A big thank you to Redwings1202 for editing this story.
All mistakes herein are my own.
All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older.
***
The bus door hissed open. Reid skipped out the door and onto the sidewalk with a smile on his face.
Just back from his second year at college, Reid was looking forward to reconnecting with his friends for the summer. Texting and the occasional video call were his only contact with them during the school year. With finals behind him and a sunny summer ahead, he'd called Jake shortly after getting home the night before. Jake, who worked at a local bakery, had this Saturday off. His parents were off to visit the grandparents for the weekend, so he and the guys were holed up in the basement to play some games and toke.
Reid wondered if he'd get to see Jake's sister, Wendy, back from globe-trotting with Mark, her boyfriend, during her gap year after high school. He had a crush on her through high school and, being honest with himself, he was sure he still did.
As kids, she'd joined in on fun with them all the time. Just another of their gang, as they played hide and seek, bounced on the trampoline, ran through the woods, or drew elaborate mosaics on the street in chalk. Then, she changed, becoming a young woman even as they remained boys; older than her but unsure in their ways. She moved on.
He had missed having her in the group, missed her love of the outdoors and her adventurous spirit. But, in his pubescent awkwardness, hadn't known how to reach out to her.
She had filled out. Reid's eyes had been constantly drawn to her when she wasn't looking. He hadn't been the only one. Her lush curves and sensual features drew many looks as she wove her way down the high school halls. An older student, Mark, had noticed as well. He and Wendy started dating before Mark had graduated, and had become very close. Reid had felt pangs of jealousy, but Mark was a good boyfriend to Wendy, and Reid respected that.
As he walked, Reid kicked a small stone down the sidewalk. It bounced before skittering onto the street in front of Jake's place. Reid turned up the walkway to Jake's house and rapped on the front door. As he waited, he looked around the well-manicured yard. He knocked again louder.
"Jake get the door!" Wendy's muffled yell sounded from somewhere in the house.
Ever louder thumps announced Jake coming up from the basement. He poked his bloodshot eyes out the door.
"Hey man," drawled Jake pulling him into an embrace. "Sorry about that. Wendy is with Mark and I didn't hear ya." He thumped Reid on the back.
"No problem Jake." Reid grinned, happy to see his friend. Jake looked positively stoned and wasn't quite looking him directly in the eye. He awkwardly thumped Jake on the back and stuffed his hands in his pockets, shifting his weight between his feet.
"It's been awhile," said Reid.
Jake smiled broadly. "You look great man. Come on down. Doug and Seth are here." He motioned Reid in as he went through the door.
Reid followed Jake down the stairs into a smoky basement. The light from the upstairs windows were replaced by the dim glow of Christmas lights, strung up along the walls, and the flickering widescreen TV filled with video game avatars slaughtering wave after wave of soldiers. Doug and Seth, hunched over their controllers, glanced up at him briefly, before refocusing intently on the screen.
"Hey man," they called, almost in unison.
Doug, his most laconic friend, gave him a smile the Cheshire Cat would be proud of. Doug aspired in life to smoke as much weed as he could and to never vote, because, according to him, that's how the government gets your name and finds out who you are. Easy going and content with life, Doug's infectious smile pushed his thick glasses up on his face and his bloodshot eyes narrowed happily. Reid found himself grinning, feeling the awkwardness of not being around his friends in so long melt away.
Stepping around the table filled with bottles of Mountain Dew, Coca-Cola, potato chips, a bong, weed, and a lighter, Reid flopped down beside Jake on one of two couches facing the TV. Both were faded and worn, relegated to the teenage, now young adult, basement domain.
Jake and Wendy's parents were hands off with their children, occasionally stepping in to offer guidance, but never judging. They'd indulged themselves as they grew, through the 70's and into adulthood in the 80's. That much was evident from pictures Reid and Jake had found in their closet. One set showed a rather clothes-less party with his parents cavorting with people in a living room. Reid laughingly thought this must have scared poor Jake for years.
There was one picture, in particular, with Jake's mother on her hands and knees, a hairy man holding onto her hips from behind as he thrust into her, her large tits flushed pink and brushing the carpet. The look of lust on her face matched only by his Dad, watching off to the side. It had inspired his masturbatory fantasies for years afterwards. Apparently it had inspired Jake as well.
Reid had once, accidently, walked in on Jake masturbating into his mother's panties to that picture. He knew they were Jake's mother's, as the two of them had gone through Wendy's dresser drawers and looked at her drawers. They were not Wendy's panties.
There'd been some awkwardness after that. But, it slowly went away with time. Reid never brought it up again.
He grinned at the thought. Then thought of Wendy's underwear; silk specials from online with lace, mostly in reds and pinks. He would have loved to have masturbated into those, but he'd lacked the courage to steal a pair. He grinned again and shifted in his seat.
Seth, who must have smoked as much of the weed as the other two, while seemingly remaining almost unfazed by it, looked over at him with a happy smile. "Grab yourself a hit, Reid my man. It's loaded and ready to go."
"I can't. I'm heading to the exposition later with my family. I feel so awkward when I'm stoned around them."
"Suit yourself," said Seth, more rotund but less pimpled than the last time they'd hung together, but still sporting his spotty beard. He worked at the local Staples as a Technology Consultant. An avid LARPer and miniature war gamer, he was saving to set up his own gaming store. Given his dedication and intelligence, Reid was sure he'd own that store before long.
"There's nothing but cows and cow shit at the Exposition," said Jake. "Hang with us. We've got the whole house!"
Reid responded, laughing, "Oh I'll be back, just not in greater numbers, cause well there's only one of me."
"Aliens!" Seth snapped his fingers. His brief inattention to the game nearly caused his demise. "Shit!" he exclaimed, before recovering with a barrage of grenades.
"Dude you gotta cover me," said Doug.
Reid, chugged back some of the Coke, grabbed some potato chips and settled back against the couch. Jake grabbed the bong and hunched over it, lighting the bowl of weed and inhaling deeply, he pulled a large amount of smoke into the long glass tube and then covered it with his hand. It was loaded. He looked over at Reid and exhaled some smoke his way. Then winked and sucked the rest of the smoke from the bong into his lungs.
He put the bong back on the table and sat back holding his breath. After a while he exhaled a long plume of smoke into the air. The smoke drifted lazily through the air, the Christmas lights gave it a multi-colored hue.
"Left left left," said Seth as his onscreen persona turned left and unloaded a rocket toward an oncoming tank.
"So man," said Jake. "What are the college girls like? You get lots of action?"
"Of course man." He laughed, a bit too loud.
