Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 01:55:59 +0000 From: Jan Vincent Subject: Unexplainable Longing - Chapter 5 Hi People Here is Chapter 5 of the ongoing saga of the Southerby and McDougall sisters. To read other stories by me and the earlier chapters, just go to my site at: http://www.sistersinlove.org -jan Five ___________________ Down Memory Lane By Jan Vincent Comments always welcome: jan123@hotmail.com Two bodies entwined in the darkness exchanged caresses and passionate kisses. A hand touched a thigh, and it slid in, finding the warmth and the wetness where the thighs met. A hungry mouth looked for a nipple and found it, sucking it, the lips tasting the flavor of familiar female skin. It was very arousing, it was... She really didn't have words to describe it. It was the animal instinct that made her go on with it, to feed the hunger, the overwhelming longing she could not explain and could not be waved aside like an unyielding stray lock of hair. Arms searched for her body and hands kneaded her breasts and thumbs played with her erected nipples. She moaned, her clitoris touching the wetness of the other female sex, as engorged with desire as hers. She kept fucking that young woman as if her clitoris was an organ she could penetrate the other woman with... and made her pregnant... And that thought sent her over the edge, making her roar her orgasm out. Kate Southerby woke up, startled. It had been a dream, so vivid that it seemed real. She looked around and realized she was alone in her bed and in her room. It was still dark outside, almost dawn, when a new day would begin and she would be left alone to deal with her questions about her own life. Nonetheless, she could feel the arousal in her sex, the undeniable moisture seeping out of her labia. Her fingers loosened the elastic of her panties and glided in, touching the wet skin, making her body tingle with pleasure. 'I became a sex maniac,' she thought. 'I can't remember feeling this horny in my whole life.' The other girl she was having a passionate night with was... her older sister, Jane. That realization made her nipples grow rigid in less than a second, the tension of her desire became even stronger, and the wetness increased. She sat cross-legged on the bed, considering whether to go to her sister's room and wake her up and make her dream come true. It had already happened a few times, but Jane was paranoid about their parents catching them in the act. Besides, they really hadn't talked about the repercussions of what they did together at night when their parents were asleep. It was as though they were both afraid of losing whatever they had managed to gather for themselves, their own world, very fragile, ready to be shattered to pieces, like a soap bubble carried away by the wind. That thought reminded Kate of their childhood days, when Grandma Louise gave them a bowl of cheap detergent for them to make bubbles with. Kate and Jane would defy each other to see who would make the largest, roundest bubbles in the world. They would watch them go, swept away by the soft breeze of another afternoon filled with ordinary happy moments. It was the ordinariness of those happy moments that made them so special. Kate's eyelids became heavier again and she let herself lie down on her bed, reentering her dream world. She went back in time, when they were just two pre-teens, who began to see themselves as people that could challenge parental authority, dyeing some strands of their hair red. Their mother went berserk, asking them if they were out of their minds, but they both had an immediate answer: "Dad let us!!!" The dream evolved and went ahead in time, when they were slightly older, in their teens, when they still lived in Connecticut, in a small house near Grandma's. It was a cold winter afternoon. The streets were paved with snow, so they had to walk carefully, lest they slipped and fell on the icy tracks of the cars. Jane was a happy girl that day; she had begun dating Larry LaMotte, a guy she had wanted for so many years. "It's gonna be different this time." "What's gonna be different?" She looked at Jane as if her eldest had said something out of this world. "You know what." "No, I don't." And without looking at her, Jane sneered at her with a self-satisfied look on her pretty face. "I'm so stupid sometimes. You're just a kid. I forget... You're just a kid." "No, I'm not." "Yes, you are too. If you weren't you would've understood what I just said to you. But because you're just a kid you didn't." Those words hurt her. Her sister thought she was just a kid, who couldn't possibly understand what she was trying to say. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Instead of rebelling and screaming at her, she remained silent, because she felt she couldn't compete with her. Jane was so smart and older and... had a boyfriend, while she didn't. "Kate, wake up. Wake up!" Kate's eyelashes batted open and she saw Jane's attractive face looking down at her. "What?" "You were having a bad dream." Kate pulled herself up on the bed, leaning her back against the headboard. "How do you know I was having a bad dream?" "Because you were crying... And you were calling my name... saying it wasn't fair. What wasn't fair?" "Dunno," Kate replied, shrugging and yawning herself out of her lethargy. "I can't believe you don't know. You were crying... in your dream. Or at least it sounded like it. What wasn't fair?" After some hesitation Kate told her about the unfairness in her dream. "Oh," Jane said tersely. Kate saw her sister withdraw to a far-away land. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to talk about it, but you kept pushing me." "No, it's okay." For a long moment they sat on Kate's bed in silence. Kate took in the tight white tank top her sister was wearing making her bosom so appealing. Her eyes went down to Jane's uncovered navel, then down to her low-cut jeans. Jane's eyes seemed to have noticed her kid sister's staring, acknowledging it with a smile. However, she simply said, "It was my straight phase, when I was boy-crazy, and thought boys were all I wanted." "What made you change?" "I didn't change, but the world did." With ease Kate laughed at her sister's remark. "Yeah, right." "It did. I started noticing girls... Their breasts, the way they smelled, the way they touched me with their manicured, smaller hands. Girls became... different to me, as if they..." "They what?" "As if they *existed*." "Existed?" Kate looked at her sister with a skeptic frown. "Till then other girls were just a pain to me. Couldn't stand them, really. With their stupid screaming and their stupid Barbie dolls, and they constant babble about hot guys. I began to hate myself when I realized I was becoming one of them. But then..." "You met Sam Neville and the world changed." Jane chortled, shaking her head, her straw-colored hair covering her blushing face. "No, it wasn't like that at all. At that time I didn't even know who Sam Neville was." "Oh, please, tell me who made you gay." "There's no such thing, Kate. Nobody made me gay." "Okay, rephrasing: tell me who made you realize you're gay." "Unoriginal as it may seem to you, it was a look. I saw this girl in the mall once, and she looked at me as if she was really interested in me, you know." "Maybe she just thought your clothes were sexy." "C'mon, Kate. I know when another girl is checking me out for my clothes or..." "...for your body," Kate completed, with a sneer on her face. "No, it's more than that. Even straight girls look at other girls' bodies. It's just that... I knew she really wanted me, sexually. I can't explain. But I did feel it. It was the strangest thing." "How old were you?" "Fourteen." "What did you do?" "What? About that girl?" "Yes, of course, the girl in the mall. Who else?" "Nothing. I just looked away, and when I looked again she wasn't there anymore." "Would you recognize her if you saw her again?" "Maybe." "And what would you do if you saw her again?" Jane grinned. "I'd probably go to her and I thank her for making me realize how *nice* girls are." "And how old was she?" "I don't know. Seventeen, eighteen... Perhaps older." "But there were other girls, right?" "Yes, a couple of them." "Like who? Do I know any of them." "Some you do, some you don't. Many of them were just random girls I met on the street. I don't like very girly girls. I like feminine girls with an attitude. It's the attitude that makes them sexy to me." "I know what you mean. I guess I am attracted to that kind of girls, too." Silence befell again, Jane staring past Kate. Kate looked away, as she didn't want to see her sister's expression. She was jealous about those other girls her sister had hungered for. And again, almost without noticing, Kate's eyes returned to her sister's breasts, following the cleavage and the curves under the cups of her bra. When she realized where the nipples were desire hit her in the loins, moisture running deep inside the folds of her sex. She closed her eyes, ashamed by her lust, even though she knew her sister wouldn't find it weird. "Kate?" She opened her eyes. "What?" "Why are you asking me all these questions?" "It started with my dream, remember?" "I know, but... why are you asking me all these questions?" As Kate didn't want to avow her jealousy she said, "Because I want to make love to you... right now." * * * Jane Southerby gave a loud chuckle watching her younger sister's eyes so full of longing. That longing made her tremble, causing a nervous chill in her back. It was odd that her little sister felt that way about her. Kate had always seemed the perfect example of a heterosexual girl, so outgoing, so adored by the boys of the neighborhood and St. Patrick's. She was a very good soccer player, not the best scorer, but an important midfielder, the organizer of her team's game. She was such a popular girl, and so, so beautiful... She could get any boy she wanted. She could be anything she wanted, and here they were, Kate staring at her with obvious lust in the grayish blueness of her eyes. "Why do you want me, Kate? Why?" "Because I adore you, and you are so sexy, because you don't even realize it... because you're so incredibly shy." Jane's eyes turned away, as her cheeks reddened. "Stop it." "Jane, I want you so much." Jane stared back at Kate, as her sister's last sentence sounded like a expression of grief. "Why, Kate? Why? Why me? When you can have anyone you want..." "Because... Because you're my sister, and you understand me like no one. I've loved you since we were little kids. I've always thought you were the coolest girl, but you kept pushing me away, as if you didn't want me around, as if you hated me. I'd scream back at you, and wanted to hurt you like you'd hurt me. We were children, Janey. We were just kids... who didn't know better. And when you... and when I realized you wanted me... after that party we went with Nicky... All those feelings came back... Not in one go, but gradually... And when I held you and kissed you that day in your room, when the guys were in the pool waiting for us, and you went jealous on me, I felt how much you wanted me; I just couldn't believe it, I just thought I was crazy because I thought... you wanted me, you *really* wanted me... for the first time... in my life. I... That's why I kissed you in the bathroom, because I knew if I didn't do anything I'd lose you. I just could feel it... You... I love you, Janey, can't you see that?" "I can, but..." "But what?" "This scares me a little." "Why?" "Because I can't even imagine if we get caught." "We won't. We will be careful. I will keep on dating..." "You will?" "Oh, Janey," said Kate, getting on her knees, smiling. Jane felt her sister's cold hands on her neck, brushing her hair aside. Her attentive face was only a few inches from hers. "I love you so much when you get jealous, but you don't need to. Len is a guy I love very much, but that's different. He will never be... I can never be this close with him." "I can't," said Jane, shaking her head, releasing herself from Kate's embrace, standing up. "What?" "I can't, I just can't." And with this, Jane left Kate's room. Kate jumped off her bed and went after her sister. "Jane, what the... Jane, I'm talking to you." Jane turned around, avoiding the steps that would take them both downstairs, where Mother could hear them. Jane, almost in panic, wanted to yell at Kate, so that she would leave her alone. "Jane, what happened? What can't you? If you want I'll stop seeing him altogether. Is that what you want?" "NO!" Jane shouted as she went past a confused Kate. "No, Kate, I don't want anything like that." "Then WHAT do you want?" Jane went to her room, still hounded by her little sister, who looked so fragile, almost on the verge of tears. Jane sat on her bed, her long thighs pressed against each other and her legs making an angle from each other. She hung her head, watching the long threads of her pale yellow hair falling down as though it were a stream of yellowish water, like the thunderous, fierce Yellow River in China she was once saw on TV. She threw her hair back, her elbows against her lap, supporting the weight of her nervous upper body. She looked up, sighing, meeting Kate's stare, finding her little sister, still in her pajamas, shuddering as if from cold. "Kate, I can't ask you that. I can't... This can't be right." "What can't be right?" Kate shuffled closer and sat next to Jane. "What can't be right? That we love each other? Why is that wrong?" "Because I want someone I can be with, without hiding. I want someone I can claim she's mine, someone I don't need to share with somebody else, because she's afraid of assuming her love for me. And that's impossible with you." Kate looked away, assuming the same position as her sister's, thighs closed and legs spread out, her jittery hands on her lap. She tried to speak but no sound came out of her mouth. "No, you're wrong," she finally was able to say. "That's possible, that's entirely possible, but Mother and Dad must know about us." "You crazy? Don't you DARE tell them!" "No, relax. I will only tell them if we BOTH agree on it." "So, what's your idea then?" "I've been reading a few things on the internet, and even found a site about girls like us." "A site? What site?" "It's a site about sisters who love their sisters, who are in love with their sisters... Sounds weird, doesn't it? But that site does exist, and... there are these testimonies by girls like us, and..." "And what?" "Some girls leave their email addresses and..." "Are you crazy? And do you believe them? Most of them are just men in disguise who want to jack off to stories like that." "Well, you never know on the internet, but some stories really sound real to me. And... there is this girl... she..." "What?" Jane's eyelids went higher than normal. "I told her about what we've been doing," said Kate quickly as if afraid to be cut off mid-sentence by her older sister, "and she totally understood me, what I told her." "You can't be serious." "I can, and I am." "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS, KATE. Are you CRAZY?" "No, calm down. I didn't say much. I didn't tell her who we were. We just discussed what we did, and why we did what we did. I am not crazy, and most of all I am not stupid." "Sometimes I wonder." "Jane, that's not fair! You're being unfair, and you know it. You're being unreasonable, just like when we were kids... just like in my dream." Jane pulled her hair back again, sighing deeply, pondering what to say, what she could say to counter Kate's finger-pointing. Perhaps her younger sister was right. She was panicking without any good reason. Kate grasped her hand and with a pleading look she stared at her older sister. Jane began to melt inside, her heart beating faster. "You're crazy, didn't you know that?" "Yeah," Kate agreed, with a growing smile, "crazy about you." "That's so unbelievably gooey. Is that what you say to Len?" "No." Kate shook her head, grinning at Jane, her long hair, so pale as her sister's covering most of her face. With a quick movement of her head she threw her hair back and away from her eyes. Still holding Jane's hand, she continued, "With guys I'm much tougher. With you I can relax a little and show how romantic I am, how square I am, how... old-fashioned I am." Their eyes met, and Jane could see how truthful her sister was. The melting she felt inside grew and she lowered her eyelids, distended her lips, as though she wanted to be kissed. Kate seemed to have understood the signs and slowly but steadily she moved closer and tentatively kissed her sister on those red lips. "You're shaking," Jane whispered. "Yeah, you make me nervous, like the little kid you think I am." "Yes, you are." "Thanks, Sis," Kate said between light kisses on her sister's lips. "You're so kind." "Always, kiddo. Whenever you want." * * * Linda walked in the house of her parents after a long evening of work. She expected to find a dark, quiet place, but all lights seemed to be on. Curious, she went over to the living room and found Nikki and the twins drinking some wine and lounging on the sofas of a newly refurbished room. Expensive neo-classic sculptures in Italian marble dominated each corner, and two early Degas hung upon the walls. The simple homemade curtains had been replaced by expensive, heavy drapes. The room had become too stately and thus uninviting as far as Linda was concerned. "Hey, what happened? What are you doing here? Is this a party I wasn't invited to?" "Oh, it's you." Nikki turned to her sister without leaving the sofa. She grinned at her with a tipsy expression and reddened cheeks. "Come and sit here with me. We're celebrating. The twins got accepted and they won the scholarship!" "Really? Oh, that's so cool." The four girls embraced each other and this time even Linda and Zoe held each other tight, without a moment of awkwardness or hesitation. "Oh, that's so cool," Linda kept repeating, genuinely happy for her younger sisters. "Did you get the letters today?" "Yeah, we did," Zoe said. "They came in the mail yesterday, but we only got them today." "Where is Dad? And Mom?" "Working. They called in and said they had a couple of deadlines to meet till the end of the month. Mom, she's coming home at eleven, though. Dad's gonna work till 3 AM, or so she said." Linda looked at Jeannie and saw some resentment in her eyes; it was surprising her kid sister still expected some emotional support from her folks, as if their promises would somehow be kept. Linda didn't expect anything from them, had cut loose many years before. "Which is good," interjected Nikki, jumping on her feet with a glass of wine in her right hand. "Because that means I can kiss you whenever I want." And with her left arm, she locked Linda's neck into a kiss and a loving bite. "Ouch, that hurt." Linda laughed, nevertheless. She tried to get rid of Nikki's drunken clasp, but her younger sister didn't relent with her passionate kisses up her neck, chin, and then mouth. She let her sister's devilish tongue penetrate her mouth, searching for hers. "Nikki," she complained weakly. "Nikki, stop. You're drunk." "Whew, you're still doing it?" Zoe exclaimed. "I thought you had grown out of it. I just can't believe you." "Yeah, Zoe, we're still doing it. She's the love of my life and she will always be." Nikki looked both defiant and sparkly, with shining eyes and an inebriated smile. "I thought you were afraid of going to prison," Zoe insisted. "Not with Linda's cop on our side." Nikki laughed out loud. As the twins looked at them with surprise, Nikki explained to them who Mike Rogers was. "That doesn't mean a thing, Nikki," said Linda, letting out a deep sigh and sitting down on the sofa where Nikki had been. "We have to play it cool, really cool if you wanna be my girlfriend." "Oh, that sounds so cool, 'my girlfriend.'" Nikki sat on Linda's lap and kissed Linda passionately again on those beautiful, sexy lips of a blonde goddess. Linda could see on her sister's eyes how much in love that girl she knew so well was. And the depth of her sister's feelings still scared her. The responsibility of a new letdown was in her hands again, as she could not shed the skin of the older sister. She could fuck up her sister's life completely if they went on with this, but... Nikki seemed to want this kind of madness no matter what. Linda sensed Nikki's growing arousal, by the way she kissed her and the way her breathing became ragged. Nikki looked so damn sexy with her long disheveled strands hiding most of her glowing face. Nikki was just irresistible, and the strength to fight her own lust for Nikki began to falter. "Nikki, you're drunk." "Not really, maybe just a little," said Nikki, putting down the glass on the coffee table. "You forget for whom this party is. It ain't nice if we keep doing this." "Hmm, you're right." Nikki rolled her eyes and with a sigh she left Linda's lap and sat next to her. "Sorry, guys, I didn't mean..." "It's okay," Jeannie replied with a somewhat sad expression. "Let's go, Jeannie." Zoe stood up and offered her twin her hand. "Let's leave the lovebirds alone." "No, I don't wanna go. I want to stay. Like Linda said, this is our party, and we shouldn't feel like we need to go if we don't want to." "Yeah, that's right, Jeannie." Linda was worried with her kid sister. Even though Jeannie had resumed dating the opposite sex, she still had that look with some hidden longing when she stared at her. "Zoe, sit down and let's talk." "Talk?" Zoe obeyed, despite showing her dislike of remaining in the same room with her older sisters. "Talk about what?" "Talk about how you guys would feel if we, I mean, Nikki and I..." "Were girlfriends?" Zoe completed with a scowl of utter disgust. "That would be so..." "So, what?" Nikki had remained observant, but she became quite incensed by her younger sister's reaction. "So, WHAT? Just say it, goddamn it." "So disgusting, if you ask me." "Why is this disgusting, Zoe? WHY?" "Because it is. Everybody in this room knows that. Come on, don't tell me that's *normal*. Don't tell me that calling your own sister girlfriend is normal, because it ain't, no matter what you say or can say. You don't know how ridiculous you guys look." "So why did you fuck Jeannie in the first place? Because that's NORMAL?" Zoe made a new grimace, avoiding her twin's inquiring eyes. "Because... because I was stupid, and I didn't..." "You didn't what?" Jeannie wanted to know. "You didn't WHAT, Zoe?" "Oh, leave me alone." Zoe left stormed out of the living room and scrambled upstairs. As Jeannie did as though she was going to follow her twin, Linda intervened. "Please, leave her alone. She needs to be alone right now. It will do no good to either of you if you start fighting." "She can be so mean." "She's hurt." "Why? I didn't hurt her. Why did she take out on me?" "She didn't mean to. It's just that you are the likeliest victim. That's not what I mean-- I..." "It's okay, Linda. You don't have to defend her. We just need to talk it over, when we both have calmed down." "Yes, you two need to talk it over," said Nikki, stretching herself out to pick up her abandoned glass of wine. "She was really..." "Well, I think she's right, in part." Nikki looked at Jeannie with surprise, freezing her drinking motion for a couple of seconds. "What do you mean, she's right, *in part*?" "Yes, you can't go on pretending it's okay, when it isn't. I understand Zoe when she says you look ridiculous when you're thinking calling each other 'girlfriends.' Nobody will take you guys seriously. It's too dangerous. I don't wanna see Linda, or Dad for that matter, in prison because you can't keep your hands off each other. That's not healthy." "Why is it not healthy?" Nikki said with a bellicose tone, returning the glass to the table in between them. "Why was it healthy when you decided to have sex with Zoe? Was that healthy?" "No, it wasn't, and that's why we stopped." "And who decided that?" "It was me who decided it." "So, what you're saying is that your will prevailed, even though Zoe wanted to go on with it, am I right?" "No, that's not--" Nikki smile widened into a victorious grin. "Yes, you know I am right, Jeannie. I bet you guys didn't even discuss it. You just said, let's end it, and because Zoe is such a sucker for you she agreed. You know she always does what *you* want. If that's *healthy* I don't know what that is." "Nikki, you're being mean, as mean as Zoe was a little while ago. I don't think that's fair. And you shouldn't talk too much, because you do everything that Linda wants. Just tell me who keeps ending your relationship? *You?* I think not." With some poise, Jeannie left the room, her fingers wiping her eyelids, as though she had shed a couple of invisible tears. Linda shut her eyes, shaking her head, heaving a loud sigh. Nikki stared at her older sister, as though afraid of what she could be thinking. Linda opened her eyes and faced Nikki's concerned look. With a tired smile Linda swept her sister's hair over her naked shoulders. "Don't you worry. This time I will not give you up so easily, even if everybody is against us, even if the twins do not agree with this." "You sure?" "Yes, I'm sure." "Oh, I love you so much right now." Nikki threw her trembling arms around Linda's neck. "I thought you..." Linda smiled once again. "I know what you thought. I just can't keep doing this to you, leaving you, then hurting you, then asking you to come back to me. That's not right. That's what I call 'unhealthy' to me. Let's face the world if we have to, but not just yet. I want to have some peace first... And let's not inflame the twins... Let's keep it cool, like I told you. We have nothing to gain if we lose them. Understand?" Nikki nodded. "I love you so much." And this time Linda accepted her sister's intensity gladly, without any remorse. She led her to their room and they made love as if they were two newlyweds. Linda kept licking Nikki's nipples as her younger sister rubbed herself off along Linda's thigh and her shaking fingers pinched Linda's breasts. "You like to hurt me, don't you, Sis?" Nikki closed her eyes as a powerful orgasm hit her. She chuckled, in spite of the massive wave of pleasure that made her glow and tingle, energy that ran across her whole body and made her heal. "Yeah, pain sometimes heals too." "*You* say." "I say, that's right, and whatever I say it's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." "Oh, yeah, I forgot you're crazy about those John Grisham's novels." "You can learn a lot with them." "I'll bet." Linda began to laugh out loud, chastising her sister's naked buttock with a friendly tap. "What?" "Don't talk and kiss me." "Oh, yeah. I forgot you were crazy about my kisses." "Shut up and kiss." Nikki spread herself upon her sister and kissed her with passion. Her hands pushed Linda's breasts together. Linda moaned. "Oh, baby, you really drive me crazy." "Shut up and kiss," Nikki said, curbing her laughter, slipping her tongue onto Linda's, while her hands caressed her sister's nipples. "Make me come with your mouth," Linda whispered between kisses, breathing heavily. "You want me to?" "Yeah." "Good, but you gotta beg." "Please?" Nikki laughed. "Keep begging, Sis, or you're not gonna get it." "Please!" Linda said more forcefully, even though she wore a wide grin in her face, her matted blonde hair becoming humid by the sweat of their lovemaking. Slowly, very slowly, Nikki licked her sister's body up and down, as if she were a hungry cat licking her meal before eating it. Her fingers kept coming closer to her sister's glistening folds of a sex opening up for more, if that were possible. "Don't tease, just do it, okay?" "Yeah, but you gotta beg." "Okay, I'll beg. Please!!!!" Nikki gave another loud laugh as she began to knead the inner side of Linda's thighs, the younger sister's fingers still teasing the older one, despite her promises. "Nikki!!!!" "Okay, hold your horses." When Linda felt Nikki's lips against the folds of her pussy, Linda's legs went stiff, her heart almost stopped. She whimpered lowly, as if she were a wounded animal. Every time Nikki licked the inside of her labia, she shook feverishly. She raised her legs, and begged, "Fuck me, fuck me, please. Use your fingers." This time Nikki relented and did what she was told. While her tongue hit and pushed up her sister's clitoris, she pumped her middle finger in and out of Linda's pussy. The orgasm began to rise, first in her lower belly, then it spread like an electrical storm through her whole abdomen. The electric currents then hit the oversensitive nipples, then went down her legs until they reached her toes. Finally, her brain was assaulted by the powerful wave, and she screamed out. Suddenly they heard footsteps outside of their room and then a knock on their room door. "Are you okay?" It was their father's voice. "Shit, they're home." Instinctively, Linda pulled the covers up, her heart hammering in her chest. Louder, she said, "Yes, I'm okay. I just fell, but I'm okay." There was some hesitation before the troubled male voice continued. "Are you sure? May I come in?" "NO. I said I'm okay, Dad. Goodnight." Linda waited for her father to leave the door, but she heard no further footsteps. 'Damn,' she thought. 'Why can't I control myself?" "All right. Goodnight, girls." Linda let out a sigh of relief, as her father's footsteps began to fade out. "That was close." "I wouldn't care if he came in. We're doing nothing wrong." Linda stared at Nikki and saw how serious her younger sister was. "Yeah, but I'd hate it if he saw me in bed with my lover, who happens to be his own daughter too. I appreciate my privacy, and more so in this case." "I am more than your lover; I am your girlfriend, don't *you* forget that." "Oh, yeah, how could I forget? Come here, then, GIRLFRIEND." "Oh, shut up!" "Yeah, shut up and kiss me." And Linda kept laughing as a smiling Nikki covered her sister with kisses. * * * Zoe McDougall walked down her favorite shopping mall in Fort Lauderdale, not so far away from Bahia Mar, where the rich kept their immaculate white yachts. She liked to drive all the way to Lauderdale, in spite of the rain. She wanted to forget all the stupid things Jeannie had told her. She couldn't believe Linda and Nikki had gone crazy again, and... called each other 'girlfriends.' She was furious with them, she couldn't comprehend why they had gone back together, despite Dad's warnings and the threat of being exposed. She had lost many friends because of them, and now the same could happen because they were these bullheaded *sluts*. There was no other word for them, they were SLUTS, with uncontrollable urges, like nymphomaniacs, or worse... She shut her eyes, exerting herself to think about clothes, the guys she had been dating, anything but them. Zoe missed Jeannie, though. She missed her twin. She rarely went out without her by her side, but the nastiest fights with Jeannie had always started because of their oldest sister. Her mobile phone rang and she answered it with a curt, "Yeah?" "Is this Zoe McDougall?" a male voice asked. "Yeah, who wants to know?" "Hi, I am a reporter with the Sentinel and would like to talk to you." "What about?" Zoe's heart sank. She couldn't believe Linda and Nikki had been caught again. "How do you know my phone number?" "Well, a friend of a friend gave me..." Zoe pushed the red button and terminated the call. Her ire grew to indescribable proportions. After awhile the phone rang once more and she saw it was the same number again. She let it ring until she decided to turn the cell phone off. She sighed, quivering nervously. She didn't know what to do. She was too edgy to just sit down and do nothing. That call had ruined her search for peace. That call was the last thing she needed. She decided to walk all the way to The Strand. The long walk would calm her down, or nothing would. She left the mall, in spite of the gray clouds riding the overcast sky, and strode several blocks until she finally reached The Strand. She could smell the sea, a scent that reminded her of good times when she was younger, a little kid with no worries to speak of. Her love for Jeannie was an uncomplicated, guiltless feeling, but now... Jeannie didn't want it anymore. She wanted to date guys, she said. *It was better that way*. Better for whom? Zoe's eyes caught the stare of a Latino guy, who looked dangerously sexy, but she wasn't in the mood to respond. She ignored him, quickening her pace, looking the other way as she went past him. "Hey, *Rica*, what're you doing here?" She heard his catcall but did as though he hadn't said a thing. "Hey, *Rica*, I am talking to you." Zoe turned to him eventually, shrugging off her misgivings, thinking that playing this guy would be all right for the time being. "Are you talking to me?" she asked, still backing away from him. "Yes, I'm talking to you." "Why? Do I know you?" "No, but you are about to." "No, thanks, I don't speak to strangers. My mother taught me not to." "Hey, *Rica*, I'm no stranger. I am Manuel, the hottest guy in town." Zoe laughed at his line, and the affected way he walked toward her. Why were these guys so predictable? Didn't they know other ways of coming on to girls? Still, he was good-looking, dangerously good-looking. She ceased walking backwards, ready to confront her pursuer. "Okay, Manuel, so what a girl like me with a guy like you can do in this town at this hour of the day?" Manuel came near her, his muscled tanned hands combed back the glossy dark hair that strove to escape a blue and white bandanna. "You tell me, *Chica*. You tell me." Zoe looked away from his stare and laughed, still not believing what was happening to her. Would this be her revenge? Would she go to bed with this guy to make things even? After a few seconds she decided against it. She was not that shallow, and most of all she was not a slut who would go out to get laid because she wanted to get even. She was about to say something when a patrol car stopped by the curb and two cops got off and surrounded them with a menacing look behind their dark sunglasses. "What?" Manuel said, before he was pushed violently against the wall. "What, you motherfuckers? What did I do now?" "Is this scumbag bothering you?" a cop with a S. McCormick name tag asked her, while his partner frisked Manuel. "No, no... He was..." "You pig motherfuckers." "Shut the fuck up, Manuel," McCormick said, raising his voice, appraising Zoe's uncovered legs, as she was wearing a very short denim skirt and long, stylish black boots. Returning his look to Zoe, he asked, "If he wasn't bothering you, I hope you won't become his next victim. This guy is a pimp, so you'd better stay away from him, if you know what's good for you." "Thanks, for the warning. May I go?" "Sure, this is a free country." Sighing, Zoe left the cops and the alleged pimp, making a half turn. With an accelerated pulse she hurried back to the mall and to the place she had parked the Jeep. 'Damn,' she thought, 'that was close.' She had always a thing for dangerous-looking guys, but this time things could have gotten really bad. She heaved a sigh of relief, making a promise to herself she would be more careful next time, if there were a next time. When she was about to insert the key in the car door, she noticed something peculiar: the same patrol car had followed her to the mall. The cops had parked near the entrance of the parking lot. With a creepy feeling crawling up her back, Zoe got in her car and drove off without speeding. She kept looking in the rearview mirror if they were still following her, but the patrol car had apparently remained at the mall. When Zoe parked the car in the driveway, she saw Jeannie and her mother talking in the backyard. Leisurely she walked up to them, and greeted them with a brisk, "Hi." Jeannie took a quick glance at her but didn't say a thing. Zoe folded her arms while their mother kept talking about an upcoming party next Saturday. It wasn't to commemorate their scholarship, but yet another business party. All their parents had said when they were informed about the scholarship was, "We didn't expect anything less from you," and that was all. When Jeannie managed to extricate herself from their mother's conversation about her party, Zoe tagged behind her twin. "Jeannie," she called. Jeannie stopped climbing the stairs and made a half turn, facing her. "What do you want?" "I gotta talk to you." "What about?" "About a weird phone call and... some cops." In their room Jeannie listened to Zoe with a pensive, withdrawn look. This was the old Jeannie Zoe knew so well. Jeannie was perhaps the most intelligent of her sisters, even though she didn't show it so much as Linda, who was a loudmouth with everyone else. After a moment of mutual silence, Jeannie sighed and said, "It may mean a lot of things, and it may mean nothing at all. Perhaps it's just your imagination, or... We gotta tell Linda and Nikki about this, and decide." "Decide what?" "If we're gonna call that guy who called you and know what he wants."