Chapter 15

I woke up agitated when I felt the mattress move. Like so many times before, I was trembling, breathing heavily, and felt my heartbeat up to my throat. Then I saw the dark figure in front of me.

I reacted without really thinking about it within a second of waking up, grabbed the intruder by the throat, and pulled my fist back to attack. That’s when I heard Ava’s frightened shriek.

I immediately let go of her throat, but she still fell off the bed. I jumped out of bed myself, turned on the light, and found her right next to my nightstand. She was cowering on the floor, visibly shaken by what had happened.

“Ava! Fuck! I’m so sorry! Are you Okay!?” I rapidly shot those words out as I kneeled next to her and looked her over.

“Yes. Sorry. I’m Okay. That was scary!” She tried to sound casual, but I could hear her voice tremble.

“I’m really so sorry, Ava! I should’ve warned you!!” I was still inspecting her neck, checking for any injuries and marks. “Can you breathe? Swallow a few times, does it hurt?”

“No, it’s really Okay, Tim.” She took a deep breath. “Nothing happened. Danny warned me, but I totally forgot about it.” As she spoke, she moved her head around to demonstrate that she actually was fine.

“She warned you?” I took hold of her hands and helped her get to her feet, making sure she could stand and had proper coordination.

“When I talked with Danny about my problem, and she suggested that maybe you’d be willing to take me in, we got to talking. Since she knew that Maggie and I had listened in on you that night you had one of your ... Not-Panic-Attacks, she thought that, while you help me, maybe I could help you in turn.” she explained meekly. “I couldn’t sleep. New environment, I guess. I thought I could ... just ... slip in next to you. I didn’t expect you to startle awake like this.”

Satisfied with my examination of her neck, I noticed it was just past 2:00 AM. If we were to hit the road now, there was no sense in trying to get back to sleep for the whole hour I would have left after I got back.

“Well, so much to that. If you want me to get you home, I’ll just grab a quick shower.”

“Huh? Why?” She sounded, and looked, genuinely confused.

“Are you saying you want to stay here with me? After what just happened!?”

“Of course.” she smiled. “I told you, Danny warned me. And even after I screwed up, in the middle of your Not-Panic-Attack...”

“Can you stop calling it that?”

“ ... you still recognized me and caught yourself before doing any damage, so I know you won’t hurt me. But, about the thing with me slipping into bed next to you ... Last time I did, when you were still working on gathering all that evidence against the Bookie, I slept really well. Would it be Okay today, too? Please?”

When she asked that part at the end, she put her hands behind her back, poked one of her big toes at the ground, and looked up at me with her best little girl impression: Face downcast while looking up at me with big sad eyes. Guess that always worked wonders with Aaron. Though, I had absolutely no idea why she would ever want to appeal to me like that, despite what Danielle had told me. Only then did I, for the first time, take in her attire. Boyshorts, a way too small, belly-free top, and nothing else. I mulled it over for a moment but, now that the adrenaline was leaving my body, I got tired again.

Reminding myself that, if I insisted on taking her home, my night would effectively be over, I decided to risk it, pulled the blanket back for her, and we went back to sleep with little further discussion. Even though her body was seriously enticing, I was concerned about what had just happened, so I didn’t really get in the mood despite her grabbing my arm and making me spoon her. And, if I was being honest, the plan I had hatched for her would have a higher chance to succeed if I waited a little before making another move on her.

The next morning, I woke up before her, and realized I had roughly twenty minutes before my alarm would have woken us up. I quickly seized the opportunity to start the research for my plan, carefully slipped out of bed, and silently left the room. After unsuccessfully checking her bathroom and bedroom, I finally found what I was looking for in her purse. I was lucky. Her birth control pills came in a dialpak, so, if I wanted to make her believe I messed with them by switching them out, this made it a whole lot easier.

I took a photo of them for later reference, and, following a spontaneous idea, decided to not be too careful when hiding the evidence of my snooping. I deliberately placed her pills in a different part of her purse than I had found them in, and left the purse itself on her bed. I wanted her to notice the purse and ask herself if I messed with it. I hoped she would then notice the pills being in a different compartment, planting the first seed of suspicion in her head.

We actually made it out of the Apartment in time. She kept throwing me suspicious side glances ever since she came out of her room, but didn’t ask me about her purse. She was also a little confused when I told her to pack gym clothes, but, as expected, she simply did what I told her without questioning me. The reveal came when we picked up Mia.

“Morning ... you two?” Mia asked, seeing Ava leaving the passenger seat to sit with Mia in the back.

“She moved in with me.” I addressed her confusion, as I started the car and drove off. I knew it was useless to try and keep it a secret, since Ava would be present in the mornings to come as well.

“Why?”

“Apparently, some people are not happy with the idea of a minor living alone. Ava thankfully volunteered to keep an eye on me for a while.” It took some effort on my part to act like I was glad about having Ava in my home, but I didn’t want Mia to ask unnecessary questions.

“Oh.” she said, throwing Ava a questioning look that didn’t entice her to provide further explanations.

The two of them spent the rest of the drive gossiping between themselves. We had just parked the car when Mia noticed Ava’s extra luggage.

“Why do you have your gym bag?”

“I don’t know. He told me to bring it.” Ava answered, pointing at me.

“I’m gonna take her to the company gym after school. I want to teach her some self defense.”

Both of them looked at me with big surprised eyes, as I started moving away from the car.

“You’re going to teach me self defense?” Ava asked.

“What? You think I’m not qualified?” I asked back, with mock offense in my voice.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that! I don’t know anyone I’d trust more to know about that stuff after what you did in that parking lot.” She sounded way more apologetic than necessary. Almost pleading. Like she was actually afraid I could be offended or something. “But why do you want me to learn that?”

“Can’t hurt, can it?”

I knew they didn’t believe that I would teach Ava something like this for no reason. But they, once again, refrained from questioning me further. After they got to their classes, I sat down in the library and continued my research from the morning.

Pulling out the photo I took of Ava’s birth control pills, I surprisingly quickly found a bunch of sugar pills that bore a remarkable resemblance in an online store for ... certain kinky activities. I could even get them in the right colors: Eggshell-White and Yellow-Ocher. There were a few obvious differences, but I was confident she wouldn’t notice those unless she took a closer look, and I thought I could play it so she wouldn’t. I also chose a few toys I thought could be fun to try on my sisterly fucktoy and pending cumdumpster. Same Day Delivery would fit perfectly, since Ava would be exhausted after the training, making it easier for me to mess with her head.

With that taken care of, I started my research on the money issue, pursuing the idea I had the evening before.

I was surprised how many buildings in this city were in foreclosure. And more specifically, how many of them were within walking distance of the local community college Ava and Maggie were planning to attend. A few of them didn’t even look too run down. More like the original owners were pissed about getting kicked out, and wanted to lessen the property value so the bank wouldn’t make too much of a profit.

I thought about expanding the plan to the area around UT Austin and utilize Golden Boy’s college attendance, but the listings in that area were way out of my price range. I knew, however, that I couldn’t pull this off on my own even in the areas that were in my price range. Even for the cheaper buildings, I needed help from an adult with a credit score.

Preferably, I wanted someone with a good credit score, so the parents were out of the question. I couldn’t trust the grandparents after calling social services on me, and thereby displaying yet another blatant disregard for my needs and wishes, so they were out too. I also didn’t want to include any of the guys from work in this. The only other person I knew would fit the criteria for certain, would be Mr. Miller, Mia’s father. But the speech he gave me, after learning that Nora had chosen me as a lover, made it quite clear he wouldn’t even consider it. That left John and Danielle. And I was SO not happy about that prospect. I admit, it was more the total lack of alternatives than my willingness to risk it, that made me give Danielle a call.

“Hey, Tim! Don’t tell me you already want me to pick up Ava.” she greeted me, half amused but also clearly concerned.

“No. Not yet, anyway. Listen...” I said, as I took a deep breath and tried to gather my courage to take this leap of faith. “I kinda need to ask you and John a big favor. I need help with something, and I absolutely need you to not tell the others.”

“Yes.” she said in a matter of fact tone.

“You ... really? Just like that?”

“Absolutely.” She sounded absolutely serious. When I didn’t comment, she probably suspected I had a hard time believing her, so she elaborated. “Tim, that’s what we’ve been waiting for! You CAN trust us, and this is finally an opportunity to prove it to you! Even if it wasn’t about that, after everything you did for us over the last month alone, we owe you.”

“Okay ... then ... Could we meet up sometime tomorrow? I still need to work out my sales pitch, but I suspect we won’t take long. You’ll probably know pretty quickly if you want to get involved or not. Maybe an hour, depending on how many questions come up on your side.”

“I’ll tell John. Let’s meet at our place at Twelve tomorrow? By then I’ll be done with the grocery shopping, so we’ll have time. And Maggie will be out with her friends, so we can talk without worrying about her listening in again.”

“Sounds good. Thanks, Danny.” I said before ending the call.

Ava’s and Mia’s classes ended relatively early, at around Two in the afternoon, on Fridays. I had used the remaining time to look for a few more estates in foreclosure and printed the most promising ones for the meeting with John and Danielle. The longer I thought about my idea, the more I thought that it could actually work. But in the end, I absolutely had to trust John and Danielle to not screw me over on this deal. All the paperwork would be in their names, so they would be the sole beneficiaries, while I would be financing it and doing all the work in secret with no documented ties to it. I hated that prospect, though if they screwed me over, at least it wouldn’t be that big of a loss. I wasn’t meant to have that money anyway.

When Ava and Mia arrived in the Hallway, they were unusually giddy and seemed excited. They spent the drive to Mia’s home speculating about the training I mentioned. Only when I had parked the car, and we were about to enter the house, did I finally pick up on what they were actually saying.

“This is exciting! I really wonder what he’ll be teaching us.” I heard Mia say, causing me to stop in my tracks.

“Eh ... Mia? What do you mean by ‘teaching us’? I told you that I would be teaching Ava.” I asked her, but she just kept walking into the living room where she found her parents and brother, and told them about ‘our’ afternoon plans. Then she told them how I wanted to exclude her from them.

“Why don’t you want to teach my little girl how to defend herself!?” Nora asked, with a barely noticeable accusation in her voice, that was betrayed by the smirk on her lips.

“Well, when I said that I’m gonna teach Ava self defense, I used those words so they knew what I’m talking about. But the thing is ... There is no such thing as a self defense technique. Basically, if you want to know how to possibly get out of a choke hold, you first need to know how a choke hold works. That’s not something you learn from someone telling you or watching a video. I’ll have to teach you how to put someone in a choke hold yourself. Yes, there will be a few techniques, but I don’t think you’d want your daughter to learn that. Especially since the techniques we learn at Carter are ... rough.”

“No, I actually do!” George, Mia’s father suddenly proclaimed. The demanding voice surprised even Nora and his two children. “She’s going to attend college in the fall. As much as I would like to, I won’t be able to watch out for her anymore, and we all heard the stories about drunk frat boys. I would sleep a lot better knowing she’d be able to defend herself.”

“And it’s not like you really have a choice in this matter.” Mia added, smirking when I raised an eyebrow in doubt. “You said you’d drive me where I want, when I want. Well, now I want you to drive me and Ava to your company gym. And when we’re already there, you can just as well include me in that training.”

I thought about that for a moment, but couldn’t really come up with any way to refuse her. At least not without making her parents, the client, angry.

“Look ... This is not like driving a bicycle. First of all, you’ll need someone to train with. Then you’ll need someone to continuously train with. That’s actually the really important part. If you want to utilize any of this when you’re being attacked, taken by surprise and afraid, you’ll need to be able to rely on muscle memory. The key for that is endless repetition.”

“So take Jacky with you!” Nora suggested, placing her hand on his arm. “He’s a big and strong guy. He’ll be the perfect partner for Mia to train with. Exactly the type she needs to learn to fight off.” I had to suppress a laugh when I heard her unintended characterization of her son. “He’ll be here for a few weeks, and I’m sure we can work something out after that.”

Well ... shit. I was banking on Mia bailing out once she realized this wouldn’t be a one-and-done commitment, but now I was out of arguments. I didn’t like Nora’s suggestion at all. I know, he is her son and she will always see him as her little angel. But, to me, that was the guy who spent his entire high school career as a bully and borderline sexual predator, and now she wanted me to show him how to be better at that!? Was that woman nuts!? Of course, there was no way to actually explain that without potentially causing trouble for Bill. At least Jack looked just as enthusiastic about joining us as I felt about having him join us. However, since ‘Jacky’ would be playing the aggressor for Mia, maybe it would be fun to watch as he got his ass handed to him by his little sister.

So, I sighed, nodded, and made my way to the car to wait for them. On the way to the gym, Ava and Mia continued their gossiping on the backseat, while Jack spent his time admiring the car, asking questions about its performance and how it handled. Apparently, driving around in an armored car was a noteworthy experience for him.

I started the training very much like it started for me, showing them proper stances, posture and testing their strength. Surprisingly, Ava and Mia were in much better shape than the football player Jack. Especially when it comes to flexibility. Unsurprisingly, however, Jack challenged me on almost everything I said.

“That’s bullshit!” he called out when I explained what an effective defensive stance looks like. “You need to get your hands up and cover your head! Not hold them at chest height!”

I sighed.

“Look, Jack, I’m not teaching boxing here. What we’re training is how to deal with an actual attack, not how to win a damn competition in a ring! When you’re in a boxing spar, you’re welcome to block half your field of vision with your fists, because you only have one single opponent who’s ideally in front of you. In a street fight you need to be able to see his friends coming at you from the sides. And since real fights have no rules about not punching you in the nuts, you’d do well to keep your hands at center. This way, your hands travel an equal distance to block, no matter where the next attack is aimed at.”

“That ... actually makes sense.” Ava remarked with a thoughtful expression, while Mia nodded along. That shut him up, as he seemed lost for arguments.

“Now, that cheerleading of yours seems to be quite the exercise. You’re both in great shape and super flexible. That’ll help you a lot when trying to get away from an attack. Let me show you the next thing. Mia, get on your back in front of me, please.” I asked, and waited for her to lay down before I continued. “Most of what we’ll do will be grappling, because that’s essentially what guys will do when they’ll try to have their way with you. So...” I continued, as I reached forward and spread Mia’s legs to position myself between them. “ ... Jack and I will act like actual attackers. You Okay with that?” I asked, looking between Mia and Ava.

Ava looked at me kneeling between Mia’s legs, then at Jack, and thought for a moment. I got the impression that she was not too keen on the idea of having him handle her, but after a moment she nodded her head. Luckily for her, I had no intention of letting that prick touch her. Mia, on the other hand, acted differently than I had expected. Seeing me between her legs seemed to affect her. She was excited! As I spoke, I let my hands wander almost casually and she was looking at me with a slightly opened mouth, her eyes growing bigger when I squeezed a little. Her breathing also grew in intensity. Little did she know, this was going to get much more intimate. Seeing her react like this had an effect on me as well. An effect she would get to feel soon.

“Also, that question wasn’t just directed at the girls.” I said, without breaking eye contact with Mia. “You need to be comfortable with being close to them as well, Jack. If this is meant to teach them anything, they need to train these movements in a realistic setting.”

With that, I let my hands slide to the hollow of Mia’s knees, turned my palms up to cup the underside of her soft thighs, and pushed my hands all the way up to the bottom of her buttcheeks. The look she gave me was pure surprise, but I greatly enjoyed how she would just let me feel her up like this. Though, I wasn’t sure whether she enjoyed my touch, or my boldness had just stunned her.

Done with the slow and casual movements, I strongly grabbed her hips and roughly pulled Mia’s body into my groin like she weighed nothing, even lifting her butt a few inches off the ground for maximum impact, and her legs came to rest on my shoulders. She felt my hardness slam against her center, the force of the impact traveled through her body and caused her breasts to jump. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she let out a mixture of a surprised shriek and an involuntary moan, but she made absolutely no attempt to protest in any way. She just stared at me and she knew, had we been naked, I would have slammed myself balls deep inside her.

Despite teasing her for days about secretly having a thing for me, I was still somewhat surprised when her chest was now heaving and, to my greatest satisfaction, saw her chewing on her bottom lip. I would have expected her to chew ME out for that stunt. I finally turned my head towards Jack, but refused to let go of Mia’s hips, or even ease up on pressing her covered mound against my hard cock. It even seemed like she enjoyed the feeling so much, she didn’t even care about her brother standing six feet away watching us.

“This won’t work if you keep your distance from her because you’re embarrassed, or want to respect her personal safe space, or some other crap. When some guy attacks her, he’ll be up close inside her guard. So she’ll need to train with a partner that’s up close inside her guard as well. Otherwise we can’t be sure her tendons, joints and muscles will cooperate when she’s in real danger.”

“Are you serious!?” Jack protested, obviously uncomfortable with what I asked of him, and obviously tempted to set me straight for manhandling his little sister. I doubt he ever saw my erection, I had long since learned to conceal my ‘wrestling boners’, as Tess used to call them. But he certainly saw the way Mia reacted to me. “It can’t make that much of a difference if I keep a few inches of space between us!”

“Do you hold back on your tackles during football practice as well, so you won’t hurt your teammates?” I asked, and he shook his head. “Of course you don’t! Because they need to learn to deal with it before it happens in a real game. If you see the need for that, when it’s just about playing with your balls on the field, why wouldn’t you acknowledge that need when we’re trying to prepare your sister for actual assaults? Trust me, a few inches make one hell of a difference! If she is to actually learn how to move in a situation like that, you can not make it easier for her while she trains.” I assured him.

And I really meant it! This wasn’t just me molesting his sister, the bitch who tormented me in school for so long, and thereby getting a little payback on both of them. This was an actual problem with most self-defense courses offered nowadays.

That made sense to him. He was bound to know what I just told him from his football training already, so he relented and I could instruct Ava and Mia on how to do “the shrimp”. By the time they had the movement down, our hour was up and the first people from the firm started filing into the gym. We packed up and drove back to the Miller house. During the drive, Jack was still trying to question my methods, but I noticed the backseat was unusually quiet. Looking in the rearview mirror, I saw Mia regard me with thoughtful and, whenever she noticed me watching, shy looks. Ava seemed to take great interest in her friend’s unusual behavior.

After we arrived at Mia’s home, and all of us had made their way inside, I located whoever was currently assigned watchduty and answered Nora’s and Mr. Miller’s questions about how the training went. As I turned to leave, however, Mia called out to me.

“Tim! When’s ... when do you come by next?” The highly unusual uncertainty in her voice, as well as her fidgeting fingers, weren’t lost on anyone in the room. “I mean ... for the training. You said we’d have to do it regularly, but Monday is our last Cheer practice and Christmas break starts Tuesday.”

Damn! So much to me not having to stand in the gym’s hallway for three hours!

“Well, how about the same time tomorrow?” I said, and she immediately had an eager smile on her face, while her eyes almost sparkled. That wasn’t lost on Nora as well, who suddenly developed a smirk while examining her daughter’s behavior. “Normally I train every day after the office closes. But you have your social calendars, so that won’t do. I would like to get you two up to speed quickly, though. Maybe you and Ava could sit together on Monday, see if we can cram one or two sessions into your week’s schedule?”

“Yes!” she proclaimed, sounding quite pleased with my answer, while bouncing on her feet. “We’ll do that. See you tomorrow then!” she said, before leaving the room while waving us goodbye, and leaped up the stairs out of sight.

I blinked after her for a moment, before shrugging my shoulders and moving towards the door.

I knew I wasn’t exactly experienced with girls, so I also knew that I was probably just imagining things. There was no way she would actually look forward to training with me. She was just looking forward to training, period. Despite me being around her so much now, and despite me identifying her potential stalker, we still barely knew each other. Sure, we had a few honest conversations over the last few days, giving each other a rather intimate insight into each other’s personalities, and her mother had apparently also worked on her to get her a changed perspective. But that couldn’t possibly be enough to make us grow that close. At least, not that I thought.

Back in the car, I noticed that it was almost dinnertime. Following my plan to discourage Ava’s submissiveness outside the bedroom, I opted to include her in the evening planning.

“So, hungry?” I asked, as I pulled out of the driveway.

“God, Yes!”

“Any cravings? Wishes? Ideas?” I followed up, causing her to look at me with even greater uncertainty than I had seen in Mia just before.

“No ... whatever you want is fine.”

“Come on, no after work out rituals?”

“Maybe one.” she said after a moment of hesitation. For some reason she was furiously blushing while saying it, which confused me. My inquiring and expectant stare caused her to look at her hands and mumble something.

“What? Sorry, I didn’t catch that.” I said, smirking about what it could be that got her so shy. She took a breath to steady herself.

“Logan said ... after working out, I need a ... a protein injection.”

She had started out in a normal voice, but her volume had steadily declined as she continued on. Realizing what she was talking about, I just sat in the driver’s seat and stared at her dumbfounded, before I couldn’t hold it anymore and loudly burst out.

“HOLY SHIT that’s cringy! Logan - the great charmer Logan - said that? ‘Protein injection’!?” she nodded sheepishly. “Oh. My. God. I can’t believe someone would actually say that while not shooting porn!”

I couldn’t help it, I just laughed. Loudly. It had been a long time since I actually, happily, and heartily laughed. Even that Thanksgiving, when Logan’s secret pornshoots were exposed, it was a quite bitter laugh. And that situation with Nora in my closet was rather short lived. This, right now, I thoroughly enjoyed so much I contemplated stopping the car. Luckily, Ava knew I wasn’t making fun of her, and after a moment even joined in. When we had calmed down again, she spoke up.

“I was never the type who comes out of the gym and feels like I need to reward myself for working out or something. So, I really don’t have any cravings right now.”

“How abou ... wait! I remember this part from Tess!” I called out and she looked at me in surprise. “I ask what you want to eat, you say it doesn’t matter. But when I start suggesting things, you tell me you’re not in the mood for it until I finally suggest something that piques your interest. So, let’s do it alphabetically. How about Albanian?”

She blinked at me for a moment and suddenly started laughing.

“Are you seriously giving your sister the girlfriend-treatment?” She didn’t sound playful, or mocking. I could have been imagining it, but I thought she sounded almost intrigued.

“Well, you live with me, spend your entire day with me, sleep in my bed with me ... It was bound to happen at some point.” I shot back.

“Fine. But I’m actually really not in the mood for Albanian food.” she giggled.

“Who would’ve thought!”

An hour later, we arrived in my apartment with a bag of Mexican Quesadillas, though I couldn’t tell if she actually had an appetite for them, or just grew tired of teasing me. I immediately spotted the parcel in front of my door. I told Ava to go clean herself up before we eat, so I would have a chance to sort through its contents undisturbed.

On my way to my bedroom, I grabbed a Ziplock bag from the kitchen, placed the parcel on my desk, and was happy to discover that it contained everything I ordered. I quickly transferred the right amount of fake birth control pills into the Ziplock bag and stored it in my nightstand. I wasn’t sure when I would get the chance to use them, but I would just have to steer her in the right direction so they’d be nearby when the time came. Then I placed the toys and the KY in my desk drawer.

Back on the sofa, after using the opportunity to slip into some sweatpants myself, we both started consuming our dinner in front of the TV. I let her choose the movie, quickly learning that ‘Pitch Perfect’ is NOT my kind of film. Ava obviously thought differently, and, immediately after finishing her dinner, snuggled up into my right side while being totally absorbed into the movie. Her doing so struck me as weird, but I didn’t want to tell her off. I wanted her to do things like that out of her own volition. I wanted to avoid telling her what to do, when it wasn’t about sex, as much as possible. And, if I was being honest with myself, I kind of enjoyed being so close to a feminine body again.

It didn’t take long for this to evolve further, though, and that did somewhat irritate me. A few minutes after she had snuggled up into me, she grabbed my right arm I had placed on the backrest, and draped it over herself before rubbing her face against my chest like she was trying to create a hollow in a pillow. Another few minutes later, she wrapped both of her arms around the one she had draped over herself, and let out a content sigh. A few minutes after that, she repositioned herself so her torso was effectively lying on top of mine.