Cheryl burst out laughing. "Did you go in and see?"

"Are you kidding? I know you don't have a brother let alone a younger one, so trust me. When you catch him having a wank on his bed you don't walk in and start a conversation about the weather!"

Cheryl put on a stern face and spoke in a mock serious and stern voice, "Iona, you did not answer my question. Were those pants he was sniffing yours?"

Iona paused in her laughing too look sheepish "I don't know" she replied faintly.

"BLOODY HELL WOMAN! Don't you know what your own underwear looks like?"

"Weeellll..."

"Oh for heavens sake, don't tell me it was too dark! Come on, spill the beans."

"I was taken aback somewhat. Lets be honest, it was not what I was expecting to witness that day. Or on any day really."

"QUIT STALLING"

"Look, I was to busy looking at something else at the time to really register what he was holding to his face. If it hadn't been for the pants held to his face he would have seen me. It was only later that it registered what he was holding. Other than his todger, that is."

Both girls burst out laughing.

"You pervert! Staring at your brother mid-wank."

"Oh and you wouldn't?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. I would have gone in and helped!"

Iona squealed and hit her life long friend over the head with a pillow.

"So you must have gone in later to find out."

Iona shrugged "I just presumed they belonged to a girl friend."

Cheryl raised an eyebrow, in reply.

"Come on Cheryl. He's fifteen now, we were not exactly angels at that age."

Cheryl put on dreamy face "Oh the memories."

Smiling, Iona punched her playfully in the shoulder. "You make us sound like a pair of old farts."

"On that subject how is Uni these days. Bedded any more lecturers lately?"

"Nah, been through all the good looking ones. I've had to start on other students now."

Cheryl put the back of her hand to her forehead and tilted her head back "Oh the horror, what is the world coming to these days."

"So how is the till bashing?"

"Did I not tell you?"

"Obviously not"

"Promoted to shop floor assistant!"

"Check you out, a career woman!"

"Actually it was not too hard. The competition were either drunkards, smack heads, or just plain and simple stupid. A dog turd could shine."

"No comment"

They giggled hysterically on the bed as Cheryl took her turn at bashing Iona with a pillow. Exhausted they lay back on Cheryl's bed and contemplated the posters on the roof in silence.

It did not last long.

"So what is she like?"

Iona was momentarily thrown. "Uh, who?"

"You know"

"Obviously not."

"Kevins other half"

"We are not going back to that again, are we?"

"I like to keep up on gossip."

"I've no idea, been away for most of the year remember."

"Oh I suppose."

Some-thing in the tone of the last statement niggled in Iona's brain. She rolled onto her side and looked at her friend.

"Don't tell me you now have a crush on my little brother."

Cheryl continued to stare up at the ceiling in silence.

Iona poked her in the side "Cheryl, now you are not answering questions."

Cheryl rolled over and replied in an air of innocence. "Well you did say, not more than five minutes ago. That he is no longer so little."

There was minute of dead silence then they both burst back into laughter.

A clock in the hallway chimed the hour.

Iona stood up from the bed and slipped her shoes back on. "I said I would help mum with the tea tonight. Catch you tomorrow?"

"Working tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, career girl."

"Well some of us have to pay taxes so you can make free with lecturers"

"Jealousy gets you nowhere. Tomorrow night?"

"Okay, I'll come round after work. You never know, I might get a show."

"Hands off my brother he's too young for you."

"Pot calling kettle black! How old was that lecturer, what was his name, Toby? 42? 43?"

"Tony, umm, 45ish"

"That's even bloody worse. He's almost a coffin dodger!"

"He was not that old."

"For heavens sake! At that age he must have had more wrinkles than a sheet of corrugated Iron. Already applied for his free bus pass has he."

Iona let out an exaggerated, heard it all before, yawn. "Well you know what?"

"What?"

"With all those wrinkles, he didn't have to buy ribbed condoms."

"That's disgusting"

"See you tomorrow night." With a smile and wave Iona left her friends room to head the short distance back home.

Iona strode confidently down the pavement. Cheryl lived only a few houses away and they had known each other since nursery school, so it did not take long to get home. Once inside she went to help her mother with the evening meal. As they prepared the food she regaled her mother with the less risqué tales of her and her friends antics at Uni. Though Iona was aware that her mother, a university graduate, could read between the lines at what was not being said. As Iona had only arrived back the previous day, dinner table conversation consisted mainly of all the gossip that she had missed.

As she helped her mother with the washing up, she steered the conversation to her little brother.

"Has he a lady in his life yet?"

"Who? Kevin?"

"I would hardly be discussing dad now, would I?"

"I'll have less of that talk madam." Replied her mother with a smile.

"So has he?"

"Not that he has said, nor has he brought any one home, or spending an unusual amount of time out of the house." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure it will not be long now. You on the other hand wast..."

"Yes, well I had no shortage of pestering boys." Iona was uncomfortable with the new direction of conversation. Especially as she had a good idea of where it would lead. Her mother did not disappoint.

"When am I going to get to welcome a son in law?"

"About the same time as hell freezes over mum. I'm not even twenty, I don't want to be tied down just yet." She knew what her mother was after. "When I'm ready I shall grace you with the patter of little feet"

"Don't leave it too long or you will turn into a bitter old spinster"

Iona laughed, "No fear of that mum."

After the last of their repast had been cleared away, Iona retreated back to her room. She retrieved some study books from her bag and then lay on her bed, but the desire to revise eluded her.

She thought back to her conversation with Cheryl. If Kevin had no girlfriend, then the likelihood that the pants were hers was very high. Or even worse, her mothers. She laughed aloud at that thought, then sobered up quickly when the implication that her mother had sexier underwear than her crept in. That unsettled her as; the little green monster called jealousy reared its head.

Now she definitely could not concentrate. No girl likes competition, least of all from an older woman.

"This is ridiculous." She shut the book she was not reading in exasperation. She could not believe how something so trivial was winding her up. Standing up, she headed to the window and looked down the street. A group of four boys were walking along the pavement kicking a ball between them.

She watched the boys but her attention was turned inwards. "Was this how it started " She wondered. "No woman is born a spinster, they become one." Her breath misted the window as an unwanted feeling she recognised as insecurity made its presence known. "But surely not mothers pants."

The boys turned off the pavement into the drive. The harsh ring of the front door kicked her back to the present. Her brothers' door slammed and she heard him thunder down the stairs, whilst shouting, ""I'll get it!"

Unconsciously she fiddled with the pendant around her neck as she watched the boys depart in the direction of some waste ground. Nibbling at the skin of her bottom lip, she came to a decision. The boys were not even out of sight before she turned and left her room in the direction of her brothers.

She pushed open his door and surveyed the disorganised chaos that lay before her. The enormity of the task that lay before her threatened to turn her away, but she needed to know.

Resisting the urge to start opening drawers and rummaging at random, she forced herself to think about it logically.

Kicking toys, magazines and clothes every which way, she cleared a path closer to the bed. Standing at the foot of the bed she studied her surroundings and spoke quietly to herself.

"They won't be in a clothes drawer in case mum finds them" An image of Kevin lying on the bed came to mind. "They will have to be close at hand, especially in case he is disturbed." She smiled to herself at that.

"Under the bed?" She got down to look. After an unpleasant search in which several mismatched and extremely smelly socks and a mouldy apple core were discovered, she found nothing.

Pausing to rethink her plan she put her hand under his pillow. Nothing. On impulse, she found the edge of the bed and searched the gap next to the wall. His pillow nestled in the crook of her elbow as she ran her fingers under the edge of his mattress.

The fabric of cloth under her touch changed and she moved her hand back. Iona could feel a seam where a seam should not have been. Iona grasped the seam and withdrew her hand, withdrawing a feminine pair of pants into the light.

Relief flowed through her as she recognised them as being hers. She dropped them on to the top of the bed and returned her hand beneath the mattress to see what else was under there. Her search revealed nothing more.

All too aware of where she stood, she retrieved her pants and headed back to her own room, not bothering to hide her tracks in his room.

She shut the door to her room and sat on the edge of her bed. Her hands toyed with the fabric on her lap. The material was cold and damp, almost sodden. She did not need to lift her underwear to her nose to smell its aroma but she did so anyway. Stained and damp lace touched the end of her nose as she inhaled deeply.

Iona had given enough hand and blow jobs to recognise the smell of fresh and stale sperm. The smell from the material in front of her face was very strong. She took another sniff.

Her gaze moved from the contents of her hands to the family portrait on the wall. She looked at her brother; "You could have picked a more flattering pair of pants for your obsession you know." Which was true, she had tended to wear that pair when the chance of actually being seen in them was next to nonexistent. Which was why she left them at home and never took them to Uni.

She felt herself start to heat up between her legs. Knowing where that had a tendency to lead to, she rose from the bed and deposited the pants into her almost empty dirty clothes hamper. In order to calm her lust she headed back down the stairs to watch a bit of telly and speak to her mum.

When Kevin came home, Iona ignored him and Kevin likewise.

The night progressed quietly.

"I'm off to bed mum, see you in the morning." Iona stood from the couch and stretched, before heading for the living room door. Kevin had called it a night over an hour previous.

"Okay love, see you in the morning."

"G'night dad"

"Goodnight Iona."

In her room Iona crossed her arms and removed her T-shirt, dropping it onto the end of her bed. She pulled her wash bag out of her suitcase and removed the little make up that she wore. As she walked from the mirror back to the bed she breathed in and undid the button on her jeans, stopping briefly on alternate feet to remove them. Jeans landed on T-shirt followed by her bra.