Chapter 74

Friday-Saturday, Jully 6-7

The five of us just stood there, maybe 15 feet apart, in some kind of weird, mute standoff.

Erin Bennett finally ended the stalemate.

“Is this something we should talk about?” she asked. “It really helped me with my situation.”

Kacie broke down at that and ran blubbering into the arms of her two friends. Jed and I did the guy thing and just stood where we were, hoping like hell we wouldn’t do anything to totally fuck things up.

Keri took charge, herding the other two girls through the French windows and giving Jed his marching orders.

“You go talk to Gary in the apartment,” she said. “We’ll call you when we’re ready.”

“The last time I heard something like that,” Jed said, “I wound up with an extra girlfriend.”

Jed dodged a backhand from his No. 1 girlfriend and moved in my direction. I welcomed him in and moved to the kitchen to get us some drinks. That bottle of bourbon was really sounding like a good idea now.

My buddy accepted the soda I offered and headed back to the front room. I grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and followed.

Jed claimed the easy chair and grabbed the TV remote, flipping through the channels until he found a ballgame. The Dodgers were trying to nurse a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning in Anaheim. I turned the kitchen chair backwards and straddled it, using the chairback for an armrest.

“No wonder your little sister doesn’t date,” he said. “She has everything she needs right at home. What did your parents say?”

“They haven’t, yet,” I said. “Mom must be intentionally ignoring it. There’s no way she couldn’t have figured things out by now, even as much as we try to hide it.”

“Does Morgan know?” he asked.

“That’s actually why I started going out with Morgan,” I said. “Kacie thought if I was dating one of her friends, people would think nothing of her hanging around. I think the original plan was I’d go out with each girl for a week or two during the summer. Morgan stopped that when she claimed girlfriend privileges right away. Then the group-dating thing kinda developed.

“That morphed into the girls serving as surrogate girlfriends when Morgan went out of town. Arlene supposedly pushed that idea to protect me from the cougars at the country club. I’ve had actual dates with Bethany and your Erin. I’ve had dinner with Staci Patterson and her parents and I’m going to be her date for her Sweet 16. I’m supposed to go out with Erin Aguilar on Monday and Callie Dawson sometime after that.”

“Dude, you just keep fallin’ in it, don’t ya?” Jed said. “So this hasn’t been going on very long, has it? You didn’t start dating Morgan until school was out.”

I knew I was taking a risk, but if I couldn’t trust my best friend, I was dead anyway. I told Jed the story of the night school let out and how it was Kacie’s decision to continue the sexual aspect of our relationship.

“This never leaves this room,” I told my friend. “There is no place on earth you can hide if this gets out.”

“No worries, dude,” he said. “With what Keri and Erin are going through, I’ve got no room to talk. I’ve seen how tight that whole group is. I’d never even get to look at another girl if they all turned on me. It’d be almost as bad as pissing off the cheerleaders, and now they’re connected to the cheerleaders thanks to Staci Patterson.”

Jed finished his drink and crushed the can between his hands. Then a look of realization came across his face as he turned and stared at me.

“Oh my God, you really are doin’ Arlene Jenson, aren’t ya?” he accused. “That’s why she’s helping you with all the girls. She’s using them for camouflage just like Kacie is.”

I said nothing. My blush gave it all away.

“Goddamn!” Jed said. “No wonder Coach Bennett calls you Superhero.”

“He knows nothing about me and Arlene,” I said. “It’s bad enough he knows about me and his daughter.”

“Goddamn!” Jed said again. “My best friend is nailin’ the hottest woman at the club and hasn’t said a word!”

“First, who the hell would believe me?” I said. “Second, that would be the surest way to make sure I never get to touch her again.”

“Next thing you’re gonna tell me is you’re gettin’ some hot mother-daughter action,” he cracked.

I know it was meant to be a joke, but my blush did me in again.

“Oh, fuck me, dude!” he exclaimed. “You cannot be fuckin’ serious! How many women are you tappin’ this summer?”

That was a good question. Let’s see, Kacie, Morgan, Arlene, Jan, Fran Goldstein, Bethany, Erin Bennett and Marie. And Staci was just a matter of time if I couldn’t find a way out of it. Wasn’t I the guy who couldn’t even get a date the last month of the school year?

“Too damn many,” I said. “And none of this leaves this room. You don’t even tell your girlfriends. They know way too much of it as it is, the way that bunch shares everything.”

I was saved, relatively speaking, when Jed’s phone dinged with a text message.

“Keri says they’re ready for us,” he said, reaching to turn off the TV. “We should have enough chairs in there unless you’re just attached to that one.”

I went ahead and closed up the apartment — again — and followed my friend from my lovenest to his.

They’d really done a nice job with the room, starting with the king bed. There were two dressing tables, two armoires and a large chest of drawers. They’d already moved some clothes in, something I desperately needed to do at the apartment.

There was no TV, but they weren’t going to spend any alone time here like I would in the apartment. The room connected to a bathroom that was shared with the next bedroom. The wall opposite the French windows had a door out to the walkway that surrounded the patio.

The room was almost directly opposite Arlene’s master suite to the northwest, so there wasn’t much chance of annoying her unless someone had a screaming fit. Or orgasm.

Kacie was on the bed, sandwiched between her two friends. All three had puffy eyes from crying. Keri slipped off the bed and came over to kiss me on the cheek.

“I always knew you were special,” she said. “It’s no wonder we all had a crush on you.”

I mumbled a thank you as Jed brought two chairs out of the connecting room, where they’d moved everything that Arlene and I had moved out of the apartment into this room.

Keri again took charge, assuming the emcee role.

“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about any of us saying anything after the way you helped Erin,” she said. “We did call Arlene just to make sure we’re all on the same page. She’s in agreement that no one else in the group should be told.

“She pointed out that Erin and I would just face whatever social ostracism we’d get from a bunch of ignorant rednecks. You two face legal issues. Incest laws are still on the books in all 50 states. Kacie being under 16 just adds to the mess.”

Keri walked around to the side of the bed Erin was on, taking her hand and looking her in the eye.

“Arlene said she also understands you can’t help who you fall in love with, even if it’s someone society says you shouldn’t love,” Keri said. “She said she’ll talk to your parents for you if it comes down to it. Worst case, you’ve got a place here if you need it.”

Part of what Keri said stuck with me. I got up and walked over to the bed, took my sister by the hand and looked her in the eye.

“You’re in love with me?” I asked. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Kacie launched herself at me, locking her arms around my neck as the floodgates opened again. I just held on and stroked her hair, hoping like hell I wouldn’t fuck it all up.

My sister calmed down and put me in a liplock, the first time she’d ever kissed me in front of someone. Morgan had been the only person to see us kiss before, a kiss I instigated, way back on that first Sunday of summer vacation.

Kacie pulled back from the kiss either flushed or blushing, I couldn’t tell the difference. She looked over her shoulder at the other girls and smiled.

“I’m just glad to finally talk about it with someone besides Arlene and Morgan,” she said, “somebody who has a good understanding of the situation. I could finally tell someone I’m in love with my brother without worrying about them freaking out because they also love someone they aren’t supposed to.

“It’s like a big weight’s been lifted off me.”