4-4-1 Guys at a Bar Pt. 02

Her eyes brightened up right away. "You think I'm a catch?" she asked. "Really?" She scooted even further off her chair so that my hand slid under her skirt all the way to her hip. I subconsciously held her from the other side with my other hand as well as I turned to face her squarely; she seemed to be loving the attention than being put off at where her brother's hands were. But instead of the refute I expected, she was holding my elbows. It was the first time she had let go of her glass.

"Let's be honest, Becky," I said through the pounding of my heart. Probably the vodka, hard at work. "You're beautiful, I love the way you dress, you're not stupid, and you're not mean. You've never been mean to me, that is. Not really." Sure, she and I have had sibling's spats, but we were always on the level.

"Sure, there are girls who aren't empty-headed and look good, but they're all back-stabbing, heartless witches. Not you, though." Smooth, Derrick. Award-winning.

The damnedest thing happened. She leaned forward, tits trying to spill out, and kissed me.

No, not on the lips. On the cheek, somewhere. Like a sister that had just gotten the best advice from her loving older brother. With one last shot of medicine, she hopped up with new energy and fucked off back to her room.

And here I am, sitting alone in the kitchen with a boner trying to scream through my pants.

Phone.

*****************

"Nice one, Dree."

"Go farnque yourself, clunt-stubble."

Dree took his second shot, and the ball bounced off the rim like it had the first time. Sam caught the rebound, giving Dree and himself a second go around.

Our game had gone on for the better part of two hours before Sam's girlfriend called. I think it was his girlfriend. He answered when she called, which was damn-near proof enough that's who it was. It's just that he never said anything about having a girlfriend and he slept around enough for all three of us, his own sisters aside.

The other two guys and I parked our tired asses on a bench to laugh at the disposed. But as though on-cue, my own phone started ringing. I repented getting the fucking thing ever since my mother gave it to me shortly after graduating. "It's for safety while you're in college, Son," was the excuse.

"What?"

"I wanted to... umm..." My sister. It's not like she never called me before, but that she'd come looking for me rather than pick up a phone. I was usually always at the college, Julie's, or one of the guys' houses, so I wasn't hard to find to begin with.

"Becky? Problemo?"

"I wanted to... shut up!" Someone next to her had said something smart-assed to her, but something struck my attention: She was nervous. Anxious. Jittery of voice. "I wanted to tell you that I love you, and that I really appreciate what you did for me last week."

"Yeah, sure," I said absentmindedly, trying to play it off for my audience.

The phone was silent for several pointed seconds.

"Beck?"

"..."

I checked the connection. Still working. While we're not on the level of some of the machines they have for employees of the Garden like Sam's and Dree's parents, but dropping calls was almost unheard of in decades.

"Well, I love you t..."

"...My friends told me."

I wasn't used to her interrupting me, so the shock of it hit me before the shock of it. Dree and Bill both marked out somewhat silently; I knew I was set to be in quite a bit of trouble that night, and we hadn't even established what it was my sister's friends had told her. Even Sam, who's girlfriend was outgabing into his ear on speakerphone so he could listen-in on my over-loud phone conversation.

"...Told you what?" I asked as innocently as I could, having to ignore my so-called "buddies" as well as I could. Funny how they had your back except for when a woman had you by the balls. Then you were their mocking-chain.

"About you. About me. Why you were being so nice to me."

My cheeks flushed quite thoroughly. Suddenly, I was wishing I didn't keep the volume on my phone quite so high. Too bad it didn't occur to me at that moment to turn it down.

Anyways, there's me, heart beating out of control, thinking a million different things at once. She knew? She was calling to let me know? Calling to tell me she loved me? That she appreciated me? She knew?

Wait, she knew?

How could she know?

Unless she doesn't know, and she's playing with me.

"Come on, Beck. Don't be..."

"You don't have to pretend. They heard about it from your friend."

I didn't even have time to think about it. The most deadpan glare consumed my face and turned to meet the suddenly-preoccupied, big-mouthed Bill.

"What?" he asked. You could almost believe he didn't have anything to do with it.

"...Derrick? Are you there, sweety?"

"Pffffffffttt..." Dree and Bill exploded together. Sam, still a bit further down, was pfffting into his conversation with some girlfriend we've never heard of. I almost didn't notice, for Becky had never used such an endearing term for me before. I honestly thought she was incapable of it.

"I'm here," I reminded my suddenly-very-interesting sister, but my glare of doom still reminded Bill he was in hot water. "Who told you? And what did whoever it was say, anyway?"

"Okay, it wasn't technically your friend, but my best friend heard it from this guy, who said he hung out with your friend's uncle's step-son's..."

I lost track at about that point. Wait, did I say "lost track"? I meant, "lost interest". While she was blathering on, I completely forgot what she was talking about. Yet another reason I don't have a girlfriend. The girls in this town, they have a sickness. Phones are a part of it. Seriously; there's a ban on children under the age of eighteen owning phones. You legally have to have a high school diploma to purchase one; they have licenses with pictures and your address and everything.

"So it's not really his fault, and I didn't really mean to..."

"Wait, Beck, what on Earth are you talking about?"

"It's okay, D-Derrick. I know you... like me."

Back on my side of the phone, it was getting ridiculous. Bill and Dree were just at the point where it couldn't get any better. They just sat there, self-satisfied grins on their faces, each word just more money in the bank.

"Of course," I said before they could get even more annoying. "It's my job, you know? What kind of brother would I be if I didn't..."

"...And I've been thinking all week long. About you."

That shut them up. Now we were in dangerous territory. Suddenly I was glad I hadn't turned the phone down. Sampson casually hung up on his girlfriend to shamelessly listen-in at less distance. Hell, even I was hooked in, hanging on every word.

"...And I wanna do it."

"Umm... what?"

"...Will you be home tonight?"

"Umm... yeah. What'd you have in..."

"Great." Click.

And at last, empty silence. Dead air. Soon to be a ringing nothing that irritated my ears more than the nonsensical chatter of a hundred high-school girls in the middle of class time.

What the fuck just happened?

And let's not forget my mates. Bill, Dree, and Sam were all as much in a daze as I was. Their faces all confirmed that it wasn't my imaginary friend I was talking with on the phone to feel good about myself.

"Good game, blokes," Sam said after the moment of silence. "Drinks, yeah?"

"Finally joining the club," Bill said before following Sam off to the bar, a brisk pace away from the park, "good man."

Dree threw an arm over my shoulders to help return the feeling to my body, and with his help, I got moving again. "Just treat her good, alright?" he offered while I wobbled off after the two others. "This one's your sister."

**************

Ahh, Julie's: Savior of my life, purveyor of delicious beer. "I'll has another one, pls," I said to the cute bartendress.

"Isn't that about enough for you, guy?" the cute pair of eyebrows wrinkling in concern for me asked.

"Can't feel nothin' yet. Gimme 'nother one."

"His parents just died," Sam said with an assumed visage of absolute sorrow and a pat on my hand. Everyone else looked at him awkwardly, wondering what hat he'd just pulled that bullshit from, but it garnered me another beer. I raised it in his direction before choking on it.

Things were still so fuzzy. All my life, I had wond... for the past eight years or so of my life, I had wondered what it would be like to have sex. Then I had sex. With a total slut. Phenomenal in bed, but only the first two or three times. After that, it was the fall-back girl. Then, the girl who wasn't a complete pushover like the fall-back, someone like Roxanne in terms of kissing ability, but not in slutitude. Then, it was the search for the nice girl. Nowadays, and by that I mean the last few weeks, I only see my sister.

Sweet, delectable Becky. Fantasy after fantasy starring her tried to make their ways to the forefront of my imagination, only now they dared where they had never dared before with the sudden thought that maybe, someday soon even, that I would, in fact, be getting into the same bed as Becky, and not for comfort during thunderstorms.

With each delicious beer I consumed, the fantasies got more wild. I didn't dare think about one for more than a moment, refusing to get my hopes up; but in came another, even better. After my eighth beer, it was me and Becky lying naked on her bed with the black sheets, eyeing one-another.

"You gonna be alright, dude?" Bill asked.

"Fine," I slathered. No one said anything back.

Huh?

I pulled my droopy head up to see why I was being ignored. Bill wasn't looking at me, he was looking at Dree. "Wussamatter?" I asked in my prime of championship linguistics.

"Dree's thinking of dropping out the club," Sam said with something of a snigger.

"Out? Whachoo mean, out? Thur ain't no out; whachoo talkin' 'bout?" After all, once you were in, you were in. It's not like you can unbed your own sister. Who would want to in the first place?

Sam got a sock on the arm; Dree had to order a new beer. "I donno, man. Just haven't heard from her in a few days. Been meaning to ask Mom about it."

"Whfoo?"

"His sister, man," Bill offered most helpfully. "Ivy. He thinks she took off."

"You think she took off," Sam corrected. "That lucky prick's probably just getting a week-long three-way."

"Three? Week? Wuh?" The alcohol suddenly seemed feel like little more than a few beers as the conversation's logic-o-meeter unexpectedly took a turn for the basement.

"You know, his other sister's new boyfriend. You know how tight them girls are."

"Huh?"

"Ivy's been gone awhile," Dree himself explained. "Maybe out with Holly after all, but probably not, seeing as she's been pretty 'handy' with Troy for the last week or so. Holly's new boyfriend," he added before I could get even more lost.

"So Holly's busy; maybe she's with Kairi. You think about that?"

Dree contemplated that for a while by staring into his beer. "I donno. I don't see her much. In fact, haven't seen her in about..."

"...A week?"

"Shaddap, Slam."

***********

I was home before I knew what hit me. Mom and Assfuck were home, but I avoided. Upstairs, shower. No, dizzy. Best lay down a while. Maybe even a nap.

************

...And then, morning. Hangover. Pain. Water. Bright light. Fuck.

The shower didn't take any of the pain away. Neither did the jug of clear goodness from the tap kept in the bathroom for upstairs refreshment. At least by then I was thinking a little more clearly.

Oh, fuck. Becky.

"Beck?" I asked at her door. Quietly. Mom and Asshat were still around in an undisclosed location. "Look, I'm sorry about last night. If you wanna talk or anything..."

How silly do I feel, standing outside my sister's door like a whipped puppy, still in my towel and (very masculine) slippers? Sillier and sillier with each moment, that was for sure.

Why wasn't she answering?

Now I feel silly and shitty. What the fuck was I thinking, getting drunk on a night when my sister most especially asked for my attention? I don't know exactly what she wanted to get up to, but it was still completely rude of me. And here I'd just convinced her that I wasn't a complete jerk like the other men she had ever met.

"Becky? I'm sorry..."

"Sorry about what?"

Fuck off, dickshit. "Help you with something?" I asked a bit more politely to my stepfather.

He stood there obstinately, waiting for me to explain myself or else finish my business with Becky with him still standing there. But I did neither; I turned to face him and waited with my eyebrows up, waiting for him to say whatever he was going to say.

He had nothing more to add, so he took his shitty brown coffee and departed for other known systems. I don't break the peace in our house, but that doesn't mean I tolerate any shit from him when he feels like being a nosy bitch. Never have. Since he married my mother and moved in, he started making payments on the house, paying bills, buying groceries and shit, which meant he had a say on what went on under the roof, so I couldn't disrespect him to his face, no matter how much he deserved it.

I don't know what my mother ever saw in him, or sees in him still, but I made it more or less clear that he's to stay out of my business, seeing as I'm pretty much a tenant that just stays in my room whenever I'm home. Just because he knows I don't like him doesn't make it worth it for him to spend extra time getting his nose into my business.

Still, Becky said nothing. I tried the knock once more, and still nothing. Best go about my business and wait for her to be ready to talk.

***************8

"So?"

"So, what?"

"Fuck off with your 'so what'; tell us the goods."

"Excuse me, do you gentlemen mind waiting another hour for my lecture to be over?" the inept professor asked.

Do you people want a quick summation of the sequence of events, or should I just say I got on to class with my nosy mates?

"Yeah, was it good?" Bill asked over the interruption. Technically he wasn't in that class with me, but he and Dree saw fit to join Sam and myself to find out exactly what had happened the night before.

"She never came home last night," I said in my indoor voice.

That didn't quite shake them off, but at least they wouldn't find out that I had fallen asleep before I could find whether or not she was actually there or not.

Still, I thought that perhaps there was a ring of truth in my little white lie. What if she hadn't come home last night? What if she wasn't even there that morning? But what kind of sense would that make? Why would she go through all the trouble to... oh.

A set-up. Get me on the phone with all her friends nearby, get me to admit I had a crush on her, invite me into her bedroom that night; then have a good laugh about it, still with her friends; when I started asking in a very meek voice why I wasn't getting any of what I was pseudo-promised.

Women.

I felt like getting drunk again, so I led the charge back to Julie's before waiting for the pompous professor to finish his lecture Sam and I weren't paying attention to anyway. Jess was clearly flirting with me as she served me and the boys; but then, she flirted with all the guys at the bar. On the other hand, my boys and I are the only ones that don't tip on account of our parents pay. Or Sam's dad or Dree's mom, either way.

I tried to ignore the flirting as casual noise. I was too disgusted with women for the moment, but that only lasted for my fifth beer.

***********8

"Fucking hell, five times?" Jess asked with marked incredulity some five hours later.

"Comes with the territory, baby," I said in a rather unimpressed voice. I had always had an eye on her, but it only just occurred to her to have my way with her. Something about trying to heal the sickness by injecting my semen into it. Maybe I was reading a little too much into my human bio class.

Why the hell would my sister do that? I thought we were close. If not close, then at least amenable. Not far apart enough for her to run me through the ringer like that. If we really were close, then such a joke might have been a friendly precursor to something nice. Not necessarily sex-related, but something intimate.

When the hell was she going to get home?

"You want me to walk you back to the trolley?" I offered Jess after she recovered from my last plowing.

"Actually, is it cool here if I stay the night?"

"Uhh... I donno..." It's not like I've never had a girl overnight, but getting caught wasn't pretty. She'd have to wait until the old asshole left before she could even leave my bedroom safely.

"My parents aren't being too cool right now, but I'd understand if..."

"It's alright," I submitted. It wasn't my favorite plan, but a little morning gnocchi wasn't terrible. For a moment, I thought that being walked in on by my sister, who wondered why I had stood her up for the past two nights, only to find me in bed with another woman. Part of me didn't want to look like the asshole who would shut her down like that. The other part of me wanted her to get the idea out of her head that I was some pushover she could pull a fast one on.

I gave up the sappy side of myself long ago. Nearly fell for it with Becky, too.

If only I was sure which side of the field she was playing on.

**************

A week went by.

************8

The news that my sister was probably dead was too much to bear. I want so much to go to her, but she hasn't even been found yet. Only the tell-tale remnants of the car they were in and a long, long drop down. It would take a day to get recovery equipment down that cliff.

They would have sent an emergency helicopter, but with the sheer distance down a grade like that, there was no point. Even if they did, a helicopter wouldn't've been able to rip through a car crushed into a pancake from the fall.

I couldn't think properly. Everything I saw was mildewy fuzz. All I could hear was irritating buzzing. People that I passed by looked at me awkwardly as I stumbled down the street to my house from the trolley station.

The parents were home. I had to sneak upstairs to avoid them. They'd hear the news in their own time. All I wanted was to fall on my bed and die.

I started crying the moment my door shut behind me. I couldn't make it to the bed; I collapsed right there, bursting into tears. Everything we had been through, everything we were supposed to do together, it was all gone. Nothing but wasted memories.

Still, the human heart persists. I got up out my bed, threw open the window, and stared out into the sky. "I don't know who's listening," I said in my cracked voice with my dry tongue, but being that whoever I was trying to reach in my hysteria would mind, "but my sister can't be dead. Please, I don't want her to die. Please."

Forever passed. I think about two hours total. I wasn't done feeling sorry for myself, but I at least wanted to sprawl on the bed so I wouldn't be cramped on top of everything else.

"I never knew you cared."

I couldn't believe it, but my heart did when it jumped clear out my throat. There next to me, in my bed, was certainly a hot figure. She must've been been in there all night, listening to me cry at the window.

A few quick hands searched to find a naked body about the size of my sister, with hair about the same as my sister's.

"Is it really you?" Brilliant line, Derrick. Smooth as shit.

Lips pressed up against mine. Someone I've never kissed before, but my body knew to believe before I did: My sister was kissing me.

"Any more dumb questions?" she asked. No mistaking that sugary-sweet voice. Those supple, subtle curves my fingers recognized from the faintest touches of long ago.

"I'm so fucking glad to see you," I said with the biggest hug I could think of.