63
SISTERS DESIRE
*************
My sister Tori has been the bane of my existence ever since she was a child. I was five years old when she was born, and I was so excited to have a baby sister to look after. That stopped when she was able to speak. As soon as she was able to speak, she would run to mum and dad, telling them everything I was doing; she loved and craved attention from my parents, and the best way to do that was to tell on her dear older brother. As we grew into teenagers, she got worse: she was malicious, always looking for ways to get me in trouble. I probably could have stopped all of this by not doing shit to get myself in trouble, but I was a teen boy and I just wanted to have fun. After I graduated high school, I ended up moving to Melbourne for University–I could have studied in Sydney, but I really wanted to get out and experience life as my own man. I wasn’t close with my parents; dad was always working, and mum would spend all her free time with Tori, shopping and having spa days. Their social media accounts were so filled with all the expensive, boring crap they did daily that sometimes I wondered if my little sister even went to school.
When I graduated, my parents flew down for the ceremony, but my sister thankfully stayed in Sydney. They made their appearance and said what was expected of them and they left, dad needing to be on a flight back home as soon as possible, grumbling about wasting enough time as it was. He really was a bit of a prick.
After Uni, I moved in with a couple of friends and started seeing a girl I’d met. She was nice; a pretty redhead with glasses. We stayed together for about a year, right up until I found out her and my housemate/best friend had been sleeping together. They were supposedly in love and I wouldn’t understand. I was surprisingly cool about it all-sure it sucked finding out the two people I trusted the most had been lying to me and fucking behind my back, but truth be told, the relationship wasn’t going anywhere. She was cool, and the sex was pretty good-I probably missed that the most-but I didn’t really care that much about staying with her. So, when my workplace was offering up voluntary redundancies, I snatched one up and booked a flight home.
Now I stood waiting to board a flight back to Sydney. I’d have said back home but that would imply I had a home. See, with my sister now being eighteen and graduated high school they decided to sell the childhood home, buy a luxury apartment on the beach of Bondi and then piss off to Europe on some second honeymoon. While they’d said I was welcome to stay in the apartment, I wasn’t too thrilled I was going to have to share it with my brat of a sister, who’d decided that University wasn’t for her and dad’s credit cards was all she needed. He of course gave her everything, daddy’s little girl.
Thoughts of my sister always put me in a bad mood. I’d decided I’d stay with her only long enough to find a new job and my own apartment–the redundancy package from my old job was a nice buffer that would keep me afloat on my own while I looked. I’d hoped my little sister had matured in the years I’d been gone, but I wasn’t hopeful. I saw her again one Christmas when I made the flight home, and it was a royal disaster, so I decided not to do that again. She’d been fifteen then and still a giant pain in my ass. But three years is a long time, and anyone can change.
As I boarded my plane, I decided I’d give her the benefit of the doubt. I’d greet my little sister with a smile and a hug and be the mature big brother. After all, mum and dad were overseas so she couldn’t really rat me out to them if I decided to throw a party, not that I was the party type. I preferred staying in and gaming with my friends-most of them lived all-across Australia, and I hadn’t met them before, but they were still my friends.
I took my seat and groaned inwardly as a man who must weigh at least a hundred and fifty kilos lumbered down the aisle, he stopped next to my seat, checked his ticket, checked the seat number, checked his ticket again, then sat with a heavy thud behind me. I let out a sigh of relief at not being seated next to him the entire trip home.
“Excuse me, sorry to be a pain. Could I squeeze by?” A voice addressed me. I looked up to see a cute blonde holding a small shoulder bag in one hand and her boarding pass in the other. She gave me a friendly smile. I smiled back but couldn’t find my words for a minute.
“I’ve got the middle seat,” She added, keeping up her friendly tone.
“Oh shit! Sorry.” I quickly stood up and moved into the aisle to let her pass. It was cramped, and she ended up pressing against me as she took her seat. She smelled of lavender and her hair shone like spun gold. She was dressed quite casually in blue jeans and a black long sleeve top. She showed not a hint of skin, but I was immediately infatuated with her and thanked the non-existent gods for placing me next to this cute blonde for the trip home.
I took my seat and looked over to the blonde girl.
“I’m Jason,” I said, offering my hand as a greeting.
“Abi,” she replied with a smile and shook my hand.
“Pleasure to meet you Abi,” I added.
“You too Jason,” She gave me another smile. We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat rather loudly. I again had to do the seat shuffle with a very self-important middle aged woman who looked less than impressed at sharing her seat with two young troublemakers-not that she said so but I just assumed she expected anyone who didn’t have grey hair to be troublemakers. She had one of those haircuts that screamed “I want to speak to your manager!” and I was glad I wasn’t seated next to her as she took the window seat.
Once everyone was seated and buckled in, the plane began to taxi onto the runway. This was always my favourite part of flying, the rush of speed as the plane hurtled forward and lifted a bunch of humans into the air to travel great distances in little time–it really was a remarkable thing. It looked like Abi didn’t share my enthusiasm for take-off; I noticed her hands gripped her arm rests so tight it looked like it must hurt, and her gaze was fixated on the back of the chair in-front of her.
“Not a fan of flying?” I asked, offering a smile to the pretty blonde.
“What gave it away?” She asked, forcing a chuckle.
“Just a hunch,” I added.
“I’ve never flown alone,” she said, eyes still fixed on the seat in-front of her.
“Well, you aren’t alone,” I said, far more smoothly than I thought I was capable of. Abi took her eyes off the seat in-front of her and gave me a smile.
“Thank you.” She looked thoughtful for a moment then added. “This is going to sound crazy, but would you mind if I held your hand?” She looked down, her cheeks reddening slightly. ” I know I must sound like a baby, but it’s always helped when I held my dad’s hand during take-off.”
I once more sent a praise to the heavens for such a moment.
“Not a problem,” I said and rested my hand over hers. She quickly laced her fingers through mine and gave my hand a firm squeeze.
“Just tell me if I squeeze to tight. I don’t mean to,” Abi said.
“It’s fine, I can handle it,” I replied.
Handle it I did, although for a girl of about fifty kilos she had one hell of a grip. During the worst of the take-off I thought she was going to break every bone in my hand. But I handled it like a boss, not once complaining or even shaking my throbbing hand once she released her vice-like hold. She apologised constantly for the first few minutes, but I kept reassuring her that I was fine. I was just happy to have this cute blonde sitting next to me, talking to me.
The stewardess came by, passing out drinks and snacks, I ordered a coke-the flight only being a couple hours, I didn’t bother ordering any food.
“So where are you off to?” Abi asked me.
“Just back home. You?” I replied.
“Same. My semester is finished so I’m going to stay with my parents until I go back next year,” she added.
“What are you studying?” I said after taking a swig of my coke.
“Nursing,” She said with a smile. “I like helping people.”
I pictured her wearing one of those slutty nurse outfits. I banished that thought quickly as to not embarrass myself with a boner in the middle of the flight home.
“That’s cool, we can always do with more nurses,” I said.
“Were you just visiting Melbourne?” Abi asked.
“No, I was living there but I decided it was time to head back home,” I replied. Not wanting to bring up the fact I’d pretty much been dumped by both my girlfriend and my best friend. “I’ll be staying at my parents’ place with my little sister until I find an apartment,” I added.
“Well at least you have some family to stay with,” she said, and smiled again. She really was a friendly girl. Pretty too.
“Yeah it should be great,” I said without a hint of sarcasm I wanted to use. It was always difficult for some people to understand just how troublesome it was to be around my family.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.