her fault, she still felt guilty. "Mom did give me money to give you for this," she offered. "Cash."
"Do you have a bank account?" his dad asked.
"No, not yet."
"Well, we will have to open one for you, and deposit that money there. We won't be touching that money, and it's dangerous to carry around too much cash."
"So, you're not going to let me stay?" Susan whimpered, tensing up.
"No, you get to stay. With what's happened, you're family now. You'll pay in the form of chores." Susan leapt up and almost tackled Brian's dad in a hug.
"My name is Mark, and this is Lily. Are you Christian?"
"No, but Brian had already invited me before all this, and I agreed to go."
"Good," Mark said, then asked Brian. "I assume you'll want her sleeping with you?"
Brian frowned, but met his eyes and nodded his head. "Damage is already done, and I want to make our relationship work."
"I don't like it, but I don't like any of this. Just keep it quiet. And remember this is a school night."
Having gained his parents' permission, Brian thus escorted a blushing Susan to his bedroom. It was bigger than what he had in California, but this was a good thing as it meant there was room for what Susan had packed before coming here.
Brian didn't try to do anything with Susan; it had only been a few hours, and while the pepper-up that Jenny had supplied out of their first aid kit meant he had fully recovered from their previous activity, Susan was still sore. So, he helped Susan get situated, they ate a late dinner of leftovers that Brian's mom reheated, and went to bed.
"Susan?" Brian asked while they cuddled.
"Yes?"
"If you could, would you abort?"
Susan shuddered in his arms. "No. What I said earlier was true. I'm prochoice, but I choose life."
"That's still fucked up. You had plans for your life, and none of this is remotely your fault."
"I still do. Yes I'm scared, but I wouldn't want to torture myself for the rest of my life, wondering what my children would be like if I had just let them live. I choose the temporary fear now, rather than a lifetime of regret later."
"What about 'Plan B'?"
"And risk losing my magic?"
"But if it wasn't a risk?"
Susan moved her hand to her abdomen, and imagined his sperm uniting with her eggs, and the resulting zygotes growing and floating into her uterus to implant itself and grow into their babies. She moaned in contentment, "I already love our babies, Brian. No way am I just 'giving that up'."
Brian didn't push, and Susan didn't elaborate further, so the two teenagers happily fell asleep in each others' arms.
The next day at school was harrowing. It was in math class that her day fell apart. The triplets were there, of course, and giggled and pointed at her as if to say "what'cha gonna do about it, bitch?" But there was nothing for her to do. She had promised her mom, and now Brian too, to stay out of it, and even without that promise she now had her babies' safety to think about.
Her babies. Hers and Brian's. The thought thrilled and terrified her. Part of her wanted to get Brian to knock the triplets up in turn for what they had done, and in some strange way the thought of her man making more babies (and then coming home to her, of course) was quite erotic for her, but no, out of all the people she might be tempted to aim Brian at, the Furey triplets didn't deserve his attention. Perhaps she could convince Brian to volunteer at the local fertility clinic. A little magic would be enough to let him "share his wealth" with deserving women in need -- and she'd pick them for him, and maybe participate too.
Damn but now she was horny, and school wouldn't wait for her to relieve herself, so she had to stew in her own juices, trying to concentrate on math of all things. And so time passed, until the principle opened the door to the classroom -- flanked by two cops.
"I'm here for the Furey sisters," he explained to the teacher as he looked at the identical triplets -- who for once had lost their air of superiority. As they stood, Susan risked a small hand gesture and whispered incantation. Without a wand to boost her magic, the mind-reading spell wouldn't do more than give her a vague impression of what the principle was thinking, but that impression was enough; he was upset but not with the triplets. Something serious had happened but the girls weren't in trouble.
Susan froze as her mind put it all together. Her mother had gone to see the Fureys but had waited until the triplets were in school. Susan had known something was going to go wrong, and now something had. How long would it be before Susan got called away?
As the triplets left the class, Susan cast a distraction spell then tried calling her mom but got no answer. Panicking, she texted Brian on her cellphone: "911 meet me OUTSIDE chem class". Fortunately chemistry was their next class anyway. She couldn't run out of math class without breaking her distraction spell (damn but she really could have used her wand right then) so would have to wait.
After 15 minutes of eternity the bell finally rang and Susan bolted for the door. Brian wasn't at chemistry yet so she had to wait another eternity before he showed up and she collapsed into his arms, crying. The scene actually attracted the teacher inside to come out and investigate. Sensing it was serious, he returned to his classroom and came back with a hall pass and handed it to Brian.
"You're good enough that you can make up today's assignment while you do the next one," he explained. "Meanwhile I'd rather not have you messing with chemicals when you are so distracted. And Susan, you don't even have your bag with you. Leah, Tracey, get inside." It was only then that Susan realized she left her bag back in math class, nor had she noticed her friends.
The classroom doors each had a small window that you could see through; by this method Brian located an empty classroom, led Susan to the teacher's chair (always bigger than a student chair, and without a desk surface attached to the front of it), and sat in it, bring her down upon him. There, he held her until she calmed enough to explain what happened, including that Susan couldn't call her on the phone.
"I think mom is dead," Susan concluded after trying her phone once again. "It's going straight to voicemail, like it's turned off, or destroyed."
"Or not getting enough signal in the mountains," Brian countered.
"You think she's still alive?"
"We don't know anything."
"But what do we do?"
"We wait and see. If they want to contact you, they can do so here in school or at my house. And yes, they know to find you at my house. The halls are video recorded with closed circuit tv; they can easily see that you arrived and left the school with me. Hell, your friends know about me; they could simply ask them where you are."
"But shouldn't we strike at them before they come for me?"
"I know you said there's no such thing as magical law enforcement, but what you're talking about isn't justice. It's revenge. And really, what are you doing to do, that your mother couldn't have done? And need I remind you about our babies?"
He didn't, actually, but she was grasping at straws. If her mom was dead, the Fureys would be coming for her next and there was really nothing to do but...
"Run," she concluded. "The Fureys can easily find where you live too. They win; we run away."
"If we have to. Time will tell."
