Another huge THANK YOU to Lovefreely1993 for helping me edit this and helping me figure out how to keep this chapter more in line with the others. Of course, all the characters in this story are fictional, do not intentionally represent any persons living or otherwise, etc. etc. No animals were harmed in the writing of this. All characters involved in sexual activities are 18+.
*****
"Well, fuck," I said, staring at my sister. She stood naked in the doorway, looking down the hallway towards the other end of the house. Maggie, our once tormentor and now best friend, had fled from our room after being caught spying on us.
"Yep," Jess said, tossing a pair of shorts my way then grabbing a t-shirt for herself. I put them on and followed her towards Maggie's room.
When we got to her room, we could hear the sobbing through the door.
"Maggie?" I called, knocking on the door.
"Go away!"
"Maggie, can we come in please?" Jess called back.
"Leave me alone!"
"Maggie? Honey? We really need to talk." Jess said sternly, "And we all know this really can't wait."
Maggie didn't respond, so Jess just shrugged and tried the door. Surprisingly, the knob turned and the door swung open.
Maggie sat on the bed, knees pulled up, head tucked between them. Jess calmly walked over to her bed and sat in front of her. I stood beside Jess and tried to look unconcerned. Truth was I was terrified, and my mind raced with the different possible outcomes, none of which were pleasant. Worst case, she'd tell the world and we'd have to lie and say that she was still trying to destroy the family through scandal. Even if we were believed, the stigma would hang over us forever. People would always look at us and wonder. Best case, she'd stay quiet but our friendship would forever be tense and tenuous, balanced precariously on the secret she would hold.
I wanted to throw up.
"Maggie." Jess started, reaching out to touch her knee. When she did, Maggie jerked back a bit, like she'd been shocked by Jess' touch.
"Maggie, we're not mad." Jess continued. It was true. We weren't mad. We were scared shitless. Well, I was anyway.
"Yeah, right," Maggie said sarcastically.
"What did you see?" I asked, my voice thicker than I had imagined.
"The two of you... having sex." Maggie sighed in resignation.
"Yes," Jess admitted.
Maggie looked up at Jess, surprised.
"We're not going to lie to you or try to make up some story." Jess took my hand. "We're in love."
"I know," she said, then started sobbing again.
"How long have you known?" I asked when she regained some composure.
"For a while now. Since the night we, you know, kissed."
"Ah. How?"
"Afterwards I couldn't sleep. I wanted... I needed to be with you. I thought you might've felt the same way, so I snuck up there. Wanted to surprise you. That's when I saw you two."
"Is that why you've been acting so different lately?" Jess asked.
"Yeah. I guess."
"You guess? There's more, isn't there?" Jess asked as if she knew the answer.
Maggie nodded. "I...I love him!" Maggie cried, looking over at me with tears in her eyes.
There it was. After that night when I'd given her a massage, I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to say before Jess interrupted us. Still, hearing it for the first time was a bit of surprise. Especially in this situation.
"I know," Jess said softly, leaning over and hugging her. Jess surprised me even more with that revelation. Maggie melted into her arms, sobs wracking her body. Jess held onto her for several minutes while Maggie slowly recovered.
"I'm sorry," Maggie said, sitting up and wiping her eyes. I handed her a tissue from a nearby box and she unapologetically blew her nose. "I thought you would be alone that night. I figured it was now or never. I was so shocked. Then I was angry, scared, then I was sad, but mainly I was just confused."
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked.
"How the hell do you start that kind of conversation?" she chuckled dryly.
"But it wasn't a one-time thing, was it?" Jess asked.
"...No," she admitted, blushing.
"Okay, how could you know that?" I asked Jess, trying to figure out how she divined this.
"Because of that," Jess said, pointing at Maggie's ankle monitor.
"You tracked her movements?"
"Nope. Don't think I can do that. But what I can do is see pretty well in the dark. And that thing has a blinking light."
I looked at the monitor for a moment, and sure enough, a tiny green LED light flashed occasionally.
"That's a pretty small light," I noted.
"Yeah, but it really stands out in a dark room when your eyes are dark-adjusted. I saw the flash a couple of times and put two and two together."
"Oh, God." Maggie whimpered as she realized that Jess had known for a while now.
"I didn't know we had an audience," I said. Maggie nodded, not looking at either of us.
"We should have put on a better show." Jess joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Oh, it was a good show," Maggie said, then started crying again.
"Shhhh," Jess said, laying down beside her. "We're not mad at you, honey."
"Not at all," I said, laying on the other side, so Maggie was sandwiched between us.
"I find that a little hard to believe," she said, sounding very small.
"It's true," I said.
"Relax," Jess said, hugging her tightly. "We're not upset or mad."
Maggie lay between us and closed her eyes, I could tell she was trying to calm down while at the same time come to grips with everything that had happened.
We lay like that for a few minutes as her sniffles subsided. Soon, her breathing fell into the rhythmic pattern of sleep. I looked over, and Jess had fallen asleep as well. All this excitement must've worn them out. I shrugged mentally, then rested my head as best I could and let myself fall asleep along with them.
*****
I woke up the next morning and my arm was completely numb. Maggie was sprawled out me and my arm was trapped underneath her. One of her legs was draped over mine and her body was molded against me. Jess had apparently gotten up in the middle of the night and moved to my other side. She was curled up against me as well, her arm draped across my chest.
All in all, there are worse ways to wake up.
A stirring beside me drew my attention over to Maggie. She was awake and looking up at me.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"What for?" I whispered back.
"For watching you two as much as I did. I shouldn't have."