The Misbegotten

It was almost midnight.

Katie, Flavia, Johan, Jolene and I had been watching various reality shows on cable.

I saw the curtain nearest my desk flutter and stood from my sitting position on the bed.

Katie did the same behind me.

Ramona, Tirza, Leda and Sandy climbed into the Loft.

I was about to ask them what took so long. Then I realized they were each carrying a few changes of clothing and personal items. Each had small suitcases or large backpacks in their hands. Duh! I chided myself from within.

It had been part of the plan. With my parents were due to arrive home from their long day in the streets, it was time for them to leave. We’d forged it before the girls had left.

We had decided, from now on, we were going to stick together as much as possible. If it meant we were going to have to sneak in a bunch of kids every night, then that’s what it meant.

I shouldn’t have been as worked up. Even if they were running late, it shouldn’t have bothered me much, but it had. For some reason, I couldn’t quite explain – I was anxious.

I motioned the girls to follow me, so I could show them where they could put their stuff. I walked them across the room to the dresser that held Tirza’s clothes. I pointed to the floor where we had put three large air mattresses (still in the boxes) and a battery operated air pump.

They shed their belongings, a few pulling off light sweaters or sweatshirts.

I could see they had all showered and changed. Each of them was wearing their pajamas, but then, so were we. It was late after all.

“It feels funny to be here in your room with my pj’s on,” admitted Sandy through a playful leer. She didn’t appear in the least shy or uncomfortable.

I glanced over the sheer nightgown she was wearing, thinking it was some type of rayon blend. It was too thin to be cotton alone. It was light pink, the bashful sort, without sleeves. It gathered by an elastic band below her full breasts and stopped just below her knees. It had ruffles at the edges, but the ruffles were subtle and not gaudy or tacky. She wore only a pair of white sandals with delicate leather straps. They looked quite feminine, not to mention nice on her long toed-feet.

“She likes it, Eff. Don’t get her wrong,” interjected Leda before I could answer, her face piqued.

I grinned back at the smaller girl.

She wore a white cotton tank and a pair of powder blue, loose-fitting pantaloons of the same material. Both garments seemed covered with a variety of silk-screened, multi-colored popsicles. Every one of them was in varying stage of melting. Emblazoned across her chest, in hot pink, cursive lettering was the words, “Hot Mess”.

It made me grin, splitting my head in two. It described Leda to perfection.

She walked passed me, her lips thinned, but paused long enough to hold my wrist and give me a quick squeeze. Her eyes searched out mine. Her gaze was solemn as she mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” Then she stalked off into the bathroom before I had time to respond.

Vintage Leda.

I peered back at Sandy, who hadn’t moved. “So are you feeling funny for real or are you just joshin’ me?” I asked trying to be serious. The stupid grin hadn’t left my face, so it likely came across retarded.

She chuckled from down within her throat. “My friend knows me too well…” She let her tones diminish with each syllable until she was almost whispering. The way she batted her eyes was answer enough.

“You’re a trip, Sandy,” I chortled alongside her, and then spoke when the laughter died between us. “Go and get yourself settled in, girl. We’re gonna pow-wow in a few, on my side of the Loft.”

That got her attention and her vision intensified on me. “Oh yeah, what about?”

“Something the rest of us was discussing when you guys were gone,” was all I wanted to say for the time being. “You’ll see,” I added, trying to allay her interest for a few minutes.

She raised her eyebrows, twirling a forefinger in a lock of her translucent, auburn hair. It looked darker in the glow of the energy-saving lights my parents had installed all about the Loft. Still, it was a bountiful and lustrous mass of thick curls.

“Sorry, Sandy, but I’m gonna cut in,” announced my girlfriend all a sudden. She came up beside me, wrapping her arms around my neck, insistent palms at either side of my head turning me. She bent me down to her and kissed me with wanton urgency upon my lips. It was a fervent kiss, hungry and deep, our tongues pirouetting about the other, our mouths questing and tasting. Our bodies meshed together as natural as water flowing over the rocks of a brook. It was a tight embrace, and yet fluid and moving the entire time.

This was how she kissed me when she wanted to fuck. It wasn’t the slow, thorough sort, which meant she wanted to make love. This wasn’t that. This was fire and flames, heat and friction. She wanted me to throw her on the ground and ravage her. She wanted her legs spread wide; my cock buried deep, my pace fast and furious. She wanted to meet me, pump for pump, desiring nothing more than to ride the edge and then fall over, and let her orgasm consume her. She wanted to shudder and squirm beneath me, wriggle and bend the length of me. She wanted me plunging into her until I -.

“Guys Stop!” yelled Leda, yanking us apart with what had to be all her strength.

Ramona and I came apart as if something had exploded between us.

“Shit, I could feel you all the way in the bathroom! You have to stop, like now!”

“W-what?” asked Ramona, outraged. To me, she'd been too caught up in the moment and had lost herself just as I had. She stepped from me, smoothing out the mauve colored, satin camisole and matching bottoms. She wore them beneath a thin cotton sweater. She wore her hair pulled back, so her stark, blue-grey eyes flashed across the room to dig deep into Leda.

“Your kiss was making Estefan lose control, Ramona.” She spun on her heel and began to make her way back to the bathroom. “Now, you think I can brush my teeth in peace without you distracting me with your sexual thoughts?” she asked, but didn’t wait for my answer. She disappeared around the door of the washroom.

I shrugged my shoulders, glancing over at my girlfriend. “I didn’t know I was doing anything like that,” I mumbled in exasperation.

Ramona kicked off the white flats she was wearing, air escaping her in a huff. “You’re just getting stronger, Effy, that’s all. Besides, she’s just mad because she doesn’t want to admit how horny we made her.” My girlfriend trailed off, clicking her tongue, falling into a thoughtful silence. By the look on her face, they were nasty thoughts bouncing around in her head.

“It worked on me,” admitted Sandy, who hadn’t moved. She had her hands clasped before her, strategically close to her pelvic region.

My girlfriend’s focus burst forth from within. She reached out to grab Sandy by the shoulder as quick as a cat. “Estefan will ‘work’ on everybody, girl.” She peered back at me. “He gets stronger by the hour. He just doesn’t know it. It’s becoming natural to him now. He can’t tell the difference from one moment to the next.”

“Are you serious?” I asked curious, completely missing Sandy’s admission that she’d been horny for me.

[An errant thought makes him pause.]

I used to miss things like back then, especially when issues unsettled me. Not anymore, though. This is due to the fact it’s been a long, long time since I’ve faced anything unsettling… until a few months ago.

[Not for long, he’s eager to bring this to a conclusion. He can almost feel the answer lying before him, somewhere, lost in his youth.]

Ramona nodded.

“How strong do you think I’ll get?” I wondered aloud, unknowing the volume of my voice was such the girls before me heard it.

Ramona’s answer was immediate. “You will be strong enough to attract the opposite sex.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I was Sandy’s jaw drop as low as mine.

I thought at any moment I was going to feel the filaments of the carpet tickling my chin.

“What!?!” said Sandy through a strangled esophagus.

“Really?!?” I asked in a tone so high-pitched, it sounded like someone had just squeezed the shit out of my nuts.

My girlfriend nodded.

Fuck me, I couldn’t help but think. Did I want some dude chasing after me with a throbbing cock poised straight at my asscrack? Could I take another man’s dick? Would I want to? I had watched Ramona and Katie kissing and it was the most erotic thing I had seen to date. Was this any different? Could I kiss a man with the same passion those two teenage girls had done? I couldn’t see myself doing so. But then… the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had never analyzed it from that particular angle. It hadn’t crossed my mind.

“So what is this ‘pow-wow’ thing you were telling Sandy about?” asked my girlfriend, scattering my thought like flies before the fly-swatter.

“Huh?” I blurted through the side of my mouth like a drugged-up schizophrenic.

Ramona’s brow creased. She stared at me with greater scrutiny. “You alright, Eff?” she asked, somewhere between concern and sarcasm.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. I was somewhat mortified that I was thinking about men and their dicks.

“So?” she asked again, spreading her palms wide, to either side of her.

I swallowed, and then let my eyes meet hers.

“Come on, Estefan, just bend over and spread your cheeks for me,” he said in a husky voice…

I visibly shook myself to banish that train of thought.

“Steve, stop acting like such a dillrod!” demanded Ramona.

I chuckled in spite of her indignation, knowing she would pop a gasket if she knew what I’d been thinking. “Sorry, sorry,” I repeated a few times, placating her with a squeeze on her elbow, but the laughter crept back. I found I couldn’t stop it. I was completely overwhelmed by it. I bent over at the waist and let it fly. I was powerless against it.

A few minutes later, with both girls standing above me – Sandy still smiling, Ramona scowling - I peered up at them. I said around an errant chortle, “You guys should get settled in, so we can talk.”

My girlfriend was about to say something crude, but Sandy grabbed her by the arm. “Come one, girl, let’s get these air mattresses pumped up, so we can assign who’s sleeping where.”

Ramona appeared on the verge of shrugging off her long-time friend. She thought better of it though, prying her gaze from me. “Even though, he’s a dumb ass at times, I’m sleeping with Eff. No doubt Katie will as well, so you’ll only have to make two spots. The three of you can ‘rock-paper-scissors’ for Katie’s bed.”

They were already walking away, animated conversation dying in my ears.

I stood, realizing I’d sat down during my outburst of merriment. I stepped toward my side of the Loft, passing the bathroom. I saw Leda flossing, gazing into the mirror above one of the sinks.

Tirza passed me, making it a point to look away from me. Instead, she went to help the others figure out the sleeping arrangements. I got the impression the inadvertent slip of my Mutation was the reason. After what she had told me earlier that day, there could be no other reason why she would shy away from me like that.

“You’re gonna have to be a little more careful, Babydoll,” said a playful Katie, bunching her shoulders. She tried to look shy, but her expression was anything but shy. “You had every one of us gushing in our panties.” She giggled and then jutted her chin toward Tirza. “Even she had her knees clamped together tight.” Her voice dropped to a whisper as she approached me. “I could tell her clit was tingling.”

I wasn’t grinning in the real sense, more about halfway when Katie walked into me and gave me a quick kiss on the mouth. For a second, it stunned me. I didn’t know what to do. Horror consumed me. She’d just let everyone know we were much more than close cousins. I stared at her with eyes as round as the New Moon.

She met my alarm with calm, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She was a serene figure in a tight fitting t-shirt and matching, hip-hugging short-shorts. Of course, she was barefoot, which was sexy as hell.

I was about to say something when she stopped me with a finger on my lips.

“They all know,” she whispered and kissed me again. I followed suit, only like a marionette. “It was something we discussed earlier. Ramona told them it was a residual effect of your Mutation, and they seemed to take it in stride, which was nice. They’d freak out for sure if they knew we’d been lusting after one another since we were little kids.” She rumbled with a quiet chuckle.

“Oh,” was all I could manage, letting this newfound reality sink in for a minute or two. “But what about my brother and sister? This is gonna pissed them off!” I squawked, glancing across the Loft. I felt shamefaced. It was bleeding from my visage and onto the floor.

Johan, Flavia and Jolene had stayed on my bed watching cable. They hadn’t so much as spoken a word to the rest of us, though they seemed to be talking to each other over short periods of time.

“We told Flavia and Jolene - us girls that is - and they seemed to understand. Your crafty step-sister told me later that she had known for a long time that you and I had the ‘hot’s’ for each other. She looked mad, but just shook her head when she stared my way.” Katie winked and shrugged, suggestive as always. “She must’ve seen something that summer afternoon when I had your hard dick dangling in front of my face.”

“All this time, she didn’t say anything to me,” I asserted, bewildered at this point.

“Why would she, especially if she only thought she saw something? It’s a pretty big accusation, you know, telling everyone that we’re cousin-fuckers.”

My eyes went wide. “Katie, you gonna have to calm down!”

Her mouth twisted to one side. “Yeah, sure, Effy, I’m all about being calm.”

“And what about Johan, what did he say? Who told him?” My brother had to be completely grossed out by the thought of me being intimate with a blood relative. I mean who wouldn’t be?

“Ramona and Flavia spoke to him, but he waved it off. He said didn’t care what you did or who you slept with. If we were all fine with it, then why should he interfere? He didn’t see a reason for this to upset him, particularly with all the shit going on around here.” Katie leaned in to kiss me once again, but spoke before our lips touched. “I think he’s only concerned about Jolene. All the rest of us could fall down a cliff for all he cares.” She did kiss me then.

“When did all this happen?” I asked after a moment’s consideration.

“When you were up here with Tirza,” she replied, heavy in my arms.

I shook in confusion. “I thought you girls were talking about… other things.”

Katie’s chuckle gurgled in her throat. “That wasn’t a long convo, Effy. Once the ground rules were set in place, the rest was simple. It was over in a quarter of an hour. We spent the extra time, explaining things.” She kissed me again before I could comment.

“Get a room you two,” said Leda as she came from the bathroom, passing us on the left as she went with the others.

Katie grinned; our lips still mashed together, then broke away, calling after the dark haired girl. “We just might!”

Tirza looked at us with a stricken cast to her face.

I tickled Katie to break her train of thought, not wanting her to say anything else in front of my ex-girlfriend. Tirza seemed already at her wit’s end. There was no need to push it any farther than necessary. My cousin squealed and squirmed beneath my fingertips as they dug into her sides.

“Stop it, Estefan!” she whined and twisted away, though she was laughing.

I waited for her to get her composure.

“Come on, Katie let’s get settled and wait for the others to finish what they need to do,” I urged, holding out my hand to her.

She took it at once. “Ok.”

We walked to my bed and joined my siblings and Johan’s girlfriend.

[Something calls him away. More pressing issues in the present demand his attention. For now, the past must wait.]