Draw your own conclusion (for Tarrakhash and Blurugirl)

Blurugirl

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Oct 25, 2019
Shahlah Jacobson thought she had a perfect life. Mostly.

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Granted, her life hadn't started off perfectly, mostly or otherwise. Her father had become enamored with an Iranian man, and Shahlah had been the result of the romance. But the romance quickly devolved into abuse and control from her biological father, who left her mother and her when Shahlah was five,

No problem. When Shahlah was nine, Shahlah's mother would meet the man who would become Shahlah's stepfather.

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Shahlah loved her stepfather. But she loved all her family. Shahlh's stepfather was a commercial artist who still kept tabs with his classical roots. He was successful enough that he could run his own business out of their office. But he also taught an art history class at the local college, and drew "non-commercially", as he called it. And though Shahlah had no talent of her own, her stepfather made sure Shahlah was still introduced to his world. He had not only taught her about different artists and artistic movements throughout history, but also how to appreciate and critically analyze art as a whole.

Shahlah had a good relationship with her mother. Mostly. Well, Shahalah's felt her slightly nerdy mathlete daughter should be outgoing, and she definitely did not appreciate the mostly frumpy, form hiding clothes her eighteen year old daughter wore. But Shahlah still appreciated her mother. Well, things had become strained between Shahlah's mother and stepfather, and she knew her stepfather spent some nights on the couch in his office, but he always said that was because he was working late. And if the two were having problems, they were going to great lengths not to expose their kids to their marital strife.

And Shahlah adored her little five year old brother. Mostly.

Hunter was blonde and blue eyed (the same as everyone else in the family except Shahlah) and was just as sweet as he could be. He would sit by Shahlah on the couch, cuddle up to her, and ask her for a story if she wasn't busy. Or just sit there and be sweet and good if she was busy.

Hunter was perfect. Mostly.

Except Hunter would draw on anything if given a chance. In response to Hunter's artistic exuberance, the walls were painted with wipeable paints, Hunter was given special crayons, and anything you didn't want drawn on, was locked up and put away. Because Hunter would listen and obey about everything except drawing.

Which is where the story begins.

Shahlah's stepfather would keep his office locked, to ensure that Hunter didn't draw on any of the more expensive books he had on his shelves. In addition, all important papers were kept locked in the bottom drawer of the office.

Shahlah and her mother had keys to the office, and Shahlah went into the office one to use the family printer. While she was printing out a paper due on Monday, she noticed the bottom drawer of the desk was ajar. She was about to close the drawer when a folder in it caughter eye. It was titled "Life Drawings." Shahlah immediately knew that meant Nude Sketches. Although she was a modest young woman (overly modest, in her mother's opinion), Shahlah wasn't shocked about the idea of her father making nude sketches. That's what artists did, after all. She would have been more shocked if her father made landscape paintings. He did have curt words about that sort of thing.

Curious, Shahlah pulled out the folder and began flipping through it. She didn't recognize some of the models, of course, but assumed they were student models her father had met at the college. One of the models, though, looked familiar to Shahlah. It took the teen a few minutes to recognize who the nude woman was in those sketches. It was HER!

Shahal was more than a little shocked that her father has been imagining her nude. Well, he had not only been imagining, he had been mentally airbrushing the nude mental image of his stepdaughter. The young woman in these pictures was gorgeous! It was sort of like the optimized version of what Shahlah thought she could ever aspire to.

Probably the only thing her stepfather had not improved on, Shahlah though with a self-conscious smirk, was the size of Shahlah's breasts in the sketches. But then she couldn't really fault her father on that. After all, with the frumpy clothes she made sure she was wearing any time she stepped out of her room, he had no idea on how to guess. The breasts in the sketches looked to be about a cup smaller than Shahlah's D cup.

Still, the part of Shahlah's mind that her stepfather had trained to look at a drawing analytically thought they were good, if woefully inaccurate. So Shahlah took a couple of post its from the desk, wrote some critiques, attached it to the drawings, then returned them to the bottom drawer. This time, though, she made sure the bottom drawer was locked. Hunter definitely didn't need to get to those pictures!

Chuckling, Shahlah locked up her father's office, headed to her bedroom, did a few things on the compute, then called it a night. At ten o'clock on a Friday night, Shahlah was happily asleep in her own bedroom.
 
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Seeing her look he had steeled himself, so when she came out with something much more neutral he smiled,"Oh, it's from when Shamira and I were topless in the lounge." He gave Sarai just a beat to let that register and then he smirked,"Gerri was using it to massage my shoulders and back, Shahlah did the same on Shamira...and it was very relaxing."

Looking at the door he sighed,"And we better unlock the door before we have to explain to Shahlah and Gerri what's going on...."

Not that he had any real idea what was going on.
 
"You go back to working, Dad," Sarai said, taking Shamira by the hand and leading her out of the office, "And I'm going to have a stern talk with Miss Gerri about raiding my pantry for almond extract. And maybe a couple of other things as well," she added before ducking out of the office with Shamira in tow.
 
"Oh really? A couple of other things?", he snorted, that girl was the worst at getting away without explaining the things she thought or said or did. She was slippery, he was pretty sure that Shamira was going to get a talking to as well.....and he would have to investigate that, along with his own feelings about the pretty blue eyed girl.

What was he doing?

He didn't know, but he also knew he had a certain amount of work to do and could lose himself in it a little bit, let his brain figure out what the heck it was doing with an 18 year old?

Chuckling he sat down, well he had a pretty good idea of what he'd like to do...he was not a good man.
 
At about five o'clock, there was a knock on the door, and Shahlah stuck her head in.

"Dinner's ready, Dad. Chili dogs and cheese and tater tots. Since Hunter's going to be gone all week next week, Sarai wants to make sure he gets spoiled and gets all his favorites. But there's vegan chili and turkey dogs as well." Shahlah paused and gave her father a speculative look and looked as if she was about to say something. She gave her a head a shake and ducked out the door.
 
"Shahlah, hold on.", once she walked back in he said,"Come in, close the door."

Once she did he pointed at the seat and waited for her to sit,"Listen, it's been a rough couple of days and things have...well..been tricky to say the least."

He ran a hand over his face and looked at her,"You looked like you had a question....please, I don't want you guarding yourself around me. If you have something you want to ask, ask, I don't really care what the topic is, and we've got some pretty difficult topics floating around at the moment. Please, if you have something you need to air, let's get it out."

He wasn't quiet ready to broach the topic himself yet, but he was going to see if Sarai had spoken to her about it.
 
"Dad, I think..." Shahlah paused, gathering her thoughts. "Whatever you can say about the last couple of days, I think they brought us together. We look out for each other, protect each other. I'm worried about Hunter, and maybe I haven't got everything sorted out where Mom is concerned, but I do know she not once, but twice, tried to attack this house. She and her boyfriend forced a friend of mine, and someone who's now part of this household...well, you know what they tried to do to Gerri. So whatever else is going on, it's still all of us on this side of the wall against what the rest of the world is throwing against us."

"There's some other stuff, I'm going to have to think about," Shahlah said, standing up. "But whatever I decide, we're still on the same side of the wall. I'll see you at supper," she said, before leaving her stepfather's office.
 
Stephen nodded, listening to her as she tried to muddle through things, Sarai had definitely spoken to her but he understood the general gist. Whatever this was, whatever it might be between the four of them...five now with Gerri...they would figure it out together. He sighed, what would Gerri think? Best to keep her in the dark. Dark? Nothing had happened yet....but it would, there was no doubt in his mind.

He looked at his hand, remembering where it had been, what parts of Shamira it had been on and how she had reacted. Sighing he got up, what was going on inside his head? She was 18....

Running a hand over his face he got up, well let's see what interesting things Sarai had cooked up...and more importantly what kind of greeting he got as he made his way through to the dinner table, and what sounded like a delicious meal.
 
"Hey Dad! Hot dogs!" Hunter cried out on seeing his father enter the room. "And fries and lots of cheese."

"And plenty of alternatives for those who don't want to make a warzone out of their more mature gastrointestinal systems," Sarai said. "So how was work today?" she asked, an odd look in her eye.

Next to Hunter, Shamira beamed Stephen a bright smile before turning her attention to wiping chili off of Hunter's mouth. At the other end of the table, both Gerri and Shahlah were giving Stephen speculative looks until her caught there eye, at which point they quickly looked away.
 
Stephen chuckled,"Indeed, and fries? You're a lucky boy." He gave Sarai a look, as he piled regular hot dogs and chili onto his plate with tatertots and cheese,"Mature gastrointestinal systems have been through a lot worse than a little bit of tater tots and cheese, thank you for the concern for my digestive well being." He flicked the other two girls a glance from time to time to keep the looks to a minimum, and let them know he was aware they were there. And Shamira got an equally bright smile in return of hers, before he settled down to start eating and answer Sarai's question.

"All things considered I got a fair amount done.", he looked over at the four girls,"Back to school like normal for everyone, right? No excuses? I don't want anyone saying I kept them from their academics."
 
Shahlah and Gerri just nodded, acting somewhat withdrawn and reserved. Shamira looked up, beamed and nodded, before returning her attention to Hunter.

"I think everyone is ready to get thing wrapped up before Autumn Break begins," Sarai said with a winsome smile, "And this one I know is ready to spend a week at camp." Hunter nodded around a large bite of hot dog and chili.
 
It didn't take a genius to figure out the girls had a problem with what he was doing, and he wasn't really sure if he didn't have a problem with what he was doing. What he did know is these girls worked together, better than anyone he had ever met, they would figure out some kind of solution, or program of rehabilitation and he'd just be subject to it. Sighing he started to eat, nodding to Sarai, suddenly a week alone with the girls was a little more omnious, although he couldn't help but sneak a glance at Shamira as he nodded,"Yeah, I'm thinking of taking some time off during that time as well...you know, so we can figure out everything for Gerri and her dorm room and anything else that needs to be tightened up before winter."

He smiled at Shahlah, trying to draw her out, but he recognized the face, she was thinking, and thinking hard. Once she had arrived at a solution she would be fine again....sadly it might not be a solution that Stephen liked.
 
Stephen looked up and said,"She is...I thought her Dorm room was going to get fixed though. As I said, she can stay as long as she wants. Is she moving in as well? I have no objections..."

Other than how complicated his relationship with all these girls were getting into,"Did I misunderstand something else?"
 
An unknown emotion flashed across Gerri's face before a smile fixed on her face. "And I appreciate the time you've all let me have here. Especially all the non-cafeteria meals," she added with a laugh.

"What about my sword lessons?" Hunter asked, stopping in mid-bite.

"I'm sure we'll get to those lessons sometime in the future," Gerri assured them.

Hunter nodded and returned to eating his lunch. Shamira's attitude was suddenly more subdued.

"So, anyone need anything from the kitchen?" Sarai asked, standing up with her plate in her hand.
 
Stephen sat back and frowned, somewhere some how he had missed something. He could feel the attitudes shift around him and he really didn't know what he had done, it was clear they had expected Gerri to stay for the longer term and although it had sounded like she was going to be here for at least the next 20 days he hadn't understood that it would be permanent.

So he settled down to eat, his eyes flickering between the girls as he tried to process it. Once everyone was done eating he forced his own smile,"Shamira can you get Hunter ready for bed, Sarai, I'll come help you clear up in a little bit."

Turning his eyes on Gerri and Shahlah he said,"And if I can chat to the two of you in my office please, thank you." With that he headed out, towards his office, mulling over the situation, trying to work out what he had missed and when.
 
"If you don't mind, Professor Jacobson, I'm a bit beat. Early day tomorrow, and I need to swing by the Dean of Residences tomorrow, see how things are getting along with my room. But I do appreciate you letting me stay here. For everything." Gerri gave everyone a smile. "And I have a few things to pack. Amazing how stuff multiplies from just one or two items in only a handful of days." With a smile, she headed upstairs.

"Let's go get you cleaned up," Shamira said with a smile to Hunter. "I think you got more chili on you than in you." Hunter nodded and let the Asian teen lead him upstairs.

"What a despicable thing, the chef left to clean," Sarai said with a laugh as she headed into stairs.

Shahlah sighed and followed her stepfather into his office.
 
Stephen got to his office, a little annoyed that now his attempts to figure out what was going on was not going in the direction he had intended. Nonetheless he had to do what he had to do, getting Shahlah into his office he frowned,"Okay, so I did something that wasn't expected clearly, people are behaving different and that's my fault. I'm going to try and figure it out and I'm going to need your help with that."

He sighed running his hands over his face as he tried to put his thoughts into words,"I'm confused about Gerri....what did I miss. Wasn't she supposed to be going back to her dorm when the dorm was repaired? I feel like I'm the bad guy, and not for a reason I expected to be the bad guy for....what can we do to get this fixed? I know you said we're all on the same side of the wall...but you guys go off and have discussions and then I come down and there is all these looks and comments and things."

He chuckled wryly,"And I'm pretty sure half of it at least is me feeling guilty about things I'm not even sure I should be feeling, or thinking or doing....but it means that I'm going to make mistakes..this not normal. I need you guys to talk to me, to give me time to figure out what you maybe all figured out already and I'm just slow and old."

Shaking his head he sighed again,"I don't even know what I'm saying now, do you understand at least some of this?"
 
"Autumn break is coming up, so I don't know if they'll having anything ready before then," Shahlah said, "But I asked if she could stay until the end of Spring Semester. As in, this is autumn and spring is next year spring?" There might have been a bit of attitude in her voice, but she quelled it. "And I was thinking about that other stuff, and Gerri was too, because Sarai asked us to think about it and other things, and I don't think...well, you know what, I don't know what to think, because you decided to start talking about Gerri going back to her dorm. And that's fine. It's your house. And I'm eighteen, and I got money of my own, and I can move out too." Shahlah got up and stormed out. At the door Sarai was getting ready to knock on the door and got caught by surprise by Shahlah storming past her.

"So I'm taking that didn't go as planned?" Sarai asked.
 
"Shahlah!", he called after her....his voice cracking a bit and he let out a long slow sigh and shook his head at Sarai,"No....not at all....and the more I try and fix it the worse it seems to be going."

He sighed and ran his hand over his face, running his fingers over his mustache,"I don't know....have you come to tell me that you don't want Gerri to go either? I don't want her to go...I misunderstood."
 
"Bear in mind, Dad, that everyone here is on edge," Sarai said, taking a seat. "Gerri survived going over the edge of a cliff while running from your ex-wife and her boyfriend, Shahlah has actually had herself and her home attacked twice by her mother or someone doing what her mother wanted. Shamira is...feeling things, and deciding what she thinks of that. I think it was comforting to everyone to feel like that we had this little close group forming. I wouldn't mind Gerri staying but, as Shahlah said, this is your house. Do I take it., then, that you want Gerri to stay?"
 
Stephen frowned, listening to her, and shook his head a few times and breathed a couple time before he stood slowly. Moving with purpose to Sarai, kissing her on her forehead,"You know, for the cheeky one you're pretty wise too....I can see what's happening. I'm scared, I'm scared of losing what we've gained and I'm striking out and doing exactly what Shamira told me I was doing with Shahlah the first time her mom left." He patted Sarai on her shoulder,"Go hold Shahlah, I'll talk to Gerri and come see her afterwards. I can't let me fear tear us apart."

He strode through the house, the words of Shamira's mom running through his head as he made his way to where Gerri was staying, and likely packing and knocked on the door,"Gerri, can I come in, please?"
 
Gerri opened the door a crack, a towel wrapped around her body. "Um, can it wait, Professor Jacobson? I just got out of the shower."
 
He looked at her and blushed somewhat,"No, no it really can't wait. I've been a bit of an idiot. I promise it won't take long.....and I'd really like to earn my way back to Dad...if I can."

Sighing he put up his hand,"You know what, it doesn't matter, I'll just tell you here. I'm an idiot, I'm scared of some choices I've made and the consequences but the one thing I'm more scared of than anything is losing my family. I'm a little slow on the uptake, but after all we've been through together....especially after who it was causing all the problems, it should have been clear. You are part of our family, I don't want you to leave, I don't want to ship you off to the dorm. You need a family around you as much, if not more than I do, than Shahlah does, Shamira and even Sarai, although she'll never admit it."

Shrugging he smiled,"If you can forgive a rather slow old man, I'd much rather you stayed, till spring or as long as you wanted. You don't threaten what I've got, you add to it....plus Hunter and I still want sword lessons, and you owe me a face massage I believe....."
 
Gerri sighed. "Hang on a second," she said. Gerri closed the door, made sure the towel was secure, then reopened the door all the way. The bath towel she wore was tucked at her chest, exposing a modest amount of cleavage, and stretched to a point just above her knees. The towel was wrapped in such a way as to give more than a little hint of the form beneath.

"I do appreciate the sentiment, Professor Jacobson," she began, using a second towel to dry her hair, "And believe me when I tell you I appreciate my time here. It gave me the emotional reinforcement I needed. But all good things must come to an end, including my stay here. And hey, it won't be like I'm moving across the country. I'm just a half hour away. So it won't be anything to drive over here and give sword lessons."

"With respect," the quiet voice of Shamira said, "I do not believe you are thinking this through. You are considering your pride first, and not necessarily what is emotionally beneficial to you." Like Gerri, Shamira had obviously just gotten out of the shower. She had a long, thick bath towel wrapped around her securely, in an almost identical fashion that Gerri had hers wrapped around her body. And like Gerri, she was toweling her hair with a second towel.

"What she said," Shahlah chimed in. She was dry, but similarly wrapped like her two friends. "And are you through with the shower?"

Before Shamira could answer, she was interrupted by Sarai who, unlike the other three teens, was dressed in the jeans and sweatshirt she had started the day in. "I've heard of theme parties, but this is ridiculous. And before you continue this conversation, I'd like to remind everyone we are upstairs, and Hunter is asleep just beyond that door, and this is a conversation that is going to touch on subjects I think we all agree he doesn't need to hear yet. So I suggest we either take this conversation downstairs to Dad's office, or table it until this weekend, with Geri staying until we get a chance to hash all this out. So which one will it be?"
 
Stephen was frowning when he jumped, Shamira's voice scaring him somewhat and then before he knew it all four girls were up there. And three out of the four were on his side....for now.

He nodded at Sarai's words,"Let's have everyone get dressed, and showered, and meet in my office in about an hour? I'll have ice cream waiting....unless that doesn't meet the gastrointestinal requirements for any of you?"

The last was addressed to Sarai before he smiled at all four,"I'd rather have it all sorted out now so we can enjoy our weekend....I don't want anyone tip toeing around the others. We've been through too much for that."
 
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