Chapter 4

Melinda hurried about the next morning with an urgency that bordered on frantic. She wanted to get down to the house early, before Jason got there. She wanted some time to herself with the house and get it to do what she wanted.

There was another reason for her rush. Now that she had had a glimpse of what her room could be like if she did not have her sister around, she hated being reminded of what she was forced to accept as a poor substitute at home. The sunlight trying to stream around the edges of the closed blinds was just another reminder of this. Heather did not even want so much as the blinds raised, lest it fade her precious posters.

As she was about to head out of the room, her sister's muffled voice floated up to her from below. Heather was already on the phone again.

Melinda looked back towards the bay window. In a fit of spite, she crossed the room and yanked hard on the cord, raising the blinds as far as they would go. She squinted as the room was flooded with sunlight. She grinned to herself, knowing that Heather would hate it when she saw the sunlight shining directly on half her posters.

Melinda rushed back over to the door and dashed out of her room and down the stairs. She did not even so much as glance at her sister, though Heather's eyes warily tracked Melinda as she rounded the bottom step and sped past with nothing more than a perfunctory wave.

"See ya later, blabbermouth," Melinda piped as she passed.

"Hang on," Heather said into the phone before bolting up from her chair. She clamped the phone to her chest and caught up with Melinda halfway to the door, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. "Where do you think you're going, runt?"

Melinda's eyes flashed anger. "Out," she said simply.

"It's Friday. Mom's not here today, she's working."

"So? You forgot our deal already?"

"So where are you going?"

"None of your damn business."

"No, it is my business, Melinda. I'm supposed to look after you, Mom said."

Melinda folded her arms. "And what are you going to do? Punish me if I don't tell you?" she said defiantly. "Maybe Mom will be interested in what you and Brad are doing."

"Don't threaten me, Mel," Heather said warningly.

"Then stop acting like a bossy bitch."

Melinda realized this was precisely the wrong thing to say to her sister at this point, but it was not in time to stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. "Go to you room," Heather snapped.

Melinda stared, stricken. "What?!"

"You're hanging out with me today."

"No!"

Heather had already turned away from her little sister and put the phone back up to her ear. "Sorry about that, Diane. Yeah, the runt was giving me trouble as always. She..."

"You can't do this!" Melinda screeched.

"... thinks she can get her way just because she's the baby of the family. I can't tell you how..."

Melinda rushed up to Heather and gave her a vicious shove. "You promised!" Melinda cried shrilly. "You said I could go out! We made a deal!"

"Melinda, stop it!" Heather shouted.

"I will not stop! You told me I could go! You can't go back on it! I'll tell Mom everything! I'll tell you her brought me along, too, and that I saw it myself!"

"Melinda!"

Melinda quieted, giving her sister a hurt look. She resisted the urge to glance at the clock, knowing it was already later than she had planned to leave. She could not let Heather do this to her. She had to get to that house before Jason did.

Heather sighed. "Look, Diane, I'll call you back. I have to deal with the crybaby again." She clicked the "off" button on the handset.

"I am not a crybaby!" Melinda bellowed.

"Melinda, shut up for a minute! All right, you want to go out. But you're going to tell me exactly what you're going to be doing."

"Why?"

"Because I'm your older sister and I said so."

Melinda's mind raced to come up with a convincing lie. She tried very hard not to think about what she intended to do, or, for that matter, the events of the day before. Either would surely make her blush and give herself away. "All I want to do is take a walk, hang out, that sort of thing," she said in a weak voice. "I'm not doing anything wrong!"

Heather folded her arms. "I ran into Richie Gardner yesterday afternoon."

Melinda said nothing. She maintained a steady gaze with her sister, though her heart hammered in her chest.

"He said he saw you with Jason."

"Yeah, so?" Melinda snapped immediately.

"He made some jokes about what you and he were doing together."

Now Melinda could not help but blush, and tried to cover it by saying, "Uh, yeah, he poked fun at us, too, about... a-about that."

Heather remained quiet for a long moment. "He was just kidding, right?"

Melinda gave Heather a shocked look. She did not have to fake it all that much. Nothing that had happened -- or that was going to happen, if Melinda made it to the house on time -- was anything like what she believed Heather and Brad had been doing. Jason had never touched her, as far as she could tell, and she had no intention of touching him either.

"Of course he was kidding!" Melinda finally said in a voice that held conviction, yet also quavered slightly. Briefly, she entertained the notion of what it might be like to actually do something like that with Jason, causing a flash of heat over her skin. She quickly shoved the thought aside. That was not something she should be thinking about, she was sure.

"Then what are you two doing together?"

"Just hanging out, that's all! Jesus, Heather, not everyone goes horizontal with a boy like you do."

"Don't be a smart-ass, Mel."

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? And I'm sorry for calling you a bitch, too. Really, I-I'm not doing anything like that with him. I don't intend to. I'm only thirteen and he's fourteen! Jeez!"

"So are you going to hang out with him today?"

"Yes. And don't insist on knowing where we're going. I don't know. We just hang out, that's all."

There was a long pause. In her mind, Melinda kept pushing at the thought please believe me over and over. Her heart was pounding by this time, as she was anxious that Heather was about to screw up all her plans.

"All right," Heather said finally. "Get out of here. And don't forget to meet me before Mom gets home."

"Right, I will. Thanks," Melinda said quickly, turning and rushing out the door before Heather could change her mind.

Heather watched her go. Her lips drew together into a small frown. She lifted the phone to her mouth and fingered the speed-dial. "Diane? Yeah, it's me again... yeah, I dealt with it, sort of." Her eyes narrowed, still staring at the front door. "Mel's up to something, Diane. I can see it in her eyes. She's hiding something from me. I just don't know what it is yet."

Jason was able to catch up with his online forums that morning with no complaints from his mother. She was so delighted when she heard that for the second day in a row Jason was voluntarily going to be spending the day outside that she let him have free reign on the internet for a little while.

In reality, Jason was in no hurry. He was not completely convinced that Melinda would even be there. She had not wanted to meet him at the intersection like the day before, insisting that she would just see him at the house. The thought that Melinda would now hate him once she had had a chance to think about it weighed heavily on his mind.

As the clock approached ten of nine, Jason shut off his monitor and headed out of the house. Halfway down the walk, he hesitated a moment when he saw Richie leaning against the lamp post just to one side of the driveway.

"Yo," Richie called out with a smirk.

"Uh, hi," Jason said awkwardly. "Um... another fantastic game to tell me about?"

Jason tried to sound as if he were even remotely interested, but was grateful when Richie shook his head. "Nah, man, we didn't play yesterday."

Jason glanced around, realizing that this was the first time he had seen Richie without the dog. "Where's Tramp?"

"His name's Chicken now, since that's what he is," Richie scoffed. "He broke and ran soon as I got anywhere near that intersection up there. Any idea what's spookin' him?"

"No idea," Jason lied.

"Dumb-shit dog. Anyway, you doing anything today?"

"Uh, yeah, I am." Jason turned and started walking up the street, towards the intersection. He walked purposefully, hoping Richie would just take the hint. "So I'll see you later."

Richie instead fell into step next to him. "So what do you have planned?"

"Uh... just... stuff."

Richie smirked. "Would that 'stuff' happen to be Melinda?"

Jason stopped and turned towards his friend. "No!"

"Hey, relax, dude. No skin off my nose if you and her..."

"No more jokes, okay? I told you I'm not doing anything with her!"

"Hey, sure, fine, okay. Shit, what's with you?"

"Nothing."

"So what are you gonna be doing today?"

Jason sighed. He wished Richie would just leave him alone for once. All the times in the past when Jason really needed to be with a friend, Richie seemed to have his own thing to do. Yes, having Richie around to protect him from bullies was nice, but sometimes that was not enough. If all Richie was going to be was a fair-weather friend, Jason had his doubts as to how much he really needed Richie after all.

"You don't have to hang out with me."

"Yeah, I know I don't have to. Maybe I want to."

Jason sensed something from Richie. He wasn't sure if it were Richie's attitude or the tone of his voice, but Jason didn't like it just the same. "Maybe later."

Richie paused for a moment. His lips curled slowly into a sly grin. "I ran into Heather yesterday."

Jason's eyebrows lifted. "You did?"

"Oh, yeah. We talked about you."

Jason said nothing.

"You wanna know what she said?"

"I have an idea," Jason said bitterly.

"Maybe you do and maybe you don't," Richie said with an enigmatic smile.

Jason sighed. "Okay, what did she say?"

"Hang out with me today and you'll find out."

"Did... did she say something nice?"

Richie just grinned all the more.

Jason gave him a frustrated look, but it altered Richie's expression not one iota. He had no idea why he continued to hold out any hope, but after seeing those pictures of her, pictures that he was sure would be etched into his brain until the day he died, he simply could not stop thinking about her. Even now, just the fleeting thought of her excited him.

Then there was Melinda.

(She is here. Heather is not.)

Melinda had done for him what Heather likely would never do in a million years. For a moment it did not matter to him that it had not been entirely willing on her part. What mattered was that it had happened, and he secretly harbored the wish to have it happen again despite his guilt over it.

Maybe it would, if Melinda really did show up at the house that day. Maybe the house would make her do it again for him. That was certainly more than he was getting with Heather. It wouldn't be his fault if Melinda showed up and the house did as it pleased.

"Maybe some other time," Jason finally said, and turned away, walking towards the intersection again.

Richie had an astonished look on his face as he watched Jason's receding back.

Jason was rejecting him? That made no sense. What's more, Jason had no right to do so. Richie was his protector. Richie was the one in charge. It was one thing not to want to go watch a game, but it was another thing entirely to just give him the cold shoulder.

Jason needed Richie. That was the way Richie wanted it. Despite the number of times Richie had chided Jason for not sticking up for himself, Richie enjoyed the role of his defender. It made Jason dependent on him in some fashion.

Surprise quickly turned to anger, and Richie raced up to Jason, standing in his way and giving him a shove to one shoulder. Jason reacted to this with surprise and a small amount of fear.

"So what it is?" Richie demanded. "You still sore at me for yesterday? It was just a fucking joke!"

"I know it was. No, I'm not mad at you."

"Then what the fuck's wrong with you, man?"

Jason frowned. "Nothing. I just... I just want to do my own thing today, okay?"

Richie stared at him for a moment, then pressed his lips together tightly and sighed through his nose. "Yeah, sure," he said in a low voice. "Sure, man."

Jason swallowed, then edged slowly around Richie and continued on his way.

"You know, if it was Melinda, you could tell me," Richie called out from behind him. "I'd understand that."

Jason just kept walking, quickening his pace.

Richie scowled at him behind his back. Something else was going on here. It had to be. Jason still needed him. He'd never be able to handle all the bullies at school otherwise. It had to have something to do with Melinda. Heather had looked a little uneasy when she heard Richie joke about it. Maybe she knew something he didn't.

Richie waited until Jason was far enough ahead until he almost just disappeared behind the curve of the street, then began to follow him.

Melinda entered the house more easily this time, her reaction to the sight of the open door attenuated to little more than a lingering knot of anxiety in her stomach. She overcame this quickly, and soon stood in the quaint, deceptively innocuous living room, just as she had the day before.

She looked around. She had made it here before Jason, just as she wanted. However, now that she was here, she was not sure what to do.

"Uh... h-hello? House? You there?"

Melinda would have felt utterly foolish in the next minute had she not received any sort of response. Even then, the sound of the voice in her head made her jump.

Hello, Melinda.

Her heart fluttered. "You're... y-you're the voice I heard. Yesterday, up in the bedroom."

Yes, that was me.

Melinda swallowed hard. "You made me do that. Right in front of him."

Silence.

"You did! I know you did!"

More silence.

"Or... that's what Jason said," Melinda said in a weaker voice.

It was what Jason wanted, you see.

Melinda flinched. "He... he wanted me to do that? He wanted to watch me t-touch myself? In front of him?"

Oh, yes. I merely helped him get what he wanted, that's all. He rather enjoyed it, it seems.

Melinda's eyes burned. "Did he just trick me into coming here? Did he make up all of that about the pictures of Heather?"

She heard nothing in response. She took a deep breath and let it go, her fingers curling into fists. When the voice sounded in her head again, it took on a tone that was both sultry and conspiratorial.

Do you want to watch him? Do you want to see his cock like he saw your pussy?

Melinda blushed in embarrassment at the very thought, yet there was no mistaking the sharp rise of anticipation inside her. "Yes," she said in a low but decisive voice. "Yes, I do."

The more she thought about it, the more it excited her. Despite all the lustful thoughts she had entertained over the past year, they were heavy on concept and vague on detail. She had only a very rough idea of what to expect. She was not ignorant of the anatomy, but she had never seen so much as a picture of a man in a sexual context.

It was not that she lacked the means. She knew quite well that she had such things available to her with only a few mouse clicks on the computer. Where she shared the PC with her sister, however, she could not take the risk that there would be even the slightest evidence left behind of what she had done.

If it were bad enough that Heather knew of Melinda's self-explorations, it would be far worse if Melinda were caught doing that as well!

Now she had the chance to see for herself, and no one had to know, except for Jason himself. He was not likely to tell anyone, not if he didn't want her to tell what he had done to her.

He can do more than simply perform for you, Melinda. Much more.

Melinda's heart raced. "What do you mean?" she asked in a small voice.

You can have him give you pleasure more... directly. Wouldn't you like that?

She squeezed her legs together. She felt very warm.

He can touch you, the voice continued, dropping into husky, sensuous tones. Skillfully. Wonderfully. Far more enjoyable than anything you've ever done to yourself.

Melinda was panting lightly. She went from warm to hot, moisture gathering in her nether regions. "N-no," she said firmly, though there was a clear undertone of reluctance. "Not yet... I... I'm not ready for that yet."

"Not ready for what yet?"

Melinda gasped and spun around. Jason was standing just inside the door.

Jason stared at Melinda for a few moments, then glanced around the room. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.