When I was a kid, I remember Mom used to get angry a lot.
She was never abusive or anything like that, but she'd throw...tantrums, I guess you'd call them. She'd just have little fits of rage - not regularly, just every now and again. It must have been hard, raising two kids by herself, and sometimes it would just become too much for her - she'd stomp and storm around for about an hour before calming herself down again.
One day, I did something - I think I stole my sister's shoes or something ridiculous like that - and she just went off. Her temper hit, and I could see her sort of swelling up, almost like she was going red and about to explode.
I just stood there, staring at her in panic, thinking "Calm down, calm down, calm down..."
...and she did.
She took a deep breath, relaxed, threw a smile at me, and returned my sister's shoes to her. I had absolutely no idea why, but I didn't question it - appreciate the breaks when you get them, hey?
It was a few weeks later before she began to go off again - like I said, it didn't happen all that often. I didn't even think about it, just stared her down, mentally willed for her to calm down, and she did.
You know how when you're a kid, you don't really question stuff that's a part of your life? Like if you're colorblind, you don't know you're colorblind - that's just how the world looks. Yeah, well I never even thought twice about what had happened, it was just another part of life. If Mom was starting to get mad, all I needed to do was will for her to calm down...and she would.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized that I possessed a rare and unique power. I was sitting in Mrs Battingham's class, watching her go to town on this kid, Chris, who was in my grade. She was yelling and ranting and just going off at him - I sat there wondering why he didn't just calm her down, when it hit me.
No one else could do what I could do. I'd used it a number of times over the years - if someone was angry, or even nervous, I'd just mentally project a feeling of calm, and they'd relax. The words worked fine, but if I imagined them being calm, their heart-rate would immediately drop, their breathing would level out.
I was the best guy to partner with for mixed dances - I'd immediately make the girls feel at ease, and they always had a good time learning to waltz when they were with me.
Staring at poor Chris, it suddenly struck me that I was the only one who could do what I could do. I cut him a break, calmed Mrs Battingham down immediately, and spent the rest of the class with my mind whirring.
How could I take advantage of this power?
I should talk about my older sister, Mary. She's two years older than me - I'm eighteen, she's twenty. She'd just finished high school last year, and she's going to be heading off to college in a few months. (She decided to take a gap year.)
Don't ask me exactly when, but at some point, she got hot. For most of my life, she was just my annoying teenage sister, but when I turned eighteen the hormones hit and I suddenly noticed that she was practically bursting out of her bathing suit...
Maybe I'm a pervert, or maybe I'm just a normal, hot-blooded male, but I've jerked off more to images of my sister than anything else. She wears these skimpy little outfits around the house...short skirts, halter tops, her ex-boyfriend's T-shirts...and of course, just before she goes to bed, she doesn't bother with a bra.
Blame the AC that Mom insists on keeping turned up at all times, but it's rare for me to go a full day without seeing my sister's perky nipples poking through her shirt.
Mary spent the first few months of the year working, but when her scholarship came through, she decided to take some time off, and now she spends most of her days just lounging around the house, accidentally teasing me. We've got a pool, and I often watch her doing laps in a bikini so skimpy I'm surprised it stays on. (And often pray that it won't.)
So when I realized that my ability to calm people was a gift that only I had, my first thought was obvious: how could I use it to get laid?
It didn't take long for me to formulate a plan...
###
Mary stretched herself out in front of the pool. A part of her wondered if she should be spending her time off doing something more productive, but she told herself the same thing she did every morning - time off isn't time off if it's not used to relax.
Her little brother came out, and she rolled her eyes. He didn't think that she'd noticed the way he checked her out, but Mary wasn't blind - a man noticing her assets was going to draw her attention immediately, even if it was her perv of a sibling.
She hadn't said anything, and neither had he, but the occasional tent in his pants had made it obvious that he was viewing her in a distinctly unbrotherly manner. If he'd ever tried to make a move of some kind, she'd have put an end to it immediately, but as long as he looked and didn't touch, she figured she could continue to turn a blind eye.
"Sunbathing?" he asked, and she simply nodded in response. "Trying to get a tan before hitting up Colorado?"
With a sigh, she turned to face him. She forgot what she was going to say, the second she noticed him staring straight at her tits. He wasn't even trying to mask it, this time - the brat was openly checking her out.
She drew breath. It made her so...so...
Well, nothing, actually. A confused look passed across Mary's face as she exhaled. It really wasn't worth getting worked up about - so her brother was checking out her tits. So what? She was wearing a bikini, after all - it would practically have been weird if he wasn't.
Surprisingly calm, Mary lay on her back. She put her brother's lecherous stare out of her mind, and tuned back in to what he was saying.
"I mean, if you want an all-over tan, you'll have to take the bikini off."
Mary sat up, but again her words got caught in her throat. She had been instinctively going to throw a sharp retort back at him, but now that she thought about it, there really wasn't anything worth getting worked up about...he was right, after all. If she didn't want tan-lines, the bikini would have to go.
Something about being naked in front of her brother didn't seem right, objectively, but he'd suggested it so casually, and try though she might, Mary couldn't think of any reason to get worked up about it. It was a lovely sunny day, and there was no reason to kick up a fuss about getting naked in front of her brother.
Without a word, Mary reached behind her back and undid her bikini top. She was too relaxed to notice her brother's eyes widen, or the tent in his pant grow slightly. As she slid her bikini bottoms off, even the slightly-too-loud breathing of her brother went unnoticed, and she lay back down to soak in the sun's rays.
I don't remember the last time I felt this relaxed,
she mused, and when her younger sibling excused himself after a few minutes of staring at her tits, she didn't even stir.
###
The next day, Mary was once more joined by her brother near the pool. She readily agreed when he once more suggested sunbathing in the nude, and didn't even blink an eye when he stripped off his trunks as well.
