The story of Al becoming Alistaire was such a big hit, I decided to go ahead and write a sequel series with all the ideas I had but never used in the original. While these tales are presented in the order in which they end, the early portions of each may overlap.
I'd like to make a special shout out to the readers and commenters who responded so wonderfully to Alistaire's first cycle. His further adventures are dedicated to you.
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THE ONE WITH BRIDGET AND PETRA
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"So Bridget," Ben asked casually. We were in a brief pause while I went through some notes. I was Dungeon Mastering our usual Sunday D&D session. With only a month to go until graduation, less really, I had been putting in extra effort to make our final adventures together special, or at least less pedestrian than my usual story-leading efforts. "How was your date with Danny last night?" Adam and Tres slid their eyes toward each other. Talking about our social lives, especially Bridget's social life, was usually avoided. You would expect that, since our group formed as four less-than social butterflies and a weird but attractive girl. Things had changed in that department, of course, but in our group, even those of us aware of that fact acted as if we did not.
Bridget looked up in surprise at Ben's gambit. But then her eyes narrowed. Uh oh. Bridget was about to fuck with us. "Eh. It was okay. We all agree the movie was great, right? But after, he and I hung out and... I just wasn't feeling it in the end."
"Too bad, I guess," said Tres.
"Oh, there was a little hand to hand combat, if you know what I mean," Bridget went on airily, waving an open fist around absently, as if it was not a very suggestive gesture. "But I don't see it going anywhere."
Adam and Tres just gawked silently. I gawked for different reasons. She had never teased the other guys before. Or was she teasing me?
Ben outright laughed. "And here I thought things looked like they were going better than that."
Bridget just shrugged. "We date to try people on. Danny doesn't fit. Speaking of trying people on, Ben, how did your date with Beth go?" she asked, turning the tables.
If Adam and Tres had gawked before, they both about freaked now.
"Holy shit, dude! You went out with Beth?" Adam almost shouted.
Trey actually hit me in the arm, "Dude, did you not know this?"
"I had an idea it was coming," I said with a grin at Bridget. "How was it, Ben?"
But Adam wasn't done being amazed. "Ben, that girl is out of your league! She is easily the hottest girl you've ever been in the same room with."
"Ahem," said Bridget.
Adam was like a deer in the headlights at that. I almost died, both from laughter and shock. Like I said, we never talked anything, um, biological during D&D... not since Bridget joined the group. And here was Bridget, deliberately upsetting that applecart in so many delicious ways.
"What? Oh... Bridget!" Adam said in acute embarrassment. The best part was, the way Bridget always, always dressed, Adam could have had no more than an inkling at most that Bridget, a girl with whom he had been spending hours every week, was at least equally hot as Beth. I certainly knew, intimately, what Bridget was packing away under those baggy clothes, but none of the guys knew that I had any such knowledge either. "Look, Bridget, I didn't mean... I mean
you
are... of course... Oh shit," babbled Adam, suddenly afraid Bridget would think that he was flirting with her. "Look, Beth just has such a nice a... I'm going to die now."
God, it was fun watching someone besides me absolutely panic in embarrassment.
Bridget, because she is awesome, let him off the hook, sort of. "Yeah," she sighed. "It is a nice ass."
Adam was just glad to have someone else talk, but Tres and Ben were agog again. They both certainly knew that in addition to Danny and other guys, Bridget had 'gone out' with a girl named Petra a couple of times.
I just wanted to stand up and give Bridget the Citizen Kane clap. It had been a Masterclass in fucking with all of us, even me.
However, I also wanted answers. I had not talked to Beth yet.
"So, how was the date, Ben?" I prompted.
Ben opened his mouth automatically, then shut it for a moment, considering his reply. Good man, Ben. While I had learned that secrets, though a little fun, could be a lot dangerous, I also believed in discretion. If an individual needed to know, they needed to know. If they didn't, they didn't. Adam and Tres didn't. Bridget technically didn't. And as far as Ben knew, I didn't really either.
"It was awesome," he said at last. "We had so much fun. She is so funny, and she laughed at all my jokes."
"She laughed at
all
of
your
jokes?" Bridget asked dryly. "Congratulations, Ben. She must really like you."
"I guess maybe she does," Ben said, a little proudly.
"Good for you," I said sincerely happy for him, but weirdly more happy for myself. Having at least one of my partners doing... whatever Beth had done and was going to do with Ben, did a lot to damp down my nascent feeling of being a total, as opposed to run of the mill, cad for having sex with multiple girls and yet chasing after more.
"So I need not continue to monitor the Danny Situation?" I asked Bridget, almost disappointedly.
"You never needed to monitor my situation with Danny," Bridget said tartly, but with hidden reassurance. Then she smiled evilly. "But you guys might want to ask me about Petra next week..."
My three dudes about choked on their tongues. I almost gagged myself.
*
"Hey Alistaire," said Rebecca Dean as she passed me in the hall near the mailboxes. I waved in reply as we passed each other.
A few yards later, Jo Silvermann and Franny Todd both waved and said hello. Jo even asked, "Did you have an AP this morning?"
"Chem," I said, stopping while we talked. "How about you guys?"
Jo just shook her head. Franny said, "Chinese language." Then she added something in what was probably Mandarin that from her tone sounded like, 'and I kicked its ass!'