On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3) (13 page)

She knew that one first hand, having lived it most of her
life. It occurred to her that Don should be made to understand this too, if he
could grasp it. He felt that his friends
liked
him, but didn't really
understand how much work they really put in to keeping him.

Blaine had gotten some practice weapons, which he'd wrapped
up in a sheet from his bed to carry. They were made of foam wrapped wood and in
bright colors so no one would think twice about them being used in the gym, which
was smart of him. He also seemed excited about the prospect. The Alede had all
had basic weapons in school of course, knives, sticks and irregular objects,
naturally, being just part of the curriculum at most schools. She turned to Don
and asked him if he had any experience with them, he shook his head.

“Nope. The closest I've ever come to swinging a sword is
playing Enigma Seven. I
have
been hunting, so I can use a rifle all
right, but... I don't really like killing things. It's a family event each
year, you understand? For a long time I
had
to do it. I stopped going a
while ago. That did
not
make my father happy with me.”

The girl that sat at the table behind them, the one that
always watched Kate eating turned, and looked directly at Don, nodding in
agreement with him.

“Yeah, that can be hard, going against family tradition like
that. In my family it's fishing. I can't even bear to eat fish any more... I
know, it probably sounds silly, since I'm sitting here eating a cow. But I
don't sit around in cow pastures killing them myself...” She turned back around
as if realizing she didn't really want to call attention to herself.

Don looked at her back for a minute and then tapped her on
the shoulder.

“Hey... Would you like to join us? I mean, if your friends
are all right with it? I've noticed you staring at Kate a lot and the angle
from over here would be
way
better for it. True, I've got some designs
on her myself, but, seriously, seven days in a week, right? No need for me to
get all greedy with her, it's not like we're going to get married or
anything...” The girl blushed and her friends laughed, but stopped when Blaine
pulled a chair over from another table and Britney scooted over, making a place
between them. Blaine motioned to the girl expectantly.

“I'm Blaine,” He pointed at each person in turn. “Britney's
my sister, and
we're
both single too, so, fair game. The hot brunette is
Kate, as you've probably worked out and that loud mouthed and inappropriate guy
is Don. He's right though. Seven
whole
days in a week and so many of us
sitting over here waiting for you. Come sit please!”

The girl colored, but made her way over anyway, with a bit of
trepidation. She didn't look comfortable, but she did take the time to stare at
Kate, who looked back, making all the right eye contact cues and wetting her
lips just enough to show real interest.

“Um, I'm Jelly... I mean, my names actually Jenifer, but
everyone calls me Jelly.” She spoke directly to Kate, though she did make
herself look around the table after she spoke, almost as if daring someone to
laugh at her, or possibly expecting them to. Don looked at her his eyes going
wide briefly.

“Someone at college with an actual nickname? How cool is
that! Please tell me that Jelly stands for something at least vaguely dirty...”
He mock leered at her, causing everyone to laugh, then shook his head as if saddened
by their laughter.

“I tell you Jelly, these people will turn even the most
innocent of statements into a joke.”

Jelly explained that her name actually came from an old
cartoon.

“Yogi bear lived in Jellystone park. I'm Jenifer Stone.
Someone started calling me Jellystone in the third grade and the name kind of
stuck. Not a great story... I'm thinking of changing it to involve a street
gang and maybe a volcano, but I haven't worked out the particulars yet.”

Don and Jelly then sat and worked on her new back story,
managing to work in a pack of rabid wolves and Vampires too. The others sat
watching and listening, almost mesmerized at the raw creativity in front of
them. They all knew that humans could and
did
things like this, but none
of
them
would have thought of it. The best alternative story Kate could
come up with involved liking peanut butter sandwiches a lot.

For an Alede that practically made her a creative genius.

As they were leaving, Don pulled Jelly aside and suggested
that she ask Kate out, but reminded her that he had a date with her on
Saturday. The girl blushed, asked if he was serious and ducked her head when
she realized he actually was. It was, Kate realized, both awkward and cute at
the same time. Handy too, if she got anything out of it. Getting sex wasn't all
that hard if you were one of her people, but the way Don was setting it up...
Well, it wouldn't be
that
hard for him to get with Jelly too, if he kept
that kind of thing up. Even if she only liked girls in the main.

As they walked to the gym, Britney looked at Don strangely,
and asked him why he was trying to hook this new girl up with Kate. Blaine had
actually floated a little bit away from them, so that he could see them all,
and watched with a curious look on his own face.

“Well... Kate flat out told us she likes girls too and, you
know, it's not like we've even
done
anything yet, so why shouldn't she
meet other people, too? Even if we were dating or something. Jelly seems nice,
so why shouldn't she get a shot, right?”

Then he walked on, leaving them all to catch up. Britney
stopped in her tracks and stared at him as he walked away. “Seriously?” She
muttered under her breath, a soft puff of white came from her breath in the
cold air. She stared at Don's back as he walked ahead, looking baffled and...
hopeful. Kate watched all this, fighting to keep her face straight. It was
interesting, and as Zack had predicted, kind of fun. Watching things slide
around without the others really understanding what was happening yet.

When Saturday came around, Don took her to the movie theater,
where she paid for everything, since, as she told him,
Zack
had brought
her money for it.

“And don't feel bad about that either. It just means he likes
you, I think. I mean, as a buddy, not like I do. He's... well, I think he may
actually be one of the top ten or so richest people in the world. The
real
world, the whole thing, not just this little Human part of it and he never
spends his money on anything... So for him to think about you like that, it's
kind of a big thing. He even sent money for snacks!” She pulled out the note
that Zack had written her, so that Don would believe her.

She'd been a bit shocked when Zack had handed the envelope to
her and told her to read it when he'd gone, since he had to hurry away after
feeding her energy. It was sweet, if a bit awkward trying to explain it all to
Don, but he just smiled and asked her to thank him, if he didn't see him to do
it himself.

After the movies ended they went back to her room, Don
getting quiet and distant.

“Um, well, I had a great time, so, you know, maybe we could
do it again, if you want?” He seemed suddenly shy for some reason, which
honestly baffled her. Clearly it was about sex, she could tell, but not why,
since he knew that she'd basically do anything he wanted, at least in theory.
They'd talked about it, and he'd seemed to understand at the time.

When he moved to leave, she put her hand on his arm.

“Wait a second...” Her voice sounded husky and playful as she
pulled him over to the bed.

“I won't
force
you to do anything, but I think you'd
better have a pretty good reason if you're just going leave. If you don't want to
have sex... Well, I mean you're a
guy
, I'm a
Succubus
, the other
Alede will make fun of me if I don't bang you at least twice before you go.
Especially Britney. You know, she actually
asked
me to have sex with
you? Not that I didn't
want
to before that, but how often do you have
one hot chick that desperately wants you,
asking
another hot chick to do
you?”

Don blushed and asked if Britney had actually said that.

As she pushed him back onto the bed, she told him that the
other girl
had
, and then, a bit later, as he lay panting she explained
the whole situation to him.

“So, Britney can't do you, not right now. And she doesn't
want to lose you, because, you know, she loves you. I think Blaine
probably
does too, but he's being all cool about it, because he knows you aren't into
guys. It's probably half the reason he's making her stay away from you though.
Sure the roommate thing
is
valid, but, come on, saying she can't do
anything
with you for that reason? I bet his tune would change if you were willing to do
them both...” She didn't wait for him to say anything, just went back to giving
him head. She listened to his breathing, but mainly paid attention to the
energy he released, doing things to raise the energy level as high as possible
and keeping it there. Luckily this corresponded to his level of pleasure, so
she could literally feel when she did something he really liked.

He finished quickly the first two times, but on the third and
fourth it took longer and they actually had sex, which he told her was his
first time. He'd brought condoms, but she explained that he didn't have to use
them with her, since she literally couldn't get or pass a disease at all and
couldn't get pregnant, not from sex at least.

After they finished, he rolled over and held her for a bit,
then, stroking her hair, he asked her how her kind reproduced if they didn't do
it the normal way. With a partner.

“It's different... We actually reproduce asexually. We can
choose to do it any time we want, if we have enough energy for it. Really,
though no one has ever proven it scientifically, it's believed that all Alede
are basically one line. So really, I'm probably as close to Britney and Blaine
as they are to each other genetically. Our looks change depending on where we
are, the groups of people we're around, that kind of thing. We always manage to
look really good for the society in which we live of course. It can make for
some interesting family reunions though!” She giggled.

“A friend of mine, Val? She's a light complected blonde. In
fact she looks a
lot
like Britney, only a couple of years older. If we
put them all in the same room she could easily pass as the twins' sister. Her
real
sister came to visit, about a month ago... Now, her sister's been living in
Africa for years, and her whole family are fast responders, they change quick
to match their surroundings, so she's totally black. I don't mean American
black either, but a deep purple black. Dead gorgeous, but she looks nothing
like Val at all now. If she stays here for a while, ten or twenty years,
probably less, her appearance will change to match what's hot wherever she ends
up.”

Kate watched Don, who'd closed his eyes, thinking about
something, though she could tell it involved her, from the energy coming off of
him, the lines directed at her, it didn't seem to involve sex, not directly. He
nodded to himself as if working something out in his head.

“Does this change take place internally or is it due to
external factors, do you know?”

That caught her off guard, being a strange question to ask
laying in bed. She asked him to clarify before answering, not really knowing
what he meant. When it became clear, she had to shrug, not really knowing the answer
at all.

He opened his eyes and stared at her.

“Well, if it's external, then you could control how you
looked, eventually at least, by controlling who you had around you, that would
take a lot of work and probably wouldn't be worth it, since you'll end up hot
regardless. But if it's internally directed, then you should be able to learn
to control your own looks directly. Just imagine that you're surrounded by
people that all have a certain look to them and decide what they think is
pretty. I mean, I don't know how long it would take, but it could give you some
say in what you ended up looking like, right?” He rolled over and cupped her
hip with his right hand, slowly moving down toward her leg over the smooth
skin.

“Probably take too long to be worth doing. Now if you had
some other change that took place faster, the two would probably be linked in
some way. Heh, sorry, just trying to think like I would if I were scripting a
video game.” Leaning in he kissed her stomach lightly, working his way lower,
kiss by kiss.

She pulled him up then and kissed him on the mouth hard,
working her tongue into his mouth a little, touching the tip to the inside of
his lip. She did all this automatically, her hand going back to his groin,
distracted as she was by her own thoughts. He got partially hard, and then
stayed that way, which made sense, since she'd exhausted him for the time
being. He'd need hours before he was ready to go again. She stopped the action
and pushed away from him, a bit excited.

“Um, OK, I'm going to tell you something that only, I don't
know, a few dozen Humans in the whole world know. This is a big time, for real
secret, OK? I don't want you to freak out about it either, but you already know
that I'm not really Human...

He moved back then and stared at her in pretend horror.

“Oh, my god... You're actually a reptoid aren't you?” He
cringed back a bit, laughing. She play hit at him until he stopped.

“No, I've met some, a few times even, most of them seem
really
nice. No, it's the
other
shocking thing that makes people cringe and get
all angsty even though they shouldn't...” This got a nod from him, and he sat
back.