I broke the ice by asking, “Is there anything you need from me?”
Abbie replied, “No. We’re okay.”
A thought came to me. “How much did it cost?” I quickly dug out my wallet.
Abbie shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”
I grabbed every bill I had and thrust it at Abbie. “Please. I promised to support her in any way. This is the very least of things I’m responsible for.”
Abbie sighed and took the money then tossed it onto a nightstand. “Just… don’t forget about us, okay? Don’t be one of those guys who ignores us like we’re somehow… unclean… afterwards.”
“Never,” I insisted and looked to Allie. “Never,” I said again. I felt relieved when Allie nodded in acceptance of my declaration. “I’m still Ben. I’m your friend. I could never be like that.”
Abbie nodded, seeming confident in her belief that I wasn’t really a bad guy. After all, wasn’t that one of the reasons they’d wanted me to deflower them in the first place?
I felt a powerful need to be there for the girls in the aftermath. I felt like I HAD to show them, prove to them that I would still be their friend. But then I was reminded of where I was going in a few days. “I, uh, I still have this summer camp thing for a month. But I can come back tomorrow.”
Abbie sighed and shook her head with pain in her eyes. “What for? It’s over. There’s nothing more to discuss.”
I winced.
Allie looked up. “Ben, you’re leaving on Saturday, right?”
I nodded.
Allie continued, “Just give us this week to… to just be… We need some time to ourselves, okay? A lot has happened lately and we just need to slow everything down.”
I nodded in understanding. I was sooo looking forward to camp and just getting away from my life here.
“But when you come back,” Allie continued, her golden brown eyes shining at me. “Give us a call, okay?”
I nodded. “I promise.”
I didn’t drive home right away. Instead, I went up into the foothills, back to a spot I remembered from my days with Megan and Cassidy. From up there, I could see across Laguna Beach and to the ocean. Feeling the breeze and watching the ebb and flow of the tides, it was like being at the beach, only without any other people around.
I was bone tired, but I still couldn’t sleep. I thought of what my baby might have looked like. I thought of what my life would have been like. And the tears started rolling down my cheeks again.
Because I passed out just after dinner on Tuesday night, exhausted from being awake for thirty-five-odd hours, I woke up really early on Wednesday. I didn’t feel like being lost to my thoughts anymore; and my room was too quiet. So I went downstairs and fired up the Playstation.
I was still mindlessly gaming when Eden and Emma gave me goodbye pecks on the cheeks before they left to go hang out with friends for the day. And I was still a zombie with a controller on the couch when the doorbell rang and Brooke invited her boyfriend Perry Anderson in.
The teenage couple greeted each other with wet kisses before Perry saw me. I glanced over and he said, “Oh, hey Ben. What’s up?”
I nodded and then Perry started whispering, although his voice was panicked and loud enough for me to still hear. “What’s your brother doing here? I thought he left most every day?”
“Forget him,” Brooke replied in a full voice, uncaring if I overheard. “He’s got some girl problems and he’s been out of it for the past couple of days.”
Perry was still whispering loud enough for me to hear. “But I thought we’d have the house to ourselves.”
“Relax. He’s not going to walk in on us. Mmm…” Brooke hummed. “Actually, it kinda turns me on to think my big bro might catch us,” she giggled.
“Brooke!” Perry husked in that panicked voice, but he let my sister take his hand and tug him up the stairs towards Brooke’s bedroom.
I rolled my eyes and focused on my video game. I remembered what it was like to be fifteen and I didn’t begrudge Brooke the explorations of her sexuality (as long as they weren’t too focused on me). I knew she needed to experiment a little with boys and I was pretty sure she was still a virgin. Of course, I hadn’t been paying that much attention lately… and she WAS shaving her pubes…
I frowned, feeling the big brother overprotectiveness kicking in. She WAS still a virgin, wasn’t she? I mean, I didn’t pop my cherry until I was sixteen, and Brooke had only turned fifteen last month. She still hadn’t even given a blowjob back in January. And she wouldn’t DARE do anything really outrageous with me in the house, would she?
Consequences. There were always consequences. It was something I hadn’t really learned for myself until just now, so surely Brooke wasn’t really considering them either. After all, isn’t it just human nature for a 15-year-old to let their hormones do their thinking for them?
But no, Brooke was a smart girl. She knew she was cute and she was quite popular with the boys in her class (not to mention the boys from upper classes). She didn’t have to put out or anything just for attention and she certainly wouldn’t be so cavalier with her body with just anybody.
Then again, Perry wasn’t just anybody. Brooke had been dating him since what, November? From my memory of teenagers, boys didn’t stick around for eight months unless there was SOME progress. Just how far had my little sister let him get?
I tried to focus on my video game. But after a while, my mind’s constant wanderings into speculation on what Brooke was doing upstairs completely disrupted my concentration and I just shut off the damn console in frustration. I let out a long exhalation, and then I got up off the couch.
I wasn’t going to spy on them or anything. I just wanted to wander by my little sister’s bedroom door and make sure I didn’t hear anything… alarming.
As expected, I could see from the top of the stairs that Brooke’s door was closed. And taking care to be as quiet as possible, I tiptoed down the hallway. I had enough practice going back and forth after my parents had gone to sleep to know how to be quiet on that hallway.
But when I got to the door, I found that it wasn’t completely closed. And my ears were quickly assaulted by the groaning moans and wet smacks of a young couple in the throes of passion.
“Ohhh, Perry…” Brooke moaned before I heard the mattress shift.
“Shhh… you don’t want your brother to hear,” he shushed her.
Yeah, that qualified as “alarming” in my book.
The door was open just a crack and with both the light pouring through Brooke’s bedroom window and the darkness of the hallway, I was pretty sure I could remain unseen. So crouching down, I put one knee to the floor and then leaned in, aiming my eye through the small opening.
It wasn’t QUITE as bad as I’d been expecting, but it was pretty close. Brooke was lying back across her bed, her shirt up around her neck with her bra undone. Perry was alternately kissing her lips and her breasts, both nipples wet and reflecting the sunlight from the window. Lower down, Brooke’s shorts and panties were around her knees as Perry slowly rubbed his fingers over her naked pussy. And my little sister moaned into her boyfriend’s mouth as he pleasured her body.
I fought down a moan of my own. I’d briefly glimpsed Brooke naked once before, but in my morose and depressed state, I hadn’t paid very much attention to her. Yeah, I noticed things, but I was also interested in getting her dressed and out of my room.
But this time, I had no choice but to see Brooke as a sexy young woman. When she turned her head to passionately kiss Perry, I couldn’t see her face and all I was left with was a nubile teenage body without a trace of fat, perky round breasts, and a delicate swell of hips. I knew I should turn away and give Brooke her privacy, but I just couldn’t do it.