Chapter 3



“That was beautiful. That was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”


Natasha and Latosha were crying. We were sitting in a reception hall after the wedding. It was just us at this huge table full of food. Steak. Thick, meaty…steak was on the table. Shrimp. All this food that I hadn’t had in the breeding grounds. I ate so much that I had to lean back in my chair and take deep breaths. The never had food like this. Marcel supposedly paid for it all. For some reason I was eating like I didn’t know when I’d be able to eat again.


The stylists looked at me with wondering eyes. They didn’t touch their meal. They were more interested in talking. You would think Marcel would at least want to have a dinner with me after what just happened between us but instead he disappeared…back to work as usual. I had no doubt Cid went to go track him down for one reason or another.


“You think?” I asked raising my eyebrow.


Natasha put her hand close to her heard, “Yes. Oh yes. You looked so stunning too. Marcel couldn’t take his eyes off of you. That kiss. My god. That kiss.”


“That was weird wasn’t it?” I ask.


It truthfully was. Marcel and I had made out. The kiss seemed to have so much allure and attraction. His breath tasted so good. Even after eating all that food I could still taste him in my mouth. The thought of it washes over me like a tidal wave of confusion. He hates me. I hate him.


This was hate at first sight. So why were there so many sparks?


I couldn’t get my mind off it. Didn’t you notice Latosha.”


“True love,” Latosha smiled.


“Far from it,” I reply.


I couldn’t believe these girls. They hadn’t touched the food in front of us but I couldn’t stop eating.


The girls look at me a little confused, “You are so funny.”


Little did she know I was dead serious. It just so happened that Cid had walked into the room though. The look on his face seemed to say it all. He looked like some teacher ready to yell at me for getting an answer wrong on a test.


He smiles weakly, “Marx, can I steal you for a minute?”


I get off the table too aware that I’m about to get chewed out. Truthfully it’s hard for me to move after eating so much. The girls are getting annoying anyway. The fact that they were more excited about my ‘wedding’ than either me or my husband was.


Cid takes me to the other side of the room away from everyone else. I can tell it must be one of his little secrets because of how he leans in as he starts talking to me. He smells like chocolate.


“Now that it’s official, it’s very important that we keep our arrangement…you know, to ourselves,” he explained, “And when I say ourselves. I mean just you, I and Marcel.”


I wondered why. This whole ‘arrangement’ had red flags all over it.


“Ok. I’ll play my part. As long as you don’t stop with those meals…”


He laughs finding me amusing with his red cheeks. I’m not sure if his cheeks are natural or if he has some sort of rouse on them.


“That’s just the beginning,” he replied, “I have created some talk tracks for you on this tablet.”


“Talk tracks?”


He hands me a tablet and as it turns on I realize that Cid has taken the time to create an extensive document detailing how I would respond to certain questions if they were asked on me. I scroll through quickly. I guess the talk tracks were part of the arrangement we had. I looked at it. It couldn’t be so hard really.


“Marcel is a big deal in New Jerusalem and the people in New Jerusalem gossip. Gossip is sport here and your reputation is everything. Every day is a fight. It’s not all good food and flying cars.”


“I think I’ll survive…” I tell him.


The things they worried about in New Jerusalem was more amusing then anything. He was talking as though this ‘gossip’ was the most important thing in the world. I couldn’t help but to be amused by how serious Cid was taking this.


“It’s very important we always be careful of whose looking and trust me. They are always looking,” Cid continues to advice me, “You and Marcel must seem like a loving couple in the upcoming election. I’ve also written a small speech for the Agenda’s ball tomorrow morning.”


“Wait. Wait…wait.”


Something was standing out.


“What’s up?”


I looked through the notes, “This speech. It says that I should announce myself as being a 6 on the Kingsley scale.”


I knew something was off. I knew something was weird about how Cid had these talking points. How the hell did he come up with this? As nice as Cid was he definitely seemed to have this sneaky side and every moment I spent talking to him I could see that sneaky side coming out.


The doctor nodded, “Here…use this…it’s a mobile Kingsley scale. Plug it into your outlet and tell me what it reads…”


“This thing looks expensive. You want me to break it?”


“Entertain me.”


I looked over at the doctor. I grabbed the device from his hands and plugged it into the hormone scale in the back of my neck. It usually took a few minutes for a reading with the scales in the breeding grounds but this new device that they had was definitely showing something else. The machine started to make strange noises and buzzed, vibrating the back of my neck and letting me know it had collected enough of my hormone balance.


I took the scale off and looked down at the measurement.


6.


“Impossible.”


Cid smiles at me. There is a gleam in his eye. A sneaky…side eye that I noticed the first moment I met him.


He explains, “Being a 6 is a big deal in New Jerusalem. There aren’t a lot of 6’s. a 6 is the highest you can get. You are the gayest you can get at a 6. You are the prototype for sexual perfection. So now you understand that being a 6 is a prize and it looks good for Marcel to have a 6 on his arms.”


“I’m not a 6. I’m not anything…”


“Maybe not. A few years ago I discovered a way to manipulate hormones in order to change an asexual anamoly into something…well…it’s sort of scientific. Long story short, I gave you a chip. The chip can make someone a 6, but only someone like you. Now you see why we sought you out. Now you see why you’re important.”


Cid smiled at me. He was gassing my head up but I knew the truth. I wasn’t important to him really. I was a pawn. I was lucky enough to break the scale a few years ago and thrown away. No one wanted me but when he found a way to get past this all of a sudden I was “important” now.


“Is you messing with my hormones legal?”


The look on Cid’s face said it all.


“We should keep your circumstance as private as possible.”


“I didn’t sign up to…break the law.”


The Kingsley scale was the highest law in the land. I read about people who had just tried to mess with the scale. They never succeeded but they were sent to jail for fraud. The fact that Cid succeeded at changing the scale was both impressive…and frightening.


“I didn’t mean to trick you. That wasn’t my intention, but you are a piece of making Marcel the most important man in the world. These are high stakes. Very high…”





Cid spent almost an hour trying to convince me of why it was important not to tell anyone about what he was doing. The entire time I just felt nervous. What had I gotten myself involved in? I just kept thinking that I had it coming. I was greedy. I could have stayed in the Breeding grounds. I could have kept my head down.


I could still leave. I could still run to one of the cyborg cops and tell them what Cid tricked me into doing. But what would happen then? I’d probably still be arrested. I’d still be charged.


I was…stuck…


Cid walked me the penthouse floor. Before he opened the door for me he smiled, “Tomorrow morning it begins. Marcel will announce your marital status to the rest of the party. Review your notes. And remember…above all else. It’s important we keep what you are a secret.”


He smiles at me. He smiles as though he isn’t breaking the law. He smiles as though hasn’t coerced me into aiding in this FELONY!


Then he just leaves closing the door behind him.


I find myself in the penthouse. This is what I am risking my freedom for. I look over at the walls. Beautiful. The television is a hologram that can be turned on from the bed. The bed is a huge king size bed. The sheets actually look rich and silken. This place is amazing and I am sure that this is the best I’ve lived in my life.


I guess if I was risking my freedom it was for a good reason.


I walk towards the bathroom ready to take a shower and possibly get some sleep. As I do it though I realize that the door is slightly cracked. Water is running.


I’m confused. Maybe it’s some sort of automatic shower that can sense me coming. God knows what the Gays were able to create in this paradise of theirs. As I get closer though my mouth drops as I see him standing there.


Marcel.


His eyes are closed.


Marcel is in my bathroom. He standing underneath a rainfall shower. There is no door that separates the shower. The water is right over him. Marcel is standing under the water. I see his naked body as he rubs soap suds slowly over his body. His body is the body of some Greek God. What kind of politician is built like this?


He has abs…strong, muscular abs. Six of them. They are tightly packed below a strong muscular chest. His biceps seem to be flexing without him even trying. The water cascades over his pubic area. He doesn’t have any pubic hair. He is completely shaved. I continue to look down unable to take my eyes away from him. Then I see his dick. It’s thick. It’s thick and it’s soft as he rubs it slowly in the shower with soap. The rubbing seems to make make him semi-hard a little bit. His dick is beautiful. I could feel my mouth watering. I’d never been so…attracted…in my life.


He turns rinsing his dick off probably and showing me his ass. His ass is FAT. It’s amazing. The round bubble is probably way bigger than mine. It’s muscular. He’s well endowed from the front and back. A perfect male specimen.


Then he turns back around, “What the fuck!”


His eyes are opened. Fuck. His eyes are open and he’s looking at me with this odd look. He runs out of the shower…almost slipping across the floor as he struggles to find a towel.


I run out of the bathroom quickly into the main bedroom. My face gets flushed almost immediately. What’s worse is that I’m turned on. My dick is so hard that I’ve created a tent in my pants. I can hear Marcel clearly hustling in the bathroom.


He’s coming out. I have to hide the tent in my pants so I jump on the bed quickly and throw a pillow over it just in time for Marcel to come storming into the bedroom.


“What the hell are you doing here!” he asks me, “You like spying on people. You some kind of pervert or something?”


His obnoxious attitude doesn’t even make sense really. Firstly he was my husband. I should at least be able to see the man that I married naked. Hell, we should have been doing a lot more if this wasn’t an arrangement. I knew that argument wasn’t going to fly with Marcel though.


“Cid brought me here. I had no idea this was your room too.”


Marcel sighed immediately, “Fuck. We have to share rooms too…”


He looked beyond annoyed. I was just hoping that he didn’t notice the pillow over my crotch. I was trying my best not to show him. It was hard even now with Marcel standing in the room with just a towel wrapped around his waist. A part of me just wondered what that towel was. It just made me want to take it off and do something. I didn’t even know what I would do though. I was a virgin after all. And being a virgin in my mid 20’s definitely wasn’t “Fun” by any means.


“Look I’m now doing backflips about this either.”


Marcel crossed his eyes, “I couldn’t tell…not the way you were profiling me a minute ago.”


“I was just shocked to see you in the shower.”


“Is that what it was?”


He didn’t believe me. He was so goddamn annoying. I don’t know why I let him get under my skin like this. I could feel myself getting angry again. My blood was boiling as he gave me that same old smug Marcel look.


“Listen it wasn’t that impressive,” I replied.


“So now you are going to get rude because I caught you staring at me,” he stated, “How about you apologize for being a perv…”


“Sure right after you apologize for sticking your tongue down my throat when we got married.”


“We had to kiss,” Marcel stated.


“We had to kiss. You didn’t have to tongue rape me…”I responded.


It was clear I was getting underneath his skin and I felt like I had just won an award by doing it. It was getting him off the fact that I was staring at him in the shower. He was definitely defensive as hell. He was pacing back and forward.


“Tongue-rape? TONGUE RAPE! You are beyond immature. This is not going to work,” He starts going off and runs over to grab some hi-tech phone, “I’m calling Cid. I need two rooms. I REFUSE to be around you if I don’t have to.”


“Same here. Call him.”


I can hear Marcel go in the bathroom. At first there is screaming. I have no doubt he is going in on Cid for putting us in the same room. After a minute or two the sound of screaming began to subside and then Marcel walked in the room.


“How’d it go?” I asked him.


It was clear from the look on his face that somehow Cid managed to talk him out of it. I didn’t even know Cid that well yet but I could hear him now telling him that it wasn’t good idea. I could hear Cid telling him that people may be watching. Marcel and I had to put on a ‘united front’. I could almost hear the whole conversation.


“You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor,” Marcel responded.


That’s what happened that night too. I kind of felt bad. Marcel was this important guy but he was sleeping on the floor just because I disgusted him so much that he didn’t want to sleep on the bed with me. I thought about inviting him in the bed and telling him we could just stay on different sides or sleep head to foot like kids. Marcel didn’t seem like he would want to consider that though. So I allowed him to sleep on the floor.




The next day I noticed a crack on his back as he stood.


“Good afternoon everyone. I’d like to take this time to introduce you to my husband. As many of you know from rumors spreading around I have been in a relationship. I’ve kept my love affair private but I would like to announce to all of you…Marx VII Anthony…my husband.”


It was the next day. We were at the Agenda Brunch. The way that Cid explained it was the Agenda was the political party that Marcel was in. It was actually the only political party there was. Marx had announced me at this brunch completely press conference style. He was standing in front of the room looking at all of these people that Cid referred to as “The players”.


Cid called it a game and honestlyt he room looked like a game. The hall was a huge ballroom. People were dressed to the nines in these elaborate extreme costume gowns and tuxedos. When Marcel announced me the room of strangers looked over at me.


I felt butterflies through my stomach.


Marcel smiled at me. He put his hand around my waist. It was in this loving way. You would have really thought that he actually cared for me the way he did it.


He put me in front of the microphone and the crowd looked up at me. There was a sea of people. Intimidation definitely seemed to be setting in. It seemed like everyone was looking my way. It seemed as though everyone was paying attention to me at this moment.


I was the center of the room.


I remembered the speech Cid had written for me, “I wanted to thank all of you for respecting the privacy of my relationship and would love to echo the words of my husband. Our love and dedication to one another is something that I cherish above all things. I still remember the day that Marcel personally tested me and discovered that I was a 6 on the Kingsley scale.”


Whispers spread around. The whispers got louder and louder. Then all of a sudden something strange happened. Cheers. People were clapping. They were clapping as though I had just accomplished some great feat by saying I was a six.


Marcel took the mic again, “With my new husband at my side as my support and backbone I’d like to announce my candidacy for Presidency of the United States of America.”


More cheers. More and more.


I looked over at Cid in the distance. I could see him nodding his approval.


We had walked around the room. Marcel was doing small talk. He introduced me to people. We didn’t talk to anyone too long. I had to admit Marcel was a master communicator. He was charming. He kept his hand on my hip as he walked me around guiding me. As we did it I was almost beginning to forget we hated one another. I smiled mostly and gave thanks to people who congratulated us on our marriage.


It wasn’t until Marcel leaned into me that I remembered that this was all fake, “All these people are snakes. Every last one of them…”


I didn’t know what he meant by that. A part of me figured he was just being negative or something. Everyone seemed nice. The smiles and congratulations seemed genuine. I wondered however if it was required that Marcel held me so close. I didn’t get why it was giving me butterflies in my stomach.


“Sorry you feel that way,” I replied.


“Come on. Dance with me. People are watching…”



I didn’t expect Marcel to grab me and pull me into the middle of the floor. A live orchestra was playing in the background. The floor twirled with old fashioned music and neon lights lit up the dance floor. I noticed people watching us. They seemed to be studying us.


“I’m not really a dancer…” I stated apologizing without really knowing how I was doing.


Marcel raised his eyebrow, “You’re doing fine. You may want to move in a little bit. Act like you don’t hate me for a few minutes you know.”


I hated the smug, annoyed way he said it. I hated how he pulled me in close to him. Our chests mashed up close to one another. Our faces were so close to each other that I could feel Marcel’s cool breath. His breath smelled fresh, like cloves in Autumn. That was the only time that the Breeding Grounds ever smelled good. He reminded me of home at that moment.


He wrapped his arms around my waist. I don’t know why I was getting so excited sitting there. I wondered if he noticed my heart beating faster and faster.


It just seemed like everyone else in the room seemed to disappear.


“I don’t hate you…” I struggled to say.


Marcel didn’t say anything at first. He looked in my eyes with this suspicious look for a minute. We danced slowly a little bit. He took his time to respond but by the time he did respond his eyes were softening a little bit.


“Why do you act like it then?” Marcel asked.


“I’m only responding to how you act. I figure listen, we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we can at least be friends…”


Marcel nodded. It was the first time we seemed to be having a somewhat civil conversation since we met. I didn’t know what it was about us. Marcel clearly seemed to get along with everyone else. I clearly seemed to get along with everyone else. I saw today as I looked at him. He wasn’t a mean or rude person to anyone but me.


Marcel seemed to be struggling with the though. His fresh breath massaged my nostrils. I struggled to not be turned on by his beautiful face as he leaned into me.


For the first time he smiled at me, genuinely, “That would be cool. I mean. I’d like that. Truth is I’ve been trying to figure out why we haven’t gotten along. I just thought you were the biggest asshole I’d ever met.”


“Ok, ok, watch it…” I replied, “Lets move forward not back.”


Marcel laughed. He had the most beautiful laugh ever. It warmed my heart. Why the hell was I thinking about him like this? Why couldn’t I get him off of my mind?


“You’re right. I apologize.”


“Is that a laugh?” I asked, “Never thought we’d see the day where we’d laugh together.”


“I know right,” Marcel stated, “I meant to tell you something. Well two things. I meant to tell you thank you. You know…thank you for doing this. People love my political stances but I’m only a 4 on the Kingsley scale.”


“Oh wow…that’s close to being bisexual,” I stated.


Marcel nodded, “Right. It’s always held back my career. So you doing this is helping people see me in another light. For the first time ever I have a chance at winning. The guy who I’m running against. He’s a monster.”


“He’s that bad?”


“He wants to put breeders in concentration camps. He’s the modern day Hitler really. He hates straight people with a passion.”


Jesus Christ. Looking at how Marcel passionately talked about it definitely made me look at him in another light. I had no idea that the Gay Agenda was so…radical. Or at least members in it were. For some reason it made me feel a little better about breaking the law and helping Marcel. If I could make Marcel win that would actually help people. Breaking the law may not have been so bad after all.


“This guy sounds…horrible…”


“Right. You have no idea. The bad thing is that he has supporters. I have to win this or God knows what the future will be like. Truthfully. He makes you look an angel.”


“Was that supposed to be a compliment?” I asked Marcel trying my hardest not to revert back to being offended.


“No but this is…” he stated leaning close to me and whispering in my ear, “You look…you look…amazing tonight.”


My heart stopped. It literally stopped. He had whispered so close to my ear that his breath tickled the inside of my earlobes. I was immediately hard. I found myself taking a step back when his eyes expanding probably realizing that I was hard.


“Sorry….” I apologized immediately.


“Are you ok?” Marcel asked.


“I---I’m fine---“


Luckily Marcel seemed to be distracted by something. His eyes looked past me zooming in.


“There he is…the other candidate. The worst man in New Jerusalem,” Marcel stated.


I turned around and my heart dropped as I saw who had walked into the door.


The man’s eyes connected with mine almost immediately. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be real.


“Oh…my…god…” I said.


“What?” Marcel asked me, “You know him?”


I looked at the man. Dressed in white. He looked the same. His face hadn’t aged that much. He looked wiser though. He had grown facial hair.


My mouth was dry, “He’s my father…”


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