Welcome back to Alistaire's summer of lust and embarrassment! But mostly lust. And discovery. And lust. New reader or old, always remember that I abhor a realistic story. I just aim for one that is plausibly ridiculous.
Anyway, if you are somehow stumbling onto an Alistaire story for the first time, welcome. But this is part two of part three, and I do not do much in the way of synopses, so you might want to go back and start from the beginning of the
first series
.
For the rest of you, please rate my work. I kind of get paid in comments for this work, so dropping me a word at the end of this and other chapters will fuel my commitment to getting this series done soonest and then get on with writing the fourth and final Alistaire cycle.
By the way, there is a stonking huge easter egg in this series. I wonder which of you will find it...
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THE ONE WITHOUT THE BIRTHMARK
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Carrie looked at her watch while I looked out the windows of the dark neighborhood clubhouse where we had just made a deniable mess of the couch. I could still see no sign of any neighbors peering our way through open curtains, nor any open doors with people trying to identify what those, um, incredible noises had been.
"Yes," I said, pumping a fist gently. "I think no one noticed us in here."
"Damn," Carrie grumbled at about the same time. "We don't quite have time for me to tear your clothes back off and get in another round."
We both laughed.
Then we carefully slid out of the clubhouse and walked, arm in arm, down the street toward my house.
And almost instantly, Mrs. Kilpatrick backed out her front door, leading her rat that barks, Pippa, on its leash. I jumped about eight feet straight up, but composed myself before she even turned around.
Carrie, who was way cooler about the situation than I, just kept walking casually down the sidewalk, pressing herself gently against my arm.
Mrs. K, the gossip of Gallant St, peered out at the people walking in her neighborhood after dark. "Al? Is that you?" her sharp voice called out in the night.
"Hi, Mrs. K," I said, idly waving as Carrie kept me moving.
"So you are back from your graduation already? Congratulations," my neighbor asked politely while my insides somersaulted in thanks that that friggin pest of a dog had not needed to pee 30 minutes earlier. She often lets it do its business on the grass around the clubhouse.
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you," I called, then turned to look down at Carrie, as if to resume a conversation.
I sensed Mrs. Kilpatrick wanted to ask more questions, but was held back by her bemusement at the utterly novel experience of seeing me with any girl, much less the vision on my arm. "Come on, Pippa," I heard her mutter.
"Great," I muttered quietly to Carrie. "Now the whole neighborhood will know by breakfast that Al was walking with a girl down the street..."
"Oh, she is
that
neighbor, huh?" Carrie asked, resolutely not looking back.
"Yup."
"We have two in our neighborhood."
"My heart breaks for you," I said with utter sincerity. "But gossip is not the problem tonight. I left my keys in my bedroom upstairs, meaning that I will have to pass my parents in the living room where they will inevitably be watching some movie. How will I explain going upstairs and then going back out?"
"The truth?" Carrie asked easily. "Mary and Maddie live in the opposite direction, and you offered to give me a ride home."
"The opposite direction?" I asked skeptically. "I will bet my parents know both your homes are right by the country club."
Carrie looked at me in genuine momentary distress. "You really have been out of it, haven't you? Mary and Maddie's parents divorced Sophomore year."
"Wait. But..."
"Their dad has remarried and he and they still live in their same old house, since he inherited it to begin with. But they are living with their mom over across town during the summer."
"Whoa," I said as we walked on. "Seems odd though. I mean, nothing wrong with it, but usually kids live with their mom if there is a breakup, don't they?"
"Their mom bought a house across town to be closer to most of her work. If M and M lived with her full time, they would have had to transfer to Fosters High," Carrie said.
We both shuddered. I had not even gone to P-High, but everyone I knew had and they had always known that Peachtree was going to be their school. Thus, it was sort of mine by proxy. The thought of having to go to FuckHeads was slightly horrifying, even to me. Not as horrifying as the idea of going to Choate, but still pretty much awful.
We turned at my house, which was admittedly a little larger than the others around it and Carrie gave it a good look. "Damn, Al. Now that I'm looking at it and not focused on you, that's a nice house!"
"Mom and Dad do okay," I shrugged. I walked up to the front door and slipped in.
Carrie followed me right in! I had assumed she'd hang on the front porch, dammit.
Sure enough, my parents were sitting together on the couch in front of the TV, with a clear view of the front door. So much for my hope that they had gone to bed early. Worse, they weren't quite making out or anything, but they were cuddling a lot closer than I was used to.
My appearance did not phase them at all, but when they spied Carrie coming behind me, they sprang apart like two guilty teenagers, only with way more casual aplomb. I had done some springing apart myself, and I fleetingly hoped I'd get that good at it at some point.
"Hey Mom, Dad," I said, as if distracted. "I'm just going to grab the keys and give Carrie a ride the rest of the way home, then I'll be back," I said, and headed for the stairs fast. It was a pretty horrible calculation, leaving Carrie at my parents' mercy while I retrieved the means of our escape, but the idea of taking her upstairs to my room right in front of my parents was an utter non-starter.
