Chapter 8

I got up earlier than usual the next morning with the hope of catching Ashley before she snuck out for the day. She knew that I was beyond pissed, yet she continued with her sick game. Blood is thicker than water obviously held no meaning to her. Just how sick, I would soon learn.

I wanted the rest of the information about what Ashley had done to Emily. I wanted to know what kind of dirt she could have gotten that would cause Emily to keep doing what she what she was told. What had happened the day and night before had to be something big. They were gone most of the day and night doing who knows what. One more thing I needed was not only an idea how to get back at Ashley but stop her as well.

It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon before I finally heard from Emily. Telling me I could come to her house as soon as I was ready, and to let myself in when I arrived. That was if I still wanted to know what she had not put in her diary. She sounded different.

I walked through the front door of the Erickson home at one thirty. It might have been a little cruel to wait that long, but despite how it sounded like her night went badly, I wanted to make her sweat a little as I was pretty sure Emily thought I would hurry right over. I ignored her mother as she asked me from the living room on my way past if she could speak with me before I went upstairs. I reached for the handle of Emily’s bedroom door and paused. Asking myself if I really wanted to know, or if I should just cut everyone loose and start over. Taking a deep breath I opened the door and entered her bedroom.

Upon opening the door, I half expected to find her still in bed and still under the covers. Emily was sitting at the head of her queen size four poster bed clutching one of her stuffed animals in her hands, holding it between her legs. What surprised me most was the fact that she was not dressed as a slut as had become her new mode of walking through life. In place of an outfit from her new wardrobe, she wore a pair of sweat pants and a loose fitting t-shirt of mine that I had given her a few months prior. It was a Pearl Jam shirt. They had just made the big time earlier that year. I had to catch myself before telling her to give me my shirt back. The first thing out of my mouth was every bit as cruel though.

“No slut clothes today?” I asked, causing her to visibly cringe. By the looks of her, I knew I shouldn’t have said it. Despite everything, I still loved her. We had known each other our whole lives.

Emily’s long wavy hair was draped around her face, hiding it from my view. She pulled her knees up, clutching the stuffed animal to her chest. It was then that I heard her crying softly. Not the light crying that I had seen several times in the past few days with a few tears that you weren’t sure were real, but actually make your body quiver crying. From the way she had acted since I had found out about what was going on, I knew that this was something else. I was sensing that something bad had happened the night before and I immediately felt bad for what I had said.

Not entirely sure how to react, I hesitantly made my way to her bed and sat down next to her. Emily immediately released her hold on the pillow and wrapped her arms around me, burying her face against my shoulder. I slowly wrapped my arms around her and held her tight as her body was wracked by even stronger sobs as her tears began to soak into my shirt. I slid my hand up her back with the intention of holding the back of her head against my shoulder. As my hand reached her neck, I realized that she still had that choker on. Somehow, I had gotten used to seeing it and it only registered once I touched it. It was moments later that I heard the bedroom door being softly closed.

According to the clock on her nightstand, it took nearly twenty minutes before Emily began to calm and hers tears to subside to a slow trickle. I just held her the whole time as I waited for her to calm down enough to begin speaking.

“What did they do to you yesterday Em?” I asked quietly in her ear.

She did not answer right away. Instead, Emily let go her hold on me and reached over for a tissue to wipe her nose and dry her eyes that seemed to be about cried out. After going through more than one tissue she put her hands in her lap and began to play with the hem of the t-shirt.

“They,” she began but paused to take a deep breath. “I’m not sure I can tell you, Evan. I wish I could say I hated it, but ... I don’t want you to hate me, Evan. Please tell me you won’t hate me. God, I can’t believe I actually enjoyed it. You are right Evan. I am just a slut” she said, as tears threatened to flow once more.

‘She really did like the sex. With all the crying she must really be afraid of losing me as well, and what I will think of her for actually liking what they had done to her ‘ I thought while trying to figure out my next move. “Does your mom know?” I asked.

“Yes, and she knows I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Ashley from following through with her threat,” she said quietly. “I think maybe it would be best if you talked to my mom about it. I just don’t think I can tell you about it, Evan. I would rather you hear it from her.”

“Does she know everything? Because I think I should be told everything, Emily,” I said as I placed my right hand lightly on her leg below her knee. “What about this threat from Ashley? What the hell is that about?”

“Talk to my mom Evan, and please don’t hate me. I was just trying to help my mom and dad, but your fucking sister,” she hissed that last part out, “your fucking sister is a real bitch who doesn’t care who she hurts. She just wanted payback for a practical joke that went too far.”

“I know, Emily. I know,” I replied with a light squeeze to her leg as I stood up. “We’ll discuss her later,” I said, giving her one last look before turning to the door. I closed it softly as I left her room and just stood on the other side of her door while I braced myself to confront her mother and to hopefully get to the bottom of what was really going on.

I found Patricia on the couch in the living room. I walked in and sat down in the recliner across from her.

“Emily won’t tell me what happened last night Patricia,” I told her, amazed at myself by how calm I was. “She wants you to tell me what’s going on. I think I know everything except what happened last night, and how you and her father fit into all of this. You can start with what the two of you did to cause this fucked up situation.”

She didn’t even hesitate before speaking. “Evan, are you familiar with the term swingers?”

I had heard of it from the stories in a few magazines my friends and I had gotten hold of. “Yeah, sure, it’s where couples get together and have sex with one another. What about it?”

“Emily’s father and I belong to a swingers group of sorts, just two other couples, the Fawler’s and the Millers. We only got together once or twice a month, no big deal really. Well, about five months ago, we got together at the Miller’s house on a Saturday night. John and Angie’s daughter Amy was supposed to be spending the night at a friend’s house, but they had a fight and she came home,” she paused, taking a sip from the glass of wine she had on the coffee table next to the half empty bottle.

“Amy walked in the front door and surprised the hell out of us. Well, she surprised four of us. You need to know that a few months before that night John and Angie talked all of us into a little role play. Myself, Angie Miller and Sherry Fawler would pretend to be teenagers for our husbands. What we didn’t know though, was that John and Angie had been having sex with Amy for almost a year, beginning a few months after her fifteenth birthday,” Patricia paused again, finishing what was left in her glass. She picked up the bottle uncorking it, filling the glass to near overflowing.

“The other thing we didn’t know was the role play that they talked us into was to get us accustomed to the idea of Amy joining in. When she walked through the door seeing us, she just stopped and stared at us with a big smile on her face. ‘Can I join in?’ she asked us. John told his daughter that it was OK with him and her mother, but she would have to ask the rest of us how we felt about it. Sherry and I had no idea what to say, but our husbands said they wouldn’t mind at all if she joined in. Angie took Sherry and me aside and explained to us how she and her husband had gotten involved with their daughter. She assured us that Amy was the instigator, and with the help of the alcohol we had consumed along with a little persuasion, we agreed,” she paused again looking at me.

“So let me guess. Ashley found out that your husband was fucking Amy and used that to blackmail you and you gave up your daughter to protect yourselves? Real fucking nice,” I said raising my voice. “So how the hell did Ashley find out? Did Amy tell her or what?”

I was getting pissed off all over again. It’s not like an adult having sex with a minor was new to me. We had an art teacher in our school that had had sex with a couple of students. Most people thought it was a rumor. She lived next door to my friend Brett, and he and I saw a couple of juniors leaving her house one day. What else could they have been doing there? To give up your own daughter to save your own ass was a whole different ballgame altogether.

She continued again before I could say anything else. “The only reason that Ashley found out was that Amy couldn’t go a single night without fucking her dad. The way Amy tells it, she and Ashley were having a sleepover at Amy’s. In the middle of the night, Amy got up and went to her parent’s room, thinking Ashley was asleep. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t, I don’t know. Either way, Ashley witnessed Amy and her father having sex. When she confronted Amy about it, she told Ashley everything. That was when Ashley came up with her plan,” another pause, another big drink of wine.

“Ashley pressured Amy into telling her the next time all of us would be together and with Amy’s help, she got it all on video. I don’t know if you know this or not, but Mike has had the hot’s for Emily for a long time. Whether you knew it or not Evan, your sister did know how Mike felt about her. The little slut started sleeping with Mike and talked him into going along with her plan by convincing him that Emily would be his if he helped her out. Mike didn’t love my daughter like you do though Evan. Of course, that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?” She continued before I could say anything. “With Mike in, she then went to work on his father, using the video and the promise of more underage pussy if he would go along with her plan. It turns out that Bob would have helped her with just the promise of more underage pussy. She didn’t even need the video for blackmail with him,” she took another drink of the wine.