Blowing Off Some Steam

"Give me some, or I'll tell Mom and Dad that you have it."

Jason wasn't sure if his sister was telling the truth or not. It normally wasn't in her nature to rat him out, but if he pushed her too far in the wrong direction she could possibly turn on him. "No you won't. Besides, this is for Danny and me this weekend. We're going up to the cabin."

"Oh, I will. Just let me go with you," Emily said.

Jason shook his head. It was a terrible idea. "Oh, come on! You'd hate it out there. You'd just bitch and moan the whole time, there's no way that you actually want to go camping."

"I don't like camping, but I do like drinking."

"I do too, and I think you'd take all the fun out of it. You're goofy enough sober."

"Do you think you'll have more fun drinking your own tears while you sit in your bedroom and cry this weekend after I let Mom know that you have a bottle of whiskey in your closet?" Emily asked.

Jason sighed. "Fine, keep it down, would ya? It won't do either of us any good if one of them hear you blabbing about it. Have your stuff ready tomorrow afternoon. If you're not ready and in my truck at three, you're gonna get left behind."

"I'll be ready."

*****

Emily thought that Jason had given in to her demand of tagging along pretty easily, something which he was prone to do. He always had a hard time saying 'no' to her, but Emily tried not to abuse her powers of persuasion over her brother. She wasn't all that excited about going to spend a couple of days at some shack that he and his buddy had built in the forest either, but she was definitely ready to cut loose. Not old enough to purchase alcohol on her own, nor was she on the top of everyone's list to be invited to parties, Emily reasoned that this was a golden opportunity to kill some brain cells.

She had been forced to take a couple of prep-classes that summer in order to qualify for the courses that she needed her first semester down at SCC. They were long, tedious time sinks that had stolen much of the freedom that one would expect with summer vacation after high school. Jason had been working part time as a carpenter's helper and going to trade school three days a week. He always seemed to have time to go and have fun, though.

Emily had just added another bag to the pile of things that she had been making along side of the driveway. She wasn't sure what all she would need for the little outing, so she figured that being over-prepared was better than having to go without. Jason had emerged from the house and looked at the pile of stuff with amusement.

"Are you planning on staying up there all winter, or what?" he asked.

"You think it's too much?"

"Depends on what all you got. I mean, a few extra clothes and a sleeping bag would probably do it," he replied.

She had all of that, but she also had pillows, a couple of blankets, a lawn chair, a giant box of snacks raided from the pantry, some books, and quite a few miscellaneous items that she felt would either keep her clean and/or amused. She went through the list with her brother.

"Well, I can't imagine you'd need anything more than that," he said. "It looks like you're going to be spending most of your time carrying stuff from the truck to the cabin, anyway, so it's not like you're going to have a chance to use any of it."

"Do we have to park a long ways from the cabin?"

"Not really, maybe a hundred yards or so."

"Why on earth wouldn't you build it somewhere where you could park next to it?" she asked.

"If you want to make a private hideout in the middle of the woods, you don't want people to be able to drive right up to it. Be too easy to ruin your party."

"I always thought that you and Danny had something more going on that just friends."

Jason had been helping to load Emily's camping gear into the the back of his truck, but he paused to give her a dirty look. "Watch it. We don't need

that

kind of privacy."

Emily laughed. "You sure? Two boys alone in the woods, not all that much to do, testosterone coursing through your bodies..."

"Well, you're coming with us. What's that say about you? Can't find anything else better to do than to bug us all weekend?"

"It's sad, I know. But I have to get away for a little bit, even if it's with you. If you two need some private time to get gay with one another, just let me know and I'll go for a walk or something." Emily had no real reason to suspect that her brother was having a homosexual affair with Danny, but it seemed to irritate him to talk about it, so that made it worth mentioning.

"You're being pretty mouthy for someone who has no idea what they're getting into. How do you know I'm just not going to take you out to some random patch of woods and leave you there? Gag you and tie you to a tree all weekend? I mean, there's a lot of things that we could do to you and no one would ever find out."

Emily smiled. The thought of being ravaged by Danny all weekend suddenly swept through her mind, as it did from time to time, but she didn't dare to speak of such a thing. It would be nice if it happened like that, but Danny was tall and handsome, and had never once looked at her twice. If Jason thought that she wanted to go with him to try and seduce his friend, he might not like the idea and leave her behind. If ever there was a time to go for it, it was now.

"You won't do something like that because you love me, and it's your job to take care of me out in the wilderness. Mom said so. I promise I'll be good."

"Heh, I don't know about all that, but I'll try and keep you from being eaten by a bear or something. Got to watch out for them, they're all over the place up there," Jason said, closing the tail gate.

"Are you serious?" Emily hadn't given much thought to being eaten by a bear.

"Yeah. They're thick, like flies. It's about all they eat are juicy little campers like you. Like getting a pizza delivered, really."

"I bet. How've you been able to survive all this time?"

Jason shrugged. "Don't know. I assume that they recognize greatness when they see it." He flexed his arm and pointed at his bicep. "They get a look at one of these and realize that they don't want to get into a tussle with me."

"Oh my god. I'm sure that's it," Emily said, rolling her eyes. Her brother did have a pretty well-defined set of muscles on him, but she doubted that they would be enough to deter an angry bear.

The two of them were put together so differently, it was hard to believe that they were twins. Jason was almost a foot taller than Emily, thin and trim. Emily, well, she was short and a bit stocky, curly blonde hair compared to his straight, black cut. She also had rather poor eyesight and an aversion to contact lenses that caused her to wear thick glasses. She wasn't entirely unattractive, but it was clear who the winner was in the looks department, at least to her. Just another twist of fate that made the world unfair.

Jason was trying to come up with some sort of witty comment, when he was interrupted by the vibration of his cell phone. It was Danny. He spoke with his friend for a moment before turning toward Emily with a frown on his face.

"Emily was going to come this time," he spoke into the phone. "I know, but it will probably be alright, don't you think?" He listened for a brief reply from Danny before hanging up.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"Well, Danny's on his way to the cabin, he's just gotta stop and pick up a few things. He's getting a couple cases of beer and Claudia and Lisa."

"Claudia and Lisa?" Emily knew the girls from school. They had never been her choice of company. "I suppose this is where you're going to beg me not to go then, huh?" she asked. When she had invited herself on the camping trip, she hadn't realized that Danny and her brother planned on having a couple of whores up at the cabin. That instantly decreased the fun factor for her, though she had been looking forward to it.

Jason could tell by the look on his sister's face that she wasn't happy about this little turn of events. Three girls at the cabin would be some sort of a record, but when one of them was going to be his sister, it seemed like it would be rather crowded. And awkward. Still, she had actually seemed excited to go.

"Naw. You can still come if you want. Besides, the truck's already loaded."

"Won't I be interrupting your...girl time?"

Jason sighed. "Probably, but like I said, I can always tie you up to a tree or something."

"Or feed me to a bear," Emily suggested.

"Right."

*****

Jason had told her that they had to park a ways away from the cabin, but he hadn't told her the it was a straight uphill hike to get there once they left the truck. By the time Emily had put down the first set of her bags on the porch, every muscle in her legs were screaming.

"Holy cow! You didn't tell me this place was on the side of a freakin' mountain," she whined.

"Well, now you know. I'll unlock it and we'll open some windows, air the place out. It's been a couple of weeks since anyone's been here." Jason said.

The cabin wasn't large, but it seemed sturdy and was fairly clean on the inside. Emily had pictured something entirely different in her mind, the place seemed to be almost pleasant.

"You guys really built this yourselves?" she asked, checking out the kitchen area. There was, of course, no running water or electricity, but there was a sink and a small propane-burning cook top.

"Yup."

"I'm impressed. How'd you get all the stuff up here to make it? I mean like the boards and things?"

"We just carried it. As you can see, you can't drive up here."

"Crap. It must have taken you forever. I didn't think you were that ambitious. Is that a pond out there?" she asked, peering out a back window.

"It took a few weeks. Yeah, that's a pond. Wanna check it out before we go get the rest of the stuff?" he asked.

"Sure."

Jason led his sister around the back of the cabin, where the ground flattened out and showed her around the area. The pond was large, almost an acre, fed by a stream at one end, and having a stream leave at the other.

"This is beautiful, Jason. Who owns all this? I know that you guys aren't crazy enough to just go out into the wilderness and set up camp on someone's property."

"Oh, it belongs to some of Danny's relations that live out of town. They got us to build the cabin so they can use it during hunting season. They come in during the late fall to hunt mule deer. Now they'll have a place to stay. Other than that, we're free to come and go. We have to, you know, make sure we don't leave any messes or anything."

"Are you going to go hunting?"

"Naw. I don't want to kill anything. I'm more in it for the drinking spot. We catch fish out of the pond, sometimes. Trout," he said.

"Do you eat them?" she asked. She had no desire to fish for her dinner.

"We have before, but to tell you the truth, me and Danny aren't that great at cleaning fish. We usually just throw them back. It can be fun. Fly fishing's different than bait fishing. I can show you how, later, if you want."

"I don't know. Maybe. I think we brought enough food to where we won't have to eat fish," Emily said.

"Heh, yeah. Why don't you check out the cabin and I'll go grab some more stuff from the truck. There's a radio in there if you want to listen to it."

Emily did as her brother suggested and snooped around the cabin. Other than being uncomfortably hot, she was again impressed with it. There wasn't much in the line of furnishings, it looked like they had built most of the furniture with left over construction materials, but there was a table and a couple of benches. A ladder led up to a loft where they could spread their sleeping bags, though she didn't think that it was made to house five people. She suspected that she would be ending up somewhere on the floor downstairs.

She was glad that she brought as much food as she did, as the cupboards were bare except for a couple of cans of green beans, a sealed plastic jug containing what looked to be water, and an old Penthouse magazine. Typical.

Jason brought in a few more bags and a cooler while Emily organized the things that they brought. "I found a gross magazine next to your water jug," she told him.

"Heh, yeah. There's a lot of interesting articles in there," Jason said, walking over to the cupboard. He pulled the jug from the shelf and took a long gulp from it, then handed it to his sister. "Have some, it's a tradition to have a sip when we first get here," he said, a pained grimace on his face.

She was immediately suspicious, yet he had just clearly swallowed some of whatever it was. "What is it?" she asked, smelling the jug, but detecting no odor.

"Just try it."

Emily swallowed a mouthful and managed to set the jug down without spilling it. At first there wasn't much of a reaction, but after a moment, it felt as though she had swallowed liquid fire. She coughed and sputtered, tears coming to her eyes. It definitely wasn't what she was expecting, and she was expecting something bad.

"Jesus Christ!" she gasped. "Is that moonshine or something?"

Jason laughed, clearly this was the funniest thing he had seen in a while. "Sure is, Danny's uncle makes it. Don't tell anyone."

"Are you trying to kill me? I wasn't ready for that."

"Oh relax, what did you come up here for? If you want to get hammered, that'll do the trick."

"I bet it will," she agreed. "I think I'm gonna try mixing it with something, though."

"You can, but it won't help much. If you want to mix yourself a drink, try that Black Velvet and and some of your Diet Coke. Just take it easy, or you'll end up face down before anyone else gets here. I'm going to get some wood rounded up for the fire pit."

"Aren't you going to have a drink?" Emily asked.

"Sure, but there's a few things I want to do first. I won't feel like working once I really start drinking."

Taking her brother's advice, Emily fixed herself a concoction of half whiskey, half soda in a water bottle that she had brought. It was still foul tasting, but she was able to swallow it. She figured that after the first one that it would probably get easier. After tidying up some more of the things that they had brought, Emily took her drink and lawn chair outside to where Jason was piling up deadwood for the fire that he planned on having later. She took a seat and watched him work while she sipped on her bottle.

"Don't be afraid to go grab an armload of wood," he said.

"I'm not afraid, I just don't want to. Besides, girls shouldn't have to do that sort of thing."

"If you weren't my sister, that would be true. Shouldn't you at least show some gratitude for that whiskey you're drinking? If you're going to suck down my alcohol and enjoy the light of my fire, you should at least do something besides sit around and watch me sweat."

"You mean if I weren't your sister you'd be expecting sex so I could be as drunk and lazy as I want, right?"

Of course, that's what he meant. "Look, that's not what I said. I just thought it would be nice if you helped a little is all. You wanted to be here, didn't you? Get the full camping experience, help me gather some wood."

"Fine."

Though it was fairly hot, and she was getting sweaty and grimy, Emily really didn't mind. She was actually enjoying being outdoors more than she thought she would. They scavenged wood for quite a while and stood in front of a huge stack of it before too long.

"You think that's enough?" she asked, finishing off her drink. She was starting to develop a rather warm glow.

"Well, they say that when you're trying to gather enough wood to make it through the night that when you think you have enough, look at your stack, then make it about four times bigger."

Emily looked at the pile. It was already the size of a small car. "Screw that. How big of a fire do you plan on making?"

"Not that big. We ought to have more than enough for tonight, anyway," Jason said. He looked at his phone. It was already early evening and it had been several hours since Danny had told him that he was on his way. "I wonder where Danny is."

And your whores,

Emily added silently. She shrugged. "Give him a call. I'm making another drink."

They walked together the short distance back to the cabin while Jason tried to get his friend on the phone. There was no response. "He's not answering. Probably be here in a little while."

Emily passed the time by using the remaining daylight to delve into one of the novels that she had brought. Jason managed to tune into the Diamondbacks broadcast on the radio and sat on the porch listening to that while he sipped Black Velvet from a plastic cup. Somewhere around the fourth inning, he received a call from Danny. Emily was working on her third drink of the night and was having a difficult time focusing on the text. She put it down and rubbed her eyes when she noticed her brother getting off the phone.

"I guess it's just going to be you and me," he said.

"What? Why?"

"I guess Danny went over to Lisa's house to pick up her and Claudia, one thing led to another, now he's too drunk to drive and they're all staying there." Talk about disappointment.

Emily could see what a let down it was for Jason. "That sucks. It's not fair that he gets both the girls, is it?"

"And the beer, don't forget about that."

She didn't think that Jason was all that worried about the beer. "Do you think that they didn't want to come up here because of me? I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's not your fault. It's not that easy to get girls to come up here, you know. I'm sure it's more fun for them to stay at Lisa's."

"Well I think it's nice up here. Are you mad at Danny?"

"Yeah, he's a friggin' prick. I probably won't hold it against him, though. When it comes to pus...girls, got to forgive a guy if he's getting lucky."

She knew what he was going to say, and thought it was kind of cute that he couldn't bring himself to say the word 'pussy' in front of her. It was a relief to hear that the other girls weren't showing up, she probably wouldn't have been that comfortable around them. "Well, you still have your magazine."

"That's not funny. I can tell that you're real tore up that the girls aren't coming, but you don't have to rub it in. I'd be happy for you if you got to spend the night with some guy that you liked." Jason turned off the radio and grabbed his bottle. "I'm going out to start the fire, maybe I'll feel better if I get to watch something burn."

It almost sounded as if Emily had touched a nerve of some kind. She hadn't intended on making her brother angry, perhaps she should have kept the magazine comment to herself. After giving him a few minutes to get the fire started, she joined him at the fire-pit.

"I didn't mean to make you mad. I know you'd rather be getting laid than having to spend the night out here with me. I have to admit though, I don't like Claudia and Lisa. They're mean, they saw my birthmark in the locker room once and said I looked like a cow. I'm glad they're not here."

Emily had a large, reddish colored spot on her back. That, combined with her being a bit pudgy had caused the witty Claudia to declare that Emily had the complexion and body type resembling that of a dairy cow. Hilarious.

"I didn't know that, how come you didn't say anything?"

"I still wanted to come, and I didn't think that it would really make a difference how I felt about them. I know that you must think that they're pretty, cause they are, and if you were going to have a chance to sleep with one of them, then I wasn't going to stop you."

Jason took a slug from the bottle and considered what Emily was saying. "Fair enough, I guess, but it does change my opinion of them. I didn't realize they were bitches, why would anyone say something like that?. If anyone's going to make fun of you, it should be me. And it's not that bad hangin' out here, just me and you, is it?"