Chapter 12

That following Monday the captive trio were sitting in Bianca’s office while they waited on her to finish submitting the previous week’s payroll. While they were by no means comfortable in those seats, the room had become all the more familiar, and whereas before they would have sat in absolute silence, now there was room for the type of workplace venting between the two unwilling girls that typically happens after hours.

“I can’t believe I have to work Saturday.” Emer complained. “What am I supposed to do by myself all day tomorrow? I really don’t want to be stuck home changing Abner’s diapers again. I don’t know why, but since all this started, all of the sudden Rose is asking me to, like, wash dishes and stuff. I gotta get the hell out of that house. I thought we could hang out this weekend like old times, ya know?” the blonde boy said, like it was them hanging out was some event from a time long passed.

“Sometimes that’s just how the schedule works out, Emer-y.” Song replied, catching what was almost a fatal error should Bianca hear him call the blonde anything else. What he failed to catch was that he just defended the management of a place he’d rather not be working himself either. “I’ve gotta work Saturday too. I’ll be off Thursday, and my mom is talking about us taking the day to try and do a tik tok dance together.” The thought of his middle aged mother’s obsession with k-pop music caused him to visibly cringe. Emmanuel actually thought the idea sounded fun. He also thought it would be embarrassing, but doing something like that with his mom sounded like a great time.

“Actually,” Bianca interjected, a new devious plot forming in her mind upon hearing this information, “next week we’re having that big Fourth of July sale, so the assholes at corporate have me running a short staff this week, to save labor for it.” She finished with a few dramatic clicks on her keyboard, before standing and looming over the three teens with her usual practiced dominance.”Emmanuel, I’ve got to cut your hours some this week. Your next shift won’t be till Friday, okay? You’ll have to be here overtime after that though.”

“Umm…yeah…okay.” The idea of a few extra days off was appealing, but by now he knew there’d be some kind of catch.

Tapping her finger on her chin, Bianca considered what had been discussed and exactly how she could take advantage of things. Her friend Stephanie had been the one to come up with a lot of their plans for dealing with Ari, so she simply asked herself, ‘What would Steph do?’ as a way of helping kick start her own creativity. “You know, I was thinking, it’s such a lovely summer, and Emery’s right. It’s a shame that for the past few weeks you haven't been able to enjoy it. I’m thinking it’s time for you girls to get to do what everyone your age enjoys at this time in your life.”

“What’s that?” Song asked, knowing no good would come from the crazy bitch’s mouth.

“Dates with your boyfriend of course.” she squealed, clapping her hands excitedly. “You’re both still competing for his heart after all, so I think it’s best if you two really give it your all and try your best to please him. Emmanuel can tell me all about it when we all meet up again Friday night after work. I know he’ll provide a thorough detailed account, won’t you Emmanuel?”

The increasingly wicked woman asked the question with a smile, but behind that was a threat, and the three teens all knew it. Emmanuel nodded his head up and down furiously, terrified of anything that could possibly set Bianca off. He knew how easy he had it compared to the others and he wasn’t going to give her a reason to lock up his privates…or worse have them all locked up in jail as a collective punishment.

“Good. Tomorrow you and Emery can spend the day together, and you and Miss Song can make other plans later this week. Don’t forget to send me pics, okay?”

“Of course, Bianca.” Emmanuel agreed, while the other two side-eyed the suck up, wanting to punch him in the face right then and there.

“Excellent.” Bianca said, happy with her scheme’s continued momentum. “Normally I’d need you to practice kissing some more, but you’ll have plenty of time to do that on your romantic excursions. You all can go, but Emery, I’m going to need you to hang back for just a minute. It won’t be long, I promise. I’d hate for you to miss your bus.” She waved dramatically to the other two as they got up to walk out the door. See you tomorrow, Miss Song. I’m looking forward to our first one on one conversation.”

Song waved back, a happy smile on his face that was there more often than not these days, it being a fixture for work, not to mention his mother’s insistence on how a girl should always smile unless she had a reason not to. It was some nonsense about a smile being like armor or shield… or something. All the while the resentful you did his best to quell his rising anger, as he wondered if he’d ever truly get a free moment to himself again. Meanwhile, Emer stayed in his seat, blissfully ignorant to the plans Bianca was dreaming up, instead wondering what Rose was making for dinner. He asked, “What’s up?” but his mind was partially elsewhere, as was the norm. ‘Maybe it will be pot roast…or maybe a taco night!’

“How would you feel if I told you there was a way to get that cage removed?” Bianca asked, subtly pointing down to the seated boy's crotch.

“You’re gonna free Little Emer?!” he asked, his eyes lighting up like a kid getting a Nintendo Switch for Christmas.

Bianca almost corrected the name, but after a moment of thought, she found it humorous that even with everything the bimbo was going through he still kept the same pet name for his penis. “I’m saying you can free Little Emer if you can prove to me you’ve learned how to please someone else just the same as I can see you’re eager to please yourself.”

“Sure, I’ll do, like, anything.” Emer said, unable to make sense of the flowery language Bianca was using. Whatever she was asking, he didn’t care. It’s not unusual for a boy of Emer's age to masturbate daily, but for him it was a requirement, or so he felt. From the first time he’d touched himself in the shower at the tender age of twelve, nary a day went by where Little Emer had gone without attention from Emer himself, if not somebody else. Since his privates were locked up, to say the boy was frustrated would be an understatement. He was starting to think he might actually die, or even worse his balls might explode from the backed up load. When he said anything, he meant it. “If you want me to jerk Manny off so I can jerk off, then I’ll do it.”

“Not quite.” Bianca said with a chuckle, briefly unable to maintain the stern taskmaster image she’d so carefully cultivated. Emer’s readiness to masturbate his friend was just too amusing. “You need to really show me that you can give it your all when pleasing someone else.”

“So like…my mouth?” he asked earnestly, now fully engaged in the conversation, the thoughts of food completely forgotten.

Bianca clarified, “Or other things. The choice is up to you, sweetie. Just not your hands.”

“Right.” the blonde said with a nod. Internally he was trying to decide if Little Emer’s freedom was worth it. The image of exploding testicles replaying in his brain convinced him it was. “So…I can go?”

“You can go.” Bianca said, waving to the door. “I’ll see you Wednesday. Looking forward to hearing all about your date, Emery. Be a good girl for me, okay?”

“Okay.” Emer answered with a far-off stare, his mind dwelling on the task ahead as he collected his purse, and walked out the door with his now well-practiced wiggle.

Bianca watched the blonde go. She had heard her Emery doll complain about their heels hurting their feet, about how much work it was to keep their hair full of curls, but what she didn’t hear was a complaint about needing to sexually please their friend. “Well… that was easy.” She wondered if the cage had worked that well or if it was something else considering the lack of resistance.

On the bus ride home, after a quick discussion with Emmanuel, it was decided that the two would be sharing a picnic in the park the next day. Simple, cheap, and requiring little planning, it was the most appealing option for Emer, the event being something he’d do with his buddy whether it was a date or not. The only drawback was the secret homework assignment Bianca gave him.

At home, Rose was ecstatic hearing the news. Her little girl had only just accepted herself, and she already had a date with a boy, and from the pics she’d seen of Emmanuel, a handsome one to boot. Emer was left to babysit Abner while the eager stepmother took care of the next day's shopping much later than was typical. That way Emery could borrow Rose’s minivan for her date without having to suffer the two hour bus ride across town. She’d be damned if the picnic basket she was already mentally curating was going to spoil before the kids got the chance to enjoy it. Instead of their nightly television ritual, the excited parent spent the evening in her stepchild’s room, the two digging through the ever growing wardrobe for the perfect afternoon outfit, stylish and cute, but not over the top for a day outdoors.

After much deliberation, and half a dozen combinations tried on, the two blondes settled on an orange, sleeveless, mock turtleneck shell top paired with a black wrap skirt, decorated with four gold buttons on the front. The pieces were hung on the closet door with care. Before bed, Rose decided to treat the teen with a little pampering. The two shared an application of a charcoal face mask packet so her stepdaughter’s face would be pristine and glowing, radiating with her natural beauty.

Emer, for his part, was along for the ride. Trying on all those clothes felt like a lot of work, but Rose seemed thrilled so he didn’t complain. He did wonder how many outfits a few of the girls he’d been out with tried on before their dates. After that he wasn’t sure what the point of the goopy ordeal was, but when it was washed clean, even he recognized just how smooth his supple cheeks were as his hand grazed them while he sat brushing his hair in his little pink babydoll nightgown.

On the drive to the park the next day, the atmosphere was pleasant, though a little unfamiliar. It wasn’t often Emer and Emmanuel got to hang out without Song there dominating the conversation. At first the quiet boy didn’t say much, while the gorgeous creature next to him spent the better part of the drive babbling about Power Rangers, solar flares, chocolate cake, or whatever else popped into his brain. Emmanuel was pretty sure most of what Emer was going on about was probably incorrect in some fashion, but found himself fascinated anyway. It wasn’t what Emer was saying, but instead how he was saying it.

Emer had never had the deepest of voices, his pitch barely dropping lower after the start of puberty. It never bothered him, the boy speaking with just the right amount of vocal fry to sound like a California beach bum, or a frat boy in training. Always the social butterfly, the pseudo surf bro migrated from clique to clique all throughout his school years, picking up new vernacular every time he did. Over the past few weeks, without realizing it, he’d done the same thing all over again. The only difference was this time he’d spent all his time with his stepmother, and a bunch of women in a beauty shop. The only two boys he’d talked to were Emmanuel and Song, and with the latter’s rigid instruction from his mother, it wasn’t really like talking to a boy at all.

First he picked up a few of Rose’s little cutesy names for things, calling Abner’s diapers nappies, and such, and even calling his little brother precious every time he picked him up now. After a week of working with Mary he’d already started mirroring her inflections, speaking in a more singsong manner, especially when trying to make a sale to potential customers. Unconsciously slipping into another clique, he was suddenly complimenting the girls in the shop for their hair, outfits, or just their general style rather than just calling them hot. It definitely got him a better response and that experience repeatedly pushed the reward button in his simple brain, reinforcing the behavior, especially when Mary praised his cute outfits. Even though he still called everyone dude, or bro, unintentionally, the new feminine manner of speech painted him in a very different light.

Emmanuel had a cousin, his favorite, a tomboy who spent her childhood as the only girl in the neighborhood. She wore t-shirts and shorts almost every day, perfect for playing basketball with the boys. Her vernacular wasn’t much different from Emer’s in fact. A lot changed for the girl when she started high school however. Gone were the beat up rags replaced with frilly tops, and short skirts; tennis shoes traded for high heels. She was becoming a woman and she wanted everyone to know it. This didn’t do anything really to change how she spoke, but none of that detracted from the beautiful flower that bloomed.

At first with Emer, despite how pretty he was, Emmanuel still saw a boy in a dress, especially with the way the hairless chimpanzee stomped around in pumps as though they were combat boots. Slowly over the past couple weeks though, little things changed. Emer was now walking with practiced grace, much better than most of the girls in school who’d throw on the occasional pair of heels when an impulse struck them. With the subtle changes in vocabulary, as well as the new upward inflection that ended every sentence, all of the sudden Emery was becoming the same kind of girl as that cousin. She could still hang with the guys, but that didn’t do anything to detract from the feminine beauty she grew into. Emmanuel thought Emer sounded a little like Emma Stone, and it was a change he didn’t find all that unpleasant, as he hung on every nonsensical word.

“What do you think of that, Manny?” the pretty thing driving the van asked, snapping him out of his dreamy daze. Emer had called him that nickname a thousand times before, but something about the way the beautiful teen said it now had Emmanuel wrapped around their little finger whenever he heard it.

“What do I think about…there being bugs on the moon?” he asked, trying to keep up.

“Yeah, like little cute bear bugs or whatever. Ptarmigans, I think. I know they’re in space or something now. Do you think they’re on the moon? Like could they take it over since nobody else is up there?”

“Ummm, yeah sure, I don’t see why not.” Emmanuel could think of a million reasons why tardigrades, the micro-animal that had survived all mass extinction events, wouldn’t colonize the anaerobic moon, but didn’t argue. He knew it was Emer underneath all the pretty clothes, and perfect makeup, but he just couldn’t bring himself to break this beautiful girl's heart with his naysaying.

After finding a parking space, Emmanuel retrieved the little basket from the back seat, and the pair walked out onto the grass to find a spot to lay down their blanket. Unfortunately for Emer, with that first step his heels sunk deep into the soft ground, and he nearly fell on his face for the first time since mastering the challenging footwear. The heels of the shoes were chunkier than some of the others he wore, but his lack of experience in them caused a problem. Taking it in stride the feminized boy giggled, then asked, “Manny, you’re real strong right?”

“Ummm, I guess so. Why?”

The blonde didn’t answer. He just jumped on Emmanuel's back and squealed, “Piggyback ride!” with the same kind of grin his little toddler brother would have doing the same thing. The weight wasn’t nothing, and Emmanuel wasn’t really that strong, so the extra mass made the rest of the trek to a nearby shady spot under a tree a struggle, doubly so with all of the picnic gear to boot. However Emmanuel persevered onward, fueled by the adorable giggle coming from the smooth skinned beauty clinging to him. He tried to play it cool when they finally reached their destination, but he was clearly out of breath. Still, the rare smile on his face didn’t fade.

“I just realized I probably could have taken off my shoes.” Emer said, feeling a little guilty while Emmanuel tried to brush it off as though his face wasn’t beet red for at least five minutes afterwards.

“It’s fine, I ahh, don't mind.” he replied happily, while internally he continued to struggle with enjoying being touched by Emery, knowing she was still really Emer.

The little finger sandwiches were delicious, each one crafted by Emer himself, though under close scrutiny by his expert cook of a stepmom. Rose even slipped in a bottle of sparkling grape juice so the kids could feel a little more grown up. When Emer pulled out a folded game board and laid it out across the blanket, Emmanuel was surprised. He asked, “You play chess?”

“This is a checkerboard, silly.” Emer explained as if it was the most obvious response, then dumped out the little red and black pieces on top.

They played ten games in total, each one Emmanuel victorious. He actually tried to throw the last three but in spite of his efforts Emer couldn’t scrape a win together. The quiet boy tried to apologize over and over again, but his date assured him it was fine even though his scowl at the board betrayed his frustration. After stuffing all the things away, he pulled out his purse, and began to dig through it until he found a long red battery with a little cartridge screwed to the top of it. “Do you wanna smoke?” the blonde asked, offering the device to his date.

“Is that weed?” Emmanuel asked, picturing a cop leaping from the tree on top of him the moment he held it in his hands.

Emmanuel saw Emery’s pretty blue eyes light up in amusement. “Lol, no” Emer answered with a grin, and a small shake of his head causing his curls to bounce from the movement before putting the device to his lips and pressing the little button on the handle. “It’s just, like, a THC vape. It doesn’t smell like anything. Everyone smokes these outdoors now.”

“Did you just actually say lol?” Emmanuel asked, noticing yet another little phrase picked up from Mary. Clenching his jaw he tried to ignore how perfect Emery looked with the sun hitting her just right so that her blonde hair illuminated as her curls bobbed up and down in the wind. ‘This is just Emer… Emer and…’ After reminding himself his eyes were lying to him and that he knew the truth, he finished his thought out loud. “I really don’t want to go to jail, Emer. Where did you get that?”

“Dude, it’s like, half a crime. I know we’re not old enough, but my stepmom got it for me. We’re only like a few years from being able to buy it ourselves. Seriously, you wouldn’t go to jail. Just, like, a ticket, or whatever.”

“I think I’m okay.” Emmanuel said with a wave of his hand, not willing to take the risk of having to pay a fine, or something worse happening if the cop was in a bad mood.

“Suit yourself,” Emer replied, taking another hit off the pen. He’d made sure to bring the device today, needing a little crutch to get himself through what he was about to do. He slipped it back into his little handbag and said, “I really did have a great time today, by the way. You’re pretty fun, ya know. You just gotta lighten up, dude. We should go to the van now. We gotta do a thing before I lose my nerve.”

“Umm…okay.” Emmanuel collected the blanket and stuffed it back into the little wicker basket. The walk back to the vehicle wasn’t nearly as arduous with Emer walking beside, his black pumps dangling from his fingers.