Melanie was driving home from church. She had skipped out on lunch with her sister and their parents because she was so tired of hearing how messed up her life was, as opposed to her perfect sister, Maggie's life.
It was true that the sisters were opposites. Maggie was 21, exactly two years older than Melanie, and a very rules oriented girl. Prudish, thought Melanie, but that was a good thing as far as her parents were concerned. Maggie was pretty enough, she supposed, but Melanie knew that Maggie was nothing compared to herself. While both were thin and roughly the same height, that's about where the similarities ended.
Both girls were thin, but Maggie had A cups while Melanie had C cups. Additionally Maggie always had a sensible short haircut, opposed to Melanie's long blonde hair. Lastly, while Maggie wasn't necessarily out of shape, she didn't do anything to try to maintain or improve her conditioning. Melanie wasn't a full time student like Maggie, and Melanie worked as a personal trainer practically every day. The result was that she was toned, her abs were tight, and she was considered pretty much perfect by most of the guys in her circle.
But, physical attributes weren't the qualities that her parents wished she had. All she seemed to hear from them these days was that she should go to school like her sister, settle down and not go out so much like her sister, and the latest, find a nice boy, again, like her sister.
Melanie could handle this; she loved her life, loved going out all the time and loved her job. What she didn't like was that Maggie had now joined with her parents to tell her often what she should do. Melanie never criticized Maggie's life choices, lame as they had been, and she hated her sister for ganging up on her with her parents lately.
Even at church today they had started in on her. Her sundress was too sexy; it was distracting for the men, and her favorite, added by her sister, that boys don't want girls like that. Maggie was in a serious relationship for the first time ever, and now she considered herself to be the total expert on boys, Melanie thought. Not that Jason, Maggie's boyfriend wasn't cute; he was, but in kind of a nerd way. He was a student in law school, and they had met in the library. Melanie imagined that if he had met the two sisters together he would never have pursued Maggie; in fact, she had caught him checking her out a couple of times as they all ate dinner or hung out by the pool in the backyard. She had even thought it was cute because he would turn red when she caught him.
She imagined that she would like to teach Maggie a lesson if the opportunity was ever to arise.
She pulled her car into her driveway and almost hit someone on a bicycle.
"What the hell?" she thought as she parked her car and got out to see who it was.
Of course it had to be Jason, who had turned around to greet her.
"Sorry to have startled you. I just biked over and was going to ask Maggie if she wanted to come down to the park for the Earth Day concert." He told her.
Melanie eyed Jason, in his bike shorts and shirt and thought she could have some fun.
"She's not here, Jason; was she expecting you?" she answered.
"No, I mentioned it yesterday, but we don't have plans; I just thought I'd ride over this morning; I should have called," he said.
"Nonsense," Melanie said, "Put your bike in the garage and come inside, and we'll wait for her. I'm sure she won't be too long."
He did as he was told and pretty soon was sitting inside in the living room drinking a cold beer with Melanie. Melanie knew that she looked good in her sundress and stockings so she didn't change. She sat in a chair across from the sofa where Jason was and playfully crossed her legs and dangled a sandal as they talked.
Melanie wasn't certain what her plan was, but she was angry at Maggie and knew that the best way to get her back was through Jason; she just didn't know exactly how she was going to do it yet.
She was very careful that her flirting was subtle so that she could be perceived as innocent. She knew that overt flirting would be recognized, and though she thought that she might very well be successful that way, she knew with certainty that she could lead Jason wherever she decided if she was simply patient. She talked about how good he was for her sister, how athletic he looked, how great it was that he liked to bike, like she did. Every once in a while she would drop in slight comments about Maggie. Nothing too bitchy, or at least nothing that he (or any man) would recognize as such.
She made comments like, "You're so great for her. I think you're her first real boyfriend," which was sure to make him wonder why that was. She also added that she hoped that Jason could convince Maggie to do some exercise, any exercise, because Maggie doesn't like that.
As Jason's first beer neared empty, Melanie, without asking, stood and walked to the kitchen, then returned with an already opened replacement bottle. She had guessed that he would probably decline a second beer so she removed this option for him. She walked toward the sofa and began to hand it to him and noticed that he was about to speak.
Sensing that he was about to try to decline the beverage, she smiled and spoke first, "Jason, can you keep a secret?"
Caught off guard, he answered "Yes," and took the bottle.
She took a seat next to him on the sofa and almost whispered, "Promise me you'll never say anything to Maggie."
His eyes widened slightly and Melanie thought she may have moved too fast; he was thinking of something sexual with her.
Though Melanie liked that his mind appeared to be going there; she knew that she had to dial it back, so she quickly added, "She would just die of embarrassment if she knew I told you this."
Jason's body seemed to relax as he now assumed that they were just talking, "Oh sure," he replied, "I promise."
"Ok, Jason, here goes. She thinks you're the one." Melanie said. "She's already talking about marriage and kids."
Smiling to herself, she figured that should be enough to mess up the relationship, at least for a while, and she had even created a trust between herself and Jason, but a few seconds later she heard her parents yelling as they walked up the driveway.
Realizing that her dad was angry because her car was blocking the driveway and knowing that he couldn't see why because the bike was put away in the garage, she stood to go open the door and explain when a thought hit her. No one knows Jason is here.
As she thought this, Jason spoke, "Your dad sure sounds mad."
Acting like she was terrified, she replied, "Oh my God, Jason he'll kill me if he knows there is a guy in here; you have to hide."
"What?" he said; this didn't quite make sense.
She knew she couldn't give him time to think, "Please, please, I'll explain later; his one rule is no guys in the house with us alone; I didn't think of it earlier because I don't think of you that way."
"Well, I'll just explain..." he started.
"No, PLEASE," she interrupted, "Just hide and I'll sneak you out soon. Quick! Down the hall to my room."
She took his hand into hers and scooped up the beer bottles in her other hand, then she pulled him up, and within seconds she had him in her closet. She instructed him to lie down in the closet and slid the door most of the way closed. She left it open an inch or two at the end where his face was, and she knew that he would be able to see out.
She asked, in a whisper, if he could see and hear her and moved to the closet door.
He whispered back, "Yes."
"Great, now just stay there silently and I'll fix everything." She told him.
She then left the room and headed back to the kitchen where her family was entering the house.
It only took a couple of seconds for her to apologize about the parking and kiss her daddy on the cheek to calm that situation down. This was done despite Maggie's trying to keep it going by telling her parents that "she's always like this" and "never thinks of anyone else."
As the impromptu family meeting ended, her parents headed up the stairs to the master suite and the sisters headed down the hall towards their two, side by side, rooms.
As Melanie entered her room, she was deciding what to do with Jason. She needed more time she concluded.
She went to the closet opening and whispered, "Got rid of the parents; I'll get rid of Maggie and then get you out."
He sat up and pushed the door a bit open.
