My cousin's eighteenth birthday was a couple days ago but the family had decided to wait a couple days to celebrate since it fell on a Wednesday. It made sense to wait for the weekend since it meant no one had to worry about leaving early or anything and it was a bit of a drive for some of us. Opportunities for us to get together had become fewer and fewer over the years as the children had grown into teenagers and were now pushing in to adulthood. Partly that's what this was, just an excuse for us to spend time with each other. That's what most of the bigger holidays had become as well.
I seemed to be the last one to arrive at my parents' house that night. Unless anyone had a new car since last time they all seemed to be accounted for. The driveway wasn't really designed for anything more than two cars but it had space and we put up with awkwardly trying to get someone out every now and then. More commonly, whoever's car was last in got stuck with running any last minute errands.
After getting inside the house I was briefly greeted by my parents and my aunt and uncle before being directed downstairs. The basement was typically where my sisters, my cousin, and me would hang out while our respective parents stayed upstairs. It was a pretty nice space with one large, main room and a couple smaller ones at the ends. When I still lived at home I had at some point made one of those rooms into a bedroom for myself, and that was usually where I still slept when I was over.
As I had guessed my cousin Jill was already there, lounging on the sofa. My older sister Angela, though she preferred Angie these days, was there too lying on a mattress that had been set up on the floor between the couch and television. It amused me sometimes how one of the first priorities the girls had was usually where everyone was going to sleep. I was happy enough just to go wherever nobody else had claimed when I got tired enough.
My little sister Kelly was the first to actually see me coming and immediately raced toward me. She was a month older than Jill, leaving our mutual cousin as the technical baby of the family, but it wasn't enough of a gap to matter that much.
"Nick, you made it finally!" Kelly said, throwing herself at me for a hug. "We were starting to think you wouldn't show up."
"I'm only like half an hour later than I planned on," I protested.
As the only one in the family with a habit of being late rather than early, I had long ago learned to deal with the occasional teasing about it.
Kelly led me over to the couch where Jill sat up enough to give us room. Neither Angie nor Jill were actually excited enough to see me to get up, but my cousin did at least give me a hug once I sat down.
"So what have you guys been doing before I arrived?" I asked. "I'm assuming it was more than just sitting around waiting for me."
"Oh, you know, mostly talking about you while we had the chance," Angie said with a hint of an evil grin on her face.
Kelly glared at our older sister as though it would have any effect. Jill stared conspicuously straight ahead and took a long swallow from the cup she had on the table beside her.
"I don't suppose you're going to tell me what about?"
"Nothing too much," Angie continued, predictably ignoring Kelly. "We were settling sleeping arrangements, probably two of us on the mattress, one on the couch and you in your room. Nothing unusual. But then we were thinking maybe we shouldn't exclude you like that, you might prefer sleeping surrounded by girls wouldn't you?"
I noticed that both Kelly and Jill had relaxed and assumed that wasn't what they were worried about Angie telling me. Not to mention the obvious clues, obvious to me after long years of practice anyway, that let me know when she was making shit up.
"I think it probably loses some of its appeal when the girls in question are all related to me," I said, pitching my voice to sound like I was legitimately considering the suggestion.
The best way to deflect her attempts at getting to me was usually to play along a little rather than being too defensive and just giving her more to work with.
"Really? So you're telling all those times I caught you staring at my boobs I must have just been seeing things?"
"Absolutely," I said earnestly. "I'd probably stare at Jill's if anything, they're nicer."
I felt a small twinge of guilt at bringing Jill into it like that, but I knew none of the girls would have a problem getting even if I said something too inappropriate. My not-entirely-thought-out statement might also have subconsciously come from the awareness that, while not necessarily nicer than Angie's, her breasts had certainly developed over the past couple years. Not that it was the sort of thing I was supposed to notice.
As it turned out all I got from Jill was a surprised giggle before she slipped sideways onto my lap. I wasn't expecting that, but I automatically wrapped my arms around her waist while she turned to Angie.
"See, I'm his favourite so nyah," Jill said, sticking her tongue out at Angie.
Angie continued to smile but she did shut up after that. I speculated sometimes that she didn't really mind losing so much as long as it was her game that we were playing. Or it could be that she knew I was now uncomfortably aware of my cousin's breasts and their proximity to me. She was devious that way.
As Jill turned back toward me a bit I caught the definite smell of alcohol on her breath. It wasn't a surprise exactly, 'sneaking' booze into the basement was something that had started a while back though it had mostly just been me and Angie who drank any at first. I didn't mind that Jill was drinking now, she just seemed to be a little quicker getting started than I remembered. Then again, it had been at least a few months since I'd seen her last. Who knew what had changed in that time.
With a sigh of boredom Kelly flopped down on her back onto the mattress beside Angie. The way she landed her shirt pulled tighter across her chest than I think she realized. Her breasts were probably the smallest among the three girls, although not by much. Certainly they were big enough to stand out when she wore something tight enough. Again, not the sort of thing that I was supposed to notice.
It wasn't like I could help checking them out every now and then. It wasn't my fault that they were so distinctly female. And despite the teasing I got over it, I don't think any of them really minded either. The one time I'd accidentally seen Angie topless, just barely, she'd only rolled her eyes and called me a perv and that was the end of it. It made it easier to put up with the occasional fabricated accusation.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Kelly asked. "This isn't much of a party so far."
"Birthdays are another one of those things that don't always get better with age," Angie said.
"We've traded silly hats for silly arguments you mean?" Kelly said.
"I wouldn't have to argue if Nick would just accept that I know what I'm talking about," Angie said. "He only pretends he's not interested because he's worried we'll pick on him more."
"Now you're just starting to sound crazy," Kelly said.
"Oh yeah?"
The wheels were turning in Angie's head, I could see it. She was up to something.
