Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. All persons depicted in sexual acts are at least 18 years of age and consenting adults. This story involves incest. If that's not your thing, then you should stop reading now. Otherwise, enjoy yourself.
I owe a massive debt of gratitude to
Neuroparenthetical
for taking my word salad and editing it into a coherent story.
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I had just gotten home from a long, hard day at work one Friday when my cell phone rang. I recognized the area code. I knew it had to be family.
"Hello," I answered tentatively as I put my lunch cooler on the kitchen counter.
"Ross, it's Brady." The voice on the other end was familiar -- too familiar.
"What do you need?" I asked. Brady is my older brother. My sister, Sara, was the oldest of us Dalton kids. Brady came next four years later, and I was the youngest, two years behind him. It could have been a million years for all that mattered. My brother and I had never really gotten along, and consequentially, didn't really have much of a relationship.
"Do you still live in Dallas?" I heard him ask nervously.
"I'm in Arlington, but close enough. Same place for years now." I opened the fridge and grabbed a beer. If my brother and I were going to have a conversation, I was going to need a drink for sure.
"I need some help," he said, with an eerie calm instead of his normally animated voice.
"What's that?" I asked as I popped the bottlecap off my beverage.
"Kassidy transferred to SMU this year. She just called and said she was in a car accident. She's hysterical. Could you check on her for me?" Brady was definitely worried.
I put the beer down. My dislike of my brother certainly did not extend to his kids. "Of course. Where is she?"
"I'm not sure. I'll send you an address." The line went quiet.
I abandoned my beer and grabbed my truck keys. As I put the key in the ignition, my phone buzzed. Brady had sent me a map pin. The location wasn't far from her campus, but it was still going to take me some time to get there during rush hour.
The last time I had seen her, Kassidy had been a cute, bubbly, freckled-faced kid. She'd probably only been ten or eleven at the time, I really couldn't remember. She'd had the fairest strawberry-blonde hair imaginable and bright green eyes. Unfortunately for me, she'd looked like a miniature copy of her mother.
I didn't spend much time with them, or anyone in my family really. My brother, his wife, and I had had a huge, ugly falling out many years ago. I'd felt like everyone was against me, so when I'd left home after college for a job in Dallas, I'd basically never looked back. I had made the trip home for a couple of holidays before my dad had died, but none after mom had passed. I'd missed most of my nieces and nephews' childhoods.
Almost an hour later, I came upon the intersection. There, I saw two well-mangled vehicles. In an adjacent parking lot, I saw an ambulance and police cruiser. I pulled in and approached the officer.
The cop said Kassidy was pretty shaken up but seemed to be okay otherwise. Luckily, she had managed to come away with little more than a few bumps and bruises. The officer said she was still determining what had happened, noting the other driver had been taken away to the hospital already. She pointed me towards the ambulance, where a strawberry-blonde woman was sitting against the bumper covered in a blanket and being tended to by an EMT.
She looked up at me as I approached, her pupils dilating as her face registered who I was.
"Rooster!" she cried out, shucking the blanket off her shoulders and standing upright.
It was my turn to register some recognition. Kassidy was indeed the spitting image of her mother. Her bright green eyes glistened as she threw herself into my arms. I patted her back awkwardly as her shoulders shook with her sobs.
I nodded at the medic, who picked the blanket off the ground and started to pack up his instruments.
She bawled into my chest. "Rooster, it was terrible. I was so scared."
I'd been called Rooster by family and friends back home since I was a child. It had started as Brady teasing me (no surprise there) for misspelling my name 'Roos' one time in first grade. Eventually, the name had stuck, and I'd learned to live with it.
I consoled my niece for the next few minutes. The officer came over and informed Kassidy she wasn't being cited. The police had pulled footage from a traffic camera showing the other driver running the light and making the left turn at an unsafe speed. Kassidy nodded silently as she talked. I doubted anything the cop was saying really registered with her.
As the officer headed away, I took Kassidy by the arm and led her to my truck. She crawled in and curled up in the passenger seat. I climbed into the other side and started the engine, then looked over at her. She was a pitiful sight.
"Do you want me to take you home?" I asked as I fiddled with the AC controls and the radio volume.
"I... I don't know," she said quietly. Her breathing was ragged and heavy.
"Do you want me to call someone? A Roommate? Boyfriend? Anyone?" I was trying to be helpful. Kassidy just shrugged her shoulders and sighed. I made the executive decision to take her to my house.
I glanced over at Kassidy as we drove. I wasn't trying to check her out or anything, but it struck me yet again as she sat up and leaned her head back just how much she looked like her mother: the reddish-blonde hair; the smooth cheekbones and light freckles; the soft features and swell of her firm breasts.
I had a flashback.
I had met Kate in my sophomore year of high school. I'd had a crush on her from the moment I first saw her. She was amazing. She'd had brilliant green eyes that sparkled as she spoke. She had also been blessed with a radiant smile and the bubbly personality that had made everyone instantly her friend.
She had been very popular and smart. Me? Not so much in either department. We'd been the same height when high school had begun. She had developed and blossomed into a beauty, with womanly curves in all the right places, yet still petite and toned. I had remained scrawny and short, and I'd stayed that way until the middle of my senior year.
I had followed Kate around like a lost puppy. Looking back, it was kind of pathetic, but I had done everything I could to stay in her orbit. To her credit, she had never made fun of me or mocked me, even when her peers had done so in my presence. She'd even chosen to sit beside me in a couple of classes.
I had lived and died for her smile, to see that glimmer of sunshine that she radiated into my life. I'd stood by and watched as she'd dated the athletes and the rich kids -- the upper crust of high school society. Me? I had never dated anyone at all. I had no self-confidence in that department, mainly because of my below average looks and build. I had just stood by and watched Kate from afar, completely smitten with her for years.
Kassidy was quiet for a while on the drive to my place. She broke her silence suddenly, jarring me from my trip down memory lane.
"Where are we going?" Her eyes met mine for the first time.
"My place in Arlington, unless you want to go somewhere else," I said, merging onto I-30.
"No thanks," she said. "My roommate is at her fiancΓ©'s place for the weekend. I don't want to be home alone."
"No boyfriend or anyone else to call?"
"I've been single for a couple of months now," she said flatly. "Most of the rest of my friends are probably going out and getting drunk tonight. There are a few big parties on campus this weekend."
"You should call your dad and let him know you're alright," I said.
"I will. How much longer do we have to go? I need to pee." Kassidy sat up straight in the seat and looked around.