In Hot Water Pt. 04

Author's note:

Minor BDSM elements in this part.

All characters over eighteen.

Part 4 of 6.

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CHAPTER 18

Kevin turns his head away from the road and says, "You've been hanging around your sister too much."

"What?" I lean to the side to check for mile markers, but all I see is Jane's dark capital hairdo around the headrest.

"Your hair, man." He pulls the Audi steering wheel straight, and now we're heading south on the coast highway.

I glance at my sister next to me as discreetly as I can. Jessica stares at the phone in her lap, but I can't get a read on her expression with so little light.

"Needed a change," I say.

"I'm surrounded by emo goth kids, I swear."

"Well, Babe," says Jane. "We can't all be as naturally pretty as you." Her finger taps Kevin's lips with each of her words, and he bats her hand away like it's an annoying bug.

"Why black though?" Kevin won't let it go.

"I wasn't going with pink or green." I watch the counter on Jessica's last blue dot text tick away. Her message vanishes when the timer reaches five minutes, and the chat window with my sister lies barren. Then I change the subject. "So what's the plan tonight?"

"I'm building a kickass fire."

Jessica laughs, and looks up. "Garret will build the fire. Kevin will get drunk and move some wood around."

"I make art. Not everybody gets it."

I click off my phone, and darkness envelopes the car, save for the glow my sister holds, and the occasional oncoming set of headlights. I want to pull Jessica onto my lap and do all manner of groping, both high and low, while I kiss her neck. Instead, the middle seat belt plays referee for the sake of our friends in the front. My sister sits right there across a stretch of leather, but I can't touch her.

The road winds south, and eventually Jessica locks her phone, leaving the four of us with silhouette views of each other. I lean half way to my sister, around Jane's headrest, and watch the lines of the road ahead, until the passenger's trance take me.

I snap out of the spell when the car turns.

"We're here, bitches." Kevin screeches the S5 to a stop in the driveway of a house with grey wooden shingled siding. Another vehicle sits in front of us, doors open, and lights still on. Robyn leans over collecting items from the passenger side, while Garrett shuffles down the front steps of the house, washed out by the combined headlights of both cars. He pulls a joint out of his inside jacked pocket and puts it to his lips, holding a lighter to the end. Garrett holds out the joint, and Robyn takes it from him, having appeared around the far side of the car. She encourages the red ember, as she carries her handbag and what looks to be a cooler. By the time I'm standing on the porch with my bag, Garrett is lighting a second joint.

"We need to christen this place properly," says Garrett. He takes a drag, then holds it out for me.

"It's a religious obligation, then?" I help myself to the communion, and it's not as hot as I expect. Tastes like pine.

"Very much so," says Jessica, holding out her hand, palm up. She closes and opens her fingers twice. I hand her the joint, and she takes one hard pull, then offers it back to nobody in particular. Garrett looks to me, but my head is already starting to feel like a bowling ball, so I decline. Garrett takes the cinder and reinvigorates it.

"What have we got?" asks Kevin. He sets down a large two-tone blue and white plastic drink cooler next to the front door.

"Three beds," says Robyn. "So Jessica gets to fight with her brother over the third. One and a half baths, so we all get to fight over the shower." Her joint is half gone already.

Bags pile up in the entryway, and before I've even looked around, Kevin's oversized hand forces a shot of something clear into my chest. I drink it without question. It burns surprisingly little, and reminds me of Jessica's orange body wash.

"What is this?" I ask.

"Mandarin vodka." Garrett pushes past me into one of the bedrooms.

"Babe." Jane waves at Kevin. "We're in here."

Kevin follows Garrett past me, carrying two suitcases.

Jessica stands by the side of a chest-high white tile counter, which divides the kitchen from a dining area furnished with a dark stained wooden table. She holds her bag in one hand and stares at an empty shot glass in the other, licking her lips. I slowly move to her, glancing past the wooden table at the living room down the hall. The full couch at the other end of the house might be my future.

"What do we do?" I ask, keeping my voice low.

"I don't know," whispers my sister. "We'll figure it out later. Just put your stuff in the bedroom with mine, so it doesn't get lost."

I do as I'm told, and then Kevin prepares another round of shots while we're all standing in a circle in the kitchen. Everyone always stands in a circle at parties. Garrett stacks liquor bottles in a 'V,' like bowling pins, while Kevin pours something brown into the row of shot glasses.

"Is that the same stuff?" I ask.

"Nah," says Kevin. "That only works once in a while."

An arm shoots over my shoulder between Jessica and me, and holds steady, until Kevin gives the arm's fingers a drink. I turn to see Jane swallowing what he handed her, then she clangs the glass on the counter. Kevin begins filling a stainless steel flask with rum, while Garrett finishes his tidy arrangement of bottles, and I turn to discover all three girls have vanished out the front door.

"Where did that horrible stuff come from, anyway? Somebody named Roger?" I point to the brown bottle Garrett has standing guard over the other liquor.

"Yeah. Jess didn't tell you about him?" asks Kevin.

"No." I'm suddenly glad my sister is out of the room.

"He was a..." Kevin tilts his head and glances at the front door, then crouches so the top of his flask rests at eye level, "thing of your sister's last year. It didn't end well. You could ask her about it, but I think she's still pretty sore."

"Is there a short version?"

"Eh." Kevin hesitates. He's carefully topping off the flask. "They were together for a few months. He wanted to... date other girls... at the same time. Without telling her." Kevin screws the flask shut, and gives me a shrugging look, before bolting after the girls.

Garrett stands by the front door, zipping up a blue windbreaker, another unlit joint having appeared in his mouth. I'm not sure where the first one went. Or the second one. I grab my coat and I'm the last one out of the house.

I follow Garrett and Kevin down an asphalt path leading around the side of the house, over a ridge to the beach. A slick layer of sand coats the dark pavement, which is more of a challenge to traverse than it ordinarily might be, due to shots and weed. The light from the house begins to recede, and a hill topped with grass taller than me appears on either side of the path. Wind whips my coat and hair, and a salty rotting stench invades my nose as I crest the ridge. The roar of the waves comes from all around, and gives no marker for the distance to the water. I stand at the top of the ridge, and my eyes slowly adjust. Faint whitecaps of the surf dance in the distance, at the far end of a gentle slope. Several shadows move below, and Kevin bellows something indistinct. I follow his voice.

The shallow slope of the beach spans more than a football field from the ridge to the waves. I step onto the sand, and have to put in more effort, but before long I find my companions half way to the water. The girls huddle together, with Jane rubbing Robyn's arms on each side. Kevin stacks wood into a pyramid in a dugout pit in the sand.

Garrett pulls a bottle out of his jacket, and pours three glugs on the wood. He waves his hands to the group to get back, strikes a match, and flicks it onto the pyramid.

Then we're all getting warmer, rather than colder.

We dig into the sand around the fire in an arc of three pairs. The two other couples huddle together, and I stay what I think is a safe, if uncomfortable distance from my sister, at the far end. With some difficulty, Garrett manages to light another joint on the fire, and he passes it around. Jessica takes a hit off it, and holds it out for me.

"I didn't realize you smoked." I keep my low voice, and take her offering.

"I don't all that much. Why'd you think that?"

"Because you didn't that one night." I stand, step behind everyone, and give it to Garrett. Then I'm back at the end of the arc by my sister, but I sit closer this time.

"I wanted something else more that night."

The breeze picks up, and whips the flames. It masks our words, but carries them too. I don't think anybody but me can hear her, but the waves, wind, and fire all wobble and stretch.

"So is this pretty much what you guys do here?" I gesture above my head and a specter of wind haunts its way down my sleeve.

"Pretty much." Jessica holds her elbows with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What would happen if I put my arms around you?"

Fiery wheels turn in the green. "I wouldn't yell at you."

"Even if everyone's here?"

Jessica smiles slightly. "Same answer."

I slide over in the sand, and reach around my sister, pulling her against me. Her arm finds my side, and our heads rest against each other, as we shiver together.

"I wish we had a blanket," says Jessica. "Or an igloo."

"It's. Fucking. Freezing," shouts Kevin. He rocks back and forth on the other side of the fire.

"I don't know what you're talking about. It's gorgeous out." Robyn attaches herself to Garrett, under the side of his coat. She's tied a red scarf around her neck, and looks to be shivering more than my sister. In the fire's light, it's the same red as the cloth napkins from the restaurant where we met Dad and Kirsten. The same red as the Easter basket I stole from my sister.

"But I got the medicine." Kevin retrieves his flask from some cartoon pocket out of nowhere, and tilts the drink back, then caps it and makes a pumping motion at me.

I hail with my hand, and grab the sloshing steel container when it arrives, then unscrew the top, and take a sip. Some kind of rum. Not too bad.

Jessica holds out her hand between us, and I pass her the drink. She takes a sip and wrinkles her nose, then takes a bigger sip, and caps the flask. My sister holds the flask aloft, but Kevin puts out his palm.

"So, she just didn't show up?" I ask, staring across the fire at Robyn's scarf.

"No," says Jessica.

"How long did you wait?"

"Like an hour. And I texted her. Nothing."

"Dad must have told her something."

"Maybe. I'm not sure." Jessica pulls out her phone in the middle of our huddle, and taps it. There aren't any messages.

"Think you scared her?"

"Scared? The Red Haired Lady?" My sister's laugh shakes both of us.

"Still," I say, "this isn't like her." The cold begins to leech into my shoulder.

"No, it's not." Jessica squeezes against me tighter.

A few feet away, Garrett holds the bottle of poisonous brown liquor. He and Kevin pass it back and forth, then Jane intercepts it, and takes one drink from it. For a moment her face looks like the M shape of her hair, and she quickly rids herself of the bottle. Robyn glares at Kevin when he offers it to her.

Jessica holds the flask in front of me. "Can you put this somewhere?"

I unzip my coat side pocket, and stow the metal container, but before I pull the zipper up, a frozen hand grips my bare skin under my shirt.

I struggle to get a breath in. My sister's gaze remains fixed on the fire.

The six of us sit around the pyramid of logs, hypnotized by flames dancing under a windy assault. The icy appendage against my side slowly thaws, though my ears and nose grow colder by the minute. I shift in my seat in the sand and look across the fire to Jane watching my sister and me. Or maybe she's just stoned and staring off. I can't tell.

"I think it's now or never, folks," says Kevin. He stands up, and strips off his jacket.

Jane groans. "Avert your eyes, children."

Kevin throws his jacket onto the sand, then his shirt goes on top of that. His shoes and a pair of khaki pants are next, before he sprints towards the surf, bellowing a single baritone note, like he's impersonating a tuba. After a few steps, he slows, pulling off his underwear in a one-leg-at-a-time hopping stagger. He throws them above his head as he continues his one-man nudist opera into the darkness.

First comes the splash, then the scream. Jane slowly rises from her seat across the fire. "I'm cold, everyone. I'm going back in." She wraps Kevin's clothes up in his coat, and starts up the sand toward the path.

Garrett watches Jane, and snorts a laugh. Robyn disentangles herself from inside his coat, and throws the remainder of the joint she'd been smoking into the fire. They both stand, and shake the sand off their pants, following Jane's footsteps.

The loud white blur of Kevin's ass streaks up the hill past Jessica and me, presumably after his girlfriend, and his clothes. My sister and I rouse ourselves from the fire and make up the last pair to the path. Her hand stays under my shirt, and I hold my arm around the outside of her coat until we get to the porch. The kitchen's bright yellow glow breaks the illusion we've been hiding behind. Kevin stands in front of the tall counter with a towel wrapped around his waist, pouring more shots. He points to Jessica then me, as we step inside, but I tell him no thanks.

My sister pushes past me into the bedroom, and rustling comes from Garrett and Robyn's room. Every light in the place is involved in a conspiracy of illumination.

Kevin tosses back a shot for himself. "Okay, this place better have some serious hot water. I need to wash this salt out of my hair."

"You've never washed your hair in cold water?" I ask.

"No more cold tonight, please." Kevin slams the glass down, and makes for the bathroom "Babe! Fire it up!" Water hisses from the other room.

I leave Kevin's flask on the counter, and find Jessica in the darkened third bedroom. The door arcs wide open, while she sits on the bed staring at her phone. She looks up at me, then back down.

"Anything?" I ask.

My sister shakes her head, then lays back on top of the bed, coat still on, hair fanned out over the covers. I sit on the opposite side, and lay back, so our heads are side by side, but facing opposite directions. A bump comes from the bathroom next to us.

Robyn crosses in front of our door. A moment later, she walks back the other way carrying two glasses of water, but stops when another sound comes from the shower activities. The red scarf is still wrapped around her neck, and now I'm thinking about the candy I took from my sister when we were seven.

"You want the bathroom too, Robyn?" asks Jessica.

"No, actually we have the half bath in our room, if you want to use it. I was just making note of the debauchery for a moment."

Jelly Belly, Starburst, Sour Brite Crawlers.

"I do need to wash my face," says my sister. "But I want the shower. I'm freezing."

"I'm going to bed." Robyn goes on her way, and a door shuts.

The splashing and wet smudge sounds continue, and I turn to Jessica, as she lays on her back with her eyes closed.

"You awake?" I ask.

"Mm-hmm," she says quietly.

I pull my fingers through her hair. She turns her head and her nose is cold against mine.

"Be right back." I pull myself off the bed, and reach for the doorknob. It sports a lock on the handle, an incredible luxury. I twist, and triple check that the door is locked. Before I get back to the bed, I hear the rustle of my sister's coat, and I quickly get rid of mine, then feel my way back in the darkness. A hand touches my face, then lips follow. I pull Jessica against me by her hips. She took off a lot more than her overcoat, and she crosses her naked leg between mine. My head rushes with everything we drank and smoked as Jessica's touch swirls around me to the sound of running water.

I kiss her and squeeze her breast. Five knives poke the back of my head, holding me in place. I banish most of my clothes to the floor, and Jessica's bra sling-shots to a distant corner of the room somewhere. We make out on the sheets, laying on our sides until the water shuts off and the bathroom door squeaks open. Jessica freezes against me.

"It's locked," I whisper as quietly as I can with our faces pressed together. There is a shuffle of movement outside.

A knock on the door.

Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers.

Jane's voice says, "Shower is yours if you want it."

"Thanks." My sister's voice carries through my lips into the other room.

We kiss, but the commotions outside our chamber are jarring, even with the door locked. It's hard to picture what they think of me being in the room with my sister. Eventually Jessica breaks away, lays back on the sheet, and pulls some corner of bedding on top of herself. I find the other side of the blanket, and roll onto my back next to her. Thumping comes through the wall from Kevin and Jane's room. It sounds more like drunken clumsiness than sex.

"You want to get a dog?" asks my sister.

"Yeah. Can I shower first?"

"Not now. At some point though. I'd like to get one."

"What kind? Retriever? Lab?"

"No, I want something more loyal. Like a German Shepherd. I don't want a dog who will run off with just anybody."

"How do they do that with dogs, anyway?" I reach over and cup Jessica's breast.

A rustling and a thud come from next door.

"Make them loyal?"

"Yeah."

"Well, some dogs have the base trait, and then they selectively breed for it." My sister scratches her nails on the inside of my thigh. "They'll take two who have a tendency, and then their pups will be even more likely to be that way. One of my biology professors used it an example. After the fruit fly stuff."

"How does that start? Like, do they ever take two dogs from the same family?"

"It's kind of frowned upon, but sometimes, yes. They used to do that a lot more. It can cause problems."

"Like what?"

"Genetic stuff. Hip problems are common. Temperament issues. Diseases."

"Do they test for those, then? Or how does that work?" I wave my finger back and forth across her nipple, like a windshield wiper. She's stiff under my touch by the third time I do it.

"They do. Good breeders, anyway. You have to be careful. All dogs are really the same species, just bred selecting for different traits. That's how you get stuff from poodles to beagles to German Shepherds."

"But you need to be careful."

"Mm-hmm."

Stillness fills the house, and I stare at the pitch black ceiling. "Shower time?"

"Yes. We can be quiet." Jessica slides off the bed, and pulls something out of her bag, then pushes clothes around on the floor. Her phone lights up from within the pile, and bathes the room in a harsh glow. She digs out the source of the light, and her eyes move across it, as her face burns bright in the darkened room. The smile on her face rusts and falls away, leaving only a bitter scowl. She stares at the screen, motionless, the wheels in the green frozen in place.

Jessica holds the phone for me to see.

And I read our stepmother's text.

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CHAPTER 19

My sister clangs the second empty wine bottle next to the first one.

I pick up a cork, and roll it between my fingers.

She watches me twist the cork around, and asks, "Want to go swimming?"

We put on our clothes, and I speak the magic words. The orange above us fades, and my sister slides one of the keycards off the table. She loops her arm through mine, and I lead us out in search of adventure.

My sister and I explore across white marble and down a humming elevator, then we're back on the ground level. As we cross the black and gold of the lobby, the woman with the Emerald Dragon on her wrist pulls a black leather bag in front of a man in a grey pinstripe suit. She nods at us. We push through frosted glass doors, with the building's name etched in a cursive script I can barely read.