Popscotch
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Part 1
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“What’s your name mister?”
“I’m reading; can’t you see?”
“What’s your name?”
“Go away.”
“Mister, what’s your name?”
“I’m reading.”
“Is that your name; I’m Reading?”
“Sure.”
…
“What’s your name?”
“What’s your name?!”
“Amy, Amy Coyer.”
…
“Mister, what’s your name?”
I closed my book slowly, pressing it to my lap and stretched my fingers into an open fist. The knuckles underneath the skin popped as I drew in. My eyes stared straight out into the park avoiding any sight of the little girl sitting next to me on the bench. The city skyline melted into the horizon several miles behind.
“Popscotch,” I said as coolly as I could.
“Just Popscotch?”
“Just Popscotch.”
I picked back up my book and unlocked the binding to a random page. It was a story I had read so many times, but never enough. Sik Coy by Edward Logan. I had always fell into mysterious peace while rescanning the pages, looking deeper into the words, all sitting under the warming sun and within the cool wind, in that park and on that bench with such an amazingly calming view and only ever distant sounds of people that seemed never to disturb me.
“Are you magical?”
“No.”
“Well, you sound like you would be.”
“Why?”
“Because you have a magical name.”
“Are you a bland mutt of society?”
“No.”
“Well you have a bland mutt of a name.”
…
“Are you imaginary?”
“Where’s your parents?”
“Gone.”
“Why are you here? Who are you with?”
“You.”
… I sighed.
“I’m not your guardian, so I don’t count.”
“You’re my imaginary friend, so you do.”
“I’m not imaginary.”
“And you’re twenty-one years old so you’re old enough to take care of me.”
“I’m twenty, and I’m not your friend.”
“Do have any money?”
“How old are you?”
“Thirteen.”
A single scoffing laugh broke my voice to that word from a girl who looked no older than nine, maybe ten.
“Go away.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m with you, so if I leave you, I’ll get in trouble.”
“You’re not with me.”
“You’ll disappear if I leave because you’re my imaginary friend. I don’t want you to disappear.”
“Go home.”
“Do you want to live with me?”
“No.”
“Where do you live?”
“None of your business.”
Her voice changed from curiosity to annoyance.
“When you get angry, do you feel like killing people too?”
“Amy, leave him alone.”
Another girl walked from behind the left of me, eying down the aggravating young one sitting beside. She looked a lot more along the lines of that thirteen the child claimed to be; probably - easily, a few years older. My eyes wouldn’t break off her.
“I’m sorry about her.”
“Shut up Ashley! He’s my friend and I didn’t say you could talk to him.”
“I’m not her friend.”
“You are too. You’re coming to live with us, aren’t you?”
“You are?” asked the older girl.
“No.”
“You have an apartment guide right there under your butt, and we have an extra room at the house we live. First month is free and every one after that is really cheap.”
“Too bad you live there.”
The older girl, Ashley I assumed, let out a single laugh to my comment.
“Fine, you get free room and board for as long as you live there.”
“What?”
“We actually rent that extra room, so we’ll just let you live there since we already pay for it.”
“Who’s we, and I’d rather not be in your debt.”
“I’m sorry sir,” Ashley interrupted before the little one, Amy, went on a long rant. “We live with a couple who rent out two rooms. We’re renting them both with the money we inherited when our parents died. They agreed to be our legal guardians, but only under our circumstances that we lived there as if they weren’t. So we pay them, and they stay out of our business.
“I’m not asking you to live with us, but I am asking that you please let me invite you over for dinner as an apology for letting my little sister wonder out of my eyesight.”
As much as it sounded like a shady idea, the concept of a free meal with an overly alluring, young teenage girl was too much to give up for fast food and then back to my motel room.
“Alright.”
“Yes!” Amy exclaimed. “Ashley, this is Popscotch. Popscotch, this is Ashley. He’s not magical.” She said her last sentence in a loud whisper to her sibling.
---
I sat down uncomfortably at the dinner table. The house was pretty amazing I had to admit after the tour. Two very roomy stories and an attic. The couple, Natalie and Gabrielle, lived in the attic surprisingly, leaving the entire rest of the house a free roam territory for the live-ins. There were actually three bedrooms, but one was being used as a sort of a second living room, just on the second floor. It had a television, massive bean bag chairs and several assorted toys scattered about. Beyond that, it was blandly decorated with a neutral paint tone and carpeting. The room Amy presented to me as my new bedroom was not a bad size at all. She made it pretty clear that a bed and desk would be provided by the time I moved my own stuff in.
Ashley dragged me away from her galloping sister with a kind gesture to follow her for the rest of the tour. Strangely, she showed me their bedroom. A very girly quarter’s with a bunk bed, littered with dolls and other assorted toys. Books too; and lots of them. In the corner were three six foot tall, three foot wide bookshelves, overflowing with books. Oddly enough, almost all of them looked like textbooks.
There were two full bathrooms, one upstairs, one down, and the living room inspired me most. A gigantic flat panel television with the softest, most plush couches I have ever had the opportunity to touch. They gave me a quick and giggly experience of their surround sound system that I nearly wet myself over. It literally sounded as if I were inside the scene, absolutely no discrepancies that would even give the slightest hint that the sounds were coming from a speaker, even with my ever increasing critical ears. The girl’s kicked away Wii and Xbox 360 controllers on the floor and joined me in being eaten by the amazingly comfortable couch.
Beside the lack of punch in the color schemes or just overall structure of the home, everything about its existence screamed money. And everything about the two excited girls watching me screamed that it was all theirs.
Natalie set down the main dish in the center of the table. A steaming ceramic bowl filled with fried chicken fillets. The side dishes included mashed potatoes, corn, tator tots, green beans, butter glazed rolls, and stuffing. It was a meal for made for ten people and served to five. Gabrielle seemed to catch my thought.
“We normally don’t make so much food, but Amy specially requested it on account that she would be bringing a twenty year old male home.” Emotions layered her face like several transparencies on an overhead projector all adding up to one picture. A hint of curiosity, a gleam of uncertainty; a touch of concern, and a suspect of distrust. I chose to say nothing over telling her the child came to me and not the other way around. Both of the house owners seemed barely into their thirties and had a like beauty only thwarted by the girl across me who appeared much closer to my own age.
As Natalie sat down, she announced that we could start. About midway into my first helping of chicken, I finally gathered the courage to solve the dilemma in my mind.
“Uuh, Ashley, how old are you?” As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn’t. All four female’s eyes turned and absorbed my nervous face. All four of them looked to the only male, adult male, at the table who just asked how old an obvious young teenage girl was, like the answer that followed would determine whether or not it was okay to make advances on her.
“I’m fifteen.”
“Oh… How old is Amy?”
“I told you already, I’m thirteen,” the little girl pouted.
I ignored this and kept my focus on Ashley.
“She is.”
“What grade are you in?” I asked Amy with new interest.
“I’m going into fourth when the school year starts.”
“Thirteen year olds don’t go to fourth grade.”
“Well, I do, so shows how much you know.”
“She is thirteen,” Ashley interjected. “She was born too soon after me, so they put her in stasis for about four years as a newborn. So she is thirteen years old, and going into the fourth grade.”
I just stared at her hoping she would get the point that I didn’t believe it and tell me the truth rather than trying to make me look like a fool.
“We have the birth certificate,” Natalie affirmed to me. “It says nothing about stasis or of the such, but legally, she is thirteen years old. We can’t explain it really. No one will to us. Surprisingly, everyone just seems to look the other way when or if it’s brought up.” She stopped talking as I caught Ashley glaring to her.
We all continued eating silently for several more minutes.
“Will you be spending the night?” Gabrielle asked me.
“Oh, um no. Was just invited over for dinner.”
“You can spend the night-”
“Where are you staying?” Ashley interrupted and overvoiced her sister.
“Uh, a few miles to the other side of the park.”
“With friends or family?” she asked.
“Uh no, it’s actually a motel until I find a place.”
“Did you need a ride so you don’t have to walk?”
“You can stay here tonight!” Amy finally input.
“Or yes, you can stay here tonight. Get a feel of the place. The offer is still up. You can live here. Be nice to have an actual male around the house. Free room and board for as long as you stay so you won’t need a job just to get by. Focus more on school.”
“Actually, I don’t go to college. More of kinda do my own research on my own time.” I couldn’t help but catch the two owner’s shifting eyes between each other at hearing their fifteen year old female occupant offer a twenty year old male free living one bedroom away.
“Really, what kind of research do you do?”
I set my fork down defeated from continuing my meal at the time.
“Well, I freelance grant papers. I pick up on whatever interests me and research that field, then write a paper asking for money from the government or a large corporation for its cause. The company or institution gets a few hundred thousand dollars or so, and then pays me for my work. Anything from astronomy to zoology or sociology, psychology… Kinda picked it up from my parents.”
“Neat,” Amy replied with an authentic look of approval. And giving me a little more confidence in the fact that I lived in a motel, Natalie, Gabrielle, and noticeably Ashley seemed to all find it to be ‘neat’ as well.
I picked my fork back up.
“What do you two do?” I asked Natalie and Gabrielle hoping they had an answer that wouldn’t make me look stupid - like renting out their house to two girls for a living.
“Well, recently we started up an interior design company. Moreso gives us something to do with our free time. Running this place doesn’t take as much time and energy as we thought it would. The girls like neutral colors if you haven’t noticed; otherwise the house would have a bit more flavor.”
-
Beyond the entire fact that nothing going on inside the walls of the house seemed normal, everything felt relatively - normal. There was all the obvious flaws in a traditional social structure, but whatever they had going, worked. Natalie and Gabrielle were legal parents to Ashley and Amy, but Ashley and Amy were just, and appearingly, well paying customers to Natalie and Gabrielle. It was weird, wrong, and confusing, but it seemed fun; something different.
About an hour after dinner, I finally got the courage to take my leave. Ashley’s intoxicating presence made it near impossible, but I forced it. Amy kind of pushed me too. Slowly, she somehow had crept her way up to my arm and was next to me latched on. For a self-proclaimed thirteen year old girl, she was sure acting like the nine year old she looked, and a little male starved.
Natalie drove me to my hotel. In the parking lot, I stayed seated in the car for a few extra moments.
“So,” I asked, “any advice? You live with them. Is it wise to get tangled up with them?”
“Well,” she answered with a little reluctance and a little enthusiasm, “life is different with them. I mean, we technically are their guardians but they won’t have anyone controlling them. However, the two by themselves seem to do very well. No trouble or anything. They just utilize us for things they can’t or don’t want to do. We’re kind of like nannies, without much to do.”
I sat there thinking some in silence before she spoke again.
“Look, you’re twenty and their thirteen and fifteen,” she said thirteen with a bit of unwillingness, “and you’ll be the only guy in the house if you decide to move in. I just ask that you make your decision based on a responsibility and maturity. They give you a lot of attention and it’s not going to go away if you’re in the bedroom next to them. You’ll have them on your back day and night, when their happy, and angry.”
“Have they done this before? You know, invited somebody else?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Do you want me to live with you?” I suddenly asked with curiosity. Natalie took a heavy breath.
“Ashley and Amy weren’t our first customers. Before them, we rented out two bedrooms and ourselves occupied the third. We mostly catered to people passing through, staying only a week or two. Then they came along. They were quick to rent both rooms available. Time and events passed and we adopted them. You know about the whole under the table terms of it. Slowly by their generous inquisitions, their new furniture began replacing ours. There was some remodeling done by their request and generously increasing rent. And then they suggested that we redue the attic and move up there, giving us each our own personal space of sorts. And ultimately, by the original contract which I’m near positive was forged, they are renting the rights to the room and therefore, have such to accept new occupants who do not violate the terms. You don’t, and so I have no say in the matter.”
“If you don’t want them to stop paying you, that is.” Both of us were startled by what I had just said. I really didn’t mean to speak my mind. “Sorry, I honestly don’t care about your motives, as honorable as they are. It’s not my business and blatantly, you all seem to know what you’re doing and nobody is being hurt.”
“I won’t lie to you because I respect your intelligence. I can’t claim that money isn’t involved in our relationship, otherwise such as it is would not exist. They wouldn’t allow it. But as it is, the only way to care for them is to accept their money and provide them with the best living arrangements possible, so they are not drawn elsewhere outside the supervision of the only ones I myself can trust to two little girl like them.”
“I one-hundred percent agree with where you’re coming.” I sat silently for a few seconds then, trying to word a closing statement. “I promise that I’ll take everything you’ve said into account on my decision and will try to base my decision on an equal responsibility and maturity as you have shown me.” Eh, good enough.
The conversation ended and I left the car. I ran my thumb up my pants pocket to feel the piece of paper with their phone number on it and walked to my door. I felt weird walking away from that talk. It was rare that I communicated with someone as self-assured as her. But I liked it, though at the same time felt a little queasy; felt like she could see right through me. See that though she was motivated by money, I was stimulated by the next worse thing.
---
I stayed up the entire night in thought. Thinking over and over again the consequences of each choice. I had to find a place to live somewhere and sometime soon. Living in a motel was extraordinarily expensive, at least the one I chose. One side was clearly taking the lead before I finally fell asleep to the constant agony I would feel in hating myself if I ended up moving in with some frat wannabe boys, and had to live with the missed opportunity of at least trying out living with free room and board. Clearly the entire situation was a once in a hundred lifetimes kind of deal.
I woke up the next morning at my usual time. Despite the long hours lost to thought the night before, I felt more awake than most days. Even if I was still consciously weary, my subconscious had already decided. But I didn’t want to call them so soon. I didn’t even know what to say to them, ‘uh, yes, I would like to live with you for free.’
I resorted to heading out to the park with my book. I knew I couldn’t possibly read under the anxiety but I would still look better trying to read rather than doing nothing.
About a hundred feet from the bench I first met Amy at, I stopped. Looking to it, I was a bit saddened neither that she, nor her timid but rousing sister were in sight. That soon enough died though when a pair of grade-schooler’s arms flung around my waist as their attached torso hugged into my butt.
“Popscotch!...”
“Get off me.”
“Did you make up your mind?”
“Get off me.”
“Are you coming to live with us?”
“Get off me.”
“Aaaaah,” Amy began moaning as her fingers let go of me and she was pulled backwards. I turned around catching her sister Ashley tugging her by the head off of me.
“Sorry,” she said a little coyly, but with a confusing hint of authority.
We all three stood in an awkward silence for several moments.
“Um,” Ashley started with her soft, warm voice, “I guess we’ll let you alone to your book.” Amy was aggressively heaving on her arm. “You have our number if you decide.” She began to turn away from me.
“Uh, Ashley,” I motioned her back. It was the first time I had actually said her name aloud. Such a mediocre, dull, and overused name; but just hearing myself say it and her respond reshaped it into my most favored name ever. I said it and she looked at me; most amazing name in the world. “Uh, I guess if you really don’t mind, I could stay.”
“Really!” her eyes beamed at me. I knew next to nothing about her and she was five years younger than me, three years illegal, but something about what she just did to me made me want to do some not so public things in that all too public park. Perhaps it was because she was the first girl in my life that gave me attention whom I actually liked. Whatever it was, my stomach began churning; I began second guessing the real motive behind wanting to move in, had I really been mature and responsible in my decision. All from that one word she spoke to me.
That one word strangely seemed like the first word. Nearly as if everything she had ever said to me before was in a manner of stranger to stranger. Though this one first word felt different. Like in my agreeing to move in, she dropped her defenses and was now ready to get to know me. Something her younger sister greatly lacked.
“Yeah, but I can pay my share.”
“No, you’re free, we got you covered.”
“I really don’t want to be in your debt though.”
“You won’t be. We’ll be in your debt. Just having a new person around.” Ashley’s fingers were being squeezed red by her sister as she spoke to me.
“I got to do something to make it even though.”
“All you have to do is be yourself.” She apparently could see I wasn’t going to accept so easily. “Fine, if you want a chore around the house, thennn… you have to keep us company. Anddd… play with us.”
“And let us do what we want to you!” Amy interjected.
“Amy, no.”
“I just want to hug him. Do you know how hard it is growing up without any physical contact with a man? I’m going to be all messed up when I’m an adult because I was never cared for properly as a child.”
Ashley looked to me confused yet pleading.
“Do you want her to hug you? It’s up to you if you absolutely need to pay rent, that’s more than your money’s worth.”
Looking down to the little girl, I got a healthy impression that she was telling the truth. But on my more irresponsible side, having to put up with being touched all the time by that thing did appear to buy me some pity from her older sister. And pity meant attention.
“Alright.”
No sooner to pronouncing the ‘t’ then was Amy’s chest squeezing into my pelvis. I could hear her inhaling deeply, then exhaling.
“Has anyone ever told you that you smell Really Good?”
“No,” I responded watching Ashley roll her eyes.
“Did you want to move in today?” Ashley asked.
“You don’t have a bed yet though.”
“It’s being assembled now.”
I gave her a questioning look.
“We were getting one for the room anyways. We can pick up your stuff today if you want.”
“Okay,” I reluctantly replied. “Do I have to maintain contact with her twenty-four, seven?”
“Amy, get off him.”
“But he said-“
“Amy!”
The little arms unwrapped from around my back where I met a disappointed little face staring up at me.
“Can I hold your hand?”
“Yes,” I unwillingly accepted. She quickly intertwined our fingers together and pulled me in the direction of their home; probably expecting to lose that privilege if we weren’t walking together.
At their house, I was met with disappointed looks from Natalie and Gabrielle. It had to be either from me making my decision so soon, or just plainly, the decision I made. I didn’t think they trusted my motives. I didn’t really know if I myself trusted my motives.
Within the next three hours, Natalie and Gabrielle had moved all my supplies from the motel to their house and I with insane anxiety, closed the account on my room. My body was becoming physically sick in the tension of the decision I made. My mind was being self-destructive, I knew it, but I couldn’t stop it. More than the actual decision was the fact that I was now going to live with the most attractive girl I had ever laid eyes on, and she was fifteen. If I walked from the experience not going to jail, I would be beyond surprised. Both Natalie and Gabrielle stared me down with mixed expressions. They were keeping their eyes on me.
After moving a small library of text books, my laptop, an assortment of other electronic goods, and my clothes, Ashley suggested that we go out to eat as an inauguration of me. After I declined the responsibility of choosing the restaurant, Amy was quick to pick a place I never heard of, but man was it the best food I ever had. And afterward, Ashley was just as quick to pick up my tab. As uncomfortable as I felt already for that fact, Natalie and Gabrielle made me feel double worse as they just leered at me like I had a master plan to milk those girls for everything they were worth.
Back at the house, my anxiety died down very little. I was quickly making plans in my head to go to sleep early, wake up and start an aggressive search for my next grant essay. I needed anything and everything to have as little free time in that place as possible. I needed something to keep my mind busy.
Soon enough, I retreated to my room to better organize my things. I just repositioned books into neater stacks, set up my laptop, alarm clock, and a few other useful items. Ashley came in half way through, which of course completely shattered the softening of my heart rate.
“We can pick up a desk, dresser, and bookshelf tomorrow. Were you going to need anything else?”
“No,” I replied sitting on my bed uncomfortably. Ashley followed my lead and sat down next to me.
“If my sister bugs you anytime, just tell me and I’ll put her back in line.” Her voice was soft and shy, but she talked as if everything she had to tell me was of importance. “That is why she was put to sleep at birth and given a few years for me to grow older. It’s my job to control her.”
I blatantly had nothing to say to that.
“You’ll learn quickly enough about us and open up. Don’t feel obligated to do anything anyone says in this house, everything is your choice, and no one will question that.”
She turned her head and looked at me in a way leaving my stomach curling into itself. It was impossible to interpret what she was thinking; all I could decipher was that it was something good – something good while she looked into my eyes. With a coy smile, she pushed up off the bed and walked from the room.
My eyes wandered from where her butt just was to the rest of the mattress. Soon enough, the sickening feeling I got every time I saw Ashley left as I just noticed how odd the bed was. It was a mix between a twin and a queen. As long as a queen at least and about half way in width between the two sizes. Definitely comfortable for one person, but just not quite there for two.
About an hour later in the bathroom brushing my teeth, I was greeted with Amy opening the door and waltzing in like privacy wasn’t something that existed in the house. As if nothing out of the ordinary, she reached in front of me and grabbed her own toothbrush and toothpaste. I was so glad when I laid down in bed by myself and could fall asleep in the dark, most normal room in the house.
Despite everything being new and off, the stress of the day and the near unfathomable comfort of the bed soon drew me into blissful and oh so relaxing sleep.
At least until I woke up maybe three hours later to a little girl shaking my shoulder back and forth. So reluctantly I opened my eyes to meet Amy’s figure in the dark.
“Do you want a smoothie?” she asked in a whisper.
“What?”
“I made you a smoothie.”
“Why?... Go away.”
“It’s strawberry, banana, and blueberries.”
“I don’t want a smoothie, I want to sleep.” It was only the massively discomforting feeling that weighed down my body and swelled my brain that told me that I wasn’t stuck in a bad dream; I was stuck in a bad reality.
“Well, I’ll set it down right here if you change your mind.”
“Uuunnnh,” I groaned as I rolled onto my stomach pressing my face into the pillow. The room faded into silence and with the greatest relief, I fell asleep within the minute.
I woke up in the morning a little earlier than I would have liked to a body not even half my age repositioning itself next to me. Turning my head, I found Amy sound asleep on my bed sprawled out over the covers in a nightgown, dangling an arm and leg over me. All I could think was that at least she wasn’t under the blanket with me.
With a quick shift over to the edge of the mattress, my eyes met what lingered at that possible dream, a glass filled with a yogurt smoothie sitting on the floor. One of Amy’s fingers twitched on my back. I was not going to stand for this.
I rolled onto my side and uncurled my arms from under the blanket, took a gentle grip on the little girl, and fluidly pushed her off the end of the bed. I had to admit to myself there that she was one incredibly smooth girl, sliding like silk off silk and into the floor with a dull thump. Quickly, I figured it best if she didn’t know I was awake so I faked sleep. That worked for about thirty seconds.
“Popscotch, I know your awake, stop faking it,” Amy jumped on me. Her body had climbed over me in straddling as she slowly lowered down, relaxing all her muscles and using me as a bed.
“Popscotch, come on sleepy head.”
Shortly after that, my neck jerked back and forth feeling a small mouth and set of teeth latch onto my ear lobe. With that, I confirmed that I was awake, but still didn’t detach the girl from my ear. Instead, she held on tighter until I gave up, where she began gently chewing on it.
“Where’s your sister?”
“Sleeping probably,” Amy muffled from her teeth and directly into my ear.
“Please get off me.”
“You want to go visit my sister. She’s why I slept in here. She was making too much noises last night.”
“Unlike some people, I respect people’s privacy and don’t just barge in.”
“We never close our door at night, so it’s open and not barging in.”
“So you admit to barging into my room.” My ear was becoming a little numb under her chewing. Unlike theirs, my door was closed.
“You’re my imaginary friend so you don’t need privacy.”
“I’m not imaginary, and get off me.”
“You pushed me off the bed, why don’t you just force me off of you now?”
“I find that many times, words are more powerful than actions.”
“That’s dumb.”
“So if I showed your sister what you were doing to me right now, you wouldn’t get off.”
“She would use actions to get me off, not words.”
“Well, I’m not going to entertain you by giving you anymore attention than necessary.” My ear was breaking past the monotonous numbness and actually starting to hurt a bit. I pushed my weight up and repositioned myself to the edge of the bed. Amy rang her arms around me, latching her body in a fixed, unmovable position. She had no plans to get off. Me forcing her off would only encourage her to do it again, and so I determined the most effective solution to be to get her sister to take charge. Also in my warped mind, the latter gave me a reason to visit Ashley, visit her as she slept and watch her fluster about from first waking to save me, pity me, and give me attention.
Standing up and walking proved to be quite an interesting task with an extra sixty or so pounds on one side of my body. I stepped from my room and moved down the six foot stretch between our two bedroom doors and into the girls’ room. It was then that I noticed that I was still only wearing my night clothes, nothing but a pair of boxers and a night undershirt. Though it probably was a tad less revealing than the nightgown draping the child on my left half, I didn’t really want my first morning in the house to be me showing off my underwear.
Watching Ashley asleep under a single pink sheet was amazing. She looked amazing. I couldn’t bear to disturb her. After a half minute of staring, I stepped back once to leave her alone in peace.
“Ashley! You have a visitor!” Amy yelled into my ear canal.
Before I could make a lopsided break from the room, Ashley’s eyes opened to me and her sister. It was painful to watch her woken up prematurely, to see her serene face contort in aggravation.
“Amy!” she broke out as her body lifted promptly from the mattress; the softest looking sheet falling down her chest leaving a similar nightgown to her sister’s in view. “Get off him now!”
“He pushed me off the bed,” Amy defended loudly into my ear again. Ashley looked confused for a second before regathering herself.
“His bed?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you on his bed? And get off of him now!”
Ashley stood up and took one step forward before freezing. She scooted back and awkwardly knelt down feeling around under her sheet. What she pulled out nearly stopped my heart. I thought I heard a soft giggle in my ear but I couldn’t comprehend much more than sight at that moment.
A pair of light pink panties came out scrunched up from underneath her sheet. Quickly, with her face growing red, Ashley pulled them open and stepped each of her legs into their respective holes. The way she was bent forward to pull the thinnest fabric up from her ankles, I didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse that there wasn’t a mirror behind her.
Soon enough that thought died though when in the fastest motion, her panties flew up her legs catching the front of her nightgown and hiking it up with them. And in that most forceful pull, I saw every curve imaginable locked tightly between those legs outlined into the fabric. It was the shape and color of the top of an upside-down pink Valentine’s Day heart. And what made my knees want to crumble on the spot and my throat hurt as it became too dry was the image of several pubic hairs poking out the crotch of the underwear.
In the most disoriented flick of the hem of her nightgown, she pulled everything back to normal. I forced my eyes to stare only at her face, I tried as hard as possible to look professional and unfazed by the fifteen year old most private part I had all but seen the flesh of. Most strangely though, her expression was more of fear than embarrassment. Like she didn’t mind that I saw what I did, but maybe like she was frightened of what I might think of her because of what I saw. There was a definite awkward silence for nearly a minute after that scene.
“Amy, get off him now!”
“Make me.”
Ashley took this new challenge strongly as if trying to refocus the attention on the new task at hand. She marched quickly towards me and raised her hands into the air. Her nightgown rose up with them but I struggled my hardest not to look. I knew only a large jolt or jump would give me another view, but I still wanted to stare and hope.
The two girls struggled with each other for a while tugging and pushing me around before Ashley exerted full control and lunged at one of Amy’s pressure points. Near instantly, the little girl gave way all her muscles and unlocked from me. As her older sister rolled her over and completely pinned her to the ground she told me I could leave. I could almost make out another view as my eyes strayed over her on the ground with her sister, but I didn’t dare move the foot to the right that would provide it; as maturely as I could, I obeyed her suggestion.
“Close the door too please.”
“No, don’t close the door,” Amy cried.
“You know what happens when you don’t obey me?” Ashley pronounced very harshly to her sister as I shut the door.
“Noo, don’t close the door! Come back!”
I walked into my room, only one wall separating from theirs, and was surprised that I couldn’t hear anymore yelling. I gathered some clothes together and headed to the bathroom then to meet Gabrielle in pajamas and slippers coming off the stairway from the attic. She looked to me.
“Do you like sausage?”
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Alright.” And then she headed down the next flight of stairs.
---
Needless to say, during my shower, I more silently reenacted what I chose to piece together on why Ashley was making noises the night before. Being naked in the very same house as that girl and masturbating in her shower only made it soo much more intense. My first morning in the home and I ejaculated onto their tile shower wall. Repositioning the spraying head, all that excitement was washed down with regret, guilt, and fear. How did I ever expect myself to live there without either going insane or preventing that by ending up in jail for molesting the most beautiful underage girl in the world? I watched depressingly as my stringing semen made its way down the oversized drain.
Coming from the shower to towel myself off, I was so relieved that my forgetfulness didn’t get me in a very tight situation. Looking to the sweating doorknob to the bathroom entrance, I remembered that for some reason, there were no locks inside the house whatsoever. And apparently, at least for Amy, there was no sense of privacy.
Breakfast was quiet to say the least. Amy seemed thoroughly punished. Normally a happy, obnoxious girl hanging all over me, she made no eye contact with me and kept her head down and silent the whole meal. Physically, she looked very worn out. Beyond her, I struggled my hardest not to stare too much at Ashley who was looking very serious. I was the only one in my day clothes; everyone else was still wearing their nightgowns or pajamas. And that meant the first hour of the morning expended great amounts of effort in not leering at a ninth grade girl in her outgrown nightdress, lest the two quite protective female house owners catch me with their annoyingly vigilant eyes. I was so thankful when everybody had taken their showers and changed into their day clothes.
I roamed the house looking for something to do. I wanted to look for another grant essay to work on but I just really wasn’t in the mood to start a new project. I was pretty sure my warped mind wanted me to have as much free time to be around Ashley as possible, and I had no defenses for that to counter. So instead I settled myself onto the couch next to Amy after passing by Natalie who seemed to be covertly watching me as I meandered among them.
“Stop watching him,” I heard Ashley almost yell behind me. I sat on the couch still and silent. “He’s a customer to your trade, a well paying one. You have no business in what he does in the first place.”
“Sorry,” I was so shocked to hear in Natalie’s voice. I couldn’t believe I had just heard a full grown woman apologizing to a fifteen year old after she in no respective manner told her off. I was starting to wonder how much those two girls paid in rent.
I peered over to Amy who still seemed depressingly sad. I heard someone heading up the stairs and then met Ashley’s head popping over the back of the couch.
“I’m sorry about them. They’ll learn soon enough that you’re no different of a customer than we are. If they make you uncomfortable in any way just tell me or Amy, I know Amy will be more than happy to defend you, although it’s probably best that I know as soon as possible after any confrontation between her and them. I’m going upstairs now to work on something.”
“What, no,” Amy protested immediately. “Play with us.”
“You knew this would happen so don’t start complaining.”
“Fine,” she griped.
“And if he has to come to me any more with you latched onto him, next time will be twice as bad.” Ashley pushed up from the back of the couch and left. Amy gulped with a twitch in her eye. And I couldn’t believe that I was actually feeling a little sorry for her.
In her quiet depressed form, the annoying little supposed thirteen year old, nine year old looking, girl appeared less as a menace and more as a cute child. A sad, cute child. I thought about holding my hand out to her to offer a truce of sorts so we could be back on good terms, but then decided the better option and grabbed the television remote.
After flipping through maybe ten channels, then resorting to the onscreen guide, Amy seemed to have accepted that truce I never offered her.
“You want to watch a movie?”
“No.”
“What do you wanna watch?”
“I’m figuring that out myself right now.”
“You can order a movie if you want, but we have bunches already in the shelves.”
“I don’t want to watch a movie.”
“We get all the ordering channels possible, so if you want you can order the movies boys your age like to watch.”
“No thanks.”
“Here, I’ll pick a movie,” she boldly took it upon herself as she stood up. She walked to the shelving unit left of the television and opened the swinging doors, unveiling at least two hundred Blu-Ray DVDs. I glanced at her self-righteous form for a second before what she did glued me.
She seemingly wore a normal outfit, skin tight high-water jeans, socks, and an extra long, yellow, skin tight shirt; it was nothing provocative or out of the ordinary for a girl her age, or a girl of any age. But when she stretched her extra long skin tight shirt down to its lowest, several inches below her butt cheeks, I couldn’t help but notice something that her jeans did a good job at hiding. Through the dark fabric of the denim, nothing looked out of the ordinary, but squeezed under the thin, faded yellow, elastic shirt, a clear cut panty line clearly defined itself. What held my eyes pasted to her bottom though wasn’t just that she displayed her panty line. It was the fact that unlike the panty line one would expect to find on a girl her age, full coverage and support of both butt cheeks, I saw that slightest protrusion ending no further than two inches on either side of her crack at the highest, widest point.
My ears were no virgins to hearing all around me about children, especially little girls, wearing age inappropriate clothing, but there and then, my eyes were actually witnessing a girl physically aged no higher than nine wearing underwear one small step away from being a full blown thong. Perhaps a thong would have been better; I would have probably never noticed a panty line then. But there I was, eyes glued to a little girl’s bottom and actually losing a controlled heart beat to a definitely age inappropriate clothing style. Feeling the blood pulse through my veins, I could definitely understand parents concerns on fashion like that being targeted to kids so young. It sure took the cuteness from that shape and replaced it with something else.
Amy bent down to look at the movies on the lower shelves. I tried so hard but couldn’t pry my eyes away. A four inch base at the top of her cheeks and then the triangle narrowed, right straight down to the near point squeezing between her legs. Four inches out of probably ten. Less than half. The images I strove so hard to suppress in my mind were of how much skin would be showing off to me were she not wearing those pants. It was soo wrong, it made it that much harder to fight my curiosity.
And then my body broke down; I started getting an erection. Man did I want to beat myself to a pulp right then. I had to stop looking, stop thinking. Was she wearing panties like those in bed with me? No. I had to stop.
I had to make a decision fast, hold my quickly growing hard on down by my leg or shift in up onto my belly while Amy wasn’t looking. One was a discomforting hideaway with the potential of popping up into an unmistakable tent, the other was much more comfortable but would leave a more permanent, possibly mistakable bulge.
Amy quickly glanced back to me. My eyes shot up to her smiling face. I could feel my face glazing so lightly over in sweat. I opted for the much more comforting bulge; at least I wouldn’t need to keep my arm down on my leg for the next fifteen minutes forcing a pulsing organ down. As soon as she looked back to the videos, I shifted myself. I was really starting to regret my decision to live there. How could I possibly be getting an erection from a child? She wasn’t even in fourth grade yet. But those panties. They accented her littlest body so well.
Without notice, Amy turned, sprinted toward me, and jumped onto the couch.
“I can’t find anything good.” At that, her knees on the cushion next to me pivoted her body, and she fell straight to my lap. And directly onto the bulge in my pants, ten degrees warmer than the rest of myself. She buried her face into the softest cushion to the other side of me.
The varnish of sweat on my face was quickly turning into rolling droplets. I looked down to her. That panty line again. I soo wanted to get rid of my erection and that wasn’t helping. Two feet away from my eyes; I wasn’t even going to figure the distance from my hands. Second thoughts crossed my mind as whether I should actually do away with it. Would that just bring attention to the fact that I had one in the first place? How much did the little girl know about all that stuff to begin with? She rolled her head toward the television.
“Are you sure you don’t want to watch the grown up movies. You seem in the mood.”
“C-can you get off me please?” I stuttered.
“Whyyyy?” she whined sleepily. “You’re so comfortable.”
“I don’t think this is appropriate.”
“There’s no such thing as inappropriate here.” Her voice was becoming softer. I was clueless of what to do. I didn’t say anything else for several moments and then met Amy’s soft breaths in her sleep.
That truly left me oblivious as to what to do. But I figured in the least, I should do something about that unashamedly erotic panty line that hung just off my leg on the child. I really didn’t want anyone walking down stairs to find that staring me in the face, or worse, my face staring into it.
After a few minutes I decided to as gently as possible pull the girl from my lap and sort of curl her into a half ball onto the cushion next to me. She seemed to stay asleep through the process. I topped her off by placing one of the accent pillows over her hips to hopefully dissuade my prying eyes before returning to the television guide on the TV.
---
After two hours of becoming increasingly tired in having any interesting programs interrupted by commercials, I turned the TV off and headed upstairs. Walking through the hallway on the second story, I paused momentarily at the open doorway inlooking Ashley.
“Hello,” she said merrily to me, not even glancing to my direction.
“Hello,” I copied.
“You can come in if you want.”
“I don’t want to bother you.”
“Come in then. I think leaving me after saying hello will be the option that bothers me.”
“Alright,” I said a little reluctantly still piecing her logic together. In the end it made sense.
“Pull up Amy’s chair.” I obeyed. “Your furniture won’t be arriving until about three.”
“Are we assembling it?”
“No, it’s all hand carved and put together from the start.”
“Oh.”
“Has Amy been treating you alright so far today?”
My eyes, wandering around their room and absorbing everything finally settled onto her laptop screen. It was just the desktop. Motioning to her face, I just noticed that she had been giving me her full attention the entire time.
“Oh, sorry; yeah, Amy’s been better. And, um, sorry about this morning.”
“No, I’m sorry. It’s my fault she left the room last night in the first place.” She reacted confident in herself until I slightly smirked thinking about how Amy told me she had been making noises last night, then to that, Ashley visibly blushed.
“I really didn’t mean to barge in.”
“It’s okay. We don’t get much privacy around here anyways. You just caught me off guard, that’s all.”
“Well, I didn’t see anything just so you know.”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m sure you’re gonna see me a lot living here. I just wasn’t ready.”
“What do you mean?”
Ashley blushed deeply.
“For which part?” she asked coyly.
“Hmm?”
“See me a lot or I wasn’t ready?”
“Both I guess. No, just the first, none of my business on the other. Not really my business at all for anything. I’m sorry.” I wanted to beat myself so badly. The sweat was coming back to my face.
“Well, I said we don’t get much privacy here. You’re bound to see something sometime. It’s just the way we live.” Oh my goodness was I using every psychological capability right then to not get a hard on. “I don’t mind if you see me naked, I was just hairy down there, you know.”
“I don’t mind at all,” I said regrettingly trying to comfort her self-image. Oh I hated myself right then. And I was very quickly losing the battle to my erection. I wanted to leave and never have had that conversation.
“You don’t? Um, what do you prefer then?” At that point my arm was on my lap holding down a fully grown penis, poking straight toward Ashley. My mind was just a lost puppy unable to read any signals in the situation that would lead me to a safe way out. “It’s just that in all the pictures or movies I see, and what Natalie and Gabrielle tell me, guys like girls to be not hairy.” She was driving a rusty iron pike into my heart. I felt ready to have a panic attack. But she stared at me as if my answer was the most important thing in the world to her.
“Uh, well actually, I did see, um, I think hair suits you well. I mean - either way you want is fine, but I really just want you to be happy and feel comfortable no matter how you look. There’s no way you could look less,” my voice dropped dramatically hearing myself say the words I said; I forced myself to finish the sentence, “pretty.”
Ashley’s face beamed to me like I said the most magical words to her. I couldn’t look back to her but I didn’t know where else to look.
“Well, I guess I’ll just trim it a little then. Other than that, I’ll keep it like a restored Victorian house keeps its antique look, except the other way around, on the antique part.” Then instantaneously, she changed the subject. “Where’s Amy?”
“Uh, she’s sleeping on the couch.” I was beyond happy that we were off the previous topic, but it would take a good hour before my chest stopped feeling like it was about to burst open and spray molten blood everywhere. My arms were restless but I couldn’t move them from holding my most embarrassing organ down.
“Tomorrow’s Friday, so we’re staying up late in the Rec. Room and watching movies until we fall asleep with bunches of snacks. You can join us if you want, it’ll be really fun.”
“Okay…”
“Great, you don’t even need to bother changing into your night clothes, it makes it funner to stay up so late in regular clothes and just drop into sleep from exhaustion. Maybe we can break you in a little so you’re not so quiet.”
“Maybe.”
Ashley’s tone was picking up with excitement and it was very hard for me not to absorb it. I strangely felt like a project of hers, but I really liked that feeling. She was giving me attention and seemed determined to make me be myself, even under such unordinary circumstances. And I really wanted to be myself, despite all the barriers I kept setting up to protect myself in the wildly foreign environment.
“Well, I got to get back to work I guess.”
“Oh,… what’re you doing?”
“Uuuh, it’s really hard to explain. But you’ll figure it out soon enough and it’ll probably be less confusing if I don’t even try to tell you now.”
“Alright, well, I’ll let you get back to work then. Thanks for the chat… I think.”
“Thank you. You cleared some stuff up for me.”
“You're welcome?” I half said questioningly. That entire talk just confused me more than I had ever been in my life. I pushed up from the chair and walked slowly from the room straining to keep the large sidewise lump in my pants out of her sight.
Walking past my near void of furniture room, I decided to procrastinate a bit more on finding a new project and walked into the third bedroom where I assumed was known as the Rec. Room. It was after all filled with recreational activities galore. I wandered it for several minutes looking for anything to keep me interested. I decided on a halfway decent joke book and plopped down into the softest oversized beanbag chair I’d ever felt. And that’s where I spent the next several hours.
By the time my new furniture arrived at three-thirty, I pretty well guessed that lunch was our own individual responsibilities as I struggled to cover the sound of my stomach gurgling from the four girls who cased my new bedroom set.
At bedtime, or what seemed to be the time Ashley and Amy decided to go to bed, I felt exhausted. There definitely wasn’t much physical activity at all that day, but my brain and heart had been pushed to their limits more than a few times. It was as if I had poisonous snakes snapping at me but just missing a sinking bite all day long. I was so ready for sleep, and although it was the greatest thought in the world, I reluctantly hoped against a releasing night for Ashley. I really wasn’t in the mood for another visit by Amy.
I woke up the next morning without a warm smoothie on my nightstand or floor and no little girl on top of my covers, a definite plus. So far the day was normal.
That ended halfway through my shower. I heard the bathroom door open, then close and footsteps coming toward me. I stood motionless.
“Hi Popscotch.” It was Amy. My heart was in straight panic.
Then I heard the toilet lid clink against the tower of the unit. Seconds later, a hard long line of liquid splashing into liquid sound. I was right there, completely naked and that little girl was urinating to her heart’s content into the toilet three feet from me, like nothing in the world was wrong. I could only too well picture her sitting, legs spread, and squeezing the morning dew from her body. And I was getting an erection!
Oh I wanted to stab myself right there. I wanted to rip my own heart from my rib cage. I immediately turned my parallel organ toward the wall and out of the distorted view of the fogged, warped glass wall separating us. I was twenty years old; she was like nine or something; what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I stop trying to imagine a head on view between her legs right then?
The solid pitch of a super soaker spraying into a pool of water stopped and turned into short strong bursts. After about six, I heard toilet paper ripping.
“Can I take a shower with you?”
“No,” I said horrified.
“Alright.”
The toilet flushed. My erection was nearly peaking. I waited and listened for the bathroom door to reopen and Amy to leave. My heart valves just about burst and drown me in my own blood as I heard instead, the glass shower door open. As fast as possible, I twisted my chest around to see what the little girl thought she was doing.
My stomach most simply felt like it completely rolled around three hundred and sixty degrees as my eyes absorbed the naked child. The girl premature of one measly decade, completely nude, and walking and shutting herself in, six inches from my way overly excited, exposed body.
“I decided I would anyways.”
“Get out,” my voice shook. My vision followed her walking around to my side. There was no freaking way I would ever buy that she was thirteen. Disease, virus, act of God, no way in hell she was alive for a double digit number. No breasts at all, the tiniest dime sized areolas, baby fat, and smooth as silk lips squeezed so tightly between her legs. I could see her ribs; she had no belly, barely any butt. Ashley definitely had more skin on her than meat. Amy was a little bit disgustingly skinny, but she was buck naked, right there, inches from my now rotating body, from my fully erect and throbbing penis. Amy’s face beamed up at me.
“Do you want me to play with that?” she asked way too innocently. “I know how to do it right, I think. I’ve seen it done a hundred times before in movies.”
“Don’t touch me. Don’t, just don’t touch me.” I needed to get out of there. I needed to find Ashley. She needed to hear it from me, not her sister. I did nothing wrong. I wasn’t about to go to jail. “I’m finished with the shower; you can have it to yourself.”
“Awww…”
I opened the shower door and stumbled out. Wrapping a towel around me, I grabbed my clothes, broke out, and made for my room. I dried off and scrambled to put my clothing on.
After changing, I headed to check if Ashley was awake. She wasn’t in her room so I headed downstairs where I found her on the couch watching cartoons and eating a bowl of cereal. Natalie and Gabrielle were at the kitchen table eating cereal as well while talking. Quickly, I plopped down next to Ashley.
“Ashley, I was just in the shower and Amy came in there with me.”
“And…”
“Well, she walked in completely naked. She tried touching me.”
“And…”
“Well, I left.”
“What’s so exciting about this story?”
I was dumbstruck. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Um,”
“Taking showers together isn’t uncommon here,” she finally took charge.
“Oh.”
“Like I said yesterday, there’s not a whole lot of privacy to go around. You’re the only person who uses that word here really. Pretty much we just get whatever we want from each other by asking. We share everything, except computers.”
“So if someone asks someone else for something, and they say no, what happens then?”
Ashley looked at me.
“That very rarely happens, but if they say no, then you’ve got to respect them.”
“But when Amy asked to take a shower with me and I said no, she still did.”
“Well, you did agree to give her attention as part of your rent.”
“Yeah, but she ignored what I had to say even before that agreement.”
“She’s just not used to hearing no. Tell her yes more often and she’ll probably respect the fewer ‘nos’.”
“So the next time she asks if she can play with my private part, give her permission?”
“Yeah. It’s not going to hurt you.”
“Sure, what if I just asked if I could play with yours, what would you say?”
“You can if you want to.”
My heart skipped two beats. My mouth went dry.
“Do you want to?” she asked me pulling her knees apart some. I could hear Natalie and Gabrielle still conversing in the dining room behind us. Ashley stared into my eyes. She nibbled on the corner of her bottom lip.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“It’s not right.” My hand wanted to slice my throat open. Oh my goodness did it know too well what it could be touching right then. “I’m sorry.”
Her lips pursed in as her teeth let go.
“You have more power than you think,” she said to me with a glint of a smirk. It was like she was getting enjoyment from watching me internally suffer pure agony.
Amy came down and sat with us watching TV about half an hour later. Ashley by no means wore clothes deteriorating her attractiveness, but they didn’t flaunt it either. Amy on the other hand used her clothing choices as the defining feature to the mixed thoughts in my head. Ashley’s body made her so insanely heartbreaking, and she just wore cute clothes over it. Amy’s body was simply put, cute to the imagination, but the clothes over it made her insanely sightful.
That day, she chose to sport another pair of skin tight jean high waters, laced with deviating light blue hearts, and what I thought was one shirt at first, but actually two. The first one was barely a shirt which drew me to think it was only part of the other; it was simply an elastic band from her chest down to her belly with an equal length skirt free hanging below. It appeared that the lightest tug would reveal her entire upper frame were it not for the second dark tanned shirt below, what I guessed to be another simple elastic band, but with two of the thinnest spaghetti straps looping over her shoulders. She came wearing shoes as well, but by the time she had squeezed between me and Ashley, only socks were on her little feet.
I couldn’t help but glance down at all the skin showing right down to a thin hem line just covering her absent chest. The barely there bikini tan kept my eyes rolling over the different shades of her body.
“Do you like her shirt?” Ashley asked me. My face immediately shot up to her smiling one.
“It-it’s interesting.” I couldn’t believe I was just caught leering at the most amazing girl in the world’s little sister.
“You do like it!?” Amy popped her voice up to me. Quick to redeem myself, I replied down to her.
“Yes, you look so much better in it than not.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he likes you bette