Chapter 80: Fireworks

July 4, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Birgit

As was usually the case, after we danced with Dad, the girls danced together. I’d have danced with Peter, but he wasn’t at the party, and none of the other boys were really old enough. The college guys all had girls with them, and the Navy guys were off limits because I didn’t want any of them to get into trouble, even though there was a really cute ensign who I would be VERY happy to entertain!

“Can I dance with you?” Lilibeth asked, coming over to our group.

“Sure,” I replied.

She joined the group of nine girls who were dancing to fast songs but sitting out the slow ones. There was one more fast song, then we took a break to get something to drink, and I saw Dad dancing close with Kristin’s friend Erika. Unless I totally missed my guess, the way she was dancing made it clear she wanted him and, knowing Dad, she’d get him, too. I was SO tempted to cut in, but I knew it wouldn’t work. After All Out of Love ended, Always a Woman began playing and Lilibeth stepped closer to me.

“Would you want to dance?” she asked.

“Sure,” I replied.

We moved onto the dance floor and danced close, but not with our bodies rubbing together, my hands on her hips and hers on my shoulders.

“I think you’re pretty,” Lilibeth said.

I smirked, “So do I!”

Lilibeth laughed, “You are really silly, you know that?”

“I try!”

“Nobody seems surprised that we’re dancing,” Lilibeth said a moment later.

“Why would they be?” I asked. “Nobody cares. Heck, check out my dad and the High School girl!”

“Your mom is cool with that? Well, your moms?”

“Yes. Heck, Dad could take her to bed and it would be OK!”

“What?!” Lilibeth gasped.

Once again, I’d put my foot squarely in my mouth or stepped into a pile of poop, depending on how you wanted to put it.

“Forget I said that, OK?” I pleaded. “I could get in real trouble for saying it.”

“But it’s obviously true,” Lilibeth said. “Or you wouldn’t have said that.”

“Yes, but we’re not supposed to talk about things like that, and I goofed.”

“I won’t say anything,” Lilibeth promised.

The song finished, and a fast song started, which brought the other girls out to the dance floor, so Lilibeth and I separated, and started dancing.

🎤 Steve

I wasn’t surprised by Erika’s request, especially after Kristin had encouraged me to dance with her. As was always the case when a sexy, virginal teenager was available, I wanted her. I was absolutely certain she’d have had her test, so it was only a matter of when, not if. The immediate challenge was where, as my dad was using my playroom, and both guest rooms in the basement were being used — one by Matthew and Chelsea, the other by Molly and Brett. Joyce, Jake, and their kids were using the NIKA loft apartment, so that was out as well.

The song finished, and Always a Woman began playing, so I kept dancing with Erika, who had her arms tightly wrapped around me. The movements of her body reinforced her request, creating in my mind an urgency to solve what amounted to a significant logistical problem. I was leaving for Sweden in eight days, and that meant there were limited opportunities, especially given she lived in Oak Park. All of that, combined with the fact that I didn’t want to significantly limit how much time I could spend deflowering her, presented what appeared to be an intractable problem.

“When?” I asked.

“I have my license, so I could drive here tomorrow.”

That actually opened up a possibility — my dad, Albert, and Nicholas were going to be spending the day at Great Lakes, and would be having dinner in the Officers’ Mess, which would make the playroom available.

“Any time after 7:30am would be fine,” I said.

“I can be here around 8:30am.”

The song ended, and she went back to stand with Kristin while I went downstairs to find my wives.

🎤 Jesse

“Will your dad shoot me if I ask you to dance?” I asked.

Larisa laughed softly, “Dad is a big teddy bear!”

“Who used to command a tank division!”

“He’s a professor! He teaches military history! He doesn’t even own a gun! Well, no, that’s not true. He has some rifles and pistols in a display case at home, but he removed the firing pins.”

And I was positive he still had them, and reassembling a Kalashnikov was so easy a peasant wearing black pajamas in a jungle could do it, as could any random terrorist! I decided to take the chance, and took Larisa up to the attic room, passing Dad on the way. Larisa was only thirteen, so I was very careful to dance with her appropriately — hands on shoulders and hips, and at a distance of which the nuns at the Catholic High School would approve.

“What do you want to do besides my party?” Larisa asked.

“I’m OK with anything,” I replied. “The Smithsonian, the Air and Space Museum, or the National Archives would be cool.”

“I’ll talk to Mom about it, but I’m sure she’ll be OK with those things. When does hockey start for you?”

“We have tryouts a week after we come back from Europe.”

“We’re going to see my grandfather in August. It’s too bad we won’t be in Russia at the same time! You’re only going to Saint Petersburg, right?”

“Yes. We’ll be there for five nights and besides your grandfather, I’ll see my friends who are Army officers and my friend Eugen.”

“He is my cousin,” Larisa said. “But I have only met him a few times. When did you meet him?”

“In 1991,” I replied. “You were there!”

Larisa laughed softly, “I was three! I barely remember meeting you, though I do remember your dad picking me up and speaking Russian with a horrible accent!”

“I only knew a few words, and mostly I’ve forgotten them. They don’t teach Russian in school here. I learned Spanish.”

“And I’ve learned French, as it’s the most important diplomatic language besides English. Mom speaks Russian, French, and English. Dad speaks Russian, German, and English. He needed German in the Army, and he has a lot of books in German.”

“My Grandpa Adams spoke German and Spanish, though I don’t know how much he uses them. He needed them during World War II and when he was stationed in Cuba before the revolution.”

“The tall blonde girl, is she your girlfriend?”

“CeCe? We hang out, but I don’t have a steady girlfriend. Mostly we go out as a group. When will your dad allow you to date?”

Larisa laughed, “When I am thirty! He is not religious, like you, but I think he would prefer I go to a monastery!”

I laughed, “And your mom?”

“Has a different opinion!”

🎤 Steve

“Kristin’s friend, Erika, wants to visit tomorrow,” I said to Kara, Jessica, and Suzanne when I found them in the back yard.

They all laughed.

“Of course she does!” Kara exclaimed mirthfully. “Kristin actually asked me if it was OK. I think you’ll be VERY happy in August!”

“Steve does have his cheerleader fantasies!” Suzanne smirked.

“Despite not being interested in anyone on the cheer team in High School except for Kathy and Bethany! And there were some hot girls on the cheer team!”

“Not as hot as you!” I declared. “And you know it was personality and attitude.”

“The reason you refused Michelle Bateman’s offer of her cherry!” Kara declared mirthfully.

“I’m not interested in rotten fruit!” I declared.

“I missed this story,” Suzanne interjected.

“You remember me telling you about my friend Tracey from Columbus, right?”

“The woman who is HIV+, but isn’t exhibiting any symptoms?”

“Correct. Michelle Bateman was the girl who was nasty to her back in High School.”

“Ah, OK. That story you did tell, you just didn’t name the ‘bitch’.”

“Because it wasn’t integral to the story, and it’s nobody you’ve met or are ever likely to meet.”

“Unless you visit a trailer park just outside Milford!” Kara added with a smirk.

“Let’s just say her personality didn’t improve from High School,” I replied.

“What room do you plan to use?” Suzanne asked.

“Dad will be gone, so I was planning on using the playroom.”

“Natalie is going home tomorrow morning and won’t be home until Sunday morning for the wedding ceremony. I’m sure she’d be OK with you using my old bed.”

“I suspect Erika would prefer the mirror,” I grinned.

All three women laughed.

“It’s too bad the hotel in Stockholm doesn’t have one for our wedding night!” Kara declared.

“Are we really postponing until then?” Suzanne asked.

“That was the agreement,” I said. “But I’ll leave it to the three of you.”

“I say we wait,” Jessica replied. “The anticipation will make it even better!”

“I thought you were jonesing for ‘young, sexy college pussy’,” I teased.

“Oh, I am! But I still want to wait. I think the kids will be able to find things to do in Stockholm, don’t you?”

“Our kids?” I asked, chuckling. “Stockholm will never be the same!”

🎤 Birgit

“Would you dance with me again?” Lilibeth asked when The One That You Love began playing.

“Sure,” I agreed.

We began dancing as we had before, with just enough space between us so our bodies didn’t touch.

“I don’t bite,” Lilibeth said with a smirk. “Unless you want me to!”

I laughed because I’d said the exact same thing to Peter.

“I said that to a boy just the other day!” I exclaimed.

“Did you?” Lilibeth asked. “Bite him, I mean.”

“I didn’t get a chance! The stupid smoke alarm went off, then his dad showed up! It’s like every time I have a chance to do stuff, Loki interferes! It happened with a guy named Ed and Marcella when I was in Vermont.”

“Were you really going to? With a girl?”

“I’m not sure she would have gone all the way,” I replied. “She hadn’t before and was scared.”

“Would you want to?” Lilibeth asked quietly. “With me?”

If I did, it would just be an experiment, and I didn’t want to hurt her if she thought I’d be her girlfriend. I’d realized, later, that Marcella might have thought that, and had we done more without talking about it, it could have gone terribly wrong. And, I thought, that was true of Peter as well. If he thought I was going to be his steady girlfriend because we had sex, that would be a problem. Kjell knew better, and we’d just have fun, though for all I knew he and I could be together in ten or fifteen years, when I was ready to settle down.

“You remember I like boys, right?” I said.

Lilibeth nodded, “I do. But you’re bi, right?”

“No, I’m Birgit!” I declared. “I don’t like labels because everyone is different.”

“But if you like boys and girls...”

“I like boys for sure; girls, well, it would be an experiment. And I plan to be with a guy in Sweden. If we did, it would just be for fun.”

Lilibeth moved just close enough for our boobs to rub against each other through our polo shirts.

“I like to have fun,” she whispered.

“Do you want to go to my room?” I asked.

Lilibeth nodded, so I took her hand and led her toward the stairs.

🎤 Ashley

I was standing by Dad and Mom as they spoke to Lilibeth’s parents.

“How do you like Chicago so far, Sean?” Dad asked Mr. Doyle.

“We’re adapting! It’s quite a bit different from Boston.”

“Birgit said you’re from Natick.”

“You know the area?”

“I do,” Dad replied. “I was in Natick on business about a decade ago.”

“I moved there to work for Prime Computer in the late 70s.”

“The first major customers my company had were on Prime systems. We did a lot of work in Prime Information. It was a great system, and it’s too bad it basically died, though I know it lives on in Unify, at least after a fashion.”

“I worked on the Operating Systems team. I left not long after Primos 23 was released when it was clear they were not going to make it. Was Terry Penfield with you then?”

“He joined us not long after we started,” Dad replied. “Samantha drafted him once I’d trained him and there was no opportunity for him to advance, given our CTO was one of the founders and has no plans to retire anytime soon.”

“You have several consultants at Spurgeon as well, right?”

“Yes. We did their security audit and we’re managing the remediation of the deficiencies from the audit findings. You’re working on electronic trading, right?”

“Yes. After I left Prime, I got involved in high-speed, real-time computing projects. This is the ultimate challenge, with billions of dollars on the line every microsecond.”

Dad shook his head, “I know she has to do it, but it distorts the market in ways I do not like.”

“My politics lie at the opposite end of the spectrum from Ms. Spurgeon’s,” Sean said. “So I keep my opinions to myself. That said, this project is far too lucrative to pass up for both my firm and my future.”

Dad nodded, “I’ve taken contracts like that myself.”

“I hear you’re a professor of chemistry, Kara,” Mrs. Doyle said.

“I am,” Mom replied. “I teach Freshman chemistry and graduate courses in polymer chemistry, and do research with a team from Stanford. What do you do?”

“I’m a professional tutor. Fortunately, my company has clients in Chicago, so that worked out. I mostly work with kids of diplomats and businessmen on short-term assignments.”

“Honey?” Mrs Doyle said to her husband. “Where is Lilibeth? The fireworks are about to start and she’ll miss them!”

“She was hanging out with Birgit and her friends,” he replied.

“Cinderella,” I said, “would you go find your sister and Lilibeth, please?”

“Sure! They were in the attic room with Birgit’s Girl Gang and some others when I came downstairs ten minutes ago to watch the fireworks. Be right back!”

I scampered across the backyard, as Dad called it when I hurried, but didn’t run, and found the elevator was on the ground floor, so I rode it up to the attic room. I scanned the dance floor and didn’t see Birgit, and she wasn’t standing with her friends, so I went over to Tiffany to find out where Birgit was.

“She and Lilibeth left less than five minutes ago,” Tiffany smirked.

I groaned because if I interrupted Birgit again, she might actually follow through on her threat of sororicide!

🎤 Birgit

I led Lilibeth to my room, and once we were inside, I closed and locked the door, even though nobody would barge in without knocking except Estrella, who was out with her new boyfriend. I put on the latest Nine Inch Nails CD, and then stood in front of Lilibeth, just close enough for our boobs to touch. I leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips, then she did the same to me.

On our third kiss, I parted my lips and when Lilibeth’s tongue touched mine, I felt a burning desire in my belly, and instantly got wet. We wrapped our arms around each other, pulling our bodies tightly together, and continued an intense French kiss. I wondered what Lilibeth would taste like, and what it would be like to put my tongue in her, and that only made me want it more.

I felt Lilibeth’s hand on my butt, and moved one of mine to hers, squeezing gently through her jeans. After a minute or so, she broke the kiss.

“Can I take off your shirt?” she asked.

I nodded and as she began pulling my polo shirt from my jeans, I heard a soft knock at the door. I ignored it because there was no way I was going to let anything, including the house burning down around us, get in the way of what I wanted! As Lilibeth began pulling my polo up my body, the knock came again, this time more insistent.

“Ignore it!” I whispered urgently.

Lilibeth looked skeptical, but pulled my polo over my head, and then off my arms.

“Birgit!” I heard Ashley call out from the other side of the door.

“GO AWAY!” I demanded.

“Lilibeth’s parents asked for her and I said I’d get her from the attic room!”

I groaned, took my shirt from Lilibeth, and pulled it back over my head. I went to the door and opened it, breathing fire and looking daggers at my sister.

“Don’t kill the messenger!” she pleaded. “Lilibeth’s parents said they didn’t want her to miss the fireworks!”

“Grrr...” I growled, because that meant I would be missing the fireworks I wanted.

“I’d better go,” Lilibeth said. “I don’t want them to be upset.”

“Go,” I sighed with resignation.

“Maybe we can get together tomorrow?” Lilibeth suggested.

“Call me,” I said.

“They’re in the backyard with my mom and dad,” Ashley added.

She left, and I followed to the bottom of the stairs, but then went into the ‘Indian’ room and burnt a stick of incense in front of Loki’s statue, begging him to stop interfering with me having sex. I didn’t think it would do any good, but it sure couldn’t make things worse!

July 5, 2002, Chicago, Illinois

🎤 Steve

“What’s bugging you, Pumpkin?” I asked when she came into the sunroom after I’d showered following my run with Suzanne.

“What makes you think something is bugging me?” she asked as she climbed into the chaise.

“You were clearly annoyed last night and your eyes tell me something or someone is on your death list!”

“Loki!” Birgit growled.

“Now what?” I asked.

“I’m frustrated! That’s what!”

“Another interrupted make-out session?” I asked.

“Dad, take me upstairs and fuck my brains out! Right now! Before Loki figures it out!”

“You know why we can’t.”

“I don’t want to make love! I want to FUCK! Just take me upstairs, rip my clothes off, put your tongue in my pussy, then fuck my brains out!”

I was positive she meant it, in the heat of the moment, as it were, and there was a slight temptation to want to experience what would be a very enthusiastic and energetic deflowering, but her frustrations couldn’t overcome my thinking on the matter, for all the reasons I’d given Kara. Perhaps, if Birgit had been circumspect, and had made it clear she just wanted an ‘expert deflowering’, I might have considered it, though I knew Jess would never have approved.

That made me realize that there actually were circumstances where it might have happened, but given Birgit’s heart’s desire, those circumstances would not have mattered, as the last thing I wanted was a repeat of the situation with my sister. None of that meant the desire wasn’t there, but this was a desire I simply couldn’t allow to control my actions.