Close Friends Notes and Thoughts

Close Friends Notes and Thoughts

This tale is part memoir, part extrapolation and part wishful thinking, and it's been a true labor of love to write.

If you've made it to the end, you've witnessed the evolution of the group of six, then seven, grow into a stable, polyamorous group.

I wanted to explore how a group of friends might come together and enter into this kind of long-term relationship.

The reason is that I was in a group of close friends just like these after graduating high school over forty-five years ago and I've wondered if we might have somehow ended up like the characters did in this story.

The events, settings and characters in this story almost all stem from actual events, places and people from my past. Most of the supporting characters are based on people I've known over the years.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but in this story, no one is truly innocent. I've made sure of that.

This tale began when I moved to California after graduating high school in the Midwest. Most of the scenes in the first few chapters actually happened, with a few changes, and only a couple are purely fictional. The rest are based on actual events, and extrapolate out from at least a seed of genuine history. Some scenes are almost verbatim accounts of things that actually happened.

These early scenes are the memoir part of the story. Over forty-five years later, I think back on how extraordinary that time of my life was, and where it might have gone had a few things happened differently than they did.

As the story progresses, it passes beyond my actual experiences, and this is where the extrapolation I mentioned, coupled with a healthy dose of wishful thinking, especially with the sex scenes, takes over.

So what actually happened? Is any of this really true?

Good question.

Shortly after I turned eighteen, a series of events occurred that not only shaped my life, but were straight up sexy as hell. After I moved to California, I got a job, made friends and got a studio apartment. Almost exactly as the first chapter describes.

A close group coalesced, composed of myself, my two best friends and three beautiful young ladies.

As described in the first chapter, I got a job in an auto parts store after meeting Mick and Bob while working at K-Mart. I was surprised, and very happy, when Mick's ex-girlfriend, Demi, unexpectedly brought into my work a very cute girl that I ended up falling deeply in love with. The scene where Gus meets Lois is almost exactly how it actually happened.

And yes, Lois, Demi and I ended up hanging out together, the three of us basically dating for several weeks. I made out with both girls (while the three of us were together!) and gave them both back rubs, progressing so far as to have them get topless and allow me free access to their wonderful boobs, all the while being a horny and hapless virgin who didn't know how far, or fast, to take things. Oh man, they got me so damn horny. Just like in the story.

I lost my virginity to Lois, but not quite like in the story. It happened just after Lois and I became exclusive and Demi began dating Bob.

Alas, I did not lose my virginity to both girls at the same time, as that is where the story shifts into wishful thinking. But one night it almost happened. The three of us were making out on my waterbed, and we ended up with our hands all over each other. It still kills me to think after so many decades how close I came to realizing the miracle that I end the first chapter with. If I'd just known to take things a little further...

So what then?

Most of what happens after the first chapter is made up, extrapolated from where things were at the end of the mostly factual events in chapter one.

I've often looked back on that time and wondered if there might have been some path the six of us could have traveled that would have ended up with us in a polyamorous relationship.

I've wondered over the years how a stable, long-term polyamorous group might start and function, and that's the impetus for this story.

Book One begins that journey.

From chapter two on, with a few notable exceptions, this tale travels an imaginary path, taking you, the reader, on a journey that brings the characters together in a hopefully realistic and plausible way.

I asked myself, what if back then we started sharing with each other? We were very close. A few times we'd be laughing and playing around, and someone would touch another's boyfriend, or girlfriend, in a more than platonic way. There were times we'd kissed, and Mick once felt up Lois under her shirt in a dare. I humped her deep into my waterbed later that night.

We all joked around, and that was about it. But... what if we pushed things? Just a little further?

Might we have crossed some of the lines this story demolishes? Maybe. It didn't happen, but could it have?

Would we have had sex with each other? I would have loved to be with the other girls. I know the guys liked my girlfriend, Lois. She was so damn cute and sexy.

Would we have continued this? Could it have turned into something stable, where we formed a sort of family, or a group of husbands and wives?

These are the questions that prompted me to write this story. I wanted to explore this idea and see if I could answer those questions.

You said some other parts actually happened

Bob's mom did move away to the Sierra, leaving him to live in an old 70's style van that was lined with shag rugs on the walls and a bed in the back. He had a bean bag in there to sit on and provided the inspiration for the drive-in scene.

That drive-in existed, and we loved going there. But Lois, Demi, Bob and I didn't actually do those things there, however. There's some of that wishful thinking I mentioned earlier.

Bob lived in the van for a week or two, then I offered and he moved in. Not long after, things got bad between Mick and his father, and he, too, moved in. Very much like in this story.

The three of us guys shared that small studio apartment. The layout described in the story is exactly how it was, down to the large Budweiser beach towel pinned up over that old, ratchety orange couch. Not to lay any shame on that couch. I got laid on it more times than I can remember over the years.

Mick slept on the floor in the corner, and Bob got a daybed from Lois' parents and put it against the counter separating the living space and the kitchen. I got a queen size waterbed for $88 at a local store that's long since gone, hauling it home in Bob's van. It made distinctive noises whenever Lois and I made love on it.

The six of us went camping on the beach, sleeping between the high cliff and a large boulder, just like the story goes. We woke to find the waves lapping against our bare toes and had to abandon most of our stuff and wade through the cold salt water in the glistening moonlight. That really happened and scared the shit out of us. The jellyfish squishing between our sandaled toes was disgusting.

Who knew the ocean would rise that far? If you've ever been to the California beaches near Half Moon Bay, you know how high up the bottom of the cliffs are from the normal ocean height. That night, the ocean reached the base of the cliff, probably a vertical rise of twenty or more feet. It still buggers my imagination that it actually happened that clear night.

The dancing and sex before they went to sleep did not happen. Dammit. I still think that would have been so incredibly sexy, dancing naked around a fire while groping and screwing a naked young girl that wasn't my girlfriend, while my girlfriend and best buddy...

But, I digress.

We had a party one night, and someone passed around a joint we didn't know was laced with angel dust. I woke up the next morning on the floor between the bed and the front window and sat up to find about fifteen people sleeping all over the place. None of us remembered much of what happened that night, but it was fun embellishing that event for this tale.

Given the tight quarters, inhibitions around having sex with your partner while others were close by were significantly lowered. After a much shorter time than in the story, we all became comfortable enough to go to our beds and make love with our girlfriends, while the others did the same.

We kept the place dark, and I can only speak for myself, but I never saw the others

in flagrante

. Lois was more than enough to keep my attention. We couldn't see each other, but noise travels. My waterbed made a distinctive sound when Lois and I got into a rhythm, and the others would often tease us about it later, calling it our tidal wave.

Looking back now, it's remarkable that we wordlessly arrived at this point where the six of us would convene, laugh, talk, then turn out the lights and cuddle up with the one we loved. And fuck. Like frigging rabbits. It happened a lot. Damned sexy, if you ask me, thinking back on it.

But again, I digress.

I've told my wife these stories, and she still can't believe we all actually did it in the same room. I assure her we did, and laugh at the smirk she gives me as she calls me a man-slut. But I disagree. We were in love and had nowhere else to go, so we found a way.

I enjoyed writing that part of the story, and the hijinks they got up to after that.

Oh, and the bit where the small, scruffy guy on the run sells the guys a puck of almost 40 grams of hash so he could get a ticket to Canada? Yeah...

And Ann ate the last of my cookies, too, the little brat. She giggled for hours on the waterbed. I was so pissed at the time because I wanted one, too. Jenny wasn't there, and no one got naked.

So what about Stacy? Are you really that perverted?

Okay, time for complete honesty.

I'm an only child. All that stuff with Stacy is pure imagination. I don't have a sister.

Sorry about that.

Being an only child, the brother-sister incest genre has always intrigued me. I have no basis in experience to grasp what that might be like. Most of what I read seems far-fetched. I've only found a few stories that took the time for the siblings to evolve their relationship realistically to where it seemed feasible they could be together for the long haul.

I wanted to explore the incest genre and see if I could come up with a believable way for a brother and sister to end up together for life, basically marrying. Book two covers this, along with the further evolution of the gang's relationships.

I hope I succeeded with the Stacy subplot. It was interesting to write.

So what happened to everyone? And who are the other people in the story?

I've lost touch with most of these folks over the years. Turns out, I'm pretty bad at keeping in touch with people, a trait I'm not proud of.

Gus' backstory differs from mine, fortunately, as my parents both loved me, even though my father left us when I was little. I moved to the Bay Area at seventeen right after graduating high school in the Midwest, not Southern California.

Demi, the character, is an extrapolation of the real Demi, and while the real Demi was more sexually active than Lois or Sam, she wasn't quite the nympho I make her out to be. But I sure wish she had been. Gus in the story got way more from her than I did from the real Demi. I guess that's one of the perks of being a writer.

We lost contact many years ago, and I don't know what happened to her. Hopefully, she's happy. She deserves it. I loved her, in a way.

It was one night when Demi and I were alone that I got to third base for the first time. I came oh, so close to losing my virginity to her that night, but her mom came out of her room and we had to scramble to get our pants buttoned up before she could catch us making out on the living room sofa. Ah, good times.

Sam was cute, just a smidge overweight, curvy, busty, and very kind and sweet. She and Mick had a torrid love affair that went on for years. They moved on eventually. I always wished I'd had a chance with her. At least one time. Never happened. Sigh.

Bob passed away from cancer several years ago after living in Oregon for years. He appeared on stage many times, playing both the guitar and drums, and was also a paramedic.

Mick eventually reconciled with his dad, as mentioned in the story. He's the last of the group that I still keep in occasional contact with. He's had some serious health issues over the last few years. God bless him.

A fun fact is that Jenny is based on a real person. The real Jenny was a smoking hot Latina knockout, and a genuinely wonderful, fun person to be around. There were rumors that a scout from Playboy had asked her if she wanted to pose for the magazine, but I heard she turned him down. Dammit!

I kissed her once, but at the time was still a dumb, inexperienced virgin. Oh, what a way to lose one's virginity. I might have died and gone to heaven that day. Totally worth it.

Ann's looks are based on a real person, but the character couldn't be more different from the actual person. The real Ann was cute and sweet, and we dated for several weeks after Lois and I broke up. She was the second girl I had sex with, and I was her first. We really had no idea what we were doing, but had lots of fun figuring things out the short time we were together.

She'd already signed up for the Navy while in high school, and we ended up together for the summer after she'd graduated and before she had to enter the service. Even though I knew going into the relationship that she would be leaving, it still hurt to lose two girls in the course of a few months.

She was a true redhead, and yes, the drapes matched the rug. Ah, memories.

And what about Lois?

My Lois moved away after much too short a time in my life when her dad, a Master Sergeant in the Coast Guard, was reassigned to Washington state. We tried the long distance thing for a few weeks, but realized it wouldn't work, and broke up. I saw her briefly a few months later, then never again.

I felt torn about telling the story of Lois' rape. That happened to her several months before I met her. She never told me the actual details, but I believe it was similar to how it was described here.

Damn any man that does that to a woman. That wound never fully heals. Some victims end up forced to make the choice Lois faced. No one should ever be forced to make that life or death decision.

Lois told me not long after we started making love that she had been fearful and wasn't sure she'd be able to have sex again. I guess I did alright, as we ended up doing it almost every night from then on. I'm very grateful that I could help her heal in some way, at least.

I heard Lois passed away many years ago, but I don't know if it's true. I've looked online, but never found a trace of her.

I don't think the impact Lois had on my life for the few short months we were together is adequately conveyed in this story.

There's a corner of my heart that is, and always will be, very much in love with that young woman. She was cute, sweet, fun, frisky, slutty, loving, and everything I wanted in my first true love. And she really did give the most amazing blowjobs.

I miss you, Lois, and wish your father hadn't moved you away. We were too young to make that promise to each other, but I let the Gus in this story have that. I will always wonder what it would have been like in reality. The dream lives on in my head, and now in this story.

Okay, so what happens next?

Well, that depends on you, the reader. I have lots of ideas on a "Next Generation" third book in this series. If people find the first two books interesting, and they want to see where things might go, I'd be glad to write about them.

There's so many possible parts to that. What is a day in the life of a child that has seven parents like? How do you tell them, and when? Is it a secret?

And what about not knowing who your biological father is? Or who's related to you, or not?

Maybe some of the children embrace that lifestyle, and maybe others are disgusted by it and want nothing to do with them once they find out.

A little more detail on the seven could be told. How they matured, had kids, encountered the problems we all face in life, but complicated by their unique family structure and living arrangements.

It'd be interesting to pursue these ideas, seeing where they might lead.

Thank you for getting this far. I hope this has been an entertaining story, and please leave a comment. A five-star vote wouldn't be bad, either, if you're so inclined.