The Blowup

The smell of burning hog fat woke me. I found myself alone in bed. Kayla and Brittney’s panicked voices carried from the kitchen, along with the clattering of pots and pans. I checked the clock to find that I’d slept almost till noon.

“You’re burning it!” yelled Brittney as the smoke alarm blared its warning.

“Well, I don’t know how to cook!” Kayla replied. “Can you reach it?”

“Yeah. How do you turn it off?”

“I don’t know! Try blowing on it!”

I walked into the kitchen, still naked, and scratched my head. “Take the battery out,” I said and they both turned.

“Oh, hey!” Brittney said, sheepishly. “Sorry about the noise!”

She managed to remove the nine volt while I crossed behind her to move the pan of charred bacon off the burner and flicked on the range hood to clear the smoke. Gluey, overcooked scrambled eggs and some kind of hash that looked as if it had already been eaten filled other pans.

“We figured out what we’re going to do!” Kayla reported when I turned to face them. They’d both put their clothes back on to cook breakfast and I wished they hadn’t.

“About what?” I asked. I reached into the cabinet for a mug and filled it with cold coffee from the previous day.

“About Ash’s mom.”

“Didn’t we already agree you weren’t getting involved,” I said between sips.

Kayla stepped forward to give me a kiss and my cock a quick fondle. “It’s cute that you think that,” she said. “But I already told you, we’re not going to let you go through this alone.”

I lifted my eyes and sighed. No point arguing with her about it. “So, what’s this plan of yours?”

“A sting operation,” Brittney said excitedly.

I coughed and spit coffee back into my mug. “A what?”

“We’re going to get a recording of her admitting that she attacked you and tried to blackmail you,” Kayla explained.

“And how the hell are you going to do that?” I asked, taking a seat at the island.

“We’re not. You are,” she said, and hurried to continue when she saw the look on my face. “You’re going to hide your phone and have it recording, then you’re going to confront Erin about what she did. When she admits to it all, we’ll have her!”

I shook my head and moved from the island to the sofa, the burnished leather cool against my warm skin. They followed and stood nearby.

“It’ll work!” Brittney insisted, but I gave her a skeptical look and rolled my eyes.

“I appreciate the thought, ladies, but I don’t think so,” I said, much to Brittney’s disappointment.

“Why not?” Kayla asked, crossing her arms. She didn’t appreciate her idea being so easily shot down.

“Because, she’d never fall for it,” I said. “She’s too fucking smart for that. Besides, I don’t ever want to see her again and I never want to go back to that house.”

“She’ll talk. I promise,” Kayla insisted.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because, you’re going to give her some of this!” Brittney said.

I stared at the empty sugar packet in her hand from last night and blinked a couple times but didn’t respond. Could that work?

“We realized the ecstasy made us super chatty and ... touchy,” Brittney said with a smirk and a sideways glance at Kayla. “I said and did a lot of things last night I don’t think I’d ever have done otherwise.”

Although they hadn’t quite had sex with each other, they’d come damned close, with Kayla even sticking her fingers into Brittney’s ass while she sucked me off each time I pulled out. Brittney also told us the full truth of her encounter with the girl in the bathroom at the band competition, which had involved a lot more than just kissing. Still, impassioned experimentation with a close friend and secrets confessed during the throes of sex with people you deeply trusted didn’t equate to Erin giving up the goods to someone who despised her.

I huffed. “This is the exact same trick she used on me, remember? She’d see it coming a mile away, and she’d definitely taste it if I put it in her drink.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to trick her,” Kayla reasoned. “You said yourself that she loves to do drugs, and she loves doing them with you even more, apparently, so just offer it to her. She’ll take it if you do. Then all you have to do is get her comfortable and let the ecstasy do its thing.”

I looked at the packet again and shook my head. Why was I even considering this ridiculous plan of theirs? The whole thing read like some childish caper from a teen movie. It would never work unless...

“I’d have to have sex with her,” I said. “She’d demand it.”

“So what? Do it, then!” Kayla shouted, irritated by my hesitation. “If that’s what you need to do to get her off your back for good, then just do it.”

“Easy for you to say. She’s disgusting,” I said. Kayla regarded me for a long beat, and I could tell she had something to say. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head and said, “Never mind.”

“Ugh! You know I hate when you do that. Out with it!”

“Did you have sex with her?”

Why had I pushed? For a split second, I considered lying, but I knew she’d know it if I did, even if she wouldn’t call me out on it. I paused and then nodded.

Brittney’s face fell. “What?” she gasped.

“How many times?” Kayla asked, her tone cautious.

I sighed. “Twice,” I said and a small cry escaped Brittney’s lips.

Kayla thought for a moment. “That first night, when you disappeared with her into the den,” she said, stating it as a fact and not a question.

“Yeah.”

Brittney covered her mouth. “Oh my god.”

After some additional consideration, Kayla said, “And the next day in the pool house, when you said you had to go inside to talk to her. You had this far away stare when you came back and you just seemed off.”

I nodded again.

“You lied to us,” Brittney said quietly. “Why? Why would you do that? We asked you to tell us everything. Why don’t you ever trust us enough to tell us the truth?”

I put my head in my hands and groaned. “I didn’t want to tell you because I felt disgusted with myself and I didn’t want you to think any worse of me than you already do.”

Brittney’s face reddened. “That’s not fair!” she cried. “We’ve never judged you like that, and the only times I’ve ever thought bad of you is when you treated me like shit or lied to me, which seems to be happening a lot these days.”

“I know,” I said, too ashamed to look at her. “You’re right. I should have told you guys last night. I’m sorry.”

“No, you should have told us when it happened,” Kayla snapped.

I didn’t necessarily agree with her about that, and considered saying so, but a message alert on my phone distracted me. Kayla and Brittney’s phones alerted a moment later. Brittney checked hers.

“Oh shit,” she said when she’d read the message.

I picked up my phone as another message came in from Courtney to the group.

Courtney: Shit’s going down! Ash and her mom are having a huge fight!!!

Courtney: OMG, this is so bad!! Where the fuck are U? Call me!

Brittney already had her on the line.

“Court! Court ... slow down! I can’t understand- WHAT?” She held her phone to her chest. “Oh my god, I can hear them screaming at each other in the background!”

“Speaker!” Kayla shouted, and Brittney tapped the button. The sounds of Ashley and Erin screaming over each other poured from the speaker while Courtney continued her play by play.

“ ... and they’re both up in her room right now and I can hear them throwing shit all over the place!” Courtney shouted.

“Court, it’s Kayla. You’re on speaker.”

“Kiki! Where the fuck are you guys?”

“We stayed over last night. What the fuck is going on over there?”