Chapter 2

I had been called a lot of things by my sister up to that point in my life, but "bastard" wasn't one of them. We added that to the list that night. She suddenly wasn't so weepy any more. The car was still idling, and she turned away from me and put it in gear, backing out kind of fast. Home was only ten blocks away, but she didn't say another word after the "bastard" that she spat at me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say either. So I just sat there.

When we got home, still without saying a word, she got out and went into the house. At least she didn't lock the door behind her. Gramps was waiting up for us, reading a book. He was already quizzing Robbie about how things went and she was all cheery and happy, telling him about how much fun it was to scare the bejeezus out of people. I didn't see a single indication that only half an hour before she'd been hysterical.

She gave him a kiss on the cheek and went straight to her room. Gramps watched her go and looked at me.

"What's up with her?" he asked.

"I dunno," I said carefully.

"Hmmmm," he said. "So, did you have a good time too?"

"It was kind of cool," I said.

"Kind of cool," he repeated. "Well, I guess that's better than being awful."

"It was okay," I said hastily. "I mean I didn't mind doing it at all."

"You and Robbie getting along better?" he asked.

"I thought we were," I said, before I could think about that first.

"How many times did she call you an asshole tonight?" asked Gramps, with a perfectly straight face.

"None!" I said, shocked that an adult would say something like that in front of a kid.

"Well then, that's an improvement," he said, smiling.

"Yeah ... I guess so," I said.

"Homework all done?" he asked.

"No," I admitted.

"Get to it," he said, and went back to his book.

My homework was calculus, but I couldn't concentrate on it. One of the last things Gramps had said kept running through my mind: "Well then, that's an improvement."

When I thought about what had happened, "improvement" was a vast understatement. But I was still kind of freaked out by the whole thing. She had liked what had happened. And she knew who she was doing that with! But, then, I had liked what had happened too. Boy, howdy had I liked it. And the thing that was freaking me out was that even after I knew who I was doing it with, I still wanted to do it more. And the part that really blew my mind was that what I had done with Ashley was nice and all that ... but when compared to the earlier part ... well ... Ashley didn't hold a candle to how Robbie had made me feel.

And that just wigged me out.

My sister and I didn't have a long history of talking things out. But I wanted to talk things out now, so I went to her room.

Her door was locked.

I knocked and she asked who it was, and then said "Go away."

She wouldn't say anything else after that. I could have gotten loud, but then Gramps would have gotten involved. So I finally just went back to my room.

I had a rough night.

The next morning was what convinced me Robbie had an acting career in her future. She gave no clue that anything had happened. She treated me and Gramps exactly the same as she had the day before. We went to school and she responded to anything I said, as long as it didn't have anything to do with what had happened between us in the dark, the night before.

I asked if we were still going to the Y that night and she said "Of course."

I asked who I'd be working with and she said "Ashley, of course."

But that was all she'd say about that.

After school was the same way. She acted like nothing had happened, all cool, calm and collected. We got dressed up as zombies again. I noticed her shirt had tears in it. I mean I already knew it. All of us were wearing torn clothes. But this time I saw all the skin through the tears in her shirt. She ignored me, and put her arm through Chris' arm and pressed her breast right against his biceps. Ashley came over to me, all doe-eyed. "You ready?" she asked, licking her lips.

You guys have all met a girl like Ashley. I know you have. They're the most frustrating girls in the world. That's because they go full speed ahead, blasting down the tracks at a zillion miles an hour ... and then slam on the brakes just before you get to your ultimate destination.

Once we were in the dark she was all over me. She licked me. She Frenched me. She let me rub her titties. When I slid my hands inside her shirt she just kissed me harder. She got really good at hearing someone coming and pulling the lever at just the right time, while still lip-locked to me. And when I got bold and inched a finger under her bra, she didn't do a thing to stop me. Ashley's were the first naked titties I ever held in my hands, and she obviously loved it. She made me forget all about Robbie.

Then I tried to slide my hand into her jeans.

That's when things screeched to a halt.

"No!" she panted, grabbing my wrist. "You can't do that."

"Come on," I moaned.

"No!"

And then she went back to kissing me and letting me feel up her naked boobs. I mean she was acting like she was going crazy, but every time my hand moved toward her pussy, she gripped my wrist and made it clear that just wasn't going to happen.

The fourth time it happened she got mad, said she was going to the bathroom, and left. She didn't come back. I spent the last half hour of my shift alone, blasting stupid people with stupid air and listening to their stupid screams.

Robbie didn't say a word on the way home. I was in a foul mood too, and we just rode in silence. I noticed some of the tears in her shirt were bigger than they had been, but I didn't comment on it.

Gramps was asleep in the recliner when we got home. Robbie tiptoed by him and went to her room. She didn't even say "Good night."

We had worked Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the YMCA haunted house. The dance was the following Saturday night, which was Halloween night. I think they planned it that way on purpose to keep us high schoolers off the streets, so the little kids could do their trick or treating without any competition.

Friday morning Gramps asked if we were still having the party. Robbie nodded, chewing a mouthful of Cheerios.

"Do I need to get anything at the store?" asked Gramps.

Robbie said she hadn't planned on going to the store until Saturday morning, but would make him a list.

"You'll be late for school," he said. "It can wait. Have a good day."

Friday was a costume day at school, but I wasn't interested. Neither was Robbie, but I noticed that John, Ashley and Gretchen all wore their zombie clothes. Ashley came up to me, all smiling and stuff.

"So ... party at your house tomorrow night after the dance?"

"I guess," I said. I didn't know how to read this girl.

"Save me a dance," she said, and whirled to flounce away. Sometimes it seems like girls are way more trouble than they're worth, you know?

Gramps took Robbie to the store Saturday morning. They came back with all kinds of stuff. I got the idea that half of it was Gramps' idea of what you needed for a good party. Like the stuff to make S'mores. Who has S'mores at a party? This wasn't going to be a camp out!

Anyway, Robbie got the vacuum out and did a bunch of house cleaning and stuff. I felt like she was still mad at me, and I wasn't doing anything to help her. Which meant I couldn't think of anything to do that might help her. So I left and went over to John's house to hang out with him.

"I am so stoked about tonight," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because Gretchen will be there," he said.

"I thought you were taking Cindy to the dance."

"I am, but I'm taking her home right afterwards."

"So why didn't you just ask Gretchen to the dance?" I asked.

"Because I already asked Cindy before your sister got me to go to the Y."

"So you and Gretchen got along OK," I said. I hadn't had time to catch up with him after the service project, so I didn't know how he and Gretchen had worked out, other than that they smiled a lot and didn't want to change partners.

"Are you kidding?" he gasped. "She let me touch her boobs, man!"

My first thought was that a lot of the girls who had gone to the Y had decided to let boys touch their boobs. Then I wondered if Chris and Robbie had fooled around on the third night. My stomach started hurting and I realized John had been talking but I wasn't listening.

" ... put her hand up inside my shirt on my back, so I did the same thing and I fiddled with her bra, but I couldn't get it undone."

I didn't want him to know I hadn't been listening, so I said. "So what happened?"

"She just pulled her bra up in front and let me feel them!" he sighed. "I even got to kiss one of them, but then somebody was coming and she got everything covered again. But we made out like crazy, man."

"Cool," I said.

"I heard you and Ashley were making out too," he said.

"Yeah," I said, and wondered why I wasn't as excited about it as he was. "I got to touch her tits too."

"I'm going for more tonight at your party," he said, wringing his hands, he was so worked up.

"Good luck," I said. I didn't really mean it. I just felt like he expected me to say something.

I stayed for a couple more hours and we played Grand Theft Auto, at which I kicked his ass. Then I went home.

Gramps was there, making a grilled cheese sandwich for himself. He asked if I wanted one too and I said "Sure." I went to the bathroom and then looked around for Robbie, but she wasn't there.

"Where's Robbie?" I asked when I got back to the kitchen.

"She's having a war council with her girl friends," he said.

"War council?"

"It's as good a name for it as anything," he said. "Women like to get together and plan things. I expect that's what's going on."

"Plan what things?" I asked.

"Oh, they'll get their signals straight for tonight. Stuff like that."

"What are you talking about, Gramps?" I asked, frowning.

He looked at me. "You don't date much, do you."

I looked at him like he was crazy. "I go out," I said defensively.

"Not enough," he said. "You need to get out more ... spend some time around members of the opposite sex. They are strange and fascinating creatures, Bobby. I've spent a lifetime observing them, and I still don't understand them."

"What does this have to do with my sister?" I asked.

He sighed. "She and her friends are going to have an agenda tonight. They are going to have plans on how things are supposed to go. You boys will either play along with those plans, or end up in hot water. That's why you need to be able to figure out what's going on. So you know how to act. So you stay on their good side."

"Is that what you did when you were a kid?" I asked.

He laughed.

"Hell no. I didn't care what their plans were. I just tried to get as much pussy as I could."

My jaw dropped and I felt dizzy. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I don't want you to get the impression that Gramps is the cause of what happened, because he wasn't. He did laugh when he said that, but then he sobered up and gave me a lecture about STDs and AIDS in particular, and how I was too young to be able to love a woman as much as she should be loved when there's sex involved. I got the impression this could evolve into a long lecture, so at one point I stopped him. I'll never forget what I said. Never.

"I got it, Gramps. Not to worry. I'm not doing any of that stuff and I don't plan to any time soon."

I didn't figure I was lying, even though I kind of thought maybe Ashley was going to be friendly to me again that night, but history suggested all I was going to get were kisses and a few feels of her titties. So it wasn't like I was planning to have sex.

"Well that's good," he said gruffly. "You owe it to the girl to know her well enough to make sure she has a good time. It's not all about you, Bobby. And you're too young to be able to do that right now."

"So, how old were you when you got your first pussy?" I asked. I admit I asked it just to see what he'd do, and I used that word for the same reason. His reaction surprised me.

"Well, Bobby, you see, it's like this. That was a different time, back then. Things were different, culturally, economically and morally too, for that matter. It's like talking about how much things cost back then. If I tell you I used to go to the movies for fifteen cents, you'd think that was really cheap, right?"

"Fifteen cents?" My voice rose an octave.

"That's what I mean. You look at that through the filters of today's money. But back then, fifteen cents was a lot of money. That's what I might have earned for shoveling a whole driveway in the winter."

"I get it," I said. "When you look at what you earned and what it bought, it's not all that different from what I could buy with what I earn today."

"Exactly," he said.

"OK, so how old were you?" I asked. I mean he hadn't answered the question, right?

He sighed. "If I tell you that, you'll get some wrong ideas because you'll be looking at it through today's filters, just like the money."

"But I understood the money thing," I argued.

He looked at me for a few seconds.

"I was fourteen," he said.

I felt like my eyes would bug right out. "Fourteen?"

"But back then fourteen was like being seventeen or eighteen these days," he said.

"I'm seventeen," I said. I think I was just caught up in things. I wasn't really suggesting I was ready to go out start having sex right and left.

"Bobby," he said seriously. "Don't make me sorry I tell you the truth. Besides, my first time was ... complicated. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I made."

"What happened?" I asked. "Did you get the girl pregnant?"

He looked pained. "No."

"So did you get caught doing it or something?"

"No, Bobby."

"So why was it a mistake?"

He grumbled something under his breath that sounded something like "Damn pissant kids" and stood up.

"You'll understand when you're older," he said gruffly.

"Oh," I said. My folks said that all the time, and all it meant was that they were about to lose the argument and didn't want to. "Got it."

Come to think of it, maybe Gramps was responsible for what happened.

The party wasn't supposed to start until after the dance at school was over. But I guess the dance wasn't all that much fun or something, because some of them got to our house by nine. Larry and Tiffany were the first to arrive. They had gone to the dance together. When they got to our house they went in the back yard "to cool off after all that dancing." Gramps even showed them how to get out there. Robbie was still upstairs getting ready, which meant she was probably primping and combing and doing her makeup and all that crap. Gramps was taking care of the last gasps of the kids who were still going door to door trying to fill up three gallon bags with candy. So I didn't have anything to do, and after a while I went looking for Larry and Tiffany. I guess the grass made my steps silent, because when I rounded the garage I found Tiffany up against the garage wall with the top of her dress down and Larry was sucking her titties like crazy. Her hands were on the back of his head and she was making these noises that made my dick start getting stiff. There was plenty of moonlight and as soon as I realized what was going on I ducked back, hoping they hadn't seen me.

Larry stood up. "I want to do it so bad," he said softly.

"Me too," said Tiffany. "Did you bring protection?"

"Yeah," he said. "You said we could. Did you really mean it?"

"Yes, but not yet," she said. "I want to do it on a bed, not out here. Wait until the party gets going and we'll sneak off to Robbie's room. We can use her bed."

"Damn, I hope I can wait," he groaned.

"You want a quick blow job to help you wait?" she asked.

"Shit yes!" he said.

So he stood up and she knelt down. Her titties were so white in the moonlight that it was like daylight almost. Unfortunately, his body blocked my view as she worked on his pants. I knew when she started, because he made sounds that, if I hadn't known what was going on, would have convinced me he was an alien, posing as a human. I wondered what it felt like, and thought about jerking off, because I was getting fired up, but suddenly he sounded like he was crying and kind of squatted a little bit. The next thing I knew she was standing up wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Then she pulled her dress back up and got everything where it was supposed to be. I almost got caught when she suggested they needed to hurry to get back in before somebody came looking for them.

When I ducked back into the house Chris was there. He said he'd taken Janet Quillen to the dance, but she had a curfew because she was being punished for bad grades.

"Besides," he said, grinning. "Maybe I can spend some time with your sister. I think she's into me."

You know how somebody can say something that just rubs you the wrong way? That's what it felt like when he said that.

Gretchen showed up about then, still in her dress from the dance. She had a bag with her and asked where Robbie's room was so she could change clothes. I pointed up the hall.

Gramps brought in this big cake he had baked. It had frosting on it and was all decorated up. He had carved a pumpkin to recreate this thing I saw on the internet that looked cool. The pumpkin had a pained look on it's face and was puking its insides out of its mouth. He did a pretty good job of it too.

John showed up and he and Chris started talking. Larry and Tiffany were acting like nothing had happened, drinking soda and munching on chips.

Then Gretchen and Robbie came downstairs. Gretchen looked hot. She had on a really nice outfit and she just looked good, you know? John flowed over to her like he was iron filings and she was a super magnet.

Robbie looked ... I don't know ... different somehow. I mean she looked like my sister, but she had done something to her hair, instead of just putting it in a pony tail. And she had on some makeup, but it wasn't all pasted on like I expected. And all she was wearing were jeans and a T shirt. I realized she wasn't wearing any shoes. Her socks were made to look like bones in a skeleton's foot. Ha ha. But I couldn't put my finger on why she looked different until she went over to the table and leaned over to look at Gramps' cake.

There was no bra strap across her back.

And when she turned around, and I looked at her breasts, they looked different because they weren't being pulled up and held in, or whatever it is a bra does. She looked over and saw me staring at her, and her eyebrows rose, kind of like "What?" and I looked away. When I looked back I could see her nipples poking through the shirt.

I started getting hard.

For my own sister!

Thankfully, Ashley got there and after that it was easy to pay attention to her instead of Robbie.

We did some dancing at first. Gramps kind of walked by the doorway a few times, but he made it pretty obvious that he wasn't going to keep a close eye on us. He had rented a bunch of old "scary" movies, stuff like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Frankenstein's Bride and such. One of them was playing on the TV, with the sound turned down, but nobody was really watching. Larry and Tiffany were sitting on the couch, facing the TV, but they were making out already. Robbie was gyrating opposite Chris to the music on her Ipod, which had been plugged into dad's stereo. Her boobs were bouncing around, but so were Ashley's and I was trying to figure out if she had taken her bra off too. John and Gretchen were dancing too.

A slow song came on, and Tiffany and Larry got up to dance. He had his hands on her ass, and then I saw that Chris was doing the same thing to my sister. I didn't like that, but I was trying not to let her ruin the evening, so I groped Ashley's butt too.

When that song ended another slow one came on. Larry asked where the bathroom was and Tiffany, who had spent many a night at our house for sleepovers, said she'd show him. I noticed she went to the one in the hallway where our rooms were, instead of the one downstairs. I remembered what their plan was.