Sibling Rivalry

Pale blue was Penny's favorite color. But she was having second thoughts about that now as she stood topless in the mirror, assessing herself in the bottom half of her new blue bikini. The high waistline, although tellingly modest, did flatter her full figure quite well. But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that the brightly colored fabric preserved her modesty, the secret of her big bush just wouldn't quite remain hidden even when the cloth was dry. As she assessed the bulge in the tip of the fabric between her thighs and the telltale dark curls that peeked out here and there, Penny told herself others wouldn't notice - but she didn't buy that at all. And that wasn't even taking into consideration what would be visible when she'd been in the water and the cloth was wet.

Penny put her hands on her hips and sighed. She had two options: shave, or accept that she'd be putting her bush almost on display, and right next to Cornelia in what would undoubtedly be a tiny bikini that betrayed nothing. Just how could two sisters end up with such different bodies? Penny had been wondering as much for a decade or more, even though their bodies were the least of the differences between her and her now-grown kid sister.

Stop that, Penny reminded herself. Their mother was dead, lost to cancer six months before, and this last trip to the beach house was meant for the rest of the family to be together and heal. All except Curtis, anyway, who was off in Asia and couldn't afford the plane fare home for just a long weekend. Not for the first time, Penny found herself wishing she'd followed their brother's lead and moved halfway around the world. But she hadn't, and this trip was all about leaving the bad blood and the jealousy in the past.

On that note, Penny found her resolve. Who cared if she didn't look like Cornelia in a bathing suit, and didn't she love seeing guys with hair sticking out of their trunks? Who was to say the feeling wouldn't be mutual? In that light, the blue panties looked a lot better and she felt a lot better in them.

She felt better, but nonetheless she instinctively crossed her arms over her breasts when she heard the bedroom door open. Seeing it was only Cornelia, she dropped her arms. "Hi," she said with an unembarrassed smile.

Cornelia did not share her comfort. In the moment when she realized her sister was standing topless before her, Cornelia covered her eyes and swung around. "Aieee! Penny! Geez!"

Penny knew her sister too well to expect an apology for walking in on her. But this trip was all about forgiveness, and she'd come to accept Cornelia didn't know any better than to be the spoiled brat she was. Penny placed her hand on her sister's shoulder and gently turned her back around to face her. "Cornelia, it's okay! We're sisters, remember?"

"What if I'd been Dad? Or worse yet, Eric?"

"Dad knows to knock first, and if you're worried about your boyfriend seeing my boobs, you probably shouldn't have invited him along!" Penny laughed through the mild irritation her sister almost always brought to the table, wishing she'd learned to do that earlier in life.

Cornelia sighed. "Look, I'm glad you're coming to terms with your body, sis, but I hope you won't get all dippy hippy on Eric, all right? I don't want him getting any ideas about me prancing around our house topless, because I'll never do that even for just him. Besides, I was coming to tell you, he invited a friend of his to join us."

"That was rude, on a family outing where he was already the guest." Penny was starting to feel naked rather than almost nude, and she went to the bed to swing on her bathing suit top.

"Oh, we asked Dad first," Cornelia said.

"I'm surprised he said yes," Penny said. "He was the one who wanted us all together."

"Well, he would've said no if you had asked," Cornelia said. "You never could wrap him around your finger like I could. But don't worry, you'll like Joe. He's discontented like you. Probably even calls himself a feminist or something." Only then did she chance to look up and see her sister pulling her bikini top into place. "Wait a minute, Penny, that's your swimsuit? I thought it was just your panties."

"Well, maybe I'm not so discontented anymore," Penny said. "Not with my body anyway. What do you think?" She thrust out her large breasts, now cupped tightly in her bikini top, and set her hands on her hips again.

"I say this as a sister who loves you," Cornelia said. "Go get your money back and get a one-piece suit. I'm sorry, you just don't have the body for a bikini."

"I'll be the judge of that." Penny's smile was strained now, but it was still there. She turned to give her top half the once-over in the mirror as she'd done with her bottom half, and liked what she saw. The top was more supportive than it looked, and the effect was quite graceful even to her self-critical eye.

Cornelia sighed. "It's your body. Anyway, I was just coming to let you know about Joe. You might want to think twice about your appearance with another man around who isn't Dad."

"And he might want to think twice about judging the family that's hosting him." Penny turned back to face her sister. "Look, don't worry about that, all right? I don't agree with inviting even Eric, never mind his friends, when this is for the family, but what's done is done. This already might be the last time we're all together, and Dad needs our support."

"Oh, we're already not all together, Penny! You don't really believe Curtis couldn't afford tickets, do you?"

Penny nodded sadly. "No, I don't. But can you blame him for not wanting to come? The way Mom always treated him?"

"If you could forgive her, I don't see why he couldn't."

"Who said I did forgive her?" Penny said. "I'm here for Dad, not for her. He's the one who always calmed the waters when everyone else was at each other's throats, you know that. And he loved Mom, no matter what the rest of us thought of her. But you know, losing her made me realize, maybe we ought to try harder to forgive one another. That includes you and me, all right?"

"Thanks, Penny." To Penny's surprise, her lifelong adversary hugged her. "Oh, speaking of Dad, he's already seeing someone new if you can believe that! A professor named Doctor Blop or something. I intend to make sure she never feels welcome here, and I'd appreciate your help, or at least staying out of the way if you can't."

"Cornelia!" Penny had promised herself she wouldn't let her sister get her goat this weekend, but she'd always known it was a fool's errand. "Mom was sick for ages, you know that, and it's none of your business how Dad copes with losing her!"

"Didn't you just say this outing was for family only?"

"Looks like I'm the only one who took that seriously," Penny said. "But no surprise I'm on the outs with the rest of you, is it?"

"Yeah," Cornelia grumbled, and she turned to leave without another look. "Seriously, though, exchange that swimsuit."

"I'm not sure if a hug can really feel insincere," Cornelia reflected to her boyfriend, Eric, a few hours later in a post-coital cuddle in the tiny basement bedroom she'd always been stuck with as the youngest sibling. "Otherwise I wouldn't have done it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure she was fooled. Can't believe my big sis is still stupid enough to eat out of my hand, but I guess she is."

"And that's why you just had to pull an April Fool's trick on her on such a solemn occasion?" Eric asked. "I mean, I'm sorry, Neeli, but your sister seems like a really nice person, and I had to convince Joe she deserved to be fucked with."

"Oh, it's not that solemn!" Cornelia pulled back and lay back on her own pillow, though she couldn't put much space between them in the narrow bed. "It's six months since Mom died, and Dad decided to move here to live year-round, so he wanted us to have one more vacation together like we had here when we were kids. That pig Curtis had the right idea for once, stay the hell away. I don't know why Penny couldn't see she wasn't wanted here either. But since she couldn't, and it happened to be April Fool's weekend, I figure this is my last chance to really get her good. Joe knows the plan, doesn't he?"

"Well, he can't very well force Penny to fall for him," Eric said. "But you know Joe, he's a lot like Penny, a little uptight and always wearing his politics on his sleeve and all that...they're sure to at least make fast friends."

"That's not enough," Cornelia said. "I want Penny's heart slaughtered. I want her to fall head over heels for him and then have him tell her all about his fiancée. Or better yet, I'll tell her about Carlotta! Where's she these days, anyway?"

"Gone back to Italy until the wedding, is what Joe told me," Eric said. "Now would you explain one more time, just what is it Penny did to you that was so horrible? I mean, like I said, she seems like a pretty nice gal."

"Oh, that's just it. She was always Little Miss Good Cause, out to save the world, and it always made Mom furious. I figured out why when I was about ten - Mom had a master's degree and everything but she chose to be a stay-at-home mom for some reason, and she hated it. Curtis pissed her off just by being a boy, but Penny was worse - she was growing up to be everything Mom had wanted to be. The poor thing was always trying to kiss up to Mom, too. Always trying and failing, she didn't have a gift for it like I do, and so those two used to fight all the time. Curtis, too, but Penny got it worst of all. Made the whole family uncomfortable, and all she had to do was just learn to put up with Mom's nastiness."

"And that was her fault? Not your mom's?"

"Now you sound like my dad when she and Curtis would go whining to him. It's like he always said, 'She's your mother!' They should've learned to live with it, and my childhood would've been a lot happier if they had."

"Sounds like you had a pretty happy childhood anyway, you know," Eric pointed out. "With - what was her name? Carrie?"

"Kasie!" Cornelia burst out laughing. "Oh my God, the pranks Kasie and I used to pull, and we always got away with framing Penny for them! We put all Dad's records in the wrong jackets - he probably still has a few mismatched ones! We pulled all the linens out of the closet and hid the dog in there so he'd yelp at Mom when she went to change the sheets, and we tossed the sheets on the bathroom floor!" She was laughing uncontrollably now.

"And you pinned it all on Penny?"

"It's something I figured out awful young, maybe five or so," Cornelia recalled. "Mom had a temper like a hand grenade, and she was already prone to assuming the worst of Penny anyway. As long as I got my two cents in first, Curtis or especially Penny was out of luck. But Kasie had a crush on Curtis, so we left him alone. All I had to do was say 'Penny did it' and that was that!"

"Didn't she ever set the record straight?"

"Mom never wanted to hear it once she'd calmed down. She'd just storm out of the room if Penny tried. Dad would listen, but then he'd just give me a gentle talking-to, now, that wasn't nice to do to your sister, was it?" Once again she dissolved into peals of laughter at the golden memory.

Suddenly, a jingle bell hidden away in the ceiling rang out. Cornelia stopped laughing and sat up straight, looking almost serious. "That's the bathroom door opening," she whispered to Eric. "I hid that bell up there when I was about ten, so I could spy on Penny in the shower. Want to see her?"

"How do you know it's not your dad?" Eric whispered back. "No offense, but I don't need to see him in the raw!"

Cornelia giggled and gave his soft penis a playful squeeze. "He uses the upstairs bathroom, that's how. Now get some boxers on, boy!" She grabbed up her t-shirt and panties from the floor and hurried them on, while Eric followed suit. As soon as she could hear the water running, She opened the door as quietly as she could and tiptoed out into the hallway.

Just past the bathroom door was a long-disused chimney, with a storage nook behind it where there had once been a wood-stove. Cornelia guided Eric into the nook, and pointed at a crack in the plaster. Eric stepped up and looked.

The view was narrow, but surprisingly clear. Initially Penny was facing away, which at least offered a look at her surprisingly shapely buns, but once she'd wet her hair thoroughly and turned around to get the shampoo, Eric got an eyeful that delighted him. The mystery of just what Penny's large breasts looked like uncovered and unsupported was solved at last, and they were beautiful. Heavy, but beautiful, both of them capped off with plump nipples that were just about all Penny had in common with her lithe, fair-haired sister. All at once Eric's hands ached to play with them, so he cast his attention elsewhere.

Cornelia had shared her outrage about Penny wearing a bikini with him, and now he saw why. Even when it was wet, her bush was vast and thick. Eric didn't see how she could ever hide it in a skimpy swimsuit. But he liked what he saw, the closest he'd seen in real life to his cousin's vintage Playboy collection that had fascinated him so when he was younger. Just what would it feel like to run his fingers through that? Almost as if to tease him, Penny chose that moment to collect some of the suds from her head hair and soap up her triangle. Eric thought he just might explode at that moment.

Dressed only in boxers, Eric couldn't hope to hide his erection. He didn't even give any thought to trying, until Cornelia caught on and pulled him away towards the stairs. Neither of them said a word until they were settled on the back deck with a bottle of beer each.

Eric spoke first. "It's the size of South America!"

"I know!" Cornelia giggled. "I used to be so afraid I'd grow up to be like that too, and I couldn't even tell my mom because then she'd have wanted to know how I'd seen Penny naked. Anyway, you can see what poor old Joe is up against."

"Po..." Eric caught himself just in time. "Right, I mean, he's got a sense of humor, he'll be all right."

He didn't have to pretend he agreed with her for very long, for they hadn't yet finished their beers when Cornelia's father strode up from the beach with his lady friend in tow. Cornelia jumped up when she saw him. "Daddy!" She threw herself at her father, ignoring the middle-aged woman, who Eric thought looked quite elegant in an emerald-green swimsuit and a pale green unbuttoned shirt over it.

In the awkward moment that followed, the woman made eye-contact with Eric, who remembered his manners just in time and stood up to shake her hand. "Hi, I'm Eric," he said. "Cornelia's boyfriend." Though he wasn't terribly happy about that at the moment, he remembered to smile.

"Eric, meet Doctor Jan Blagg," Cornelia's father said rather grandly, causing laughter all around.

"Call me Jan, please," she said. "We're so glad you and Penny are able to join us this weekend. It's a shame Penny didn't have a date, though."

"Oh, I called in a favor with a friend," Eric said. "Joe. He'll be here in the morning."

Alone in her room after the shower, Penny could hear just enough of the talk from upstairs to know Dad and his lady friend were home. Not wanting to let their guest face Cornelia's nastiness alone, she hurried on her clothes - a peach-colored top and linen pants, and combed her long hair one last careful time in the mirror. As she regarded herself in the glass, Penny couldn't help but recall Cornelia's directive - Seriously, though, exchange that swimsuit - which had been replaying nonstop in her mind throughout her shower. She hated knowing the little bitch had gotten to her so quickly even when Penny had literally laid herself bare for a reconciliation; she'd known it was bound to happen and she'd done her best to steel herself for the occasion, but how could even Cornelia be that cruel? Didn't she care at all that Mom was gone?

Penny didn't know. But, she reminded herself, she did know Cornelia didn't get a vote as to how she chose to embrace her body and its quirks. If the truth be told, she reflected, wasn't that the real reason why she'd agreed to this silly trip? With Mom gone, it was probably her last chance to let Cornelia know her constant attacks wouldn't bring her down anymore?

The swimsuit directive had stung. But Cornelia didn't need to know that!

So Penny's confident smile was genuine when she reached the top of the stairs and found Dad's guest seated at the kitchen table. "Well, hello!" the regal woman said, standing up to greet Penny. "I'm Jan."

"Penny. Nice to meet you, ma'am," and they shook hands.

Dad, who was busying himself at the counter with a bag of frozen shrimp, turned around. "Penny, Professor Blagg here is a numbers geek like yourself. I told her you'd get along famously!"

"You were the math major, were you?" asked Jan.

"I just took pre-calc freshman year in a failed attempt at Phi Beta Kappa," Penny explained. "But it turned out I was pretty good at it, and I figured it was a marketable major."

"Oh, well, I'm a Phi-bate, and you're not missing anything!" said Jan. "It's a boring newsletter and a stick-pin I can't remember the last time I wore."

"I take it you're a prof now?" Penny recalled her father mentioning as much.

"Economics," Jan said with a nod. "Apologies if I put any of you to sleep talking about it."

"Daddy, you're going to share your joke with her, aren't you?" Cornelia said with the smarmy grin that let Penny know an ugly moment was at hand. But she could think of no way to stop it.

Naturally, Dad was oblivious as usual when it came to Cornelia's snottiness. "What joke?" he asked.

"You know, the one you told me on the phone when you first told me about her! If she teaches economics, I sure hope it's home-economics!" She and Eric both burst into peals of laughter, while Penny and Jan exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Dad turned around, looking about as angry as Penny had ever seen him with her sister. "That's enough!" he snapped. "I would never say anything that chauvinistic, and you know it!"

"That's right, Jan, he wouldn't," Penny said. "Curtis either. I'm sorry you won't get to meet our brother. He's teaching English in China and couldn't get over here."

"Oh, I heard! Sounds like he's on a wonderful adventure, though," said Jan. "You know, when I was fresh out of college I wanted to do the same, but my father talked me out of it."

"It's never too late," Cornelia chirped.

"We know," Dad said. "That's why we're thinking of giving it a try ourselves."

"What?!" Cornelia snapped. "Just when we're getting you settled here?"

"Relax, sis, the house will be here anytime they want to come back," Penny said.

"Not the point!" Cornelia said. "Look, Professor, this is our family house now, and I'd like to know my daddy's nearby when I need him!

"I think that sounds great, Dad," Penny said. "It's about time you got to do something you really wanted to do." She turned back to Jan. "I'm sure he's avoided telling you just how much he helped out with our mom while she was dying. Believe me, he was a saint."

"How would you know, Penny?" Cornelia griped. "You were never around."

Dad looked over his shoulder at Jan. "Don't you just love how they never grow up? Now, both of you, that's enough."

Both of us? Penny was used to being lumped in with her sister when only Cornelia had been out of line, but it never stopped stinging. But she knew better than to bother trying to open her father's eyes about his baby, and spent the meal doing her best to make conversation with Jan. She was pleasantly surprised at how much Jan knew about some of the theorems she'd worked with in college, and even managed to ignore Eric's two pathetic girls-suck-at-math jokes, both of which naturally had Cornelia in stitches.