Close Friends Book 2 Part 04

July 1981

Gus sighed as he pulled into the apartment parking lot. Luckily, he found a space close to the walkway to their apartment and backed the truck in. He got out and put his hands to his lower back, stretched, then smiled when he saw his little station wagon in its assigned spot.

He expected them to get there first, given the slow speed of the old truck. It felt like people had honked at him the entire way home.

He walked up to their place and opened the door. The familiar sounds greeted him as he walked in. Music played and the people he loved most in the world were there. The girls sat and talked, scattered about. Mick and Bob were in the kitchen, looking like they were trying to cook something.

Lois jumped up and squealed, then ran over to him, trailed closely by Stacy.

"Oof!" Gus called out when Lois barrelled into him, her arms outstretched. She pulled him down by the neck and kissed him hard.

"Hi there," Gus chuckled when she pulled her lips from his. Her eyes twinkled up at him, and he felt the warmth of the incredible love he felt for Lois coursing through his body.

Another set of soft, feminine hands pushed Lois away from his neck and turned him around to look at her. Stacy pulled him down and kissed him deeply. He drew her to him and they embraced, both bodies pressed together tightly.

"And, hello to you, too," Gus said warmly as their kiss broke. He grinned down at her, then realized the studio apartment had gone silent except for the soft music coming from the stereo. Gus turned around and saw four faces staring right at him.

Stacy looked around Gus' side, then blushed. Her big, brown eyes looked from face to face. She pressed up close behind Gus, with only her head peering around him.

Lois turned and saw the look on everyone's face. She raised her shoulders and grinned at the group.

"Um, everyone... guess what happened while we were away?" She giggled, her eyebrows raised and a twinkle in her eye.

---***---

"Okay, guys," Lois announced. "I need some help. We've got a few boxes of things we brought with us we can use around here. If everyone grabs a box, then we can do it in one trip." They got up and she led them down to the truck.

Demi looked around inside the back of the truck as they unloaded the boxes to take up. "What's all the rest of this stuff?"

"It's for when we have a bigger place," Stacy answered.

Demi smiled broadly. "I can't wait for that," she said as she peered into various boxes.

"I see you've got another bed here," Sam noticed.

Lois grinned at her. "Yep. Gus is taking the waterbed down now. We'll have this up there by tonight."

"What? You're getting rid of the waterbed?" Demi cried. "We had so much fun on it," she said, a faraway look in her eye.

The other girls giggled. "Yeah, we did," Lois agreed. "But this is a king-sized bed. Much more room," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Hmm, room for more people. That could be fun, too," Demi giggled.

---***---

It took a few hours to drain, but as night fell, the guys dismantled the venerable old waterbed and carried it down to the truck.

"I'm gonna miss that bed," Gus said wistfully as they loaded the last piece.

Mick laughed and slapped Gus on the back. "You sure got a lot of mileage out of it!"

"Come on, let's get the new bed up there. The three of us can handle it," Bob said.

"How's it going?" Lois called as she leaned over the edge of the balcony. Three other female heads lined up next to her as they watched the guys struggle to get the bulky mattress up the stairs.

"Fine," Gus grunted as he lifted the end of the broad mattress, remembering how much easier it was to drag it out of the old one-story house. Mick was bent over as he lifted the other end, his back to them as he stepped slowly backwards up the stairs. Eventually, they got it up the stairs and into the apartment.

"Thanks for cleaning up and vacuuming," Gus said as they got the box spring and mattress into the room and put them into position. Lois kissed him, then got Stacy to help put on the sheets and blankets.

"Well, I think that's about it," Lois said. "We got everything we need out of the truck."

"Great," Gus sighed. "It's been a long day. We can go over to the storage place tomorrow and put away the rest of the stuff, then drop off the truck at that place nearby."

Lois sighed. "I'm gonna miss you," she said as she hugged Gus. "It was great being down there, just the three of us, even if it was for a sad reason."

"It was great," he grinned. "The three of us. I like that," he said as they walked to the door.

"Me, too," she smiled up at him, then looked over at Stacy, who was just coming out of the bathroom. Lois waved her over and pulled her into a hug. "See you tomorrow, sister."

"I don't want you to go, sis," Stacy said.

Lois smiled, then said, "Me neither. Take care of our guy."

Stacy grinned up at her brother. "Will do." She leaned close to Lois and whispered, "I can't wait for us to be together again, on that bed."

"Me too!" Lois whispered back, grinning.

"Okay, you two. Enough of the secrets," Sam laughed as she got her things. "Come on, Demi. I'll give you and Lois a ride home. You're on the way."

The guys walked them down to Sam's car and waved as they drove away. They could hear Stacy in the shower when they got back.

Gus closed the door and looked over at Mick as his friend went into the kitchen. Bob sat on the couch, not looking at Gus.

"Hey, guys?" Gus asked the room. Mick turned from the fridge and looked at him. Bob lifted his eyes and waited. "Um... you guys heard what Lois said. When I got home."

They both nodded, but stayed silent.

"I'm not sure how to explain this... so I guess I'll just say it like it is." He stood there, feeling his heart beating in his chest. It all seemed so simple that morning, as they sat on the couch in their old home talking about how to tell their friends.

Just tell them what happened, that Stacy and he were deeply in love, and they were now a 'throuple.' Simple, right?

Stacy and he hadn't believed Lois at first when she said it was an actual word, but she assured them it was, and accurately described their three-way relationship.

Oh well, Stacy's worth it. He just hoped the others saw things the way they did.

"Yeah, it's like this," he looked at Bob, then Mick, as he came over and sat on the couch. "Stacy and I have basically fallen in love. It's been happening for a long time, and it all came to a head when we were down there, getting things handled.

"We didn't plan this, and it wasn't until just recently I realized what I was feeling," he said. Looking down at the floor, he paused. "From what Lois told me, Stace has been feeling the same way for a while." He looked back up. "I didn't know she felt that way, and she didn't know what I was feeling."

Mick nodded, then looked over at Bob for a moment. He was looking somewhere over at the other side of the apartment, lost in thought.

After a bit, Mick nodded, and said, "Yeah... you could tell something was up with you guys. Has been for a while now."

Bob looked over at Mick, his brows furrowed slightly, then he nodded. "Yeah, it has." He looked right at Gus, making eye contact.

"Are you two ready to deal with this? I mean, really deal with... a brother and sister, doing..." He trailed off.

Gus nodded back at his friend. "We all get this is a serious thing. But," he said, looking at Mick, then back at Bob. "Remember, only you guys know she's my sister."

They both looked at each other as his words sunk in.

"I used to wonder sometimes, before, why I asked you guys to tell other people she was just a friend from down south. We have different last names, so no one can easily tell we're related. It seemed like a joke, or something fun to do.

"But now, I'm thinking maybe my subconscious, or something, was... I don't know, planning ahead? Anticipating something." He shook his head and stood up, walking around a little.

"But anyway, here we are. We can't help it, and, in all honesty, we don't want to. We fit together perfectly."

"What about Lois?" Mick asked.

"She's good with it," Gus exhaled and nodded to himself. He sat back down in his ratty, old recliner, facing his two best friends. "Actually, she's the one who got us to understand how we felt."

"How's that?" Bob asked.

"Well, she said she'd been watching us for some time, and wanted to help us figure things out. She talked with each of us, individually, about how we felt. Neither of us knew she was doing that with the other."

He looked at Bob, then Mick. "I don't know if you can imagine the struggle we've both been going through. Thinking the kinds of thoughts we have. About our sibling, and wondering if there was something wrong with us." He took a deep breath, then sat back.

"Lois helped us sort out how we felt. Come to grips with it, and realize we were truly... falling in love. I don't think we'd ever get it figured out if it wasn't for her.

"I don't know what you guys, or the girls, think of this. I hope you'll understand." He leaned forward, looking at one, then the other intently. "This is real. We're in this together for the long haul.

"And I mean all three of us. Lois, Stacy and me. We're together now, forever." He looked at them and said, "I'm gonna make this permanent."

"Wow...," Mick said softly, looking over at Bob.

"Dude. That's... a lot to take in," Bob said quietly, nodding and looking at the carpet.

"Yeah, I know! Tell me about it, I'm the one sleeping with my sister," Gus chuckled ruefully. "But it's for real, you know? I love her. Both of them, with all my heart."

Gus chuckled. "Lois calls it a 'throuple.' That's when there's three people in a relationship."

"And that's what you are? The three of you?" Mick asked.

"Yeah, we are," Gus said, nodding.

They sat there and looked at each other for a few moments. Gus took a deep breath, then asked, "Do you think I'm a freak for loving my sister this way?"

Mick looked at him, no expression at all on his face. He slowly grinned, then looked over at Bob, who shrugged.

"Dude," Mick said. "You remember when I told you about that time in Hawaii?"

"Yeah," Gus nodded. "You said it was on the beach when you went with your family for your eighteenth birthday. You told us you were surprised you got it so quickly, like out of the blue."

"That's right. You thought it was just some random chick I met, huh?"

"It wasn't?"

"Nope," Mick said, then paused. He looked over at Bob. "It was Tammy, my older sister. She'd gotten a bottle of sweet wine and we walked over between some trees at the edge of the beach. The moon was shining on the water. We drank it kinda fast, then laid down on the sand, listening to the breeze in the palm trees.

"The next thing I know, she rolled over and started touching me. She pulled my trunks down and started to blow me. Next thing I know, she's got them off, pulls off her bikini bottom and is fucking my brains out, right there on the beach."

Bob looked at him, his eyes wide. "Dude."

Mick nodded. "Afterwards, she lay next to me as I held her and asked me if I was okay. I laughed and told her, hell yeah! She was scared of what I'd think of her, if I hated her. I told her I loved her and thanked her for doing that with me.

"She kissed me and thanked me back, then told me it was a one-time thing, but it was something she'd always treasure. We've never done anything again and don't talk about it, but it was beautiful, you know, in its own way. Some kind of special love we created between us, like nothing I've ever felt with anyone else. We're really close now. She's someone I can talk with about anything."

He looked at them, then added, "And, um... I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat that," he said and laughed.

Gus was spellbound. "Wow," he breathed. "I wasn't sure anyone would understand about this kind of thing, let alone feel the same way. I thought I was some kind of freak."

Bob spoke up then, and said, "We'll then, I guess we're all freaks here."

Gus and Mick looked over at him.

Bob looked down, then back up with a grin. "One night my older sister, Cindy, came home drunk as shit and passed out on her bed. She had this halter top thing and it shifted and her tit was out. It's huge, you know? You've seen her, she's stacked."

Mick and Gus both grinned at him, remembering their time in the pool at Lois' house.

"Well, I went in to see if she was okay and found her that way. I figured I'd never get another chance and started to feel her up, squeezing her tits and stuff. I even sucked on them. She never even budged, she was so wasted!" he said.

He sighed and said, "I jacked off on her tits, got my spunk all over them, rubbed it in real good. I put her shirt kinda back on so it looked like she'd just fallen asleep with it loose around her. She never said a word, and I wonder if she even knew she woke up with my dried cum all over her boobs."

Bob shrugged. "So yeah. If you're both freaks, then so am I!"

Gus looked at his friends, amazed, shaking his head. Relief washed over him as he realized this just might work out, after all.

"The freak brothers!" Gus said and they high fived.

"I guess I don't have to ask, but can we keep telling people she's an old friend from down south? It's gonna get weird enough when we have to tell people we're a three-some. Lois and I've been through that before. Telling them she's my half-sister will not go well."

Bob laughed. "That's for sure!"

"Yeah, dude," Mick agreed. "It's okay with me, really." He looked over at Bob, who was nodding.

Bob looked at Gus, then Mick. "I've wondered about you and Stacy for a while. It's been all innocent between you guys, but there's been..."

Mick sat up. "Like an underlying current running between you and her."

Bob nodded. "Yeah, exactly. Something under the surface. There, but not obvious."

Mick smiled at Gus. "I'm sure the girls are totally into how romantic it is. You guys falling for each other, and all that."

Bob chuckled. "I bet Demi is totally getting off on it, too! She loved it when you three were a thing."

---***---

"Um, Lois...," Sam ventured, then stopped. She kept her eyes on the road, the lights of the oncoming cars sliding across her face as she drove.

Lois looked in the rear-view mirror from where she sat in the back seat behind Demi, who sat in the front passenger seat.

"Yeah?" Lois answered.

"Um...," Sam started, then stopped, her eyebrows furrowed.

Lois sighed and looked down at her lap for a moment. Sam caught the movement in the mirror and waited.

"Okay, it's like this...the very short answer is Stacy and Gus have been falling for each other since, basically, she showed up that night on his doorstep," Lois explained.

The girls made no sound at all.

"You know she's Gus' only blood relative, and they were very close growing up. He doted on her, protected her, loved her, all her life. From what she says, he was an awesome big brother."

"I bet he was," Demi said softly. "I wish I had one like him." Sam nodded, but remained silent.

"Yeah, and since she came to live with them, they've grown closer, emotionally. She only had her dad, and we know how that went for her."

Sam's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white. "Yeah," she said in a low, dark voice.

"So...with that trauma still fresh for her, and them rediscovering each other all this spring, well...," Lois paused and looked out the window at the passing houses.

She took a deep breath, then said, "They fell in love."

Lois looked at Sam's eyes in the rear-view mirror and waited. They flickered over and looked at Lois for a moment, then went back to the road.

Demi stirred and moved in her seat. "I can understand falling for Gus...," Demi said. "I mean, how could she not, right? He's her hero, her savior."

Sam nodded slowly as she drove.

"It's more than just that," Lois said from the backseat. "They've always been so close. Just the two of them, against a world that wasn't kind to them. They lost their mother when they were young.

"Her dad really mistreated Gus." Lois' words hitched as she spoke. "Did you know Gus' last name is his mother's maiden name? Poor guy doesn't even know his biological father's name."

She waited a moment. "Stacy's dad wasn't that great to her, either. She had to watch her older brother, the guy that was always there for her, get mistreated."

Sam looked back at Lois in the mirror again, but this time her eyes had softened and held compassion.

"Look," Lois said with an undertone of finality. "I can't explain why they fell in love, and I'm not going to judge it. From my point of view, it makes perfect sense. They may be half brother and sister, but they're so perfect together."

"But what about you?" Sam asked as her eyes looked at Lois. "Where do you fit in with all this?"

"I'm the one that made them realize how they actually felt."

Demi turned, her head whipping around the side of her seat. "You did what?"

"I saw what they were going through. I know Gus, remember," she said. "I could see the turmoil in him. I saw the same turmoil in Stacy."

She looked at Demi, then looked over in the mirror, catching Sam's eyes for a moment. "Come on! Tell me you haven't seen how they look at each other. Tell me you never saw the yearning those two have!"

Demi looked down for a moment, then said, "Yeah. I know what you're saying." She looked at Lois and nodded. "It makes sense...in a weird way," she chuckled, then grinned widely.

"Right? So I talked with each of them separately. Got them to come to grips with their feelings, so they could get it out in the open and see it for what it is. Then, when we were down there, just the three of us, we finally talked together and got it figured out."

Demi grinned over at Sam, who glanced at her, then turned back to the road, her expression unreadable. Demi turned back to Lois. "So you guys just talked while you were down there?" She asked mischievously, wiggling her brows.

Lois grinned back at her. "Not exactly...," she said, drawing out the words and grinning back.

"I knew it!" Demi burst out laughing. "Oh jeez, I can only imagine what the three of you got up to, all alone down there!" She chortled and rocked in her seat. "Really...when you think of all the stuff going on with all of us, how strange is this anyways?" Demi giggled and patted Lois' knee.

Sam took a deep breath and let it out. In a soft voice, she asked, "So what place do you have in this relationship? Did you give him up? I don't get it."

Lois shook her head. "Oh, hell no! He's mine, and I'm keeping that guy." She grinned at Sam as she looked in the mirror at Lois. "I'm gonna marry him one day," she said softly, but with conviction.

"But what about Stacy?" Sam asked, her head tilted a little.

"She's with him, too. With us. We're a throuple. That's the word when three equal partners are in a relationship."

She looked at Demi, then at Sam in the mirror. "This isn't really much different from when Demi was with us, except Stacy is just as in love with Gus as I am, and we both want to spend the rest of our lives together, with him.

"This is permanent. We're together now, and we're gonna stay that way."

"The three of you forever?" Demi asked.

Lois nodded. "Yup. Gus probably doesn't realize it yet, but he got married to us when we were down there. Neither of us is gonna let him go. Stacy and I talked it all out on the way back today when it was just us driving his car," she chuckled.

"Poor Gus! He has no chance," Samantha said, laughing. She drove for a distance, then glanced at Lois in the mirror. "I'm happy for you guys. It's weird, I'll tell you that." She shook her head softly. "But what else is new, huh?"