by Amanda Wals
"It won't be the same. I'm gonna miss you." She leaned over against me again and I put my arm back around her.
The flowery scent of her shampoo filled my nose. It was a pleasant, feminine smell that made me want to hold her more. Not a good idea, I thought to myself.
"It probably won't, you're right. But it won't be as bad as you think, either. Besides, if I get the scholarship I'm trying for, I will be able to pay for everything from my paycheck when I transfer and won't have to ask mom for anything. That will make things easier on you guys around here."
"You give her almost half of your paycheck already, just like I do. That's not the point." She buried her face in my shoulder and I rubbed the back of her head gently.
"I know," I sighed.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore tonight." I could barely hear her mumble.
"Okay. Can I go take a leak?"
Skye propped herself up on a hand and motioned for me to go. As I turned down the hallway, I heard her call after me.
"Wanna play some Super Smash Brothers when you get back?"
"Sure."
Closing the bathroom door behind me, I quickly adjusted my cock in my shorts and turned on the sink. I splashed cool water on my face and stared at my reflection in the mirror.
"Alright, asshole. I don't know what your problem is, but you need to secure your shit," I told my reflection.
Not getting laid in a few weeks was my problem, I decided. Whitney and I had sex all the time. Now that she was out of my life, I wasn't used to going without. That's the only reason my sister should be affecting me this much, right? No big deal.
Satisfied with my explanation, I flushed the toilet and resolved to give Skye a thorough ass-kicking in Super Smash Brothers.
Being so caught up in my thoughts worked against me, and she won most rounds. I endured her well deserved gloating with as much dignity as I could muster
* * *
"Dude, what's with you?" Kevin asked as he stared dejectedly at his microwaved pile of soggy bread, mystery meat, and something vaguely resembling cheese.
We were in the break room at work, having a rare lunch break at the same time. He'd made the mistake of buying one of the prepackaged subs from the vending machine and was coming to terms with the error of his ways. I could almost smell the preservatives in the air surrounding the steaming heap of... whatever the fuck it was.
"Nothing, aside from having to smell that nasty shit," I replied, happily munching on my own lunch of some leftover chicken and wild rice concoction Skye had whipped up last night. It wasn't half bad and was definitely better than the probable tumor-inducing stuff Kevin was staring at.
"No joke. This smells like melted plastic and ground pig assholes," He picked it up and took a bite. The look on his face made me think it likely didn't taste much better than it smelled.
"Seriously, though." He said between bites, "you've been all quiet lately. What gives?"
I shrugged. I knew what he meant. I had been quiet. I'd been thinking about my sister a lot.
I wasn't sure, but it seemed like Skye was around more frequently in the week or so since the incident on the couch. It could have been that I was much more aware of her presence than usual. I could smell her shampoo or perfume when we passed by each other in the kitchen. I could feel her warmth linger when she would give me a hug. I found myself often thinking about her and the feel of her skin under my fingertips when she had cuddled against me. I would find myself feeling slightly nervous about seeing her when I would come home from work and then slightly disappointed if she wasn't there. I kept trying to ignore the thoughts that crept into my head when I would see her in leggings or her pajamas.
The thoughts nagged at the back of my mind constantly. The thought that she was beautiful, that she smelled great, that she was just out of reach and that I shouldn't be thinking about her. If I could just stop thinking about her, it would probably pass. But I kept entertaining my thoughts and making it worse. It pissed me off that I couldn't just let it go.
Just a lot on my mind, dude."
"Anything you wanna talk about?" He asked as he wiped a bit of cheese from his face.
"Not really, man. I'm just stressing about all this school shit. Moving. Scholarships. Transferring to that store." I stabbed at my food with the fork, thinking I was getting pretty good at deflecting. Not that I actually wasn't worried about those things, but it seemed to be working well for distracting people from what I was really thinking.
"Wondering if you are going to be working with a bunch of hipster trash over in Austin. I get that." He smirked.
"Yeah, there is that," I chuckled. "But to top all of that off, my sister is giving me shit for wanting to move away."
"Shit, I'd haul her shit myself if my snotty bitch of a sister wanted to move out of the house." Kevin mused.
"Hell, I'd help you move her shit. She's a pain in the ass. But Skye's not like that. We get on well, really. She's got me feeling kind of guilty about it."
"Man, you gotta do what's best for you. You know that. She'll be perfectly fine. Hell, she's an adult."
"I know." I sighed. I actually was feeling kind of bad about the upcoming move, even though it was still months away.
My phone alarm chirped telling me my lunch break was over and I hit the dismiss button.
"Damn, already?" Kevin asked.
"I was in here ten minutes before you," I shrugged as I cleaned up my stuff.
A slim girl with dirty blonde hair that I recognized from the garden department wandered into the room and walked over to the time clock. She had a cute smile, I noticed as I tossed my stuff in my locker.
"Hey!" Kevin called after me, "we still on for drinks tomorrow?"
"Yeah, yeah... I'll be there."
* * *
I leaned on my pool cue and surveyed the bar while I waited on Kevin to get back with the beer. The place was crowded tonight, partially because one of the more popular local bands was supposed to be playing at the club next door.
Kevin appeared out of the crowd and passed me a Dos Equis. He took a long swig of his own beer and picked up his pool cue from the table.
"My shot, yeah?" He asked.
I nodded as I took a hit from the bottle.
He lined up his shot and sank it with ease. Son of a bitch. I may be able to club him mercilessly at Call of Duty, but he was a far better pool player than I would ever be.
"So, get this... Yesterday I check the mail after work and the Edgefest tickets I bought to surprise Whitney with like two months ago finally showed up. I forgot all about them."
"Guess you won't be bringing her now," Kevin grinned as he took his second shot and sank it. The bastard.
"Nope. Want to go? There's like thirty-five bands playing or something. You pay for gas and I got the tickets?"
"Nah. That ain't my scene. Gonna be a bunch of that white boy guitar stuff." He snorted.
"You're as white as I am, dumb ass." I replied with a smirk, "and there are some hip-hop acts playing there, too."
"Who?"
Kevin eyed me suspiciously from behind his beer bottle.
"I remember Run The Jewels for sure because I want to see them. A couple of those mumble rap guys. Uh..." I tried to remember the rest of the line-up.
"RTJ would be fun, but I'm not gonna go out there and bake in the sun all day like a damned fool."
"Shit," I replied. "Man, these tickets cost me almost three hundred bucks."
"You should have just waded in on that orgy like I told you before. Then you'd still have a girlfriend to bring to that show. But no, not you... You had to get all self-righteous and storm off." He grinned at me. The perpetually horny bastard had been teasing me about this for weeks.
"Fuck you, asshole," I laughed, "You would have done the same goddamned thing and you know it."
"Yeah, but it's funny watching you get tweaked about it."
I pretended like I was going to crack him in the nuts with my pool cue causin
g him to bump into a random guy and his girlfriend when he flinched to protect himself. Grinning to myself as he apologized to them, I took aim for my next shot and surprised us both by sinking it.
After finishing our game, which I lost by a wide margin, we left the pool table to a group of guys who had been hovering around waiting for a turn and settled into a booth. One of the other guys from work, Scott, showed up and sat with us. We all bullshitted about the job for a bit before his friends arrived and he disappeared with them.
Kevin pivoted sideways and propped his feet up across the bench on his side of the booth, leaning his back to the wall. He pulled a cigarette from his pack with practiced ease, dropping the pack on the table.
"That shit is gonna kill you one day," I observed dryly.
He shrugged at me as he lit it and dropped his lighter next to the pack.
"Hey, Skye is over there with the redhead and that chick that looks like she bathed in that spray tan bullshit."
I looked over in the direction Kevin was pointing, and sure enough, I spotted my sister and her friends at a booth halfway across the bar on the far side of the pool tables.
Skye was wearing a dark-colored cocktail dress with a white print that extended to mid-thigh, black thigh high stockings and heels. I was struck by how sexy she looked as she leaned forward to suck on the straw in her drink.
"What's up with that redhead anyway?' Kevin asked.
"Heather? Uh... She's okay, I guess. I don't hang out with her friends all that much, but she's always been pretty cool around me."
"She single?"
"I'm not sure. I can ask. You're interested?" I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"I'd like to do some very rude things with her body if that's what you mean." He grinned at me.
"That'd be the perfect opening line to use on her. She'll be having to wring her panties out in no time."
"If only it were that simple," he replied wistfully.
"She's going in the air force soon."
"I'm not looking to marry her, just have an entertaining weekend or two."
I rolled my eyes and glanced back toward Skye's table. A blonde guy with a forearm tattoo was leaning down at the table talking to her.
My chest tightened up watching them. He was smiling at her and seemed to be trying to buy her a drink. She was smiling back at him, but I could tell she was forcing it. I'd seen her pretend to be happy enough times over the years to know she was just being polite.
Allowing myself a small sigh of relief, I thought about how I was reacting.
What was my problem? I should be happy for her. I mean, she had never had a boyfriend that I knew of. I should be encouraging her. Instead, I found I was feeling jealous. What the fuck? Feelings of guilt started creeping up on me. Jealous that some guy was showing interest in my little sister? I was being an asshole.
But realizing I was thinking like a dick and making myself stop thinking like a dick were two different things. It wasn't as if I could expect her to be single her entire life. She just needed to stay single until I could move to Austin and let the distance kill off these fucked up desires of mine, I thought. Even thinking about the future in such a way made my guts churn.
Blonde Guy dropped his hand to my sister's stocking covered knee. She flinched almost imperceptibly away from him. She was giving him a harsh look and said something that made him stiffen a bit. I didn't know what it was, but his hand withdrew back to the table.
"So, your mom asked if she could blow me, but I told her only if she let me nut in her nostril. She didn't seem too into the idea, but I told her it was a fetish of mine."
"The fuck?" Kevin's bizarre comment cut through the noise in my skull enough for me to look over at him, startled.
"Ah, now I got your attention. You've been staring a hole in the back of that dude's skull for like ten minutes now." He smirked. It was just like him to make a wisecrack like that just to get a rise out of someone. Luckily, I was mostly immune to his bullshit. Mostly.
"Jesus," I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed, "I'm just making sure the prick respects my sister."
"I gathered as much but I wasn't sure you weren't going to go kick his ass before he had a chance to."
"Come on, dude. I'm not that insane," I scoffed. "He just seems like the type of skeevy fucker to drop shit in her drink or something."
Kevin studied the guy with renewed interest, trying to figure out what I saw in him that set me off.
"If you say so. He just looks like some random dude to me. But if he does try some shit, I got your back."
I nodded in reply and reached for my empty beer bottle. Shit.
"Ready for another?" I asked, pointing at the empty bottle while I actively tried not to look back at the dude attempting to hit on my sister. I had a suspicion that I was going to need a lot of beer tonight.
"What the hell kind of stupid ass question is that? Of course, I am."
When I returned with the beer, Skye and Heather were sitting at the booth with Kevin. Skye smiled up at me and moved over to make room for me to sit.
"You picked up some strays," I observed.
"Hey, who am I to resist pretty girls?" Kevin replied taking the bottle I handed him.
"Vicki found a guy and we got abandoned. So much for staying at her place tonight." Heather sounded pretty annoyed.
"You can stay at my place. Mom's on nights again," Skye replied. "I'm sure Ryan won't care, will you?"
She leaned close to me and hugged my arm. I could feel her breasts smash up against my arm and tried not to focus on how soft they were. Goddamn, she felt warm and inviting against me.
"Cool with me," I shrugged, forcing myself free of her grip without being too obvious about it. Heather was far less annoying than Vicki. I never minded when she stayed over.
Skye leaned forward and took sipped the last of her drink through her straw. I noticed Kevin trying to catch a peek down her dress and subtly kicked him in the shin. He coughed and looked away guiltily.
"Will you get us some real drinks? We'll pay for your next round," Heather asked.
"What is that, then?" Kevin glanced at her half empty glass.
"Coke. Not twenty-one yet." Heather flashed the X drawn on her hand by the doorman.
Kevin looked at me with an amused smirk.
"Come on, Ryan. Please?" Skye let a little whine slip in her voice. I cocked an eyebrow at her as she tried to give me one of her sweetest smiles.
"Do you realize the mountain of shit that would descend on me like a biblical plague if mom found out I got you drunk? They would need to call in a dentist to identify my body."
"She won't find out. Besides, we didn't say we wanted to get hammered."
"Skye, do your feet even touch the floor in this booth?" Kevin grinned.
"Shut up!" She retorted, trying to sound indignant.
I craned my neck over and saw at least an inch of clearance between the bottom of her shoes and the floor.
"Nope," I answered Kevin with a smirk as Skye elbowed me in the ribs.
"I could ask the bartender for a booster seat if it will help you see over the bar better. Maybe they wouldn't think you were twelve if they could see more than the top of your head." Kevin offered.
She flipped him off but couldn't hide her amusement and we all laughed.
"So, about those drinks?" Skye turned back to me. Heather was giving me a pleading look while batting her eyelashes in an exaggerated fashion.
"One round." I held up a finger and foolishly uttered those famous last words, "That's it. I'd like to at least survive long enough to graduate."
Several rounds later, a waitress interrupted one of Kevin's long-winded work stories about a customer that had nearly driven him to homicide in order to clear the bottles from the table. I had quit drinking by now in order to stay sober enough for the drive home. Skye was quite buzzed at this point and leaning on me as she laughed at Kevin's antics. Heather excused herself to go to the bathroom. Kevin watched her as
s as she walked away.
"You don't have to be so obvious, you know," Skye gave him a dirty look.
"Whatever, squirt."
"You'd have more girlfriends if you didn't act like such a perv all the time," she replied, picking absently at the half-eaten tray of nachos in front of her.
"I can get laid any time I want." Kevin cut his eyes at her.
"Sure, I just thought you may want to not have to pay her by the hour once in a while," Skye shrugged, causing us all to laugh.
"Did you ask her about the show?" Kevin motioned toward my sister with his beer.
"What show?" She asked.
"That big ass concert out in Edgerton. This moron bought tickets for it then dumped Whitney before he had a chance to use 'em. Now he's trying to find someone to go with."
"Don't talk about that whore around me. I'm glad he dumped her skank ass." She spat bitterly. I could feel her stiffen next to me in irritation.
Kevin started laughing as he rocked back in his seat, the alcohol having made him more animated than usual.
"Jesus, she holds a grudge, eh?"
"You should have heard her when I first told her about it. I thought she was going to hunt her down in the street." I said with a small grin. We had always been there for each other, but I was still a bit surprised by how much venom Skye had for Whitney.
"Anyway, I bet Skye would go with you." He shrugged.
"I've never been to a concert. I'd love to go!" She bounced a little next to me causing her breast to slide along my arm. Was that a nipple I felt? My dick stirred at the thought.
She pulled her phone out and started typing away on it. Before long she had pulled up the list of bands that were playing and reading names aloud, seeming to get more excited with each name she spoke.
"Holy shit, I love The Raveonettes! Oh my god, Future Islands? This is gonna be so much fun!"
Kevin spread his hands out in front of him with a shit eating grin on his face.
"See? Problem solved."
"Seems so," I replied, trying to hide how conflicted I was about this development.
