Tapestry Ch. 03

New tires!, her head began to spin.

She ran out of the bedroom, though the living room then the foyer and out the front door, tears forming in her eyes.

Bryan saw her just before she jumped into his arms. He spun her around and returned the embrace.

"That was unexpected," he set her down, laughing.

"This was unexpected," Vanessa waved at her car. She asked a question, even knowing that the answer would be. "How much do I owe you?"

"You owe me nothing," Bryan replied.

"Don't bullshit me," she said, and just then a bit of worry crept into her mind. She was already behind on her rent, and her credit cards were maxed out. Tires and a windshield were going to eat in to her food budget. "I know these weren't cheap."

"Safelite is coming this afternoon to replace your windshield," the other said. "You also need brakes and a ninety-thousand mile service, and I doubt you can afford any of those three."

Vanessa frowned to herself. As the night before, there was no taunt or judgment in his voice, only the simple statement of fact.

"Let's go inside, we need to talk." Bryan motioned for her to follow and they left the car one tire short.

Greg was nowhere to be found; Bryan said he had just gone to bed a few hours before. Jimmy was in the living room, seeming to watch two televisions, an iPad and a laptop computer, all while eating a big bowl of cereal.

"Are you hungry?"

Vanessa nodded. The house was stocked with an assortment of single-guy food, but she managed to rummage up some cold pizza and Diet Pepsi and she found a free spot on the couch next to all of Jimmy's stuff.

"What do you know about Craig and his family?" Jimmy asked.

"Not much," Vanessa shrugged. Bryan took the chair opposite them. "They have a lot of money."

"That's because his dad used to be one of the most corrupt sheriffs in all of North Carolina," Jimmy handed her the iPad, which showed him being arrested for fixing an election. She skimmed the article; apparently, he took a plea deal to a lesser charge and was barred from law enforcement, but that didn't stop his friends who owed him favours from finding other ways to enrich him. They also had a series of public records on Craig who had several domestic complaints filed against him that somehow always managed to get dismissed.

"I really know how to pick 'em." Vanessa had been doing a lot of sighing lately.

"We think you should stay with us for a while," Bryan said.

"You barely know me," Vanessa whispered. "And I can't afford to pay rent to live here."

"My parents own this house," her new friend replied. "None of us pay rent. You'll be responsible for a quarter of the gas, electricity, satellite and internet, plus your own food."

"That's it?"

"Yup," Bryan nodded. "My folks cover the rest of the monthly stuff around the house."

Vanessa's head was swimming. If she could get out of her lease, she might actually be able to make it with a real part-time job and not have to fuck guys for money. "Is Greg awake? I need to tell you guys some things first."

Although he only grudgingly got out of bed, the guys sat down and listened as Vanessa gave them the sanitized version of her life story. For some reason, she found herself trusting these three, whom she had met just the night before.

Where the boys came from basically stable households, her life was in constant flux. Her parents divorced when she was six, and she bounced between her folks, often depending on who was employed at the time. Her parents weren't bad people; they were unskilled and had few opportunities to better themselves. Money was always tight in her life, and in middle school, she discovered that letting boys touch her blooming breasts would get her a few dollars or a meal.

By the time she was through high school, she was selling sexual favours for cash and/or grades. Vanessa was a smart girl, but she had low self-esteem, bad luck, and didn't always make the best choices. She was arrested a couple of times for soliciting and marijuana possession. When she was fifteen, she had an abortion before Planned Parenthood had enabled her to get an IUD. Deep down she hated what she had become, but she was good at it, and really, it was the only life she knew. Plus, it paid the bills.

Despite all of the setbacks in her life, Vanessa was determined to do more with her life than squeak by and try to get on disability like her parents, or whore herself out forever. She was in the radiology technician program at Durham Tech, and many of her "clients" were Dukies, who seemed to have more money than sense.

She lived in a run-down studio apartment on the not-so-nice side of town, but it was what she could afford, and after bouts of homelessness growing up, she was thankful to have a roof over her head.

If she had grown up with the same circumstances as Bryan or Jimmy, she may have gotten in to Duke and she may have seen her ample breasts and wide, round hips as more than parts of herself to be sold.

The guys listened to her quietly. Her resolve was firm and her tears of self-pity had dried up long ago.

"You are welcome to stay here with us," Bryan repeated. "For any length of time you wish. Based on what I know about him, I think Craig is unstable and dangerous. I think if you go back to your apartment, you'll be in danger."

"Haven't you been listening to me?" Vanessa asked. "I'm not the kind of girl your mother would want living with you."

"You'd be surprised about some of the things my mother thinks." Bryan's expression was unreadable. "We are offering you the kind of opportunity you have never had before. Whether you take it is up to you."

"What do you guys want?" she said, her eyes narrowing.

"What do you mean?"

"No one is this nice. All guys want something. Do I have to fuck each of you once a week? What's the catch?"

"There is no catch," Jimmy said. "There are no conditions. There are rules for living here, but they are mostly of the 'don't mess with other people's stuff' and 'clean up after yourself' type."

"And if you want to continue your . . . um, 'business' . . . you'd have to do it somewhere other than here," Bryan added.

"I'm just a poor, white-trash whore," she said softly. "Why would you want me around?"

"If that's what you believe, that's all you'll ever be," Greg said firmly, but gently.

"Why pretend to be something you're not?" Vanessa said, more defensively than she meant.

"Why let the person you have been determine who you will be?" Greg shot back evenly. "You want more from life than fucking and sucking six guys at a time, don't you? Don't you?"

"Yes, goddammit!"

"Then be better than that!"

"I don't know how," she whispered. And with that, she buried her face in her hands and started to cry.

Bryan's arms wrapped around her and he pulled her into his shoulder. He slowly rocked back and forth, stroking her hair. Jimmy got up to get the Kleenex and a glass of water.

After a few minutes, her breathing calmed. She wiped her eyes.

"So are you staying?" Bryan asked quietly.

"Yes," Vanessa replied. "If you'll have me."

"Then let's go get your stuff and see about getting you out of your lease."

"I'm going back to bed," Greg mumbled.

"Wait!" she called as he began to stumble off. She ran up to him and gave the big man a hug. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For believing that I'm better than I am."

He didn't reply, but he returned her hug and then retreated into his room.

*****************

"This place is a dump," Jimmy said, the filter on his mouth obviously not working very well. Or maybe he didn't have one. Vanessa had no response. Of course, he was right. But still, it was her home.

It didn't take long to pack up her few possessions. Most of her childhood was contained in a box that had come with a pair of shoes: pictures, mementos and the like. She had some clothes, costume jewelry and her school books.

Jimmy and Bryan had brought some clear plastic bins that they filled quickly, and then they loaded up Jimmy's small SUV. She left most of the beat-up, found-by-the-dumpster furniture and the things that she didn't need. Over the years, her family had been evicted from a number of houses and apartments, and so she never really got attached to things.

"Does your hot water heater really not work?" Jimmy asked.

"It does about one day in five," Vanessa smiled weakly. "I'm used to taking cold showers."

"There's her out," Bryan said.

"What do you mean?"

"As part of your rental agreement, you pay rent and your landlord is responsible for regular maintenance and upkeep," Jimmy told her. "If he does not, he is in violation of the lease, and you can get out of it with no penalty."

"Really?" Her eyes got wide.

"Yes; do you have written records of you asking him to fix the hot water heater?"

"I sent him a bunch of emails and texts a couple of months ago, but I gave up after a while," she shrugged.

"Good," Jimmy smiled, and Vanessa couldn't help but smile along with him. "We'll need copies of those, and then you'll be free and clear."

"Can't he ruin my credit?"

"Not if he's hasn't fulfilled his responsibilities," Jimmy replied, as they gathered up the last of her stuff. "My brother's a lawyer; we'll get you out of this."

Vanessa seemed positively giddy as they drove back to their house. Safelite was there and they were putting the finishing touches on her new windshield. The guys dragged her stuff into the house and set it in the room where she had stayed the night before. It was now her room.

That evening, she soaked in the giant bathtub, ignoring her phone that was buzzing with guys looking for a hot piece of ass.

*****************

The four of them became fast friends. The guys were basically homebodies. Part of it was because they seemed to study a lot, but they were also computer nerds who seemed more comfortable sometimes in a virtual world than in the real one. They were quick to help her with her studies when she needed it (which was often), and they didn't seem like it bothered them, nor did they treat her as if she were stupid for not getting concepts (ie-Boolean algebra and Newtonian physics) that they had simply accepted as fact from seventh grade on.

Vanessa had changed her phone number after living with the guys for about three days when the booty calls had become too much for her to bear. She wanted to put that part of her life behind her as quickly as she could. There were a handful of people she gave her new number to, but for the most part, she decided to make a clean break from her past and thought it best that she stayed away from people who would only think of her as the whore with the big tits.

Craig only called her once, but he didn't leave a message, which she thought was odd. Jimmy insisted that she park her car in the garage at all times and tried to give her tips on watching out to see if she was being followed.

The guys also insisted that she go to the range and practice firing their handguns. She knew how to fire, clean and maintain a pistol, but she didn't own one of her own.

To her surprise, she learned that all three of the guys not only each had a safe full of handguns, but shotguns and sport rifles as well. The house was also well-stocked with Nerf guns with clips and darts hidden in the strangest places, all in preparation for the spontaneous shooting matches that erupted with startling regularity, especially on the occasions that they had friends over.

"Jimmy's the paranoid one," Bryan said one day, and she couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "Greg and I just like to shoot things."

They took her out to the firing range a couple of times, and she was a deadeye dick with the .38 special as well as the 10mm Glock. The kick of the Remington shotgun and .30-06 only got the best of her the first time she fired them.

The guys had all grown up together in Asheville.

"It broke my mother's heart when I decided to go to Duke," Bryan told her one night as they were sitting around over dinner. He was easily the best cook of the four of them. "She's a Tar Heel, through and through."

"Which mom is that?" Greg taunted. "The redhead?"

"The one Jimmy has a crush on," Bryan smiled.

"No, I like his blonde mom," Jimmy said. "She's got the biggest boobs."

"How many mothers do you have?" Vanessa asked, clearly confused.

"Three," Bryan smirked. "It's a long story. And it's my other mother who went to Chapel Hill."

They talked some more and played Xbox before turning in for the night. At 22, Vanessa was a couple of years older than the guys. Yet she only had around half the credits needed to get her associates degree, while they were close to getting their undergraduate degrees.

Her three new roommates were generally a positive influence. They didn't binge drink, do drugs or hang out with people who were up to no good. Their success made her want to study and do more with her life than she had done so far.

Vanessa went back to her room and got out her anatomy and physiology textbook. Greg and Bryan were in the pre-med program and it would be easy for them, so she gathered up her notebook and text book and went looking for one of the guys. Bryan's door was shut and it looked like his light was out, so she decided to leave him alone.

She went upstairs to see if Greg was still awake; he was the nightowl of the group. She knocked on his door, but didn't get a response. After a moment, she heard him speaking and realised that he was calling out targets to whomever was playing with and that he probably had his headphones on.

Checking he watch, she saw that it was late, so she decided to give up go to bed. On her way towards the steps, she noticed that Jimmy's door was just barely cracked, and that a light was on in his room. Against her better judgment, she went over to the door and peeked in.

Jimmy was sitting at his desk and watching porn on the computer. He had his headphones on and his cock in his hand. Vanessa's nipples crinkled up immediately.

None of the boys were chiseled beefcakes, but they were all reasonably good looking. Jimmy was the skinniest, and Vanessa reckoned that in a few years, he'd fill out nicely. For several minutes, she stayed at the door, watching her friend masturbate, and resisting the temptation to put her hand down her flannel pants and do the same.

She watched the screen as much as she watched him. It seemed Jimmy liked girls with big boobs, judging from his selections. She made a mental note to tease him a little extra.

In the darkness, she saw his body stiffen, and she knew he was cumming. As quietly as she could, she slipped away from the door and back down the steps.

Once in her own bed, she masturbated herself to orgasm, wondering what it would be like to have all three of her roommates at once.

*****************

The next weekend, Bryan and Greg announced that they were going home to Asheville to visit with their families for the weekend. They had invited her to go along, but she declined; she had just started working as a server at the Outback and she didn't want to lose any lucrative weekend shifts. Even though she wasn't paying rent anymore, she had to pay for gas, utilities, and her car insurance. Plus, it was always nice to have some spending money.

Jimmy had some big project he needed to do before Spring Break, so he would be staying, ostensibly to also make sure that Craig didn't cause any trouble for Vanessa.

On Friday night, she was one of the last servers off, which was fine by her; the money was good and she didn't have to lift her skirt to earn any of it.

When she got home, she expected to find Jimmy in his room either gaming or surfing for porn. Instead, he was in the cavernous living room watching TV. She came in and dropped her apron in the chair and went into the kitchen.

"Can I get you anything?" she called.

"You didn't bring any cheesefries home did you?"

"Not this time; sorry. I will tomorrow night."

"How about a Beck's?"

Vanessa got her friend a beer and handed it to him. He was watching an episode of Battlestar Somethingorother on the Blu-Ray player.

She didn't speak for a while and just watched along with him. Every now and then, she caught him peeking over at her out of the corner of his eye. She unbuttoned the top two buttons on her work-issued shirt and wiggled her top seductively.

"So, Jimmy," she started, when there was a lull in the action. She didn't feel bad about interrupting the show since she figured he had probably seen it several times (which he had). "Why don't you have a girlfriend?"

He just shrugged. As far as she knew, all three were single.

"What about the other guys? Do they have girlfriends?"

"Bryan is infatuated with Emily Koizumi and Greg isn't in to girls," Jimmy said with the kind of matter-of-factness he might also use to tell you that it there was a forty percent chance of rain the next day.

"What about you? Are you into girls?" she asked.

"It depends on the girl," he replied and then paused his show. "Are you into girls?"

"Not really." It was her turn to shrug. "I like dicks too much."

She did notice that his sweatpants were starting to bulge, and she decided that she'd led him on long enough. At least for now. "Good night, Jimmy."

"Good night, Vanessa."

As she got up from the couch, she could feel his eyes on her backside, so she put a little bit of extra sway in her hips.

The next day, Jimmy tried to pretend that nothing had happened the night before, but Vanessa noticed that he always seemed to be watching her. Not in the creepy, leering way that Craig and his friends would, but with obvious, puppy dog love.

Vanessa studied a little, and then went to work. When she came home, the lights in the living room and kitchen were on, but Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. His RAV4 was parked in the garage and his keys were hanging in their spot by the door.

She locked the door behind her and activated the house alarm. Vanessa went back to her room and changed from her button-down work shirt and jeans to a V-neck t-shirt that showed just a touch of cleavage and a pair of yoga pants.

"Jimmy!" she called. It was just before midnight and she expected him to either be playing computer games or surfing for porn again.

Sure enough, he was doing the latter. His door was closed, but she could hear that his speakers were on. A woman was doing a good job of enthusiastically faking a screaming orgasm.

Licking her lips, she knocked softly on the door. All she heard was the woman in the video. Ever so quietly, she turned the handle until the door opened just a crack.

Jimmy as apparently so engrossed in his computer screen that he didn't hear her. She pushed the door open, the light from the hallway spilling into the room.

"Oh, shit!" Jimmy scrambled to stop the video, put his cock away and pull up his pants. He found no success.

"Don't stop," Vanessa whispered.

"What?"

"Keep stroking your cock," she said, her voice husky. She went over to the bed and lay across the unmade covers. "Is that what you like, Jimmy? Girls with big tits? Girls with big tits who like to eat pussy?"

"Yes." His voice was barely audible.

"Are my tits big enough for you?" She caressed her breasts with large, exaggerated motions. His eyes seemed to be glued to her cleavage.

He nodded.

Vanessa moaned when she squeezed both of her breast at the same time. In the background, she could hear the porn video playing, but her gaze fell on Jimmy as she stroked is cock faster and faster.

Neither spoke. Vanessa made no move to undress herself, but she rubbed the mound of her pussy in addition to her breasts.

Her nipples were poking through the thin fabric of her top and she pinched them indulgently.