I changed editors since I was getting a lot of complaint from the last one. Hope the new guy did a better job.

The day I left our house for the second time I was hopeful. I was hopeful that with a few days’ time everything would work itself out, and we could start to try to get past this major road block we ran into. That’s what I hoped would happen, that was not the case. True to his word, dad wouldn’t let Rita and I communicate the whole time at was at Chris’ house, not even for a second. She had to use the freaking house phone whenever she called here, and she had to be on speaker just to prove she wasn’t talking to me. Anything private she wanted to talk about had to go through mom, or one of the parents, or someone had to come in person. He made every full effort to make sure we stayed apart, even to the fact that he used two weeks’ vacation just so nothing cloud happen while he was at work. He was determined to separate us, and he was pulling out all the punches. To make matters worse than they already were, the three days he needed to work things out? Turns out he needed longer than that, an extra eleven days to be exact. He used up his entire vacation not taking a vacation. The whole situation is kinda funny actually. He took an actual vacation with all the parents to go on a cruise, then got off that vacation and took another two weeks’ vacation right after that, and spent the entire thing playing spy vs spy. I don’t know how accurate the dates are, I’m just going off of what Stephanie and Chris tell me since I can have no contact with Rita, which has been the most purest form of hell. Not seeing her or talking to her for two whole weeks was something I never planned on happening. I tried to go back after the three days, then again a few days later, then a few days after that, and after that, but each time dad would not let me in, he kept saying to go back to Chris’ until he “found a way to deal with everything”, but each time he said it he always said it in that same tone of voice, like he’s making no effort at all to try to deal with it. The most I’ve seen of Rita was when she looked out the window whenever I tried to come back. She looked down at me like she wanted to cry every time she saw me, like being apart was killing her just as bad as it was killing me. I’d look up at her as long as I could before I was pushed back to Chris’ house by dad. There was no way I’d be able to get past dad long enough to even give Rita a hug. He took my house keys the second time I came back so sneaking in was out of the question either. He had her locked up so tight there was no way I’d be able to get to her without him noticing, and it depressed the hell outta me. The whole time I was at Chris’ house I was in a noticeable funk that I couldn’t get out of. I put on a good enough acting job when Jim was around but other than that I was a killjoy, but no one gave me crap for it since they knew what I was going through. They tried to cheer me up most days, and it worked some of the time, but mostly I’d just keep to myself. My only bright spot of the day was when someone had a message from Rita for me, and that’s when they’d usually try to capitalize on bringing me out of my funk. Two weeks, two whole weeks of no contact with Rita. I thought about that as I once again sat on the couch that’s been my new bed for the last two weeks. I heard Jim laughing with Marie as they came down the stairs and I hurried up and turned on the TV so I could avoid tipping him off about anything. Jim was the only one out of all of us who still didn’t have a clue about anything going on, and I wanted to keep it that way.

“Hey what’s up Randy, so what’s on the agenda for today?” Jim asked.

“You know, watching some TV and some video games, it’s a lazy day today.”

“Ah, by my count it’s your third lazy day in a row. Having trouble adjusting without Rita?”

“You can say that, if she were here we’d have a million things planned by now.”

“I can’t believe you made it two whole weeks without talking to each other! I didn’t think you’d last a day! I guess I owe you that dinner, whenever you wanna cash it in just let me know.”

“I’ll use it on the day you make liver or something. You guys heading out?”

“Yeah Marie’s taking me antiquing, you wanna come? Please say you wanna come!”

“I’m standing right here Jim, don’t be such a baby,” Marie laughed.

“As fun as that sounds, Breaking Bad is on, gotta get my daily dose of methamphetamine on, but I’ll rain check you for next time.”

“Come on, it’s the new ‘it’ thing, everybody’s doing it, give it a try,” Jim said.

“New ‘it’ thing?” I laughed. “Ok, I’ll go if you can get Chris to go too.”

His face expression dropped. “Yeah well enjoy your show then, see you when we get back.”

“You go ahead and start the car Jim, I wanna talk to Randy for a second,” Marie said.

“Ok, don’t take too long… on second thought take as much time as you need, we don’t need…”

“Nice try Jim, we’re still going, I’ll only be a second. Get your butt out there and start the car.”

“It was worth a try. Who knows, maybe I’ll like it… yeah no this is gonna suck.”

Jim went outside and both Marie and I couldn’t help but share a laugh. “I swear, sometimes I don’t know what to do with him, but he does know how to lighten the mood.”

“Yeah, I actually laughed. I didn’t know my face could still make that expression,” I said.

Marie muted the TV. “So how are you holding up? I thought you were only supposed to be here for three days, it’s been what, two weeks? This must be killing the both of you.”

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. I had no idea it would be this long. I wasn’t ready for it.”

“Who would be? The fact that you’re twins must make it that much worse.”

“There’s absolutely nothing I can do. I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”

“This kinda reminds me of when Jim and I first got together. We were in our early twenties and we just started dating, he was always sweet, even back then, that’s what attracted me to him. The first three months of our relationship we spent every moment together, it didn’t matter what we did, as long as we did it together we were happy. One time he even managed to make going to the city dump fun, but that’s a story for another time. Anyways, something came up where he had to go out of state with his family for a week. He told me about it and I understood, things come up and you have to go with it, so I kissed him goodbye and wished him a safe trip. What I didn’t count on was how much I’d miss him. I found myself calling him every chance I got and thinking about him when I couldn’t call him. I didn’t know him leaving would hit me that hard. We spent so much time together that I didn’t know what to do with myself when he wasn’t around. That was the week I found out I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, and as it turned out he felt the exact same way I did. From that moment on we made sure we didn’t let anything keep us apart if it didn’t need to be.”

I listened intently to what Marie told me, and after running over it in my head again, something jumped out at me. “Are you telling me to go against my dad?”

“I’m not TELLING you anything, I’m just giving you my two cents. What you do with it is completely up to you. I will say one more thing though, I took that same advice, knowing the consequences of what could come, but I don’t regret it for a single second. That man out there in that car is the man of my dreams, and he gave me two beautiful children. He’d do anything for me and I’d do anything for him, someone like that doesn’t come around often.”

“So you are telling me to defy my dad, you’re just not straight out saying it.”

“Sometimes, parents don’t know what’s best for you, and it’s up to the kids to show them. This is one of those times. If you have to defy your father, then you gotta do what you gotta do. Ok, that’s all the wisdom I have for you today. Let me get back to this man outside before he decides to rearrange the car out of boredom. See you when we get back.”

She rubbed her hand across my cheek and got up and headed out the door, leaving me to think about everything she said. She made sense on almost everything she said, it was just that though, what she said is where the issue came in. If I were somehow able to defy dad what would the consequences be? Who would they affect? How long would they affect? Could it be forgiven? Could we actually cut someone out of our life that’s been there as long as we could remember? I know we said we would, but once we’re actually in that situation I don’t know what we’d do. Doing it is a lot harder than just saying it. While Marie’s advice was helpful, it really didn’t help me. All it did was bring about more questions that needed to be answered. I turned the volume back up on the show and tried to somewhat forget about my impossible situation and get back to Walter White’s drug problem. I was sprawled out on the couch for about ten minutes when Stephanie and Chris came jogging down the stairs laughing at what seemed like one of their inside jokes when they saw me on the couch.

“So is today the day you finally get that imprint of your ass off the couch?” Stephanie asked.

“Nope, I figure I have at least a couple more days. Did you hear anything from Rita?”

“Nah nothing man, she hasn’t been calling much lately, don’t know why,” Chris said.

I muted the TV again. “Dad’s doing it. He knows she’s relaying messages to you to give to me.”

“He’s really not taking this well. How much longer is this gonna last?”

“I don’t know, but two weeks is long enough. I need to figure something out.”

“Why don’t you come to the candy warehouse with us for a little bit, it’ll get your mind off of everything for at least a little bit, that way you won’t drive yourself crazy,” Stephanie said.

“Nah, maybe next time. I don’t feel like doing anything today, thanks though.”

“You haven’t felt like doing anything for the last two weeks. Come on you’re depressing me.”

“That’s because I am depressed. I haven’t had any contact with Rita in two weeks, I won’t be back to normal until I’m looking at her or touching her, or something, anything.”

“When was the last time you tried to see her, a few days ago right?”

“Yep, and just like all the other times, dad was guarding her like a prison warden.”

“He can’t do it forever. He has to go to work sometime doesn’t he?”

“He’s already taken two weeks once. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it again. He just got that promotion so now he’s one of those people who can get away with
not coming in now.”

“We’ll figure something out man. You sure you don’t wanna come with us? They just put in this new ‘build your own’ section, it’ll help you forget about everything for a little while,” Chris said.

“Nah, I’m gonna sit here and think. I’ll go next time I promise.”

“Ok man, we’ll bring you back some stuff, but you don’t get to pick since you wanna hold our couch hostage. It could be worse though, at least you still shower and everything.”
“Thanks. And since I don’t get to pick, try not to bring me back and sour Skittles, or the grape Mike and Ikes, or a bag of Hershey’s kisses, I really don’t want any of that, thanks.”

“Smartass. Just for that you’re getting the pink box of Mike and Ikes. Don’t wait up.”

They left out the door and drove off, and for the first time since I’d been there, I had the house to myself, but I wasn’t gonna take advantage of it in the least. I unmuted the TV right at the part Jesse Pinkman was getting into a fistfight with some guy. I watched the rest of that episode, but I eventually became disinterested by that point and flipped to another channel. Once I realized there was nothing on I wanted to watch I gave up and slunk back into the couch pissed off. I couldn’t believe dad was doing this. He had to see how unhappy he was making everyone around him, but it didn’t matter. He already had it dead set in his head that he was gonna put an end to us, and he was carrying out that plan with a vengeance. I got up and started walking around the house, trying my hardest to think of something, anything I could do to say to him that would help him to see it from our point of view, but nothing came to mind. I doubt I’d be able to reason with him at this point anyway. I didn’t know what to do. I’d been holding myself hostage in this house so long that I knew it just as good as I knew our own house. I’d turned down so many invitations from everyone trying to get me out of the house that I was starting to feel like a lazy freeloader now, even though they wouldn’t see it that way, it still didn’t deter me from thinking that way. Maybe that’s what I needed after all, to get out, even if only for a little bit, just to get some fresh air, or as fresh as air can get here. I didn’t need to do much, just a walk around the block or something. I couldn’t go anywhere without a car anyway, and I didn’t have a house key, so I had to stick close anyway, but at least I’ll finally “get that imprint of my ass off the couch” as Stephanie said, but then I thought about it and changed my mind. I sat back down on the couch and blankly watched XXX for who knows how long, until I realized that Stephanie was right, moping around on the couch wasn’t gonna do anyone any good, let alone me, so I might as well get up and do something. I went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and killed it, knowing I’d be stepping out into a heat wave, and grabbed another bottle for the road. I put on my shoes as I debated leaving the door unlocked. I gave everybody crap for always leaving the door unlocked, but here I was about to do it, but if I didn’t I’d have to wait until someone came back to let me in, which meant I’d be stuck out in the heat until someone came home. I figured what the hell and decided to lock it, if I was hot then I’d just have to be hot, I’d rather that than someone break in and take all their stuff. I killed that bottle of water and went and grabbed another from the fridge to try my best to regulate my temperature and headed for the door. I checked my pocket to make sure I had my wallet and my phone as I opened the door, and when I looked up, it all seemed irrelevant at that point. Standing in the doorway looking back at me was Rita, who had a duffle bag as big as the one I had when I left, looking back at me with a mixture of what looked like sadness and happiness at the same time. She dropped the bag and flew into my arms, and I was only too happy to catch her. She kissed every part of my face as I grabbed her bag and dragged it into the house, neither of us caring at all if any of the neighbors saw us. I sat her bag against the wall and cupped my hands under her legs as she wrapped them around me and kissed me like we haven’t kissed in forever, which seemed like it to us.

“I missed you so much! I wanted to die over there!” Rita said happily.

“I missed you too, I was so miserable over here without you it wasn’t funny. How’d you get away? I couldn’t even get close to you without dad being right there.”

“He had to go to work. He couldn’t take any more days off, he had to go in. he tried to be sneaky and take mom’s van to work so I’d think he was still there, but when I found out he was gone I threw a bunch of stuff in a bag and got out of there.”

“Does mom know? I didn’t hear you pull up.”

“Yeah she knows, she helped me pack the bag. I would’ve left a bunch of stuff I needed behind if she didn’t help me, and I took the bus here, well two buses, I left the car at the house.”

“I don’t even know how to get over here on the bus.”

“Neither did I, but I figured it out. I was gonna get here one way or another.”

“God I’m so happy to see you! I pretty much did nothing the whole time I was here.”

“I talked to mom a lot, but I mostly just stayed in our room. Aunt Lisa came back about a week ago, her house is finished so she’ll be moving back in a little bit.”

“You know dad is gonna come here looking for you right? I wouldn’t be surprised if he came straight here after work, he has to know you left.”

“I don’t care. I’m not going back unless you come back with me. I’m not doing that ever again.”

I held her up as we kissed again, making up for two long weeks of being without each other. Just smelling her strawberry shampoo that she loved so much was enough to turn me back into my old self. I walked backwards toward the couch and sat down as we continued feeling on each other in the middle of the living room.

“Are you the only one here? There weren’t any cars outside.”

“Jim and Marie are antiquing. Stephanie and Chris are at the candy warehouse.”

The biggest smile came across her face. She got up and hopped in my arms again, kissing me as passionately as she could while dancing her tongue around in my mouth. I squeezed her ass in my hands when she bit my lip and carried her upstairs and into Chris’ room. We went in and she shoved me onto the bed so hard I bounced off of it. She didn’t waste any time with foreplay or anything. Right there she started stripping so fast that by the time I took my shirt off, she was already naked and walking over to me like she was about to eat me for lunch. She walked up to me and undid my pants while looking me in the eyes and grabbed ahold of my cock and stroked it until it was hard, which only took about three seconds to happen to be honest.

“They can come back at any second, all of them,” I said.

“I honestly couldn’t care right now. I haven’t seen you for two weeks, the president could come in here and that wouldn’t stop me from fucking you right now!”

“I wasn’t saying we can’t do it, I was just gonna suggest locking the door.”

She walked back to the door and twisted the lock as I slid out of the rest of my clothes. I pulled off my last sock and she climbed right on top of me. Her pussy was absolutely soaking wet and looked like it was pulsing, begging to have my cock shoved in it over and over again. She hovered her face directly over mine and grabbed my cock in her hand and put in at her pussy, and then she let the head go in a little bit and put her hands on either side of my head, and dropped herself down until I was buried balls deep inside her.

“Oh my… yessssssss! I waited two weeks to be with you again. I don’t care what you do, make love to me, or fuck me, just please don’t take your cock out of me!”

I felt the same way she did. After two weeks of having to fend for yourself, it’s an amazing feeling to finally be back with the one you love. She was so tight, but she was so wet that I slid in without a problem. She lay down on top of me and turned my body, letting me know she wanted me on top, so I rolled with her while keeping my cock still inside her. I could feel her nipples poking me in the chest as she wrapped her legs around mine and her arms around my back like she was holding me captive, which I wouldn’t mind in the least, especially not now. I grabbed the top of the mattress to use as grip and thrust fully into her, making sure she felt the entire length of my cock slide into her extremely horny pussy.

“Yes, keep doing that! That feels so good baby, take this pussy!”

She moaned in my ear as I nibbled on hers. Her feet would glide across my ass each time I pushed inside her and she would let out a long moan that lasted for the entire thrust, and she would suck in air each time I pulled out to the tip, but she would always make sure I never pulled all the way out, her legs were there to push me back in if she thought I was going too far out. My pubic hair was matted down because she was so wet, and there was no doubt there would be a puddle underneath us when we were done. Chris was not gonna be happy with us when he got back, but whatever he did or said, it’d be worth it. She held my face in front of hers and kissed me, but moved her hips against me to encourage me to keep fucking her.

“I love you so much Randy! Never again! I’m never going more than a week without you ever again! I love you so much! I’ll always be your girl,” Rita moaned.

“You love me baby? You sure you love me?” I asked.

“Yes, I love you. I love you more than anything in this world!”

“You’ll do anything for me?” I asked pushing my cock into her sloppy wet pussy.

“Yes baby I’ll do anything for you, just don’t stop fucking me!”

“So you’ll walk to China for me?”

“Yes baby I’ll walk to China! I’ll walk to China, Korea, Japan, anywhere you want me to go!”

“I couldn’t help but chuckle that she took that all in. “That’s my girl.”

Rita lay there and let me slide my cock all the way into her and back out, just to slide it in again. She didn’t try to thrust back against me at all. She just took whatever I gave her with a big smile on her face. The only thing she did do was hold on to me as if to say I was never getting away again. Her arms and legs were wrapped around me so tight I barely had any room to thrust in and out of her. Luckily I was going slow and steady because otherwise we would’ve had a hard time getting anything else accomplished. I tried to roll her back over so she could get on top again, but every attempt I made was stopped by Rita every single time.

“No, stay like this…” Rita groaned with her eyes still shut.

“But don’t you wanna get back on top?” I asked.

“No, I want you on top of me. I wanna keep my legs wrapped around you just like this.”

“Trying to keep me from getting away again huh?”

“If you think you’re ever getting away again you got another thing coming.”

“You’re threatening me? Even when I have you in such a compromising position?” I said as I thrust all the way up into her and held it while grinning at her.

The look on her face told me she enjoyed the hell out of that. “Fuck! Fuck yes I’m threatening you! If you leave me again I’m gonna knee you in the balls!”

I did it again, but this time I made it last a little longer.

“And then I’m gonna tease you all day and then not have sex with you!”

I knew that was a lie, she’d never be able to do that, but I played along and went all the way in again, and I added nibbling on her neck for an extra effect.

“Oh god, yes baby, oh my god! And then I’m gonna have hot nasty sex with Stephanie and make you watch! And then I’m gonna order from Mikey’s pizza and
not get you anything, and then I’m gonna stretch out your favorite shirt, and then I’m gonna break your Xbox!”
She said everything she could to get a rise out of me, and it worked. I won’t say what had more of an effect on me, but it all made me lock her fingers in mine, break her leg grip around me so I had more room to move, and drove myself into her as hard and deep as I could.

“Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Yes! Yes! Yes! Take it! Take that pussy! Show it whose boss!”

I wasn’t fucking her fast, it was more at a steady pace, but I was still slamming into her with force so I know she felt me. She tried to wrap her legs around me again, but the way I was positioned she couldn’t get enough grip around me to hold me, so she willingly gave up and laid back and enjoyed being fucked. Two weeks of no contact with Rita had left me pent up, and not doing anything at all for those two weeks took a toll on my stamina. I held up pretty well, but all the emotion from finally seeing her and the actual feel of finally being inside her was starting to get to me a lot sooner than I was used to. I could hold out for a little longer, exactly how much longer though, I wasn’t sure. The good thing was she was completely content with me being on top. She wanted me close, and to touch me as much as possible and missionary was the best position to do that in, and I could hold up better in that position, so I obliged.

“You just don’t know how good this feels after two whole weeks of nothing!” Rita said.

“I think I have an idea. I haven’t done anything for two whole weeks either.”

“Three days. That’s the longest I’m willing to go, and that’s only because you get that extra toe curling feeling you get when you haven’t done it in a while.”

“What about if we’re both mad at each other? We still have sex?”

“Yep. I don’t care what happened, we’re still fucking. Angry sex is good for you anyways.”

“Is that what you’re trying to do when you were talking about breaking my Xbox?”

“I knew that would get you riled up. Even more than the making you watch me and Stephanie?”

“No that definitely came first. I’m not a complete nerd.”

“Liar. But you’re my nerd. The only nerd I’ll ever let fuck me until I scream his name.”

I dropped my body back on top of hers and she immediately took advantage of it by wrapping her legs and arms around me again. I fitted my arms under her back and grabbed her shoulders and slammed into her so hard our groins made the clap noise every time. I’d held out as long I possibly could. I only had a few minutes left, so I planned on fucking the hell out of Rita until I couldn’t hold back anymore. She let my back go and moved my face over hers so she could kiss me. I put my hands on either side of me and pushed off the bed a little so I could fuck her at an angle, which made me slide all the way into her with no effort at all. I went back to work pounding her, watching her tits fling up and down whenever I went balls deep into her, only to pull out and do it again and again. Rita closed her eyes closed and she was biting down on her lip trying to time when her orgasm was coming, I on the other hand knew mine was practically there, and there was nothing I could do about it but warn her.

“Rita, I’m about to cum,” I groaned.

“Me too, just wait a little longer and we can cum at the same time.”

“I can’t hold it anymore. I’m about to cum now!”

And I did. Not long after I finished the sentence I was painting her insides with my cum. I gritted my teeth in pleasure as two weeks’ worth of built up tension and blue balls erupted inside her pussy. I thought I would never stop. It just kept coming and coming and coming, and each squirt felt like it was stronger than the last. I felt Rita’s hands clasp around my wrists and opened my eyes to see hers locked shut with a straining look on her face, she was cumming. I guess one of those many jets of cum I shot up into her found its way to her g-spot because her body was locked in place and I could feel her squirt trying to push me out of her. Everything I was sending up into her was being pushed back out by her and drenching the hell out of Chris’ sheets. It literally looked like somebody just for no reason poured a bucket of water on the bed. Even though she involuntarily pushed me out of her because she was cumming, I wasn’t all the way done. The rest of the cum I had sprayed out on her pussy and her lower stomach before I was finally drained, and even through all that she still wasn’t done.

BANG! BANG! BANG! “Why is my door locked? Randy are you in there?” Chris yelled.

I was gonna rush and try to cover up as much evidence as I could that nothing was happening in here, but that was gonna be pointless. The smell is here was straight up sex, and like I said with the sheets earlier, drenched, there was no way I could cover this up.

“Randy what are you… haha are you beating off in there? You are aren’t you!”

“No I’m not beating off in here, that’s fucking weird to do that in your room,” I responded.

“Then what are you doing? What did you lock the door for?” Chris laughed.

I covered Rita up in the driest part of the sheets I could find and grabbed one of his extra towels from the closet, wrapped it around me and opened the door. “That’s why.”

I moved outta the way and let him see Rita covered up on the bed post-orgasm, and he went from cracking jokes to giving me props in seconds.

“Finally! And she got you out of that funky mood you were in, it’s about damn time!”

“Well her not being here was the reason for my funky mood soo…”

“Just one question though, why my room? Steph’s room is one door away from the stairs.”

“I don’t know man, you room just got picked that’s all. Consider it an honor.”

“Honor my ass, I know those sheets are gonna have to be washed like five times!”

“She only squirted a li… ok I couldn’t even say that with a straight face, she gushed man.”

“I already fucking know she did! I just changed those sheets too!”

“At least I’m happy again, that’s worth some stained up sheets right?”

“Umm, I’m not passed out, I can hear you guys talking,” Rita said from the bed.

“Good, thanks for volunteering to wash my sheets!” Chris said back.

“After that orgasm, I’ll clean your whole damn room! Where’s Stephanie?”

“Downstairs putting up all the candy we bought, and hiding what she doesn’t wanna share.”

“How much longer till Jim and Marie get back from antiquing? Do I have time to lay here?”

“Like thirty minutes or something, I mean now. They’re on the way now, get up.”

“Nope too late, I got time. You should be happy a girl wants to lay down in your bed.”

“When I can’t sleep with that girl it’s a different story, now you’re just taking up space.”

“She just needs a few minutes, for recovery time. It could be worse, I could’ve been beating off in here like you thought I was, and then you’d be cleaning up
entirely different stains.”

“No YOU would be cleaning that shit up, and let’s kill this conversation now please.”

“What’s going on up here? Randy finally got off the couch and comes up here to…” Stephanie said as she came into view and saw me in a towel and Rita naked on the bed. “Oh I see what’s got him all energized now, Rita came over here and put it on him didn’t she?”

“Yes I did,” Rita said from the bed. “I fucked him so good that I need a cigarette.”

“Damn I wish I could’ve been here for that. Fucking Chris taking all day at the candy store!”

“You were the one who kept going back for the same stuff over and over again!”

“If you would’ve stayed in line we would’ve left out twenty minutes earlier!”

“Man you guys can turn anything into an argument. Seriously, candy though?” I asked.

When I miss a chance to watch sex happen in front of me, yeah!”

There was a knock on the door that caught all of us off guard. Their parents definitely weren’t knocking on their own door, and they didn’t have anyone coming
over that I knew of, so we thought it had to be someone related with us, namely dad.

“That can’t be dad can it? I thought you said he went to work?” I asked Rita.

“He did, mom said he did and her car is gone, it might be her or Aunt Lisa.”

“We should get dressed just in case anyway, in case it’s somebody else.”

We got up and got dressed as Stephanie and Chris went downstairs to open the door. I could hear laughing so we knew it was somebody friendly at least, we just didn’t know how friendly. All our suspicions were put to bed when Steph and Chris came back to the room with Ashley.

“Oh it’s just you. We thought it was somebody important,” I joked.

“Please. I’m the most important person in this room, and you all know this!”

“Yeah, you look pretty important with those Minnie Mouse slippers and pigtails.”

“Important people relax too, don’t hate. But seriously though, how’s everything going?”

“Well as you can see now that Rita’s here, a lot better. We just got reacquainted.”

“I can tell, I still smell the evidence. You might wanna open a window and aerate in here.”

“Yeah that might be a good idea before the parentals get back, and while we’re straightening up, can somebody please take my sheets to the basement and wash them?” Chris asked.

“I got it I got it, all it is is a bunch of my girl cum you big baby,” Rita said as she took the sheets.

“A bunch? Damn I wish I got here a little earlier so I could’ve seen that!” Ashley said.

“That’s what I said! It’s like a gourmet porno watching them fuck,” Stephanie said.

“Why does everybody always wanna… a gourmet porno? What the hell is that? I asked.

“The real good stuff. If you having sex was food, you’d be that burger that cost $500.”

“That’s one of the weirdest comparisons ever, but ok. We’re a gourmet burger. Ok.”

“That burger is actually pretty good though,” Ashley said. “They drain almost all the fat out of it and clean it up real good, and then they put all the fresh lettuce and stuff on it…”

“Ok enough with the burger! Unless someone’s gonna buy it for me we don’t need to talk about it. Now Ashley, I’m assuming you had a reason for coming over here?” Chris said.

“Yeah I did actually. First I wanted to see if Randy was out of his little depression funk yet, obviously that’s a yes, and once I figured that out I wanted to see if you wanted to come over my house for dinner on Monday. Dad’s having his boring business friends over and I don’t wanna be stuck there by myself. Dana,
Carina and Becky already said they’d come.”

They aren’t enough? You need a whole crew there to match with his or something?” I asked.

“Something like that. Plus it looks good when you all come over too after the whole, you know. Dad’s in a better mood when he sees us all in the same room.”

“You didn’t have to come all the way over here just to ask us that you know, a cell phone would’ve saved you a lot of time and effort getting dressed,” Chris said.

“I wanted to get out of the house anyway. I’ve been netflixing the last three days. So how about it? You gonna help me out or leave me to my slow death?”

“Normally I’d say leave you to your slow death, but I can tell you’re gonna have some good food, so I’m in. Maybe you’ll have that $500 burger everybody’s obsessed about,” Chris said.

“Please, you’re only going because Dana’s gonna be there,” Stephanie said.

“I thought that too, and before you ask, Dana’s toes aren’t on the menu,” Ashley laughed.

“It was a dare! Are you guys ever gonna let that go!”

“Nope. We’ll bring it up every week just so it doesn’t get old.”

“So what doesn’t get old?” Rita said as she came back into the room.

“Randy sucking on Dana’s toes,” I said. “Apparently they’re never gonna let him live it down.”

“Probably because he looked like he was enjoying it a little too much.”

“What? How do you even get that? I wasn’t enjoying it, it was a dare, I had to do it!”

“You can’t fool me Chris, you made yourself look disgusted on the outside, but on the inside you were in heaven. You’d suck her toes all night if you could.”

“You’re outta your damn mind. Can we change the subject please? Enough about Dana’s foot.”

“No need to get all sensitive, we’re just messing around, big baby. So is that a yes for everybody else, or is it just gonna be toe jam and Earl over here?” Ashley
laughed.

“I don’t know what I missed, but if it involves food, I’m in,” Rita said.

“Don’t expect me to dress up or anything, not even for a $500 burger,” I said.

“We won’t even have those! Now I want one. I’m gonna ask dad if he’ll get them for us, and since he gives me anything I want, we’ll all probably get two.”

“One to eat and one to keep frozen in the freezer as a souvenir,” Stephanie said.

“I wish I had a little piece of the money your dad has. It must be nice to never have to worry about money. I’m not putting him down or anything, I’m just saying,” I said.

“I know what you mean, and remember he said if you ever needed anything just let him know, he meant that. My dad’s not one of those snobby rich guys, he shares his money all the time, donates to charities, everything, hell he’s still kinda cheap, I’m the spoiled one.”

“You don’t have to tell us, Ms. ‘five thousand dollars for a house party’ Jennings.”

“You only live once, and you can’t take the money with you, so why not?”

“Well since you got so much money to spare I’m gonna need a new car…” Chris said.

“Ok, but it’ll cost you,” Ashley said as she took her foot out of her Minnie Mouse slipper.

“Hell I’ll do it for a new car, which foot, the left or the right?” Rita said.

“No no no, Chris gets the foot, you have something entirely different,” Ashley teased.

“Hey now, stop hitting on my woman with me standing right here,” I said.

“I like how you said that, ‘my woman’ it makes me feel all tingly and stuff,” Rita cooed.

“Oh please, somebody mentioning his name makes you feel all tingly and stuff,” Steph said.

“Also true. But yeah, we’ll be there, it’s not like we have anything else planned.”

“Good. I was a little worried for a while. Ok, I had my little break, now it’s back to season three of Sons of Anarchy, just as soon as I make a little detour to the ice cream store,” Ashley said.

We all walked downstairs with Ashley and walked her out the door just as Jim and Marie were coming back. They exchanged hellos and goodbyes with each other and saw my uplifted mood.

“Good to finally see you in another part of the house Randy!” Jim said.

“Yeah I figured it was about time, the couch was starting to mold to my form,” I joked.

“I think it was another reason,” Marie grinned as she stared at Rita and smiled.

“Oh yeah that definitely helped. She came over right after you guys left.”

“Two weeks was getting a little much huh? Figured it’d come to an end sooner or later, well sooner. So you figure out where you wanna eat? Jim asked.

“Yeah actually, there’s this little tucked in restaurant called Café Stratos, I’ve only been there a few times but the food is really good, ask Stephanie and Chris.”

“I believe you, as much food as you go through I have to trust your judgement. When do you wanna go? Not tonight though, t-bones were on sale so we got one for everybody.”

“We don’t have to go today, next week maybe, or after that, whenever’s good for you.”

“How about we save a bunch of time and you just let me know when. All I ask is you tell me early in the day before I make any homemade dinner plans.”

“That’s fair. Is it just me or you’re taking everybody?”

“Everybody. Marie and I don’t go out to eat a lot as it is, I can’t imagine she’d be too pleased that when I actually do go out she has to stay at home, not a good career move. We should probably start doing that again. Why don’t you see if your parents and Lisa wanna come?”

That comment brought me back to reality, but I quickly regrouped and played it off. “Nah they’re ok, they’re enjoying their time alone. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went out at least five times already. We can take them to the next one. By the way, how was antiquing? Did you find anything interesting or did you hide in the car the whole time?” I laughed.

“A little of both. It wasn’t bad, but it’s not something I personally can get into, but Marie likes it so I go with her whenever she asks me to go.”

“Yeah after you make a big fuss about it and throw a tantrum,” Marie joked.

“Hey, that’s how I get into antiquing mode. Some people prepare by studying, others by researching online, I throw tantrums. It’s how I deal, and it works.”

“Big baby. Next week I’m taking you to the button factory, then after that, sewing club.”

“Neither one of those are your hobbies! Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because it’s fun. Don’t worry, you won’t be the only man there, I’m sure other wives will drag their husbands along with them too, albeit not willingly but nonetheless still there.”

“Ok. Ok. Just remember, if you do that, I’m gonna take you to every rib cook off, monster truck rally, bowling party, car show and hunting expedition I can think of!”

“That’s fine honey, I like car shows remember? By the time I’m done with you you’re gonna know the difference between white and eggshell.”

“You guys are funny,” Rita said. “I wish our parents joked like that.”

“They’re not joking. They’re actually gonna do everything they just said,” Chris said.

“That’s even better! I’m definitely gonna do that to my future husband! Maybe I should start doing that now, where do guys our age hate to go?”

“Shopping. Shoes shopping, clothes shopping, shopping for hats, glasses, any kind of shopping. Oh, and the nail salon, guys HATE waiting for us while we get our nails done,” Stephanie said.

“No, we don’t hate that, we love all that stuff! If you really wanna get us, make us go watch a football game, or take us go cart racing, or even worse, E3, we absolutely HATE that!” I said.

“The messed up part is we like doing all that stuff too, so it won’t be as fun, I mean it will be fun, but it won’t be as fun… you know what I’m trying to say!” Rita said.

“Ok. Well if you’ll excuse us, we’re gonna go get started on dinner, and Jim is gonna go try out his new gravy bowl he forgot to mention he bought,” Marie teased.

“I didn’t forget, I was gonna wait until dinner to whip it out,” Jim retaliated.

“Yeak ok, ‘wait until dinner’, yeah right. I guess you’re gonna wait until dinner to take that 18th century end table out of the trunk too huh,” Marie teased as they
went into the kitchen.

“I’ve never seen them this playful, are they always like this?” Rita asked.

“Only at home, when we’re out they keep a lid on so they don’t embarrass each other around people they don’t know, but yeah here, it’s constant,” Stephanie said.

“Speaking of people we don’t know, I gotta go meet that guy from Craigslist, he’s selling a computer tower dirt cheap, and just in time too, mine is fucked with viruses,” Chris said.

“If he’s selling it dirt cheap something’s wrong with it,” I said.

“I’m gonna check it, it probably doesn’t have a hard drive or something. If it’s something too extreme I’m gonna pass but if it’s something easily fixable I’ll still get it.”

“I’ll come with you. I know more about computers than you do, and afterwards you can take me to the store to get a new case for my phone,” Stephanie said. “You guys coming?”

“I need to get in the shower, these panties aren’t helping at all to hold in all this cum Randy left me as a gift,” Rita said quietly. “I can definitely feel most of it running down my leg.”

“Well you know if she’s staying then I’m definitely staying,” I said.

“Yeah I figured as much, I don’t know what you’re gonna do until she gets outta the shower though, you definitely can’t get in with her with our parents here,” Stephanie said.

“I’ll figure out something. It’s not like she’s gonna be in there all day, she’s gotta come out at some time, and she’s gonna have a towel on, so uhh…” I grinned.

“You JUST had sex! Not even ten minutes ago! What are you doing? Why am I even surprised? I said our parents are home and you heard whomp whomp
whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp! Go ahead get caught, but if you do, I’m playing stupid,” Chris said.

“You don’t have to… nope, I’m gonna leave that one alone, too easy.”

“I’ll go in there and tell on you right now! Don’t turn me into a snitch!”

“Alright man, we’ll be careful! Around you dad I mean, your mom knows so she’s cool.”

“He went to say something but stopped before he started. “Whatever, can’t win em all. Just try not to do anything stupid until we get back. We won’t be gone that long, then again, Stephanie is doing some form of shopping so we could be gone anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours, depending on how many stores
come before the phone case store.”

“Just for that, now you’re buying me new shoes, heels, at least two pair,” Stephanie said.

“What? You must be crazy, I know how much that stuff costs, I’m not buying…”

“Are you sure? I saw a red pair in the store the other day that’ll go good with the red bra and panties mom bought me from Victoria’s Secret the other day…”

He paused so he could get an image in his head, and then patted his wallet. “Fuck. We’ll be back in like an hour, I’m gonna go spend the last of my money on those heels.”

“Whatever makes you happy man. Maybe one day she’ll return the favor,” I said.

“I don’t think I can pull off heels, but you better believe when mom and dad go to sleep she’s gonna be modeling that shit for me. Let’s go now so we can be back in time for dinner.”

“If there’s a black pair get it for me!” Rita yelled after them as they went to the car.

“So you said taking a shower? I didn’t flood you that bad did I?” I asked.

“If these pants weren’t black you’d be able to see everywhere it dripped. I’m gonna switch to a bath just to make sure I get all of it, I wanna put on shorts at some point while I’m over here.”

“What all did you grab? Did you get any of your hygiene stuff or hair stuff or anything?”

I grabbed what I saw in my face at that moment. I probably left a bunch of stuff I need but I can go buy it if I need to, or use Stephanie’s. I was just focused on getting out.”

“What exactly did mom say? Was Aunt Lisa there?”

“Aunt Lisa is back, but she was gone to work, and mom didn’t say anything, but she knew I was gonna leave as soon as I found out dad wasn’t there. There was
a magical two hundred dollars waiting in an envelope by the door. I don’t think she expected me to not take the car though.”

“I haven’t talked to her since the day before yesterday, how’s she doing?”

“She’s good, I mean as good as you can be with the way dad is now. She’s been on our side since everything happened, her and Aunt Lisa. Oh yeah, they told dad about that, he’s a lot more accepting of them since he thinks it happened a long time ago, but us, he’s still set on breaking us up. He’s not as mad as he was but he still didn’t change his mind.”

“We should probably go upstairs before we talk too loud,” I said as I grabbed her bag and took it up to Stephanie’s room. “It looks like we’re gonna be here a while. You should’ve took the car, I didn’t because I wanted you to still get around, not be on the bus.”

“I’m a big girl, I figured it out. I left the car because I didn’t want him using it against us.”

“Well it’s done now, I’m just glad you’re here. Nothing is the same without you.”

“That’s how I felt. I’ll stay here as long as I need to. I’m not going back unless you come back too. Once he sees me gone I already know he’s gonna come straight here.”

“Yeah, but he’s not gonna cause a scene here, and even if he does, it’s still not gonna change anything. He’s not gonna make us suffer anymore while he sits and thinks about it.”
She smiled at me and then grabbed my face and kissed me. “Thanks again for standing up for us the way you did that day. I know how hard it was to say that to dad.”
“I had to say it though. I can’t be scared to stand up for us, not even to dad.”

“If Jim and Marie weren’t here I swear you’d be fucking the shit outta me right now, but, we gotta be good, so I’m just gonna rub your cock a little bit.”

She did just that and stroked my cock until I got hard, and for a minute it looked like she was about to force me out of my pants until we heard someone climbing the stairs, so she backed off. She jumped up and fumbled through her bag like she was looking for something to take out to play it off when Jim turned the corner and came into the room.

“Here you are. I didn’t expect you to be here Rita but you’re always welcome. I came up to see if you like seafood? It’s gonna be a fish and chips, salmon, crab legs kinda night, and I wanna make sure I have an alternative if that’s not something you eat,” Jim said.

“Seafood is good. We haven’t really had it in a while, but now’s as good a time as any to get back started on it. It’ll actually be a nice change from all the meat,” Rita responded.

“Perfect. I know Randy can go through a whole sitting by himself, and seeing as you eat just like him I might a well cook the whole bag of crab legs just to be safe.”

“You don’t have to cook up all your food for us. We can cut back if there won’t be enough.”

“Oh there’s plenty, don’t worry about that. It’s all been in the freezer so long it’s closer to the expiration date than the date I bought it on, you two being here is the perfect time to make it.”

“Glad to know our oversized appetites can be of some help,” I joked.

“Now if I can just get you to eat the liver and Lima beans…”

“That’s a definite pass. That’ll be the day we go out to eat. I can’t even think about liver!”

“Well it was worth a shot. Food won’t be ready for about an hour or so, so if you need to make any runs or anything do it now, seafood is best right after its finished cooking.”

“I’m gonna take a bath, I feel grimy from the heat outside,” Rita said.

“I’ll play a video game or something. That’ll definitely pass time quicker,” I said.

“Definitely back to your old self. It’s a good thing you came over when you did Rita, he hasn’t picked up a video game controller in over a week, it was getting pretty bad,” Jim said.

“Yeah I sensed he needed me, twin intuition, it never fails.”

“I bet. Are Stephanie and Chris still here or did they step out?”

“Chris went to check out a computer tower and Stephanie went with him to get a phone case, but she said something about shopping so who knows when they’ll be back.”

“I’ll call them. There’s nothing worse than soggy seafood. Maybe I’ll be able to shave a couple hours off Stephanie’s shop time and give Chris a break in the process. Back to the kitchen.”

Jim went back downstairs and Rita pulled out a change of clothes. It took her a while to find a matching set since she grabbed whatever she could so she could
hurry up and leave.

“I guess I’m on my own in the tub this time, too risky with Jim here,” Rita said.

“It’s ok. It’ll be nice to relax in the whole tub by yourself. I’ll get in with you next time.”

“You promise?” she asked flashing me her bright blue eyes.

“I promise.”

She checked and made sure the hallway was clear and gave me a kiss that lasted longer than I expected, but I wasn’t complaining in the least. “See you when I get out.”

She went to the bathroom and I went to Chris’ room and cut on his Xbox. Assassins Creed looked like a good choice to kill some time with, so I started it up and continued from Chris’ last save point. I was a little farther than he was on my game back at home, so I caught him up to where I was at and left it there. I didn’t wanna get too far on his save and have to do it again on mine. Twenty something minutes had passed since I started playing, and Stephanie and Chris were still gone, Rita was still taking a bath, and Jim and Marie were still cooking. Everyone was in their own worlds and I was stuck figuring out what to do. I didn’t wanna play on Chris’ profile too much, so that cut out games, and I’d had enough of watching TV for now, so that was out too. I walked downstairs and outside to see if I could see anything insight that caught my eye, but nothing excited me, so I sat down in the chair on the porch and just looked out into traffic. To my surprise, just sitting there looking at everything going on outside was kinda relaxing. The chair was comfortable and the sounds of kids playing, cars driving past, and people talking seemed to put me in sort of a content mode. I sat there enjoying myself, more in that moment than all of the last two weeks combined. I was so content that I sort of fell into a trans, and I almost didn’t notice the car pulling up into their driveway. Right away I noticed it was dad’s car, which shook me from my relaxed state, but once I saw mom behind the wheel I relaxed again. She got out wearing a yellow sundress with matching sandals and her hair let down. If you didn’t know her it’d be hard to tell she had kids, or was in her thirties. She walked up and immediately held out her arms for a hug, and I greeted her with open arms.

“Oh my baby! It’s so good to see you! How are you doing over here?” mom asked.

“It’s good to see you too mom, and to tell the truth, I was pretty miserable until Rita came.”

“I kinda thought so, Rita was a mess too. Your father wouldn’t give her any privacy.”

“Yeah she told me. She’s upstairs enjoying some now in the bath. So how are you doing?”

“I’m ok. It’d be a lot better if my house wasn’t in shambles,” she said as she sat down.

“Is dad making your life hell too? Did you ever have that ‘talk’ or whatever?”

“We did, but it didn’t help much. He still thinks Lisa and I haven’t done anything since we were young, so he’s a little more accepting of that part, but with you two, he’s not budging.”

“I figured as much. I never expected him to change his mind after three days, well two weeks.”

“Only two weeks? It seems like it was way longer than that back at the house.”

“Here too. I was bringing the mood here down so bad I thought they were gonna kick me out too. I didn’t wanna do anything, no video games, no going out, no movie nights, nothing.”

“It’s amazing how situations can change at the drop of a hat.”

“Or a picture. I can’t believe we were that careless and just left it out like that.”

“He was gonna know sooner or later. The way he found out could’ve been better, yeah, but he would’ve had the same reaction weeks, or even months later when you told him.”

“That’s true. I just wish he’d see it from our view. This isn’t a phase, we’re not just gonna stop seeing each other. All he’s doing is causing a rift between us and him.”

“Listen to me for a second, I’m not agreeing with him, but look at it from his view too. His kids, his son, and his daughter, who by the way can do no wrong in his eyes, are sleeping with each other. That’s a big pill for anyone to swallow. It’s in his mind that incest is completely illegal, and you know your father, once something gets in his head, it’s there, there’s no taking it out. He may never accept what you two are doing, which is gonna drastically change all of our lives.”

“Why not? What did he say when you tried to talk to him?”

“I hate to say it, but for every argument I made, he had a rebuttal. I couldn’t get through to him at all. It always came back to it being illegal and he won’t have it from his kids.”

I sat quietly for a second. “There really is no way to fix this is there?”

“It doesn’t look good, but there’s always something that can be done, we just haven’t thought of it yet. Even as bleak as this situation is there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

“You’re a lot more optimistic than I am right now. I don’t see any solution to this.”

Mom suddenly got this stern look on her face. “What kind of thinking is that? I didn’t raise you to just throw in the towel when things get hard! This is a life altering decision you’re in right now, giving up is the last thing you should be doing right now!”

“I’m not giving up. I’m just saying it looks like an impossible situation.”

“So did waking up from a two month coma after being shot twice and cracking your head open on the ground, but you made it through that without a problem.
After going through something like that you can get through anything, am I right? AM I RIGHT?”

“Yes mom you’re right. I can definitely get through this, we can get through this in one piece, the question is, what are we willing to give up to get through it?”

“That’s the million dollar question right there. That is entirely up to you and Rita.”

“Us going against dad could mean we won’t see you for a long time mom…”

“I know, but if that’s what has to be done then there’s nothing I can do about it. I won’t let my missing you stand in the way of my children’s happiness. If anything, it’ll make the times that we do get together that much more special, even if your dad isn’t a part of it.”

“Is this the same talk you had with Rita while she was still at the house?”

“Basically yeah, but hers was spread out over a period of days, yours was condensed into the short version. Her initial reaction was a little different than yours.
She was all set to move on with her life without your father if he couldn’t accept you and her. She wasn’t gonna chance losing you with anything, which is the same thinking you should have right now.”

“That’s the only thinking I have. If it comes down to it my choice will be Rita every single time. I was just trying to save our relationship with dad in the process. It’s hard to just throw away a lifetime because of one decision, but if we have to do it, then we just have to do it.”

She grabbed my head and kissed my forehead. “That’s my boy. That’s what I wanna hear.”

“No matter what though, we’re keeping in constant contact with you and Aunt Lisa.”

“Oh that’s definitely a given. You can’t get rid of either of us that easy. Oh that reminds me, when you see Rita give her this, i took it back from your father this morning.”

She handed me Rita’s cell phone, which had all kinds of smears on it, probably from trying to guess Rita’s password. “Can you imagine if he saw the pictures she had in here?”

“I don’t even want to. It’s a good thing he didn’t though. He ran the battery out trying to get into that phone, but I charged it up before I left. It’s not a full battery, but it’s something.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate it no matter what it’s on. There’s three things you never take from a girl; love, her phone, and her coffee, and we haven’t been to Starbucks yet.”

Mom couldn’t help but laugh. “The list is a little longer than that, but those are definitely at the top of the list. You finally started paying attention to what I’ve been saying.”

“I always listen to what you say, you’re my mom, who better to look after me than my mom?”

“Exactly. Nobody. And if somebody tells you different they’re lying.”

“Ashley might have a slightly different opinion if everything she said about her mom is true.”

“She has her own mommy and daddy issues, let her work them out. You have enough on your plate as is. Ok, I wish I could stay a little longer, but I should be getting back. I told your father I was running to the store, he’ll probably be calling the house to see if I’m back.”

“Aww come on, you sure you can’t stay just a little bit longer?”

“I would if I could. I don’t wanna cause any more problems than there already are.”

“Ok. Well tell Aunt Lisa I said hi when you see her. Tell dad I said hi too.”

“Ok honey. He might not say hi back but I’ll definitely tell him.”

I stood up and got a hug from her, which lasted longer than our usual hugs, but was just as genuine, so genuine she didn’t even try anything with me, she just accepted the hug.

“You know your father is gonna come here as soon as he discovers Rita gone right?”

“I know. We’re prepared for it. He can’t drag her back to the house or anything.”

“But he could come and make a scene. It won’t look good in front of Jim and Marie.”

“I know it’s easier said than done, but can you try to stop him from coming?”

“Yeah, definitely easier said than done. I can try, but I can’t promise anything.”

“That’s good enough for me. Come by again when you get a chance please mom?”

“I’ll be doing a lot of store runs this week,” she winked. “See you later honey. Tell Rita I said hi, and if your father does come by, try to avoid him if you can.”

“I’ll try, but you know how that’s gonna work out. See you later mom.”

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and got in the car and drove off. I sat back down in the chair and stared out into the street before realizing I had Rita’s phone in my hand. I went back into the house and upstairs to take it to her, but knocked on the bathroom door to be safe.

“Rita, mom came by, she dropped your phone off, I’m coming in, be decent,” I said.

I opened the door and walked in. She was staring at me with a grin on her face. She made no attempt to cover herself up, not even a little bit. “Was that little act for Jim?” she giggled.

“Yeah,” I said as I stepped in and closed the door. “Just in case he’s in his room or something.”

She dried her hands off and I handed her the phone. “I haven’t seen this is so long I’m not sure if I remember how to use it, but I’m glad I finally got it back.”

“Mom stopped by to warn us about dad coming over, but I told her we already knew.”

“He can come all he wants, I’m not going back with him, not without you.”

“I think he already knows that, but it still won’t stop him from trying.”

“For what good it’ll do. He has a better chance of becoming president than getting me back.”

“So how much longer you got in there? All your bubbles are starting to disappear.”

“I have a good little while left. Their hot water lasts longer than ours does. I still have around thirty minutes of it left. Why, you getting lonely out there without me?”

“A little bit, but it is kinda relaxing sitting on the front porch by myself, at least now it is.”

“I’ll be out soon, then we can both relax out there together, well once my hair dries.”

“Let me get outta here before Jim just happens to walk by and gets suspicious.”

“Don’t go too far, I might need your help with something,” she teased as I left the bathroom.

I went back downstairs and back to the porch to sit in my now new favorite seat. I could smell all the seafood Jim and Marie were cooking as I breezed through the living room and out the door, and it smelled pretty damn good. Stephanie and Chris still haven’t gotten back yet, and if what Jim said about soggy seafood was true then Chris better pull Stephanie outta the store and get back here. My phone beeped and I checked it to see I had a message from Rita. I guess she figured out how to use her phone after all. I opened the message to see a picture of her from the neck down with bubbles splayed in different areas on her body and her foot turning the hot water knob and a caption that read “something to help you relax” with a wink face at the end. It was definitely a hot picture. It was even hotter because I was able to keep it since it didn’t have her face in it. She was so good at taking sexy pictures without trying. I saved it to my gallery and enlarged it to full screen and stared at it for a while. The girl with this perfect body was head over heels in love with me, just as I was with her. We were at this critical part in our life where every decision we made affected our future, and thanks to mom reassuring me, I was gonna make sure that every decision we did make involved us still being together, no matter what. I was torn from the picture by the sound of a car approaching really close, and I looked up to see Stephanie and Chris pulling back into the driveway. Chris got out with the computer tower and Stephanie with a small bag and two big bags from clothes stores.

“SO, find anything good?” I asked as they walked up to the porch.

“As you can see, Steph spent unnecessary money at the store as usual,” Chris teased.

“You won’t be saying that when you see me in this ‘unnecessary’ stuff,” Steph replied.

“We’ll see. There’s nothing wrong with the tower, the guy builds them from scratch with a bunch of parts he finds and sells them. This one is a really good one.”

“If they’re that good I should go get me one for the heck of it.”

“Might as well, they’re cheap and well put together. So is this your new spot, the porch?”

“Only until Rita gets outta the tub. I was out here talking to my mom.”

“She came over? What did she say? And why the hell is Rita still in the tub?”

“She was basically confirming what we already knew, that it’s gonna be like this for a while, but we have to stick it out, no matter what. And Rita’s still in the tub because apparently your hot water lasts way longer than ours and she’s taking full advantage of it.”

“It does last a long time though, I should go take me a bath when she’s done,” Steph said.

“Yeah that won’t be happening for at least an hour after she gets out. She got in like five minutes after you guys left and she’s been in ever since.”

Before anyone could respond the front door opened and Rita poked her head out as she hid her towel wrapped body behind the wall. “What’s everybody doing out here?”

“We just got back. Did you use up all the hot water?” Stephanie asked.

“Maybe. I’m sorry! It felt too good to get out. I didn’t know you wanted to take a bath too.”

“It’s ok. I’ll just take one later. I wanna try on this stuff I bought anyway.”

“Don’t you wanna take a bath first before you put on new underwear?” I asked.

“So you’re just gonna ruin it for me? Fine, I’ll wait until the hot water comes back twenty years from now. At least we got back in time for dinner right?”

“Yeah, they’re almost done. Before we go eat I wanna talk to you guys about something first. I have a suggestion that might be crazy, but it just might work.”

“What’s it about? Oh, dumbass question Chris,” Chris said to himself.

“Yeah, let’s go to your room while we still have a few minutes before dinner.”

Rita and Stephanie went to Stephanie’s room to get dressed and Chris and I waited in his room for them to get back. They took a good minute but we figured they were going over the stuff Stephanie bought while she was out. About ten minutes later they came walking in all nonchalant and giggling like they we weren’t waiting on them the whole time.

“Don’t give us that look, you knew we were gonna be a while,” Stephanie said.

“You still don’t have to be so casual about it, just selfish,” Chris joked.

“Ok, ok, Randy you said you had some kind of suggestion or something?” Rita asked.

“Wait, you don’t know about this Rita? That must be a first,” Stephanie said.

“I thought of it literally when I was talking to mom. I didn’t get a chance to get back in the house and tell her. It happens. Anyway, I was thinking, I’ve been here for two weeks now, and it’s been ok so far, but now that Rita’s here, it’s only gonna be a matter of time before dad shows up and causes a scene. I don’t wanna cause any drama or have something slip out in front of Jim, since he still doesn’t know anything, so I was thinking, and it’s just a thought, what if me and Rita go stay at Ashley’s house for a little bit?”

Everybody was quiet for a little bit, understandable, and Chris was the first to say something. Ashley’s house? Why would you wanna go stay at Ashley’s house?”

“Yeah what’s wrong with here? You think you been here too long or something?” Steph asked.

“No, well yeah I have been here for a while, I don’t wanna seem like I moved in.”

“Mom and dad don’t have a problem with that. They actually like that you’re here.”

“What about when dad shows up? If we get into an argument and something slips out what then? We don’t know how Jim is gonna react. He might react like dad did.”

“He might get upset but he won’t throw a tantrum like your dad did, we know this for a fact.”

“I thought the same thing about our dad, I couldn’t have been more wrong what do you think Rita? You’re sitting there awfully quiet. You gotta feel some kinda way about this.”

“It makes sense. Going to Ashley’s means we can keep dad in check. There’s no way he’s gonna blow up around one of his clients and jeopardize his job. Then on the other hand I just got here, I wanna stay here a while. We’re getting alone way better with Ashley now but it’s gonna take a couple more months before we’re casually spending the night over there.”

“Sooooo, was that a vote to go over to Ashley’s or stay here? Chris asked.

“That’s an I’m right in the middle kinda vote, I’m not sure where to go with it.”

“Well like I said it was just a thought, I just wanted to see what everyone thought,” I said.

“HEY RANDY, DID STEPH AND CHRIS GET BACK?” Jim yelled up the stairs.

“YEAH THEY’RE UP HERE, THEY GOT BACK A LITTLE WHILE AGO,” I yelled back.

“OK YOU ALL CAN COME AND EAT THEN, FOODS READY.”

“OK WE’LL BE DOWN. I guess we can figure something out after we eat.”

“If you do go, does that mean Ashley officially becomes part of our circle?” Chris asked.

“I don’t know, are we comfortable barging in her house without an invite?” Rita asked.

“No I’m not at that point with her yet, we still don’t even really know her father, we know of him. And not just Ashley, what about Dana, Carina and Becky?” I asked.

“Well they’re sort of a package deal. If we get Ashley they all come too, which means eventually they’ll be in our houses too, and at some point we’ll be in theirs,” Stephanie said.

“We don’t know where any of them live, they’re always at Ashley’s,” Chris said.

“Does anybody have a problem with Ashley becoming part of the group?” Rita asked.

“I mean, a while ago I would’ve said yes definitely, but now, I mean, she actually went way out if her way to be nice and change, and she’s actually fun to be around now,” Stephanie said.

“Yeah, I’m actually agreeing with what she just said,” Chris said. “The only thing with me is I just need a little more time to pass before I fully accept her as one of us.”

“Yeah that’s how I feel. All the money and trips to Cedar Point is good and all but it don’t mean anything if I can’ fully trust her, not saying I don’t, it just needs
time,” Rita said.

“So, I gather from all this, is that the idea is on the table, just not right now?” I asked.

“Basically yeah, but on the other hand, something like this could be what we need to fully trust her. Sleepovers like this always turn out to be some kind of bonding thing,” Rita said.

“So we’re back at square one. We had that big ass discussion only to come out in the same spot we went in with. Good talk, now I’m hungry,” Chris said.

“Yeah we can table this until after we eat, I can smell those crab legs from up here,” I said.

“Crab legs are mine, you can eat the salmon!” Stephanie yelled as she ran for the door.

We all bolted out the door after her and got tangled up on the stairs trying to be the first ones down so we could get our pick of what seafood we wanted, but when we finally got downstairs the plates were already set and the food was evenly distributed between everybody.

“Awww come on dad you know I like the crab legs!” Stephanie whined.

“Any changes you make will have to be bargained away to somebody else. If you want more crab legs you’re gonna have to trade somebody for them, and not me,” Jim replied.

“I’ll trade you my crab legs, well some of them, you can’t have all of them,” Rita said.

“Ok what do you want, the salmon? I’ll cut you half a piece and some chips,” Stephanie said.

“I’ll take the salmon and my pick of something you bought today from the store.”

“I didn’t even try anything on yet, I don’t know if anything fits yet!”

“You know. You walked in there already knowing what you wanted and what size to get it in.”

She thought for a minute. “If you get to pick then I get ALL your crab legs!”

“Is it really that big of a deal? It’s just crab legs,” Chris said.

“Shhhh, it’s a very big deal, clothes are involved,” Marie said grinning.

“Fine. You can pick from the clothes, but if you want shoes then it’s my choice.”

“Deal. If you bought what you said you were gonna buy earlier I already know what I want.”

“That really just happened. They just traded crab legs for clothes,” Chris said.

“Welcome to the wonderful world of women son. Try saying that five times fast,” Jim said.

“Can I just trade it for crab legs instead?” Chris asked poking fun at Rita and Stephanie.

“Just curious, what exactly did you buy? I hope not lingerie or something like that.”

“Dad!” Stephanie said.

“Jim what are you trying to do embarrass the girl?” Marie asked.

“I’d just like to know, seeing as both these girls are staying under the same roof as their boyfriends, who they most likely bought the clothes for. I’m just being a concerned parent. You used to buy stuff to wear for me all the time remember?”

“I still do. Not as much as I did when we were younger but I still do sometimes.”

“The last time had to be some months ago, when you bought that sheer red…”

“OK! This is exactly where we didn’t want the conversation to end up!” Chris said.

Marie pulled Jim in and kissed him on the cheek. “Awwww baby have I been neglecting you? I’ll go down to the store first thing tomorrow and pick up something just for you.”

“You might as well trade your crab legs to Stephanie and save the trip,” I joked.

“I wish I was their size, I’m a couple sizes larger in the waist, and a few in the chest.”

I tried one of the crab legs and was instantly hooked. “Wow, no wonder Steph’s trying so hard to get more, these are good! How’d you get em to come out like this?” I asked Jim.

“My own little secret. I experiment a lot so I find a lot of tricks with food,” Jim replied.

“Chris I’ll give you a free download code for your crab legs,” I said.

“Not you too man. Make it two and throw in your salmon and you got a deal.”

“Oh jeez, everybody’s trading away their food like they’re Pokémon cards,” Jim said.

“Think of it as a compliment dad, your food is that good,” Stephanie said.

“I’ll take it, and it better be. I didn’t go through all that training for nothing.”

“You used to be a chef? Like on one of those Iron Chef TV shows?” I asked.

“Not like that, but I did go to school for it. I was told I had a raw talent and to develop it, so I did, and now I have my own catering company. I get pretty decent business too.”

“Up until now I never knew what you did. The only other guy I knew who had a catering company was on the TV show Arthur, his father. You should go on that
Hell’s Kitchen show with Gordon Ramsay, you might get your own restaurant too,” Rita said.

“Oh no, I’m fine with just the catering company, plus if he yelled in my face like that I’d be tempted to throw a side of lamb at him while it’s still in the pan.”

“You’d hardly be the first honey,” Marie said. “I don’t know how people put up with him.”

“Publicity, money, press, free restaurant, take your pick,” Chris said.

“You ever get overwhelmed with orders? Like fifty in one week or something?” I asked.

“I did at first, but I learned how to balance everything and not take more than I could handle. If I do get behind Marie’s always there to help me though, when she’s not working that is.”

“You must have the easiest job in the world Mrs. Wilson. You don’t have to get dressed, or worry about traffic, or leave the house, as long as you have your computer you’re set,” I said.

“I’m my own boss too, just like Jim. Every once in a while I do need to go to the facility and check on jewelry that just arrived, but basically yeah, I sell from home,” Marie said.

“Watch, neither of them are gonna be anything close to what you guys are, well Stephanie might since you sell jewelry, but Chris, definitely not, ” Rita said.

“Nope, I’m set on becoming a NASCAR driver, and if that doesn’t work out, then I’ll be a fisherman or work on an oil rig, they all get paid stupid money,” Chris said.

“You couldn’t have said a more different range of jobs if you tried,” Jim laughed.

“Won’t you be gone a lot with those jobs? NASCAR you’re always on the road, fisherman you’re always at sea, and on the oil rig you’re there months at a time,” Stephanie said.

“Yeah, well yeah, I guess I didn’t think about that part, I saw all the money to be made.”

She looked a little concerned. “You shouldn’t take a job where you’ll be gone all the time.”

“Awww is Stephanie gonna miss her big brother if he leaves?” Marie teased.

“Stop it mom or I’m gonna throw a crab leg at you,” Steph said pointing it at Marie.

“You are! You’d never waste a crab leg! My little girl wuvs her big bwuther!”

“Now I have to punch him in the mouth, go through his stuff and get him in trouble.”

“Don’t be like that. It wouldn’t be the first time you got upset at your brother leaving. Remember when he went to your grandma’s and you had to stay because
you were sick? I almost ran out of space on the tape recording your hour long speech.”

“Who said he was leaving? He hasn’t even said if he was for real yet!”

“Wait there’s a tape? Please tell me you still have said tape,” Rita said.

“We should. We have a bunch of home movies stored up, they’re all on VCR though. We’d have to go through the stuff in the attic just to see if we still have one,” Jim said.

“I’ll take that job,” I said. “I’m dying to see how they were when they were little.”

“Do we really have to do this? Those movies could be long gone by now,” Chris said.

“Nope, I made sure I kept all of them. I should get them switch to DVD now,” Marie said.

“That settles it. After dinner we catch up on the wonder years of Stephanie and Chris. I can’t wait to see what little adventures you guys had when you were younger,” Rita said all giddy.

“Don’t laugh, I’m sure Mrs. Stevens has some home movies of you guys too, and I’m gonna be calling her so we can watch every embarrassing moment you guys had too,” Steph said.

“We’re twins, everything we did back then was embarrassing, from the matching clothes, to matching hair, to matching beds, it doesn’t bother us anymore.”

“Matching hair? Yeah make sure you get us that tape first,” Chris laughed.

“It seems so long ago. VCR tapes were still around. Man I feel old,” Jim said.

“It was the late 90s. VCR’s were on their way out. It’s not like in the 80s where we still had Betamax and record players and all that, ok that actually does make me feel old,” Marie said.

“Well you know they have that saying, you’re only as old as you feel,” I said.

“Well then I’m about seventy because I can’t move after eating all those crab legs,” Steph said.

“Everyone just about done? Ok, we’ll go at it like this. Randy and Rita since you wanna see the home movies, you have to go to the attic and get them, Stephanie and Chris you have to wash and put up the dishes. I would say put up the leftovers but there aren’t any. While you’re all doing that Marie and I will relax on the couch and wait for you to finish your jobs, and when you come back with the VCR I’ll hook it up. Everybody know what they’re doing?” Jim asked.

“Fine with me. Let’s go find those tapes,” Rita said as she got up and headed for the stairs.
I went after her and we went up to the attic, which was just stacked with boxes on both sides of the walls and had old desks and end tables and stuff straight ahead of us. The good thing was they were organized and the boxes were marked so we were able to pinpoint where the movies were in no time, it was getting to them that was gonna be the issue.

“I guarantee they’re all the way in the back, watch, all the VCR stuff,” Rita said.

I laughed as we started to slide out boxes so we could get to the back row and work our way forward, and just like Rita said, the back row. There was a box with only VCR’s in it and a few more with all the movies that went with it, but it wasn’t until we got all the way into the corner that we found the box with the home movies, and there were a lot to pick from.

“Which ones should we get? How about Stephanie’s fifth birthday, or Chris’ first day of school, or the family trip to Niagara Falls? I wanna watch them all,” Rita said.

“We probably will. How come we never got to go to Niagara Falls?”

“It got cancelled when we had to go with dad for his job remember? We stayed in that crappy hotel and we had to share a bed because one of them didn’t have a mattress on it.”

“Oh yeah, I remember. The TV only had like six channels, and none were any worth watching. What were we like, fourteen then? Yeah fourteen sounds about right.” She stopped sorting through movies and just sat there leaning on her hand, looking at me. “What?”

“Can you imagine if we’d started messing around then? All the times we had to go with dad while he was starting out? We could’ve broken in so many hotels…”

“I don’t think I was fully aware of women then. It wasn’t until I was about to turn fifteen that puberty finally stopped playing jokes on me, I was a real late bloomer.”

“I bloomed when I turned thirteen. Mom gave me the whole speech, the bag of hygiene stuff, told me about boys and sent me on my way. I can still kinda remember the talk.”

“Dad gave me the quickest rundown ever and sent me on my way. He kinda scared me, which is what he was probably trying to do. He emphasized babies more than anything.”

“Mom didn’t hold back. She told me what felt good, what I should do, what he should do, everything. I basically had a guidebook for when I was ready to have sex.”

“I’m guessing that guidebook didn’t mention me did it?”

“No, but I’m glad we did what we did. I can’t imagine going another day without you.”

“You won’t have to, I promise. Noone is gonna force us apart ever again.”

She sat the movies down and climbed on top of me, pinning my body to the cold attic floor. Her hair fell around our faces as she kissed me, either lost in the moment or no longer concerned that we weren’t the only ones in the house. She felt around my waist until she found my cock and rubbed on it through my pants. I in turn slid my hands inside her panties and grabbed two handfuls of her soft creamy ass cheeks and squeezed them in my hands.

“HEY RITA! RANDY! HOW’S TO COMING UP THERE WITH THOSE MOVIES?” Jim yelled.

Rita popped off me like he walked in the room with her pants still slightly pulled down from when I had my hands down them. “WE FOUND THE BOX. WE’RE SORTING THROUGH THE MOVIES NOW! WE’LL BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!” Rita yelled back.

“IF YOU CAN, TRY TO FIND THE ONE THAT SAYS ‘SUMMER COOKOUT 2002.”

“OK. WE’LL BE DOWN AS SOON AS WE FIND IT!”

She laid back on top of me and continued to feel me up, and I put my hands right back where they were, inside her panties gripping her ass. I wanted to do so much more than just feel her up and kiss her, but I knew it was impossible with everyone waiting on us, so we made out for a little while longer and stopped so we could find the other movie and put everything back how it was. It took us about another five minutes to get situated and get the attic back to how it was and get back downstairs, and not a minute too soon because Jim was on his way up.

“There you are, I was just coming up to give you a hand,” Jim said.

“We’re good. We found everything and put all the stuff back. We didn’t know if there was a certain VCR to get so we just grabbed the one on top,” Rita said.

“That’s the best one. Come on, the TV’s all set up. I just need to plug the VCR into the back of it. I wanna see the summer cookout one first, that was the year we moved into this house.”

We took all the stuff downstairs and all the kids took one couch and Jim and Marie took the other. It took a little bit for Jim to remember how to set up a VCR (who could blame him), but he finally got it working and put in the tape he wanted to see. It wasn’t at the beginning because as soon as it came on it showed Chris running ahead of whoever had the camera.”

“Is that a Blockbuster? Man it’s been a while since I’ve been in one of those,” I said.

“Slow down Chris! The store isn’t going anywhere,” Marie said as she came into view on tape.

“Come on! We have to hurry before all the final fantasies are gone,” little Chris said.

“Awww look at little Chris with his dress shirt on! So cute!” Rita teased.

“This was at a time where I wasn’t allowed to dress myself,” Chris defended himself.”

“He looks like a little Macaulay Culkin! In Home Alone, not The Good Son.”

“I don’t look like that pothead! Did you see what he looks like now? I don’t think so!”

“Forget about Chris, look at Stephanie with her little flower dress and pigtails!” I teased.

“Don’t be jealous I can pull that off. I still can to this day,” Stephanie said.

“Look at that game selection though; Crash Bandicoot, Jet Moto, Tomb Raider, Tenchu, Super Mario 64, Star Wars Racer, man those were the days. All weekend for just five bucks.”

“Going to the game store WAS their allowance, that’s where the money went,” Marie said.

“That’s when games were simpler, not like now where there’s killing zombies and war games and Dead Space and all that, stuff that gives you nightmares,” Jim said.

“Resident Evil was out back then, I had to sleep with my light on after playing that,” I said.

“I remember that. I slept in your bed for like two weeks straight after watching you play that. I tried to do the ‘watch a funny movie so you forget about the scary’ thing, but it didn’t work, I kept seeing that licker thing every time I tried to go to sleep,” Rita said.

“Hey did you find any ones with them dressed up for Halloween?” Marie asked.

“There might be…” I said as I sifted through the tapes. “There was a bunch of different ones so we tried to grab some of everything… yep, got one, Halloween 2005. You must’ve been the only people still using tapes in 2005, that technology was way dead by then.”

“I had all those blank tapes and I was gonna use them no matter what, even if I had to carry around the stupid big camera, I can always switch the tapes to DVD’s at any time,” Jim said.

I put the tape in and pressed play, and it started up with I’m assuming Jim as the cameraman walking down the street filming anything in view. Out of the blue a kid wearing a red power rangers costume comes flying in swinging his candy bag all over the place.

“I’m assuming the little red dino ranger is Chris?” I asked.

“Actually no, he just came flying into the picture for no reason talking about Tommy or something like that. Stephanie and Chris’ costumes are coming up. Wait until you see what they have on, I still can’t believe that’s what they wanted to wear,” Marie laughed.

“Oh my god, this isn’t the year Chris…?” Stephanie started then stopped abruptly.

“Yep. I’m never getting rid of this tape as long as I live,” Jim said. “Here he comes, watch.”

We waited for a little bit and then after a while you could hear little footsteps running on the sidewalk up to Jim. Stephanie was obvious, dressed like Cinderella, fake glass slippers and all, but when Chris ran into the screen I damn near lost it, me and Rita both.

“Oh my god is he dressed up like Joe Dirt? HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHA! Look at his cowboy boots! He got the mullet and everything! What were you thinking man!”

I couldn’t control my laughter. That was the last thing I’d expect Chris to have on. Everyone in the room was laughing their guts out and Chris was sitting there taking it.

“I don’t care. I’m not ashamed. That movie was one of the best movies ever,” Chris said.

“That came out before 2005 though, why didn’t you wear it before?” Rita asked.

“I had to wait until I was the same size the kid was in the movie. I wanted to get as close as possible so I could take a side by side picture for when I got older.”

“That means you thought about that every year until you did it. Little Joe Dirt, I mean Dirte. I’m gonna need a copy of this picture so I can remember to laugh at it later,” I said.

“How do you have Cinderella, one of the most elegant princesses in Disney, and then throw in Joe Dirt? We couldn’t have been the only ones laughing at this,”
Rita said.

“You aren’t. Everyone that saw him got a chuckle out of it,” Marie said.

“Hands down Chris, best costume I’ve ever seen, now, or in the future,” I laughed.

There was a knock on the door and Jim volunteered to get it, so we went back to poking fun at Chris for his “unique” costume. A few seconds later I noticed I was the only one still laughing, so I looked over to see what was going on, and saw everyone staring at the front door in silence, and I looked over to see dad, none too pleased, making his way over to us. He was still in his work clothes so just like we thought, he saw Rita gone, and came right over here.

“Rita, let’s go, grab your stuff, you’re going home,” dad said.

The mood in the room suddenly turned dark and quiet. “No dad I’m not going back!

“Rita… get your stuff, and let’s go. I have the car running outside, hurry up.”

“Then you should get back out there because I’m not going back to the house dad!”

He started to get upset. “I’m gonna ask you one more time, get your stuff and let’s go!”

“Is Randy coming too? Because that’s the only way I’m coming back.

“No he’s not coming back with you. Randy has to stay here like we agreed.”

“Then I’m not coming. I’m not gonna be there by myself again!”

“Is there something going on we should know about?” Jim interjected.

“No everything’s fine Jim, Rita grab your stuff and let’s GO!”

“It doesn’t seem fine. You’re yelling and clearly Rita doesn’t wanna go…”

“I’m trying to solve a family issue and she’s putting up an unnecessary fight.”

“It’s not unnecessary! You’re trying to change something that can’t be changed no matter what you do! Why can’t you just accept that this is the way it’s gonna be?” Rita asked.

“Because that’s NOT the way it’s gonna be, not if I have any say about it.”

“You’ve had ALL the say, all of it! You didn’t care about what we thought at all!”

We saw lights pull into the driveway and a short while after that a knock at the door, and we opened it to a wired up mom and Aunt Lisa who looked like they rushed over right after dad.

“Ok, I don’t know what’s going on, and maybe it’s not my place to say, but this is happening in my house so I’m going to say it anyway. Mike, she obviously doesn’t wanna come back just yet, so whatever it is maybe you can take a few days to cool off and come back to talk about it later. They’re twins, they can’t be separated for too long, I’m surprised they went as long as they did. I even went so far as to add to the best you already made, which I lost by the way.
Dad took to Jim. “Bet? We didn’t make any bet! What did you tell him Randy?”

I started to say something, but Rita grabbed my shoulder and shook her head no, and so did everybody else in the room that knew about us, but dad was suspicious.

“You didn’t even tell him why you’re here? So you’re eating the man’s food, using his electricity, taking up his space and you’re repaying him by lying to him?”

“I’m not lying to Jim, I just didn’t tell him the whole truth,” I said.

“Withholding information is the same as lying, you know that! This is good then, now you have a chance to clear the air. Go ahead Randy, tell them why you’re really here.”

“Mike stop it, this is not the time or place for this!” mom said.

“If not now Anna, then when? This could go on for days, weeks, or even months without being addressed, now’s the perfect time. If he’s gonna continue to stay in their house then they deserve to know why he’s here. Go ahead Randy. Tell Jim and Marie why you’re here.”

I was put on massive spotlight. Everyone was staring at me and there was no way out of it. My father had backed me into a corner, and the only way out was to come out swinging. As wrong as he was for what he did, he did have a point. Jim did deserve to know what was going on, at least now after dad exploded it into an impassable situation. I decided now was as good a time as any. I looked Jim straight in the eyes, a little hesitant at first, but then I remembered why I was doing it, and who I was doing it for, and I just came out and said it.

“Jim, for the last ten and a half months, I have been sexually involved with Rita on almost a daily basis. I love her, she loves me, and unlike our dad, we’re not ashamed of it.”

The room was quiet. Everyone was looking at Jim for a reaction, but there was none. Marie pretended to be in shock too just to keep up appearances, but dad was more focused on Jim. He was waiting for any kind of sign that showed he had the same reaction as dad did.

“You two? You’re having… relations… with each other?” Jim asked.

I paused. “Yes. Dad kicked me out because he found out about it. He thinks separating us will ‘fix’ it, but it’s not. We’re too far gone. There’s nothing that needs to be fixed.”

“How do you feel about this Jim? The same way I feel about it right?” dad asked.

He took a second to process it. Marie sat back down on the couch and mom and Aunt Lisa went and sat down with her. Jim had this puzzled/surprised look on his face since I said what I said, but when dad asked him what he thought his facial expression changed. He didn’t look mad or pissed off, but he didn’t look happy or anything either, he just looked, well normal.

“I wasn’t expecting that, at all, but to be completely honest, it doesn’t bother me,” Jim said.

“It doesn’t bother you? You did just hear what Randy said didn’t you?” dad asked.

“Yes I heard him. While it is frowned upon in some areas, sometimes you just can’t help who you fall in love with, in this situation it just happens to be his sister.”

I was relieved to hear Jim say that. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell dad for the longest, and for him to hear it from another man around his age helps us a great deal.

“It’s not frowned upon, it’s illegal! These are two blood related kids who are having sex with each other! I don’t… how could you possibly be ok with this Jim?”

“It’s not that I’m ok with this, I’m not pushing it or anything, but I can accept it. They see something in each other. They found who they wanna be with, that’s
rare, and the fact that they’re related could make it that much better, I don’t know, but it happened, it’s done, and from the looks of it it doesn’t seem like they’re gonna be parting ways anytime soon.”

“Marie, what do you think? Do you think it’s ok for this to go on?” dad asked Marie.

Marie held her hands together on her lap. “Well Mike, to be honest, I feel the same way about it as Jim does. I don’t encourage it, but I can’t stop it if it happens either, that’s something they have to do on their own. Interfering will only push them closer together.”

Dad ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe in the only one in this room who things this is wrong! They’re brother and sister! What’s wrong with everyone!”

“The lord works in mysterious ways Mike, this is just an example of his work,” mom said.

“Mysterious or not, he didn’t intend for this to happen. I don’t buy it for a second.”

“Maybe not, but can you really stand in the way of what makes tour kids happy?” Jim asked.

“That’s not the point. It’s wrong. It should’ve never even gotten this far! Whatever, it’s easy to pass judgement when it’s not your kids we’re talking about.”

“Mike, that doesn’t…”

“No! Tell me I’m wrong! If your kids were in this exact same situation you would not be as calm and understanding as you are, you or Marie, you’d be just like I
am, pissed off!”

“To tell the truth, I don’t know how I would react if it were my own kids, but as of right now with yours, I’m not gonna hang them out to dry for feelings they can’t help but have.”

I looked over at Chris, who was giving me this stare that showed me he was up to something. Noone was paying to us in the midst of the heated discussion between dad and Jim, so noone caught the look. Chris looked at Stephanie who in turn looked at me, and I knew what was about to happen. I shook my head no as calmly as I could without drawing attention to avoid them from doing anything stupid, but like Rita and I being unable to part ways, I couldn’t convince him to change his mind.

“Yes you would! You would try just as hard as I am right now Marie! No parent would knowing let this go on unresolved,” dad said as I tuned back in to the conversation.

“Have you tried asking them what they want? I doubt this sprang up one random night, there had to be something that lead up to it. They must really be all in with each other to put up with everything they’ve been through and still fight for themselves,” Marie said.

“All that other stuff is null and void. Anything after that first initial contact should never have happened! Maybe that’s my fault for not noticing it, but I’m going to fix it.”

“Fix what Mike? What needs fixing? They’re two kids in love, that’s no different than when the human race first started out, someone had to sleep with their family member or there’d be no us. Times change and things change but not everything has to change with it,” Jim said.

“What if they have kids? Do you know what kind of medical problems they could have because of inbreeding? Incest is illegal for a reason. Not only that, once it got out what’s going on there won’t be a place they can hide with the way the world trends stuff today. Michael Jordan gets on hole in one on a private golf course in California at 4:15 and it’s world news at 4:18, they won’t stand a chance. I stand by my earlier statement, it’s easier to see things from the other side when it’s not your kids that are the ones in the situation.”

“Even if it were, it would still have the decency to sit down with my kids and talk to them before I kick them out of the house and lock the other one up and throw away the key!”

“I did what I needed to do to put an end to this… relationship! And I’d do it again!”

“You don’t think you could’ve handled it a little bit better? When you look back on your life twenty years from now this moment is gonna stand out like a sore thumb.”

“It’ll stand out, but not for the reasons you think. They’re gonna look back and realize what a terrible mistake they almost made and thank me for putting an end to it when I did.”

“Thank you? They’re not gonna thank you! They’re gonna hate you! Look at what you’re doing! You’re the only one against this, good reason or not, and the way you’re going about trying to diffuse it is only making things a lot worse! They are in no way gonna thank you for this! What you need to do is sit down with them and discuss the issue with them head on.”

“Don’t tell me how to raise my kids Jim! I may not be a perfect parent but the way I do stuff works and will continue to work, and this situation is no different.”

I’m just trying to let you see things from my view that’s all. I’m not trying to show you up Mike.”

“Mike calm down, he didn’t mean anything by it he’s just trying to help,” mom said.

“How can he possibly help me in a situation like this? He’s not going through what we are. His kids aren’t sleeping with each other. What could you possibly say that can help this situation?”

“That’s not the problem Mike, the problem is you not being able to accept it,” Marie said.

“It’s like we’re going around in circles. We’re never gonna get anywhere because no matter what is said I’m always gonna be the only one who has a problem with this.”

“Mike just sit down, talk it though, it might help more than you think,” Aunt Lisa said.

“How? I’m not gonna be ok with this, I’ll never understand it no matter what anybody says. The only thing that matters is putting a stop to it before it goes any further.”

“Do you think that’s the best thing though? What about what they think?” Jim asked.

“They’re too young to know what they want, that’s why they have parents.”

“We as parents sometimes mess up too. We don’t always know what’s best for them.”

“Well I know what’s best for mine, and I’m gonna fix this. I congratulate you on a fine job raising your kids, but somewhere down the line I went wrong, and I need to correct it. Maybe Randy shouldn’t be here so your kids don’t have to deal with this.”

“EVERYBODY STOP!” Chris yelled making everybody stare at him. “I’m tired of all this arguing, and all the secrets, so it’s time I came clean too. Mom, dad, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Miss Lisa, randy and Rita aren’t the only ones messing around, me and Stephanie are too.”

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop on carpet. Everyone was staring at Chris not believing what he just said, but he held firm and stood behind his words, him and Stephanie.

“You and Stephanie, messing around? Seriously? It’s because of Rita and Randy isn’t it? They’ve been around you so long and it rubbed off on you two didn’t it?” dad asked.

“No it’s not because of them. We’ve been sleeping with each other way longer than they were. We wanted to tell you dad, but we didn’t know how, and after finding out how Mr. Stevens took it when he found out about Randy and Rita, that really made us not wanna tell.”

“So how do you feel knowing your kids are kids are sleeping together Jim? Pissed?” dad asked.

“No Mike I’m not pissed. I’m a lot of things, but pissed isn’t one of them. You know you can come to me with anything, you two don’t have to hide anything from me,” Jim said.

“This is kind of a big deal. We wanted to be careful when we told you,” Stephanie said.

Jim readjusted his standing posture. “Well I’d be lying if I said it didn’t come as a shock, but I stand by the words I said about Randy and Rita, I may not understand why you sleep with your brother, but it’s your life, and I just have to accept it.”

“Me too sweetie,” Marie said. “I’d much rather accept the fact that you sleep with your brother than lose both of you. Like Jim said, it’s your life. We’ll just have to deal.”

“It’s not just a friends with benefits thing mom, we love each other. It may not be as strong or as out there as Rita and Randy, but we do,” Stephanie said.

“You don’t have to get it all out now honey, we can sit down later and talk about it, as much as you want, so that we all have a better understanding of the situation,” Jim said.

I saw the way Jim handled it and wished it could’ve been that way for us. He didn’t yell, he didn’t get upset, if he did then he had one of the best poker faces I’ve ever seen. After that no one knew what to say, we all stood there waiting for someone to say something, anything.
So that’s it Jim? You’re ok with your little girl sleeping with her older brother?” dad asked.

“What I think doesn’t matter in a situation like this. But to answer your question, am I ok with it? I don’t know, I won’t know the answer to that until time passes, but I will respect their decision to do it because it’s just that, their decision,” Jim replied.

That’s good. At least you know where you stand. Me? I can’t accept it. The world is an ugly place when it has something to exploit, and I won’t let my kids be victims. I may seem like an asshole, but if that’s the route I have to take then that’s just how it’s gonna have to be. I think I had enough yelling for one day, we should be getting home. Rita, grab your stuff and let’s go.”

“I’ve never disobeyed you in my life dad, because I never had to, but this time you don’t give me a choice. I’m not coming back, unless you let Randy come back too,” Rita said.

“Rita I’m not trying to do this, grab your stuff and let’s go.”

“Dad no! Did you hear anything they said? You can’t just separate us by force, it won’t work!”

“I can, and it will. Get your stuff and let’s go, I’ll be waiting in the car. Goodnight everyone.”

He turned and headed for the door. After everything that had been said, nothing changed in him, nothing. After seeing how Jim handled the situation and accepted them for the decision they made he didn’t change the way he went about it at all. After everything that happened he still left out with the same attitude he came in with, and it pissed me off. It pissed me off so much that I wasn’t gonna just let him leave without letting him know.

“DAD STOP!” I yelled. “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? ANSWER ME!”

He stopped for a second, and then kept walking for the door. He didn’t even wanna hear what I had to say. The last two weeks have been nothing but unnecessary torture. We put up with his conditions, even longer than we were asked to, and nothing changed. The way he was acting right now, like he was ashamed of us, did nothing but push us away from him. if he didn’t stop, he would push us away for good, and the way he was acting it was like it wouldn’t matter, as long as we stopped doing what we were doing, which wasn’t an option. Him ignoring me like that, like I was just some random person and not his son, pushed me to my boiling point.

“I said ANSWER ME!!!”

He stopped, turned around, and gave me a death stare, and then he stormed towards me, but I held my ground. I wasn’t running any more, not from dad, not from us, not from anything.

“YOU KNOW WHY I’M DOING THIS! DON’T ASK QUESTIONS YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER TO! I WILL NOT STAND BY WHILE MY KIDS SCREW EACH OTHER!”

“Your kids? We haven’t been your kids in two weeks dad! I’ve been ‘him’ and Rita might as well be prison inmate 5277 or something! It’s like you’re ashamed of us!”

“Do you know what you’re doing? I mean really, do you know what you’re doing? You don’t, that’s why I’m here, to get you back on trach before you mess your life up, and Rita’s.”

“How are we gonna mess up our lives dad? We’re not gonna go blabbing to everyone we meet, we’re not stupid. You didn’t even know about us until a little while ago!”

“But I found out though. Just like the outside world will. You’re gonna slip up again and it’s gonna be on a bigger stage, and once you do you can’t take it back! Don’t you get it? You’re toying with your lives! Once this gets out, you won’t have lives anymore, you won’t!”

“Why not? Because it’s socially unacceptable? We won’t let it get out, and if it does, who cares? We don’t! It won’t be the end of the world! We don’t care what the world thinks, we care what you think, and mom thinks, and Aunt Lisa thinks. Why do you think we agreed to all those crappy terms you set for us? We want you to be ok with us seeing each other!”

“How could I possibly be ok with something like that Randy? This isn’t you choosing to go to college in another state, or not following in my footsteps to be a realtor, this is you sleeping with your sister! I just can’t be the only one who sees the wrong in all of this!”

I paused. “You know what dad, yeah it is wrong. A brother and sister are not supposed to do the things we do. Yeah it is against society’s rules, but you know what? Some rules are made to be broken. I can’t turn off my feelings for her any more than you can for mom, or Marie can for Jim. You can’t help who you fall for dad, sister or not!”

He sighed, turned and headed for the door, but before he walked out he turned around and looked me square in the eye. “I’m sorry son, this is something that I just can’t get behind. No matter how much you try to convince me, I can’t be ok with this.”

“Dad… just try. For the sake of our family, just try, please.”

“Dad please, if we ever need you to understand anything in our life, this is it,” Rita said.

“Mike, they’re begging you, they don’t wanna lose you in their life,” Aunt Lisa added.

“I understand that, but I just…”

“But what? These are your kids, and they’re asking, begging, for your approval,” mom said.

I could tell by his face that after everything that was just said, he still wouldn’t budge. “I can’t, I just can’t go along with this. I have to go. Rita, are you coming?”

She looked up at dad and although it pained her to do it, she shook her head no. dad dropped his head, turned around and walked out the door without another word. For a while the rest of us just stood there, not knowing what to say. Stephanie was now holding Chris’ hand and Rita pulled me into a hug, which I instantly returned. I looked over at mom and Aunt Lisa who came over and got in on the hug to try to comfort us.

“He’s coming around, slowly but surely. He just needs more time,” mom said.

“How can you be so sure? You saw the way he was, nothing’s changed,” Rita followed.

“Yes it has, for one he didn’t get violent, two, he actually listened to what everyone had to say, and three, he actually gave Rita a choice on whether she wanted to come home or not. Those are all big things. He’s still your father. No matter how upsetting me might be right now, he is only doing what he thinks is best for you. He’s thinking about you two, not himself.”

“Your mom is right,” Jim said. “He doesn’t sound vindictive or look like he’s doing anything to intentionally hurt you. His main focus is your well-being. He might be taking a few bad steps along the way in my opinion, but his motives are pure.”

“So where do we go from here?” I asked. “What happens now?”

“You live your lives, there’s nothing more you can do,” Aunt Lisa said.

I pulled out of the hug when I saw Stephanie and Chris step over into the circle. “Thanks man, you didn’t have to out yourselves for us, but we appreciate that you did.”

“Ahh man don’t worry about it, we got your back. We wanted to tell, and the way your father was jumping on you guys that seemed like the perfect time to speak up,” Chris said.

We really were gonna tell you guys, we didn’t think like this though,” Stephanie said.

“It’s ok, after all that’s happened I can see why you wanted to wait,” Marie said.

Dad honked the horn from outside to let mom and Aunt Lisa know he was ready to go, and they took that as their cues to say goodbye to everyone and be on their way.

“We’ll keep talking to him. It’s only a matter of time before we figure out a way to get through to him. I don’t see him being like this forever,” mom said.

“We hope so. If anyone can get through to him, you guys can,” Rita said.

We all exchanged hugs with them and watched them out the door. “Make sure you look out for each other, and don’t weird out Jim and Marie now that the secrets out,” Aunt Lisa said.

“I’ll bring some fresh clothes and other things throughout the week, be good now,” mom said.

They left out the front door and we waited until we saw the headlights back out and leave, and then we sat down on the couch, not knowing what our next move was gonna be.

“So, longer than Rita and Randy? Exactly how much longer are we talking about?” Jim asked.

“Umm, some years. Not before thirteen. I’d say around two and a half years,” Chris said.

“Two and a half years all while bring under the same roof as us? And you managed to keep it secret all this time? I don’t know if I should be impressed or worried.”

“I’m just glad you’re not angry. Me made sure to be real careful,” Stephanie said.

“Yeah. Well this is a tough way to find out you aren’t virgins anymore, but at least I can trust the ones you’re with. I can trust you right? You’re being safe and everything?”

“Yes we are, we don’t want a bad situation on top of a bad situation.”

“Well it’s been a long day. We don’t have to talk about this whole thing tonight. We can have a family discussion tomorrow if you’re up for it. Rita, Randy, you’re welcome to join.”

“Thanks, but we might sit that one out, one brother sister combo at a time,” I joked.

“Well that’s one way to look at it. At least you’re able to find a spec of humor in all this. Ok, I don’t know about you Marie but I’m ready for bed, this day started off interesting and took an even bigger turn. It took a lot out of me.”

“Yeah I’m gonna head to bed too, but first things first, what about the sleeping situations? Brothers/sisters, boyfriends/girlfriends, I don’t know what to make of it,” Marie said.

“I guess the logical thing would be to say boys in one room and girls in the other, but after being apart for two weeks I don’t think that arrangement would sit too nicely with Rita and Randy. My question is, if we let you all bunk up can we trust you to be good?” Jim asked.

“Yes sir, we won’t do anything, I promise. I’m just happy she’s here,” I said.

“We won’t do anything either dad, I don’t like her all like that anyways,” Chris joked.

Stephanie playfully pushed out of Chris’ grip. “Punk. Now you’re sleeping on the floor.”

“Well that’s settled, and I don’t have to question whether or not I can trust you, I know I can, so I’ll call this good night. See you all in the morning, but not too early, it’s my day off.”

“Jim headed upstairs and Marie went up behind him. Halfway up the stairs and turned to us after Jim was clear and came back down. “Thanks again everybody for not saying too much.”

“We all said we wouldn’t say anything, once you paid us all off,” Chris joked again.”

“Always the blackmailer. Be good, and don’t stay up too late.”

“What’s the point, we already promised we wouldn’t do anything,” Stephanie said.

She went back upstairs and I went and sat down on the couch and Rita came and sat down next to me. I leaned back into the couch and just sat there, taking it in.

“You guys can take my room, Steph and I will share hers. If, I mean if, something happens, I’m not saying it will, but if it does, change my sheets, immediately,” Chris said.

“Don’t worry Chris, I promise not to orgasm on your sheets, tonight,” Rita teased.

He chuckled on the way upstairs behind Stephanie not knowing whether to believe her or not. We both just sat on the couch, trying to figure out our next move, but coming up with nothing. This situation with dad wasn’t something we could talk our way out of. This was completely out of our control. The only thing we could make sure of is that we stayed together, and there was nothing that was gonna get in the way of that, not even dad.

“One thing at a time Randy. We can’t overwhelm ourselves,” Rita said.

“Yeah, I just want it all to be over, everything to be ok.”

“I know, me too. But for right now I’ll take this over anything,” she said as she hugged herself into my side and lay her head on my shoulder. “I love you Randy.”

“I love you too Rita.”

Who knows what’s gonna happen with dad. Who knows if he’ll ever accept us. One thing I did know was that Rita was back in my arms again, and I’ll be damned if I let her be taken away from me again. As bad as today went, mom and Jim pointed out some good points, good points that just might be enough to make this whole thing do a 180. I hope so, because I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life without dad in it, I don’t want to, but I will if I have to.

---