Beth's Little Secret Ch. 01

So, my sister. She's about a year younger than me, turned eighteen last April. She also happens to be the most beautiful, sweet, innocent young woman I've ever met.

Except. The other day while she was out, the roof leaked -- nothing serious, a slipped tile, but while Dad was up the ladder fixing it, he asked me to go into Beth's room and see if any water was getting in there. A damp patch on the ceiling and dripping onto the bed made that a Yes, so I dragged the bed out from under it, putting the bucket I'd brought to catch the drips.

Obviously the bed would need to dry out, and everything would need washing anyway, so I tugged the duvet onto the floor, then the pillows, and started to pull off the sheet. What I wasn't expecting was to find something plasticky pushed under the mattress, and I wondered what on earth my sister could possibly want to hide. I pulled it out, and blinked. Hard. Innocent, naïve Beth -- well, she was obviously better at keeping secrets than I could have imagined.

I heard Dad's footsteps on the stairs, then "How's it looking?"

I wrapped my find hastily in the sheet. "The water's stopped now, but this all needs to go in the machine."

"OK."

He disappeared downstairs again, putting away tools, and I quickly walked across to my bedroom, putting Beth's -- well, toy, to be frank -- in the bottom drawer of my bedside table. I finished loading the washer, setting it running, and went back to my room, wondering how this was going to play out.

After a few minutes I heard the front door open, and Beth's cheery voice. "I'm home."

I hastily got up and went to the top of the stairs. "Heya, Beth. We've had a bit of drama this afternoon."

"How come?" she queried, standing at the bottom looking up at me.

"Roof leaked into your room -- not much, but your bed needs to dry out a bit."

If I hadn't already known, I would definitely have missed the slight widening of her eyes. "You might have to sleep in the spare room tonight," I offered.

"OK. I need to grab some things, then."

I stepped aside to let her pass as she came up the stairs, and she closed the door of her room behind her. After a few minutes the door opened again, and Beth reappeared with a small pile of clothes in her hand and -- again, barely detectable -- an anxious expression on her face. "Did Dad sort my room out?"

I shook my head. "He was on the roof. I rescued your Disney Princess bed stuff, it's in the washing machine."

"Thanks, Tim."

Beth's next move was to go down to the utility room and empty the machine -- the spin cycle had just finished, and she took the bedding out to the garden to hang on the line. Obviously this didn't provide her any resolution to the mystery, but before she could try another avenue, Mum had called us for our evening meal. When we'd finished eating, I excused myself and went upstairs to read, and it wasn't long before I heard Beth's footsteps on the landing, then a hesitant tap on the door. "Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Beth closed the door behind her and stood by my desk, fingers betraying her nervousness. "Tim -- when you were sorting my bed out, did you... Did you happen to find anything?"

I decided not to prolong her ordeal. "Um, sort of, yes."

Her look was one of genuine relief. "Thank goodness for that -- I thought maybe Mum --"

A distinct flush crept up her face. "Or Dad..."

I gave a slight shrug. "They're married -- they've got you and me -- they must know about stuff, right?"

Beth swallowed. "But not about my stuff."

I nodded. "Well, that's true."

I tilted my head to look at her thoughtfully. "You certainly surprised me -- I had no idea you, um --"

It was my turn to redden, and Beth was obviously feeling comfortable enough now to smirk. "Quite a lot of girls do, actually."

She rolled her eyes. "As opposed to ninety-nine point nine percent of guys, right?" she teased.

"You got me there," I admitted.

"Well, you're pretty good at hiding it yourself," Beth conceded. "I never find any sticky tissues --" she made an unconscious gesture of shaking something clingy from her fingers -- "and they've never caught you, right?"

"Right."

Beth glanced around. "So where did you put it?"

I toyed with the idea of winding her up, but I decided staying on her good side was a better option. "Here."

I opened the drawer, taking out the item, holding it gingerly at one end, and Beth took it from me. "It's OK, I make sure it's clean when I put it away."

"So what do you think about, when...?" I let the question hang in the air.

Beth blinked. "You're asking me?"

"Just curious."

She nodded acknowledgement. "I guess that's only natural -- back to the ninety-nine percent, right?"

She sat down on the edge of the bed. "But you can't ever tell anyone -- not Mum or Dad -- and you have to promise not to be shocked."

"I promise on the first part," I made a cross-my-heart gesture. "But I can't on the second part, I don't know what you're going to say," I pointed out. "Could be anything -- girls, maybe?"

Beth smirked again. "As if that'd shock you -- I know guys really like that."

I gave her a puzzled look. "You know that how, exactly?"

The worried look returned to her face, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth. "Damn."

I raised my eyebrows. "So there's more to it than just Mister Duracell there?"

This time Beth edged closer, putting her hand on mine. "Tim -- you absolutely cannot breathe a word to anyone, or I will kill you."

I reached out to put my index finger to her lips. "Seriously, I will never tell. But you have to spill the beans now, or I might just die of frustration anyway."

Beth took a deep breath. "So I figured out how to do stuff on my laptop without it remembering where I'd been online."

I nodded. "Be careful, though -- if you go anywhere really dark, they can still come for you."

I gave her a wry smile. "If that's really what you're into, though, there's a program I can put on."

Her eyes widened. "You're not --"

"God, no," I shook my head hastily. "But I'm a nerd, right, I'm supposed to know how to do that stuff."

"OK," Beth relaxed. "So neither of us is into -- well, anything they'd lock us up for. But both of us like to look at --"

"You still haven't told me what I've not got to be shocked by," I pointed out.

She hesitated, this time flushing deep crimson, her eyes not meeting mine. "Well, I don't know if I'd ever do this for real, but what really gets me excited is when he puts his thing in her -- um, her other place?"

"Wow..." I breathed. "Most guys like the idea of that too."

I glanced again at the toy in her hand. "Have you ever --"

Beth blinked. "Goodness, no."

This time her look was shy rather than embarrassed. "But when I'm really, really turned on, I might -- well, my finger might find its way there..."

I pretended to fan my face. "Beth, that is so hot."

Maybe it was the totally unexpected conversation, or the picture that had formed in my mind when Beth described her intimate touching, but my next words weren't entirely within my conscious control. "Could you -- maybe we could show each other...?"

I was half-expecting a slap, Beth to storm out in tears, maybe even to blurt something out to our parents. But all I got was a smile, a raised eyebrow. "Aren't we a bit old for 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine'?"

"Actually that never really happened for me," I confessed. "Maybe once, with that girl who used to live down the road, and neither of us actually saw much."

Beth shook her head, feigning a pitying smile. "You said you were a nerd."

She glanced towards the door. "OK -- let's say we do this -- it's safer than letting any of the boys at school think they have the slightest chance at getting into my panties, anyway. We need a plan."

"When Mum and Dad are out tomorrow?"

"Sure. I guess it'll have to be your room, seeing as my bed's out of use just now."

"OK. So when they've gone, we come up here and..."

"And you can get yourself off tonight imagining what might happen," Beth teased.

She relented, looking at her toy. "And if I can find some new batteries, I'll do the same, and we can compare notes tomorrow."

Beth got up, doing her best to conceal the toy in her hand as she opened the door. "Night, then, Tim. Sleep well."

I heard the door of the spare room close, and an idea occurred to me. The spare bedroom was next to mine, and the walls weren't all that thick. Maybe...

I remembered an old trick I'd heard, and stepped across to the bathroom to find a glass. I closed my own door, and pressed the glass to the wall, listening carefully. For a while there was the sound of footsteps moving around the room, and I guessed Beth was undressing -- quite enough to set my imagination on a track of its own. Then silence, what could have been the creak of the mattress.

I was about to give up, when I heard a quiet buzzing sound, another creak. I held my breath, but frustratingly no other sound made it through the wall. Still, I could be absolutely certain what was happening, and my imagination supplied the rest of the details. After a surprisingly long time, the buzzing stopped, and there was silence again. I quickly got ready for bed, making sure the box of tissues was within reach, and ran through the whole imagined scene in my mind, from Beth lying down, turning the switch on her toy, then making her finger slippery in the only obvious way, pressing it to the place she'd described, sliding it in a little, her hips flexing against the still-buzzing toy...

I needed a surprising number of tissues, and I balled up the resulting mess, dropping it in the bin, making a mental note to dispose of it as soon as I got up...