All characters are at least 18 years old.
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Finally, no more school. At least, not for the rest of the summer. I think I found school more boring than the average student. At least college would be more interesting. Perhaps I'd finally learn something useful.
Drew sighed as he dropped himself on the couch, causing Cherry to bounce up a bit. My friends were all over at my house. Brie was nestled in Stef's arms, and I was draped over my favorite armchair.
"You guys all got your gowns for tomorrow?" Cherry asked. Everybody nodded, and there were a couple of wistful smiles.
"I'm surprised they had one your size," Drew said with a smirk. Cherry scowled and pulled her legs up to kick at Drew, who laughed and batted her feet away.
"I can't stand you," she growled. "I swear, living together is a bad idea."
"Whoa, whoa, wait, what?" Stef interrupted, sitting up. Brie had to cling to his neck to keep from being thrown from his lap, and I smiled at how intimate it was. They were just so casual with each other now, and I loved it.
"Oh shit, we haven't told you yet." Drew ran his fingers through his hair, then turned to Cherry with an expression that asked,
Do you want to tell them, or should I?
Cherry shrugged, and Drew turned back to the rest of us. "Our parents are thinking of moving in together."
"Oh my God," the twins said concurrently.
"As a smokescreen?" I ventured. I'd already known. Coco had run the idea by me during one of our coffee meetings. She and Leon would pretend to enter a relationship to throw any suspicion that they were having sex with their children.
Cherry nodded. "Just in case anybody is starting to get ideas about us, y'know?"
"Can't imagine you're very happy about it," Stef remarked.
"Yeah, I still remember that period where you guys thought they were legit dating," Brie added. "And... Let's just say you guys need to chill out, okay?"
"Says the most jealous and protective couple I've ever seen," Drew rebuffed. Brie twisted her lips in annoyance, while Stef could only chuckle and nod in agreement.
"Ooh," I crooned, and Drew and Cherry eyed me warily. "That means that if they follow through with the smokescreen and eventually get married... you two will become step-siblings." I grinned, and they both groaned. Stef began guffawing, and Brie slapped his chest with a reprimanding glare.
"That doesn't mean we'll start fucking," Cherry pointed out, irritated.
"No, but you could," I teased with a wink. They glanced at each other with varying levels of disgust before both shaking their head. I could safely joke about them having sex with each other. Had it been anybody else, I could have gone a step further and suggest their parents could take advantage of sharing a bedroom and start having lots of sex with each other. But in this case, at best it would ruin the mood, with the potential of causing them to have second thoughts about living together.
And we couldn't jeopardize a possible family orgy house, now could we?
"No offense, Cherry, but no thanks," Drew said.
"Likewise," she muttered in reply.
Stef groaned, an inscrutable expression on his face. "Oof, can you imagine? Drew and Cherry together? He'd split her open."
"Ew. Ew!" Cherry squealed, shuffling away from Drew on the couch.
Brie smacked Stef hard on the chest as he laughed. "Stefan, you're fucking disgusting."
"I have heard good things from Coco," I added, and it contributed to the chaos nicely. Drew leaned back, placing his hands behind his head in a boastful position.
"Y'know, just because you're tall doesn't mean you have a big... y'know," Cherry pointed out, and Drew nodded.
"That's true for some people," he admitted. "But, uh, not for this guy."
"Fucking nice," Stef piped up. Drew held his hand up for a high five, but Stef was too busy fending off another reprimanding attack from Brie, and ended up leaving him hanging. I had to keep from laughing too hard at the whole situation.
"Don't mind them, Cherry," Brie huff dismissively once we'd all settled down. "Especially anything Lex says. All she cares about is maximum perversity."
"Very true," I agreed. "But you can't say I haven't had your interests at heart either."
Cherry glanced at me before grudgingly nodding. My relationship with Cherry was an interesting one. During the time I was hooking her up with her dad, I'd had to act quite questionably in her eyes. Put simply, I'd manipulated her into action, into taking the next step of her own volition rather than instruction. She'd had mixed feelings about it once she figured out my play, to say the least. However, both before and after that incident, sometimes she gave the impression that she viewed me as a paragon. She'd never known her mother and was an only child, so maybe there was some kind of big sister thing going on there. Likewise, Coco would occasionally fill that maternal role as well. As long as neither of us threatened to steal Cherry's dad away from her, she silently welcomed our bonds with her.
"I've actually..." Drew trailed off, probably rethinking what he was about to say.
We waited a beat before Stef prompted, "What, dude?"
Drew took a deep breath. "I can trust you guys, right?"
I actually snorted. "Drew, baby, if you can't trust us, you can't trust anybody."
He nodded and took another deep breath before speaking. "Mom insists she's not getting any younger. So we've been thinking..."
My heart kicked into high gear, my eyes widening in excitement. This was it. My CRISPR gene editor that I was keeping on retainer was finally going to start earning his keep. I'd told all three couples that if they wanted to have cute little incest babies, they could come to me to edit out harmful genes caused by inbreeding. The odds of having said genes with only one generation were low, but you could never be too careful, especially since two of the couples were parent-child pairs. But I had a feeling Drew was about to disappoint me.
"Oh shit," Cherry breathed. "Are you gonna make her pregnant?"
"No way," Stef said in awe.
