by Amanda Wals
I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about taking her with me, given my increasingly confusing feelings. But Kevin had already opened the door for this and now Skye seemed too excited about it to shut her down. I'd have to be a world class asshole to tell her she couldn't go because her piece of shit brother was falling for her and didn't want to make it worse by spending a lot of time alone with her.
Heather returned and slumped into the booth, looking a little green.
"Somebody hit their limit," Kevin chuckled.
"Screw off," she mumbled and laid her head down across her folded arms.
Skye immediately switched into nurturing mode, despite being buzzed, and started trying to take care of her.
I rolled my eyes at Kevin, who just grinned back at me. I was beginning to have a growing suspicion that my earlier thought that I never minded when Heather spent the night was about to come back to haunt me.
A few minutes later, Kevin made the mistake of getting me into a discussion about how potentially invasive some of the plants were that we sold in the garden center at work and was enduring a lengthy speech on the topic when Skye declared that it was time to get Heather home and asked if I were ready to go. Kevin looked almost relieved.
I helped load her into the backseat of my car where she laid her head down in Skye's lap with a groan.
"If you need to throw up, get out and do it now," I warned her, holding the car door open.
"M'fine," Heather mumbled, not looking at all fine.
I shut the car door with a sigh, hoping the girl wouldn't puke in my car. I knew I shouldn't have let them drink, damn it.
When we stopped at a red light midway home, Heather suddenly bolted from the car and dropped to her knees behind some bushes. Skye scrambled out after her, cursing as she went. I pulled the car around into the deserted parking lot and got out to check on them. We loaded her back in the car and got her the rest of the way home.
I helped Skye get Heather in the bathroom to clean up and went back downstairs to the kitchen, looking for something to snack on. There weren't any leftovers at the moment and I sure as hell didn't feel like cooking at two in the damned morning. Apathy and laziness made my decision for me and I poured myself a bowl of cereal.
No sooner had I settled in at the kitchen table than Skye passed through and into the laundry room. I got up and followed her, carrying my cereal, intending to tell her to keep Heather away from mom in the morning until she didn't look as hungover as I expected her to.
What I saw in the laundry room froze me in my tracks. My sister was facing away from me, pulling her dress over her head. Her shapely ass was on display, covered only by the tiny fabric triangle at the top of her thong underwear. Despite being so short, she had a beautiful ass and her legs looked amazing in the thigh high stockings she was still wearing. The sensual curve of her slender back came into view as the dress lifted, revealing even more of her pale and flawless skin. She was wearing a lacy black bra, but she hadn't turned in such a way that allowed me to see her breasts at all.
I watched in rapt attention as her hair fell back down into place when the dress pulled free of her head. Even that tiny detail seemed indescribably sexy to me at that moment. She stepped up on the stool in front of the washing machine, dropped the dress in, and bent forward slightly to adjust the controls. Her firm looking little bubble butt, now even more on display for me, called out for me to feel it's delightful firmness. Even though she had long given up gymnastics, her body was still toned to near perfection. My cock was so hard that it hurt at the sight of her. This was more of her body than I had ever seen exposed before and it was glorious.
Skye grabbed a shirt from on top of the dryer and pulled it on, her smooth shoulders disappearing from sight. I almost whined in protest when the hem of the shirt fell to her hips, almost, but not entirely, covering her ass. Jesus, I wanted her so badly at that moment that I had to fight the urge to step forward and put my arms around her.
The sound of the washing machine starting snapped me out of my trance just in time for her to turn and see me. She jumped a little, clearly startled, and suddenly blushed.
"I thought you were in the kitchen. You scared me."
"I... uh..." Fuck. My mouth forgot how to work all of a sudden.
"You okay?" She looked amused. No doubt, I looked pretty damned stupid standing there with a bowl of cereal in one hand, staring blankly at her as my mouth wouldn't form words.
"Yeah. Shit. Sorry. I blanked out a second." I blurted as my brain finished its reset sequence or whatever the fuck was going on up there.
"Did you need something?" She smiled up at me, her eyes looking tired and still a bit glassy from the alcohol.
That question was a trap if ever I heard one.
"Yeah, sorry. I just wasn't expecting you to be changing clothes in here. Kind of threw me off."
"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting Heather to puke tequila on my dress either." She blushed again.
"When the hell did she get tequila?" I was trying with all my might to keep my eyes on her face and not focus on the couple of inches of exposed flesh between the tops of her stockings and the bottom hem of her shirt. She looked sexy as hell.
"Kevin ordered it for her when you were in the bathroom."
"That son of a bitch," I muttered. I would have to have words with him about that shit.
"So what did you want?"
"To tell you to keep her the hell away from mom in the morning until she doesn't look as hungover as she is gonna be. I mean it. I don't want to catch a ton of shit for letting you two drink."
"I'd be in as much trouble as you would."
"I have my doubts about that," I grumbled, making an effort to sound more irritable than I was feeling.
Skye crossed the distance between us in three graceful strides, her stockings allowing her to glide up to me without making a sound. Her arms wrapped around me in a hug as she turned her head to the side, resting it against my chest.
"Don't worry, I'll keep her away from mom. Thank you for putting up with her tonight. With both of us."
I used my free arm to return her hug, trying not to spill my bowl of cereal in the other.
"It's no big deal. We all gotta let loose once in a while."
She leaned up on her tip toes and gave me a kiss on the jaw. Her lips seemed to linger against my skin just the tiniest bit longer than they should have. Just long enough for me to wonder if she was dragging the kiss out longer on purpose or not. Then she slipped past me, graceful as a cat, and moved back toward the staircase.
My eyes stayed locked on the bottom curves of her tight looking ass peeking out from beneath her shirt as she ascended the stairs and disappeared from view. I went to my room, locked the door, and jerked off to memories of what I'd seen. If there was a hell, I no doubt that I was going there for sure based on the thoughts going through my head.
My alarm snapped me awake well before dawn the morning of the show. I sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched for a moment, collecting my not fully coherent thoughts. After a quick shower, I got dressed in khaki cutoffs, a faded gray Built To Spill shirt and sneakers. Grabbing my backpack and double checking to make sure I had the tickets, I wandered down the hall to make sure Skye was up and ready.
She was no more of a morning person than I was and answered her door while mid-yawn. I paused a moment to take in her look. She was wearing a loose skirt with black leggings and a white sleeveless t-shirt that had SPC ECO printed across the front in black letters. The straps of a black bra peeked out beneath the shirt at her shoulders. All of that combined with her black Mary Jane shoes gave her the look of a hot chick that would no doubt turn heads at a rock concert. Hell, she had my attention already and it was not yet six in the morning.
"Too early," she yawned.
"It's a long drive. We gotta get going."
"Coffee."
"Not enough time. Gotta get going. We'll stop somewhere closer to Edgerton and grab some breakfast."
She peer
ed at me through one squinted eye as if contemplating whether or not to take a stand on the coffee issue but found herself interrupted by another yawn.
"Move it, zombie." I stepped aside and followed her as she shuffled down the hallway.
She fell asleep in the passenger seat before we got to the first red light leaving the house.
I didn't wake her until we pulled into a Waffle House about an hour outside of Edgerton. We sat across from each other in a booth and sipped coffee while we waited on our order to arrive. She folded her arms on the table and laid her head down on them, looking up at me with a tired crooked smile.
"Thanks for letting me sleep in the car."
"Just remember you may have to help keep me awake for the drive home tonight." I chuckled.
Skye sat up as the waitress dropped off our food and scurried away to help the next table. I watched her coat her chocolate chip waffle with syrup and wondered what sort of defect was going on in her taste buds to make her want to order such a thing. I had a feeling the sugar rush she was about to experience might be bad enough to need to lock her in the trunk for the rest of the ride to the venue just so she wouldn't be bouncing around the car like a lunatic.
"So listen," I began, pointing a piece of bacon at her. "When we get there, You need to stay with me, okay? Don't wander off."
"Sure, daddy. Do you want me to hold on to your belt loop, too?" She gave me a smirk.
"I'm being serious, smart ass. Sometimes things get kind of out of hand at these shows."
"Like what?" She shoved a piece of waffle in her mouth but was paying attention now.
"Like sometimes, in the crowd, some asshole decides to take advantage of the anonymity to feel up a pretty girl. Grab her ass. Especially the girls that decide to crowd surf. I've heard of much worse things, but if you stay with me, you'll be fine. It's not that I don't think you can take care of yourself, it's that these assholes I'm talking about tend to be chickenshits and usually won't try anything if the girl is with someone."
"Whoa. I didn't think of that."
"I probably make it sound worse than it is, but I've seen it happen before. Never saw anything as bad as a rape, thankfully. But I've seen girls get felt up and stuff. One girl last year punched me thinking I was the one who did it. I hadn't, but I think the guy next to me may have grabbed her. I don't know. I felt like shit regardless, even though I hadn't done anything. Just being accused of it sucks. But the thing is, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Pretty girls are targets for these shit heads."
"You think I'm pretty?" A shy smile crept across her face.
"You're beautiful and you know it. Stop fishing for compliments." I sighed in mild annoyance at the selective listening habits of girls.
"Thank you, Ryan. That's really sweet." She looked so pleased with my words that I thought she may start glowing. She could be really adorable sometimes.
"Well, it's true. But do you understand why I want you to stay by me? I'm not trying to be a prick, I just want you to have fun today without having to worry about that kind of crap."
"So you want me to pretend you're my boyfriend. Got it." She grinned as she returned to her waffle.
"Not exactly what I had in mind," I replied, trying not to appear rattled by her suggestion, shaking some salt on my scrambled eggs. It was closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. "Just stay close to me, where I can be there if you need me."
She nodded around a mouthful of food and I went back to work on my own breakfast, satisfied that she had gotten the point.
* * *
When we got to the fairgrounds outside Edgerton, we parked and walked what felt like five miles to the entrance. After a relatively short wait in line, we were scanned by bored security guards with metal wands, showed our tickets and were waved on in. As soon as we got in the gates, Skye gave me her purse to store in my backpack.
I stopped at the first concession booth I saw and groaned as I paid six dollars each for a few bottles of water to drop in my pack. I deeply resented this kind of economic sodomy and thought it was ridiculous that they wouldn't allow us to bring our own water in. It was nearing the end of Summer and it was going to be hot as hell out here today, so I knew I had to make the best of it.
"Holy crap, six bucks?" Skye muttered as we walked away from the booth following a herd of people and the sound of a not very good band in the distance.
"This venue gouges you any way they can for stuff. Fifteen bucks for parking, six for water, I don't even want to know what lunch is gonna cost us later. It'll be worth it, though." I replied.
The main stage was at the base of a large man-made hillside, allowing for a better view of the stage. There was already what looked like a couple of thousand or so people in the crowd spread out all over the hill chatting in groups. A decent sized group were down near the stage watching the first band play their set. As was typical of big festival concerts like this, the first bands were unknown local acts looking for exposure. Most of the time, they weren't very good. This was not an exception.
This was a bigger music festival than I was used to attending, and I found myself slightly impressed with the huge projection screens on either side of the stage. That would certainly make it easier to see the bands later. Scanning the area, I tried to find a spot that looked like a good one for watching the show, but being far enough from the stage to be sure that Skye would still be able to see. Most people at the show were taller than her, so I didn't want to get us into too thick of a crowd where she would have no chance of seeing anything but armpits.
As we walked down near the mixing board area, which looked like a decent place right near the middle of the hill.
"How's this spot?" I asked.
She looked around, the slight breeze making strands of her hair cross over her face and I got lost for a moment taking in how pretty she was.
"I want to get closer," she said, knocking me out of my thoughts.
"The closer we get, the ground levels off and you're not gonna be able to see around people." I pointed out.
"Look, let's try it. If I can't see worth a damn, we can always move back to here, right?"
"I guess so." I sighed in defeat. I knew her height was sometimes a problem for her, but I didn't want to make a big thing of it. I was trying to help, but I knew if I kept bringing it up that she would start to resent it. So I went along, being more than a little certain that we'd be backtracking up the hill again shortly. Hopefully, I thought, the crowd filling in around us wouldn't take this spot.
We moved down through the crowd closer to the stage. It was still spaced out enough that we had room to pass through pretty easily, but I knew that wasn't going to last. Before long, she had maneuvered us to within about thirty people from the stage.
The music was much louder down here and you couldn't hear each other talk over the band who were currently doing an absolutely abysmal attempt at a cover of Nirvana's "Come As You Are." I didn't like Nirvana to begin with, and this definitely wasn't helping. Skye glanced over at me in annoyance, and I realized that she couldn't see the stage at all around everyone's shoulders.
She tugged at my arm and pointed at a gap in the crowd on the right. Before I could protest, she was shifting between the thickening group of people and almost out of my sight. Damn it, I sighed inwardly and followed her. While she had no trouble moving through the sea of people, I found myself having to apologize and point out that I was with her to guys who didn't want to give up their positions nearer and nearer to the stage.
Mercifully, the band finished their set and left the stage. New Order blasted over the sound system while roadies started setting the next band's equipment. I could listen to "Ceremony" about a hundred times in a row if it meant not hearing that shitty cover of "Come As You Are" ever again. People had begun milling about in the crowd up front now that there wasn't a band on stage and Skye took the opportunity to keep pressing forward.
Before I knew it, we were on the rails at the very front with j
ust a row of security guards between us and the stage. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw that a lot of people had come into the show while we had been maneuvering through the crowd. She would be able to see from here, but if we decided to backtrack, it was not going to be an easy feat. This also meant that we wouldn't be able to get to either of the smaller stages off to the sides to see the bands that weren't playing the main stage.
"See? This is so much better!" She exclaimed, smiling over her shoulder at me. She was so giddy with excitement, that I couldn't help but be happy for her. We were a few yards to the right of center stage, pretty much right under where a guitarist or bass player would typically be positioned. It was a great spot to watch the show, without a doubt, but about to get very crowded. I pulled some sunscreen from my bag and we both put it on, neither of us wishing to be burned to a crisp today. We were already sweating and it wasn't even close to noon yet.
As the next few bands played their sets, the crowd behind us grew larger and pressed forward cramping our space a bit. I looked back over my shoulder and realized that there were now thousands of people between us and the main exit. Getting out of here after the show was going to take a while, I thought.
The heat was incredible and everyone up front was covered in sweat by this point. Skye and I shared a bottle of water between the next set of bands and I splashed some on my face to cool off. She poured some in her hand and ran it over her face as well.
The Raveonettes played their set and my sister was on cloud nine for the entire time. They sounded great live, I had to admit, but I wasn't nearly as big a fan as Skye. When they played their cover of "I Wanna Be Adored" I thought she may cry. I don't think I had ever seen her so happy and that made this entire trip worth it.
Several hours and bands later, we were continuing to get pushed to the side by the swell of people trying to get to the front row. It wasn't that people were being assholes, it was just the combined force of so many people trying to get close to the stage at once. I locked my arm around one of the guard rails so I wouldn't be shoved further and kept Skye in front of me so that she wouldn't be squashed. She looked back at me appreciatively and again thanked me for bringing her.
