Rumors Ch. 01

Annie was up and running after her. "Marissa! Stop!" I heard her call. Ten seconds later, Annie was dragging Marissa back into my room. "Sit," Annie commanded, as she closed the door behind them. Mom and I scrambled under my covers.

Marissa sat at the far end of the bed next to the footboard, facing away from Mom and I, as Annie sat down next to her. Marissa whimpered, "The front door was unlocked..."

Annie softly said, "That answers how you got in. But why are you here?"

Marissa, trying to look at Annie without staring at her nakedness and failing, said, "I miss you, Annie. I miss my friend and I thought if I begged for forgiveness, I could be in your life again. I... I just didn't expect... this."

Annie snorted. "Walking in on sex? Seems to be a lot of that going around. First, me walking in on you and Gary. Earlier today, Tyler walking in on Shelby and me. Now, you walking in on the three of us."

"Yeah, unexpected," Marissa said, her voice quaking.

Annie said, "How about, instead of begging for forgiveness, you explain how you and Gary happened, then I can explain how the three of us happened, then see where we are? Obviously, we need you to keep our secret, so throwing you out in anger isn't really an option, now is it?"

Marissa sniffled, snapped a quick look at Mom and I over her shoulder, before saying, "There wasn't supposed to be a me and Gary. It was supposed to be the three of us. I love you, Annie. I'm in love with you, I mean. Gary saw it and claimed he could arrange a threesome. You, me and him. Only, he wanted us to get started, then when you showed up, he'd convince you to join us. That's, ummm, not the reaction you had. I never wanted you to be that mad at me, ever."

"Why didn't you just tell me how you felt, Riss?" Annie asked. "Gary wasn't getting in my panties any time soon and knew it. Any promises he made to you about a threesome were a bullshit line."

Marissa sighed. "He admitted as much, afterwards. I got pissed off about it, cursed him out pretty hard. Although you probably did a better job of it."

Annie took Marissa's hand in hers, realized it was still damp with Marissa's juices and raised it to her mouth and tasted her, making Marissa's eyes go wide. Annie asked, "Again, why didn't you tell me how you felt, a long time ago?"

Marissa answered. "I was afraid you didn't feel the same way about me."

Annie paused, before saying, "I do and I don't. I do love you, but I didn't have my sights set on you as a sex partner any more than I did Gary."

Marissa asked, "Shelby? You just mentioned Tyler walking in on the two of you."

"He did," responded Annie. "He came home a day early, surprised us, the sneak. That discovery led to the three of us getting together. Before that, becoming Mom's lover was a combination of seeking comfort after what happened with you and Gary and admitting to her who I really wanted."

Marissa looked back and made eye contact with me. "Tyler? You transferred your desire for your father to your brother?"

"How'd you know about Dad?" Annie asked.

Marissa smiled for the first time since I'd seen her frozen at the doorway. "You talked in your sleep one night, a couple months before he died, I guess. You wanted him to be your first, when you turned 18."

"Damn. Now I've got even bigger secrets to keep. I sure can't afford having this one slip out during a sleepover," Annie said, gesturing to Mom and me.

Marissa nudged her shoulder, saying, "Unless you're sleeping with me."

"Or you're here with us," Annie teased.

"Annie?" I asked. "What are you doing?"

They both turned to look at me, before Annie said, "Cultivating a golden egg, dear brother. You do like Marissa, don't you? I already know she thinks you're a hunk. She's 18 now, so you don't have that excuse."

I said, "Sis, I know her as one of your friends. Sweet and sexy, but we're really just strangers. Don't be picking out wedding rings already."

Marissa looked puzzled, as expected. She sputtered, "Wedding rings? Golden eggs? Can someone tell me what the hell you're all talking about?"

Mom calmly said, "Marissa, dear, in between Tyler walking in on Annie and me making love and what you walked in on between the three of us, we had a conversation about the pros and cons of having an incestuous relationship between Tyler and the two of us. During that, the question of developing relationships outside of the three of us, for the purposes of marriage and children, came up. I said that the golden egg would be finding someone tolerant of incest who could join us or at least let us continue occasionally. That's what Annie's referencing, although it's just as possible for you to be Annie's wife as Tyler's, if that's where your true feelings lie."

Annie said, "Mom, I actually pictured you and me as one couple. Our age difference and the semi-step-mother relationship would raise eyebrows, but neither one is illegal. Then Tyler and Marissa as the other couple. And yes, I know I'm being really, really premature in saying both of those things, since Marissa and Tyler would need to get to know each other a lot better than they do now. Even you and I have only been intimate a few weeks. Marriage proposals are still a ways off. Still, it feels like fate that Marissa showed up today to catch us. Then there's the coincidence that she's going to Tyler's university in the fall. You don't have a girlfriend at school, do you, Tyler? Just these 'fuck buddies' you mentioned? At the least, I would expect you to show Marissa around campus. Wouldn't it be more fun to be holding hands and snuggling while doing it?"

I blew out my breath, then said, "You're going to pester me all summer until I ask Marissa out, aren't you?"

"Of course," Annie answered, grinning. "What else are little sisters good for?"

"They have really tight pussies?" I joked, earning me a stuck-out tongue. "So, how about it, Marissa? Dinner and a movie tomorrow night? At least to get Annie off of our case?"

"Why not tonight?" she countered.

I grinned at her. "Tonight is for you and Annie to explore each other, I think. Not as much point in my seeing if you and I are simpatico, if the two of you aren't. We are ultimately talking about a foursome relationship, right?"

"Why not have that tonight?" Annie asked.

"You want me to have sex with Marissa before our first date?" I asked. "Besides, I think I'm pretty much drained at this point. All I want is to eat dinner and crash. Meanwhile, that's the second time you've turned a suggestion of one-on-one time with Marissa into discussion of a foursome. Why is that?"

Annie glanced at Marissa, before saying, "I'm not sure I'm completely ready to trust you with my heart again. You did sleep with my good-for-nothing boyfriend. That hurt."

Marissa said, "I did and I explained why. I'll apologize as many times as I need to. What do I need to do to re-earn your trust, Annie?"

Annie shrugged. "Maybe Tyler's right and tonight should be about the two of us. Maybe not sex, but reconnecting? Trying to get the friendship back first before we make it more. Your parents are going to be okay with you spending the night on short notice?"

Marissa chuckled. "With five younger brothers and sisters? They'll be glad just to have me out from underfoot, so long as they don't need me to babysit. Carmen's been doing more of that since she turned 16, anyway. Mom knows I'm going away to college, so needed to get Carmen trained to replace me."

~~~~~

Dinner wound up being lasagna and salad delivered by an Italian restaurant that also delivered pizza, the four of us chattering around the kitchen table like nothing momentous had happened that afternoon. Afterwards, when Annie and Marissa retreated to Annie's bedroom, Mom and I put on a movie, cuddling on the couch together.

The moans we started hearing towards the end of the movie proved that Annie and Marissa had done more than just reconnect.

"You want to peek on them, don't you?" Mom asked.

"Yes and no," I said. "Sure, I'm curious. But dating Marissa will be tough enough given that she's watched me fucking you, even if she wasn't standing there long enough to see me with Annie. I don't want to diminish the mystery further by seeing her naked before our first date. When I do, it will be because our own relationship has gotten us to that point, not her relationship with Annie. Does that make sense?"

"You don't have to date Marissa, just because it's what your sister wants, Tyler."

Chortling, I said, "Yeah, right. When have I ever been able to tell Annie 'no'? From the day she was born, I've been wrapped around her little finger. I think I've been in love with her my whole life. As I got older, I told myself that it was inappropriate to feel that way and suppressed it in the name of being a good older brother. Now it's out in the open, impossible to deny."

Mom turned on the sofa to face me and asked, "And what are your feelings for me, honey?"

I locked eyes with her and said, "Just as strong, but in a different way. You are perfection, Mom. Every girl or woman I've ever been involved with, I've compared to you and they have not measured up. Even Annie has flaws compared to you. Although her shyness seems to have gone away, it's been replaced by... an impetuousness that worries me sometimes."

Mom said, "Losing your dad caused a lot of changes in her. I think she was so in love with him, that losing him and then getting pulled into the foster case system just when she needed our support rattled her. I would have expected her shyness to get worse, but instead she's reacted by getting more optimistic instead of less. As you noticed, she sometimes doesn't look at the potential negatives of a situation to get a balanced estimate of risk."

"Yeah, but we were talking about you," I said. "I've always put you on this pedestal, Mom, loving everything about you. Like a lot of guys, I was attracted and had fantasies. Today, those fantasies came true. Yes, I love you and yes, I'm in love with you. I think the difference is that I don't think I'm worthy of you and I don't feel that with Annie. Does that make sense?"

She nodded. "I think so. I guess you and I need to spend some time getting to know each other better, too. Not just as mom and son who have idealized each other, but as real people. With flaws and bad days and turn-ons and turn-offs. For example, did you know that slapping my ass was a turn on for me or was that just because it was a turn-on for you?"

I answered, "I think part of me has always wanted to do it to you, at least once. I've never done it to anyone else. I can't really see myself doing it to Annie, either. She's still so slender, I'd probably hit bone."

Mom said, "I don't like it to the degree of 'spank me raw', but the occasional swat does turn me on. It was another of the ways your dad was repressed when we were married. He thought even that was sick. If I had gotten to know that before we married, I probably wouldn't have."

"Then I wouldn't exist and probably Annie wouldn't either. Sometimes things turn out how they're meant to. Like me coming home early."

"Why did you?" she asked.

"To surprise the two of you. Only I got the surprise."

Mom laughed, then said, "I'm glad you did. Are you ready for bed? I want to sleep in your arms. No sex, just body to body contact. I've missed that, since I stopped dating Gerry."

Gerry had been Mom's boyfriend when I was a college freshman and she had just become an empty-nester. Before that, Mom mostly dated during the weeks that I spent with my dad, both men and women that she rarely introduced because few of the relationships got that serious. She never had someone sleep over while I was there. Gerry had come closest to being the guy who moved in, but his job transferred him out of town before I got home that summer. He and Mom tried the long distance relationship thing for a while, but eventually broke up that fall, just before my dad died.

I turned the TV off and took Mom's hand, walking to her bedroom. I stripped back down to my underwear and she got naked again. Slipping under the covers of her bed, I lay behind her in a spoon position and Mom pulled my left arm over her body, holding it under her breasts. We were asleep minutes later.

~~~~~