Sweet Candy

Author's Notes:

Sweet Candy is a short tale of the loneliness that can be found within a family and the salvation that love brings.

I hope you enjoy it.

All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older.

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Sweet Candy

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Chapter 1

Greg loved to run. He ran to school every morning regardless of the weather. Even today's cold November air didn't stop him from enjoying his exercise. That's what cold weather running gear was designed for, after all.

His running tights clung to his legs like a second skin. They were lined with warm fleece and black with red and orange flames rising from the ankles to curl around his calves. He felt fast when he wore them.

Every day, he'd get his run, take his shower at school, and get dressed there before classes. This routine gave him strength, speed, and endurance. This was crucial for his role as the star wide receiver on his high school's football team. With the help of the quarterback's powerful and accurate arm, they'd brought the team all the way to the championships. Today's game would decide the state champion.

He felt especially good this morning as he ran the final blocks toward the school.

His mood may have been influenced by the previous evening when he'd finally been invited upstairs into his girlfriend's bedroom. It'd been the first time he'd been in the inner sanctum!

She'd called him over to her house as she said she wanted to talk to him about something important, but she'd dragged him upstairs to her bedroom the moment he'd arrived. She'd sat on the edge of her bed, spread her legs, and flipped her skirt up to show him the pretty pink lips of her shaved pussy. With an excited grin, she beckoned him closer. As he'd done for her many times during the nine months they'd dated, he knelt between her legs and worshipped her most tender and intimate area with his lips, tongue, and fingers until she screamed into the pillow she was biting on. As was her usual behavior, she'd flaked out for long minutes after, so he relaxed next to her as she recovered.

He'd secretly scoped out her room, this being his first time in her sacred chambers. He found it to be as girly as he'd expected. The few posters she'd had were of boy bands and some effeminate-looking male actors. He knew he looked nothing like them, so it made him wonder at her taste in men and how he fit into this picture.

Watching her eyelashes flutter, he knew one thing she appreciated about him. His insecurity hoped it wasn't the only thing.

When she'd finally pushed herself up onto her elbows to grin at him, he'd been prepared for the usual excuses, but she'd surprised him by getting him to stand before her so she could slide his pants down.

Returning from his recollections, he crossed a busy intersection, waving at a few friends sitting in their cars, waiting for the light.

As he continued on, he self-consciously grinned as he recalled how he'd almost fainted the night before with excitement. But instead of the oral sex he'd dreamed of, he'd been treated to a spectacularly mediocre hand job with a lot of tissues at the finish. Only the fact that it wasn't his hand made it possible for him to finish at all.

Still, it was progress. To date, Crystal had shown significant resistance to repaying his efforts with anything more than kisses and letting him feel up her lovely tits. He truly believed this was the beginning of her dealing with a penis phobia. He'd Googled her previous reactions to see what it might mean.

This morning, he had hope.

Then his mind took him to his encounter last night with Crystal's older half-sister Candace. After their fun, he'd been sent to clean up in the washroom in the hall, as heaven forbid, he use the one in Crystal's room.

Was it the inner-inner sanctum?

Exiting from the washroom, he'd bumped into the taller woman. Her long blonde locks were dyed a soft pink, which she used to hide the right side of her face. He thought the uncovered side was lovely, but he understood she was really uncomfortable about letting people see her scars.

She gave him an odd look with her exposed eye, so he smiled and said hello. He began to worry that she might have overheard their sexy time. Her look intensified as he waited then she surprised him by slowly pushing her hair back to expose the right side of her face. She hid this from everyone, so he was stunned that she was showing him. He saw the jagged and angry-looking scar running down the right side of her face. It started just above her brow, thankfully missed her right eye, and began again on her cheekbone to end at her jawline. Smaller scars followed the larger one's path down the right side of her face. He looked into her nervous blue eyes and smiled. She surprised him again when she made an odd sound and rushed off to her room next to Crystal's.

As he'd watched in surprise, he felt sorry that she'd damaged her brilliant brain in the accident that left her with the scars. He'd learned that she was highly intelligent before.

Greg ran through the school grounds and waved to Mr. Marcy, the football coach. The man grinned at him and waved back. Greg knew the coach was excited about today's game, too.

He greeted a few other friends as he walked through the halls towards the gym and shower room. He spotted Crystal standing at her locker with Heather, girlfriend to his buddy Tim, the quarterback, and Valerie, the girlfriend of Pete, one of the team's defensive tackles.

Crystal was a five-foot-six red-haired beauty who took his breath away when she smiled at him. She wasn't smiling as she talked to her friends, so he altered his trajectory and walked up to the three ladies, hoping to put a smile on his girlfriend's lips once more.

"Hey, beautiful! Hi Heather, Valerie!" he said with a grin, holding Crystal's eyes.

She panned her eyes down his five-foot-nine body, taking in his wide shoulders, slim waist, and powerful leg muscles, visible against the stretchy material of his running tights. The only skin he'd left exposed to the cold November air was his face, gleaming from a sheen of sweat. Her nostrils flared instinctively as he moved in for a quick kiss. He got a peck instead of the soft kiss he was hoping for and gave her a look as he pulled back.

"You're sweaty," was all she said, shifting uncomfortably.

He smiled uncertainly, unsure where this hesitation was coming from. She'd previously said that she enjoyed his manly scent. "I just ran to school."

"Then you should get cleaned up before first bell," she suggested in a clear dismissal, and he nodded as he moved away. He went over the brief exchange in his head all the way to the gym.

"What the hell was that?" he wondered as he entered the shower room. He pushed his backpack into a locker, peeled off his running tights, and stuffed them inside, picking up his shampoo, soap, and towel. He quickly washed his body in the showers, then his long, straight black hair, now reaching the middle of his shoulder blades. He rinsed himself and went back to worrying about Crystal's reaction.

As he dried off and dressed, an older worry resurfaced. When Crystal originally began dating him, he was overly conscious of the difference in the social circles their families came from. Greg's family, the Hughes, had a small software company; most of their customers were from Europe and Asia. Greg's dad did a lot of traveling to meet their customers, leaving Greg and his mom at home for weeks at a time. While that wasn't the best of situations, his parents were still crazy in love, so Greg felt comfort and stability from their marriage. Their business did well enough for them to be considered middle class.

Crystal's family was old money. She was the daughter of Byron Tafferty, the wealthiest businessman in the county, if not the state. He owned all the mines and mining rights in their county and the surrounding counties. The Tafferty family founded the town of Hampstead Hills almost a century before and had been instrumental in keeping it alive and growing.

Greg worried that one day Crystal would come to her senses and drop him for someone from her level of society. She assured him that she was happy, but that doubt lingered.

While they were at the community's apex, the Tafferty family had dwindled to just five members. At its head was Byron, the patriarch in his early sixties. He was still a powerful man and a cunning businessman. It was rumored that he had a cruel streak, and Crystal's tales of her father made Greg believe there was truth to those rumors.

Byron was currently married to his second wife, Missy. She was his five-foot-nine trophy wife, married just one year after the death of his first wife, Ellie. Missy was now in her mid-thirties and the source of Crystal's red hair and beauty. The eighteen-year-old daughter hadn't inherited her mother's overly generous bosom and ass, but she was a svelte version of her mother.

Kal Tafferty, now twenty-five, was Byron's eldest child. He was born of Ellie, who passed away while giving birth to her second child, Candace, who was now twenty-one.

The Tafferty home was an eight-bedroom mansion in the Oak Hills community. It dwarfed the Hughes family's two-bedroom ranch-style bungalow on Aspen Grove Crescent, situated on the opposite side of town.

From Crystal's stories and his own minimal interactions with the man, Greg knew Kal was a complete ass. He was self-centered, arrogant, and carried an air of entitlement. The man was coasting on his family's wealth and position within the community. He'd peaked in high school as the quarterback and was sliding into obscurity with a serious drinking problem. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who saw him. Greg was convinced the man knew it as well but couldn't find his way out.

Candace's story was far more tragic, but Crystal didn't like to talk much about her older half-sister, especially concerning recent events.

As Candace lost her mother at birth, she and her brother were raised by the household staff. Missy took care of her own daughter at Byron's direction. Crystal had slipped once to say that her father held Candace responsible for Ellie's death, even though she'd had difficulty birthing Kal, too.

The older daughter found maternal comfort during the critical years in the arms of the cook. Until Byron caught her doting on the young girl. The cook was fired that very day. This had upset Crystal as well.

Where Kal barely maintained sufficient grades to progress through school, concentrating on football and his social life instead, Candace demonstrated a genius-level intellect but was stunted socially. No one liked her, as her sharp tongue pushed people away. She was smarter than everyone and not shy about expressing that fact. Compounding the impression that she looked down on people, she was also much taller than everyone her age.

Candace began growing to her current height when she was very young, further separating her from her peers. She was always the tallest in her classes, and as cruel as children can be, they nicknamed her Taffy to describe how she looked stretched vertically. By the time she graduated, she was six-foot-two with long wavy golden blonde hair that reached the top of her ass. She hid her face behind her hair. Tall and slim with an hourglass figure, she used her home gym to keep her long muscles toned and strong. Due to her height, she diligently followed a maintenance routine to protect her back.

Despite how lovely she looked, she remained alone throughout her high school years.

Kal graduated and began his downward spiral into alcoholism. A few years later, Candace graduated at the top of her class with no friends.

This is where Crystal would stop speaking and change the subject, but Greg pieced together the story from people who'd been there.

The year Candace graduated, there'd been a huge house party for her fellow graduates, and to everyone's surprise, she showed up in a taxi.

Though she actually made an effort, no one talked to her, and she began to drink until she passed out on a porch swing. When she woke, the party was winding down, and someone had helped themselves to the money in her wallet. She couldn't afford the taxi ride home. Instead, she called home to get a lift back.

Kal arrived tipsy and helped himself to a few drinks before being asked to leave. The story was that Kal got his sister into his car, then roared out of the driveway, driving erratically. The next morning, the town was abuzz with the news that Kal had totaled his car against a tree in a ditch, and Candace was in the hospital in a coma from being tossed through the car's windshield. The accident left her with terrible scars on her face.

When Candace came out of the coma, she showed signs of severe brain trauma. She was no longer a genius-level young adult but a simple-minded child.

The tragedy of that made Greg's stomach ache.

The first-period bell rang, bringing Greg out of his thoughts. He realized he'd been sitting on the locker room bench stewing. He quickly finished dressing and rushed off to class.

He'd deal with whatever was bothering Crystal later.

Chapter 2

"No, Candy, you can't go into the maternity ward."

Large blue eyes looked back at the nurse and blinked. Nurse Hershey was an obstacle. She didn't like Candace. She was frightened by the very idea of mental disabilities. Candy turned to enter the ward again and heard a sigh behind her.

A hand grabbed her arm and tugged. Candy gripped the door's edge. Another forced sigh behind her. A harder pull that became painful. Fear fueled the nurse's strength. Candace held the door tightly.

Frustration flared. "Okay, if that's how you're going to be, I'll get Margaret. She's the Head Nurse, and she's going to kick you out of the hospital! You won't get to volunteer here anymore. Is that what you want?"

Candy showed her blue eyes and pouted but didn't let go of the door.

With an angry snort, Hershey released Candace's arm and stormed away. The moment she turned the corner and was out of sight, Candace released the door and quickly walked away in the opposite direction, leaving the maternity ward behind.

She only had ten minutes if she calculated this correctly. She slipped into the stairwell and rushed down two floors. She cautiously peeked out the door to ensure the coast was clear. She'd confirmed on her way in this morning that the hospital's security cameras were still down. She made her way to the door of the records room and used the key she'd made from the one on the custodian's keyring. It was a master key and would get her inside.

She slipped in and rushed down the aisles, scanning the boxes on the shelves with her eyes, looking for the date of the accident on the box labels. She finally found it in a back corner. She listened, but all was quiet, so she pulled the file box down then quickly flipped through the pages until she found her records for that fateful night. She took pictures of the pages and did her best to not look at them. She couldn't afford the time. She put them back, then pulled the file for Kal.

Again, she took pictures, trying not to look at the pages, but a number jumped out at her. They'd done a blood test, and it showed a blood alcohol level of 0.134. She froze for a moment. She'd known her brother was drunk, but here was proof. Proof the local sheriff's department had covered up evidence when they did their own test at the scene. They'd missed removing the hospital's paperwork.

She stuffed the papers back into the box and slipped it back onto the shelf. She glanced at her Hello Kitty watch and saw she only had three minutes. She retraced her steps to the maternity ward entrance and sat on the floor next to the door, resting her head on her knees. She took deep breaths and pulled up the saddest memories she had. The day the family cook was fired.

"There she is! I told you!" Hershey's voice rang out.

"Hush. Let me talk to her." That was Margaret's voice.

A gentle hand touched Candace's dyed-pink hair, and she lifted her face to look into the eyes of Margaret Stewart, Head Nurse of the hospital. The older woman saw blue eyes brimming with tears.

"Are you okay, dear?" she asked, her Scottish accent surfacing with her concern.

"My arm hurts," Candace said quietly. Margaret's eyebrows rose, and she gently rolled Candy's sleeve back. She had bruises from Nurse Hershey's overly tight grip. Clear finger-shaped bruises could be seen.

Margaret lifted the younger woman's chin and then looked her in the eye. "Who did this?"

Blue eyes flicked over the Head Nurse's shoulder towards Hershey. "She doesn't like me," Candy whispered in a little girl's voice.

Margaret sighed wearily. "Did you try to enter the Maternity Ward?"

"Just in the doorway. To listen to the babies," Candy whispered.

"Okay, I'll speak to Nurse Hershey. For now, please don't go anywhere near the maternity ward."

Candy opened her mouth like she was going to argue, then nodded. Margaret helped her up, and Candy glanced at Hershey, who was looking at her in frustration again.

"She's promised to not go into the Maternity Ward. Let's go speak to the nurses inside. I also need to speak to you about the bruises you left on Miss Tafferty's arm," Margaret said calmly as Hershey sputtered. The Head Nurse emphasized Candace's family name as a warning. The young woman might be considered to be mentally challenged, but she was still a Tafferty.

Candy walked away, no longer concerned about the nurses. In her mind, she was putting together the next steps in her plan.

She deeply regretted manipulating Mrs. Stewart as she'd come to recognize the strict woman had a tender heart. When she'd achieved her goal, she would offer her sincerest apologies. Not that she expected it to be accepted, but she understood it was required.

It had taken her two years to get to this point, as the plan could not be rushed.

She was a regular fixture in the hospital, and everyone who saw her pink hair relaxed and ignored her for the most part. She went from room to room with her little cart, offering books and games for the patients. Sometimes, she just sat and listened to the older people talk, letting them burn off their nervous energy and calming them. The doctors and nurses appreciated her activities.

She discovered people accepted her now. Her keen intellect no longer threatened them, and she controlled her poison tongue, so people liked her! It was a novel and welcome experience. Deceiving them began to feel wrong, but she had a mission.

Getting the master key had been difficult, but she had free rein in the place, so even the custodian staff got used to her poking around in the basement. They usually guided her back to the elevators unless they were busy.

They had a key-cutting machine and let her watch them use it. She knew where the master slugs were kept, and she managed to borrow a set of keys over a dinner hour when the chief took his snooze. Luckily, the room was noisy and mostly covered the sound of her making the key. She got his set of keys back to him before he woke.

With the incriminating photos safe in her cell phone and her shift over, Candace headed for home. There was a bus that would pick her up next to the hospital and drop her off at the entrance of her neighborhood.

As she waited, she glanced back at the hospital and realized she would soon not have to spend so much time wandering its corridors. She felt strangely conflicted by that. She'd come to enjoy how people opened up to her. The lack of connection she'd had her entire life vanished within the walls of this building.

It wasn't lost on her that when she listened more and spoke less, people felt more at ease around her. She recalled how she talked to people before, her harsh words and judgmental tones. This... experiment was yielding insights into herself she hadn't expected.