"Come on Tony, it's your turn!"
"Alright, dare," I said, leaning back again the wall. My friends and I were enjoying an otherwise quiet summer night by playing truth or dare. You'd think we would have outgrown it once we turned eighteen, but somehow that only made the stunts we did even more ridiculous. Gone were the days of calling a girl's house and hanging up, replaced now by streaking in front of their house and running as fast as we could.
Same idea, more or less.
"Dare..." I said. Jonathan seemed to give it some thought before a light bulb went off in his head. "Alright, well here's an easy one for you. Go grab us a pair of Ruth's panties."
"Yeah!" came the chorus from around me. Everyone seemed to think this was the best idea of the night.
In response, I just groaned. "Really? You want to see my sister's panties? That's a little... I don't know, childish. Plus, if she catches me, she'll kill me." Ruth was only two years my senior, but she played lacrosse in high school and college, and could pin me in a second if she wanted to.
"So don't get caught," Jonathan teased. He threw a solo cup at me, which I barely deflected. It seemed tame enough, so I shrugging, got to my feet, and walked out of the basement to the cheers of my friends.
"So stupid," I said under my breath. "But at least it's an easy dare. Maybe I'll make Harry wear them for the night, get some blackmail on him next time he doesn't feel up to buying the pizza."
I made my way upstairs — my parents were out at some dinner party, and Ruth, thank god, was out with friends of her own. There was a chance I would have just asked her for a pair to borrow and she might have relented, but I was glad I didn't have to take that risk. Pushing the door open, I made my way into Ruth's room. It was a standard room by all accounts, single twin bed, blue walls and a few bits clothes thrown about. I made my way to her dresser and started to open drawers until I found her panty drawer.
"What the..." I started as I rummaged through them, careful not to mess up the folding too much. Inside was a bunch of boxer-briefs; similar to the kind I wore, only a smaller size and more feminine colors. I looked through the entire drawer, but that's all that there was. I opened the other drawers too, even checked her laundry pile, just to make sure I wasn't going insane.
"She doesn't wear panties?" I scratched my head. I was sure I had seen her in panties before but, the more I thought on it, the less certain I was. Deciding I would play it off as a joke, I grabbed a pair of pink boxer-briefs and closed the drawer. It'd still be funny to see Harry wear these.
********************
For the rest of the night and into the week, I thought about my sister's panties. Or rather, lack there of. Not in a weird way, though I did recognize that it wasn't normal for a brother to think of his sister's panties this much. I wasn't even a panty guy; I much preferred what was underneath them. Instead, I tried to remember every time I would have seen Ruth near-naked. She was a private girl, but then again who wasn't when it came to underwear? Still, the more I thought, the more I realized I had never seen her lower half in anything shorter than shorts. She never went swimming, so bathing suits were out. Any lingerie was non-existent (I went back to check), and everything else she had was just... tame. There was something off about it, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.
I had to wait until the next laundry day to put my plan into action. I grabbed my laundry, and threw in the pair of boxers I had kept from the truth or dare night. Since it was summer, both Ruth and I were off from our respective schools, and had the house to ourselves. Normally we'd have jobs, but Ruth's internship at the hospital gave her strange hours, and I was part-time at Target, which gave me an even weirder schedule.
I went downstairs, laundry in hand, and waited by the machine for a few seconds. Ruth was in her room listening to music, which gave me an excuse not to call up to her, but approach her in person, boxers in hand.
"Hey," I said, tapping on the door. Ruth was sitting at her desk, music playing through her laptop as she browsed the Internet. She was wearing capri shorts with a yellow top that fell loosely on her. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail, stretching down to her shoulders. It flopped in the air as she turned to me. Before she could respond, she saw me waving the pinkish undergarments in the air. "These yours?" I asked innocently.
"Oh! Uh..." Her eyes had gone wide at the sight of them, and I saw her dart them quickly to her dresser and back again. "Yeah. Um. Where did you find them?"
"In the dryer," I said with a shrug. "They must have gotten missed. Don't worry, I saved them before they went through another round!"
I laughed playfully as I walked over to her dresser, determined to put them away for her. You would have thought I was going to kick a puppy. The speed at which she moved startled me, because in the blink of an eye she darted in front of me, barely an inch of space between the dresser and us.
"No, that's fine, I got it, thanks," she said quickly. "You can go now."
"That's... what?" I said, actually startled. She tried to take them out of my hands but I held my grip. "What the hell sis?"
"What?" She finally grabbed the underwear and crossed her arms as if trying to hide the pair. "Can't a girl get a little privacy?"
"Well, I mean, sure, but you know I've had girlfriends, right? I think I know my way around folding these kinds of things."
"Sure, sure," Ruth said dismissively. "No need to prove it to me now. You can go." She put a heavy emphasis on the last word.
"Ruth, is... everything okay? You're acting really harshly all of a sudden. I was just trying to do you a favor."
That seemed to get through to her, and her face softened a bit. "Yeah Tony, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I just... I like privacy, you know that."
"I do," I admitted. "You don't have to be embarrassed if you like boxers," I said, fishing for an opening.
"Ha," she laughed uncomfortably. She shook her head, saying only, "I wish."
"What was that?"
"N-nothing," she said quickly. "Thanks for bringing them up, I'll take it from here."