Lisa Ch. 08b: Evil

"Manda, catch!" Don yelled and tossed the ball to Amanda who missed it.

"That's been going on for the past hour." Josh said nodding his head at Amanda, "This situation with Quinn, Caleb, Stan, Don and Amanda is going to ruin Jessica's party."

"I've been thinking about that too." Riley said, "I have half the mind to send them home."

"And that wouldn't ruin Jessica's day ..." Scott said.

Josh snorted, "Not an option Riley."

"Well, this can't keep up ..." Angus said. "Great ..." he added when Amanda, who had been swimming toward the ball, swam past it and pulled herself onto shore.

"Manda, where're you going?" Caleb asked as he, Stan and Don swam after her. Once on land, Amanda looked over her shoulder, saw the men swimming after her and took off at a run toward Quinn.

"Shit!" Corey hissed, and he, Chris, Sean, Mark, Justine, Leah and Sara followed.

"Look, we can sit here and piss and moan about this, or, we can do like Jessica wanted us to do and go talk to them." Jim said, "That is what Jessica wanted us to do, right?" he asked Riley, "Or are you fucking up the message delivery again?"

Riley narrowed his eyes at Jim, "That was the message, yes. But I don't want to spend Jessica's birthday party dealing with other people's problems."

"Neither do I. But the day is young." Jim said, "If we take care of this now it will salvage the rest of the day. I mean, Jessica's trying really hard to act like she doesn't care ..." Jim continued, getting to his feet, like the other men were doing also, just as Amanda reached Quinn, flew into his arms, and then hid behind him as the other men reached them. Jim flicked his chin in Jessica's direction. She was observing Amanda and the others and looking very uncertain as to what to do. She was slowly moving toward shore, Rick and Abe following her lead. "But she does. If we want her to have fun, we have to do something about this."

"Fucking shit ..." Angus muttered. "Fine. Let's do this." He said turning and marching toward the group by the picnic table.

Just then Caleb yelled, "You asshole!" and slugged Quinn, and Amanda screamed "Stop!" at the top of her lungs.

"Jess! Jess!" Josh shouted as Jessica began swimming for shore. "We got it, just relax ... 'k?" he asked, palms up when Jessica stopped and looked over at him. She flicked her eyes over to where Corey was holding Caleb back, Sean was stepping in front of Don and Stan while Amanda helped Quinn up. And then, at Riley, Angus, Scott and Jim jogging up toward the group. Looking back at Josh she nodded.

"Do you want me to stay here?" she asked.

Josh nodded, "With Rick and Abe ..." he said, looking to the two men to ensure they didn't mind. Both nodded. "Don't worry about anything okay? It'll be fine." Josh added.

Jessica nodded, "Be careful, all of you." She said, "And don't let Angus get punched in the nose again. I don't think his nose can take another break."

Josh smiled. She'd said it in as light a tone as she could but it was clear to Josh that Jim was right. She was pretending to not care. Why, he had no clue, but she was.

"Gotcha. Be back soon." He said and strode toward the group by the picnic table. Part way he looked back to see Jessica swim for the ball, reach it and toss it to Rick. Turning her back on the chaos on shore, she swam back to complete a triangle with Rick and Abe, and continue to volley the ball around. Josh shook his head, and jogged to catch up with the others.

"Aren't you worried that your men are going to lose it on them?" Abe asked, catching the ball when it came to him and looking at her men storming toward the group at the picnic table.

Jessica turned to look at the men too.

"No, it'll be fine." She said.

"How do you know?" Rick asked, "They look like they're going to slug somebody."

Jessica watched the men for a moment and could see how the tension in their bodies could be misconstrued as anger. Their bodies were definitely tense but she read no violent intent in them.

"Trust me." She said, turning back to Rick and Abe, "They're not angry. Annoyed, yes, but not angry."

"But how can you tell?" Abe asked, " If that's not their angry body language I'd hate to see what is."

"Apparently we're not the only ones misreading them ..." Rick muttered. Jessica followed his gaze. Caleb had been struggling against Corey, Quinn trying to gently shake Amanda off of him ... but when her men arrived everyone took one look at them and immediately took a step back.

Jessica chuckled, "I guess it'll work to their advantage."

"I guess ..." Abe said when no immediate violence occurred. His attention was quickly diverted when Jessica lobbed the ball toward him.

"Look." Riley said when he and the men arrived at the group. "We already spoke to you ..." he said to Caleb, Stan and Don, "And I don't know what Jessica said to you ..." he said to Quinn, "But we're going to do this all together now and get this settled once and for all. In this situation it is critical that Amanda treat you all equally, and that you all ..." he said fixing his eyes on Quinn, Caleb, Stan and Don, one by one, "enable her to. The only way you can do that for sure is to do everything ... and I mean everything ... together. It won't be forever ..." he added when all four men groaned, "eventually you'll all feel equal and it won't be an issue anymore, but to begin with everything has to be exactly equal."

"I'm sorry," Don said, "but I find it impossible to believe that you all really felt that unequal. I've seen no evidence that you have any issues with each other at all."

"That's because we don't have any issues with one another now." Scott said. "But believe me we did. And it was bad ... really bad."

"So bad that Scott, Josh and I almost left with Jessica." Jim added when no one looked convinced.

"And they were prepared to kill us to get away." Angus added.

Silence hung in the air.

"That's bullshit." Caleb said, having evaluated the timber of Angus' tone and the expressions on his, Riley, Jim, Josh and Scott's faces, "There's no way you'd be this calm about it if that had really happened."

"We weren't calm." Riley said, "Not at all. We beat the shit out of one another when Angus and I found out. And things would be different for us right now if it hadn't been for Jessica's desire to stay with all of us."

"We went through some very painful times." Angus said.

"Painful and awkward times ..." Josh added. "But in the end we made an oath to each other. That's how we got these tattoos." He said pointing the tattoo on his shoulder.

"Part of the oath requires to be completely honest with one another ... absolutely no secrets." Scott said. "And I'd suggest that for you too. It'll be ugly at first because I don't think you'll have a lot of nice things to say to one another. But at least you'll know you can trust one another. Things'll get better after that."

"So that's why Jessica is always telling you everything?" Leah asked.

Jim nodded.

"I don't know ..." Stan said. "You guys have known each other for forever. We've known Quinn for a few weeks. I don't see how it can work."

"Everyone has to be open to it ... 100% open to it." Jim said. Everyone looked at Quinn, who was looking surprisingly thoughtful.

When he realized everyone was waiting for him to say something he cleared his throat. "Normally I'd be skeptical about this whole thing ..." he began, pulling Amanda from behind him, around to stand in front of him. He looked at her. "But I've had the 'benefit' if you want to call it that, of sitting up here and observing. And what I've observed is that Jessica consistently, methodically, naturally, and creepily treats each of her men equally."

"What?" Amanda stuttered.

"It's weird. She never spends more time with one man more than the other. It's like she has some internal clock ... she moves from one to the other like clockwork. She looks at, smiles at, touches, kisses, hugs, laughs with ... loves, each one the same. When Jessica came to talk to me she never once mentioned anything about how she treats her men, or what you would have to do to make us feel equal, but she did talk about me and what I could do to make you see us men more equally. And it goes pretty well with what these guys are saying."

Quinn looked up at Stan, Don and Caleb. "If you're willing to try, I am too."

Silence hung in the air as Don, Stan, Caleb, Quinn, and Amanda looked at one another.

"You know, this sounds like something we should all be doing anyway." Sean said. He looked at Sara, "You and me ... you and me ..." he said again looking at Leah, "and you and me." He ended, looking at Corey. "It really can't hurt for us all to be honest with one another." He added, looking over at Chris, and then everyone else.

"I'd only recommend that if you're committing to staying together no matter what." Jim said. "It isn't easy, at all. And there will be times that you'll think it'd be easier to walk away then bother. Give it some time and think about it."

"But not you ..." Scott said to Don, Caleb, Stan, Amanda and Quinn, "you have no choice if you want your relationship to survive."

Don nodded his head. "I'm in." and he extended his hand to Quinn, who shook it.

"Okay." Stan said and did the same.

"Amanda?" Caleb said when Amanda seemed to be watching the men in stunned silence, "Are you up for this?"

Amanda nodded, "I'll do anything to make things better. Just please, include Quinn and I'll do whatever I have to to make sure you all feel equally treated."

"Okay, I'm in too then." Caleb said and shook Quinn's hand.

"What the hell?" Angus suddenly grumbled. Everyone looked at him in surprise, and found him looking down at the pond. They followed his gaze and saw Jessica, Rick and Abe coming up for air in the water.

"What?" Scott asked.

"Just watch ..." Angus said as the three climbed onto land.

Jessica, Rick and Abe seemed to be coordinating something. Then they lined up, ran at the pond and executed two handsprings and a double back somersault into the water in perfect synchronization.

"What the fuck ..." Riley muttered as the three broke the surface, high fived one another and then swam for shore.

"Gymnastics." Jim said.

"She told us about that the other night." Josh added, "What they were doing when Terry wasn't around for physiotherapy."

"Yeah, but fuck, when she said gymnastics I thought somersaults and cartwheels not something that belongs in the circus ..." Angus grumbled.

"She did mention stunt dancing ..." Scott said.

"I'm afraid to see what that means." Riley said.

"She wanted us to do it with her ... remember?" Josh asked. "And, I can fucking somersault into the water too. I'm going to show her my moves ... come on."

"As you can see ..." Riley said to everyone, "even with complete honesty you can be surprised. And now it's completely up to us and how we handle this that will determine how Jessica feels about us. She was honest with us, told us about the gymnastics and dancing all on her own accord and all pre-emptively. So ..." Riley said, his face breaking into a smile, "I'm good with going down there and belly flopping my way into joining her, Rick and Abe. The old me would have thrown a fit ... and that would have scared Jessica and pushed her away from me. And the old Jessica wouldn't have told us about any of this and we would have had to pry everything out of her."

"The old me would have beaten the shit out of her." Angus said quietly. "Any excuse to abuse her, I would have taken it. But I trust her now and it's not her fault that I'd imagined something different from what she meant. I think I can tumble my way into the pond too." He said, his voice and mood lightening. "Let's go."

"I'll grab her that drink she wanted." Jim said, "Meet you down there."

"Funny." Scott said as Jim was about to turn away, "That's what the old you would've done too."

"Naw," Angus said, "the old him would've been finding some way to keep me from hurting her."

"Was it really that bad?" Amanda asked.

"Better believe it." Angus said, "But that's ancient history. Race you to the pond..." he said and took off running.

Jessica, Rick and Abe had just crawled onto shore and now looked up in surprise to see the whole group running and screaming toward them.

"What's going on?" Abe asked.

"I don't know." Jessica said with a laugh, "But we better get out of the way ..." and she dove into the water, followed by Rick and Abe. They came up in the middle of the pond just in time to see Angus launch himself into the air, legs spread but bent, clutching his knees and rotating through the air only to over shoot the turn and belly flop into the water. Right behind him was everyone else. Jessica was laughing at the noise and waves created by the mob. From under the water a hand grabbed her ankle and then alternated with a second hand, climbing up her leg. Jessica looked down and laughed when Angus broke the surface. She wrapped her arms around his neck when he pulled her against him.

"That was a seven." She said with a laugh and kissed him.

"Seven!" he demanded but laughed. Soon everyone had surfaced, Riley, Josh and Scott beside Jessica and Angus.

"Jess, I think you understated things when you told us about the gymnastics you were doing." Scott said.

"I did?" Jessica asked and instantly looked concerned.

"We just imagined a different level of gymnastics that's all." Riley said.

"Yeah ... like kindergarden level." Angus said.

"Oh." Jessica said but she looked between the men and it was obvious that she was upset by the fact that the men had been taken by surprise. "I'm really sorry. I should have explained things more. I used to do competitive gymnastics, and dance. I guess I didn't think to make that clear."

"No worries Jess." Josh said.

"But about that stunt dancing ..." Angus said.

"Oh my God, yes ..." Jessica said suddenly looking very upset with herself.

"Jess ..." Riley said cupping her cheek, "Relax okay? You didn't do anything wrong and we're not upset with you. We'd just like a more detailed description of this dancing ... and you did say you wanted us to do it with you."

"Yeah, come on." She said beginning to swim toward shore, grasping Angus' hand and towing him behind her.

"Your fru fru drink ..." Jim said, approaching as Jessica and the men pushed to their feet and holding a glass up to Jessica.

"Thanks," Jessica said taking the glass and sipping it before handing it back to Jim, "Wow, that's good, and strong ...." She smacked her lips. "But I have to take it easy on that for a bit ... and so do you." She said indicating the beer Jim was holding in his other hand. She turned to the other men, "So Rick and Abe will show you how to hold and catch me ..." she continued, waving her hand to beckon Abe and Rick.

"What do you mean, catch you?" Scott asked.

"Well, stunt dancing involves a lot of throwing. You toss me up and I do gymnastic moves in the air." Jessica said.

"Figures ..." Angus grumbled but to Jessica's relief he smiled and winked at her.

"Umm," Jessica said as the others got out of the water and came to watch. "Normally I'd suggest Rick or Abe demonstrate ... but I don't think I'm appropriately dressed for that." She said looking down at her scanty bathing suit.

"Really?" Riley asked, eyeing Rick and Abe.

"Don't worry about that ..." Corey said with a laugh, "I don't think there's much to worry about there ..."

"What?" Rick demanded. Corey's laugh died and his face reddened as he realized he'd spoken aloud.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Rick growled.

"I, ah, saw you. By the garage the other day ..." Corey stammered.

"Must've seen what I did." Angus said.

Rick looked between Corey and Angus and his face turned bright red.

"Who knows?" Rick demanded.

"Rick ..." Abe began, stepping forward and putting his hand on Rick's shoulder. Jessica was once again struck by how calm Abe was in comparison to Rick ... even when Rick shook off Abe's hand and glared at him.

"Who knows?" Rick repeated.

"We all do." Leah said, "I mean, Corey told us ..." she glanced around at Corey, Stan, Sean, Don, Chris, Caleb, Quinn, Mark, Justine, Sara and Amanda, "And we don't care. It changes nothing for us."

"And I told Jessica, Riley, Scott, Josh and Jim." Angus said, "We don't care either."

Rick stared at everyone. His face changed to six different shades of red before he finally exhaled and shook his head. "Whatever." He said, "Regardless of that, I think everyone would be more comfortable if Jessica was wearing more clothing for this. You gotta grab her ass and neighboring areas a lot."

Jessica was nodding.

"We can do this up by the pool house just as easily as we can do it here." Abe piped in. "So she can change."

"Okay." Josh said, scooping Jessica into his arms. "Let's do it." And he started toward the pool house.

A couple of hours later Jessica sat perched on Josh's lap while eating some of the sandwiches that had been brought out again.

An hour and half had been spent stunting. Everyone had raised a sweat ... Leah, Amanda, Justine, and Sara also learning the stunts with their men. It had been an excellent exercise in building trust between Caleb, Quinn, Stan and Don. For the kind of things they were doing there was an incredible amount of trust that the girls had to have in the men to catch them. Amanda had demonstrated repeatedly that she trusted each one of the four men to the same degree by never flinching with one more than the other.

And Jessica had noticed that Mark seemed to be teamed up with Justine and Chris. And there seemed to be a level of intimacy between Mark and Justine that Jessica hadn't seen earlier. And, Chris didn't seem to mind. Jessica felt an odd sense of relief. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Mark. It couldn't be fun being the only one without a romantic interest.

Jessica's men had received an extra boost to their egos too when as the stunts had progressed in difficulty Abe had mentioned that everything past the most basic moves Jessica had been unable to complete with him and Rick because she hadn't trusted them enough. That had earned Jessica lots of extra pats, kisses, hugs, squeezes. The men were happy, of that Jessica had little doubt.

Once everyone was tired to the point that mistakes were starting to be made, they'd all changed back into their bathing suits and swam. And now they were eating.

No sooner had the sandwiches been finished than Angus appeared carrying another birthday cake, candles lit.

Jessica made the same wish she'd made earlier and once she'd blown out the candles she admired the cake decoration again. On part of the cake there was an exceptionally well-drawn image of a race car rounding a track. On the other half there was a book with a quill hovering over it. Jessica was on the verge of asking who had decorated the cakes when Josh held up a wrapped package.

"Happy birthday Jess," he muttered into her ear, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her tight once she took the package from him. "This ones from me ... open it." He urged. Jessica unwrapped the package to reveal a comic book. On the front there was a picture of a young girl, surrounded by five hairy and menacing looking monsters. The title read, 'Taming the Monsters.' Jessica opened the cover and found a paper that looked like a certificate. On it she read, 'proceeds in support of The Victims of Violence non-profit organization'.

Jessica shifted so she could see Josh.

"Look at the cover again ..." Josh said. Jessica did and was surprised to see that the girl looked like her and the monsters each resembled one of the men. "Jess ..." Josh whispered in her ear, "the proceeds from the porno comic go directly to you and I, but this comic ... the proceeds from this comic go to help victims of violence. You've tamed us Jess ... you've made us better. I had to put that into a story and I kind of thought you'd appreciate the money to help others ... Jess, are you okay?"