Holly was just a normal 19-year-old: extremely opinionated, into partying, and a bit of a dreamer. Her three brothers were also typical brothers. They were very playful, slightly lazy, and always fiercely overprotective of their only sister.
Alex was the oldest at 23. He'd taken custody of all three of his siblings when their parents had been murdered five years previous. It had been a difficult time for all of them, but he managed to get them all through it. He invested half of the life insurance policies into a local internet service that hit its high point the year after, and worked two jobs that first year so that they could keep their two-story childhood home. After the internet service investment paid off, he started going back to college for his business degree. He now owned his own valet service, something that was very beneficial in their rich west-coast town.
JT was the middle brother at 21. He was the average college player: big time partier, sweet outer exterior, and a major lacrosse and cross-country jock. His muscles he earned in sports helped him in scaring off any of the frat boys on campus that tried to get with his sister. Holly was constantly meeting his one night stands in the hallway on her way to the bathroom in the mornings. The brothers often used JT as an example of how men could treat women they didn't really care about.
Finally there was Eli who was a year younger than Holly at 18. Eli was soft-spoken, but radiated authority when he spoke that had nothing and everything to do with his football-toned stature. He'd only had one girl friend in high school and she had broken his heart, having him moping around the house for days during his senior year. Holly had been the one to tell him to cheer up, that some sexy college cheerleader would glue those pieces of his heart back together.
Holly loved the three of them more than anyone in the world. They had been there for her first kiss and tried to pummel the guy afterwards, her first period, and basically her first everything. They'd all helped each other cope with their parents' deaths, bringing them closer than most siblings. The only thing she hated was how completely suffocating their over protectiveness could be. She'd never even gotten felt up by a guy before because it was as if they were always watching her, ready to bust her once she went further than a chaste kiss on the lips. She craved male attention and sometimes it scared her how deep her needs could be.
"Planning on transferring away from us, little girl?" There was a smile in his voice as he sat down on the bed behind her.
Holly jumped, almost knocking the mouse off the desk. "Just for my last two years possibly. I'm going to have to be free from you guys someday if you expect to ever have nieces and nephews." She turned her chair around to face a grim-faced JT.
He shook his head, sprawling back across her bed and picking up her stuffed elephant she'd slept with since she was twelve. Her father had won it for her in one of those machines with the claw. "You'd think you'd know first-hand not to sleep with a college guy."
Holly got up and took her stuffed animal away from him, hugging it to her chest and catching JT following it there, his gaze lingering a little too long. "I didn't say I'd fuck anyone, and maybe I'd meet a guy at the video store somewhere. The point is that around here guys avoid me like the plague thanks to you and your two nut-head brothers."
JT grinned at her. "We all share a bit of the same DNA, sis. Plus, we're doing you a favor. What if you had actually stayed with Connor Fairchild? You might have ended up like Stephanie, knocked up at 16 and unable to lose the fat from the pregnancy." He talked of the guy she had her first kiss with. It was true, she could have been Stephanie, but she also asked herself if it was really as bad as people saw it. They loved each other and had a beautiful baby who loved them too.
She smacked his chest lightly and got up, set her elephant on her bed, and walked to her closet. "At least I would have had passion-filled sex before I'm thirty."
"Hey, that's a good idea. Think you could wait that long? Sure would save us some effort." His eyes followed her as she moved about her room, grabbing her swimsuit and suntan lotion.
Holly just glared at him and sat the stuff on her bed. "That's not funny. Now get out of my room so I can change."
"Nothing I haven't seen before, sweet pea. I helped change your diapers," he reminded her, but got up anyways. He ruffled her hair as he walked by, shutting the door behind him.
-
A few minutes later I slipped on my flip flops and grabbed my lotion and sunglasses before walking down stairs and to the back yard where our in ground pool awaited me. I smiled and slipped my shoes off beside a lounge chair. Eli was floating in the middle of the pool reading, completely oblivious to the world around him. I silently slipped into the pool and moved slowly to his raft, careful not to make too many ripples that he'd realize I was there. Just as I was about to scare my little brother, I felt hands tickle my sides. I screamed, making Eli fumble for his book as he jumped, and turned around to see Alex laughing. I hit his chest with my fist.
"That was not funny, Alex!" I punctuated each word with another blow to his chest, and he caught my fist on the last word. I found myself smiling in spite of it all.
"Hey now, I was just protecting Eli. I can't have his older sister deliberately scaring him all the time. I might have to start buying him a night light if I did that."
Eli mumbled something about us being crazy as he paddled to the side of the pool and got out, making sure not to drop his book in the water. "Either of you want anything for lunch?"
I looked up at the brother that looked most like me with his shaggy blonde hair as he sat his book down in a chair and started walking towards the house. "Strawberries?"
"You're going to turn into a strawberry someday," he called back to us as he entered the house, holding it open for Alex's best friend Drew to walk out.
"He's right you know," Drew said and walked to the pool. Alex let go of my hand and swam to the side of the pool. "You've got an unnatural love for them, Holly. It's like JT and his endless supply of women."
"Hey at least I'm not getting STDs from them," I replied, floating on my back and closing my eyes against the summer sun. It was silent for a few minutes.
"Holly, get out and change into your other swim suit." I opened one eye at Alex who was standing next to a staring Drew.
"Alex, go away and change Drew's eyes out." I closed my eyes and proceeded to backstroke. He started to talk to me as I hit the wall and flipped, swimming freestyle back to the shallow end I came from. My right hand grasped the wall and I stood up in the water, dipping my head back to get my waist long hair blonde hair out of my face. Despite being in a pony tail, my long bangs fell out and blocked my vision. Alex said that mom always wanted me to grow out my hair but I never wanted to when I was younger and she wasn't going to force me into anything. Ever since he'd told me, I never cut it short again.
"Sorry, what'd you say, Alex?"
"That he wasn't kidding and that he was going to call me out here." JT dove in right by me. He tugged at my legs, pulling me towards the steps. Once I obliged, he resurfaced.
"I don't see why I have to change. It is my house; I should be able to wear what I please."
"I don't see why store clerks sell skimpy bikinis to little sisters. Or why God lets sisters have bodies like yours. It'd be way simpler if guys weren't always after you."
"Bodies like mine? You do know most of those girls you've been with are sisters to someone. Besides, would you rather me look like the ugly stepsister?"
"Yes. Now get out and go change into your one piece."
"He's not out here anymore, so I'm not going to." I dove back under the water and breast-stroked to the deep end before coming back up.
"If he does come back out here and you're not changed, I will not hesitate to throw you over my shoulder and take you upstairs."
I ignored JT and swam to the side as Eli came outside. "Strawberries?"
"Here you are," he dropped down onto the side of the pool with my strawberries in one bowl and ice cream for him in the other.
"Actually," I took his spoon from him and took a bite. "Thank you."
"Of course, because I so said you could have a bite."
"Didn't have to. I'm the older sister; I get to claim what's mine. By the way, I have no idea how you don't gain weight." I eyed his abs, wishing I could magically make them disappear.
"So since I'm the older brother, I get some of both, huh?" JT had gotten out of the water and now sat beside Eli, taking a strawberry and the spoon.
"Hey!" we both said as JT took a bite of ice cream followed by the strawberry.
"JT stop antagonizing the children," Alex said as he and Drew walked outside.
My eyes widened as JT turned to look at me, Eli taking over defending how we weren't children. I quickly pushed off from the wall as JT dropped himself into the pool. I really didn't stand a chance as he grabbed onto my ankle. He dragged me to where he could touch and then swung me over his shoulder, heading towards the ladder.
I beat on his back. "Bending me over like this isn't helping his imagination, Jesse Tyler."
