Blessings Ch. 01

"Your best friend's trying to set you up with two incredibly cute eighteen-year-olds and you go all berserk. Oh, no, there's nothing wrong with you. Damn, Kev, I'm going to have to take Psychology next semester, just so I can figure you out." Mark started to rise from the table. Kevin stopped him.

"You're right, man; I'm messed up pretty bad." Kevin's entire body trembled. He wasn't sure how he was going to tell his friend the truth, but he decided he would just the same. "I've just, ugh..." Kevin rested his elbows on the table and massaged his temples. "I can't stop thinking about Mandy."

Mark's head cocked slightly. "Thinking about Mandy how?"

"Thinking about doing stuff with her," Kevin's voice dropped, "to her."

Mark mouthed the words "Oh shit." He checked his watch. He was late for class but didn't care. "What kind of stuff, Kev?"

"God, you know what kind of stuff, kissing and touching. And fucking." Mark's jaw dropped at that confession. "I know it's fucked up; I know it is! But I can't stop thinking about her."

"And this is something that's been going on for a while?" Mark asked.

"No!" Kevin responded, somewhat indignantly. "I've never thought about Mandy like that before in my life. It was my idiot parents who put the idea in my head last night. We came back from the theater late like always, and there was Dad sitting on the couch wanting to speak with me. He said Mom and him had talked about us a lot. He thought we would only be happy if we were together, so he gave us his blessings."

"Wait, your father gave you permission to sleep with Mandy?" Mark asked. It sounded sordid when put so bluntly, but as Kevin thought about it, that's exactly what he had done. "Did you?"

"No, God no!"

Mark cracked a slight smile. Kevin asked him how he could find any humor in the situation.

"I've always kind of wondered about the two of you. You do spend a lot of time together, and you never fight. I mean, God, sometimes I practically want to kill my sisters." Mark's smile widened. "Some of the guys joke around about the two of you."

"She's my friend; we get along; we hang out. That doesn't mean anything. She's my sister."

"I know that," Mark said defensively, "but, shit, she's incredible. Have you ever really looked at her?" Kevin had. He'd never gone so far as to overtly check her out, but he had noticed. The little peeks he had taken over the years had apparently fueled his recent fantasies. He had spent the last several years observing the subtle changes that shaped her body, the swelling of her breasts, the curving of her hips. "She's hot, Kev, and all the time you spend together tells me that she's into you."

"So---"

"So maybe these little fantasies are just your subconscious trying to tell you something. Maybe you've been blind to something that was there all along, something your parents saw. You should take some time to figure out what you want. Maybe you're driving yourself nuts because you can't decide if you want her or if you want to forget about her."

He could never forget about Amanda, nor did he want to. He never wanted to spend his Sunday nights with anyone else. For twenty years he had loved her as a sister. Now, he realized, he loved her as a woman.

The realization cleared his head better than the coffee ever could. Nothing looked the same as it had just a few moments ago. The world was bathed in new light. Thoughts of failure and isolation were replaced by a new sense of hope. He hoped Mark was right. He hoped she was sending him signals. He hoped she wanted him too. Kevin's eyes were open now, his heart too. He felt something for Amanda, and he realized he always had. He wanted to kiss those sweet, glistening pink lips in the dark theater, wanted to open the zipper of that sunny yellow cardigan to get at the treasure within. He wanted to tell Mom and Dad they were right, that Mandy was the girl for him. Most of all he wanted to know that she felt exactly the same way. He wished Mark well on the test and watched his friend head for class. Ignoring the pressure in his bladder, Kevin fumbled for his cell phone.

As he journeyed through the sparsely populated parking lot, Kevin nervously scanned the vicinity for eavesdroppers. He leaned against a random car, a dusty Cadillac. He thumbed through his list of contacts, stopping at Amanda. Her cell phone number was accompanied by a cute thumbnail picture of her making an exaggerated kissy-face. Normally the picture made him smile, but this time that face and those lips made his head spin. How will she react?, he wondered. Will she twist her tiny white feet in the carpet and shyly admit that she feels the same way, or will she slap him in the face and call him a freak? What if she laughs at me? Kevin didn't think he could handle that.

He wanted to call her, to hear her voice, but he no longer had the nerve. He hit the down button on the cell phone, and held it down until it cycled through his entire contacts list. It stopped on the last entry.

Kevin hadn't realized she was still in his contacts list—he thought he'd erased her. But there was the evidence, Cassidy Zenk's number accompanied by a tiny picture. He had forgotten how pretty Cassie looked, with that curly blonde medusa's hair framing her slim, freckled face. He hadn't talked to her in forever. They had been pretty inseparable during spring classes, and had spent most of spring and Easter breaks together. They broke up right before summer. Why did we break up? For the life of him, Kevin couldn't remember. Thinking about Cassie eased his nerves for a moment because he was no longer thinking about Amanda.

The calm didn't last. A young couple came out of the school. They held hands and took turns delivering kisses to one another's neck. The boy slipped his hand into the rear pocket of the girl's low-rise jeans and squeezed one deliciously plump cheek. The kid was lucky; the girl had an incredible ass, almost as incredible as Amanda's. Hers was the type of butt that looked great in jeans, khakis, or whatever. And shorts? If ever there had been a girl meant to wear shorts it was Amanda. Whether it was short shorts that left little to the imagination, or Bermuda shorts that demurely reached for her knees, Amanda's shapely backside looked great in them all.

A thought struck Kevin. She would be home right now, dressed for bed. When the weather was nice, she wore a long sleeping shirt that reached halfway down her thighs. Sometimes when she bent over or lay down just right, the nightshirt would raise just enough to give him glimpses of that incredible ass clad in nothing but panties. He wanted to see her, needed to see her. Dad would be in the living room watching Monday Night Football. Kevin could sit on the sofa and pretend to watch. It wouldn't be long before Amanda came downstairs to sit by his side. He could sate his sudden desire to see that butt. He might even figure out some excuse to touch it, a playful swat, or a pinch.

He knew he was perverted, but desire ruled out his better judgment. Ignoring all apprehensions, Kevin hurried over to his parents' house, hurried to see Amanda.

To be continued...