Pink Dragonfly

Van paused mid-sip and carefully set his glass back down.

"Woah. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah, I know you weren't, but it is."

"Hmm...yeah, gonna need more details, sis."

"McCracken."

"Come again?"

"McCracken. How do you expect a girl to feel sexy with a name like 'Mack McCracken'. It's a preposterously silly name, Van, and if your last name had been Stevens or Anderson or whatever, then you guys probably would be just fine."

Van rolled his eyes.

"Goddammit, Tara," he said, but with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah dude, but for real though, I couldn't tell you what goes on in her head. Again, you guys should look into that counseling thing."

"Yeah, maybe. Or maybe I could start working out with her after work. She always goes over to the student recreation center, or whatever it's called, at the university when she's done with work. Maybe I could meet her there. She'd love the idea of me working on my body more, and it'd be a good chance to bond."

"Yeah, sure."

"I think I'll suggest that. Maybe Ashley can work with me at the same time."

"Ashley?"

"Yeah, that's who she trains with, she's mentioned her a few times to me."

"Hey," a low voice grumbled suddenly from beside their table.

Van and Tara looked up instantly to see a beefy dude with a trimmed beard and a red cap on his head.

"Hello..." Tara replied, as he seemed to be focused on her.

"'Sup, girl. I was wondering if you'd like to join me and my friends at the bar. We're gonna hang out here for a little bit then head to my house and chill. What d'ya say?"

Tara stared at the red-capped guy in a clear state of confusion. Van looked him over and saw that his hands were incredibly large.

"You play piano?" Van blurted out, still a little tipsy.

Red-cap looked down at Van with a mixture of superiority and disgust.

"What?"

"Your hands are huge, dude. I figured you might be really good at piano, didn't know if you ever tried to play."

"No," Red-cap replied, clearly annoyed.

He looked back at Tara and put his hands up in a way that suggested he wanted an answer from Tara immediately.

"Uhh..." Tara began, "I'm just gonna hang out with him tonight. But thanks, I guess."

Van was surprised to see that Red-cap was so surprised at being turned down. He wasn't much of a looker, and Van figured he must have had plenty of experience at being turned down. Van was just drunk enough to share this thought out loud with the guy, but didn't get a chance to since he walked away quietly after Tara turned him down. Looking back on it, Van figured that worked out pretty well for him since Red-cap probably could have punched a hole through his torso with his giant meaty fist.

"Wow," Tara said to Van.

"I know. I mean, what an opportunity, Tara. Are you sure you don't won't to go with the strange guy back to his house to 'chill'?"

"Yeah, I think I'm good on that one."

"Or better yet," Van continued, "you could invite him over to my place. We do have a spare bedroom, you know."

"Ew, stop."

"Okay, okay. But hey, if you do come across someone that strikes your fancy tonight, don't feel weird if you feel like you want to, you know, bring him back home and 'get busy', as the kids say."

Tara snorted.

"First of all, the kids definitely don't say that. Secondly, I don't think I'm trying to lose my virginity with my brother in the next room."

At that last comment, Van sprayed Tara with his last mouthful of drink.

"Ah, fuck Van!" Tara cried as she reached for some napkins.

"You're a virgin?"

"Uh, yeah," Tara said as she wiped herself down.

"Since when?"

Tara looked up at Van like he was an idiot.

"That question literally makes no sense."

"I mean...are you sure?"

"Yes, Van, I'm sure I've never had a penis enter my vagina."

"I'm just...I'm so shocked."

"Why?"

"I mean, look at you! Hell, someone has already tried to pick you up tonight. You're gorgeous, and you're...well, you know."

Van made the universal gesture for big boobs.

"Voluptuous?" Tara finished for him.

"Well, yeah."

"I mean, just because I have people interested in having sex with me doesn't mean that I'm interested in them. Besides, you know how little I get out in public."

"Yeah, I guess. Hey!"

"Hey, what?"

"Why did Red-cap hit on you with me sitting right here? Shouldn't he have assumed that we're together?"

"Huh, you know, I didn't even think about that."

"Well, I'm offended. In fact, I'm going to go and talk-"

Tara reached over and pushed Van back into his seat as he tried to stand up. Van sat groggily back down.

"Bad move, McCracken," she said.

Van took a deep breath, then continued to sip his drink.

"Okay," Tara began, "I'm going to the bathroom. When I get back, we're getting you some water."

Tara got up to go, then quickly turned back to Van.

"You can stll be a virgin when you've had anal sex, right?" she asked.

Van's jaw dropped as he looked at Tara in shock.

"Just kidding!" she said sweetly as she turned and walked towards the bathroom.

As she walked away, Van glanced in her direction and noticed her butt. She was wearing black shorts, and they were very tight. He figured if he remembered staring at his sister's ass the next day that he would feel guilty, but in that moment, he allowed himself to watch her all the way until she disappeared into the bathroom.

At that point, the proverbial wave of drunkenness had definitely cascaded itself over Van. He stared off in no particular direction and in what felt like a matter of seconds, Tara was back at the table.

"Woah!" he exclaimed. "That was fast!"

"I was gone like five minutes, dude. Here," she said, sliding him a glass, "drink this water. If we're lucky, you can avoid vomiting."

Van took the water and gulped thirstily.

"Oh hey," Tara continued, "Red-cap, as you called him, hit on me again."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he said my body was 'kickin'', or something."

"That son-of-a-bitch!"

"Yeah. I guess he doesn't take you very seriously as my lover."

Van felt a strange jolt run through his body at Tara's last comment.

"Hmm. Well, maybe I need to do something about that. Come over here and sit in my lap."

Tara raised her eyebrows and looked at Van in shock.

"Are you serious, dude?"

"Yeah! It doesn't have to be weird or anything, we'd just be acting. Maybe this guy will get the idea though, you know?"

Tara shook her head. She glanced over towards the bar and saw Red-cap still looking her way.

"You know what?" she said out loud. "Okay."

Tara slid out of her side of the booth and joined Van on his side. She turned her body sideways so that most of her butt was on the booth seat, but a small portion, as well as her thighs, were squarely positioned in Van's lap.

As she scooted next to him, Van adjusted himself so that one of his arms wrapped around her waist. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the other one. Seeing his confusion, Tara helped him out a bit.

"Here," she said, grabbing his hand and placing it on her thigh. "Just put it here on my leg. It looks more believable that way."

Tara laid her head on his shoulder. Her pink hair tickled the side of his face. It felt really good to have the warmth of her body right up against his.

"Think we've convinced him?" Tara asked out loud.

"Probably."

"Should we do more?"

Van gulped noticeably.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Rub my thigh a little."

"Okay."

Van didn't need much convincing. Tara's bare leg felt extremely good to him. It was very smooth. He ran his hand down to her knee, then back up all the way to the bottom of her shorts before repeating the pattern.

"Your heart is racing, Van," Tara said slyly.

"Oh, yeah," Van said nervously. "Must be the booze."

"Yeah, that's what I figured."

Tara surprised him further by kissing him lightly on his ear.

"Sorry," she whispered, keeping her mouth close to his ear. "He was looking again. I wanted him to see us go a little further."

Van felt definite movement in his jeans. Fortunately for him, Tara's legs were positioned just so that they were not pushing into his growing erection whatsoever, so there was little chance she was going to notice.

After just a few more minutes, Red-cap and his friends headed out.

"Okay, well I guess I'll head back over to my side now," Tara said.

Van noticed that she stalled just a few moments longer before slipping off of his lap and back over to her original seat.

They didn't say anything to each other for a little while, just sat comfortably enjoying each other's company.

"Okay folks," a loud voice suddenly announced, "we're just about ready to start our karaoke festivities for the night. If you'd like to sign up, come up here and write your name on the sheet along with the song you'd like to sing. We'll be starting in about fifteen minutes."

Tara snapped her head back to Van, her face reflecting raw excitement and ecstasy.

"You are SO doing this, Van."

"Eh, I dunno, Tara. I'm feeling kina tired."

"I'll go get you another drink then!"

"But you told me to switch to water!"

"Yeah, but that was before this awesome turn of events. You have a nice voice, Van. Come on, it'll be so fun!"

Van considered briefly, knowing that he had always had trouble saying no to Tara.

"Fine. Get me a whiskey sour and sign me up for something."

"Yay! What do you want to sing?"

"You know what I like, surprise me."

Tara returned shortly with his drink, an extra shot of vodka, and a huge grin. For Van, the rest of the night was a complete blur.

*

"Ughhhhhh," Van moaned.

His eyes were closed, but he could feel the softness of the mattress underneath him and the blanket on top of him. A warm hand touched his bare shoulder and shook him slightly.

"Van," Tara whispered.

"Aaaahhhhhh!"

Van writhed in his sheets, his insides feeling like they were coated in boiling acid.

"Van, you need to go throw-up."

"Oh, no, but I don't wanna," he said, still with closed eyes.

"Come on, get up. Let's go to the bathroom before you puke all over your bed. You'll feel better once it's over."

Van reluctantly rolled off of his mattress and headed straight for his toilet.

Ten minutes later, he sat on the floor of his bathroom, back against the wall beside his toilet, feeling relieved and defeated. Well, not completely relieved. He figured there was another wave coming soon, and knew that his headache would probably be with him all day.

"How was that?" Tara asked as she entered the bathroom carrying a glass of water and a plate of watermelon.

"As good as it gets," Van replied.

"You should swish with this water and spit it back out into the toilet, then drink the rest."

Van did just that. When he was done, Tara handed him a piece of watermelon. He just held on to, though, not feeling quite ready to bite down into anything.

"So how much of the night do you remember?" Tara asked.

"God...let me think. I remember going out to eat and having wings, I remember going to that bar, I remember the beefy red-capped gentleman who wanted to rape you...and that's about it I think."

"Okay. Yeah, you're missing quite a big chunk of the night there."

"Ugh...please don't say chunk right now," Van replied, still feeling nauseous. "I don't even have a clue how we got home. I don't remember coming in the house or going to bed or..."

Van trailed off and looked at Tara curiously.

"Did we sleep together?"

"What!?" Tara replied in what was close to a scream.

"Oh, no! I mean, did you sleep in my bed with me?"

"Oh. Well, yeah I did."

"Oh."

"This might sound really paranoid of me, but I was concerned that you might...die. 'Choke on vomit', to quote Spinal Tap."

"Such a great movie."

"Yeah."

"Well, thanks Tara. For everything. You must have taken great care of me last night, don't know what I would've done without you."

Tara looked guiltily back at Van.

"Well...I did take care of you, but I kinda didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you were actually ready to stop drinking and come home at a certain point last night. But then the guy at the bar came on the speaker and announced that karaoke was about to start, and I'm kinda the one who kept giving you drinks so you'd stay and sing."

Van thought about that for a moment.

"Oh yeah, I think I remember that. But I don't remember singing. Did I ever make it on stage?"

"Yep," Tara replied bluntly, suppressing a smile.

"What are you smirking about?"

"Nothing."

"What did I sing?"

"You sang 'More Than a Woman' by the Bee Gees."

"Oh. That's pretty high pitched."

"Yes, it is."

"Wait a second...yeah, I think I remember that now. It's kinda foggy, but I remember being on stage and singing that, I think. From what I remember, I nailed it."

Tara was clearly doing her best not to burst out laughing.

"Tara? I nailed it, right?"

Tara pursed her lips together and shook her head silently.

"No? Well then how did I do?"

Tara closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"How do you really think you did, sweetie?"

"Uh, five out of ten?" Van said hopefully.

Tara couldn't take it anymore and burst out into a long, tearful laughter. Van took that time to vomit some more. Around the time that he was finished was about the time that Tara had finally composed herself.

"So was I that bad?" Van finally asked.

Tara got her phone out of her pocket and brought up a video.

"Ah shit, you recorded it?"

"Duh. Turn it up nice and loud, now."

Van sunk lower against the wall as he watched his feeble attempt at belting out the high soprano vocals that the song required.

"Oh my god," he said as he watched. "I sound like a beached dolphin."

Tara laughed some more as the video went on.

"How do you not get the lyrics right is what I want to know," Tara wondered aloud. "They're written on the goddamn screen!"

Finally the video ended and Van passed the phone back to his sister.

"Oh well. At least you're the only I know who saw it."

"Hmm," Tara replied.

"Hmm, what?"

"There may have been someone you work with at the bar, too."

"What!? Wait, how would you even know that?"

"He leaned over to his friend and said, 'dude that's my manager at work'."

"Well that's pretty conclusive evidence."

"Yeah."

"He wasn't-"

"Recording you? Yeah, he was."

"Awesome."

Van leaned back up against the wall, perfectly content with his current seat. As Tara took his cup and filled it up at the sink with more water, Van suddenly became aware that he was wearing only his boxers. His first instinct was to feel embarrassed about it, but then he figured that was a pointless emotion since she'd already seen him for a considerable amount of time mostly naked at this point.

"So...you undressed me last night, I assume?"

"Nope, that was all you, bro."

"Oh. Well, sorry. It goes without saying that I had no idea what I was doing."

"No worries. It's just underwear."

"True."

"Now if you want to feel embarrassed about something, it should be the fact that your penis was poking out of that little underwear flap when you took your pants off."

Van looked at Tara in horror as his whole head turned a fiery shade of red.

"No, please say it isn't so."

"It be so, it be so. And you'll notice that I used the word 'poking', not the word 'hanging'."

"So, I was-"

"Like a lead pipe."

"So you saw-"

"The whole thing."

"Fuck."

They made awkward eye contact with one another sporadically during the next couple minutes of silence. Finally, it was Tara who spoke.

"Look, I know it's awkward, but really I'm fine. I'm not traumatized or disgusted or anything negative. It happened and I'm over it."

"Are you sure?"

"Totally. Especially since...well, never mind."

"Oh god, what now? I didn't try to get you to go down on me or anything, did I?"

"No!"

"Okay, because then I swear to god I would just kill myself."

"No, nothing like that. Well, not really."

"Then what is it!?"

Tara paused for a moment before continuing.

"We danced last night."

It took a moment for Van to comprehend her words. He had never danced in his whole life, not even when he and Mack were in college together.

"I danced?" he asked.

"Yes."

"With you?"

"Correct."

"Like...slow dancing? Line dancing?"

"No. We went to a club. Your idea, not mine, by the way."

"A club? Like a dimly lit room packed to the brim with college students and high school students that are pretending to be college students? With music way louder than is necessary and everyone grinding up on one another?"

"Yep, that's a club."

"So you and I danced in a club?"

"Uh-huh."

"And I'm assuming that we didn't 'leave room for Jesus', as they say."

"Your crotch was pressed firmly up against my ass the whole time."

"And my hands?"

"Mostly placed innocently above my hips."

"Mostly?"

"I may have had to redirect you back to base a couple of times."

Van literally could not remember a single second of this interaction.

"I'm sorry Tara."

"What? Don't worry about it. I had fun. I didn't know I liked dancing that much. We may have to do it again some time."

"Yeah but...I feel like I took advantage of you or something."

"Only one of us was in their clear state of mind last night, and it sure as hell wasn't you. If I had had a problem with anything we did last night, I could have put a quick stop to it."

"So how long were we there, anyway?"

"Just for like three songs. Maybe four? I don't know, all that music sounds like one giant EDM nightmare."

"Damn. I'm really shocked I'm the one that dragged you to go dancing. I mean, I believe you, it's just kinda crazy. I've always hated dancing. Well, I've never really been dancing, but I've always hated the idea of it."

"Well you seemed to like it last night, and I mean you REALLY liked it, if you know what I mean."

Tara stood up and ruffled Van's hair as the meaning of her words slowly started to make sense to him.

"Eat your watermelon and get dressed," she said to him. "I'm going out to the store to pick up a few things to have for lunch and dinner. I can't imagine we'll go anywhere today with you in the shape that you're in."

Van took a very quick glance at her butt as she turned around to leave.

"Wish I could remember it," he said under his breath, not necessarily wanting her to hear it, but not necessarily opposed to it either.

As she left the room, Van thought about leaning his head out the door to watch her go, but couldn't muster the strength to move enough to actually do it.

*

Later that evening, Van and Tara sat side by side on the sofa watching "Indecent Seduction". They pretty much had been sitting there all day, Tara getting up every now and then to get food and beverages for them. Van was noticeably irritable by the choice of film, but was still a little too hungover to do much about it.

"Meh," he moaned quietly, not really wanting to feel Jeffrey's wrath from hearing him complain.

"I know," Tara said, "but it's almost Jeffrey's bedtime. When he's asleep you'll have your turn to watch something."

Van rolled his eyes, feeling a slight tinge in his forehead when he did. He took a big sip of Gatorade and a bite of pancakes that Tara had just made for them.

"Oh yeah!" Tara cried out as she hopped off the sofa and ran out the front door.

"The hell was that?" Van asked, turning to Jeffrey for answers.

Jeffrey didn't so much as bat an eye. He did, however, finally drop a long line of slobber that had been hanging off the side of his mouth for several minutes. Van gazed at the goop sitting on his couch with displeasure.

Tara walked back inside, a box under her arm that was covered in red, blue, and yellow wrapping paper.

"A present!" Van exclaimed, purposely sounding like a small child.