This is the first in a planned multipart series. There is no sex in this chapter only teasing of a sexual nature, but there will be sex in later chapters. Please be patient, it'll be worth the wait. I owe a great deal of thanks to Eldridgein00 for inspiring me with the Conflicted series and for his words of encouragement. Thanks also to AsylumSeeker for his incredible editing skills.
All characters in this story are over 18.
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I took another sip of my cola, my iPod humming in my ears. It was a fantastic summer and I'd decided to read in the hammock that was strung up in his back yard. I was a senior in high school and had my whole life ahead of me. My grades were high enough that I'd be able to get into the ivy school of my choice, and I could start relaxing as all my applications were sent off and I could just breeze through the next couple of months without worrying about ACTs or SAT prep.
"Hey asshole, are you done with the hammock?"
I looked up from the book and saw that it was my bratty little sister Tess. She had her hands on her hips. She was only ten months younger than me, but it gave me a little bit of seniority. She was wearing a glittery blue bikini that didn't leave much to the imagination - she had certainly filled out since middle school.
Now that she had become a cheerleader, my sister seemed to be showing more skin than not these days. She seemed like such a stereotypical cheerleader that she could have easily been in a Bring It On sequel. She had her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and her bright blue eyes sparkled - albeit with wry menace, not warmth. What was usually a stunning smile that helped win cheerleader competitions was now curled in a sneer.
"Get your own damn hammock, Tess," I said with a mocking smile.
It was a mystery why they'd never put up two hammocks in the huge garden, but then again, there only being one made it all the sweeter for whoever was using it. It was a frequent little game they played, a common battlefield in their childhood and adolescence. Tess was about a foot shorter than me, but that didn't mean she wasn't a threat. With an angry huff she bore down on my hammock and rolled me out onto the grass, my drink and book going flying in the process. I was a little surprised she even bothered to tell me to get out.
"It serves you right, it's not like you need to tan anyway - nobody is going to care how pale you are in New England." She was talking about me moving to the East Coast at the end of summer for college.
My next move had happened as often as I'd been flipped out the hammock. I rolled up and tackled Tess in her midsection, easily bringing the petite blonde to the ground. I managed to pin her to the there before she could squirm away.
"Aaaah, get off!" Tess mewled almost incoherently as she kicked her legs to no avail.
Satisfied with my victory, I got up. "If you want the hammock so much, just ask nicer," I said as I pulled my shirt over my head.
I walked towards the pool shooting her a glance over my shoulder. I could have sworn she winked at me as she flashed me a predatory grin. I shook the thought from my head, dived in, and started doing some laps, letting the water cool me off.
I pulled myself out of the water and looked towards where the hammock was strung up. Tess was captivated by one of her fashion magazines and listening to my iPod. As much as they had seemed to grow apart over the last few years, they still had similar tastes in music. It was only a few months ago when they used to read the same books. Nowadays it was more about Tess keeping ahead of the trends so she could maintain her status as one of the queen bees of the senior class.
They used to be a lot closer than they were now but in sophomore year things slowly began to change. I realized that I wanted to make something out of myself and relentlessly hit the books, only really leaving the library to run track or take photographs for the yearbook. Tess had realized how much she could get away with being a tiny flirty blonde who went up two cup sizes in Tenth grade. Giving up on the AP classes that allowed her to skip a year, something I was still bitter about, she was easily able to be a senior despite really being in the age group for Eleventh grade.
She was also a cheerleader, one of those stereotypical little blonde princesses that everyone loved or hated. I was a little put off by the transformation, most days I'd admit that Tess was just as smart as me, and on rare days I'd grudgingly acknowledge that her math skills made me feel remedial despite me being on track to become valedictorian.
When Tess decided to just take basic classes so, as she said, she could focus on her social life and cheerleading, I had been incredibly disappointed. She still quietly got As in all her classes, but I always felt she could be doing more. Especially after seeing her potential in the few classes they'd had together before she switched out of the advanced courses. Their parents didn't seem to mind, their father played college football at USC where he met their mother, a typical blonde so-cal girl at the time. If anything, my dreams of going to an Ivy League school marked me as the black sheep of the family.
This wasn't to say I was some dork. I stayed in good shape by doing laps in the pool and running on the track team. I was an athletic six feet and two inches, my dad always pushed me towards playing football but I didn't really like team sports, as they tended to take up too much time.
I picked up my SLR and flicked on the view screen. I scrolled through the photos I'd taken at the recent football game. I'd only gone for the second half so the pictures started out with the cheerleader's halftime dance routine.
I sighed, most of the girls were drop dead gorgeous and a few of them had been over at my house in tiny bikinis while hanging out with Tess. I'd barely said a word to any of the sexy cheerleaders as Tess seemed extremely territorial when anyone came over, and barely said a word to me. Hell, I was lucky if she even made eye contact. I tended to stay in my room or leave the house rather than to be made to feel uncomfortable.
The school's football team was so terrible that I couldn't really find any pictures of any successful plays, so I just attached a few pictures of the cheerleaders making a pyramid to an email for the school paper's editor. Tess happened to be at the top flashing that stunning smile of hers. The tiny uniform seemed way too inappropriate for wearing outside, let alone to a high school football game. God bless America I guess.
I looked around my room. It was pretty neat as I'd finally thrown out all my SAT and ACT prep books now that I had the scores to get into wherever I wanted. My eyes caught a picture frame on one of my shelves that had fallen forward onto its face. It was a picture of Tess sticking her tongue out; her blue eyes were dancing with laughter. I smiled.
It was one of the first pictures I'd taken with my camera about two years ago, when we were still pretty close. I really missed how we were back then, she was my best friend. Tess was set on going to USC like our parents, so they'd be on opposite coasts. It was hard to think about not seeing her regularly - at least it won't be as hard to say goodbye now, seeing as we were already drifting apart.
I thought about surfing the net but it was the start of the weekend and I'd have plenty of time for that later. I grabbed my keys and headed downstairs to my car. I was going to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures - going to the camera store in town to handle the professional photography gear.
I got into my car and pulled out the drive and was parking outside the camera store about twenty minutes later. It was located in a pretty quiet area, just a few stores and small restaurants around. It was much nicer than going to a strip of big box stores or one of the malls in the area.
It never failed to impress me when I walked inside to see row upon row of thousand dollar lenses and camera bodies arrayed in glass cases. I was a little surprised when I first found out about this incredibly well stocked store close to where I lived. When I asked about this odd discrepancy the clerk grinned and told me that most of the porn in the US was shot a few miles away and apparently porn shooters were very demanding of their camera gear.
"What's up, Steve?" I was pretty well known to the staff. I came in regularly to get stuff printed and pick up a memory card or something else small. I'd shoot the shit with the staff, and they'd usually be cool enough to let me handle some of the seriously expensive gear that they knew I was never going to buy.
