Party of Five

Chapter 1

Josh lay on his side in bed, watching the minutes tick by on the digital alarm clock beside him. The luminous green figures lent the room an eerie, alien glow that mingled with soft rays of the moon outside. It looked a depressing scene; fit for the occasion, Josh thought. He held his breath as the clock hit midnight and then exhaled, whispering to himself "Happy Birthday", before turning over and falling asleep.

* * *

Josh woke again that night, at around four o'clock in the morning, busting to go to the toilet. After emptying his bladder, he found himself looking in the mirror, his face lit up only by the moonlight, making him look like an ivory replica of himself. Not wanting to turn on the lights and blind himself, he leaned closer and explored his face.

For the first time in years, he thought, his acne was actually receding quite a bit, his face looking a lot clearer. He knew better than to get his hopes up, but couldn't prevent a small smile from gracing his lips.

Those accursed spots had plagued him for years, certainly longer than any of his friends, who had enjoyed at least a year of pimple-free experiences. Josh found that he could trace almost all of his problems in life back to his acne, which prevented him from doing things he knew he could otherwise do; talking to girls, going to parties, looking people in the eye as he spoke to them, flirting with female shop assistants as he visited expensive clothing stores to buy the latest in haute couture. He knew, of course, he was a long way from the latter, financially speaking, but he was free to dream.

And dream he did, of what his life would be like when his face cleared up. He had pictured, more times than he could remember, what he would say to Valerie, who he had been intoxicated with since early high school. Now, in his final year, he had feared it would be too late to ever reveal his feelings to her. He wondered now, looking in the mirror again, whether things were finally set to change – whether he was finally free.

Snorting derisively, he returned to his bed, and dreamt not of Valerie, as he usually did, but of giant pears and a homicidal orang-utan.

* * *

"JOSH!"

"Argh!" Josh cried out, sitting up blindly in bed and waving his arms about, batting away something invisible. He was forced to pause for a moment, letting the blood flow back into his head. Once it had, he blinked his eyes open and looked around his room, his vision sharpening.

He saw, to his right, his older sister's face grinning at him with cruel delight. She burst out laughing. Josh scowled at her, seizing his pillow and flinging it bodily at her.

"Jacquie, you stupid bitch," he exclaimed heatedly. Jacquie's eyes went wide, as did her mouth, apparently shocked and no longer laughing. She slapped his shoulder, hard.

"Watch your mouth," she warned, though the glee in her eyes belied her anger. "You don't call a girl a bitch unless you really mean it."

Josh stared blankly at her. "Your point?"

Jacquie slapped him again and stormed out of the room. Sighing in frustration, Josh fell back onto his bed and shut his eyes again, willing sleep to return. It didn't.

Now fuming, Josh threw the covers off himself and stomped into the bathroom, stripping his clothes off and showering in record time. (He usually took half-hour showers, to the irritation of his mother and sisters.) Living in a house with four other women meant certain cosmetic comforts had to be kept to a minimum, which meant using the bathroom for a total of five minutes each morning, making absolutely, positively sure Josh hadn't left a single hair in the sink after shaving, and always remembering not to confuse Dawn's sixty dollar facial cream with the shampoo. It was a hard life.

The reason Josh lived with four other women was that his father had, when Josh was five years old, assumed his responsibilities to his family were at an end, and consequently decided to move to France with his secretary. Josh wasn't sure if he believed that – the boss/secretary affair just seemed like such a cliché. Maybe his father had actually been a covert government agent who had gone into hiding after a compromised mission; perhaps he had been an activist for Greenpeace, found and killed after he discovered a secret testing facility in the Antarctic where Walrus' were biogenetically modified into marine assassins; or possibly he was a covert government agent who had been eaten by biogenetically modified Walrus' while on assignment in Antarctica. Whatever his fate, Josh didn't care. He was never openly hostile towards his erstwhile father, but neither was he at all concerned with the man's welfare, considering he had left Josh's mother alone with her four children. Still, Josh found it helped the healing process to let his imagination run wild, which he did frequently.

His father, though, wasn't the only feature of his rampant imagination. More often than not – indeed, once ever five seconds, according to a study he'd read – Josh's mind would be overcome by sex, sex and just a little bit more sex. He supposed it was normal to be obsessed with all things sex at his age; he was less certain whether or not an 18-year-old virgin was considered commonplace. He just wished he could exhibit some control over his urges, which, he guessed, meant feeding them – something he was not ready to do just yet. Still, constantly gawking at pornography, followed by frequent masturbation sessions, really did lose its novelty after a few thousand times.

By now, Josh was dressed in his school uniform (white shirt and grey chinos) and heading downstairs with his towel and dirty clothes clutched in a bundle under his arm. He deposited the bundle into the washing hamper and walked into the kitchen, where Jacquie and Alice, his sister's – both older – were eating cereal at the table, and his mother, Laura, was sipping a mug of steaming coffee (quite possibly her third already) and speaking on the phone. Dawn, his other sister, also older, was nowhere to be seen.

"No, no, Marcy," Laura was saying, "the deadline is Thursday. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah." Josh phased out the rest of his mother's illuminating conversation.

Now several steps into the room, all three women turned and looked at Josh with amused expressions, his mother's mingled with what appeared to be sympathy.

"What?" Josh asked, wishing Alice would shove her spoon in her mouth to muffle her giggles.

Jacquie waved her own spoon in the air, looking mirthful. "Saturday," she said succinctly.

Josh looked down at his clothes, then up at his sisters. "Shit!" He spun on his heel and stomped back upstairs, his sisters' now unrestrained laughter following him up, along with the sound of his mother saying: "Leave him alone, girls."

As soon as Josh had slammed the door of his bedroom, he pulled his shirt over his head, without undoing the buttons, and fished around in his closet for a top to wear. He picked a plain black T-shirt and a pair of jeans, which he traded for his school pants. He didn't bother returning his school uniform to his closet, but let it lie strewn on the floor instead, which gave him a small amount of satisfaction. He spent another several minutes thinking about whether there was anything else he had forgotten, so as to spare himself further ridicule from the giggling chorus downstairs. Finally satisfied, he returned to the kitchen.

He was aware, as he bustled around the kitchen preparing himself a bowl of cereal, of his sisters' jovial gazes following him. He plonked his cereal down on the table and saturated it with milk before consuming it in large spoonfuls.

"So," Jacquie said, "have a nice sleep, Josh?"

Josh glared at her. "No thanks to you," he replied.

"Aw, come on," said Jacquie, "I was just messing around. It got you up didn't it?"

"It also nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Oh, stop exaggerating," Jacquie said.

"What did you do?" asked Alice.

"I just yelled his name. Once!"

Alice giggled. "And what did he do?"

"He did this..." Jacquie proceeded to wave her arms about like a drunken zombie.

"I did not," Josh spat, both the words and bits of cereal.

"Ugh," Jacquie groaned, flicking grains of wheat and soggy sultanas off her blouse. "Gross."

Josh laughed. "Serves you right."

Jacquie finished her cereal, placed her bowl in the sink and walked towards the stairs, hitting Josh on the back of the head on her way.

"Ow!" Josh bellowed. He glared at her back for a while before turning back to his cereal. Alice was giving him a placatory smile.

"She's just teasing," she said.

Josh felt his anger abate, now that Jacquie was out of the room. She was always the mischievous one, and the eldest, at twenty-four. The truth was Josh didn't really mind her playful antics, and was usually even livelier himself. Today, however, he wasn't in the mood. Alice's calming tones, though, had a soothing effect on him, as they usually did when she played the peacemaker. She was four years younger than Jacquie, at twenty years old, and definitely the easiest to get along with out of Josh's three sisters. She could even be shy at times in public, Josh had noticed, which he thought was cute.

And then there was Dawn, the middle sister, or second eldest child. She was twenty-two and something of a nemesis to Josh. They just plain didn't get along. They fought, they squabbled, they quarrelled, they bickered – they did just about everything except kill each other, though they often came close. Dawn, and not Jacquie, was the true source of the practical jokes and carefully placed insults. She liked to go out a lot though, which suited Josh fine. She also seemed, to Josh, a bit of a slut, always going out with guys and wearing those skimpy clothes. Josh thought he would rather endure Jacquie's torment any day than be locked in a room alone with Dawn for even five minutes. They would surely kill each other then.

Luckily, Dawn seemed to be out already, which meant Josh was able to finish his cereal in peace. Laura had just finished her phone call, and was collecting her handbag and jacket, ready for work.

Josh's mother worked to support the family, as did Dawn and Alice. Josh and Jacquie saw to the housework and meals, which made for a good arrangement. After Josh's father had walked out, Jacquie found that she had been forced to take on most of the adult responsibility in the house, whilst her mother was out working. She didn't mind it at all, though, and the constant help from Josh made the work a lot easier.

All four children felt they had something of a duty to stay at home and help their mother, rather than move out periodically, leaving her alone. They found that no one really suffered from this arrangement. Laura though, was extremely thankful for the kindness of her kids, who meant the world to her. As a result, she was always lenient when it came to their socialising, which, Josh guessed, was part of the reason why Dawn was such a harlot.

"I'll see you later, kids," Laura said, kissing both Alice and Josh on the head. "Bye, Jacquie," she called out loudly, before leaving.

"What are you grinning about?" Alice asked Josh, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Huh?" Josh thought about this for a moment, and then realised he had been amused by thinking of Dawn as a harlot. He could insult her as much as he liked in his head, and she was none the wiser. "Oh, nothing."

Josh finished off the last of his cereal and washed his bowl in the sink. Alice came over and he took her bowl, washing it too.

"Thanks," she said, pushing herself up to sit on the bench. Kicking her legs like a child, she asked, "So, what are you doing today?"

Josh began loading the two bowls into the dishwasher. "I don't know," he replied. "Read a book maybe."

Alice stared off into space, as she often did, before turning back to look at Josh. She smiled. "Okay," she said, then jumped down off the bench, crossed the kitchen and threw her arms around Josh, hugging him tightly. "Happy Birthday."

Josh felt himself redden from the contact, which was something he got very little of, despite the fact that he lived with four women. He supposed he should be better suited to female company, considering this fact, and he guessed he was – just...not the contact. He put one arm around Alice awkwardly, thankful for the wet dishtowel in his other hand, providing a convenient excuse.

Alice pulled back, though she left her arms on her brother's shoulders. "They didn't forget," she said. "Mom's just busy and Jacquie probably forgot after you spat on her top."

"Yeah, I guess," Josh replied, somewhat dejectedly, though he had no idea why. He didn't really care that he had just turned eighteen, so why should he expect anyone else to?. Josh just didn't assign much importance to birthdays. Parties either, especially his own. He found the whole idea of throwing yourself a party rather vain.

Alice leaned her head a little closer to Josh's. "Trust me," she said, "they

didn't

forget."

Following Alice's words, the next two that popped into Josh's head were 'surprise' and 'party'.

Oh, no,

he thought.

Please, no

.

He was about to wring Alice for further information when she turned and headed upstairs, probably to get ready for work. Josh found himself staring at her bare calves as she went, and scolded himself mentally.

Sick, pervert freak

. He went back to loading the dishwasher.

Five minutes later, Jacquie came bounding back downstairs and into the kitchen where she walked up behind her brother and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey," she said. "Sorry about before; I was just riling you up."

Josh turned, no longer feeling that intense anger that he had associated with his eldest sister's face since this morning. "Yeah, I know," he replied. "I was just in a bad mood."

"I noticed that," Jacquie pointed out, moving to wipe the stray water droplets off the bench with a sponge. "How come?"

Josh shrugged. Jacquie looked sidelong at him.

"It's not 'cause of your birthday is it?"

Josh turned and looked at her.

"Because I didn't forget. I just know how much you hate us making a fuss over it, so I refrained from putting sloppy wet kisses all over your face." She smiled.

Josh smiled back. "I think it was just the way in which I was woken up this morning," he said cynically.

"So it wasn't the embarrassment at getting sloppy wet kisses all over your face?"

"No," Josh replied absently, putting a plate in the dishwasher. Then, he spun around extraordinarily fast. "I mean, yes!" he yelled, but it was too late.

Jacquie grabbed his arms and started planting kisses all over his cheeks. She didn't have much trouble, as she and Josh were the same height, unlike Dawn and Alice who were slightly shorter than the two.

"Blech," Josh cried. "Get off me."

Jacquie released him and surveyed his face with a jovial expression, disappointed she hadn't put lipstick on, which would have made the moment funnier.

Josh was scrubbing at his face furiously with the back of his hand. "Don't

do

that!" he cried indignantly.

Jacquie laughed. "Boys bash; girls kiss," she said simply. "Get used to it."

"I think I could," Josh replied, "if it weren't my sister doing it."

"Oh, boo hoo," Jacquie teased, flouncing out of the room. It wasn't Jacquie's calves that Josh found himself looking at, but the swaying of her ass, which looked incredibly tight and extremely...

Ah, get a hold of yourself man

!

He turned back to the dishes.

* * *

Alice left for work at around one o'clock. Josh was masturbating in his room at the time, and so he didn't see her leave. He came rather blandly, not really extracting any enjoyment from the experience. It did, however, get rid of some of those nasty hormones for a while – specifically the next few minutes, after which they would return in full force. Still, it would stop him from staring at Jacquie's breasts again, as he had been doing too often lately. She didn't exactly go around flaunting them, but they were large enough to be conspicuous to a partially blind eunuch, let alone a pubescent eighteen-year-old boy.

Josh always found the physical differences between his three sisters of interest, though only subconsciously so. Jacquie definitely had the largest breasts, though Alice and Dawn were certainly not flat, just average – in Dawn's case – and slightly larger than average – in Alice's case. They all had great legs, though only Dawn really showed them off. Jacquie's hair was a dark brown colour, like mahogany mostly, even in the way it could appear a crimson colour when lit up by the sun. Alice was honey blonde, lighter than the other two but also longer, by an inch or so. Dawn's hair was identical in most regards to Jacquie's hair, though she had chased it with a series of blonde streaks, which, Josh hated to admit, looked quite sexy. All three girls, however, were similar in their build, being slim to average, and all three were highly appealing.

Josh often wondered whether the reason he was so constantly horny was because of the enormous volume of pheromones that must be floating around the air inside the house. It was an intelligent theory, he thought, and one he clung to, to explain away the awkward moments like watching his sisters' calves and asses, or jerking himself off after he brushed up against their breasts in the hallway. Overall, it was a good system for him.

And it received a lot of use, like at the present moment, when Josh looked down to realise he had been stroking his cock the whole time he had been thinking of his sisters, making it painfully hard again. Almost impulsively, he justified the action, telling himself it was perfectly normal. He refused to oblige his member though, and hastily zipped it back inside his jeans before making his way back downstairs.

Jacquie was in the lounge room, dusting. Josh walked in and stretched himself out on one of the sofas, turning on the TV by the remote.

"No homework?" Jacquie inquired.

"It's my birthday," Josh replied.

"I suppose so. But you're not just going to watch day-time TV all day are you?"

Josh grunted lazily, his eyes fixed on the television. Jacquie went about her dusting, working around the prone body of her brother, asking him to occasionally "lift your leg" or "move your head". When she'd finished, she stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the room. Satisfied, she plopped down on the armrest of the sofa Josh was reclined on. She thought for a moment, then turned to him.

"Hey, Josh..."

"Mmm," he muttered by way of reply.

"I want to ask you something."

Josh was silent. Sighing, Jacquie picked up the remote and muted the TV.

"Hey, I was watching that," Josh complained.

"Too bad, I need to ask you something."

Josh sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position, his back leaning on the opposite armrest. "What?"

"Okay," Jacquie began. "Say you were going out with this girl, who you really liked, but she'd slept with your best friend behind your back. Then she decides she doesn't want to keep doing that, and actually likes you more – would you want her to tell you about it or just keep it a secret?"

By the end of Jacquie's question, Josh's mouth was hanging open, his eyes were wide and his eyebrows were lost somewhere in his hair. He tried several times to speak before he found he could.

"You're sleeping with your boyfriend's best friend?" he choked out.

Jacquie threw a cushion at him. "Not me, you idiot. Dawn!"

"Oh," Josh said, settling back on the sofa and returning to the realm of believability. He then promptly started to laugh. "What a slut," he said.

Jacquie threw another cushion at him. "Don't," she warned, looking quite serious this time – serious enough to wipe Josh's smile off his face. "She has feelings too you know."