Page 10 of Theirs

Chapter 4

Kane and Kristen are throwing an end of summer cookout at their house in the burbs the following weekend. Alexander postponed our date this past Friday, but didn’t bother giving me an alternate day to choose from. I’m not mad though, I’ve had Dr. Ben on my mind over the last week. He’s sent me text messages here and there, begging me to let him come over because he’s ‘starving.’ I always respond with the water emoji, but haven’t let him visit because I’m starting to feel embarrassed by my small studio apartment in the bad part of town. Mr. Snuffy is very picky about the people I let into my life, so I don’t want to needlessly stress him out. I was also tied up with one of my periods from hell, four days of non-stop cramping and bleeding, and wasn’t trying to get freaky. Not like Benjamin Donoghue would have wanted to go down on me when I’m on my period.

“You owe me so much,” I tell Kane and Kristen as I walk in their house without knocking, carrying my tote bag and a grocery bag full of chips and salsa, generic brand of course. “Like, I’m getting fucked up today, and you’re going to drive me home. And, you’re going to name your first born after me.”

“That’s all?” Kane asks, taking the bag of snacks from me and handing me a hard cider.

“No, that’s just the beginning,” I say, twisting the top off of my drink and taking a swig.

Kristen wraps her arms around Kane from behind and rolls her eyes at me. “It can’t be that bad,” she says. “How’d your date with Alexander go?”

“The motherfucker stood me up,” I seeth. “Well, he gave me notice, but still. I was kind of looking forward to watching Dido and Aeneas on stage. This was the last weekend it was being performed, and I missed it.”

“But the date with Benjamin went well?” she asks. I caught her up on my night with Benjamin the next day, but left out the oral sex part. “Have you seen him since?”

I feel my cheeks flame, and I look from her to my brother. “Get lost, Kane. I need to talk to my best friend now.”

He gives Kristen a peck on the forehead, and grabs a platter of meat to grill before heading outside where I see some people are already mingling around the pool.

“That juicy, huh?” Kristen asks, and I love her so much. Being able to call my bestie my sister-in-law has its perks, I just try not to think about the fact that they have sex together. When Kristen first told me about her and my brother, I took it kind of hard. It happened one summer between our junior and senior year of college. She went for an internship, and he was just supposed to show her around town. Once I got over the fact that they snuck behind my back for over a month, and I threatened to disown my brother if he hurt her, I realized how nice it would be to have my two favorite people together.

“I told you he took me to see my favorite band live, and paid for backstage passes,” I say, and she nods, hanging onto my every word. “On the way home, he gave me the best oral of my life. I came! I’ve never cum with a guy before! He broke my sex curse. I’m a free woman!”

“To be fair, college guys have no idea what they’re doing,” she says, taking a bag of tortilla chips and pouring them into a bowl. “So, does he live up to the nickname?”

I shrug my shoulders and open a jar of salsa. “No clue. I never saw it.”

Her jaw drops. “He didn’t try to get you to reciprocate?”

I grin and shake my head. “And I was way too blissed out to see if I could feel him when I was straddling his lap.”

“So, what’s your plan?” she asks.

I deflate a little. “I mean, I’ve got three other dates to go on, so I guess I’ll just enjoy them. It’s not like Ben is going to actually want more than another fuck buddy.”

I pour salsa into a small bowl, and follow her out to the party, sitting the snacks on a table.

“Might as well at least have some fun though, right?” she whispers. “You’re single, gorgeous, badass. Why not play the man’s game of freely hooking up? Get some free dinners and shit out of it.”

I shrug. I’m not sure what I want. Maybe what happened with Ben was just a fluke. Maybe I was just so rusty from being with a guy, that even a slight breeze on my clit would get me off. I was also just extremely turned on, that could have made the orgasm easier to produce.

Kristen excuses herself to go mingle with some of their friends, and I snag one of the lounge chairs by the pool, putting my towel down and taking my dress off. Just as I’m about to submerge myself in the pool, I feel like someone’s watching me; which isn’t out of the question. People have always stared at me way too long since I dyed my hair and covered my body with tattoos. This winter, I want to start working on filling in my torso, but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen with my choice of job. People don’t understand just how expensive tattoos can be. It’s lifetime lasting artwork, of course I’m only going to let the best artist ink me.

I sink into the pool, and turn around seeing four familiar faces walking into the party. Two of them look ecstatic that I’m here, one looks furious at me even though I’ve spoken less than ten words to him, and the other... you guessed it... has his nose stuck in his phone. I’m going to drown that phone in water today after he canceled our opera date last night.

“Hey, Lavender,” says Benjamin, dropping his stuff off on the edge of the pool, slipping his slides and shirt off. Holy moly, mother of abs. “Miss me?”

I swim to the edge of the pool, and hang on, looking up at him. “Maybe.”

Colin joins us, but Alexander and Shane MacKenna head over to the coolers to drop off a couple cases of beer. I notice some of the women here ogling the four men, and jealousy flairs deep within me.

“You excited for our date next weekend?” Colin asks, as he takes off his Sperry’s and dips his legs in the water.

“I’m always up for hockey,” I say. “How’d you manage to get us into a private pre-season practice?”

“I’ve got some connections,” he smiles. “Big connections.”

“Ah, to be wealthy and have everyone wanting to be your friend,” I tease, pushing off the wall and floating on my back. “Are you guys just going to sit there and talk all day, or are you going to come swim with me?”

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