Chapter 2: Trouble in Paradise

-- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008 --

“Right pick, right pick!” I hollered.

I actually didn’t need to shout the warning, because even while guarding her “man”, Dawn had already been shooting glances in both directions to look for the screen she knew would eventually come. By the time I’d said it, she had already taken a step forward to pressure Emma’s dribble and guard the teenager’s jumper.

At the same time, I came up to “show”, ready to switch onto Emma. When I did so, Bert quickly rolled down the lane into the open space, heading for the basket. I saw Emma’s eyes pop up, looking for the lob pass, but I had already started shuffling back to catch up with him.

Emma maintained her dribble, Dawn caught up and got in front of her again, and the two of them started over from scratch. There was no shot clock, and we had all the time in the world.

“Left pick, left pick!” Kim called as Emma drifted around the 3-point line from the top of the key to the wing. Again, Dawn stepped forward to go over the pick, but instead of setting a screen, Eden veered around her twin sister as Emma handed her the ball.

Eden accelerated quickly, fast enough to force Dawn to reverse direction and switch onto her, and she drove down into the lane dribbling with her left hand while protecting with her right forearm. Dawn gamely tried to keep pace with her, but my baby sister was just faster than her. I made the quick decision to slide sideways and cut her off, ready to either challenge Eden’s shot or try to cut off a dump pass to Bert. Eden head-faked up, getting me to jump with arms extended to challenge a floater, and she neatly dropped a perfect no-look dime with just her left hand to Bert as he closed on the baseline.

I was still coming back to earth, my torso twisted to the right as I watched Bert collect the bounce-pass and begin to elevate, and I groaned realizing I’d given up an easy layup. But as I landed, I saw to my surprise that Dawn had continued her pursuit, read the play, and jumped while extending her 5’9” frame to get a hand up into Bert’s shooting window.

My heart leaped in excitement, proud of Dawn’s defensive read. But then my buddy did something I did not expect. Just before Dawn’s hand blocked him, he pulled the ball back down to trap it between both hands, windmilled both arms in a wide counterclockwise circle, and managed to spin the ball off the glass on the other side of the rim just barely before he landed on the ground for a sweet reverse layup.

Great defense.

Better offense.

“10-8!” Eden crowed exultantly while throwing an uppercut, and her enthusiasm was joined by the cheers of twenty or so guys who lined the gymnasium court walls watching us play. Only some of them were waiting for us to finish so they could have the court; the rest were just there to spectate. Our little group had become appointment viewing over the last several months - not a big draw like an AAU game, let alone the Golden State Warriors – but the Friday night gym regulars had come to expect our arrival as an opportunity to not just watch some competitive basketball, but to watch hot girls playing competitive basketball.

While any gym will have its fair share of hot girls walking around at all hours of the day, Friday nights tend to be a dead period when it comes to feminine beauty. Let’s face it: most hot girls have better places to be on a Friday night. Come to think of it: even Eden, Emma, Dawn, and Kim could probably have better places to be on a Friday night. Eden and Emma for sure deserved to be enjoying their college years attending parties and flirting with boys. And although both Dawn and Kim had pledged themselves to remain by my side for the rest of their lives, I wasn’t technically “together” with either of them and therefore had no rights to prevent them from similarly going out and having fun like normal single ladies.

Nevertheless, Friday after Friday, the girls arrived dressed in tight spandex and ready to ball. We were regular enough that nobody ever tried to join us or call “next”. And it was easy to see why.

I’ve already told you about Dawn’s beauty. While she didn’t go out of her way to seek attention, she wasn’t bashful about her body, either. She usually came dressed to play in a baggy tank top for freedom of movement that couldn’t hide the fact she was packing a very firm set of D-cups into her sports bra. Her ass was divine in capri-length Lululemon leggings. And tonight her hair was in a single braided ponytail that extended halfway down her back.

Kim, while not as curvaceous as the others, still attracted plenty of eyeballs. Tonight she wore a sleeveless halter-top that showed off her trim figure and super-tight, super-short shorts designed for volleyball players instead of basketball players, which made her thigh gap all the more obvious. And her Far East appearance had garnered her own little fan club amongst the spectators.

And then there were the twins. As a pair, often choosing to dress in identical outfits and even styling their hair the same way, Eden and Emma drew even more attention than Dawn’s buxom blonde figure. Their dark brown hair was currently piled into neat buns atop their head, showing off the length of their graceful necks and drawing more attention to their exotically beautiful faces. Their slender, obviously athletic bodies were put on full display in spray-on spandex sports bras that squished together perfectly-shaped C-cup breasts and full-length leggings that nevertheless couldn’t completely cover their really looong legs. Neither twin wore a shirt over their sports bra, so their six-pack abs and delicately muscled arms were exposed. And overall, there was something just indescribably sexy about four such beautiful girls who were able to play the game of basketball with such grace and fluidity. These were no awkward workout babes only pretending to play for the sake of getting attention and then squealing high-pitched screams when the ball started flying at their faces.

OK, enough ogling. Back to the game.

Right ... sorry.

Why are you apologizing to me?

Shut it, you.

Following his sweet reverse, Bert headed back out to the perimeter while flashing me a smug grin. The twins both came over to high-five him at the same time from either side, and as they passed by, they continued the downward arc of their hands to finish up by slapping my best buddy on the ass, one twin for each butt-cheek. That definitely startled him, and he jerked forward in surprise while blushing beet red. The act also brought a fresh roar from the crowd, and the twins exchanged delighted grins at the reaction as our two teams reset to start the next point.

Eden checked the ball to Kim, collected it back, and surveyed the floor. Bert had been posting me on the block, but he ran up to the elbow to collect a lob pass into the high post. Eden quickly cut to the basket past Kim, who sharply followed. But as if they were communicating telepathically, Eden set a backscreen on Dawn at the perfect time for Emma to curl behind the basket and out to the wing.

Unfortunately for her, Bert’s bounce pass was a half-second late, giving Kim enough time to switch onto Emma before the younger twin could put up a jumper. Instead, Emma did a quick crossover between her legs and another behind her back, giving up a few feet as she retreated toward the 3-point line. Twice, already she’d canned step-back treys this way over the much shorter Kim. But because of that, my baby mama closed the gap between them quickly and followed Emma out past the arc.

At first, Emma tried to drive by Kim, but the shorter girl matched her quickness and cut her off both tries. By then, Bert came out to the top of the key, collected a pass from Emma, and he quickly swung the ball to Eden in the corner.

Dawn closed on Eden, who pump-faked enough to get Dawn off balance and then drive by her. I’d already been sagging off of Bert, and I beat Eden to the baseline. Anticipating me, Eden looked for her twin sister who had cut backdoor. But when Eden tried to sneak the pass through, Kim accelerated into the gap and snared an interception.

Dawn was still in the corner, all by herself. With Eden, Emma, and Bert all out of position, Kim lobbed the ball over Eden’s outstretched arms. My best friend caught the ball neatly, set her feet, and had all the time in the world to line up her shot.

Swish.

“10-All!” I crowed exultantly, with an uppercut of my own. Keeping my right fist raised, I lifted my left hand to the same height and turned my palms forward to give Dawn a double high-five. At the moment of impact, our fingers interlaced and in perfect harmony we drew our arms down while coming together for a quick peck on the lips. “Great shot, babe.”

My best friend beamed at me. She’d certainly improved a LOT since we first started.

Eden came over and tapped my ass, querying, “We still straight up? Or win by two?”

Having already played four games to 11, we’d already decided this would be the last game. And although the previous four had all been straight up, I rolled my eyes at my baby sister. “Win by two, of course.”

Eden nodded and went to cover Kim, who was at the top of the key ready to check in the ball.

Neither team could score for the next five minutes, however. In a win-by-two format, a 3-pointer would end it all in a single blaze of glory, and we collectively went 0-for-5. Two of the bricks were mine, and one of them was a really bad shot by any definition as I’d been double-teamed in the corner by both Bert and Emma at the time. The longer the game dragged on, the quieter it got in the gym, punctuated by sudden bursts of noise. Even the group that had been playing 4-on-4 on the other side of the court had stopped and lined up at half-court to watch.

Emma’s jumper from the wing hung on the rim for what felt like hours, and thirty guys groaned collectively when it rolled out. Kim got a HUGE roar when she skied into the air above Eden for a chase-down block from behind. Finally, I put a spin move on Bert on the left block, hip-checked him out of the frame, and put in an easy layup to end the scoring drought and put my team ahead.

Unfortunately, my buddy was learning. The next time I tried to post him, he stonewalled me and forced me to pass it out. Dawn missed a free-throw line jumper, and Emma collected the long rebound. Ten seconds later, Eden feinted a drive, crossed behind her back, and drilled a step-back jumper over Kim’s outstretched arm to tie it up. And ten seconds after that, Emma turned the corner baseline on Dawn and put her team up by one when I couldn’t rotate over fast enough.

With victory so near, Eden’s ego got the best of her for a minute. The smart move would have been to get Kim and Dawn to switch, as Dawn was clearly the weaker defender of the two. Although the blonde had made a lot of progress, Kim was a pro. And Kim proved it when Eden tried to put a bit of fancy dribbling on her, and she picked Eden’s pocket cleanly.

“FUCK!” Eden howled while slapping the floor with both hands.

“Language, young lady,” I teased.

Eden flashed me a hateful snarl worthy of a hardcore rapper as she turned around to get into her defensive stance. Five seconds later, insult was added to injury as Kim came off a high screen from me, took the handoff, and nailed a high-arcing triple before Eden could recover.

“13-12,” Kim stated coolly, ice in her veins.

“This isn’t over,” Eden shot back.

“Yet...” Kim drawled, a twinkle in her eye.

Shaking her head in the negative with flaming hot conviction, Eden got into her defensive stance. I hadn’t seen her so... determined ... since she’d been trying to get me to fuck her a year ago. And thoroughly amused by my baby sister’s competitive spirit, I decided for myself that I didn’t need to get the winning shot today.

Kim would.

Over Eden.

So with a sly smile, I walked over to Dawn and wordlessly gestured with my eyes and eyebrows to where Kim and Eden were squaring up at the top of the key, ready to check the ball. My best friend, almost always on the same wavelength as me, chuckled and nodded her head to confirm receipt of the message.

But Kim couldn’t get a shot off.

Not for lack of trying, mind you. Kim was super-quick, with or without the ball in her hands, but Eden matched the Asian girl’s speed and possessed an extra eight inches of wingspan. We started with another high screen, but Eden blasted through my shoulder and kept a hand up over Kim’s right shoulder, forcing the shorter girl to dribble left and eventually give up the ball. Dawn and I set screen after screen after screen, but Eden just hounded her, and even when we managed to set Kim free, Emma or Bert had caught on to our plan and were quick to double-team, forcing the ball out of Kim’s hands. Kim probably could have put up some kind of off-balance jumper; she was too disciplined to take a bad shot just for ego’s sake. Give and go? Couldn’t get free. Pick and roll? Swarmed every time. Having me drive and kick? Eden wouldn’t give Kim any airspace. My baby sister had become an animal on defense.

Good thing we didn’t have a shot clock, because more than a minute went by without anybody making an attempt. Finally, Kim passed out of a double-team over to Dawn on the right baseline while barking, “Just shoot it!”

Unfortunately, Dawn wasn’t quite ready to do so, and her wobbly jumper was off the mark. Emma corralled the rebound, kicked it out to Eden, who raced to the three-point line, pulled an abrupt U-turn, and drove HARD into the lane.

Now on the defensive, Kim stonewalled her opponent, but Eden turned her back to the basket and used her superior strength to force her way in to the left block while some nifty dribbling kept the ball away from Kim’s darting hands. Too late, Dawn moved to double-team and force the ball out of Eden’s hands, but by the time the blonde got there, Eden spun and banked in a soft jumper off the window.

The crowd went wild.

“13-All,” Eden stated softly. Very softly. The fire in her eyes smoldered.

Everyone in the gym assumed Eden would attack once again. She had the height advantage down around the paint, and indeed, she turned around and started backing Kim down. Bert stayed far out of the picture, keeping me from helping, although I started calculating in my head whether or not I was willing to concede him a wide open triple to win the game. Thankfully, Dawn was much quicker to double-team this time, but just as the blonde closed in, Eden spun the other way, faded off her back foot, and put her hands up into a shooting motion...

... only the ball wasn’t there anymore. I actually missed the pass it was so fluid. Emma, cutting backdoor, suddenly had the ball in her hands, and my other twin sister neatly put in a reverse layup.

And the crowd went wild.

“14-13,” Eden stated even more softly. I could barely hear her, and only the fact that I knew the score allowed me to read her lips.

Kim pressed her lips together in a hard line, supremely focused for one more play. She knew she could play better defense. She knew she could read, react, and get a steal when we needed one. She had played basketball all her life and been taught everything there was to know about the game.

But you can’t teach height.

Eden passed the ball in to Emma and then scooted back a few feet. Emma passed the ball right back, and Eden collected it almost at the half-court line. Indeed, one more step backward and the guys lined up there would be able to paw at her spandex-clad ass. But she didn’t need another step back. Eden crossed over once, then twice, popped an inside-out dribble and hopped to her right about two feet, and elevated. Kim was right with her. Almost thirty feet away from the basket, Kim stayed right with her. If you ask me, it was a BAD shot, and Kim had elevated with Eden at almost the exact same time.

But you can’t teach height.

The ball sailed just beyond Kim’s reach. If she had been maybe two inches taller, she would have blocked it. But she wasn’t two inches taller, and away the ball flew.

Swish.

16-13.

Eden marched off alongside the half-court line crowd tapping her left wrist as if she were wearing a watch.

And the crowd went WILD.

We arrived at Bert and Lynne’s apartment just before 8pm. Every Friday night, Kim and I would take Bert out to get some exercise, Lynne got some one-on-one baby time with BJ – it was a win-win for everybody. But when we arrived, we found that my son had two baby-sitters for the night.

“Hey, guys!” Summer greeted merrily when Bert unlocked and opened the door. She’d been standing with arms folded across her chest while looking toward the bedroom.

Bert, in front, was the first to reply brightly, “Hey, Summer! Back again? Maybe you should just move in.”

“Dream on,” Lynne deadpanned as she entered from the apartment’s bedroom, following after a toddling BJ, who giggled and made a beeline for his mother.

Kim immediately knelt on the carpet and spread her arms out. “Akachan! Did you hear Mommy come in?”

I watched my son and baby mama hug for a moment, and then looked up to find Summer staring straight at me. “Hey, Ben,” she said warmly. “How was the game?”

“Really good.” I jerked a thumb behind me at the twins. “But in the end, competitive fire took over and they beat us.”

Summer shrugged. “Can’t win ‘em all. You guys coming in?” she asked hopefully.

I shook my head in the negative. “Just trading Lynne’s big baby for my little baby.” Indeed, Dawn and the twins were still by the door, waiting to leave.

“Well, it was nice to see you.” Summer gave me a wan smile. Only then did she remember to look around at everyone else and add, “Nice to see you all, too.”

The twins exchanged a glance and Dawn smirked. Meanwhile, Kim popped BJ into his stroller by the door and wrapped up her mini-conversation with Lynne to see how the evening had gone. We all bade our goodbyes, and less than two minutes after entering the apartment, we were back on the sidewalk heading for my house.

Out of the blue, an elbow bumped into mine.

“She likes you,” Emma drawled with a touch of mirth in her voice.

Arching an eyebrow, I sighed at the sense of déjà vu and shook my head. “Everyone keeps saying that.”

“It’s pretty obvious,” Emma continued. “Right, Dawn?”

On the other side of me, my best friend nodded. “Yeah ... it’s pretty obvious. But you told me there isn’t any real history there. You two never dated or anything, right?”

“Right, right.” I pursed my lips together and thought about what information I’d already shared. It’s not that I kept any secrets from Dawn, but neither had I gone out of my way to explain everything. After Lynne’s wedding when Summer had come over to announce that she’d gotten into the Berkeley MBA program, Dawn had understandably been curious about the platinum-blonde beauty. Back then, I’d told her that Summer had been a cheerleader and one of Adrienne’s friends, although she had been a year ahead of me, graduated, and moved on to UCLA before I got the chance to really know her.

“Never dated, perhaps,” Emma conceded. “But did you ever bang her?”

I shrugged and nodded. Dawn glanced over at me and confirmed, “He told me they hooked up a couple of times. Nothing serious, though.”

Emma mused on that silently while Eden chimed in from behind us, “Well THAT explains it, then. Girl got a Big Ben Experience, graduated, and then spent the next seven years growing more and more infatuated with the memory of you while realizing no other man could make her feel the same way.”

Emma leaned over and nudged her shoulder against my arm. “Makes perfect sense to us. We have some experience spending years harboring Disney-level ‘someday my prince will come’ fantasies, you see.”

I chuckled and shook my head. With furrowed eyebrows, I stared at the sidewalk in front of me as we walked before letting out a big sigh and remarking, “Summer and I were a relationship that never happened. See... I’d like to think there was a spark of ... something ... between us. I mean, she told me she was in danger of falling in love with me, and I remember thinking that if only there had been more time, we could’ve developed into something special.”

Dawn gave me a curious look. “You didn’t tell me that before. You just said you two hooked up a couple of times around Finals, and that was it.”

I gave her an honest look. “That was it. I never saw Summer again after graduation. A couple of weeks later I went up to camp, fell in love with YOU, and that was that. I did give her a call in August like I’d promised, left her a voicemail, and she never called me back. For all I know, all that stuff about sparks and stuff was just in my head and she never truly felt the same way. And not trying to denigrate her or anything, but looking back I thought I felt sparks with a LOT of different girls every couple of months or so. I was a 17-year-old kid with more hormones than brains.”

Dawn chuckled. “I remember.”

“And none of this matters anyway. What may or may not have happened between us seven years ago has no bearing on what’s happening now. And whether or not Summer ‘likes me’ likes me is irrelevant.” I leaned my shoulder first into Dawn and then into Emma before turning around and pointing to Kim, who was walking next to Eden while Eden pushed the stroller, stating respectively, “Best friend. Baby sisters. Baby mama. Plus June. And Adrienne and Sasha.”

“Viktoriya keeps asking when you might be able to visit again,” Dawn added.

“You’re proving my point.” I shook my head. “I love you all too much to neglect any one of you, and I learned my lesson about spreading myself too thin.”

“Hear, hear!” Eden cheered enthusiastically from behind us. “I vote y’all stop trying to suggest Ben start anything with a new girl who would make him spend less time fucking our brains out, capisce? I for one am feeling AMPED after hitting that 30-footer, and I’m looking to celebrate!”

I turned around, continuing to walk backward while gesturing at Kim. “Don’t rub it in, Eed.”

Kim just shrugged, unfazed. “What? It was a great shot. I’ll get her next time.”

Eden grinned and patted Kim’s shoulder once before returning her hand to the stroller handle. But we only made it as far as the next intersection before Eden had to remove both hands from the stroller and pass control of the drowsy toddler’s conveyance over to his mother. The house Kim and I shared with our son and my co-worker was straight ahead. The house the twins shared with Dawn and June’s little sister Eve was down the street to our left, although both June and Eve always went home to stay with their parents every weekend.

I crouched down and leaned into the stroller seat to give BJ a quick peck on the forehead. “Night-night, little man. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Daddy Pussy!” he replied enthusiastically, now pointing at Eden, which got everyone laughing.

I gave him an exaggerated confused look. “The green train’s name is Percy, and you left your trains at home, dude.”

“He’s just saying it now because whenever he does, everybody laughs,” Kim pointed out.

BJ now pointed at his mommy and exclaimed, “Daddy Pussy!”

Everybody else laughed.

“See?” Kim drawled matter-of-factly.

“Yes,” I agreed, giving my son an overly dramatic nod and a wide grin while popping my eyes open wide. “They’re ALL Daddy’s Pussies!”

“Hear, hear!” Eden cheered again.

“Yayyy!!!” BJ clapped his hands and grinned, drooling a little.

“Now let’s get rollin’,” Dawn enthused. “THIS pussy needs to get STUFFED.”

I glanced up at my best friend. “Enjoy these jokes for now. In a few years, you’d BETTER not be saying these words around him.”

“What? You started it.”

Rolling my eyes, I gave BJ another quick peck and rubbed his chubby cheek. Then I stood and gave his mother a quick peck on the lips, also rubbing her cheek.

Kim pulled me close and whispered cryptically into my ear, “Avenge me.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in momentary confusion, but Kim darted her eyes ever so briefly to my left. Only Eden was on that side of me. And with a grin, I nodded and leaned in to kiss her cheek again.

Kim growled softly, “Make her scream.”

“Motherfucking FUCK!” Eden screamed as I yanked my dick out of her tight teenaged twat and abruptly started cramming it into her even tighter teenaged asshole. Her crinkled sphincter rapidly expanded to accommodate my girth, and as inch after inch of thick dick burrowed mercilessly into the nether depths of her darkest hole, she threw her head back howling, “Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-FUCK!!!”

At full depth, my balls pressed up against my baby sister’s buttcheeks, I leaned over and said with a smile, “That one was for Kim.”

“Fuckity-fuck!”

I’m getting ahead of myself.

The twins, Dawn, and I arrived at the girls’ house and I immediately found my arms full of horny eighteen-year-old. Emma had wasted no time vaulting herself at me as soon as we walked through the front door, eager to fasten her lips around mine the very instant she could safely do so. While Dawn or Kim could cuddle me close, kiss my lips, or do any number of things to me that would qualify as public displays of affection, Eden and Emma would always have to guard those impulses. Out there in the real world, we could never be certain whether or not somebody who knew we were related might be watching. Hell, even Bert could get away with PDA with me if he were so inclined. This was Berkeley.

But not the twins, and I could both hear and feel the ecstatic relief Emma expressed at finally being able to let her guard down as she moaned into our liplock and let her shoulders relax even as she tightened the grip of her arms around the back of my neck.

Moments later, I felt a new pair of hands reaching around from behind to fumble at the zipper of the jacket I’d worn for the evening walk back from the gym. Pulling my mouth off of Emma’s for just a moment, I turned my head sideways to glance at Eden, asking, “Shouldn’t we take this upstairs first?”

“Nuh-uh,” my horny baby sister muttered. “Too impatient.”

The twins’ eyes met briefly with something silently communicated between them. Rather than attempt to re-engage my lips, Emma instead took me by the hand and led me through the short corridor separating the front door from the living room and then around to the business side of the big couch. I grinned as I took a quick glance around, the walls surrounding me so utterly familiar after four years spent living in this house. They had been the best years of my life in many ways.

But this was no time for nostalgia. Emma parked me on the center cushion of the couch and promptly dropped to her knees before me. She tugged at my gym shorts, getting me to hop a little on the cushion to help her drag both my shorts and my boxers down to my ankles. Meanwhile, Eden had come to sit beside me, half-turned so she could focus on helping me remove my jacket. At least, that had been the idea, but she mashed her lips to mine and started such a frenzied kiss that she only got my zipper halfway down before grabbing hold of my head and attempting to stab her tongue through the back of my skull.

Abruptly, I tensed up and groaned the moment Emma wrapped her supple pink lips around my throbbing erection and started pushing that tight circle of pleasure downward along my shaft. Eden broke our kiss to glance down at her twin beginning a blowjob, but then she merely grinned and went back to kissing me. Sparkles of sensation shot up my spine, sending electrical bursts of pleasure into my brain as Emma continued her expert fellatio. Somehow Emma always knew exactly how to please me, knew when and how to change her technique. It was as if she had inherited my sexual savant user manual abilities – certainly not from me – but perhaps my Sex God skills originally came from Mom (not that I wanted to think too hard about that).

Meanwhile, Dawn had not been idle. My buxom blonde best friend had stripped off her jacket and baggy tank top before coming to sit on the other side of me. She took over unzipping my jacket on Eden’s behalf and helped me pull my arms out of the sleeves. And when Eden and I finally broke for air, I glanced over to find Dawn resting the side of her head against her open palm with her elbow propped atop the couch’s backrest, infinitely patient and content to simply watch the twins crawling all over me.

Eden, who still had her arms wrapped around my neck, smiled and started to tug at the hem of my tank top. I allowed the teenage vixen to strip off my shirt, leaving me bare-chested, and she paused to admire my athletically-toned body and squeeze my pecs a bit. After that, I puckered up ready to resume our kiss. But to my surprise, my baby sister turned my face to Dawn’s, giggling as she slid off the couch to join her twin on the floor.