"Hey Kyle, have you seen the car keys?"
I didn't even look up from my computer as my sister walked in the room.
"Yes, but you're not getting them," I said.
"Come on, I just need it for like half an hour," she said. "Mom and dad won't know."
"You got that dent in the door last time you took it out, I think they'd notice something like that."
Kristin pouted as she sat down heavily on my bed, purposefully coming into my line of sight.
"That was an accident, it's not like it would happen again," she said.
"It doesn't matter, you're going to follow the rules this weekend whether you want to or not."
I had to play the older brother a lot with Kristin. I wasn't actually older, or not by a significant amount anyway since we were twins and we didn't actually know who was born first, but I had definitely developed into the more responsible one. My sister was way more impulsive and generally uncontrollable; two months since we turned eighteen and she'd already been grounded for getting caught drinking. It was a good thing I could get her to listen to me sometimes or who knows what kind of trouble she'd get in to. To be fair she could mostly take care of herself and when she did something stupid she usually learned from it.
This Friday was the start of another weekend where I would have to try keeping her on leash, so to speak. Our parents would be gone until Sunday and I really didn't want them to think we couldn't be left on our own for a couple days.
"It's always rules with you," Kristin said. "You never want to have any fun."
"But when I do want to do something I have access to the car," I countered.
Kristin could see that she wasn't getting anywhere with me and abruptly changed tactics.
"You still like Shannon right?" she asked, referring to one of her friends who I did indeed have an interest in.
"I never admitted to anything," I said warily.
"Whatever. I'm just saying that I wanted to go pick her up so she could come over for a while. You'd like having her around wouldn't you?"
I stayed silent since I actually did kind of like it when Shannon hung around. I could have sworn she was at least a little interested in me too, although that might have been wishful thinking.
"You could always try asking her out while she's here," Kristin added.
"Okay, now I know you're making things up 'cause you're constantly telling me not to hit on your friends. And you know I wouldn't even do that anyway."
"Well it'd be kind of weird if you hooked up with someone I know." She shrugged. "I just think it might be worth the trade off in this case. She'd probably say yes if you asked."
That made me hesitate. I didn't think Kristin was lying which meant that I might actually have a chance with Shannon. I wasn't desperate, not exactly, but I wasn't rolling in dates either.
"You mean that?" I asked.
"Of course I do. She probably would have said something to you already if she thought I'd be okay with it."
Kristin knew she had me now, I could tell by that look of triumph that she could never quite manage to hide from me. Partly just because I'd seen it so often.
"Fine," I said, giving in to inevitability. "But I'm driving and you're not arguing that one."
My sister leaped off my bed and wrapped her arms around me.
"See, you're the best brother ever. Can we go right now?"
"Give me a couple minutes."
Kristin practically bounced out of the room as I leaned back and sighed. Now I'd have to be even more on my toes to make sure nothing went wrong or I'd be getting rightfully blamed as an active participant. Still, there was a chance that it could turn out to be worth the trouble.
****
We picked up Shannon without incident and when we got back the two girls spent some time doing whatever it is they do. In some ways it might have been better this way since as long as Kristin wasn't bored she was less likely to come up with bad ideas just to amuse herself.
It didn't take me long however to realize that despite what Kristin had convinced me, I still couldn't simply walk up to Shannon and ask her out. I didn't have the kind of confidence that would let me initiate something like that, particularly with my sister hanging around. Fortunately it turned out I didn't have to.
I was lying on my bed that evening reading something for my English class, which would get a derisive comment from Kristin if she caught me, when Shannon walked up to the doorway.
"Hey, mind if I come in?" she asked.
"Uh, no that's fine. I mean, yeah, sure."
Great, I was having trouble with monosyllabic words. That didn't bode well. I sat up and tossed the book onto my desk as Shannon came closer.
"So I guess I should thank you for letting me come over tonight," she said, looking casually around my room.
"Oh that's okay, it's not big deal," I said, trying to downplay my involvement instinctively.
"Your sister said you might have something to ask me," Shannon continued.
Shit shit shit, what did Kristin tell her? I glanced toward the hallway to make sure it was still empty. The two of them probably wouldn't be working together just to tease me, but I couldn't discount the idea entirely.
Shannon gave a small smile at my look of panic. "That's okay, I know she's playing games," she said. "But I think you do kind of like me don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," I admitted, not meeting her eyes.
"Good, 'cause I kind of like you too. And even if Kris is just hoping you'll wuss out of saying anything, she did still give me permission."
"Permission for what?" I asked automatically.
I didn't bother pretending to take offense at the 'wuss out' comment because it was pretty dead on for me. As my sister would well know.
"For whatever. I figure we could probably do something just to bug her if you wanted."
"Like what?"
"Like I could give you a blowjob."
I heard the words and they matched up with her lip movements, but it seemed like I must have misunderstood somehow. Shannon had always been friendly around me and everything, but her suggestion went against most of what I understood about girls. Outside of when she came over with Kristin, or occasionally when we bumped in to each other in school, we'd never really spent any time together. The idea of someone just casually offering me anything sexual without at least going out a couple times was completely foreign to me.
"Um, okay," I said faintly.
Confused or not, enough of my brain was functioning to accept. Unless this turned out to be a prank after all, and I really didn't think it was since it definitely wasn't my sister's style, there was no good reason to refuse.
