Maggie 2.19 (Patreon)

Max awoke to the sight of Cole asleep in the bed across from him again. It was early, just the moment after dawn where the grayness was burned from the morning sky and color had been pumped into it. A brilliant azure sky rose from the sleeping crests of Cole's mountainous horizon. He was hard again. Morning wood. Laying on his back like a proud conquering male. Satisfied and satiated, well-fed and capable. His thick cock had pushed up his shorts and the bulbous head stretched a tight threadbare knot in the cotton, protruding over his waistband. When he’d come inside Maggie last night it had seeped from her. Plopped in cold spatters onto Max’s scrotum and slithered over his balls and down the crack of his ass.

That was something to think about. Cole had pumped his semen into Maggie's willing pussy. More than willing. Eager, more precisely. Thankfully, Ken hadn't seen that display. But what had Ken seen? How much had he witnessed?

He'd have to tell Maggie, but he just couldn't. She'd be devastated. He didn't want her to have that shame. No, he would hold onto this bit of juicy truth. This would be his kill switch. As long as Ken himself never mentioned it he would keep this in his back pocket and draw it like a weapon when he lost further control. He would use it to restore order. Bring his little slut back to reality. Last night had been a horrible heart and soul crushing battle. But it had something glimmering in all that darkness. There had been moments where his heart had soared. There was a moment when all three of them had felt like one, and that was quite magical. Feeling Maggie against him while she got fucked was far different than hiding in the closet and watching. It was more than front row even. It was being one with her sexuality. It was Cole's cock running against his that had brought his orgasm. He was one with Maggie. Her pleasure in that moment was his pleasure. And Cole was a friend. Jay wasn't. Jay was unknown. He was accomplished and while it wasn't certain he was serious he had mentioned the L word. Love.

That was a no-no. That would initiate the kill switch. This was, for Maggie, about the things she had missed—for Max it was about watching her be intimate with other men to discover more about his own sexuality. Why did that drive him wild? Love, however, was a complication he didn't need complicating what was already complicated. Cole was fun, he was tuned into her and he was Max’s best friend. Four years he'd known Maggie and he'd never made a move. Cole could be trusted. Jay would now be pushed to the side of Maggie's plate. They had someone who would play and he seemed manageable.

Cole stirred. His hand moved to his stiff cock and gripped it. He pushed it down gripped it tighter, squeezed it, groaned and yawned. Let it go, turned to Max, saw he was awake, and said, “That was fucking wild.”

He nodded but his expression didn't change.

“You okay?”

“I am,” he said, but he didn't commit emotion to the words.

Cole went to his back now, and his arms went out, flexed and twisted while he stretched. “Fuck...that Maggie...she is something,” he said.

Max agreed, reminded him that they had to go early and that they were going to take Ken to T. F. Green. Worried about the ride in the Jeep. Would he say something? Max imagined he would keep it to himself. How could he say something? What would he say? Imagined if he saw his own sister with two of her friend's—knew he'd carry it to the grave. He would shudder every time he thought of it, would never forget it, but it would not be uttered. Still, he wasn't sure if Ken knew that Max had seen him watching. That would be uncomfortable. Something that awful, and the two of them shared the knowledge.

They skipped their showers. Brushed their teeth together, looking at each other's reflections in the mirror and both of them coming close to smiling but not actually doing it.

They packed quickly, hoping to get out of the house unaccounted. Moving silently, stuffing dirty clothes on top of clean. When they made their beds and got to the door Maggie was in the hall waiting for them.

“How long have you been standing here?” Max asked.

She looked worried. Cole put his arms round her and let his bag fall. She let herself be hugged, but her eyes were on Max. She said, “Ken’s not here.”

Max said, “Oh? What do you mean?”

“I mean he left already...”

“Without us?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, his room is empty, his bags are gone...”

“He was going with us—I got that right?” Cole asked, holding her face away from him so he could look in her eyes.

“Yes...”

Max asked, “He leave a note?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged, a restrained look of horror on her face. “You don't suppose...”

Cole said, “What?”

She said, “That he...” she let it hang, afraid to even suggest what she was afraid of.

“No,” Cole said, “no way. He would have said something.”

Max kept his mouth shut.

Cole held Maggie and she stared blankly into Max’s eyes. He looked supportive for her. Showed her strength.

Cole said, “Hey,” and he hooked a bent finger under her chin and tilted her mouth to his kiss. She let him kiss her but she was reluctant. Max was aroused by it. Felt pleasure from seeing her kiss his handsome friend, but not commit. He watched their lips press against each other, the plump shapes mash, then pout, come away.

He said, “Let's get out of here before your parents are up.”

“They're up,” she said.

“Shit,” he said.

Cole said, “Fuck.”

“They're not downstairs yet,” she said.

None of them said a word, they picked up their bags and things and they ran down the stairs to the darkened kitchen and out the door, onto the gravel. Crunched across the drive and into the Jeep. They put their bags in the back and Cole put the raven head in the back seat next to Max. Max asked Maggie. “There’s room for your bird cage. You want me to go back and get it?”

She shook her head with a sad expression. “I want to leave it behind,” she said. Her hands were folded over the center console of the Jeep and Max reached out and he held one of them, softly ran his thumb over it.

“I think that’s a good idea.” He kissed her and she kissed him back with enough gentle passion that her eyes closed. When she pulled away she looked in his eyes and they held that contact for a good long quiet moment. He couldn't say for sure what was in those eyes but he knew it was good and he knew he liked it.

As they made their way down the driveway and paused for the metal gate to open and let them out of the Becker compound Max asked, “You don’t think your dad has security cameras do you?”

It just came to him. Sitting alone in the back while Maggie scrolled her phone and Cole drove it hit him. The gate, the security it provided, the value of some of his art. He had real Pollocks.

Maggie’s head turned and regarded Cole. Max watched her eyebrows raise as she considered what he’d said. It was real.

“Oh shit,” Cole said.

“No,” Maggie groaned.

“Did he have cameras before?” Cole asked.

“No. Not when I was growing up. Not in the house,” she said. She tossed her phone in her purse so she could concentrate. She put her head in her hands. “Oh fuck,” she said into them, her voice muffled.

“Does he have cameras?” Cole asked, his voice urgent, his octave a little higher now.

Maggie looked back to Max. He shrugged his shoulders.

Cole had calmed down, brought himself under control. He said coolly, “Even if he did, he’d only check them if something was stolen, right? Why would he look at dumb old videos of nothing every morning?”

“You think?” Maggie asked. She’d gone pale.

Cole said, “Yeah, he’d only check if something was out of the ordinary. Right, Max?”

Maggie looked to him.

He frowned. Considered it. It was true. If he had cameras at all there wound be no reason to check them. Unless a suspicion was raised. He said, “Yeah, it’ll...if there was a recording...record over itself in a week or two.”

Maggie said, “Oh shit... why didn’t I think of that? ...”

The gate opened and they exited, headed out to the narrow country road that would takes then to Jamestown.

* * *

They crested a gravelly hill in the wobbly Jeep and Cole gasped, tugged the wheel hard. They were enclosed on both sides on the narrow treacherous road by towering pine trees and as they topped a short hill, their guts tingling at the sudden rise, they all saw a lone figure walking the road with a bag over his shoulder, slumped low like a Depression-era hobo.

“Fuck, Cole,” hissed as he wrenched the wheel hard and brought the jeep to a tearing halt in the rough surface, drawing the Jeep sideways across the road.

It was Ken. Walking the road, a backpack over his shoulder, head hung over his iPhone as he walked.

“What the hell...” Maggie whispered aloud in the quiet Jeep, not expecting an answer.

Dust settled around their windows, churning, falling below the height of the high Jeep doors. Ken had turned to them, He was startled. Max detected a weak artificial smile on his face. Maggie wound her window down, using the manual lever, her head bobbing with the effort.

“Ken, what are you doing out here?” she said out the window.

He made his way to her, said, “I called an Uber.”

“We were taking you,” she said, folding her arm out the open window and leaning on the door.

“I know,” he said, looked to Max, looked away quickly, down the road and up to the hill they’d just crested. He said, “I didn’t want to wreck... your schedule.”

“Our schedule?... Ken, we want to take you—it’s no problem.”

“Yeah,” he said, hoisting his bag higher on his shoulder, still having trouble looking in her eyes.

Cole said, “You called an Uber out to the middle of nowhere?”

“Uh-huh,” he said looking the screen of his phone.

Maggie said, “Cancel it, Ken. You idiot. We’ll take you.” She opened her door and got right out of the Jeep, set her feet down on the gravel.

Ken looked back the way they came and said, “We should get off the road, there’s a hill right there.”

Maggie said, “Just get in the Jeep already.”

He climbed in and he sat himself next to Max. He made eye contact. There was nothing there. Nothing blatant, but there was a guardedness that wasn't there before. Ken knew things had changed. And Max knew too.

Ken looked to Max’s lap, at the raven head he’d placed there to make room for him. The one he saw over his sister’s head as she fucked two guys at once. Her groom and the Best Man. Max took the raven head and passed it to the front seat. Maggie climbed back in the front, took it from him and she put it in her lap, did her belt up.

Max looked to Ken and smiled. Ken looked away. He was forlorn. Max didn’t press it. Looked out his own window and stayed quiet.

Cole said, “Dude, it’s no problem to take you to the airport. We left at the same time. No hassle at all.” He got the Jeep in gear and they were under way again.

Ken said, “Okay,” very quietly.

They drove half an hour to Warwick in relative silence. The Jeep was noisy and conversation between front and back was difficult. Cole tried to engage Ken, and he was responsive, but he kept his answers short—flipped through his phone and had one earbud in. When they got to the airport, Maggie hopped out and flipped her seat forward so he could climb down. Max watched them in the V between the door frame and he angled passenger seat. It was bright and crisp out but their two figures stood in blue shad under the canopy at the drop-off.

Maggie cocked her head, said to Ken, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Overworked. Not looking forward to getting back to it right now.”

“I’m sorry I was rude last night. I didn’t mean to be.”

“It’s okay,” he said. He hugged her, held her a good long while. When he let her go he said, “I love you. I want you to be happy. I want you to be careful.”

“Careful?”

He held her wrists, she had her arms at her sides. He said, “You can come visit me anytime. You’ve never seen my place.”

“Okay,” she said. “Maybe I’ll come see you. You can come to Vermont too.”

“Maybe I will,” said Ken. He hugged her again, let her go, waved to Cole and Max, said, “Thanks for the ride.”

They watched him disappear behind the sliding glass doors. They closed and all they saw was their own reflection. Maggie got back in the Jeep.

“What do you think?” she said, looking to Cole with worried brows then between the seats to Max.

Max said, “I think Stanford is killing him.”

She bit her lip, looked to Cole, said, “You think?”

Cole took her hand and said, “I think it’s okay.”

Maggie let her head fall against the seat, whispered, “I hope so.”

Max looked at their two hands combined. His Maggie’s familiar little graceful hand held in another man’s. He hated it but still felt a spark of excitement. He leaned forward, let his hand curve over theirs and he held them warmly. He looked to Maggie and he said, “Secret Society.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes.

Cole said, “We’ll take care of you.”

Max agreed, said, “We will.”

He squeezed their hand. They would do this a little longer. Do it until he didn’t want to anymore. There was more he wanted to see but he felt like it was in his control again. He felt like he was riding up top, if he held the wheel tight enough he could steer this machine, make it go where he wanted.