My sister's lips touched mine and suddenly I was wide awake. I looked around. Polly hadn't been kissing me, that was a dream. Payton and I had separated during the night. She was bundled in the covers while I was naked on the opposite side of the pullout. Polly and Joy were snuggled as close as ever. I heard footsteps upstairs. "Shit!" I cried.
Payton stirred and Polly bolted up. "Shit!" Polly echoed.
"What's wrong?" a sleepy Payton asked.
"Our mom's up," I said, diving under the pullout for my clothes.
"Doesn't she like bike or something?"
"Those aren't her bike shoes," Polly said, pulling on her pajama bottoms. "She's probably going out, but that doesn't mean she's leaving now. Or someone could be coming over."
Joy was rising and also challenged our sisterly panic. "It's not like she's ever walked in on us in the morning."
"Well now would be a bad fucking time to start!" I informed her as I stood up with my clothes in hand.
Polly was clothed and shooing Payton off the pullout. As we scrambled to find our perplexed friends' - lovers' - clothes, we heard the front door. "I think that's Ms. Alstrom," Polly said to me as we heard the voices.
"Shit, you're right," I agreed. Ms. Alstrom was a neighbor down the street. She was single but extremely social and would probably turn coffee with my mom into a whole morning.
"Chill guys," Payton said, tossing Joy's bag to her. "Putting on our clothes from yesterday is the most suspicious thing we could do. Your mom's not going to ditch her friend to spy on us."
"She's right crazies," Joy said. "Payton and I will put on our extra clothes and while we're doing that, let's talk about doing this again."
"Why not tonight?" Polly asked.
"Mmm, I'd like that honeybunch, but I have work tomorrow." Joy was working full-time filing papers at some construction company during the summer.
Payton agreed. "Let's meet next Saturday and do things right. A shopping trip that's actually fun, then dinner, then stay out a little before we let one thing lead to another."
Polly complained about the wait, to which Joy cooed about anticipation and Payton pontificated about secrecy. Polly agreed and we silently packed everything up. I stowed my dildo under the blankets, just in case. With chatter upstairs, there was nothing we could do to top last night, so we basically decided not to do anything.
The next week dragged on. Polly and I avoided each other. We had never been very close, so avoiding each other wasn't unusual, but I felt a lot of tension anywhere in the house. We were each taking a summer class at different community colleges, and I stayed on campus longer than necessary. So did she - a few times I got home before her. We created a group text for the four of us that, while mostly silent, was the majority of my communication with Polly.
Finally Saturday afternoon came around. I was in the bathroom putting on makeup when Polly came in and reached for her toothbrush. The fug of tension entered with her, but as she spoke, I realized she was purposely trying to break it. "What the hell are we doing?" she asked me as she started brushing.
I laughed. "Fucked if I know."
"Just so you know, I think you're getting fucked either way."
We both lost ourselves in laughter at the crude joke. Polly made a mess of toothpaste over her sink. When we finally calmed down, I spoke up again. "I dunno, it's pretty weird. I mean, when we fooled around in high school, it was just practice. This is different. It's like we're going out just as a prelude to another orgy."
"I know, I just want to skip to the good stuff." She spat out her toothpaste.
I looked at her. "We're not men or porn stars. We have to butter ourselves up a bit," I winked.
She smiled back. "Joy didn't seem to need any buttering up."
"I don't know her deal. It's like she's in love with you."
"Yeah it's weird. Don't get me wrong. I want those tits tonight. And that tasty pussy. But I also need to taste Payton's shaved snatch."
I tried to keep my cool as my sister coldly sexualized my friends with the remnants of toothpaste around her lips. I must have been staring at her. She spoke up again. "I mean, unless you're calling Payton."
I forced a laugh. "No, I mean, she's beautiful, but she's not my girlfriend or anything."
Polly rinsed and gave me a quick hug from behind as she left the bathroom. Why was I still so uncomfortable? Nothing she said was outside of the bounds of what we had done the previous week. As I walked downstairs to meet Joy, I realized. I had gotten wet when Polly talked about Joy and Payton. Not wet because of the idea, but wet at the images of Polly. I looked at her as she came to the door. She was wearing what must have been the sexiest outfit she owned, even though it was just a lavender tank top and bootcut jeans with Vans. She wanted everything from last week and more, and she was doing her best to show us. And I wanted it too, and finally had to admit to myself that I wanted it more because I was with my blossoming sister.
Polly and I filed into the back of Joy's truck where she and Payton were waiting. In the mall parking lot, I finally got over myself and decided that we were going back to the store where Polly had tried on the short cutoffs - and that I was buying them for Polly. "Oh my God," Polly responded. "I felt like I couldn't bend at all in those or the world would see my ass."
Payton laughed. "Oh we didn't need you to bend to see your ass in those," she teased.