Ashley Ch. 05

I followed the girls as they headed to the loudest area of the arcade which consisted of the rhythm and music games. Alyson and Natalia both approached the strangely empty metal pad of a dancing game while the other girls and I watched.

No warm up was needed for the dancers as they jumped right into the hardest songs. As I watched their hair flail around and Alyson's skirt almost bounce high enough to reveal her pink thong--oops, I guess it did bounce high enough--Ashley divulged to me that it was because of Natalia they had all gotten hooked on the game. I merely nodded and pretended to listen as I pleaded for another glimpse of underwear.

After the first two songs ended, the girls swapped out, allowing Lilly and my sister to take to the stage. They, too, needed no warm up and stepped to the beat in rhythmic precision. Though I had no chance of catching panty shots through their jeans, I did get a nice eyeful of tight, round butts. The two girls eventually got so far ahead of the score, they did a few freestyle spins and even switched sides during their routine. When it was over, the five of us split up to play other games.

"Hey Tiger, come here and try this one out," Ashley shouted to me.

I hung up the machine gun I was blasting aliens away with. My arms were still shaking from the constant recoil of the gun when I came up to her. "What game is this? 'Beat-mania?'"

"It's a deejay game. Instead of using feet, you use fingers to tap these keys and spin this disc. You should be pretty good at it since you spend so much time on the keyboard."

"Hmm, okay. I'll give it a shot. What are you going to play?"

"This baby right here." My sister slung a life-sized guitar over her shoulder from the game cabinet to my right. "I always wanted to be a rock star."

There was something wildly sexy about her handling a big, albeit fake, hunk of metal (it was actually plastic). The guitar itself looked a little silly with its rainbow colors and buttons, but the dark atmosphere of the arcade and the bluish hue shining off her bare shoulders gave her a mysterious, larger-than-life appearance. "You look pretty damn hot with that, Ash. I'd definitely go to a concert of yours just to check you out."

"Maybe the other girls and I should start a band."

"Oh yeah? What instruments can you four play?"

"Well, I can learn to play the guitar, Aly can be lead vocalist, Natty can rock out on drums, and Lilly can handle bass."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Maybe I can be the manager."

She scoffed at the idea. "Like we'd let you manage the millions we'd rake in."

I laughed it off as my game loaded up. While we learned the ropes to our respective games, Natalia magically appeared beside me at the second set of piano keys. She stood between my sister and me. "Hey Ashy, hey Bry, mind if I join you?"

"Hey, Natalia," I greeted. "I don't mind at all. Go ahead and jump in."

She swiped her gaming card into the machine. "Do you mind if I also ask you something?"

Oh man, please don't let it be a personal question. "Um, sure. Ask away."

"Ashy tells me you're really good with computers. Did you really build yours from spare parts?"

Phew, that was one question I had no problem answering. "Yeah, I did. Ordered the hardware online and put it together myself." For some reason I was exceptionally proud of that fact.

She picked the first song for us to play. "Wow, that is so cool. I'm thinking of building a new computer from scratch too. Problem is, I don't know how to check which parts will be compatible with each other. I'm also worried I'll mess up putting things together since I haven't always gotten along with pliers and screwdrivers. But maybe you can come over to my house some time and help me design one. With Ashy's permission, of course."

"Hey, my brother's a big boy," Ashley quipped. "He doesn't need my blessings to do big boy things."

"I'll take that as a yes," Natalia giggled. "Is that also a yes for you, Bry?"

It amazed me how Natalia could be so good at the game while conversing with two people. "Yeah, sure. I'll be glad to help you build one." I barely managed to pass the song we were playing; she didn't miss a single key.

The next songs we played were repeat performances. Natalia aced them while reminiscing some high school memories with my sister. When the final song ended, Natalia picked up her belongings. "I'm going to check up on Aly and Lilly. Knowing them they probably ran out to flirt with some boys. I'll see you two in a bit."

As she left, I turned to Ashley. She had a Cheshire grin on her face. I was almost afraid to ask why. "What's with the smug look?"

She put her guitar away. It took her three buoyant steps toward me to have her breasts squashed against my chest and her arms around my waist. "That's something I don't see very often."

I had no clue what she was referring to. "Did I do something wrong?"

Her fingers traced my spine, riddling my skin with goosebumps. "No, nothing like that. It usually takes days for Natty to be comfortable enough to talk to a guy. It's fascinating how she opened up to you so easily, especially after what happened earlier."

Settling my hands on her shoulders, I caressed the inch of skin that had been tarnished by the guitar strap. "Didn't you say your friends are comfortable with me because you are? I'm sure it's only because I'm your brother."

"The other two girls, yes, but not her. I mean, she sort of has a crush on you for a while now, but she's not really the aggressor type. I didn't think she would be the first to make a move."

I couldn't believe what I just heard. It sounded so foreign to my ears. It didn't seem conceivable that some other girl, my sister's friend, could have felt that way about me, and that the same sister, the girl I loved more than anything, was the one telling me about it.

This had to be some kind of trick. There was that same twinkle in Ashley's eye that appeared during dinner and the photo booth incident. The twinkle that forewarned her mischievous intentions. Yup, it had to be a trick. If only I knew why. "You're not getting any weird thoughts, are you, sis?"

"Weird thoughts? Not really. Dirty thoughts on the other hand..." She heightened onto her toes and met my lips with hers. "Plenty of those."

How easy was it for her to take my mind off the world. Her lips, gentler than rose petals, parted open. They moved under the press of my mouth. My tongue ran along the edges of her lips. Her tongue, animated and sensuous, played with mine. Sweet, candied, her taste ever more intoxicating. The world I had deserted spun out of control. Light shed to darkness. My sight abandoned me. But there was still Ashley and her lips, never forceful, only compliant and accepting of my desire for her.

My eyes opened. Light returned. Our union ceased, a breeze coming between us. Ashley exhaled onto me, my lips warmed by her ardor. Her eyelids were concealing her hazel chestnuts in the snow. Our hands had interchanged. Her waist, tiny even in my meager grasp, burned the tips of my fingers. My shoulders, lenient, relieved under her touch. I kissed her left eye. She awakened.

No words were necessary. Our smiles said it all. It was the most spectacular thing I had ever experienced. I prayed it was the same for her.

A voice yelled our names. I tuned it out, holding my sister tighter. The yell repeated, louder. I felt lips on my neck. They opened, closed, soundlessly telling me it was okay to let go. I nodded. My hands fell from within my baby's shirt, her hands from my shoulder. I turned around as Natalia's head poked around a far row of game cabinets. "Hey Ashy, Bry, hurry over here. Show time in thirty minutes."

With each wobbled step I took, I remembered a small detail of where I was. Another girl, three of them to be exact, show time, thirty minutes. I was with my sister's friends, here to see a movie, and an eternity was in the way of my being alone with Ashley.

Our dark-haired escort, unaware of had transpired, guided us to a set of four futuristic racing cars the size of bumper cars, each one facing a jumbo screen. Alyson and Lillian sat in the two cars furthest from us. Natalia hopped into a third.

Ashley stood beside the fourth. Blithe and relaxed, she was unshaken in her demeanor. "Bry, take a seat and play this with me. You can work the gas pedals and gears while I steer."

I dragged myself back to reality, back to where Ashley was. "Are you sure? There doesn't seem to be a lot of room in there."

"Just jump in. I'll make us fit if I have to." I warily climbed into the miniature car. "Open your legs for me." She sat down in the gap where my legs were spread. Her butt brushed my groin, her back against my chest, her hair covering most of my view. "Comfy?"

The car was small and cramped, the backrest hard, the seat sticky. My legs had no room to breathe, my arms no room to move. I was trapped beneath her slender frame.

It was the most comfortable I had been all night. "Yeah, very comfy."

She shouted to her friends. "Okay, Bry and I are ready. Get ready to eat our dust."

The race began with an explosive start. One of the girls used a rocket boost to gain an early lead. Ashley used a boost of our own and fired a missile at the lead car to take pole position.

"Whoa, nice shot, sis."

"Bry, go faster. I can handle these sharp turns without wiping out."

I slammed my foot onto gas pedal. As the virtual car sped up, Ashley's butt vibrated against my crotch. The car wasn't just for show; it immersed the player by rocking to whatever happened on-screen.

The car shook violently when a series of missiles hit us from behind. "Woo-hoo, take that, Ashy-girl," Alyson hollered.

"Oooh, she is in trouble now," Ashley steamed. "Bry, slide down the seat. I need more room to sit." She rose up so I could slouch down, then lowered herself onto my lap. "Go, go, go, don't take your foot off the pedal."

"What? Oh, right," I muttered, regaining my senses.

The car rumbled as we tried to catch up to the rest of the pack that had passed us. Ashley bounced side to side over my lap while she handled turns at breakneck speeds. I assisted her in aiming a volley of missiles at our competitors. The race got very heated by the second lap. It was anyone's game, all of us exchanging leads at a moment's whim.

"Hold me steady, Bry. I'm sliding too much to get a good shot at the other cars."

I wrapped my left arm around her. Our car shook again as we got bombarded, but Ashley didn't budge from my lap.

With my nose inches from the bare skin on her upper back, I could smell faint traces of her intimate perfume. Most of the fragrance had diffused since the evening started, but there was still enough for me to luxuriate in. As our seat jerked here and there, her ponytail swished and tickled my nose.

"Oh my gosh, did you see that?" she blurted. "I just took out two cars in one shot. We're way in the lead now."

I couldn't see anything but her supple skin. "Yeah, I saw that. How many more laps to go?"

"One more lap. Keep going, Bry. Nothing can stop us now if we keep this up."

The bump and tumbling persisted for another minute. The other girls were able to hit us with stray blasts but were too far behind to capitalize on our momentary weakness to steal first place. We blazed past the finish line and threw our hands up in victory.

"Oh yeah, take that," Ashley taunted to her friends. She hugged my head into the side of her breast. "Didn't I say you slowpokes would be eating our dust?"

"You got sooo lucky you took me and Lilly out during that last lap," Natalia said. "If we hadn't been busy shooting at each other, I would've won so easily."

"Ha, let's have a rematch."

Lillian climbed out of her car. "Save your pissing contest some other time. The movie is going to start in twenty minutes."

Ashley waited for the rest of her friends to leave before whispering to me, "You might want to fix that problem in your pants before you stand up." She gently patted my erection on the way down from the machine.

The foursome were waiting outside of the arcade for me when I came running.

"Did you forget something in there?" Aly asked.

"Yeah, dropped my keys in the car," I lied. In actuality had followed my sister's advice to take a breather and relax my nerves. "But I found them."

Aly led the way to theater with Nat and Lilly in tow. I trailed behind with Ashley clinging to my right arm.

"Sis, maybe you shouldn't be so close."

"You didn't complain earlier when I did this. Besides, they each held onto you too. We're very touchy-feely girls."

Around us the row of stores quieted and darkened. Shoppers followed in our direction, the night coming to an end for many. But not for me. My night had yet to begin.

"Who are the slowpokes now," Lillian barked, standing far ahead of us. "Hurry up, you two lovebirds."

Ash and I jogged up to her at the mall's exit. A massive line at the ticket counter caught my attention.

"Natalia, you mentioned the four of you already have your tickets, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did. We printed them off the web."

"That's cool and all but... I don't have a ticket yet."

"Are you insisting we buy you one?"

"No, heck no, that's not what I meant. It's just that, the line looks really long and with the movie starting soon, I don't want to keep you all waiting so–"

"Brian, take a deep breath and calm down," Lilly said. "Ashy has you covered. She has a fifth ticket for you."

My cheeks burned red at their giggles. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. You're free to carry our bags for us if it makes you feel any manlier."

Without any hesitation the girls walked by me one by one and tossed me their bags, purses, and some witty comments. "You're such a stud." "Look at those muscles." "I wish I had a boyfriend like you." "Always the perfect gentleman." Sarcasm laced every word, but I was enjoying their company too much to care.

Ashley handed the tickets over to the receptionist and we headed to the concession stand. "Mmm, get those sour gummy bears and chocolate raisins." "Don't forget the black licorice." "Eww, you know I hate those. Get the red ones." "Lots of butter on the popcorn, please." "Oh, can I get two pretzels too? Both cinnamon. Wait, both salt. Wait, wait, one cinnamon, one salt."

The acne-plagued teenager behind the counter had his work cut out for him. He scrambled back and forth in a vain attempt to keep up with the orders of four hungry women.

"Aren't you ladies stuffed from dinner and dessert?"

"That was two hours ago," Natalia said. "There's always room for more sweets."

Ashley asked, "Don't you want anything, brother?"

"I would if I wasn't busy carrying fifty bags."

"Aww, is it too heavy?" Alyson razzed.

"Nope, not all." Their luggage was light, but because they insisted on keeping their belongings in separate over-sized bags, it looked as if I was hauling a lot more. "Actually, I can go for a hotdog right about now, but I'll need someone to hold it for me."

After we ordered every type of junk food on the menu, we made haste to our showroom. Along the way Natalia raised an orange plastic cup to my mouth. "Are you thirsty, Brian? Have a sip."

"Thanks, Nat." I bowed to my right and drank from the straw.

"My pleasure." When I backed away, she placed the straw between her lips, not bothering to wipe it dry. She sipped on her Pepsi.

"Open wide," Alyson said from my left.

I turned my head and bumped into the hotdog she was holding close to my face. I chomped down on it, ignoring the sauce that had gotten on me. "Mmm, that's pretty good. Thanks, Aly."

"What are best friends for."

"You have some ketchup on your cheek." Lillian took a napkin out of her coat pocket and weighed down my left shoulder, her face daringly close to mine. With a wipe across my cheek and lips, she cleaned the ketchup off of me.

"Thanks, Lilly."

"You're welcome, Bry."

Three cute girls pampering me with food and favors. It was a fantasy millions of guys would have loved to find themselves in. And I was living it, a sublime dream that had manifested into realism. A week ago I would have been sweating out of every pore, stumbling on every syllable. Now I was calm and collected. Yet also unfulfilled. Their friendliness, though greatly appreciated, left me wanting more. It wasn't the same with these girls. It wasn't the same laugh, the same smile, the same affection in their eyes. It didn't come from the angel ten steps ahead of me, pretending not to care what was happening behind her.

I excused myself from the trio. Paper bags crinkling, silver trinkets jingling, I chased after my sister. She stopped in her tracks, and I stopped next to her. We walked into the dim theater room together, her belongings back in her possession.

In the three hours I had spent thus far with the girls, I had somehow forgotten to ask what we were going to watch. We ended up watching an action movie, which shattered my belief girls only willingly watched romances or comedies. However, every time the main star came on screen, his shirt shredded and sculpted muscles bulging, they would sigh, swoon, and faint in their seats. Except Ashley. And when the buxom damsel in distress, scantily clad and artificial in beauty, nearly popped out of her torn blouse, wolf whistles would erupt from every male in the stands. Except me.

The starlet was more than any guy could ask for in a woman. Shapely, curvy, a great fashion sense for bras capable of withstanding gunfire. She could even throw a punch or two if she had to. But nothing about her bust size or seductive tone appealed to me. I was spoiled, I suppose, having someone infinitely more gorgeous at my side, eating popcorn from a bucket on my lap.

You would think the movies, one of the classic locations for public displays of affection, would lend itself to a wild, voyeuristic, don't-tell-my-friends romp in the backseats. Alas, nothing of the sort happened between my sister and me. After all, her friends were right there with us, witnesses to any racy behavior that may have occurred.

I emptied my box of Hot Tamales. In one mouthful I devoured the rest of the spicy, cinnamon candy. My hand bumped into Ashley's when I reached for our soda. She smiled at me as she took a sip from it.

The movie ended with the bad guy blown to pieces in his getaway helicopter. Our group waited for the attendees to evacuate before leaving our seats. We trekked to the mall's front plaza for a final round of quality time together.

* * *

"Jesus, that has to be a two-hundred feet drop." "Two-hundred and fifty-two, to be exact." "Oh my gosh, I love that ride." "Me too! I rode it six times in a row the last time I went there." "Aww, that picture is a cute one. Nicole looks so much older now." "Yeah, totally. She needs to start shopping with us soon."

Under the protection of two palm trees, Ashley shared with her friends photos of our day at Six Flags. The photos actually belonged to Nikky, since it was her digital camera we used (yes, the twelve year-old has a fully functional digital camera), but she allowed Ashley to borrow them for the night. Ashley's friends had photos of their own to share from their vacations, but for some reason they found Ashley's to be the most interesting. I couldn't really tell why from where I stood. The bench they sat on was large enough only for the four of them, so I kept myself preoccupied at the water fountain in the middle of the plaza.

The fountain was a dancing water show. In a circle forty feet in diameter were dozens of holes in the ground that shot up jets of water at varying heights in a synchronized manner. The show would astound shoppers with its dazzling patterns and colors, courtesy of spotlights surrounding the fountain. The attraction was popular with the younger crowd, and though it was close to midnight, there were still a few children playing in the water.