Kelli Stewart finished pouring the milk over her cereal and carried it to the coffee table in
the living room of her sister Laurie's apartment. Laurie had left the evening before to fly
to England with her roommate Francine. They wouldn't be back until after new years, so
they'd asked Kelli to stay at the apartment for them and keep the plants watered. Neither
one of them really gave a shit if their plants died or not, but they knew Kelli would
welcome the opportunity to be out of the house from her parents.
Kelli sat cross-legged on the floor at the coffee table and slowly spooned cereal into her mouth as she used the remote to scan channels on the TV. She was about halfway finished with the bowl of Bran Flakes and still channel surfing when the doorbell rang. She'd slept in the nude the night before and had not bothered putting anything on when she got up to have her breakfast. She quickly snatched the first item of clothing she could find, which happened to be one of Francine's T-shirts, and pulled it over her head.
Upon looking through the door's peephole, she saw a slim, blond boy, with freckles on his nose and cheeks, standing at the entrance holding a racket with a can of balls and wearing a white pullover shirt with black tennis shorts. He looked maybe a year or so older than her, but he might have been as much as twenty. She wasn't sure from just
peaking through the hole, but he looked harmless enough. She cracked open the door and said, "Can I help you?"
He smiled and Kelli almost melted. She barely registered his words as he asked, "Is Frankie home?"
Kelli went ahead and opened the door the rest of the way and said, "No. She flew back home to England for the holidays."
Trying to hide his disappointment, he said, "How about Laurie?"
Kelli shook her head and said, "Nope. She flew to England with Frankie."
"Oh," the boy said, no longer even trying to hide his disappointment. "I was hoping for a game of tennis. Frankie always lets me hit with her, and Laurie plays a good game too."
Kelli tilted her head and let her shoulder length brown hair fall to the side and said, "I'm
sorry. Laurie almost didn't go, but she decided at the last minute she wanted to get together with some other friends she has over there."
"Fuck," the boy muttered. Then he turned red and said, "I'm sorry."
Kelli giggled and said, "I'm Laurie's sister, Kelli, so I've heard the word fuck a few
times."
The boy grinned and said, "Okay. I suppose you probably have. I'm Doug."
Kelli held out her hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Doug."
Doug accepted the offered hand and as he shook it lightly said, "Nice to meet you too, Kelli. I don't suppose you play tennis?"
Kelli shook her head from side to side and said, "Nope. Laurie and my oldest sister,
Michelle, were the jocks of the family. I'd trip over my own two feet if I tried to run around on a tennis court."