Just a note, there's no sexual content in this chapter - it's just build-up. Sorry to disappoint.
Chapter 4 - Charlie
After about a week of Les staying with us Jock and Linus calmed down a bit. Their new toy wasn't as exciting anymore, I guess. For a while it seemed I couldn't get away from the sounds and occasionally the sights of them and Les and it made life very awkward. I spent some time out of the house to get away from it. Father spent much of his time away, too, though that was hardly unusual.
Les' room was next to mine, so I often got to hear a lot whether I wanted to or not. Whenever Jock or Linus would come over I would put on headphones and play music and try my best not to listen. But of course sometimes I could hear. Les' would make these sounds and... she was extremely attractive, like I said. But even if I wanted to... be with her, it would be too embarrassing, especially with my brothers acting the way they were.
Then the second week there came a day when Jock and Linus left the house. Father was gone, like usual and so it was only me and Les.
It took a little while for me to notice, if I'm honest. I was relaxing in the sofa downstairs when Les came down. She was casually dressed in a black tank-top and jeans. She smiled as she walked down and I instinctively smiled back.
"Hello Charlie, mind if I join you?" she asked, already sitting down in a chair next to the sofa. She leaned back and closed her eyes. "It's nice to have the house more quiet, isn't it?"
"What's the matter, my brothers too... boisterous for you?" she laughed a little, then opened her eyes briefly to look at me.
"Let's just say they're not exactly my type."
"Really?" I said, "Then why have sex with them?" I asked, bluntly. If Les took offense she didn't show it.
"It's my duty. Just because I do not like them is not a good enough reason for me to refuse them. It's the way of the Guild."
"Some guild" I muttered.
"It really is." I was quiet for a moment before continuing:
"How old were you when you joined the Guild?"
"Twenty-two."
"So you've spent six years doing... this?"
"No." she smiled, and explained. "I joined the Guild of Humanity at twenty-two, with a desire to be allowed into the Order of Comfort, but they don't just let you in. I spent two orderless years in the Guild before they allowed me to take the entrance exam."
"What does the entrance exam consist of?"
"Psychological evaluations, mostly."
"Oh." I said, not sure what I had expected. "What did you do during those two years then?"
"What the guild does with most of its time and resources; clothing and sheltering the poor, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick and dying. Mostly on other worlds."
