ALL CHARACTERS ENGAGED IN SEXUAL ACTIVITY ARE OVER THE AGE OF 18.
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It was a mid-semester Friday afternoon. I had just finished my last class of the week and normally I would've been in the mood to celebrate. Instead...not so much. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, I didn't have the energy to go hit a party, and both of my sub-optimal roommates would be around all weekend so I didn't feel like going back to the dorm. With a heavy sigh, I shouldered my backpack and started the long trek to the library. At least I could get an early start on studying for my rapidly approaching mid-terms.
Just then, perfect timing, my phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Jenny: 'Hi Jakey it's your gorgeous cousin!'
I chuckled. Did Jenny, my absolute favorite relative, really think she had to identify herself? Like I wouldn't have her in my address book. I decided to give her some shit.
Me: 'Which one?'
Jenny: 'Oh ha ha funny boy'
Me: 'Lol. What's up Jenny?'
Jenny: 'Just lying around...slept in'
Well, that wasn't a great sign. She was still in bed at 4:00 in the afternoon? I felt a pang of guilt, knowing I should've been checking up on her lately. I knew she got laid off a few weeks ago, and she wasn't taking it very well. But I'd been preoccupied with my own problems and hadn't reached out to her in a while.
Me: 'Well get up lazybones. Dalia will be home soon. You guys got plans this weekend?'
Jenny: 'She's working late tonight, then taking the redeye home to see the family, I'm taking a me day, not even dressed yet.'
Well, this was starting to worry me a bit. I considered grilling her more about her state of mind, but with Jenny it usually worked better to approach things with humor.
Me: 'Not dressed yet? So, you're naked'
There was a pause, and for a moment I wondered if I'd misread her mood. Maybe she needed serious conversation, not flirtatious joking.
Jenny: 'Pervert, lol. No not naked'
Jenny: 'Not quite heh heh'
That caught me off balance. I was relieved because her tone sounded upbeat, but surprised because she usually wasn't so flirtatious. Normally, I flirted, and she laughed it off. That was kind of our thing.
Me: 'Hmmm....panties and bra?'
Jenny: 'Will you stop!!! lol...yeah panties anyway'
Oh my god. I felt a throb as my cock woke up and decided to listen in. Jenny is one of the most gorgeous women I know, and my mind flashed a fantasy of sexy, slender Jenny in skimpy panties with her hands barely covering her full breasts.
Me: 'Just panties????'
Jenny: 'STOP lol pervert. No I'm wearing a little top sort of...what I sleep in wink'
Me: 'Send pics"
Ouch. As soon as I sent it, it felt wrong. I was still worried I might be misreading her mood. Maybe she was hurting, and the flirtatiousness was forced. In any event, I was crossing the line. I dreaded her response.
Jenny: 'If you want to see it you have to come over'
I paused. Was she kidding? What the hell! I stepped into a doorway in a classroom building, made sure no one was looking, and adjusted my increasingly awkward hardon.
Jenny: 'Kidding!!!! lol well not about coming over'
Me: 'You sure? I'd love to see you it's been awhile'
Jenny: 'Yeah... to be honest I have an ulterior motive...your mom told me you and Alice aren't doing well...I thought you might want to talk.'
You guessed it; Alice was my brand-new ex-girlfriend.
Me: 'Yeah...not sure where it's going...we're taking a break'
Jenny: 'Oh shit. I'm sorry...you ok?'
Me: 'I'm ok...a little down but I'll live'
Jenny: 'Aww baby boy...you better come over'
Me: 'Yeah that'd be nice...give me like an hour and a half?'
Jenny: 'make it 2 hours, pick us up some dinner'
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Jenny was four years older than me. She was one of the oldest of a pack of eight cousins in our branch of the extended family who were crammed into a four-year age band. I was the youngest of the group. I had vague memories of seeing Jenny a couple of times when she was just a little girl, and I was still a toddler.
My first solid, distinct memory of her was from a family re-union when I was ten years old and all the cousins were there. As the youngest by at least two years, I was excluded or picked on the entire time. The worst offender was my own brother, Howie, who was the oldest of the group and the unquestioned ringleader. Well, unquestioned except by Jenny, who took pity on me and made an effort to include me and be nice. She even got into an argument about it with Howie at one point, and she was ferocious. She succeeded in getting him to treat me slightly better, and she was Wonder Woman in my eyes.
Flash forward to the next family re-union, featuring little Jake at thirteen. At that point, I was older and wiser and probably a little more able to stick up for myself and hang with the big kids, except...
Except gorgeous Cousin Jenny showed up with her brand-new woman's body. Jenny at seventeen was already a goddess. I was just starting to notice girls and holy shit did I notice her. I was a stammering, blushing wreck. Howie and all the others couldn't help but notice my noticing, and they were merciless. I was mocked, teased, and tormented like never in my life.
I spent that entire weekend hiding and wishing I was dead. I was desperately in love, I was humiliated, I felt like the whole world was laughing at me. Life couldn't possibly be worse. Until Jenny, clearly understanding the problem, tracked me down and talked to me and said all the right things and even though it was horrible and painful, she somehow got me through the weekend.
Flash forward four years. Jake at seventeen was a rangy but muscled 6'2" with a trophy on my shelf that said WATER POLO STATE CHAMPIONS. Heading into the family re-union, I wasn't worried about being picked on anymore.
But I was worried about Jenny. The college junior had recently "come out" as a lesbian. Her unhappy parents, instead of keeping it in house, had blabbed to some other relatives, and they told others, and now the whole extended family knew. So now it looked like Jenny's saga would be the major scandal at the reunion.
My parents, who were slightly more open-minded and enlightened than Jenny's, or most of our relatives for that matter, took me aside a couple of days before the re-union. After my dad stumbled through a horribly awkward attempt to explain lesbianism to me, and after hearing my assurance that I knew what it was, got to the point.
"Just be nice," he said. "Don't give her any shit about it. If you don't have anything nice to say to her, just keep your trap shut."
"You don't need to worry about me," I said. "You might want to talk to Howie." Dad rolled his eyes. By this time, wise-ass Howie was a fraternity king at a big university in the southeast and could be counted on to be a first-class dick in most situations.
"If your brother says anything out of line," my dad said, "you let me know."
Jenny had difficult travel connections and was one of the last to arrive in the evening of the first day of the re-union. Grandma, an old school bigot, made a point of ignoring her. Aunts and uncles, for the most part, were polite but chilly. Cousins shunned her and snickered behind her back. She was putting up a brave front, but sometimes I could see the pain in her eyes.
My heart ached for her. I wanted to be the one to go to her and hug her and tell her the family still loved her, even if they were being psychotically weird about it. I wanted to but couldn't. Last time I'd seen her was four years earlier during the Crush Phase and looking at her now dragged me back to that time. I found that I was still afraid to approach her. Or maybe I was just afraid of being ridiculed again by Howie and the gang.
On the morning of the second day, a bunch of us cousins were sitting in Grandma's basement, shooting the shit. I was enjoying not being the little tag along anymore. By now I was the tallest, even an inch two beyond Howie. I was the extended family's most accomplished athlete, and I had developed some swagger and confidence. Except for Howie, the older cousins treated me with deference now.
Suddenly, Jenny showed up. I remember how beautiful she looked in cute jean shorts and a pink tank top, her legs long and gorgeous.
Beautiful yes; in my eyes, probably the most beautiful girl in the world. But also, sad and anxious and in pain. Surely my cousins would see that and open their arms and hearts to her.
"Hey guys," she said with forced cheerfulness. I admired her courage. There were a couple of grunts in response, and then everyone just clammed up, waiting as always to follow Howie's lead. I was on my feet, leaning against a wall, while Howie and most of the rest sat in chairs. I was surprised when none of the male cousins got up and offered Jenny a seat. I would have, if I'd been seated. That was just how we were raised. Jenny pretended not to notice the disrespect and sat awkwardly on the carpeted floor.
A few heartbeats of uncomfortable silence, then...
"Don't munch THAT rug," said Howie to Jenny.
Everyone burst out laughing. Everyone except Jenny and me. Jenny looked shocked and terribly hurt, and then I could see tears forming. She got to her feet and headed out the door. This was too much for me.
"Jenny, wait!" I said and started after her.
"Let her go, Romeo," said Howie, and the room exploded in a new round of laughter. Which faded when rage seized me, and I stomped over to Howie. He rose to face me.
"The fuck you wa--" he began, and then SLAP.
It was the hardest I've ever slapped anyone, and probably the hardest I've ever seen anyone slapped. It knocked him back into his seat and it seemed to echo in the small basement room forever. A hot pain surged through my left hand, which I would still feel the next day. It must have really stung for him. I took two steps back, giving him a chance to decide his next move. He picked the wrong one, and exploded up out of his chair, fist cocked, fury in his face.
Unfortunately, Cousin Trish made the wrong decision as well. Even though I was backing up, she leaped into me, hands on my chest like I was the one that needed to be held back. She was yammering at me to calm down and get a grip and whatever. Howie was coming at us fast, still rising out of a crouch and winding up to throw a wild right-handed punch that seemed more likely to hit Trish in the back of the head than me in the face.
In any event, I wasn't too keen on him hitting either of us. I brushed Trish aside and caught Howie square in the jaw with a hard right jab. It would have been harder if I hadn't been a little off balance, but combined with his forward momentum, it carried enough force to drop him like a sack of potatoes. It didn't knock him out, but he was lying on his side, propped up on an elbow, blinking and shaking his head and looking at me stunned and cross-eyed.
I glanced around to see if anyone else wanted to step in. The only other serious threats were the twins, Robbie and Richie, who were up out of their seats but wisely hadn't made a move toward me. When I was ten, they had terrified me, but I was half a head taller than they were now. They sat back down. I stood over my brother.
"If you want to be a douchebag and ignore her, that's your problem," I told him. "But you make another comment like that, and I will seriously fuck you up. YOU HEAR ME?"
