Chapter Twenty-Nine

There are two sides to every story – Ted is an insufferable douchebag in both.

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers concentrate their working on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.

--Dennis Waitley

The song was coming crashing down around my eardrums. The crowd’s excitement was magnetic – it was literally pulling me across the finish line to the final grape. Catfish was not holding me up by playing games.

This was too close and it would have been seen as very unsportsmanlike if they had stipulated something like my little teapot game again on us.

It is safe to say that I had been conflicted about so many things since my arrival here.

-I wanted to help make money and yet remain a good girl that my mom and dad could be proud of.

-I missed Cherry Lawn Estates; but there was something about the culture and people here that I actually found to be refreshing – even if we had to live well below the means I was used to.

-I wanted to cover my bare, sweaty tits and beg for someone to put a stop to the dirty, little games we were playing; but another part of me actively participated and got a thrill out of things like hugging the boy who tormented me for three laps in order to wipe pussy juice on his shirt.

There are a number of conflicts that are yet unresolved floating around my brain and doing battle between logic and hormones that tell me to ignore common sense and go for it.

At that moment in time - common sense lost the battle. I leapt in the air to complete a jump to land on the sidewalk in a partial split. My mouth on my final grape as the song ran down to the final seconds – greedily sucked into my mouth. My expression screamed “IN YOUR FACE!” as defiance to Ted but my mouth was full of grapes – so I just thought the slam really loud in my head.

I had done it! I leapt up in triumph – I made it before the song ended. Savannah was right behind me and she sucked a grape right off Catfish’s finger before he could hold it out for her like a hungry seagull after a slice of bread.

Cheers rang out as the crowd of about thirty erupted into a cheer. My brother and the other guys who had played roles in the race were walking it back in.

“Get in the position and let’s count the grapes!” Ted seemed pissed.

Like the story of Ted’s life – he had lost. He looked not just defeated but like all the wind had been knocked out of his sails.

“You’ll still be boss of us for today, Sir!” Crystal was catching her breath and bent over the pile of grapes she had spit out on the sidewalk but genuinely seeming to console Ted.

I think that only added salt to his wounds. “Don’t try to butter me up, bitch!” he insisted she face the other way and grab her shins.

“Yes Massuh!” Crystal adopted an old black-slave voice and tried to add some levity by shaking her ass, “Like this hurr Massuh?”

Savannah and I were breathing heavily and we both lined up next to her on the left with Lloyd on her right side.

“Savannah yacked out her grapes on to the sidewalk with her typical gallows humor “Let’s get this thing over with Sir! I have a dick to suck.”

I started to feel bad as I heard people already demand their money. “You gave 3:1 odds – you owe me twenty five dollars!” one older man in a trucker’s hat and overalls demand.

“It cannot be twenty five. You bet ten so I actually owe you – yes twenty-five,” Ted lied to the man he owed thirty dollars too. I took small consolation we were about to be deeper in debt and our only saving grace might be people who were terrible at math getting conned out of some of their winnings.

I looked at my Aunt and I think it started to dawn on her as well that Ted had just lost all their winnings. “Don’t worry – they’ll have more money to spend on us!” she whispered to me as consolation. My Aunt could be sarcastic and sassy but she seemed to genuflect for a moment about the race and looked at me with a look that suggested we won the race, but lost the game.

“I have thirteen, Sir!” Lloyd announced. The rules stipulated twelve grapes for each person – no more or less. Lloyd must have taken an extra grape somewhere along the way and that just cost us the bet on a technicality of sorts. The slightly more intelligent members of the crowd told the slightly less ones they had just lost the bet and there was a collective sadness.

The three of us looked over to the right with a sudden shock. I was quietly thrilled because I was caught up in the moment when I made the decision to finish. If I had laid back and thrown the race – I’d be sucking cock now. I looked over at Savannah and offered her the same sympathetic look her mom had given me.

She had lost the race by a hair and she would have to suck a stranger’s dick. She could have thrown the bet and still won the race and not had to do that.

I knew Savannah was kind of slutty but for the most part she had been a cock-tease. She looked and acted trashy. Ted had called her a “cock-hound who was crazy to lick peters” but she never actually did as far as I knew.

It looked like she had some morals and standards and I honestly felt bad she would be the one who would have to suck a stranger’s cock for money. I didn’t want to have to do it and I really wasn’t wishing it on my Aunt either. If I had to be honest – I was feeling embarrassed I played a game where the stakes were sucking a stranger’s dick and just wished that no one had to. I knew my Aunt had a lot of experience with things like that – but the idea of sucking a stranger seemed so humiliating and so personal!

Savannah could manage false bravado very well. She didn’t look phased or worried, even though she would probably have to get on her knees and suck his dick-and maybe right in front of everyone and we STILL lost the bet. We’d be Ted’s bitches all week.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Crystal shook her head in disbelief that after all that effort – we still lost; but there was a subtle sense of relief in her tone. The crowd was unhappy they had lost their money and Ted grew in excitement with the possibilities of a nice haul of cash.

“You said you are going to be my little bitch for the next week? You know this goes for home and everywhere else too, right?” Ted told people he would be selling V.I.P tickets back at the trailer to hang out and drink beers all night with his new foot-stool – meaning Crystal.

No one was taking him up on the offer. They were angry with him – he must have just tripled our money and probably more, if he bet more than we had.

“The bet was bitch training for pool time – nothing was said about at home, Sir!” Crystal didn’t like the sound of this idea one bit.

He leaned down and whispered in Crystal’s ear “I just won us 3,000 dollars – you better fucking get ready to kiss my ass. We are going to soak this park by the end of the week.”

I only heard him by virtue of being so close to where he was. Ted stood up and told everyone “You shouldn’t bet against the King! We will settle all debts.”

“Hang on – It’s eleven!” Lloyd admitted he had miscounted the grapes underneath him. The mistake made sense – given Lloyd wasn’t very keen on book-knowledge and math.

“You still lost anyway. You need twelve exactly – you ate one or you got an extra, there is no fucking difference,” Ted laughed at Lloyd.

“Count the grapes!!” someone in the crowd demanded.

I noticed Catfish was holding a notebook and writing things down about who bet what and he shrugged and started to count the grapes.

He looked up at Ted who had been counting as well with several other people who were crowded around the grapes right under my cousin’s face.

“There are twelve here,” the entire crowd gasped – we had won.

There was an explosion of excitement as people started demanding their winnings for betting on us.

I looked down and quietly counted my grapes once, twice and three times. Each time there was a dozen. I remained bent over and staring at the perfect dozen grapes – wondering if I leaned forward and swallowed one could I claim it had never been there?

I wanted to lose. I knew what that meant – I would be owned by Ted basically for a week and I wasn’t sure how that would play out around my mom or my dad when he got back.

If we didn’t lose – we’d be out nine-thousand dollars. If Ted had given three to one odds against us then his winning three thousand meant he was on the hook to lose nine thousand dollars.

They counted my Aunt’s grapes and she had an even dozen. “I am still your bitch for today Sir – but a bet is a bet.” Her tone was sad and regretful – for a winner she didn’t sound like one.

They counted my grapes. I felt someone spray my ass with a super-soaker squirt gun and laugh – but I didn’t feel humiliated. I was thinking about how hard we were going to have to work to have nine thousand dollars. How many times my ass would be sprayed with water and how many cars I would have to wash at twenty bucks to get the nine thousand dollars we’d need just to have nothing and be back at zero.

“Good work – you did exactly what you were supposed to do,” Ted’s voice was congratulatory like a good sport who just lost but there was a trace of sadness.

I felt sorry for him.

We had not made these bets with all the people. We technically didn’t owe them anything.

That really didn’t matter – as a family the funds we made would cover these costs.

I heard a particularly deep sounding voice from one of the guys in the crowd demand his winnings in a very forceful way. His arms were crossed and he looked like someone who would extract it from all our asses if Ted didn’t have it. “I’ve got three grand coming,” he said.

I shivered – at our loss. I imagined us having to serve every single person in the Buckman until the debt was paid off. We’d probably have to stay naked and just roam the trailer park picking up trash and mowing grass and sucking cocks until we had made good on our debts. The idea seemed ludicrous but I couldn’t imagine getting out of this hard place – truly hard times at the Buckman.

This man wouldn’t let Ted just owe him. He would want us to cover the loss and he would see us as collateral since Ted had pretended he ‘owned’ us already today. Ted had made a bunch of small bets but this guy sounded like he meant business and wouldn’t just let Ted owe him and walk away.

“Eleven?” Ted counted it again and announced Eleven. He looked around on the ground underneath his step-daughter and saw no grape had rolled away.

“Savannah you lost!”

“Yeah, I know genius,” Savannah chewed and smacked her gum – how she had managed to chew it while holding eleven grapes in her mouth I did not know. “That fucking brat on leg three threw my grape into a fucking ant-pile and I wasn’t going to take a bite out of that shit and get all bit up. Congratulations Sir.”

“Savannah do you know what this means?” Ted was elated.

“That my name is now Sassy Ass for the next week as your little bitch and that I have to suck this dick?” she pointed to Catfish’s crotch with surprising resignation to losing the game.

“No! It means I just won over nine motherfucking thousand dollars!!!” Ted jumped up and down with exultant joy. “I mean, yes – it ALSO means I am your boss and I own your ass all week!!! But fuck yeah!!”

Savannah stared forward with a stoic calm. She reminded me sometimes of the rapper Ice-T on Law and Order: SVU. She could be very street-wise and aloof in the face of something she had disdain for.

“Whatever Sir,” she seemed non-plussed. “This tough love isn’t going to change me. I am going to go right back to doing whatever I want to after the week is over.”

Catfish and Ted began to collect the winnings – they told us to stay just like we were until we were to be fed. Ted said the “Feeding of the bitches is about to begin so stick around and we still have spots open in the V.I.P area – but they are going fast!”

Savannah turned quietly to me and without saying a word opened her mouth to reveal a grape between her teeth.

She had a merry twinkle in her pretty blue eyes –then she swallowed the grape before returning to look straight ahead and await our fate.

“You girl’s realize you really stepped in the flaming dog-turds now!” Ted was gleeful as he collected outstanding money from the crowd that was starting to disperse. “Your shit pipes all belong to me for the rest of the week – morning, night, and day!” he promised.

“There will be more races – every day for sure! Make sure you come back and see my little ponies strut,” Ted and Catfish were collecting cash together.

“If I didn’t know any better Sir,” Crystal didn’t comment on Ted’s gloating but instead suggested he knew Catfish beforehand.

“Him?” Ted looked at Catfish with mock surprise “I’ve seen a lot of assholes today,” he pointed to our rears lined up facing him for the double-meaning, “I would have remembered an asshole with a mustache like this on it.”

Catfish high fived Ted and grinned while staring at our spread asses.

“Tonight the beer is going to flow like wine!” Ted promised a night of drinks on him to Catfish. I wanted to say that beer would actually flow like beer, but I think Ted wouldn’t have understood my point so I stayed quiet. I wondered how long Savannah had planned to lose the bet and if she intentionally came in last to save me from the inevitable cock-sucking that was going to be done by the last-place girl.

Catfish reminded Savannah by tapping her on her ass and mimicking a cock going into his mouth – and using his tongue to poke out the side.

“You’ve had a lot of practice, Sir – do you spit or swallow?” Savannah sneered like a caged panther bristling at its captivity when someone put their hand too close to the cage.

“You better be nice to me or I’ll ask Ted to make you shove that entire bikini straight up your ass,” Catfish was kidding, but he also clearly didn’t like the way Savannah remained defiant.

My cousin reached behind herself and started to feed the entire bikini into her asshole with a quiet determination.

We had a few inches of string material in our asses and that let the bikinis hang like tails – Savannah wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of the threat. She had no problem working the first few inches in but quickly found it increasingly difficult.

“What?” she pretended it was no problem, “King Ted was probably going to tell me to do it anyway.”

“You may have to wet the laces with your mouth so you can freshly lubricate it,” I offered my cousin the advice I learned during the race. I had a new found respect for her willingness to accept defeat for the greater good of the family.

I would have thought my cousin would have at least kept the grape to show Ted and Crystal her sacrifice afterwards. There was something much greater about what she did because she swallowed the evidence that she had ever intentionally lost the bet.

“Fuck that,” she sneered as if the idea was ludicrous. Then she asked Catfish, “Would you spit right on my asshole please, Sir?”

“You don’t have to shove the entire thing up your ass,” Catfish backed down and softened his tone.

Savanah accepted the small victory with a “As you wish, Sir.” and let the bikini tail hang – albeit much further up her ass than it was before.

“God damn it, this is only about three thousand dollars,” Ted was counting the winnings from the betting. He seemed angry it was only three thousand in cash as he licked his finger between each bill to count the wad of cash again.

“You told me nine thousand, sir?” Crystal remained in her position and asked with a meek and submissive tone that seemed uncharacteristically reserved and respectful.

“I guess I am as bad at math as Lloyd,” Ted admitted goofily.

“It’s still way more than we made the last two days, Sir!” my Aunt sounded proud of Ted.

“That it is,” Ted took a moment to reflect on that. “The day is young though and you four are wasting time. I think one of you has a job to do and the other three of you are going to make some money?”

“Do you want me to suck your friend’s cock right here or can I take him somewhere to do it Sir?” Savannah bluntly called Ted out like she didn’t care where she did it. I wondered if she really didn’t care or she was just trying to push Ted’s button and make him think this didn’t bother her. She would usually not do something that didn’t benefit her in the end – but maybe I had a lot to learn about my cousin.

He must have been conspiring with Catfish when he made his first bet to earn one hundred dollars.

“You know I should make you do it right out in the pool area – but have some decency! Think about these impressionable young minds!” Ted put his hands on the mean little freckle-faced kid’s shoulders.

The kid was staring at us and not saying a word. He pushed Ted’s hands off his shoulders and moved slightly forward.

Ted laughed and said, “Take him to the men’s bathroom. You can do me after.”

Savannah stood up and took Catfish’s hand. She looked at Ted, “You are sick. You are my mom’s boyfriend, Sir. You own our asses but there are certain things I just won’t do.”

“Never stopped you before,” Ted called after her as she started to walk away.

Savannah looked at me, then smiled and winked. She saw that I was stunned she wasn’t shaking in her boots. She took her gum out of her mouth and sashayed ride up to the table we had taken from the pool deck. She popped it out of her mouth and stuck it under the table.

I wasn’t sure if she intended to retrieve it afterwards but given what else she was willing to put in her mouth – I wouldn’t have been surprised.

“It’s just sucking a cock – it’s not like its actual fucking or nothing,” Savannah shrugged as if this was no big deal at all.

Her mom and brother didn’t say a word about it. I felt like it might have been the end of the world for some reason – but she had trotted off with her chin up. She walked with her ass sticking out and up proudly – more so with all of her bikini string shoved even further up her ass.

She even poked both her tits on the side a few times while she waited for Catfish to talk to Ted about his cut of the winnings.

With that – she led him into the men’s bathroom.

“What the fuck is going on here?” O.J. and S.S. arrived shortly after that. Ted was trying to get people to stay for our feeding but after losing money the crowd had shot their wad and were thinning out. He had a bag of Burger King, a sack of groceries and an ice cold gallon milk jug – he had clearly come to feed us lunch. I was starving after that race and would gladly eat hot dogs and bananas again - I’d even take nasty old Burger King food.

(I am kidding – at that moment, even nasty Burger King would have been heaven.)

There were some hard-core watchers who became consistently interested in watching what we did. They would pay to sit in the V.I.P. and were almost always at the pool.

“The leaner” – an old man who paid to sit in the V.I.P section but constantly leaned in in the creepiest manner against a fence. He looked like TV’s “Larry David” – if you want to google that image.

“The Wrestler” – the wrestler wears a wrestling t-shirt, sweat pants, arm sweat bands, and headband. He is doughy and out of shape with a blonde afro that looks like shag carpet.

Skeeter Townley and his grandson, the mean-little freckle-faced boy, and Boogie.

Alison and Tawny Haislip might be considered “Hard Core Watchers” as well – but they would not sit in V.I.P. They remind me of the two old crotchety Muppets who sit in the balcony and insist on watching every show but constantly finding constant fault with it.

“I just made us two grand,” Ted waved around the cash he earned on the bet proudly and was holding back a thousand for himself. He peeled off the cut for O.J. and handed the money to him. Ted quickly explained how he had set up a race and got everyone to watch and then let them do side bets.

“You might just have some Gaylord blood in you after all,” O.J. shook his head in surprise. He told us, “You can’t be completely naked out here like this though. I mean – I like it but...,” he laughed at us. We were still holding the position we had been told to get in.

“Ted told us to stand this way Sir,” I answered when no one else wanted to give him an explanation.

“I don’t give a shit if Jesus told you to do it,” he yanked the bikini strings out of my ass and threw it on my back. “Get this on and get back to work, Juicy Lucy,” he said the name written on my ass with a smirk.

“Who the fuck thought of that dumb-ass name?” O.J. asked.

Ted replied, “It was that or Mike Hunt – because you know - it sounds like My Cunt?”

“Why not just call her my cunt then?” O.J. queried the logical conclusion.

Ted answered with a grin, “She isn’t your cunt – she is my cunt!”

“So we don’t have to strip any more if Ted tells us too, Sir?” I wanted clarification on the rules as I started to put my clothes back on. I was wearing the tiniest string bikini I’ve ever seen and yet it felt like a suit of armor compared to being nude.

O.J. got the short run down of the bet. We had bet our asses for the week and Ted was the boss of us. “That’s fine – if you had fucked up today, you would have been out any way,” O.J. then told me that I had to listen to Ted within reason.

“I thought we might get arrested for running around naked, Sir!” I agreed that it didn’t sound like it made sense to be this openly naked.

“Hello 911 – I’d like to report three hot ass bitches flashing their tits at the Buckman,” O.J. pretended to be on an air-phone while he made a fake call to the emergency dispatcher. “Oh? We’ll have to be more descriptive? It’s the attention whore with the bottle-bleach dye job? Oh –hang up and stop being such a dick?”

He told me that we weren’t in much danger of going to jail for flashing. He said that if we give away everything and let them see all of us – they won’t keep watching. “It’s all about showmanship. You did good with the tail-butt bikinis but you have to leave something for the crowd to want to see next. Look around – everybody fucking disappeared. You aren’t whores – you are here to tease.” His explanation was directed at all of us.

Ted didn’t like to be lectured but he watched his tone around O.J. The guys weren't worried about us being naked because of any decorum or fear of the law – they just wanted us to flash and tease more and they felt keeping us completely naked would make them less inclined to pay for what they got for free in abundance.

“So Jigga-Butt -you are finally one of the whores, huh?” O.J. had just got done telling us we weren’t whores and was clearly joking when he addressed my Aunt.

She laughed and answered “A bet is a bet and if he keeps making bank, then I’ll be his little bitch in training. We might have to talk about this after-work though. I want to go spend that money tonight, baby.” Crystal hung on Ted’s arm and remained naked.

“You be a good girl for me today and we’ll see,” Ted ordered her to get dressed like O.J. said and explained this would be steak money. It was never clear if he meant it was to buy steaks or if he meant it would be a stake in investing in this little scheme to make it more profitable – probably both.

My Aunt threw a wet sponge at my chest while I was putting my suit back on. My asshole felt like it was on fire now from all the chafing it had been under. “You might want to wash the suit off with water before you wear it – it’s been in your crap-hole, honey.”

She was squatting naked in front of one of the buckets wringing out her one piece. I had never seen between my Aunt’s legs that way before. If she stands up straight all you see is a small hairless slit. Squatting with both legs wide apart around the bucket casually washing her suit – the inside was wet, red, and puffy.

“You like looking at my snatch, do you?” she grinned when she caught me staring.

“It is a pretty pussy,” Ted complimented her.

“You better not break it, Sir” Crystal didn’t sound all that scared. She was actually in good humor as Lloyd and I washed our outfits with her. “You are going to give me a chance to get even on these bets –aren’t you though Sir?”

“You know it,” Ted laughed. O.J. then said, “But today – I need you to hop up and down and jiggle that Jigga-Butt for us to generate a little crowd so I can feed you lunch!”

He threw her a yellow and red hula-hoop that he had on the back of the golf-cart and passed out one to Lloyd and I.

“Where is Savannah?” O.J. asked as he rifled through the Burger King bag and pulled out a Whopper he took a large bite out of. “This was for you Crystal – delish!”

“Oh stop being such a meanie-butt, Sir,” Crystal asked him not to rub it in that he was having the lunch she got to enjoy the last two days and now my Aunt had to eat with us ‘sluts’. Crystal said very plainly to O.J. “She is in the men’s bathroom sucking his best buddy’s cock.”

“We might have had some discussions about a business arrangement,” Ted smiled sheepishly. “We used to play high school ball together – he is a good guy.”

“How much did you cut him in for of your little enterprise?” O.J. asked.

“I gave him five hundred for his help today,” Ted lied.

“S.S. why don’t you go in there and introduce yourself to our new business partner and help him count his earnings.” O.J. said to the giant of a man and chief enforcer.

S.S. stalked towards the bathroom with a purposeful stride and swagger.

“Ok!” Ted held up his hand, “It was a thousand, but he spent a hundred to generate some buzz.” O.J. clearly wanted his cut of the TOTAL winnings and Ted paid him out of our share.

“No, he spent a hundred to win a bet you had with me!” Crystal had her hands on her hips. She looked livid that Ted had connived and manipulated her into taking a fixed bet.

“You are right, that was kind of a dick move,” Ted offered her a hug as a form of apology. My Aunt kept hula-hooping and rebuffed his hug with her nose up. She was supposed to be “his bitch”, but right now – he was hers.

“That’s fine, Sir,” Crystal responded coldly, “You just keep making us money and TELL ME whether we need to throw the bet or not – and we’ll keep playing this game.”

“No game,” Ted smiled sadistically and pulled her close to him tight – forcing her to drop her hula hoop, “It was a real bet – you are my bitch for the week.”

Crystal smiled back at him, “Honey – I am your bitch 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, every day of the week!”