Chapter 6

Damn my sister.

She was so annoying. She stood in front of me, one hand on her insolently cocked hip, making some dubious point in some smug way, and all I wanted to do was yell at her. But I didn’t; I just turned and walked outside.

I’d been gone for two weeks and only been back a couple of days, but if I’d thought I could enjoy the rest of my vacation at home in peace and quiet, I should’ve known better. Dad had left yesterday on a work trip, leaving me in the house with mom and Pamela. It should’ve been fine – there were only four weeks to go before I could head back to college – but Pamela was such a brat, and she seemed to have gotten worse while I was away. It was like she was looking for a reaction or something, pushing for some kind of response.

I heard her follow me out onto the deck. “It’s one short trip. It’ll take you, like, half an hour.”

“It’s half an hour there and half an hour back. Then you’re gonna want me to pick you up afterwards, too. That’s two hours.”

“It’s not like you have anything else to do.”

That was irritatingly close to the truth, but hardly the point. I turned to face her. “You haven’t even said please. Plus, if you wanted me to say yes, maybe you could’ve tried being nice to me at some point since I got home. But instead it’s ‘Alex, will you just,’ and ‘Alex, while you’re up,’ and ‘Alex, get me a coffee.’ I’m not your slave, Pam, and the answer is no. Get an Uber.”

She glared at me, then turned around with a wiggle of her ass in those ridiculously tight shorts and flounced back into the house.

I sighed. The thing is, I probably would’ve agreed if she’d been even slightly nice to me. I’d always been fond of her and she was so damned cute. If she’d only graced me with a smile or asked nicely, I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist. But she hadn’t; her entitled attitude was grating on my nerves, and I didn’t feel like spending two hours in the car merely to reinforce her belief that I’d do whatever she told me to.

Fuck that shit, and fuck her.

But now I felt like a selfish bastard for not agreeing to drive her. I sighed again, watching the evening sun reflect off the pool. Inside the house, I could hear Pam complaining to mom. I didn’t even need to hear the words to know, from her tone alone, that I was being bad-mouthed. I’d just about had it with that girl.

When we were growing up, she’d been the cute little sister who had adored her big brother. She was eighteen months my junior, so we were close enough in age to have a lot in common. But now she was seventeen, and I’d recently turned nineteen, and wow, how things had changed of late.

She’d really developed, for starters. She had really nice breasts, big but not too big, and a very fine ass; where there had been my gawky little sister, there was now the most beautiful girl I knew in real life. Hell, she was more desirable than most of the girls I saw online, too. She had a perfect shape, with the right amount of curves in all the right places. She was a few inches shorter than my six feet, and she seemed even smaller because she tended to walk around barefoot. Bare feet made her look more vulnerable, somehow – that or sexier, I couldn’t decide which. But she was my little sister, which meant sexier was a word I had to keep to myself.

It didn’t help that she dressed around the house as though no one could see her. Which was probably okay, because it was just me and our parents and they never saw her as anything other than cute little Pam. They certainly never seemed to pay attention when she wore the kind of stuff she was wearing right now, a pair of really short shorts that showed all of her long, smooth legs and a tight tank top that showed glimpses of her bare stomach. It was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra; I could see her areolas through the thin material and her nipples were almost poking through the white cotton. If she wore that sort of outfit out of the house, she’d be called a slut. But it wasn’t out of the house, and the only one who seemed to care was me.

It hadn’t been like this before I’d left two weeks ago, either. She’d dressed more modestly then, but in the time since I’d been back it had been less demure every day. Yesterday, before dad left, she’d been wearing a really short, swishy skirt that ended only a couple of inches below the curve of her ass; it suggested she’d be flashing everyone if she bent over even slightly. That skirt it had been paired with a crop-top that only covered most of her breasts; there was a fair amount of exposed under-boob. But dad hadn’t seemed to notice, even when she’d given him a lingering hug at the door. I’d had to look away; it was almost indecent.

She’d been really upset about him going, too, which I didn’t understand. He was only going to be away for two weeks, and that wasn’t unusual for him with his work. So I didn’t get her tears.

“Alex? Could you come in here?” I heard my mom call me, so I pushed myself off the railing of the deck and headed back inside.

Pam and mom were standing in the kitchen. Pam still had her hands on her hips, while mom was leaning against the counter.

“Alex, Pam says you don’t want to drive her over to Janey’s house this evening.”

“Yep, that’s right.” I said guardedly.

“Do you have other plans?” Mom asked, her tone light.

“Not particularly.”

Mom nodded, as though she already knew that. “Any particular reason why you’ve said no?”

“Well ... because she didn’t ask nicely.” I knew that sounded lame, but I couldn’t say and she’s been a complete bitch to me.

Mom raised an eyebrow at Pam. “There you are, then. Perhaps you need to treat your brother with more respect.”

Her face clearly showed what she thought of that idea. Where is the Pam who looked up to me all those years? I thought. She sure as hell isn’t standing in this kitchen. “Can’t you make him drive me? It’s not like he’s doing anything else!”

“No, I can’t make him drive you. It’s his car and he paid for it with his own money.”

That wasn’t entirely true; mom and dad had helped more than a little. But I’d paid more than half for the purchase and the operating costs were all mine. Mom could easily have said I owed it to Pam as long as she paid for the gas or something, but she hadn’t. I got the impression she didn’t care much for Pam’s attitude and that was why her support was coming down on my side.

Pam glared at both of us, then flounced out.

Mom sighed theatrically. “That girl needs a good spanking,” she said, shaking her head, and I looked at her in surprise. We’d never been spanked growing up and I’d never heard mom talk like that. I thought she must be joking, but then she really confused me. “It’s a shame her father will be away for two weeks.” She glanced at me. “That makes you the man of the house.”

What is that supposed to mean? “Uh ... yeah, I guess. He’ll be back before you know it, Mom.”

She stepped across the room, looking like what I’d said had saddened her. By reflex, I held out my arms towards her, and she moved into them. She pressed herself against my chest and laid her head on my shoulder, and I felt her arms come around my waist. “I’m so glad you’re back, Alex,” she said.

I let my arms go around her gently, feeling awkward. I hadn’t really expected her to say that, and now we were hugging in a way that felt strangely intimate. She was pressed into me from thigh to shoulder, and I could feel her breasts pushing into my chest through the thin sun-dress she was wearing. She had Pam’s figure, too, and she was in great shape; if any other woman had been pressing herself to me like that, I’d have wanted to cup her ass. But that would most certainly not be appropriate with my mom.

She pulled away only enough to look up at me, and that movement caused her to arch her back and push her hips even more into me. “I don’t think Pamela’s being fair to you, and I think she really needs to learn some respect.”

“Well, yeah, I guess,” I said, surprised again that she would vocalize something like that.

She rested one palm against my chest. “Well, like I said, you’re the man of the house now. If she’s being disrespectful, you should deal with her as you see fit.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said, still unsure of what that meant. I assumed it meant I didn’t have to drive Pam anywhere.

She kissed my cheek – another surprise – and then slipped away from me. “I’m going to go take a bath.”

“Okay, Mom.”

It had been a long day. I’d intended to watch some TV, but I found myself lying on the couch, reading my Kindle, instead. I was still processing the earlier encounters with Pam and mom, but watching TV left my mind too much time to roam and reading was more engaging.

The summer sun had begun to dip beneath the horizon and the living room was gloomy in the dusk. My Kindle was one of those with internal lighting, so I hadn’t needed to get up and turn any lights on. Maybe that was why Pam hadn’t realized I was sitting there. I didn’t know she’d snuck in until I heard my car key slide quietly out of the bowl beside the front door. Then I sat up abruptly, watching Pam as she moved silently toward the front door, presumably intending to take my car.