A plan comes together

After a short series of back and forths, Rina, Lucy, and myself all met up at the nearby park. We sat around a picnic table and discussed Nia’s current situation.

Lucy: Aaahhh man, that frickin’ girl…

Lucy facepalmed after we finished relaying the greater details to her.

Lucy: I thought she was being weird the last few days. I didn’t think it was anything this bad though.

Rina: I can’t believe she didn’t tell you about it.

Lucy’s blue eyes flashed with long held annoyance as she dragged her hand down her face, errant locks of her short blond hair pulled into a lopsided fringe.

Lucy: I can! Grrr, that girl has always been so bad about this kinda shit!

I propped my head in my hands and nodded, sympathizing heavily with her grievance.

Emery: Easy, Luce. I know where you’re coming from. It’s undeniably frustrating, but you know how she is…she means well.

Lucy: Haah I know, that’s why it pisses me off so much. Girl could afford to be a little more selfish when it matters.

There was something to be said for that. Though selflessness was often touted as a virtue, people who gave up too much only hurt themselves and those around them…

Rina: Well that’s what we’re here for now, ain’t it?

Lucy gave Rina an elated smile and slapped her hand on the table, its creaking rivets and aged wood producing a clattering slam to match her shifting mood.

Lucy: Amen to that, sister! We’re gonna give her a hand whether she wants it or not!

Emery: Mayyyybe not that far. Let’s not go too overboard. We don’t wanna upset her.

Rina: Hmmm, I get what you mean…

Lucy: Nuope! We’re going balls deep on this!

Though she’d expressly disagreed with our perspectives, I couldn’t help but chuckle at Lucy’s behavior. She was always so gungho, it never seemed to matter what issue she was tackling.

Emery: Hahh, as usual Lucy, you don’t seem too concerned about stepping on Nia’s toes.

Lucy: Yeah nah, I’ll happily step on em. She’ll get over it, haha. I mean sure, she’ll prolly bitch about it when I show up at her place and just start helping out, but she won’t stop me. I’ve known her and her family way too long for that.

Rina: Heheh, fair enough. Can’t say I hate the attitude. If I were in Nia’s shoes I’d appreciate a heavy handed approach like that.

Lucy leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her soda, eying Rina and I as she did.

Lucy: I know you’re anal about that kinda thing Em, and, don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be that way, but there’re also times to just go in without thinking too much. Yeah, I can be a lil pushy, but Nia needs a bit of that. There’s room for both approaches. I do my part my way, you guys do your part your way.

Rina: Well that’s part of the problem. It sounds like you know what you’re doing, but Em and I are still figuring out what we wanna do.

Lucy: What? You guys aren’t gonna fuck her brains out or something so she can destress?

Rina choked on her drink and started coughing, while my whole body tensed up as I struggled to process Lucy’s suggestion.

She had said it sarcastically, like a joke, and her expression said as much. Once it was clear the effect it had on us was past the stage of deniability, however, her jabbing smile grew into one of heated intrigue.

Lucy: ~Oh~, hahaha, no shit? So you guys are actually doing it, then?

Emery: I…uh, w-where did-

Lucy’s laughing grew even louder than her usual — a feat which always managed to impress me — as she waved her hand in a trivializing gesture.

Lucy: Sorry, sorry, that wasn’t fair of me. I’ll save you the headache and just spill it; Nia had to let something slip last Thursday so that I wouldn’t grill her, and I figured I’d test the waters just now to see if it was true. I did not think you two would be so obvious though, hahaha!

Clearing her throat, Rina downed the rest of her tea and jumped back into the conversation.

Rina: Well, excuse me for thinking that was a little outta left field. We’ve been chatting this whole week and you didn’t say anything about it!

Lucy: Haha, well yeah obvs! Would you have told me the truth?

Rina huffed and irritated the peeling paint of the table with her fingernail.

Rina: Aight, you got me there.

Emery: Yeah…I would’ve kept it to myself as well, unless I felt like I would’ve put Rina and Nia in jeopardy by not answering.

Lucy: Yeah, and that was where Nia was at. This one here couldn’t keep her hands off Nia when we were at the mall, so I had to make sure nothing shitty was going down.

Rina blushed as her past actions were put in the spotlight, seemingly having just been made aware of exactly how unsubtle she was allegedly acting on that day. Well, I say “alleged”, but, given Rina’s well-documented handsyness and the photos they had sent me last week, I had little doubt of Lucy’s claim.

Lucy winked at us as she continued.

Lucy: But don’t worry, she didn’t give me all the dirty deets. More or less just said you three were experimenting with some stuff.

I exhaled, partly in relief and partly out of exhaustion, and leaned against the table with my head between my elbows.

Emery: Well…thank you. I appreciate you doing that, and I really appreciate you being cool headed about it.

Lucy shrugged and took another sip of her soda.

Lucy: Eh, don’t sweat it. In the end, it was just as much for Nia’s sake. That girl freaks out about that stuff enough as is.

Emery: Yeah…

Lucy and I stared out in silence for a moment, caught in the memories of the past. These were quickly dispelled though, as Rina once again cleared her throat and leaned forward uncomfortably.

Rina: So, um…

Lucy: Oup, sorry girl. Didn’t mean to exclude you like that.

She stood up and stretched as she spoke. I was surprised she’d sat with us this long, honestly. I had never known her to stay still if she could avoid it.

Lucy: Anyways, I stand by my suggestion. You guys have something only you can do for her, and she needs all the help she can get right now. Why not go hard?

Rina and I looked at each other, working through our still waning embarrassment as we silently weighed the unexpected suggestion’s pros and cons.

Rina: Isn’t that like, kinda uncool to foist onto her though? What if she’s not in the mood after working so hard?

Lucy let out another one of her bellowing laughs.

Lucy: Oh Rina, you really haven’t known this side of Nia very long, huh?

Rina: What do you mean?

Lucy: Just trust me, spoil her in the right ways and she’ll be like puddy in your hands~. There’s a reason I’ve gotta get on her case about favors, even though I’ve known her for so long, while she’ll bend over backwards for Em at the drop of a hat. Have a little faith, you guys’ll do great. If you’re not sure, just ask the beast tamer his secrets~.

Rina: Uhh, right…

Rina gave a rather uncharacteristically intimidated look as Lucy pointed toward me. I couldn’t exactly deny that Nia was often more than willing to do whatever I asked of her, but it was a bit disquieting when phrased like that.

Emery: Uhh, haha, yeah. We’ll make it work, I’m sure.

Lucy: Yeah, you better! I wanna see Nia’s shining face as she tells me all about how you guys got her to unwind. If I hear you two fucking botched it after I spend the rest of my week over at her place then I’m gonna be pissed!

She crossed her arms and looked down at us with a very genuine sternness, before lightening up and slapping us on the backs with another series of cackles.

Lucy: But I’m sure I don’t need to worry about that, hehe. Anyway, I should head out. I gotta get stuff ready so I can appease Nia when I show up tomorrow morning, hehe!

With that, she abruptly jogged off with an excited, sincere smile. We exchanged one more awkward series of waves as she headed off into the distance.

Rina: Well…uh, guess we’re planning the session this weekend, heh. Better not fuck this up, huh?

Emery: …It certainly seems that way.

Rina looked at me with a curious expression.

Rina: So, um, show me what magic tricks you use, Mr. “Beast Tamer”.