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My Brother's Keeper Ch. 01

By: AbsyntheLo



Jean Marie...heh, yeah, that's a sweet little name that I'll never, ever forget—or better yet, escape.

It wasn't that she was bad or anything—See, it was when I was younger, you know? Around eighteen. I lived with my mom, my older sister, and my little brother. She was a friend to my sister, Candie, of course... And man was she ever a friend to my sister. I mean, mom thought that they were close—and they were. But were they ever! See, mom didn't know it, and I didn't either, not then. But looking back on all that now...

It was a weekend in October when my sister had gone to stay over Jean Marie's. See, all month long, or really, for the better part of every weekend in the month. They were always together during the weekends before, so, really, it was no big deal. The only real difference was that now they were involving others; you know, going to parties, boozing with the best of 'em.

That sort of thing.

I had heard only a little bit about the last party that they were going to for the month; some seventies theme thing. Candie had left the day before, you know, to be there at Jean Marie's early enough for the two of them to hang before the party.

Long story short, they went to the party, of course. Got loaded, I imagine. And then, of course, they crashed before sleeping the day away and showing up in my mom's driveway somewhere late into the afternoon.

Those were some happy girls as they came up to the door and came inside, laughing all the way. I watched Jean Marie as she carried all that she'd brought up the steps and through the front door. Books, clothes, papers—and booze like you wouldn't believe! They were brining it all in, the two of them. Laying it all to rest wherever their bags would fall.

Which was mainly in the livingroom.

Once they'd unloaded everything, they threw themselves on the couch, still giggling. They had fallen all over each other making a grand spectacle of themselves, but they didn't care. They never did. A lot of people would have called them shameless for the way that they acted. And then there were the ones who were like my mother, who just thought that they were the best of friends; like sisters.

"But sister have their ways, too... Everyone does, behind closed doors."

It's what Jean Marie had said in response to my mom's questioning. It was strange, no topic was too candid or too taboo when Candie and Jean Marie was around. It was strange and nice all at once.

So she stayed with us that weekend, so Jean Marie could spend Halloween with my sister; one of their traditions. Strange as it was, this holiday was like Christmas for the two of them. And our mom liked Jean Marie, better than any or all of my sister's friends. Thought she was good for my sister.

Heh, if only she knew.

That night was Halloween, and my sister and her friend lived it up. The both of them loved on the whole Goth scene, the dark and dramatic cloths and make up. Though I think it was the attention that they got off on more than anything else. It was just their way. It was my sister Candie, though, who really went for the extreme. A Gothic Sister of the Anti-Faith. That was Candie's angle; shock the hell outta' people at first glance and leave them wonderin'. Jean Marie, on the other hand, was more of the classical type. I mean, as dizzy as they both were acting when they had first shown up, Jean Marie still managed, somewhat, to keep this—timeless look about her... Heck, I think at one time my sister had made mention of Jean Marie's blood mix—blood being another of their turn on's...

They talked about it like—like she was a mutt or somethin'. My mom, Candie and Jean Marie laughed about it all the time, though it wasn't until some time later that I really understood. She wore her style like a Gypsy; long skirts, sandals, those tops with the large sleeves. But she looked good in it all, she made it look good, completing the look with a scarf in her hair and cheep junk jewelry. That's how she'd shown up to the house.

Of course, since her normal clothes where like a costume in itself, Jean Marie was the type to lean towards another extreme, following Candie's lead. She called herself a "Honey-Bunny," though in all truth, she looked like something straight from the lolita line of Hugh's Bunny Ranch. She looked good, though, don't get me wrong; in her black, strapless, corset-fitting dress and her platform Mary Jane's. On the back of her dress she wore a fluffed up tail, topped with a pink ribbon bow. And to complete the look, tall and half-floppy, fluffy pink ears.

Like I'd said, the lolita end of the Ranch.

"Jeez-Louise, I'm dehydrated!"

Jean Marie, was sprawled out on the couch again. She was giggling, still, her bunny ears crooked atop her head as she lazily tapped her foot on the floor.

"We can go out and get something to drink," Candie suggested, curled up at the couches other end. "Go to DQ and get a couple of sodas...?"

Laughing, Jean Marie shook her head. "Too much sugar! You know I can't drink that stuff."

I frowned, looking back and over my shoulder to them from where I sat on the floor. "All those bottles you half-whit's brought in, and you don't have anything to drink?"

That's when they both started laughing, like two little girls in Elementary school, having their first crush. They laughed like that a lot, and by now—at least for me—hearing it was almost second nature.

"That's for later," scoffed Candie. "When all of you and yours have gone to bed." She smiled.

"You and yours?" I asked.

Jean Marie giggled and nodded, her head at rest on Candie' hip. "When the jail-bait's away, us and ours will play..."

"In other words, you're too young to understand."

"Of course," I muttered in response to my sister's tauntings, glaring at her as she stuck out her tongue at me. She enjoyed having the upper hand, and at times it made me right pissed. Other times...

"Neh, Candie? Exactly how old were you when you first took to the bitter-sweet effects of 'la liquor'?"

"Younger in years, but wiser in the head than the sib's, I'm sure."

I looked up to Jean Marie as she spoke to Candie, watching her full lips as they formed every word that they spoke. And her eyes... She had those bedroom eyes, ya know? Though I'm sure at that point it was due more to the fact that they'd already begun their drinking. But they weren't drunk, not yet. They were only just beginning to feel the effects of what they'd had so far.

They were the 'happy drunk' sort. Though, they never really got to the point where they'd be annoying or obnoxious, stumbling all over themselves, speech slurring, wall-hugging drunk. Or at least, they weren't yet at that point... Right now, they were only slightly tipsy.

"A touch tipsy!" Jean Marie corrected, having heard me in my calling them out under my breath.

Candie laughed.

So there they were on the couch, mindlessly poking, prodding and picking through their harvested loot of assorted sugars from the earlier part of the night. They were like two little girls, their eyes alight from their time out.

But they weren't about to let their fun end there.

I looked up to the window as there came a hard pounding at the glass. I jumped, my mother jumped. Hell, we all jumped, even more so with the sight of the two—no, three painted faces as they looked in through the window, still pounding at the glass as they yelled and howled hysterically.

Seeing this, my sister Candie sprang to her feet, quick as her body—and her costume, would allow, giggling all the more as she stepped—practically jumped—over our little brother to get to the door. Jean Marie was close on her heels to join the party that had come to collect on our lawn. Seven people, maybe, counting my sister and Jean Marie.

"Baby girl!"

Candie squealed as she lept out of the door and into the outstretched arms of the awaiting—guy. He was tall from what I could see, face only half painted beneath his spiked hair. "You're late!" she squealed, her arms around his shoulders.

"Had to get some essentials," he breathed in her ear, nodding back and over his shoulder to Jean Marie.

Jean Marie... I watched her as she moved to get out of the door and down the steps, joining up with the others who lingered at the foot. Everyone was laughing, most of them drinking.

"S'okay if they park on the lawn here, right?" Jean Marie asked, tossing back her hair as she looked back to my sister, laughing at the way Candie was straddling the guy from greeting and his carrying her down the stairs in just that way.

Candie nodded. "S'fine. So long as they don't mind the block or two long walk!"

They were going into the woods. I had heard my sister planning it out for weeks now. Down in the woods where it was rumored that a few kids did this blood ritual thing a few Halloweens before. They were gonna take booze and candles and music and just hang for as long as they could stand. Maybe longer.

"Lemmie just grab my cloak!"

I watched Jean Marie as she pulled her hands free from the one who'd been holding her where she'd been standing, turning to start back towards the door—towards me.

She smiled to me, a light-hearted smile. Sweet. The kind of smile that just made your knees weak, your heart skip and your head swim. Though not always in that order.

"Ya gonna come with?" she asked as she squeezed past me through the doorway.

I felt her brush against me, made my breath catch in my throat. She even stopped there, in front of me, her eyes looking up to me. Despite the deep lacquer of Gothic-style makeup, I could see her child-like features, and, strange as it was, with her looking up to me as she was, I would have sworn that she was thirteen than twenty-one.

"Well?"

I swallowed hard, struggling to find my voice. I couldn't believe what she was asking, asking me—me, to come along with her and my sister and their friends to some—booze gathering. I started to open up my mouth to speak, only to be stopped as Candie interrupted.

"Stop teasing him, Marie!" she laughed. "Less you put ideas in his head!"

Jean Marie gave a shake of her head, ignoring what all my sister had said. Or, at least, that's the way she made it look. "Well? You wanna come with us, don't cha?"

"Jean Marie, come on! Get yer ass in gear!"

Jean Marie giggled, turning only to flash a smile to the boy who had called after her. I looked at him, too, though he didn't seem to notice me. I wasn't surprised.

"So you'll come?" she insist, reaching out to tug at my sleeve.

I lowered my eyes to her hand. Suddenly my tongue felt thick in my mouth.

"Fuck! Jean Marie! Come on!"

It was a second boy who called out for her, then. A big guy, thick. His dark hair in short twists , a black outline to the black and white face paint.

Biting at her lip, Jean Marie turned on her heels and lept down the few steps to the ground, running all the way until she reached the arms of the guy—the thick one. By now she'd forgotten what she had started into the house for, held now in the arm of the guy as the two that stood around her passed back and forth between them a smoke and a bottle of Jack.

"Come on!"

My sister called back to the ones who hung behind. She was already half way up the street with the one who carried her. It was only a little while later that all the others took to following, laughing and drinking all the way. And I could hear it as they walked, the clatter of bottles of booze and whatever else they deemed a need, or need-worthy. And even when they were out of sight I could still hear them. I waited in the doorway 'till it passed.

I don't know how long I sat around; hell, I don't even know why. It was usually so easy for me to get up and walk. To go into my room behind the closed door and to blare my music as loud as I could stand it. But not tonight. Tonight was just different, and there were reasons. At my mom's request I did the cliché round about the neighborhood with my little brother. I mean, he was a kid, who wanted candy, and still enjoyed that sort of thing—though, thankfully, for only so long.

I didn't expect my sister and her friends to be back when I got back, though it was disappointing just the same to find that they weren't there. Grunting, I shlumped down into the couch, watching my little brother as he dove head long into his loot. Mom thought it was funny, and taunted me for not getting any of my own. But I had. Of course I had! Just dropped mine down just inside the door, too lazy to lug it any further.

"Where's Candie?" I asked, only watching whatever was on the TV with half a care.

"Still out with Jean Marie and the others."

My mom didn't sound too worried, and really, I wasn't surprised. Looking up to the clocks, I noticed that it wasn't even ten. I groaned, shifting just slightly where I sat, my fingers smoothing over the dark clean velvet of the cloak that Jean Marie had left behind. I was restless, and unrightfully so. I didn't know why I was suddenly making such a big deal out of something that had always been the norm. I'd never worried about the whereabouts of my sister before or who she hung with. I mean, hell, she was twenty-two! She was grown, her own person, an adult. And it wasn't as if she was with strangers or plotting to drive.

And yet...

No, that was a lie. The more I thought about it, the more I knew it to be a lie. It wasn't my sister that I was worried about or for.

"I'm going out."

I made the announcement out of habit, though on a night like this it wasn't of any importance. I didn't bother to grab a coat, the air outside was in the perfect medium. A fluke of nature for all the weird weather we'd been having; extreme highs and lows. But the gods were gracious, I guess, and gave to Candie and "hers" exactly what they all needed for the perfect night out; a full moon and clear skies.

I walked down the road a ways before turning the corner to head down the sloping hill of the next street. It wouldn't take me long to get to the entrance of the woods, you know, where the road came to an end. But it was my finding my way on the path and through the woods that had me bothered, 'specially since it was dark. Candie and them, they had had the late evening's light to go by when they had left the house.

As for me...I think I had a lighter.

I cussed and swore as I made my way over parts of the path, my feet sinking into the thick of what mud and water had kept from the rain that had long since passed. The trek itself was easy enough, walkin' over rock and branch. For a while I even wondered just how Candie and Jean Marie had made it through, as prim and proper as they could be in concerns to their precious costumes. But then I remembered the muscle that had come to collect them, and at that I couldn't help but to laugh.

Once up the small embankment and onto the higher path I could hear them, their music blaring, shock-rock, Goth and whatever else suited their mood. I could hear the playful screams of a girl, though I couldn't begin to tell from which girl the scream might have come. But they were all laughing, livin' it up. I heard glass crash and shatter as it was dashed against rock, cheers raising all around as they applauded the deed done. Then there was chanting...

"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug--!"

Making my way further down the path now I could see it, the light that was cast by the bonfire they had made. Not too big, just enough for light and atmosphere. All that really mattered was the music and the drink.

They were all gathered under the double bridge, sitting where they fell is how it looked. I could see the face of the other girl who was with them, laughing and talking to others that I couldn't quite see—except for Jean Marie. It was easy enough to spot her, the bunny ears half fallen off of her head. She was resting against a boy, against the first one who had called to her back at the house.

I took a few steps forward, grateful for the shadow, and thankful that her back was towards me. It made it easier for me to listen as they all talked, as they all cheered mockingly as Candie and the one I had seen her clinging to emerged from the shadows of the paths opposite end. Already she was all smiles, taking a curtsey as the boy on her arm took a bow, each of them holding up in their free hands the drinks that they'd been drinking.

I took a step back, watching my sister as she leaned over to take from the sitting girl the smoke that she held between her fingers.

"I can't believe you did that!" Candie laughed as she took a drag.

Smiling, Caine turned his head to Candie's, kissing atop the crown of her twisted habit. "What?"

"Jean Marie," she laughed, gesturing towards her friend with her own half-empty bottle. "I can't believe that she teased my little brother the way she did."

"I didn't!" Jean Marie laughed. "My offer was genuine, I was being sincere!"

Everyone around the fire laughed, one or two of them shaking their heads.

"I was!"

"Marie just has a thing for the school boys," laughed the boy who held close to Jean Marie. And though I couldn't see it, I was sure that Jean Marie blushed to hear him say that. I did. "She likes encouraging their juvenile fantasies," he teased, turning to nibble at the lobe of her ear.

Against him she giggled and squirmed. "I do not!" she whimpered.

"I mean, it's not like he's your brother," the third girl added, taking back her smoke from my sister's hand.

At that Candie nodded, a wicked little smile on her lip. "I mean, I'm always half expecting you to snap when I snap—maybe even before then." She laughed. "And you know I wouldn't blame you if you acted the part of the total bitch, ya know?"

Though she laughed at what was said, Jean Marie turned her head to the guy that was at her side, hiding her face in the shadow of his shoulder. Opening up her eyes, I watched her as she watched me. Through the dark she had spotted me, watching all of them. But she didn't move and she didn't say a word. Instead, her lips curled into a smile, childish in the way that she bit at her lip, her dark eyes catching the moonslight and shining through the dark of her lashes.

I stood there breathless and still. I couldn't move.

"I mean, really. What do you care if he feels left out, or abandoned or whatever?" Candie went on. "You're not my brother's keeper."

Jean Marie giggled at this, I could see it, see it as well as I could hear it as she was slow to lift her head from the boys shoulder, looking across the fire to my sister. "No," she said in an all too simple breath. "I'm not." Again she gave a giggle as she turned her head back towards me. "But I'm beginning to think he's mine..."

All eyes moved to me, then, seeking me out through the dark, finding me, fixing on me. By now, they all knew I was there, and the lot of 'em, if not all of 'em, were beginning to snicker or laugh out loud.

It's pretty hard to keep a tough exterior when inside all you wanna do is yell. Shoving my hands into my pockets I started forward and into the light of the fire, kicking at the gravel and digging my toe into the dirt. I wanted to call them all out, label them all ass-holes, each in their own respective right. But I couldn't, not out loud. I didn't really know any of my sister's friends, except for Jean Marie. And really, I didn't exactly know what they were all capable of. "So now I'm you keeper, huh?" I muttered, glancing down to Jean Marie, a crooked, albeit forced, half smile curling my lips.

She nodded, slowly, jerkingly like a kid. She was wasted.

Keeping her eyes on me, se lift her hands up, reaching for me. Like a child she extend and curled her fingers again and again, like a little kid grabbing for their favorite toy. And, really, I wanted to reach for her, too. To take her up and just—hold her, I guess. Really, I'd never thought it through, I mean, she was Jean Marie, my sister's friend. I had thought about holding her, making out with her, maybe even being with her like she was with the guys she and Candie were always with. But I had never really thought about what I'd do, how I'd act if she really ever reached out—for me!


My Brother's Keeper Ch. 01



Suddenly everybody was laughing, laughing and I didn't know why. Of course, it wasn't long before I looked down to where everyone was pointing, to my feet. To where Jean Marie lay passed out and content—or at least as content as the unconscious could be. I didn't know what to do at that, all I could do was to look at her, to watch her as she slept, if sleep is what you could call it. I could feel the heat in my face grow hotter with every passing second, my heart swelling in my chest and rising as a hearty lump in my throat as I felt her shift and move. Her arms were around my ankle, hugging my leg tight as she could as she cuddled up to it in sleep. "What—what do I--?"

"Take 'er home!" laughed the girl at Candie's feet, shaking her head as she reached back for another beer.

The boy at Jean Marie's side chuckled some as he gave a nudge to her thigh, as if to test the depth of her unconsciousness. "Never could hold her liquor..."

"Never could catch up, either," laughed the thick guy as he guzzled the last half of what he had and belched loud and clear, tossing the empty bottle back and over his shoulder.

"Hey now!" It was the voice of my sister, drunk as she was herself, she still managed a rational thought or two. "Give her some credit 'cuz she can hang!" She hiccuped, grinning. "It's been a while since she's made it this far--,"

"Which is to say, 'at least she's not flung over the tub like before'!" laughed the guy at the other girl's side.

Frowning, Candie kicked him from behind, making him wince, while the other girl pinched his arm and made him yelp. The poor bastard, he deserved it.

"Jack ass," Candie scoffed, smiling only lightly as she lift her eyes to me. "Sucks that you came out here," she began. She shrugged. "But I guess it's all good, 'cuz she needs to be taken' back to the house."

"I'll take her," said the boy at Jean Marie's side with a smirk, his hand already on her bare thigh, giving it a pat as he talked.

He couldn't see me, but I scowled at him, hoping with every passing minute that he would turn around and would see just how much I hated him. It wasn't right, the way he touched her. But then, who was I to say, really, if it was right or wrong? I mean, these were the people that she was always with, the people that she trusted—that my sister trusted. And if they trusted these guys... Besides, they were older, all of them. And who was an eighteen-year-old to tell the legal adults what they could and couldn't do?

"Fuck that!" my sister blurted, shaking her head and frowning. "I trust you drunkards with her about as far as I could throw you!" She shook her head again, looking up to me. "Besides, we're staying at my mom's, and I'll be damned if I get kicked out for the night because I let one of you jerk-offs take advantage of my best friend in my mother's house!"

"I thought I was your best friend!?" joked the guy at my sister's feet, only to get kicked again. "Ow!"

With her chin, Candie gestured back to me. "Sean'll take her home. Him I can trust with Jean Marie."

Around the fire everyone fell silent, and they all looked back to me for a second time. I was feeling that heat again, even more as it raced through my heart and coursed through my veins. It was like wildfire in the way that it spread. And I liked it. "Take her home?" I asked, shifting my jaw and gnashing my teeth, anything in the hopes of hiding from everyone's eyes the feeling—whatever it was—that I felt.

Candie nodded. "You can do that, can't you?" she asked me, her voice sober. Though, really, it was more of a challenger or demand.

"Y—yeah..." I stammered. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Fuck that!" the thick guy yelled as he jumped to his feet. "I don't want his juvenile hands all over my girl!"

"Fuck you!" Candie barked back. "First off, pencil-dick, she isn't your girl. She's mine!"

Looking at my sister, I smiled, doing all that I could not to laugh. I couldn't help it. I'd never heard her outright lay claim to Jean Marie in any way, shape, or form. So this, to me, was amusing. But then, my sister always was the amusing type. She nodded to me then, gesturing for me to pick up Jean Marie.

"Secondly," Candie went on. "You're a drunk, sick, fuck who doesn't know one head from the other, and I won't let you fuck me over by trying to fuck Jean Marie once the two of you are out of earshot!"

The guy at Jean Marie's side helped me to lift her onto her feet, though that didn't last long in the least. He caught her as she stumbled back, holding her as I turned my back to the both of them. Looking back, I nodded for him to lift her onto my back, and he did. They all might have laughed as I did it, but I had my reasons. Anyone who had ever walked a path through any woods that weren't part of a public park knows that the paths are none to wide, more often than not just barely wide enough for one, much less one carrying another, in their arms.



My Brother's Keeper Ch. 02



"You got 'er, man?"

I nodded, frowning as he reached up to mess my hair, moving to stand beside me with a smirk. With his head, he gestured back to Jean Marie, his smirk growing into a grin. "What?" I half spat. I didn't mean to sound so bitter, not to a guy I knew could kick my ass, easy. It just came out that way.

"She's down for the count, ya know," he said, his eyes going back to Jean Marie again. "Be out for hours, for sure."

I forced a frown, wanting to look disgusted with what he'd said. But deep inside—inside, my head swam, my chest pound and my lungs felt like they were on fire every time I breathed. Under my palms I could feel the liquor warmed skin of Jean Marie's thighs, so warm against my own cold skin that it made my already clammy palms sweat. Ah, God, it was sweet!

A suck of my teeth was all that I could manage, even though I could barely manage that! Looking to my sister, I heard her drunken barks from across the way, this time directed towards the one who'd helped me.

"Back the fuck off, Dee!" she yelled, chucking her empty bottle towards his head.

Dee laughed, ducking. "What?!" he yelled back to her, still laughing.

"You're just as sick a fuck as the rest of 'em!" Candie cursed, calming only the slightest when she was taken in Caine's arm. He was the only other one 'sides Jean Marie that could keep my sister on the level.

But it was Caine who winked to me as I looked up to meet his eyes. I didn't know him—not really—much less, what he expected of me. The others all made it clear—painfully clear. But with Caine... It wasn't easy to read a guy like him. It was the same from all the times that I had seen him. He was always all over my sister, groping at her, sucking at her lip. But if someone told me to read his expression and tell 'em how he really felt about my sister, I'd be damned if I could tell the truth. He was just that unreadable. One of those dark, blank slates, ya know? Yeah, just like that.

"Go, already!" Candie yelled, kicking the toe of her shoe into the ground for whatever good that did.

"Yeah, I'm goin'!"

It was kind of easy going through the woods on that high path, with my sister and the others to my back. My back. I could feel Jean Marie's dead weight, but not so heavy. Her chin was resting, half wobbling on my shoulder, but I could feel her breath from time to time along my neck, though for the most part, on the back of my ear. It made me cold. Didn't matter the temperature of the air or the body heat between us. Still my spine was cold. And no matter how hard I might have tried, I just couldn't seem to shake it.

Making my way down the slight hill, I stumbled some and she groaned, burying her face in my neck, causing me to catch my breath and stumble again. "Sorry!" I gasped, hoisting her up some on my back and adjusting my hold on her...only to feel as my hands took a hold of flesh I hadn't meant to touch. "Sorry," I breathed again, though I didn't move my hands—For fear of dropping her is how I convinced myself.

"S'okay."

Hearing her voice in my ear, my eyes got wide and I stopped where I stood to take a moment. I could feel it in my chest, though my heart had skipped in my chest just the same. She was awake, I couldn't believe it. And her breath, I could feel it clear as anything across my neck, and her lips against my skin as she had spoke. It made me shiver. Putting one foot in front of the other, I forced myself to start forward again. But it was as I walked that I felt the trembling of my skin under my clothes. And I wondered—I couldn't help but to—if she could feel my trembling, too.

Though the hike back up the hill was a pain, it didn't take long for me to get her back to the house. Getting her comfortable once in—that was another story completely.

By the time we'd gotten back, my mom was already in the bed, her door closed. So was my little brother—well, somewhat. I guess I'd closed the door a little too hard because by the time I was crouching down to sit her in the livingroom armchair, he was coming from his room, the backs of his hands rubbing at his eyes.

"Go back to bed," I told him, turning just slightly to make sure she was sitting up okay. Slumping a bit, but she was okay. That's when I looked back to my little brother, his own eyes looking past me and around the room.

"Where's Candie?" he asked, his eyes still heavy and tired.

"She's still out with her friends," I told him as I made my way to the couch, clearing off all the stuff. "Go to bed. You'll see her in the morning, okay?"

Out of the corner of my eye I watched him, watched him as he looked over to Jean Marie who still sat in resting. Fascinated by the bunny ears that were still crooked on her head, he reached out and touched at them, causing them to fall off her head and into her lap. Then he looked back to me. I didn't say anything to him, didn't know what to say. I guess he felt the same way. I didn't watch him as he turned and walked away, too wrapped up in folding out the couch. But I heard him go back to his room, closing the door behind him.

Once he was gone, I wasn't sure why, but I felt as if it was suddenly easier to breathe. I stopped beside the armchair, looking down at Jean Marie and her hair that was in a tangle of multi-colored curls, a few of them covering her eyes. Hesitantly, I reached to push them back and even pulled from the tangle a caught leaf.

Moving on, it was easy enough for me to take out a couple of pillows and a blanket for her, setting them up for her to go to bed. That was all the easy part.

It was the getting her into the bed that was more difficult than I would have thought.

Taking her by the arms, I pulled her to stand upright, though she easily fell forward against me. I groaned somewhat and stepped back, pulling her along with me. It was another struggle for me to kneel, and to reach for her legs to pick her up. Sometimes I wonder just how a person—a single person—can be so clumsy, and then this happened to me. It was just like in some movie, the way I fell back and she fell on top of me. Candie would have called me a liar, and would have sworn I'd done it on purpose. And I guess, somehow, I had, though I wouldn't have admitted to it then.

But she was on top of me, lying there, as if nothing was wrong, as if it was the natural thing to do. She was comfortable, breathing light, shifting only slightly, and I could feel it. Feel her as she rubbed against me, her bare thighs over my jeans. I hadn't noticed it before, just how short the skirt of her costume really was, not until that moment.

My hands were shaking as I moved them, I couldn't feel anything else—not really. I swallowed hard as I moved both my hands below my waist, below hers, reaching for her hips, that were bare, that didn't come as any surprise to me. I mean, we'd fallen back pretty hard, there wasn't any way that she could have fallen as hard as she had and her skirt not fly up.

"God...!"

I swallowed hard, tilting back my head as I took in breath after breath, my hands reaching for her skirt, the bottom of it, feeling for it quickly, nervously. It was a search that seemed to last forever, something as simple as the bottom of a skirt. And with as small an amount of fabric as there was, you wouldn't think it would be something that would make the 'hard to find' list. Finally, thankfully, I found it, and pulled it down with a yank. I moved one arm under hers, then the other and pulled her up higher, gnashing my teeth as I felt her slide against me. With her head resting under my chin, breathed a sigh of relief as she purred and moved against me. She was, thankfully, still asleep.

Moving only one hand I wrapped the arm around both her legs, curling just slightly under her, turning to hold her closer, as if I was gonna lift and carry her across the room. But I didn't, there wasn't a need. Instead I moved myself back, taking her along with me across the mattress of the fold out, further and further back until I dropped her head to rest on top of a pillow, dropping my own head onto my outstretched arm as I gave an exhausted sigh.

Closing my eyes I lay there, just lay there. Not really thinking of anything, just—laying. I could feel her breath across my face as she breathed, soft and slow, though at times she would snore a bit, and I'd laugh. Finally I opened my eyes, looking over her face. I imagined her eyes opened, looking back at me, her lips smiling. I imagined her talking to me, in a voice that no one else could hear. Just me and her, there together for as long as we liked. It made my face red to think that I even thought about things like that, and for a minute I thought that I was sick in the head, ya know, wanting my sister's friend.

Wanting her. I guess that's what it was, what made my jeans uncomfortable then.

Damn, I had to get up.

I was careful as I crawled over her, being careful not to move her, disturb her, wake her up in any way. It wasn't until my feet were on the floor that I exhaled the breath I'd been holding, glancing briefly back and over my shoulder to Jean Marie, making sure she was still asleep. She was. Facing forward again I yawned, stretching both my arms above me. I was tired, for so many reasons I was tired.

As I made my way down the short distance of the hall to my room, I thought about Jean Marie, lying there, sleeping. I thought about me, and how she made me feel—more so tonight than any other time she had come over. I mean, before it was just a smile, a simple joke made, the way she bonded with my sister and my mom so easy. She bonded with them, so why not me? And feeling her against me as I had...

"Aaaah!" Stepping over the toys and cloths that were in the floor, I got to my room and closed the door behind me. I was through. She wasn't my friend, she was my sister's. She wasn't my problem, she was Candie's. And anyway, she'd be gone in the morning, and I wouldn't have to put up with her and her drunken ways until the next time she was over, which was a long time coming, I was sure.

It was that thought alone that made me rest easy.

I'd heard it in my sleep, the sound of someone moving around in the bathroom. I couldn't help but to hear it, my bedroom sharing a wall with the bathroom. I don't know why it woke me up then, why it kind of shook my nerves, but it did. 'Course, it didn't really wake me up, not fully, just enough so that I was awake enough to know what that sound, that familiar sound, was, even the water as it was run in the sink. Then silence. Once the silence came back I was shifting in my bed, deep as I was getting back into a comfortable enough position to sleep again.

But then...Something wasn't right, something just seemed off. And I opened up my eyes then as I listened to the silence, the unsteady silence—that eerie kind of silence that you hear or don't hear—that you notice in a movie just before someone's gutted, or before somethin jumps out of the dark. It was that creepy silence that kept you up, knowing that something was about to happen.

Quick as I could without making a sound, I sat up in bed, my eyes hard fixed on the closed door of my room. There was someone out there, whoever it had been in the bathroom. I knew the footsteps hadn't sounded right, like there wasn't enough to carry anyone any right distance back to wherever they had been sleeping, except for me. And I was already in bed.

My doorknob was tapped, then jiggled, and for a minute, it even sounded as if someone had run into the door. Not hard or anything, just enough to let them know that they hadn't opened up the door all the way. Usually, I'd find something like that funny, and I'd be laughin' my ass off for hours. But I didn't know who it was, not even when the door was opened. All I could do was watch—or rather listen, listen to whoever it was as they came into my room, closing the door behind them. Then I heard them giggle, and it was the sweetest sound, sweeter than anything—Well, I was at ease in no time. I knew the tone of the giggle, who it belonged to. But still my chest pound, throbbed and ached in its odd way. I mean, I knew who it was by now, I knew even without seeing their face, but I was still a nervous wreck.

"I'm such a klutz," I heard her say, leaning her back against the door. Even as dark as it was, I could just make out her form—just slightly. But it was enough.

"Jean Marie?" The name was out of my mouth before I could even think it, and I heard her giggle again.

"Bingo."

My room was a wreck, and I liked it the way that it was, except for then. Then, I cursed myself for having it as messy as it was, total chaos, the wake of the storm. I listened as she stepped carefully across the room, taking her time, stumbling back again and again, but she kept coming forward, persistent. Finally she was there, standing at the foot of my bed. She was in what little light was coming into my room from the window. Not much, as many trees and whatever that was outside. But I could see her better now, and she could see me.

"I just wanted to thank you, ya know?" She started to crawl onto my bed then, on her hands and knees as she made her way beside me to lie down. I couldn't say anything, couldn't protest, and couldn't object. I still couldn't believe what I was seeing. I watched her lay down beside me, her back to me and her face to the wall, curled up there as if that's where she belonged. "You didn't have to carry me all the way back here, but 'cha did."

She was drunk, still drunk. It was the only excuse, the only thing that could explain the here and now. I was shaking, like a leaf, I was shaking beside her. Even though she wasn't touching me I could feel her, the heat that came from her body. And suddenly, all the rest of the room seemed cold. It made me shake and catch my breath.

She laughed.

"You really held your own out there, against the ass-holes Candie and me call friends." She didn't look back to me while she talked, she only lay there, comfortable as I had been before she'd come in. "I think they were even jealous, a few of them. The guys. Not Caine, though; he's all Candie's." She giggled. "Candie and Caine, ya know? Candy-cane."

Unable to do anything else, I lay back against the headboard of the bed, my eyes still fixed on her unblinking.

"He's all hers; not to be touched."

"And—and you?" Finally I had found my voice, and I was grateful for it. I would have been lost if I hadn't been able to say anything back, I would have been uncomfortable in the silence of the situation, ready to scream if nothing else. And then where would I have been?

She laughed a bit at that, though it wasn't as much a laugh as it was a kind of careless breath. "Me? I'm still up for grabs, I guess."

"What about the other two guys? The one that called you his girl?"

This made her really laugh, and I could see her body shake as she laughed at that. "Don't like him, don't want anything to do with him. There's a few things I like about him, but not enough, ya know?" I watched her shoulders as they rose and fell in a shrug. "There's some things I could do with him, some things I might even really want again and again. But it isn't worth it, not for the way he acts--,"

She stopped then, and I looked at her like a radio station suddenly gone dead. She was asleep, I thought at first. Had fallen asleep in mid-talk. But then she began to laugh, more than she had before then, but quiet enough so that only the two of use would hear.

"I'm talking too much. I'm sorry." Slowly she rolled over to face me, I could see the smile on her face, her eyes half closed and heavy. She was tired—either that, or she was still drunk. "You don't wanna know about all this. Doesn't mean anything to you, does it?"

I shrugged. I didn't know what to say, what she expected me to say. I just watched her, then, as she moved to sit up beside me. She wavered back and forth where she sat, too; though just a little bit. All I could do was watch her as she reached out for me, as she took my face in her hands and pulled me closer to her. I could feel her breath against my lips; warm, and it smelled of liquored lemons. But I liked it, don't know why, but I liked it.

"My keeper," she whispered, her words slightly slurred. I blushed beneath the touch of her hands. It was strange being so close to her. "You're so sweet, bringing me home the way you did." She leaned in more, then, until she touched her lips to mine. Light at first, then harder.

I could feel my eyes go wide as she put her tongue in my mouth, and I could taste whatever it was she'd been drinking. I liked that, too. I hadn't noticed until then that she had changed some time in between when I had put her down and now. Now she was wearing a T-shirt, really big on her, falling to just over her knees. I only noticed because of the way she moved then, to straddle over my legs as she kept her hands on my face. She tasted good—her kisses, I mean. I mean, I wasn't really into that kind of thing, drinking and boozing. That was her bag, hers and my sisters. But it was kind of sweet, tasting it through her; kind of a buzz to my senses.

It wasn't until she started to pull back, breaking her kiss, that I realized just how much I'd been enjoying that taste, scrutinizing it, trying to place and identify it. My back kinda' hit hard against the wall behind me as she let go of my face. I hadn't realized just how much she'd been supporting me, holding me close and all as she had been. I'd gone weak in her hands, ya know? Like I was sleep walking, or sleep sitting. And it wasn't until she'd let me go that I was suddenly awake enough to realize that I hadn't been awake at all. At least, not mentally. It woke me up, the feeling of my head hitting against the thick of the wall, but it didn't hurt. And all I could see was Jean Marie as she smiled to me through the dark. She never took her eyes from mine as her hands dropped down to rest in her lap, and she laughed some as she watched me watch her.

"You look scared," I heard her whisper. And I shook my head, trying my hardest not to look like the damned virgin that I was. But she could see through it, I knew she could. Hell, even I could have seen through something so stupid. "Don't be," she assured me, laughing again as I swallowed hard enough for her to hear. "I won't bite you." She shrugged. "I mean, not unless you want me to or anything..."

I wanted to laugh, but I wasn't sure. I mean, my sister and Jean Marie—they were into that sort of thing, with the vampires and blood and the—occult—or something. At least, it's what I'd heard people talk about behind their backs whenever they looked the part. So here and now, it was only normal that I kind of had to think about things like that, wondering if she would bite me if given the chance, just to hear me scream—or something.

"Don't worry so much," she whispered, her hand raising from her lap, her fingers smoothing over my cheek. Bit it was the tip of her finger across my lip that made me shudder. "And you're thinking, I can tell." Smiling, she shook her head. "Don't."

Leaning back again, just enough for her to sit upright, I watched her hand reach for the bottom of the T-shirt, inching it up slightly at first, just enough to show off her bare legs. But she'd been sitting on part of the shirt I guess, as she started to wiggle over my legs, moving forward and back as she was pulling it from under her, then gradually up and over her head, smiling as she put it to the side. In my chest I could hear my heart, hear it as it swelled and shrank as fast as it could, pushing the blood through my body at a speed I'd never felt before. Feel, I could feel it, every bit of it as it ran through me, hot and thick, like a fire that moved under my skin. She wasn't wearing much of anything under the shirt, I came to find out, just something that barely held on her hips, riding low. With the shirt off and to the side, it was all that she wore, if you could really call it something to wear; after all, it wasn't much.