Many thanks to carsonshepherd and minsue for their help editing this story.
* * *
It had been a normal, boring suburban day. Chilly and rainy with a wind that cut through you and made it feel at least twenty degrees colder than it really was. Andrea hadn't seen the sun in two days. Another gloomily October in Michigan.
It was only seven thirty and it was already dark. The only good thing about autumn was what was just beginning to happen to the trees all around. Beautiful colors forming from the dying of the leaves.
Of course, Andrea couldn't have cared less about all of that. Tonight was the night she'd be planning for all week. Tonight was the night that her best friend Cindy was going to spend the night and she'd been absolutely giddy all day. She and Cindy always had so much fun just hanging out in her room with the door locked and the shades drawn doing stuff her mom didn't even want to know about.
Usually that fact would be enough to keep her happy and smiling all day long, but not this evening. No, her mom had to go and mess it all up by suddenly developing a social life out of the thin air. Mom's can be such a pain at times.
"What do you mean I have to watch Philip?" Andrea was now whining to her mother as she touched up her lipstick in the bathroom mirror obviously trying her hardest to ignore her daughter who had just asked that question a mere two seconds ago. "Why can't you just get Aunt Rachel to watch him?"
"Andrea, we've already been through this," her Mom replied, her frustration restrained but still noticeable, "Rachel has watched your little brother enough this week. Besides, you're more than capable of taking care of your little brother for a few hours until he goes to bed."
"But Cindy." Andrea started to protest only to be interrupted by her mother.
"Will just make it that much easier for you. Really, Andrea, you've taken care of your brother before. He likes you, he does what you say and all you'll have to do is give him a snack, put in a movie and then tuck him into bed at nine. After that you and Cindy will have the whole house to yourselves until two. If everything looks good when I get back you might even make twenty dollars so you and Cindy can go to the movies tomorrow and you won't have to rake the lawn until tomorrow. I really don't see why you're complaining about this," her mother said calmly but firmly making it clear that the discussion, whether Andrea wanted to admit or not, was over.
Andrea just crossed her arms across her chest and walked away in a huff to her room while her mother smiled softly to herself. It really had been awhile since she'd actually been able to go out and have fun. Lately it had been all work, parent/teacher conferences, grocery shopping and doctor appointments. When her old college roommate and best friend had called her out of the blue earlier with an invitation to a night of drunken debauchery she just had to accept. She hadn't had more than two beers since the divorce had been finalized two years ago. She was well over do.
That, and she really missed the fun she and Tiffany used to have back in college. That girl had taught her so much about sex and having fun and she was still the same old Tiffany from back in the day. Wild, crazy and flirtatious. She just knew they'd end up in a hotel room like the last time she'd been in town. Just the thought of it made her wet.
As Andrea reached the top of the stairs and found her way to her room she found it hard to resist slamming the door behind her. Deep down inside she knew she had no real reason to be pissed. Her mom was right. Watching Philip would be easy. For a five year old he was actually quite even tempered and he did listen to his big sister. She was actually the one who finally got him potty trained when her mom had all but given it up thinking it an impossible task. Watching her little brother would be cake.
Still, like any normal American child of the twenty-first century she would've preferred to have had her cake and eaten it too. A house to herself was a blessed event. A house to herself and her best friend would have been pure bliss. The loss of that rare opportunity was reason enough to pout for next fifteen minutes alone in her room while she waited for Cindy to be dropped off by her brother, so that's just what she did after she had finished flinging herself on her bed in dramatic fashion and rolled over to stare at the ceiling in weak anger.
It seemed like it was only seconds later that she was startled awake by a loud knocking on her door. She had apparently dozed off and it took her a few seconds to remember enough to ask who was there. The door swung open almost instantly to reveal Cindy standing in her doorway with her usual sarcastic smile firmly set on her cute, slightly tanned face.
Cindy and Andrea was different as night and day in so many ways it almost boggled the mind to think that they were friends. Andrea was the usual product of suburbia with her perfect dirty blonde hair in shoulder length cut framing a small cute, dimpled face with a delicate nose set below and between brightly innocent looking blue eyes. Her clothes always looked new and freshly cleaned as if she had a new outfit made everyday just for her.
She was short and would probably always be, but her body was already showing the signs of smooth, gentle curves that would make her the envy of her classmates for years to come. Her breasts were small, but well shaped. At her age she was already finding herself turning down guys almost twice her age. Not that she had a problem saying no. She reveled in the attention, but, frankly, she just had no interest in the attentions of the opposite sex regardless of age.
Cindy, on the other hand, always wore clothes that seemed to be handed down from her two older brothers and her sister, because the vast majority of them were. They all had that well worn quality about them. Often they even had holes or permanent stains. Her hair was black as the night and went seemingly wherever it pleased without appearing to be too messy or nappy. Her skin had the light brown tone she'd inherited from her father's side of the family and her eyes deep brown from the same side.
Her body was a little more firmly planted on the side of womanhood than her slightly younger friend. Her breasts were a little larger, her butt a little fuller and her hips a bit more pronounced. She was the envy of all the young girls from the trailer park where she lived and spent most of her free time avoiding. Cindy had no problem admitting her hatred of her roots. The only thing her parents were good for was easily stolen money and booze. Even at her young age Cindy was more than acquainted to the joys of alcohol among other things.
It wasn't all economics and physiology, though. Andrea was the cheery optimist to Cindy's dark cynic. When they had first met Andrea had been firm believer in the artistic value of bubblegum pop while Cindy spent most of her time stealing what passed for punk cd's nowadays. Cindy had managed to wean Andrea off of the worst of cd collection with a mixture of Sleater-Kinney she'd borrowed from her sister and some Dead Kennedy's she'd "liberated" from the local music store. Cindy was all about the old school. It was one of the benefits of having siblings up to twelve years her senior.
"What's up, sleepyhead?" Cindy teased as she shut the door behind her and walked over to Andrea's bed to have a seat.
"Nothing," replied Andrea as she rubbed her eyes, "Just waiting for you to get her to tell you the bad news."
"You mean the babysitting?" Cindy said with a frown and an eye roll as she shimmied her backpack off and onto the floor. Andrea just nodded and sneered in response as she sat up on her elbows.
"Yeah, my mom is going out with her old roommate or something. She won't be back until two."
"Old roommate, huh?" Cindy said with a wicked smile and raised eyebrows causing Andrea to giggle. "Shut up," Andrea said as she got up from her bed, "Not everyone's a pervert like you."
