Party of Five

Author's Note:

I seem to be making a lot of these explanatory notes, which is probably not a great thing. However...I wanted to quickly reply to a comment left by

bodasiousds

, pertaining to the shifting point of view. I had originally intended to shift quite often, using Josh as a base character but also rounding out the opinions of the other sisters. However, as you see, I end up focusing on Josh a lot, mainly because he's so fun to write. So, yes, there will be a bit more shifting in the story, though not so much in mid-scene.

As for the pace, people seem to be taking either the "hurry up and make them fuck" opinion, or the "I like it slow and realistic – but they should still fuck soon" opinion. All I can say is soon. I really should have put this in the novel length section. Ah well. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 6

When Monday morning arrived, the sun's rays streamed through Josh's window and woke him from his pleasant slumber. He couldn't remember exactly why he was feeling so good, but it was a welcome change from how he usually felt in the morning – cramped, tired and as musty as an old wardrobe. He bounced out of bed and padded down the hall to the bathroom.

He grinned broadly once he saw himself in the mirror; his acne was all but gone now. In fact, unless he looked at his reflection from closer than a foot away, he couldn't recognise any pimples at all. One more day, he reasoned, and he would be free from the tyrannical grip of the acne monster's claws.

He showered quickly and changed into his school uniform, feeling as though it had been a lifetime since he was last at school, even though it had only been two days – albeit, two long, event-filled days. In one weekend, he had turned 18 years old, befriended his unbefreindable sister Dawn, and even kissed and groped his eldest sister. All in all, he was feeling mighty pleased with himself, despite the niggling feeling of guilt and disgust that seemed to have permeated his mind since Saturday evening. He resolved not to pay it any heed; he loved massaging his sister's breasts and he wasn't hurting anyone in the process – so why should he feel guilty about it?

Josh's mother, as well as his sister's Dawn and Alice, had already left for their respective jobs by the time he arrived in the kitchen downstairs. Jacquie was up, of course, making toast and frying eggs in the kitchen.

"Smells good," Josh remarked as he entered.

"Morning," Jacquie said, flashing him a welcoming smile.

"Is any of that for me?" Josh asked, craning his neck over his sister's shoulder to see the eggs simmering on the frying pan.

"It's all for you," Jacquie replied, turning off the gas and serving up the eggs and toast. She handed him the plate, which Josh took gratefully and dug into on the kitchen table.

Jacquie cleaned up some of the mess she had made before taking a seat next to Josh at the table. She looked keenly at him and smiled a motherly smile.

"Your acne's all cleared up," she said.

"I know," Josh replied around a mouthful of eggs. He seemed awfully pleased about the news.

"Maybe now you can ask Valerie out," Jacquie said.

"Huh?" Josh muttered, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"Valerie...? The girl you told me you had the major hots for. Remember?"

"Oh," Josh said, twigging, "yeah...her."

Josh was a little hurt that his sister was telling him to ask out another girl after what they had done together. He knew, of course, that it was nothing serious, but would it have killed her to show a little jealousy. After all, if he

did

start going out with Valerie, he wouldn't be fooling around with Jacquie anymore. Would he?

Josh shook the mental cobwebs from his mind and stuffed another piece of toast into his mouth. "I guess I could," he said.

"You guess you could?" Jacquie mimicked incredulously. "I thought you really liked this girl?"

"I do," said Josh.

Jacquie punched him lightly in the arm. "Then ask her out, dumby."

"

OK

, I will," said Josh, sounding a little scandalized. He made a garish display of massaging his arm where Jacquie had punched him. "That hurt," he said, bits of egg splattering on the table like mini asteroids. Jacquie yanked her arms back.

"Watch it," she scolded him lightly. "Would it kill you to use some table manners?"

"I have excellent table manners," Josh replied. "I just choose not to use them when you're around."

"Oh, that's nice." Josh beamed a toothy smile at his sister.

"Are you walking?" Jacquie inquired of his trip to school. "I can give you a lift if you like."

"Nah, I'll walk," Josh answered.

"Sure?"

"Yep."

"OK. Well," Jacquie stood from the table, "I have to take the washing out, so have a good day at school. And promise me," she added, pointing a menacing finger at him, "you'll ask Valerie out."

Josh exhaled through his nose in annoyance (his mouth was full of egg and toast) and nodded.

"OK. See you when you get back," and she walked away to the laundry, as Josh turned to watch her go, thinking that she had a little of Dawn's walk in her, though it was far more subtle.

After he had finished his breakfast, and cleaned up his mess, Josh grabbed his school bag and walked out the door.

* * *

Jacquie spent most of her day attending to the various household chores that had become her daily routine over the last few years. She supposed she should have loathed them by now, but they always seemed to comfort her with their methodical simplicity. She hung out the washing, put in another load, washed the breakfast dishes, made the beds, dusted the entire house and even fished around under Josh's bed for his socks, which would need to be washed. She smiled to herself when she found a wad of tissues under there with a dried up stain in the centre. She disposed of it in his wastebasket and took his socks downstairs to the hamper, all the while wondering if she had been the source of the stain.

At around two o'clock, Alice came home from work, looking her cheery self despite the fine sheen of sweat that clung to her face and neck.

"Hot outside?" Jacquie asked her as Alice ran a tissue over her forehead.

"Yeah," Alice replied. Then she cast her eyes about the kitchen before turning back to Jacquie. "Josh isn't home yet?"

"No, he finishes at three," Jacquie replied.

"I thought he finished at one on Mondays."

"No, he finishes at one on Wednesdays."

"You know his timetable?" Alice asked with an amused little smile.

Jacquie shrugged. "I'm home through the week, so I know what time he gets home." Alice dabbed the tissue underneath her eyes and then disposed of it in the rubbish bin. "But he might be home a bit later today," Jacquie added.

"Why's that?"

"He's asking his crush out," Jacquie explained with a wide grin.

Alice looked up with a curious smile. "What!? I didn't know Josh had a crush."

"I don't think anyone does," Jacquie replied. "Apart from me, and possibly Dawn – she read his diary."

"She did? Oh my God, why did she do that?" Alice inquired.

"No idea," answered Jacquie. "But they're friends now, apparently." Jacquie raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes as she said 'friends'.

"Oooh, that's cute," said Alice.

"Please," said Jacquie, "it won't last a week."

"You're so cynical."

"And you're so optimistic."

Alice laughed and slipped off her shoes, feeling much more comfortable standing bare foot on the cool floorboards. "I don't see what's wrong with being optimistic," she said.

"And I don't see what's wrong with being cynical," Jacquie replied.

Alice placed her hands on her hips. "Now you're being childish."

Jacquie chuckled. "Whatever. I'm gonna watch some TV," she said, starting towards the living room.

"What's on?" Alice called after her.

"Soapies," Jacquie called back.

"Ooh, I'm in," said Alice, running into the living room.

* * *

The two girls sat and watched for an hour, until they were rudely interrupted by the sound of the front door slamming. They craned their necks to see Josh stomping through the meal's area and up the stairs. Jacquie looked at Alice.

"Uh oh," she said. "Better go see if he's OK." She stood up.

"I'll go," said Alice, standing and walking towards the stairs. "I have some experience in this area."

Alice found her brother sitting slumped against his bed in his room, having not bothered to close the door. He didn't seem to have bothered to do much else either, as his school bag was lying in front of the doorway, his shoes were still on and he wasn't moving very much. Alice stepped over the bag, picked it up and moved it aside, then closed the door behind her.

She turned and faced Josh, giving him a warm, sympathetic smile. He didn't look at her, so Alice sat down beside him, leaning cross-legged against the bed.

"You wanna talk about it?" she asked. Josh shook his head without looking at her. Alice, employing her rather broad knowledge of conciliatory psychology, simply sat and stared at the side of her brother's head, until he finally turned to her and said, "What?"

"Tell me what happened," she said politely.

Josh searched her face apprehensively, as though he were expecting a trap of some kind. Apparently sensing none, he bowed his head and started to speak.

"I asked Valerie out today..." he said, then turned to Alice. "You know about Valerie, right?"

Alice nodded. "How did you know?"

Josh shrugged. "I figured Jacquie or Dawn would have told you."

"Jacquie," Alice clarified, "if that makes any difference."

"Well," Josh continued, "I asked her out, which is something I never would have done ordinarily; I think I only did it 'cause I was on such a buzz, now that my acne's all gone. But I did it anyway, and...she said no. Said I was

nice

, and that she wanted to be

friends

, but that I wasn't the type of guy she went out with." Josh's voice was acidic, startling Alice with its barely-contained rage. "I was so sure it was her," he added sullenly, then allowed his head to droop again in defeat. His hair, Alice noticed, hung like a curtain in front of his face when he lowered it like that; it really was getting long. Still, she liked it.

"I had a crush when I was in high school," Alice said contemplatively, causing Josh to look up from the floor with interest. "I was obsessed with this boy, but I never had the courage to ask him out. And when school finished, I still hadn't done it, so I left without ever telling him how I felt. And I thought, at the time, that it was the end of the world. But then you know what happened after that?" Josh shook his head, looking enthralled by her story. "I met another guy, just like him, on the first day of college. I never told that guy either, but I met another one in third year, and another one at my swimming club. The point is, Josh – you'll find lots more girls like Valerie and you'll look back on this as something that wasn't really as important as you thought it was at the time. But lucky for you, you actually did something about your feelings, which will make it even easier to cope with."

Josh had to grudgingly admit there was some logic to Alice's words; she was, if nothing else, always logical. It didn't take the pain away, but he knew, if he was honest with himself, that crushes would come and go many times before he found the right person. He felt strangely serene at the moment, as though he had just had an epiphany. He turned to Alice.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," said Alice, patting him on the shoulder. "You'll make a girl very happy one day," she added, leaning closer and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Josh felt a hot blush creep up his face and, again, wondered whether there was some truth to Dawn's words. He had been shy and nervous when he kissed Jacquie, but he hadn't blushed. He wanted to kiss Alice back, even on the cheek, but he knew it would be highly inappropriate. Besides, Alice was already getting to her feet. She smoothed her dress down and smiled warmly at her brother.

Alice was the only one of Josh's sisters that wore dresses, aside from at classy parties and balls. She wore skirts too, but rarely ever wore pants. Dawn wore skirts, though they were always miniskirts and worn more to show off her thighs than because she liked them. And Jacquie favoured jeans most of the time. Josh had always liked the dress Alice was wearing at the moment; it seemed to be one of her favourites too, as she wore it often. It was sky blue, with big white daisy's printed all over and some thin green leaves here and there. The dress didn't reach her knees, as Dawn's skirts never did, but it didn't look remotely slutty on Alice – only...sweet. And from his current vantage point, Josh could see even further up the dress, to the creamy, whiter parts of her thighs. Her panties though, were hidden from view, whatever style they may be.

He had postulated on the style of panties his sisters wore before. Dawn, he assumed, would of course wear thongs or a g-string or perhaps even none at all; Jacquie would wear lace panties that matched her bra (when she wore one, that is); and Alice would wear thin cotton underwear, most likely white, with flowers or little hearts on them. He could never decide which he thought was sexier. Then again, they might all wear thongs, for all he knew.

Thinking about panties had made Josh hard, which was luckily unnoticeable from the way he was sitting. He would have to remain seated, however, until Alice left.

"Coming downstairs?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, in a minute," Josh replied.

Alice smiled again and left the room. Somewhat relieved, Josh scrambled to his feet and shut the door again.

He felt like masturbating, which was bad. He was pretty sure – though he usually repressed the memory very deeply inside his brain – that he had masturbated while thinking about Dawn and Jacquie at least once, not including the weekend. The thought of doing it with Alice in mind though struck him as wrong. He didn't feel comfortable doing that, especially after Alice had just comforted him and cheered him up when he thought no one possibly could.

So, pushing down the memory of Valerie's rejection, he was able to reunite himself with his willpower, and prevent himself from touching his penis any further. Occasionally, when he refrained from indulging his sexual desires, he came down with minor stomach aches – Josh hoped desperately that this wouldn't be one of those times.

* * *

"How is he?" Jacquie asked curiously when Alice returned to the living room.

"Better," Alice replied. "We had a nice talk."

"So...he's alright, then?"

"I think so," said Alice. "Although I think he was a bit embarrassed talking about it to me – he was blushing a lot."

Jacquie raised an eyebrow. "Did you kiss him?"

"Pardon?" Alice asked, slightly puzzled by Jacquie's question.

"Did you kiss him? Like on the cheek or anything?"

"Um...yeah, I did. Why?"

Jacquie leaned back on her sofa. "

That's

why he blushed," she said as though it were a certifiable fact.

"What!?" Alice exclaimed with a laugh. "It is not."

"Alice, come on...you know he has a huge crush on you."

Alice sighed deeply. "I don't know why you guys keep saying that. He does

not

have a crush on me.

You're

the one he used to follow around like a shadow and ask to help him with all his problems."

"Yes, but

you

were the one he used to have trouble talking to because he was so shy."

"That's not true!"

"Alice," said Jacquie, "trust me. Ask Dawn if you like, she'll tell you. Besides, it's not as if I'm insulting you or anything. I think it's cute."

Alice fixed her sister with a penetrating gaze, then shrugged and settled back into the sofa. "Whatever you say."

Jacquie was busy enjoying a victory smirk, when she saw Josh coming down the stairs. She called out to him, and he entered the living room a moment later.

"Yeah, what?"

"We need your advice," said Jacquie. She flicked her head in Alice's direction. "Do you think Alice's hair looks better in a ponytail or in pigtails?"

She could see, straight away, that she had got him. He opened his mouth, shut it again, looked down at the floor, flushed the colour of a fire engine and then pretended to be pondering an answer.

"Er...I don't know. I like them both."

Nice try

, thought Jacquie. "But if you had to choose one," she said, "which would it be?"

Josh shifted around awkwardly, looking at Jacquie rather than at Alice. It was so easy, she thought; all you had to do was mention Alice's appearance and he squirmed worse than a fish out of water.

Alice, Jacquie noticed, had fixed her with a disapproving look at first, as if to say "Leave him alone." After that though, curiosity seemed to have overwhelmed her, and she was now looking at their younger brother with inquisitive eyes.

"The pigtails, I guess," Josh spluttered out finally.

"Why though?" asked Jacquie, earning another glare from Alice. This time, however, Alice turned back to Josh much quicker, waiting for him to speak.

"I dunno..." he said, "they...they're cute," he finished with a furious blush.

Jacquie smiled to herself, feeling sadistic for the second time in her life.

Maybe a bit more

, she thought.

"And what about the dress? Dawn and I reckon it's old and boring. What do you think?"

Josh had had this conversation before, though not under such strenuous circumstances. Dawn and Jacquie did, in fact, tell Alice on occasion, that she should get rid of that dress – Dawn mostly. And every time, Josh would tell them to leave her alone and say that she could wear what ever she wanted, though he secretly wanted her to keep it for his own benefit.

"The dress?" he asked, as though this were just too much to handle.

"You don't have to answer that," Alice said, coming to the rescue. Josh looked relieved, although he was still intensely crimson. He turned and hurried from the room. He paused at the door, however, and turned back.

"I like it," he said. Jacquie and Alice, who had already turned back to the TV (Jacquie awaiting the exit of her brother to say her big "I told you so"), looked up again with confused expressions.

"The dress," Josh clarified, "I like it. I think you should keep it." He spun then and stalked out of the room, attempting to hide his face as one might try to hide a six-foot high tomato – very poorly.

Back in the living room, Jacquie whipped her head dramatically towards Alice, feeling the look said it all.

"Don't," said Alice, grinning despite herself and looking exceedingly flattered about something. "Don't be cruel." She turned back to the television, but was unable to remove her smile for the next few hours.

* * *

The family ate dinner as soon as Laura came home, which was spaghetti carbonara – Josh's favourite meal. He had avoided Jacquie and Alice for the two hours after he had last spoken to them. He had not realised that Jacquie had purposefully tried to embarrass him, but was simply too humiliated to face them again so soon. He genuinely thought that Alice and Jacquie had required advice pertaining to Alice's appearance, which was lucky for Jacquie, as it was the kind of thing that would make him explode.

At the dinner table, Josh was beginning to be bothered by Dawn, who was grinning at him and constantly kicking him beneath the table. It had started off as a quaint little gesture that was very unlike Dawn, and which had amused him for a while, as it seemingly validated their new friendship. But now, after half an hour of it, his shin was becoming sore and that impish little grin she was wearing (Alluring Sexy Look number forty-two) was wearing on his nerves. Sexual frustration, too, played a large part, though Josh failed to notice that.

Dawn always had that effect on men, especially when she became tactile or playful; she was both at the moment, judging by her kicks and her expression. She was wearing stockings, too, which didn't help matters at all. She had a different beauty to Alice and Jacquie, one that, rather than make you smile and feel all warm inside, made you salivate and feel all warm downstairs. Knowing that she wasn't the enormous tramp that Josh had previously thought she was, and that she, too, battled with emotional issues every day, made her all the more appealing in his eyes.