Brotherly Love

When the bath water temperature had fallen to cool, Mark and I decided to move the party back to his room.

Mark stood up and reached for my hand. I slid my fingers through his and squeezed.

"You know where these just were? And now I'm holding them? Ew." I teased.

"Yeah? Wait till you start doing that yourself!" Mark grinned and wrapped a towel around me.

"Mm, uh, no thanks. I'll let you head that department. Thanks." I smiled and rubbed the towel across my breasts.

Mark pulled his towel around his waist and pushed me gently towards the door. He stopped and pulled me back into the bathroom quickly, closing the door behind us.

"What's your problem?" I hissed as he put his finger to his mouth.

"Logan and Derek are here, I just heard them downstairs." He whispered back.

"Oh shit. I am so going to die, tonight, that's it for me. Well, thanks for the sex, at least I got to have some before my untimely demise." I tried to tease, but my voice quivered. If Logan found out what Mark and I had been up to, I was in serious trouble.

"Okay, stop that, because he's not going near you. I won't let him touch you. I swear. Now, you stay here for a minute while I go fix my bed and grab clothes. Then I'll run downstairs to grab yours out of the dryer. Just wait here till I get back up okay?" Mark kissed my nose and then my lips softly.

"Whatever you say sweetie." I smiled and kissed him back quickly before he left me to await my doom.

I heard him rustling around in the linen closet just outside the bathroom door, and then I heard Derek's voice coming up the stairs.

"Hey, Mark, where are you guys?" Derek called.

"Just a sec, I'll be right there." Mark's voice was a bit higher than usual. I could tell he was freaked. Derek may just kick his ass too.

"Logan's here, looking for Jaimie, is she still around?"

"Yeah, she's in the bathroom, I'm sure she'll be out in a minute. I'll send her right down."

"Ok, hey Mark," Derek's voice got quieter and I couldn't make out what they were saying for a minute. Then Derek said "Okay," louder and headed back downstairs.

Mark popped his head into the bathroom a second later.

"Hey, okay, Derek totally knows what's going on, but he's cool with it. He said if I hadn't gone and made you a woman, he sure as hell would have." Mark confessed.

"What? Derek? Ew, he's old!" I shivered with goosebumps, with the knowledge that my brother's best friend had the hots for me. "That's just wrong." I declared.

Mark chuckled. "Aren't you glad it was me then?"

"Oh more glad than you can imagine." I smiled.

"Alright, Derek's grabbing your clothes for you, he should be back up in a sec. Come on into my room so you're hiding out where I can see you okay?" Mark glanced down the hall towards the stairs and then grabbed my arm and we snuck into his room.

"So? Do you think Derek will stand up for us or is Logan just going to kill us both?" I asked as I perched carefully on the edge of Mark's bed. He'd removed the sheets but hadn't put the new ones on yet. I held the towel closed between my breasts, but as I noticed Mark's gaze fall lower, I realized it was open slightly at the bottom, giving him a sneak peek at my goods. "Um, excuse me, pervert." I closed my legs a little more and shifted so that I was covered up better.

"Hey, what gives? Can't I look?" Mark pouted.

"Um, no, not right now. That could get us into more trouble. Where is that brother of yours with my clothes?" I was getting nervous, the longer it took for me to show up to face Logan, the more time he had to come up with conclusions of his own.

"Yeah, couple of idiots!" I heard Derek's voice call as he ran up the stairs.

Mark went to his door and took my clothes from his brother.

"You two are playing Monopoly and have been at it for the past couple hours. Jaimie is kicking Mark's ass, and he's got less than three hundred left, so he won't give up. That's your story, and Logan totally ate it." Derek told us quietly.

"Why does she have to be winning?" Mark whined.

"Because I'm smarter than you!" I teased as he turned to face me.

"Yeah, but I'm sexier."

"Okay, hurry up and get your asses downstairs before Logan does suspect something." Derek left and Mark turned to look at me.

"Take off your towel." He directed.

"You're sexier? How rude is that? No, I'm so not taking my towel off in front of you now." I teased and turned away from him.

"But I need to see you. I need to understand where I went wrong in that sexy assumption. I know I was wrong, so you have to prove it to me." Mark begged.

"Eat my ass." I flipped up the edge of the towel and before it came back down, Mark's hands were on my waist and he was rolling me over on the bed. He shoved me down face first and buried his face between my cheeks. I wanted to yell at him, but I knew that whatever I said it would be loud and very incriminating.

Mark's tongue licked circles around my cheeks and then it dragged right down the crack. I groaned and tried to push backwards against him, but that only pushed his tongue in more. I was not going to win, it was very apparent. His tongue made its way down past my bum and to the lips of my womanhood. It traced along the edges and then dipped the tip in ever so slightly. I jumped forwards and smacked my knees against the end of the bed.

"OW!" My cry was muffled but Mark heard it, relented and let me up. "Oh my god!" I exclaimed as I rolled over to face him. He stood between my legs, grabbed my thighs and pulled me closer to him. He positioned me so that my lap was in direct contact with the overflowing crotch of his pants. He began to grind into me and I just about died.

"Yeah, baby, you like it when Daddy does it like this?" He teased as he pushed himself against me harder. I could feel the wetness down there seeping out and suddenly I started to giggle. It felt so good, and yet at the same time I knew he'd have to change again before we could face our brothers.

"You'd better knock this off, or Logan's gonna figure it out." I tried to push him away but it was useless. He leaned down on top of me and kissed my throat softly. "Oh god, Mark, seriously, you gotta stop this." I gasped as I felt his hand down between my legs.

"You don't want me to stop, and I don't plan on stopping either." Mark whispered as his fingers found their way inside me again.

I let out a soft moan and forgot about everything else again. I just let him have me. It was what I'd wanted for so long now anyway. Get it out of my system now if I was smart.

Suddenly we heard loud voices in the hall just outside Mark's bedroom door. It was Logan and Derek, and my brother sounded pissed.

"Jaimie! Get your ass out here now! It's time to go home you little slut!" He yelled angrily.

"I'm coming! Just give me a minute, idiot!" I yelled back as Mark jumped off me. He threw my clothes at me and ran over to the door to lean on it, just in case Logan decided he was coming in to get me.

"Hurry your little ass up!" Logan demanded.

I pulled my shirt back on and then my shorts. I didn't see my panties in the pile, and there was no time to look for them. I motioned for Mark to look at the crotch of his pants to see the wet stains from me. His face flushed and he pointed to his desk where there were another pair of shorts. I grabbed them, and held them for him to step into as he dropped his pants to his ankles. He wasn't wearing anything underneath, and my position made me very aware of that fact.

I was face to face with the monster who had given me so much pleasure and so much pain that day. I blinked and couldn't seem to make myself stand up. I was just stuck staring at it. Of course, my close proximity made him hard again, with my nose almost touching the tip. Mark cleared his throat as he looked down at me. I forced my eyes upward and caught the twinkle in his devilish eyes.

"You better stand up before we really get in trouble." He warned, his voice barely above a whisper. I nodded, which of course, made my nose actually touch against the tip of his penis. I felt a warm and sticky wet spot on my nose as I stood up. Mark smirked at me as I reached up to touch the spot. "No, leave it, hug your brother and wipe your nose on him, oh please! That would fucking rock!" Mark said suddenly.

"Mark, that's just - ew, so wrong!" I leaned closer to him and wiped it on his shirt before he could stop me. "It's yours, you keep it." I teased and grabbed the doorknob as it started turning from the other side.

Mark jerked his shorts up and pulled his shirt down as far as it would go. Lucky for him, it was just far enough.

"Logan, have you lost your mind?" I asked as the door flew open. Mark stopped it as it came very close to knocking me in the face. I turned to look at Mark and smiled. He winked back and then pulled the door open the rest of the way and stepped out from behind it.

"Yeah I've lost my fucking mind. Where the hell did you go after the party? You disappeared and didn't leave a note or anything. How was I supposed to know what happened to you?" Logan demanded, grabbed my arm and began to drag me down the hall. Mark started to reach for me, but Derek stopped him.

"Let it go." Derek warned as Mark tried to push past him.

"If he touches her..." Mark's teeth were gritted together as he watched me leave. I kept watching him over my shoulder until Logan almost smacked me into the wall at the top of the stairs.

"HEY!" I cried and tried to shove Logan away from me. "What the hell?" I grabbed the handrail and planted my feet to try and get Logan to lose his grip on my arm. But it didn't work, he was much stronger than me and he kept pulling until my fingers slipped off the handrail.

Of course at that point, I had been pulling back so hard that I ended up flying forwards and fell into Logan. He lost his footing and stumbled. His foot slipped off the next step and he began to fall down the stairs. I almost went with him, but I felt someone grab the back of my shorts and heard a tearing sound.

I screamed as I thought I was going to follow my brother's tumble down the stairs, bare-assed, but I was being held in mid air. I turned to see Mark's face, his eyes flashing wildly. He was holding onto my shorts with one hand, and his other was on the corner of the wall. He lifted me towards him and Derek reached out to grab me. They sat me down on the top step and then Mark jumped over me and ran down the stairs after Logan.

"Logan!" Mark yelled and I heard a noise that sounded like knuckles connecting with a jaw.

"Mark! NO!" I cried and followed Derek as he ran down to stop the fight that my brother had no chance of winning.

"You asshole!" Mark punched Logan again in the face as I came to a halt behind him.

"Mark! He's bleeding, leave him alone! Please!" I begged and grabbed hold of Mark's waist to pull him off my bloody brother. He let me pull him backwards and then he started walking backwards, pushing me behind him. He pushed me all the way to the kitchen and then turned around and grabbed me up into his arms. He hugged me tightly and buried his face in my chest.

"Oh god Jaimie, I could've killed him!" He sobbed. "I swear, if he ever lays a finger on you again, he's done for. I won't let him hurt you anymore."

"Marky, sshh. It's okay, don't do this to yourself. It's just stupid Logan." I tried to reason with him.

"Yeah, the one thing that's standing in the way of us being together." He replied angrily.

"Mark, killing him isn't going to help us, you'll just go to jail, and then where would I be? Just calm down, I need you with me okay, please don't do something you'll regret. I couldn't bear to lose you." I whispered and kissed the top of his head. My face was buried in his hair when Logan and Derek rounded the corner of the kitchen.

I couldn't see the looks on either of their faces, but the gasp out of Logan's mouth said it all.

Mark stood up to his full height, letting go of me, but pushing me behind him as he faced Logan.

"Listen up jerk, and listen hard. You do not own Jaimie. You are not her legal guardian anymore. She's nineteen now and she can make her own decisions like a big girl. You need to understand that I will not tolerate your attitude with her from this point on. She is my girlfriend and I will be her protector now." Mark growled at Logan.

I peeked around Mark to get a glimpse of Logan's face. He had a large bruise forming on the left side of his face, near his jaw. There was blood dripping from his nose and it looked like he had a scrape or cut on his right eyebrow. He looked bad. I wondered if Mark had done all of that, or if his fall was to blame for some of it.

Logan glared at Mark. His eyes were like steel. I'd seen my brother mad before, and it used to scare me into having nightmares about it for weeks afterwards. I remembered the time that Logan had beat up one of our cousins for running into me while on their bike. He'd broken the boy's arm in two places. And Logan was only twelve then and it was a family member! I knew the force behind Logan's big brother protectiveness for me and I worried about Mark's own protection.

I stepped out around Mark, pushing his hands away as he tried to stop me. I stood in front of Logan and looked up at him.

"Okay, that's enough out of both of you." I turned to glance at Mark to make sure he knew he was included in the statment and then turned back to face my brother. "Logan, Mark doesn't mean it, he's just my best friend and he wants to keep me safe. From anyone. Including my obnoxious big brother who has a history of anger issues. I am ready to come home now, as long as little Miss Jacklin is not there. I will not come home if you plan on having her spend the night. I refuse to listen to you two anymore. It makes me sick." I put my hand up on Logan's chest and pushed him backwards a bit. "Okay? Let's go home now."

Logan conceeded and turned to leave. I looked over my shoulder at Mark who was opening his mouth to say something. I shook my head and blew him a kiss as I left with my brother.

I knew the ride home would be ugly, so I turned on the stereo so that I could drown out most of the nasty words Logan was going to yell at me. But he didn't yell. He didn't say a word the whole way home, which was even worse. Not the silent treatment, that is never good. Guess I'd really gone over the line. Not like I'd ever upset him like this before, he was usually mad at someone else for hurting me, but now he was mad at me, for what? Growing up? Getting a boyfriend? Because the boyfriend was Mark?

"Logan, will you please talk to me? What is your big problem? So I was hanging out with Mark, where else would I be? I'm always with him." I reached over and tapped him on the arm to beg for his attention.

"Jaimie, I so don't want to talk about this. I don't want you associating with Mark anymore. There are things about him that you can't possibly know, and if you ever found out, it would break your heart." Logan replied as calmly as he could.

"Like what? That he's the biggest slut in school? I know all about that. It doesn't affect me, it's not an issue with us. He's my best friend, Logan, that's all. We have fun together, he understands me, he cares about me, he makes me laugh. He makes me feel good about myself."

"Yeah, see we don't need any of that. You can feel good about yourself all on your own." Logan turned the corner onto our street.

"What is that supposed to mean? That doesn't make any sense ." I shook my head and looked quizzically at my brother.

"It means, you need to stay away from Mark and he needs to keep his paws off you." He ground out and pulled into our driveway. He hit the brakes hard and I jerked forwards in my seatbelt.

"Okay, you are an ass. Mark's paws don't have anything to do with this. You have a serious issue and you need to resolve it now. I am a big girl now, big brother, and you need to let me grow up. Stop holding me back. Stop coming to my workplaces and getting me fired because you think the patrons are too friendly with me. Stop being a jerk!" I cried and jumped out of the car. I slammed the door and headed into the house.

When I opened the front door, there on the couch, was Jacklin.

"Get out of my house, bitch." I growled as I stormed past her into my room. I grabbed a knapsack out of my closet and began to throw clothes into it. If Logan was going to continue to act this way, I wasn't staying at home anymore.

I heard Logan and Jacklin talking out in the living room, and slammed my bedroom door to keep their conversation out of my room. I knew they were talking about me. And I knew Logan's suspicions about Mark and I. Of course he knew, he wasn't stupid.

I grabbed my picture of my parents off my dresser and laid it gently inside my bag, nestled between my purple lacy nightdress and a pair of white boy short panties. I picked up the other few necessities off my shelves: hair brush, makeup, ponytail elastics, vanilla scented body lotion and of course, my anti-perspirant and perfume. I reached into my bottom dresser drawer and pulled out my black strappy high heels and my limited collection of lingerie. If I had to make it on my own, there may be sacrifices, I decided.

I zipped my bag, picked up my hooded Gap sweatshirt off my desk and headed for my door.

Then I heard the banging start. Bang. Bang. Bang.

No, not banging like Logan's headboard off the wall, it was more like banging a hammer, driving nails into my doorframe, sealing me into my room.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"LOGAN!!" I screamed and tried to yank the door open, but he'd already put enough nails in to hold it shut.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"This is for your own good Jaimie, you'll thank me later." I heard through the door.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

I let out a growl and ran over to my phone on my desk. I picked up the receiver and listened.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Nothing. Logan had unplugged my phone too. Oh my god. I was trapped.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

My bedroom window had security bars on it from the previous tenants, and my parents had never bothered removing them. So now, instead of security bars, they were jail cell bars. I was completely locked in my room. I couldn't believe it.

Bang. Bang.

The hammering stopped and I went over to the door to listen. I pressed my ear up against it but couldn't hear anything at all. It was so quiet, I wondered if they'd left. Left me here to rot in my own room.

And all because I'd fallen for my best friend? Logan had to be mentally unstable. He'd never gone off the handle like this with me before. And it's not like this was the first time I'd 'disappeared' to Mark's house, or out with Mark. We'd snuck out to numerous concerts and club events. We'd skipped school to attend baseball games and hockey games too. I didn't return home on prom night, or on the nights of any of the school dances I'd gone to either. But Logan had just brushed it off then, told me to smarten up and then let me off easy the next time around too.

I know it's been hard on him, with our parents dying so young, and leaving Logan in charge, of all people. But our extended families didn't live in Boston, and I guess my parents didn't want us to have to relocate. They'd left a substantial sum of money between their life insurance and their savings. We were able to purchase the house we'd lived in, which was a bit weird, but comfortable, knowing my parents had chosen this house for us in the first place. I hadn't meant to be a burden on Logan at all, it was not my intent. I was just having fun with Mark. He was practically my only friend, and ultimately my best friend. He wouldn't let me stay home and be a mope, he wanted me to get out and live. And that's what we did. Every day, Mark would take me somewhere after school. To a sportiing event, to play or to watch, to the movies, to the mall or out for a bite at McDonald's. It was never anything date-like, it was always just friends.