The sounds of the Kwan household were familiar, but different in interesting ways.
While Jeremy slept off the beers he paid some frat boys to buy them, Keenan sat in one of the massive gaming chairs in his room and picked off newbies running through the airport corridor. The clicking and shuffling of the controller was the loudest sound in the room aside from an occasional snore from Jeremy who had sunk into a deep sleep despite downing his first beer only forty-five minutes ago.
Outside the room sounds were muffled but still audible. The sound of the shower at the end of the hall was loud enough that Keenan could hear the occasional splash or bare footstep over the constant hiss of water on tile. Jeremy's sister's room was at the end of the hallway and her bathroom was the biggest in the house.
Keenan had just taken out a two-man team that had been walking right down the center of the terminal, completely out in the open, when the shower turned off. It made the silence extremely loud since now the only sound was the clicking of Keenan's controller as he scanned the area for anyone that might have figured out where he was camping. He thought he could hear a light switch click but couldn't remember if the light in the hallway had been on or off before and he couldn't see it now.
Jeremy had insisted on stuffing a towel under the door to block the smell of weed. But after Jeremy downed three beers in the six-pack while Keenan rolled the blunt, then another while Keenan finished his own, there was no "weed smell" aside from what was on Keenan's fingers. That was almost an hour ago. Most of that had rubbed onto the controller at this point.
Keenan was scanning the area for enemy movement on the game screen so intently that he didn't notice the door open. Jeremy snored again, a giant grating sound that tore through the room and made Keenan jump in his chair and turn his head toward him. That was when Jennifer stepped into the room.
The room wasn't dark despite the lights being out, but rather bathed in the soft blue light of Jeremy's video game. Keenan was sitting in one of the two chairs Jeremy sat in when he played. He was wearing basketball shorts and a jersey. He was also slouching in the chair instead of sitting in it properly, causing his basketball shorts to ride up and pull tightly against the outline of his cock.
When Jennifer stepped out of the darkened hallway into her son's room, there was no sound. The lack of sound was partly because of the thick carpet in the hallway, which the door to her brother's bedroom swung out into, and partly because of the rolled-up towel on the floor in front of the door, which she stepped over. In bare feet, she padded up to her sleeping sibling and his unaware friend.
Keenan was staring at Jeremy, trying to see if he was awake or just very drunk, when Jennifer slid behind him.
"Boo," she breathed into his ear.
Keenan leapt about three feet into the air without his feet touching the ground once. When he slammed back down into the gaming chair, it was with a soft pop followed by a long hiss. It continued hissing and sinking into its own base after Keenan had recovered, sprung to his feet, and turned on Jennifer with his hands up in a defensive position.
Jennifer just stood there with one hand on her hip and the other down by her side and looked at Keenan in his ridiculous pose until he lowered his hands, then his head, and apologized.
"I'm sorry Jen, you startled me."
"Oh, I startled you," she said, stepping out of the shadows of the darkened room and into the flickering glow of "Hard Chargers III" where Keenan's character was shown bleeding out in a cloud of dust, chunks of asphalt, and bloody mist. She stepped forward and put a finger in the center of his chest, not a hard poke, but a gentle touch. She circled her finger between his pectorals before removing it and placing it on her chin.
"I wasn't expecting to find you here."
"Jeremy said your folks wouldn't mind."
Jennifer smiled despite her best effort to maintain the act. The kid was terrified.
"That Jeremy?"
"Yes."
"My Jeremy?"
"Yes?"
"Drunk Jeremy?"
Keenan stood there for a moment, squirming, trying to concoct a lie, before Jeremy burped loudly and filled the room with the boozy stink of cheap beer.
