S-Duality: A Marauders Novella (7 page)

Sisco'd done time with Mac, Dawg, and
Bull a few years earlier, and his respect for the kid had grown a lot then. Once they got out, Mac'd marked Vi as his, they'd gotten married, and most of the others had dropped picking on Mac for what he was like with Vi. They were two good kids, and it was nice to see good people finding each other.

-o0o-

Seattle, Washington

NOT A FULL YEAR
after they'd shared that first night with Laurie, they were at her wedding.

Once she'd gotten more comfortable in bed, Trudy had asked her if she'd be okay with one more guy with them. Trudy'd invited Casey, one of her old fuck buddies. About an hour in, Sisco'd started to feel very expendable, and for a second he'd been pissed. Then he'd realized that Trudy was pretty fucking expendable as well. She'd pulled him out of the bed and took him to the armchair where they'd had their fun alone.
Neither Laurie nor Casey had seemed to even notice they were gone.

Three months later
they had been engaged, but they still played with Trudy and Sisco at times. Once Laurie had gotten into it, she'd loved it and wasn't prepared to stop, and Casey didn't mind. They'd talked a lot to Trudy about what rules she and Sisco had, and she'd been happy to help.

Laurie and Casey were quickly becoming their best friends. It worked. He thought Laurie was sexy as hell, and Casey
obviously thought Trudy was hot, but the other thing never turned up—that spark that could mean something different. And Trudy and Laurie were
really
hot together. Sometimes he and Casey opted to sit on the sidelines and just watch.

Sisc
o was sitting at a round table with a huge centerpiece of white and pink flowers when Laurie put her arms around his neck and gave his cheek a kiss.

“Are you getting drunk?” she asked.

“Yup.” He turned his head and looked at her. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” She sat down on the chair next to him. “For everything. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you and Trudy.”

“I hope you've told her that. She's extremely fucking proud about getting you two together.”

“I did.” Laurie took a glass of wine and smiled at him. “Just after I asked her if you two wanted to get in on our wedding night.”

He stared at her. “You want us there on your wedding night?”

“Like a celebratory thing of how we met.”

“That's a bit fucked up even to me.”

Laurie laughed. “Is that a no?”

“No, it's not, just think it's a bit weird that you want us there. Which means that if we ever get married, you won't be there on our wedding night.”

“She said the same thing.”

“Good to know we're on the same page.” He leaned forwards and gave Laurie's forehead a kiss. “Let us know what hotel we're sneaking into tonight.”

“Got that covered with your girl,” she said with a wink.

They did sneak into their hotel, and they had a lot of fun. Laurie's friends from her hometown had prepped the hotel room and left a bunch of toys, probably not knowing there would be some extra people there, but they made good use of them all.

Sisco and Trudy left the newlyweds to spend the night alone, and as they walked out, Trudy took his hand.

“I rock.”

“Yes you do,” he said and gave her a kiss. “Not the best couple you've set up, though.”

“Totally is!”

“Nope. You and I are better.”

“We are! Aren't we?” she laughed. “
We
rock! They said they could keep playing with us until they decided to have a kid. Casey said he loved you, but if a condom broke, he wouldn't want to take care of your hairy gnome kid.”

“Can't blame him for that. If we ever decide to have a kid, you can't have sex with other guys, either.”

It sort of fell out of him. He'd never thought about kids, and he didn't think Trudy had either. She didn't answer him for quite a while, and they walked silently next to each other until he was starting to wonder if she'd flip out. Then she finally spoke up.

“I think I want kids one day. Have a new, better family.”

“Me too,” he said and pulled her closer to kiss the top of her head. “But not yet.”

“No! God no! I'm still too young! And your beard might be impressive, but you're not old enough either.”

“Exactly.”

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the thought of the two of them having a kid. Again, not right then, but in the future. Get a chance to do it better, and be a real family. No beating, no selling your kids for drug money—yeah, it wasn't hard to be better parents than their parents had been, but he really thought he and Trudy could be
great
parents.

“One thing,” she said and turned around. “We stop selling pot when I get pregnant.”

“Yeah. Means we're gonna have to try to get regular jobs. Or... I need to get a regular job or just more hours at the garage.”

“Maybe you could be a roadie for some of the bands? You'd like that.”

“Honey, have you seen the guys?” he laughed. “They can't even afford a decent pair of jeans, let alone pay for people carrying their equipment. I get paid in beer and a t-shirt with a silkscreen print if I'm lucky. They pay for the pot, but that's about it.”

“We have time, we could try to save.”

“I am saving. We live in a shack, what the fuck do you think I'm doing with the money?”

“You need to try to turn some of it legal. Launder the money. We should start looking at that soon.”

“What?” he said and looked at her as if she was an alien and not the woman he'd been living with for years. “You know about that shit?”

“Yes I do,” she smiled, and threw her arms around his neck. “And since I love you, I'll teach you.”

Then something happened in Seattle. Something few of them saw coming, at least not Sisco. If someone had told him a year before that it
would
happen, he would’ve asked them if they could share some of whatever drug they were doing with him, since it was obviously top notch.

The music scene in Seattle started to become a
thing.
Riot Act had just recorded an album, and was going to do a short US tour just before its release. They'd asked him to be their tour manager. Sisco wasn't an idiot; he knew that when it came to bands like Riot Act, being a tour manager meant he'd be more of a roadie, merch seller, and the one who got to yell at promoters who hadn't done their job. He didn't care, it was just for a month and meant he'd be paid for hanging out with his friends. That sounded like a sweet deal to him.

They were cool guys, not among the needle junkies, and
since their first singer had O.D.'d, he was fairly sure they wouldn't become needle junkies either. They just wanted someone they actually knew and trusted with them on the road.

They took turns driving, which was a bit surprising to Sisco.
On more than one occasion while on tour with someone he'd ended up driving most of the time, but these guys were actually clean enough to drive.

“You what?” he said and looked at Jonah through the rearview mirror. “You're in a movie?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“No. Just a live gig thing in a scene at a club, but some of the guys from No Rain are acting, too.” Jonah shrugged. “It's pretty fucked up, but the director's a friend, so we thought we'd help him.”

Sisco shook his head with a laugh. Something was definitely going on with the music scene, and he wasn't fully convinced he liked it. He was glad it meant the guys got to tour, and that also helped him, since he was getting properly paid to do something he loved doing. He was sure it had to be better to be a roadie than to work at a garage.

“So when is it released?”

“No idea,” Jonah answered. “The movie company changed their mind about it or something. I don't know. I don't give a fuck either way.”

The tour was just supposed to be for around a month, but
dates kept being added—to everyone's surprise. He got more and more calls, faxes, and shit from the booking agent. It wasn't all that fucking easy to prepare a tour while
being
on tour. Trying to get hold of people using payphones and not having a number to leave them wasn't optimal, but he made it work. Sort of. At least well enough for no one to complain. Except him; he complained a lot!

He made sure they didn't get punk stews for food, that they got wine and beer, and the
specs of each place beforehand so he knew what to expect when they arrived. He got into it all pretty quickly.

They weren't big venues; the biggest had a capacity of around 1,000 people, but most of them more in the line of 250. The big difference from a few years ago was that the places were filling up, and they were actually selling stuff, too. Sisco kept calling the manager to get him to send more merch, and often whatever he had sold out early in the evening, which meant he could spend the rest of the evening drinking beer or filming the show.

When they'd been on the road for three weeks, and it became evident that they wouldn't be home by the end of the month, Trudy came to meet up with them. If they stayed the night at a place, he usually shared a room with Pete, but he got his own room that night.

“Fuck, I missed you,” he mumbled as he led her inside the motel room. “I'm horny as hell, and I'm gonna fuck you all fucking night.”

Trudy laughed and wrapped her legs around his waist. “So you haven't picked up one of their leftover teenage groupies?”

“Fuck no!” he said and looked at her. “Thought we'd agreed on that? I don't fuck a girl unless you can sit on her face while I do it.”

“Okay.” She drew a breath. “Missed you, too.”

“So, have you been nice, or do I need to worry about what you've been up to while I was gone?”

“I've been nice, but Jane wanted me to tell you she missed you and wanted you to come home soon. She misses playing with us.”

He laughed. “Honestly, not sure I'd consider it cheating if you played with Jane even if I wasn't around.”

Trudy started on his clothes again, and then her hand was around his cock.

“You wouldn't?”

“No, just tell me all about it in great detail during the next phone call,” he groaned and pulled off her t-shirt. “I wanna go down on you.”

She got out of her jeans and panties before getting down on the bed. He kneeled on the floor in front of the bed, grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. She rested her feet on his shoulders, and when he looked up at her, she smiled. He held her eyes as he gave her the first long lick. She was already dripping wet, and he loved the taste of her—he'd missed it.

“Please, honey,” she moaned.

He knew what she wanted, and opened his mouth over her clit, pressed the flat of his tongue against it and licked up and down over it. When her moans got louder, he released her waist and moved his hand down, teasing her soaking wet opening with two fingers. She tried to move towards them with an annoyed grunt, and he chuckled.

“Fuck you!” she groaned. “Give them to me.”

He let go of her clit and moved up over her. “I need to fuck you. Now! I'll give you more head later.”

She didn't protest, just spread her legs wide, but he flipped her over on her belly, lay down on top of her and pressed inside.

“I love you,” she mumbled and turned her head towards him
.

He gave her a deep kiss as he slowly pulled out before slamming inside her again. “Love you, too, baby.”

“Did you really mean it?” Trudy asked later that night. “What you said about Jane.”

“Has my girl been frustrated?” he chuckled and gave her a kiss.

“No. Just...” She went silent for a while. “I actually get what you mean. Jane is sort of a safe zone, isn't she? Not sure if I'd see it as cheating if it you had sex with her, either.”

“I wouldn't. Best part about having sex with Jane is watching you two together. I'd wanna hear about it, though. No sneaking, and it should get me off in some way, so give me details when I call.”

He knew Trudy'd had a lot of fuck buddies before she'd met him. He'd had them, too, but she'd always had a different type of relationship with hers. They'd been her friends—real friends. Most of them had continued to be her friends even when she hooked up with him and stopped having sex with them. Trudy had that thing about her. She was strong, something to lean on, but at the same time fragile in a way that made you wanna take care of her—protect her.

Jane had been one of Trudy's closest friends since her mid-teens, and she'd become Sisco's friend, too. It was never strange with her. She was totally cool at all times, and he'd been serious; he wouldn't see it as cheating if Trudy had sex with her, even if he wasn't around.

Once Jane's initial skepticism towards Sisco had disappeared, she'd embraced him completely. She'd even picked up on the nickname, Trudy, because she thought it was perfect. Most people actually did.