The Unicorn's Forest

As Charlie returned home, she was surprised when her phone started to ring. She didn't bother checking who it was from, since she'd only given her number out to a few people.

"Hello?" Charlie said as she answered.

"Hi, Charlie, I got something I gotta ask you," Alex said in such a rush that she almost didn't understand her.

"Uh, sure," Charlie said hesitantly. She had a feeling she may have already answered this question, but wanted to make sure anyway. She still hadn't been sure about her relationship with Alex, but was at least happy that Alex was respecting the boundaries she'd set for them.

"You're still fine with, um, uh, me, uh, getting, um, my 'needs' met with another, uh, girl, right?" Alex asked, clearly nervous.

Charlie took a deep breath before she replied. She was right, she had answered this question before, or at least sort of. As she had the feeling Alex was making sure that her position was still the same.

"If you really need to, Alex," Charlie said. "I won't like it, but if you need to, then that might be the better option, since I'm not comfortable doing that with anyone right now."

"Oh," Alex said, sounding a little deflated. "Okay, well thanks Charlie."

"Were you thinking of sleeping with another girl?" Charlie asked, wondering if Alex would answer. She was pretty sure that Alex was thinking of that, but didn't want to sound like she knew exactly what Alex was going to do.

"Um, yeah," Alex said quietly. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not mad," Charlie replied. "I understand that you have needs that I'm not able to meet, so even if I don't like it, it's at least better than you pushing me to do more than I'm comfortable with, right?"

"Right," Alex replied. "I just wanted to make sure about that. I mean, I don't want to do anything that would make you not like me."

Charlie felt relaxed with how vulnerable Alex sounded at the moment. Somehow it made Charlie feel less insecure about her own insecurities. Almost like she wasn't aware that others had their own insecurities and learning what some of those were was helping her feel less conscious about her own.

"Anything else?" Charlie asked.

"Not that I can think of," Alex said. "I guess I'll leave you alone then."

"Oh, wait Alex," Charlie said, suddenly getting the impulse to invite Alex over for dinner, even though she'd have to clear it with her parents well before dinner time. As well as not knowing where the idea came from in the first place. "Would you like to come over to my place for dinner? I'll check with my parents if you're interested and you could meet my aunt, my cousin, and her girlfriend."

There was silence for a minute and Charlie waited patiently as she climbed the stairs to her room. Then as she was entering her room, Alex seemed to have made a decision.

"If it's not any trouble, would it be alright if I joined you for Thanksgiving dinner?" Alex asked. "My grandma has to go on a business trip and I don't like being alone on Thanksgiving."

A little surprised, Charlie wondered if Alex would tell her the reasons behind this either now or maybe when she saw her next, which had a good chance of being tomorrow. However, she didn't want to press, especially with how she knew what Alex wanted and she was rather resistant to that.

"Sure, I'll talk to my mom and dad about that," Charlie replied after being quiet for a minute. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Thanks, Charlie," Alex said. "You're really sweet."

Charlie felt her face heat up at that remark. "Uh, thanks," she said, not sure how else to respond.

Alex merely laughed. "You're blushing aren't you?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

"Maybe," Charlie muttered, wishing Alex would let her be at this moment.

"Wish I could get a picture of that," Alex replied, continuing to laugh.

"Talk to Beth," Charlie complained, suddenly wishing her mind would start working again so she could think of what she could do at the moment. "She probably has one."

"I wouldn't be surprised, but Beth already sent me all the pictures she's taken of you, so I already have it, but I'm sure how you look now is as unique as all the other times you blushed," Alex said.

Charlie wasn't sure how, but she now felt flattered as well as incredibly embarrassed by that response. "Thanks?" Charlie replied, not sure how else to respond.

Alex merely laughed again. "Oh, would you like me to send you a picture of any of the girls I hook up with?" Alex asked.

Charlie sighed, still struggling to push her embarrassed feelings to the side so she could focus again, although part of her was hoping this change of topic would do just that. "Maybe not," Charlie replied. "I think I just don't want to picture you with anyone if I can help it."

"Yeah, I understand," Alex said. "I just thought I'd offer it just in case you might be interested." Alex paused, then added with a teasing note in her voice again, "Besides, when you do feel comfortable doing that with me, I thought maybe you could also be interested in one of the girls I slept with and maybe we'd be able to have a threesome."

Finally Charlie realized that she could hang up herself. Why it took her so long for her mind to come up with as a possible option, she couldn't say. However, she knew she'd feel bad if she hung up without saying goodbye to her girlfriend, so before she tapped the button to end the call, she merely said, "Bye."

As the beeping sound signaled the call was ended, Charlie sighed and set her phone on her desk before dropping herself on her bed face first. While that call could have gone better she thought that it could have also gone worse.

At the very least, she knew that she'd be able to see Alex again soon, so she felt a little giddy about that, but at the same time, she felt bad that she couldn't let herself give in to the physical aspect of a relationship that she could tell Alex wanted to do with her.

Yet, she also wondered how her cousin would react to Alex. She was confident that her aunt wouldn't care that much, but she couldn't say how her cousin would react. Ruthie had been unpredictable in the past. Sometimes she'd be amenable to things and then suddenly turn belligerent for no reason she could figure out. Sometimes she even got upset about things when there was no reason for her to get upset about, as it didn't affect her in any way.

However, despite that, Charlie couldn't help but want Ruthie's approval. Maybe it was because she was aware of magic now or something, but she was surprised when she realized that she wanted Ruthie' to approve of her. Why that was, she couldn't say. Especially since she knew that Ruthie approving or not, nothing would significantly change.

Besides, she had a lot going on for her that she really didn't understand about herself, so one more wasn't really that much more of a problem for her.

Charlie shook her head and got up from her bed before she fell asleep and forgot to talk with her parents about having invited, so to speak, Alex over for Thanksgiving. That way she would know what the answer would be, rather than merely guessing.

Although, she hoped that there wouldn't be any complications. With all that she had going on, she really didn't want anything to complicate matters more than they already were. She wasn't sure that she'd be able to handle it if that happened.

_

Charlie found herself on pins and needles as she waited for Alex to show up. Permission had been granted and now it was merely a few hours before they were supposed to sit down for dinner.

The only thing that was helping keep her occupied was receiving instructions from her mother of what to carry out to the table, where to put the food on the table, setting the table, as well as other small tasks that she was used to performing during Thanksgiving. Just as her sister was doing.

There were only two people she hadn't seen so far since breakfast and that was Ruthie and Emily. She wasn't concerned that they weren't around, as Ruthie often was allowed to just sit around while they worked, but she couldn't help but wonder what they might be doing with Aunt Rose preoccupied with preparations for dinner. Especially since her aunt hadn't given them much time to be together as a couple. As such, she didn't dare speculate out loud where they were. It would only draw attention to them and she was sure they wouldn't appreciate that happening.

"Are you sure that's what the turkey needs?" Aunt Rose complained to Charlie's mother. "Shouldn't we keep it in the oven until it's time for dinner?"

Charlie wisely kept her mouth shut. When she was younger, she'd offer her thoughts and was rewarded with more work, after sharp words from her aunt. While she still had her opinions on the matter, letting her mother handle the situation was easier on her. Especially with how this topic came up pretty much every year.

Occasionally there was the suggestion that Charlie's family could visit Aunt Rose at her home, but the problem with that was always that Aunt Rose's home wasn't big enough to accommodate everyone. At least for as long as Aunt Rose tended to stay.

Charlie didn't mind so much her aunt and cousin staying now. Although, when she was little, she remembered wishing they could do just that. Not that any of her talking to her parents had any change in what they had been doing, letting Aunt Rose and Ruthie stay for Thanksgiving.

When it was almost half an hour to when dinner was planned on starting, Charlie was starting to get worried that something had happened to Alex, or maybe that she'd changed her mind.

She was starting to contemplate calling Alex to see where she was, when her aunt called for her attention.

"Charlie!" Aunt Rose snapped as Charlie came back into the kitchen after having carefully put the big bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. "Go see where Ruthie is. Let her know we'll be having dinner soon."

"Okay," Charlie replied, grateful for another task to help distract her from wondering where Alex was.

Charlie didn't know where her cousin was, and didn't care to mention Emily to her aunt, as she didn't think her aunt would have a very favorable reaction to that inquiry.

She also didn't know where they were, so she planned on taking her time in looking for them. She seriously doubted that they wouldn't be together, as with how they had been making out whenever they got a chance to be away from her aunt, they seemed to be doing that.

However, she first had to conduct her search in a manner that her aunt couldn't complain about. Like if she started upstairs, her aunt wouldn't take that very kindly.

So, she first went to the family room. She thought it possible, but rather unlikely because it was a little more visible and public than they'd probably like.

When she reached the family room from the stairs that connected to the living room, she wasn't surprised to see it empty. Sighing, she continued on towards their rooms. She really didn't expect to find them here, so when she heard sounds from Ruthie's room, she was surprised. Then as she got closer, she began to get uneasy from some of the sounds she could hear through the door. Mostly there was a lot of soft moaning, gasps, and creaking coming through the door.

As Charlie knocked on the door, she couldn't help but wince. While she knew her aunt wouldn't like her to not let Ruthie know about dinner, she really didn't want to know more about what was going on in that room, but at the same time, couldn't think of how to let them know without finding out at the same time.

When she knocked, some of the sounds stopped, while others continued, like the creaking, before continuing a moment later. Charlie waited outside, feeling embarrassed even listening to the sounds from Ruthie's room, for a minute.

She was about to leave to go elsewhere and find some excuse as to what was taking so long when she heard through the door Emily call out a gasp, "Come in."

Charlie would rather just pass her message along through the door rather than open it, but unless she saw or heard Ruthie herself, she couldn't say for sure if it was Ruthie in there that she was passing the message along to, and the only real way she could be sure she was in there was to open the door. So, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

No matter what she had really expected to see, she was caught off guard at what was before her. She saw both Ruthie and Emily in Ruthie's bed, under the covers, aside from their heads, shoulders, and some of their arms. Emily was on top of Ruthie and Charlie could see movement under the thin blanket. Movement that she wished she couldn't see. It was clear that while she couldn't really see anything detailed, she could still see what they were in the middle of. Emily's outline through the blanket covering them showing her hips moving against Ruthie's with the outline of Ruthie's arm and hand over Emily's butt.

"Um," Charlie said sounding hallow to herself, wishing she could un-see what she could clearly see in front of her. "You mom wanted me to let you know dinner's almost ready."

"Let her know we'll- ah! We'll be up shortly," Emily gasped.

Charlie didn't say anything else, but rather closed the door and calmly walked back to the family room, and sat on the couch. She wished she could avoid dinner altogether after witnessing that scene. Part of her felt like she should have expected something like that and maybe she should have just asked Emily if Ruthie was in there rather than opening the door.