All characters are over 18 in this story. I started writing it with the intention of setting it in the present day, but the combination of COVID restrictions and cultural references I wanted to make has pushed the setting back to the year 2010. There should be nothing much in here that screams what year it is, though, apart from characters in their early 20's fondly remembering the 90's.
Thank you to Ravenna933 for the edits, and RawSilhouette for the inspiration, beta reading and plot development help.
The familiar lights of the GO Train station hove into view as my commuter train screeched to a stop. It was just after eleven PM on a cool late April evening, and I inhaled deeply as I exited, the slight sharpness of the air a reminder that winter had only recently released its hold on the city. I bounded down, suitcase in hand, and caught a taxi home.
I'd just finished my third year of university at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, majoring in economics. I hoped to go to law school someday, but LSATs were a problem for the upcoming summer. For now, I was finally done for the year; my last exam written only days before. I'd spent a couple of days packing up my apartment and temporarily saying goodbye to my roommates - I was hanging onto the lease for the summer, and I planned to go back periodically, but for now, all I wanted was my own bed and some home cooking and a chance to decompress for a couple of weeks.
The driver navigated the familiar streets as I inched closer to home. As we finally reached my house, though, my jaw dropped - the house was pulsating with activity, with every window blazing with light and a loud, bassy thumping penetrating the windows of the car. People were everywhere - inside, outside, on the porch, the lawn - clearly having a massive party.
What the fuck?
Annoyed, I shoved my way into the house, finding a raging inferno of university-aged kids occupying the living room. Where was Mom? Where was Vanessa? I shoved my way through the bodies and finally found my stepsister in the kitchen, holding court with a bunch of girls in low-cut tops and football-player type bros in athletic wear.
"What the fuck?" I opened angrily.
Vanessa looked up.
"Oh, hey, Peter! Everyone, Peter's back!" She smiled sleepily at me. I quickly realized she was absolutely hammered, so drunk she appeared to be barely standing upright.
"Where are Mom and Walt?"
"Daddy and Diane went away for the weekend. Didn't they tell you?"
"No?"
"Relax, Peter. There's a keg on the back porch and some liquor on the table. Help yourself." She turned her attention back to her friends.
I was furious, but I recognized the hopelessness of the situation. Short of turning Vanessa in to Mom and Walt, there was little I could do but ride out the party. She lived here, so I couldn't call the police or anything. It's not like I was normally the type to turn down a party anyway, but I was exhausted from the long train ride, I had a headache, and I just wanted to go to sleep. I doubted I'd get any sleep for hours at this rate.
I headed for my room to drop off my suitcase, flinging the door open to find a slender Asian guy sitting on my bed, receiving a blowjob from a pretty dark-haired girl.
"Occupied! Get the fuck out!" the guy yelled at me.
"This is my room! I live here! You get the fuck out!" I shouted back, making eye contact. I wasn't a violent person, but I was fully prepared to get physical with this guy if he insisted.
The guy and the girl exchanged a glance, then he stood up, bundling up his cock into his pants. The two of them glared at me as they left. Once they were gone, I jammed a chair under the doorknob and lay down on the bed, willing the thumping noise of a Justin Timberlake song to be turned down just a bit so I could relax. This was the last thing I needed tonight.
Vanessa.
I hadn't seen a lot of her or her friends this past year. Kingston to Guelph was far enough away that I couldn't quite make it home on a random weekend, and she'd been on some sort of volunteer experience in Central America over Christmas. Had I even seen her since she started university? I wracked my brain and realized with a start that it had been since last September that we'd even spoken.
I figured she'd changed being a first-year student - Mom had hinted as much when I'd talked to her - but the shy, nerdy high school girl I'd known wouldn't have done something like this. Her friend group in high school weren't the partying type either, from my recollection - they were what I guess I'd have described as 'cool nerds'. They were the kind of smart girls who effortlessly pulled good grades and weren't what you'd call ultra-popular, but still had enough social skills and good hygiene not to be bullied.
For the first decade and a half of my life, it had just been me and my Mom. I'd never known my biological father, and once I was old enough to be told, I'd learned he had been a one-night stand and never made it onto my birth certificate. Mom had never even told him she was pregnant. She finally married for the first time when I was fifteen, and while any blending of a family has its ups and downs, I'd liked my stepdad Walt enough. We both shared a love of music and bonded over jamming together with our guitars. He'd introduced me to some older bands and artists that I now loved - Big Star, Nick Drake, Robyn Hitchcock. Walt's former wife had died of cancer years back, and once I got over my teenage bullheadedness and protectiveness of my Mom, I realized he was a good guy, and he made her happy.
But Walt had come with a teenage daughter, and two teenagers who were both used to being only children were never going to get along. It was never open warfare between us, but I never understood Vanessa and never made the effort, and I never got the feeling that she cared to get to know me, either. Having a teenage girl in the house mostly just meant the bathroom we shared was always occupied and there was never enough hot water or junk food. She was two years younger than me and immature; always seeming to be even younger than that in terms of her mental age. When I left home to go to university, she was barely sixteen.
Now, of course, she was nineteen to my twenty-one, and had just finished her first year in general arts and humanities at the University of Guelph. She'd spent the year living at home with our parents, which was another decision I didn't understand. She didn't have a boyfriend at home or any other reason that I could think of to want to stay. Mom had mentioned her friends had scattered throughout the province to go to school, so she wasn't staying behind for them, and she wasn't interested in farming or veterinary medicine or any of Guelph's other academic specialties. But she clearly either hadn't missed out on the freshman party lifestyle, or she had, and was making up for it tonight.
Christ.
I lay there for a good ten minutes, trying to relax, before I decided it was a lost cause. I wouldn't have chosen this, but I may as well make the most of it, right? I headed for the bar, quickly downed a double shot of bourbon from someone's liquor bottle, then filled up a red Solo cup with beer from the keg as I looked around for familiar faces.
I spotted one hanging out in the backyard. "Hi, Laura."
"Peter!" The blonde girl broke off from her conversation and bounded towards me, giving me a big, long hug.
"Easy there," I squeaked. Laura's grip was pretty strong.
"When did you get back?" She finally released me.
"Just now. I didn't realize I was coming home to a party."
"Yeah, Vanessa put all this together at the last minute."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Your parents decided to go out of town. They got some discounted last-minute theatre tickets in Toronto, I think she said. They'll be home late tomorrow."
"So that means throw a rager in their house? The Vanessa I knew wouldn't have done that."
"She's changed a lot."
I rolled my eyes.
"So have you, though! When did you grow a beard?" She reached out and gently touched it.
"Kingston gets cold in winter, and the wind and damp off Lake Ontario is murderous. I grew it to keep warm, and I guess I just got used to it."
"It looks good on you!"
Laura Keelor was one of Vanessa's high school friends. She was a tall blonde with glasses, a square face, a small chest and a big ass. Since I'd last seen her she'd filled out into an adult body, and she was prettier than I'd remembered. I caught myself glancing at her cleavage as I checked her out, wearing jeans and a flattering purple halter top.
I'd known that Laura had had a schoolgirl crush on me when we were both in high school, but she was socially awkward and one of my stepsister's friends, both of which were reasons why I'd never taken a second look at her. But I'd certainly noticed the way she looked at me anytime we were in a space together. I'd always been flattered by her interest, as I hadn't been used to knowing when girls were crushing on me, but the attention from Laura also creeped me out a little. I had generally tried to keep her at arms' length.
"Is there anyone else here I'd know?" I asked her.
Laura thought for a minute. "A couple of the girls we hung around with in high school are here. Michelle Mackenzie is around somewhere with her boyfriend."
I made a face.
"I know she was never your favourite person. I saw Samantha earlier too, but I haven't seen her in at least an hour. She might have gone to the bar. A group left a while back."
"I don't remember that name."
