Lauren

"Just so I fully understand what you are telling me here; you're going out with the girl who was banging the husband of the neighbor that you were banging for the past year? The same neighbor who is now dating our father?"

"That pretty much sums it up."

"Maybe I should call Ken up and complete this twisted cycle."

"Not even close to being funny Jen."

"I know, but I mean come on Dude! This is freaking hilarious! I can see it now! "Dad, Lauren, I'd like you to meet Crystal." Lauren's reaction will be over the top! I've got to record it!"

"That is what I am trying to avoid." I said sadly.

"You really like this chick, don't you?"

"Yeah, sadly, I really do. She reminds me." I stopped speaking.

"Reminds you of who Mark?"

"She reminds me a lot of you." I said realizing just how twisted that sounded.

"Why is everyone in this version of Peyton Place getting laid except me?" she asked loudly, slumping back against the couch cushions.

"Jen!" I exclaimed, startled by her outburst.

"What? Ken has had Lauren, you have too, and Dad is doing her now. Ken has had Crystal and now you're trying to crawl between her thighs. I'm a comparative saint next to you Mark! You want my advice? Walk the fuck away from her! Lauren will shit bricks if you drag her up in here; and this twisted fairy tale you are living in will all unravel on you so fast that you won't know what the fuck has hit you!"

She leapt up and stormed out of the room. I heard her bedroom door slam and realized that she was probably right. I should just walk away from Crystal and be done with it. I should, I wasn't going to yet, but I really should.

"Fuck it!" I thought to myself, "I'm taking a shower."

I stood under the water, which was a hot as I could stand it, until the hot water ran out. I dried off and wrapping a towel around my waist I walked into my bedroom and dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then I slipped on my tennis shoes and walked down to Jennifer's room on the second story. Standing beside her door for a moment I thought to myself that I really owed Jennifer and apology for putting her through all of this then I knocked in her door.

"What."

"Hey Grumpy Chick, are you hungry?"

"A little." came a reply through the wooden door.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

I walked into her bedroom and found her laying on her bed reading a paperback.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked.

"50 Shades."

"What's it about?" I said.

Looking at me blankly for a second she laughed and said, "I love you and you don't want to know."

"Ok. Um? Dinner?"

"Maybe." She said softly.

"Then, let me rephrase the request. How about I take my beautiful baby sister out to eat and then take her to the movie that she still owes me?"

"Maybe." She said smiling at me.

"Beautiful, sexy, intelligent, charming, delightful, alluring, hot, seductive, incredibly sexy baby sister?"

"You said sexy twice." she said still smiling.

"I know." I said, winking at her.

"You win." she replied laughing as she swung her long legs over the edge of the bed.

"You were in the shower for a long time." she said as she slipped her shoes on.

"Rough game today. I was really hurting."

"I'm sorry."

"I'll be okay. It's a shame you couldn't have waited a week to give me that backrub. I could really use it tonight."

"Buy me cheesecake after dinner and you might get another one later. But this time, my clothes will have to stay on." she said, looking up at me with her blue eyes sparkling.

"Deal."

We had dinner and then we saw Paranormal Activity at the mall. Yes, I bought her cheesecake and yes, later that night after Dad had gone to bed, she snuck up to my room and gave me another backrub. Yes, her clothes stayed on the entire time and deep down inside I was glad they did.

Sunday afternoon I drove to Chris's dorm and waited in the lobby for her. When 5:30 rolled around and she still hadn't shown up I called her, and her phone went straight to voicemail. I walked down the hallway and knocked on her door. I waited a second and then figured, what the Hell?

Knock, knock, knock. "Chris?"

Knock, knock, knock. "Chris?"

Knock. The door opened.

Knock, knock. "Chris?" I said, completing the cycle and smiling at my own wit.

"What?" she snapped at me.

"Wow!" I said, taking an involuntary step backwards at the venom coming from her voice.

"Don't 'Wow!' me Mark! I dropped you off thinking I was giving you some space to think things through and you went home and took another girl to dinner and a movie? You are a dick!"

"How do you know what I did last night?"

"My girlfriend Connie is from your hometown and saw you two at the theater."

"Oh, she saw me out with a tall, attractive blonde who has spectacular boobs and a nice butt? In case you haven't noticed, I have a thing for women like that."

"Dick!" she said loudly as she started to shut the door in my face.

I put my hand out and stopped it.

"Chris, that was my sister Jennifer."

"Huh?" she said, looking at me with a frown on her face.

"That was my baby sister, Jennifer. You're going to meet her next Saturday. Try not to claw her eyes out in a jealous rage alright?"

"I haven't even gone out with you and you're wanting to introduce me to your family? Are you nuts?"

"No. I'm introducing you to my sister, provided you promise me that you won't scratch her eyes out in a fit of jealousy."

"You're not nuts, you're crazy!" she all but yelled.

"I'll concede that if you will stop trying to close the door in my face and get your purse, so we can go to dinner. Please? I swear to you Chris, she's my sister."

We stood there with our eyes locked, neither of us saying anything and finally I saw her shoulders slump and she mumbled, "Fine, give me a second. I'll be right out."

I held the car door open for her and she slid in saying, "Thank you."

As I climbed in on my side she was adjusting her seat. Buckling her seatbelt, she looked over at me and said, "A thing for tall, attractive blondes with spectacular boobs and nice butts huh?"

"Yeah but I noticed your smile first." Which was, strangely enough, true.

"Uh huh." she said with a small grin on her face.

"Almost there." I said, looking at her and watching her grin grow larger.

"Almost." I whispered as she finally broke into a smile.

"There it is!" I said, laughing.

"Shut up and drive Mark." she said, looking down at her lap and shaking her head.

"Yes Dear." I said, putting the car into Reverse and backing out of the space.

"I'm really sorry I called you a dick earlier." she said as we sat in the parking lot of her dorm after dinner.

"That's okay. I've been called worse."

"Thank you for dinner and thank you again for not asking about Ken tonight. God that whole situation is so humiliating." She muttered looking up at the roof of the car.

"He burned you pretty badly huh?" I asked.

"Scorched and turned to ashes. It took me months to even talk to another guy after what he did to me."

"Whenever you feel like talking about it, I'm here." I said softly.

"You really are a nice guy Mark. I'm glad we went out tonight."

"Thank you, Chris. I am too."

She looked at me then leaned across the seat and kissed me softly. Getting out of the car she leaned back down smiling and whispered, "Nine hundred and ninety-eight." Then she winked, closed the car door and walked inside her dorm.

I was grinning like an idiot all the way across campus.

The following Thursday night Chris finally broke down in my room and told me about her time with Ken. I was dumbstruck at the way that asshole treated her. They had met at her restaurant, and he had managed to do what no her customer had done before; sweep her off her feet.

He had a set of dummy divorce papers that showed his separation from Lauren starting the year before. He kept insisting to her that Lauren was the one who had taken part in an affair with one of the firm's attorneys. It might have been hard to believe, but Chris had a copy of the paperwork and it really looked official.

The worst part was that she honestly bought his whole story. He spent money on her like he was made of it. A new tablet, iPhone, clothes, jewelry and fancy dinners. She was the perfect prey to his predator. Young, naive, and very pretty dangling on his arm at office parties.

Then the real divorce finalized on that day in August, her fantasy came to an end. He had dropped her off at her parent's home and told her that he would be back to pick her up for dinner and a movie with the boys. Later he called and told her that he had to cancel because the youngest, Jeff, had gotten sick and was running a fever.

She called one of her friends and they went to dinner and a movie instead. And when they walked out of the theater, she spotted Ken and the boys with another woman; this one also closer to her age than his. She didn't cause a scene because she didn't want to scare the children, so she snapped a picture of them and sent it to him in a text message saying, "Goodbye, you lying bastard."

His response was "Goodbye, you stupid whore."

She was devastated. He had promised her everything but a wedding ring over the six months that they had dated and now all she had was an ex-lover who was not only cheating on her, but who had lied to her about being divorced. She also had a closet full of clothes that he had bought for her, a tablet, a cell phone and deep regrets about helping to destroy a marriage.

"And I finally thought that things were going good for me when you showed up." she said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Things are going good for you Chris." I replied.

"Yeah? How?" she sniffled.

"I showed up." I said laughing.

"Oh goody. Now I get to relive it every time I see you on campus. Yea me." she said, clinching her fist and throwing it over her head.

"Eventually you will get over it."

"When?"

"I'm hoping it's sometime before our wedding but don't stress over it. I'm patient." I replied with a grin on my face.

"You are certifiably insane." she said, looking at me in total disbelief.

"Your point?" I responded.

"You need help."

"I want you to meet Lauren." I said quietly.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"I want you to meet Lauren." I said slowly, moving my hands in the air as if I were using sign language.

"I don't think so Mark! And you're going to have to get over this foolish notion that we can keep seeing each other." She said, obviously becoming exasperated.

"Okay, fine! You're just delaying our wedding though." I said, looking her in the eyes and grinning.

"God!" she muttered, throwing both arms into the air.

"We have a bye week, so I can take you there and I really do want you to meet her. She needs to hear your side of all this."

"She won't care."

"Maybe not and I'll happily take the heat for any fallout, but she needs to know that you were a victim as well." I said sincerely.

"I'll think about it, okay?"

"Fair enough."

"Why are you still chasing me after everything I've told you?" she asked quietly.

"Because you're walking away instead of running." I said, silently thanking Jennifer for that line.

She opened her mouth to speak then paused. She had a strange look on her face as she sat beside me on my bed looking at me. Finally, she shook her head as a slow smile crept across her face and she began to slowly lean towards me.

"Yes?" I asked when our lips were a quarter of an inch away from one another's.

She kissed me gently then said, "Nine hundred and ninety-seven."

I lost count, but somewhere around Nine-hundred and seventy something we were nude in my bed trying to recover our breathing when there was a knock on my door. Chris quickly pulled the sheet over her head as my roommate Bill walked in.

"Sorry to interrupt Dude, but I really need my tablet."

"That's okay." I said smiling at him.

He pointed at the bed and mouthed "Crystal?"

I grinned and nodded. Grabbing his tablet, he turned and walked to the door.

"See you in a few hours Dude." Then he added, "Goodnight Chris."

"Goodnight Bill." came a soft voice from under the sheet.

He shut the door smiling. As soon as it clicked Chris tossed back the sheet and said "God that was humiliating! I've got to go!"

"What's your rush?" I said as she climbed over me and began to get dressed.

"I'm not use to being spoken to while I'm hiding under a sheet. How did he know it was me?"

"It could be because you're the only woman I've talked about for the past two weeks."

She paused and looked at me. "Really?"

"Yeah, Bill was the one who finally convinced me to ask you out."

She dropped her clothes back to the floor and quietly said, "Scoot over, we still have a couple of hours."

Sex with Lauren and sex with Crystal was completely different.

Lauren was a slow burn that was like driving a classic muscle car down a back road. It was enjoyable, just because you were on the road with her. The curves were wide and smooth, and the straightaways were incredible because you could really build up some speed before you had to tap the brakes lightly and slow down to experience the next curve.

Crystal was a sports car that wanted everything fast and hot. It was going to be an enjoyable experience to turn her from a Porsche into GTO. I lay there silently thanking Lauren for having the patience and understanding to teach me how to please a woman over the course of hours instead of minutes. Yes, we had more than our share of quickies, but she also taught me how to take my time. I more than proved that to Chris over the next hour and a half.

Driving back to her dorm Crystal looked at me from across the seat of my car.

"Who was she?"

"Who was who?" I asked, knowing full well what Crystal was digging for.

"Who was the woman that taught you how to do some of the things you did to me back there?"

"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

"I'll accept that for now, but you have to promise me that one day you will tell me the story. No twenty-year-old guy knows how to treat a woman like that unless an experienced woman taught him."

"I promise." I said, really looking forward to the day I could work up the courage to tell her the story.

"YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT!" Lauren screamed into her phone, and by default, my ear.

"I want you to meet Crystal. You need to meet her Lauren."

"Bullshit! How could you even suggest that I meet that slut?"

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"This has nothing to do with us Mark." she retorted.

"Yes Lauren, it does. More than you know." I said.

"Maybe, but she destroyed my marriage and you want to bring her here to meet me?"

"There are things you don't understand and until you do you're going to be angry and bitter for no reason."

"She. Fucked. My. Husband." Lauren said coldly, emphasizing each word.

"Your. Husband. Fucked. Her." I said just as coldly and adding, "Figuratively and literally."

"So? If he did, she got what she deserved." Lauren spat out angrily.

"Nobody deserves that Lauren." I said softly.

"She does."

"No, she doesn't. She is a good person who got burned by the asshole. Does that sound familiar?"

The silence was loud.

"Fine. Bring her home. If nothing else I will have a chance to tell the little bitch what she did to my family." Lauren replied with a hint of resignation in her voice.

"Your house? Four o'clock? Sunday?" I asked.

"Ken drops the boys off at five."

"I know; that's why I said four." I responded with an evil grin on my face.

"Fine! Four." she replied, not sounding happy about it.

Then, without so much as a "Kiss my ass." she hung up.

Bill looked up from his bed smiling and said, "I take it you're going home this weekend."

"Yeah." I said, still grinning.

"Is your sister going to be there?" he asked.

"Probably, but so is my dad. He hates football players with a burning passion."

"Why do I get the feeling you just don't want me sniffing around your sister?"

"Because your IQ is above room temperature."

"Fair enough Dude." He said, turning back to his Sociology book.

"Honestly Bill, you're welcome there anytime you want to come, but this is going to be a weird trip and you don't need to see this level of crazy."

Yeah, Bill knew the entire twisted story about Lauren; all of it. I never had a brother and over the past few months he and I had grown close. Hell, I had to have someone to confide in or I would have gone batshit crazy. He was serious and mature and honest enough to tell me when I was fucking up. I glanced over at him and thought to myself "Jennifer could do a lot worse. He really is a nice guy." Then I began to formulate my plan for Sunday.

To say that the meeting was awkward was an understatement. We all; Lauren, Crystal, Jennifer and I all sat in Lauren's living room as Crystal slowly began telling her tale. When she pulled out the phony divorce decree, Lauren initially refused to look at it. Then she reached out and picked it up by a corner as if it was a dead rat and she was grabbing it by the tail. She began to read it and slowly she started making comments, most of which involved the phrase "fucking liar". I took that as a good sign.

"Lauren, I swear to you that I didn't know you two were still married. I honestly thought your marriage had ended long before he asked me out the first time."

"Okay." Lauren said and let it drop.

"If I had known, I would have stopped immediately. You've got to believe that, I'm not a tramp." She said with more tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"It doesn't surprise me Crystal. Ken is an asshole." Lauren said, tossing the phony decree back on the coffee table.

"We can at least agree on that one." Crystal said, looking down at the floor and adding, "Lauren, you have every reason in the world to throw me out of your home. I'm not suggesting that we will ever become friends, but will you at least stop thinking of me as an enemy?"

"That I can do, we were both used: I can see that now. None of that was really your fault." Lauren said softly.

I glanced down at my phone and asked, "So, Lauren, is Ken always on time dropping off the boys?"

"Like clockwork, he will be here in two or three minutes. Why?"

"Oh, I'm just wondering how fast he will leave when he pulls up and sees his ex-wife and former mistress standing on his ex-wife's front porch hugging?"

All three heads snapped around to look at me.

"That is evil!" Jennifer squealed, clapping her hands together in delight.

"That is brilliant." Lauren said, beginning to smile.

"That is perfect." Chris said, her eyes meeting Lauren's for the first time in an hour.

"You're welcome ladies. Let's go outside and greet the asshole; shall we?" I said, climbing to my feet and holding my hand out to Chris.

For the record, it took him one second after Jeff shut the truck's rear door and ran toward the house. If Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; I can't imagine what Ken thought when he saw those two standing on the porch talking to two very excited young boys.

It turns out that they honestly missed Chris, "All the other girls Dad has gone out with aren't nearly as fun as she is." Lauren was kind of dumbstruck by that and looked at me funny when the boys hugged Chris as we left to head back to the campus. I guess she had to admit to herself that Chris might just be a decent human being after all if William and Jeff liked her that much.

I brought Chris and Bill home for Thanksgiving weekend. Dad is kind of old-fashioned, so Chris didn't sleep with in my room. Instead she had the guest room right next to Jennifer's bedroom and Bill slept in one of the others. I'm not saying there weren't a couple of midnight excursions made upstairs but for the most part, out of respect for Dad's wishes, the two of us behaved ourselves.