Half Step Ch. 03

I was lost in my doubts and self-recriminations when I got home. My parents, Mom especially before she died, had raised me to be considerate and kind. I had blown that all to shit this morning. I wondered if Allison was going to report what happened to the police. Maybe she already had and the next knock on the door would be officers here to arrest me. My dad wasn't around much anymore but Mrs. Jackson would be devastated, not to mention how this would affect Mandy. That creature in the forest that zapped me must have been some kind of infernal demon. I wasn't trying to pass the blame but he had done something to me and Sara and I felt this was the result. He was probably trying to get me to damn my soul, not that I had ever considered that it was possible to be truly damned before this.

Time flew by while my thoughts spun in circles until I heard a key in the front door. Besides me, Mrs. and Mr. Jackson as well as Mandy had keys to the house but I figured it was Mandy coming in as her parents were infrequent visitors. It was Amanda and she looked quite concerned as she joined me on the couch. Once again, she brought with her the smell of rich coffee although there was none of the sugary sweetness that I almost feared, for which I was thankful.

"Hey" she said by way of greeting. "I heard you skipped out on school after second period. That's not like you. Are you ok? Still affected by Friday night?"

Honestly, I was kind of freaked out about killing that guy on Friday but currently I was more worried about what just happened with Allison. I really wanted to talk to someone about it but the only person that I thought would believe me was Sara and we didn't have that kind of relationship. I didn't think Amanda would try to have me committed to the psych ward but maybe that's where I belonged anyway. I finally decided to take the chance and tell her everything, including the creepy magic parts, but I must have been thinking about it for too long as she spoke up first.

"Whatever is going on, you can tell me. Best friends remember? No matter what it is I can help." She scooted over closer to me and grabbed me for a hug. I was so wound up that her simple physical affection almost brought me to tears. I hadn't really cried since my Dad virtually abandoned me but I could feel my eyes tearing up. She was the person who I trusted the most and felt closest to. I decided that I had to tell Mandy what happened.

After a moment she pulled back from the hug and I started talking. I slowly recounted the unbelievable parts of the story from Friday. I described the fireball and the demon including as much of what he said as I could remember. I described how the demon hit me and Sara with a jolt of something and how I felt afterward. I told her about the guy I overheard in the hospital and then started in on what happened that morning.

It wasn't too difficult to describe the different scents I was now smelling from various girls. I even covered my findings from English class where I figured out how to pinpoint where each fragrance was coming from. Where I started struggling was telling Sara what happened in Physics with Allison. There were many false starts and pauses while I tried to get that story out. After going over what happened in the bathroom, I started in on how I felt about the whole thing and my concern that I had raped Allison.

Throughout my story Mandy just looked thoughtful which was better that looking at me like I was crazy and when I was done, she hugged me again. This time I couldn't stop actual tears from falling and soaking into her black hair. She held me for a long time whispering "it's ok, it's ok" over and over. It must have been at least five minutes later before I got myself under control and we separated. There were tissues on the coffee table and I gathered some to wipe my face and blow my nose. Mandy looked lost in thought for a moment before speaking.

"I think I believe you, as strange as this all sounds. I also don't think you raped Allison."

"What?" I exclaimed. "I don't want to have be rapist but why not?"

"Let me tell you about my day" she said. "Your story answers a lot of questions I had about things that happened today that had me confused. I know that both of us thought Sara was pretty but she wasn't someone we would want to go out with, mostly because of her cheerleader friends. Well, today was different for me. I was sitting next to her in our World History class in first period and I think she affected me the same way you affected Allison."

"Holy shit! Are you ok? What did she make you do?"

"Calm down Dave, I didn't do anything. Let me finish my story."

"Sorry, go ahead."

"So, while we were sitting there, I noticed just how pretty Sara is and started to kind of fantasize about her." Mandy blushed a bit when she said that. "I didn't know what was happening but for the first time I wanted her, badly. I don't know if she ever had an attraction to girls but I couldn't stop picturing doing her or her doing me. I lost all track of the lecture and felt drawn to Sara in a way I never have been before. If we had been at a party or something, I would have made a move on her for sure but we were in class so I behaved myself."

If that was similar to what I had done to Allison, maybe she could have controlled herself as well and she chose to pull me into that restroom. Before I could really think about it, Mandy continued her story. "Based on what you said and how I was feeling I bet that sweet smell you talk about is someone's arousal or horniness level or something. After thinking about Sara all through first period it took me quite a while to calm down. Anyway, I had another class with Sara after lunch and my reaction to her was completely different. If she has the same kind of hunger you do, she must have curbed it somehow between the classes we shared. I still found her more attractive than usual but she didn't have me fantasizing so vividly about her again."

That was more to think about although I quickly came up with another possible reason for the lesser affect Sara had on Mandy in their later class. "Were you sitting as close to her after lunch?"

"We sit next to each other in History and I sit directly behind her in French. It's about the same distance either way."

"Thanks Mandy, that makes me feel better I think."

"No problem Dave."

We sat in silence for a while as I thought over what Mandy's tale could mean. Maybe I had just made Allison excited and she took it from there. That meant that while I may have started the encounter and influenced her mindset, I didn't force her to do anything. I felt quite a bit better after that thought.

Eventually Mandy left for home. It was too late to go to soccer so I did some homework before making dinner. The rest of the day went by fairly normally and it was soon time to head to school on Tuesday morning. I once again was bombarded by the tasty scents from many of my female classmates but the gnawing hunger I felt on Monday was thankfully missing. My biggest worry was how Allison would react to me in Physics. We were still lab partners and would have to at least get along for the rest of the school year.

It turned out to be anticlimactic and a total non-issue, mostly. She was at our table before I was and other than blushing a bit when I walked in there wasn't much change in her demeanor. I tried to bring up our encounter from the day before but she gently put me off saying that it was fine and she didn't want to talk about it. The only real difference I could pinpoint was that soft notes of coffee were wrapped up in the cinnamon and sugar I detected from her the day before. The three smells combined into a whole that was almost intoxicating. I worried that if my hunger came back I would have to avoid her somehow or I would have trouble controlling myself around her.

The rest of the week went by and I felt like I was settling into a new equilibrium. I slowly got used to scenting my classmates and my resolution improved. It became almost like a map in my head of those within my range. Without much effort I could track where each scent or combination of scents was located around me as well as the intensity of each. I came to believe that Mandy was right about the sugary scent correlating with arousal. Thinking about that seemed to stoke my already high libido and I found myself masturbating much more often than usual.

I was walking through the halls during lunch on Thursday and came across a blast of sugary sweetness that dwarfed other scent other than Allison on Monday. I was so intrigued that I tracked it down to another set of single use restrooms like I had used with her that day. As I reached the lockers just outside the scent fizzed and sparked like pop rocks candy on my tongue. As the fizzing faded so did the intensity of the sweet smell itself. It made me so curious that I leaned against the lockers opposite the restroom doors and pretended to be engrossed in my phone waiting to see who emerged.

About five minutes later Sara walked out. Her face and neck were flushed and when she saw me, she immediately looked embarrassed. She was alone but her face looked quite similar to the way Allison's had looked after our tryst. I briefly wondered what had turned her on so much that she needed relief while school was in session until I realized that she may be experiencing something similar to what I was. If that was the case it's no wonder she needed some private time. I thought about trying to talk to her about it but she scurried off before I could speak.

I still wasn't sure what the other two scents implied. The only two people I came across smelling like coffee were Mandy and Allison. I wasn't sure what they had in common to produce that particular scent. The intensity also varied widely between them. Mandy smelt very strongly and didn't have the cinnamon that was Allison's main scent. Allison's scent also intensified each day during class. She would start out mostly cinnamon with a touch of coffee and sugar and would end class smelling strongly like a fresh baked frosted cinnamon roll sitting next to a cup of joe with extra sugar and cream.

The sugariness of other girls in school would wax and wane as the day went by as well. In contrast, the girls I got a cinnamon scent off of seemed to remain fairly constant. That scent did change a little day to day, but very slowly and some didn't waver at all. Once again, I had no clue what it could signify as there was no rhyme or reason to connect those girls that I could figure out. Eventually I resolved to just put it behind me and chalked it up to a side effect of whatever that demon had done.

Mandy came over a few times during the week and we talked more about what I was sensing and what it all could mean but she couldn't come up with any reasonable hypotheses either. We talked about Allison a few times and I felt better about that morning encounter after each conversation. We even touched on Sara and how she was affecting Amanda. Mandy still had her arousal stoked whenever she was near Sara but nothing like early on Monday. I brought up the idea of talking to Sara about it but neither of us really knew her well enough to predict how she would react to our questions so we left it alone.

It was Friday morning when the shoe dropped. Fred was waiting for me near my usual parking spot and braced me as soon as I exited my Jeep.

"You need to stay away from Allison, she's mine" he stated forcefully.

I was a bit confused because as far as I knew, Allison had never dated anyone, including Fred. I did remember her saying something about how Fred would be upset on Monday but had mostly put it out of my mind after my breakdown. I didn't want to confirm that anything had happened between me and Allison so I asked "what are you talking about?"

"Don't play with me Thompson! I know something's going on, her parents say that you're all she can talk about recently. I'm not going to warn you again. Butt out!"

With that Fred turned and marched away. I was left with even more questions. Why were Allison's parents telling Fred about what Allison spoke of? Why did Fred think he owned Allison? I thought about it on my way to class and even though Fred wanted me to stay away I figured I would ask her about it.

Like usual, she was there before I was, and without preamble I opened with, "Fred accosted me in the parking lot this morning."

"What?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, he said something about you belonging to him and that I should stay away."

"Oh my god! I can't believe he would do something like that." She lowered her voice to a whisper and asked "how did he even know what we did on Monday? I haven't told anyone. Have you been bragging?" She turned an angry face towards me with her last question.

"No way" I answered. "I wouldn't brag about that! I'm not that kind of guy." I almost said something about worrying about raping her but controlled myself at the last second. There's no way she would understand why I felt that way. "He said that your parents tipped him off. Something about me becoming a favorite topic of conversation for you."

Allison's face morphed from angry to chagrined at my comment. "Um, I didn't realize that I had been doing that. It's just that you're so much better than he ..." She trailed off after saying more than I think she meant to.

"Ahh, don't worry about it" I tried to reassure her. "I didn't know the two of you were together. Isn't he seeing Isabela right now? They're all over each other in the lunch room lately."

Allison looked down at her hands in her lap and quietly said "I can't really talk about it." She seemed lost in thought for a bit before continuing "I'll try and tone it down around my parents. You need to be careful though Dave, Fred can be really mean."

"Alright" I said. "I don't have any idea about what's going on with you, your family, and Fred but I'll try and keep my nose out of it. I am your friend though, regardless of what happened on Monday. If you ever feel you need to talk, I'm available anytime."

"Thanks Dave."

"No problem. You have my number, call or text if you need to."

The bell to start class rang before we could talk more and I quickly noticed that Allison smelt differently now. Her cinnamon and sugar were about what I had become used to but her coffee sent had been bolstered. She didn't smell as strongly as Mandy did but it was quite a bit more intense than it had been on Thursday. I pondered what that change could mean but couldn't think of anything at the time.

School and soccer filled the rest of my day and I had put it out of my mind until it was brought to my attention again while I was eating that evening. There was a knock on the door and when I opened it Fred barged his way in. I was totally unprepared as I had expected Mandy was the one knocking so I was knocked on my ass as he entered the house.

"I warned you!" Fred shouted down at me. His face was red and blotchy and he looked completely enraged. His fists were clenched at his sides, his knuckles white with his fury. I had a fleeting thought about the way my recent Fridays had turned out before Fred grabbed my attention again. "What did I say about Allison? She's mine and I've heard that you said something to upset her. Now I'm upset and you're not going to enjoy the result."

Other than the previous Friday I had never really been in any kind of physical altercation before. There had been some heated words and chest thumping on the soccer pitch, but nothing like this. I didn't know what to do but I knew that sitting on the floor wasn't going to help anything so I tried to stand. Fred took that opportunity to stride forward and plant his right fist square in my gut. I saw it coming but as I didn't know anything about fighting my attempted block completely whiffed.

The pain was intense, almost like the knife hilt I had been hit with and I found myself on my ass once again a few feet from where I started. I knew staying down would just get me kicked so I rolled to the side, trying to get the couch between us. I tried to get up sideways instead of towards Fred this time. I managed to gain my feet and kept on moving to keep the furniture between the two of us. I could feel my adrenalin pumping while I tried to figure out what to do. It wasn't that hard to stay away from Fred as he was mostly stalking around the couch instead of really running towards me.

He started taunting me, calling me a pussy for not standing up to him but I had no desire to really fight. Eventually I couldn't help but respond and exploded at him "What the fuck is wrong with you? Just stop already!" An incredible rush came from my pained abdomen when I shouted and my words seemed to ring in the air unnaturally. Fred came to a sudden halt and stared at me dumbly which I found incredibly odd.

"There's nothing wrong with me." Fred's voice had an eerie unfocused tone to it. "You have interfered with something of mine and need to be punished."

"You can't own Allison! She's not a slave or a thing that can belong to you, she's a person." The rush I felt before Fred stopped continued and my words once again seemed to hang in the air.

"I can't own Allison" Fred repeated in the same unfocused way as his previous comments.

I was really confused now and just wanted Fred to go away now that he seemed to no longer want to attack me. "Please leave now and in the future leave me and Allison alone." The rush I had been feeling while speaking seemed to peak and dissipate with my request and without that rush most of my energy also dispersed. I felt drained and I worried that Fred would snap out of whatever daze he was in and come after me again. Thankfully, he just turned and walked out the still open front door. I rushed over to lock it behind him and collapsed to the floor.

My stomach hurt where he punched me and I felt exhausted. After a minute or so I also felt ravenous. I slowly made my way back to my unfinished dinner and resumed eating. I had made myself a ribeye on the small grill out back and while it usually was enough, along with a potato and some steamed broccoli, I was still hungry when I was finished. I cleaned up and was digging through the fridge when Mandy called.

"Mom made a pie this afternoon and she told me to call and offer you a piece."

That sounded like just what the doctor ordered, something sugary and sweet was exactly what I needed. "That sounds great, should I head over there?"

"Nah, I'll bring it over. Give me just a sec."

It wasn't long before she arrived and I eagerly opened the door for the pie, and Mandy. It was an apple pie and its fragrance wafted enticingly through the room. I wasted no time digging right in. The buttery crust was perfectly flakey and the filling was sweet. The granny smith apples were tart enough to balance the whole thing and I devoured the slice Mandy brought over in no time at all. She was sitting across from me laughing about how quickly I consumed the pie and I couldn't help but smile back at her.

I cleaned up and washed the plate so that Mandy could take it back with her when she left. We both settled on the couch and she picked up the remote and started flipping channels. Hanging out and watching tv was such a frequent occurrence that neither of us needed to say a word as we got comfortable. I was still a touch hungry which was weird and reminded me of Monday morning. That thought caused me to sense the air in the living room. Mandy still gave off the coffee scent I had become accustomed to but she had a touch of cinnamon on her for the first time.

As I pondered this, I noticed that she was becoming sweeter by the second. Either the pie had covered up her scent or I hadn't been paying attention because she was approaching the level Allison had before we left for the nurses' office. I couldn't keep myself from reveling in the intoxicating aroma. It was light and sweet, blended with a deep dark roasted island coffee. I closed my eyes and could feel myself hardening in my shorts. I was almost lost in the experience until a touch on my had brought me back to the living room.