“Come on, it’s just this once,” pleaded Rory as the Security Lodge reverberated with the sound of a truck engine pulling up to the window on the right side near the entry barrier. Rory handed the driver a clipboard and yelled over the engine noise, “There you go mate; name, vehicle registration, trailer number and signature.”
Me and Rory had worked as security guards together for over six years. We had become close and fierce friends during that time. The way our roster worked at the truck depot we had every second Saturday off and we would often go out for a drink, go fishing on his boat or just laze around my flat watching TV. That was our plan for this weekend. It was coming up to the end of the month and money was tight until payday the following Monday.
It was on the Tuesday that Rory had dropped a bombshell on our plans to do what was pretty much nothing anyway. Rory’s sister, Lucy, was coming to stay with him for the weekend. It was a last minute thing arranged after his parent’s house became occupied first by ants from the garden and then by the extermination bloke who had clearly learned his trade from the Russian circus.
The house had become immersed in a tent while the gases were pumped in to kill the invaders. A European health and safety think tank had determined that such gases pumped into a house would need a week to clear thus making Rory’s parents and his younger sister homeless for that time. While Rory’s mother and father went to stay with his aunty in Bristol, Lucy found herself staying with her brother.
“I can’t leave her on her own,” pleaded Rory. “Besides we’re not doing anything specific anyway so she won’t be in the way.”
“How old is she now? Fifteen?” I asked fearing having my weekend off ruined by some snotty teenager wanting to watch High School Musical 27 and then singing along with the music word-for-painful-word.
“She’s eighteen,” replied Rory.
“Really?” I said incredulously. “If she’s eighteen then why don’t you just let her hit the town?”
“Are you mad?” he shot back in a way that implied I had recommended he throw her to the mercy of a pack of hungry wolves. Then again it is Newport! Rory was notoriously protective of his younger sister. He seemed to refuse to acknowledge the fact that she was growing up and this meant that the two of them were often at each other’s throats over boyfriends. It was always a temporary thing however. Despite their disagreements they were quite close. “Come on she’s a good laugh. You’ll like her, you’ll see. She’s got our sense of humour.”
“Our sense of humour,” I repeated before laughing. “That’s hardly a trait I’d expect from a young lady. Alright I guess it’ll be ok.”
So that Saturday I prepared for a night-in with Rory and his sister. As usual my Saturday off began with a lay-in until eleven thirty before jumping in the bath which consisted mostly of another hour’s sleep before fifteen minutes worth of actual washing. After breakfast I decided to go out and get some supplies from Abdul’s corner shop.
I placed the plastic bags outside the door to my flat so I could reach into my pocket for my keys. As I started to retrieve them I heard the door behind me open. Whenever this door opened I would always take a look. Living across the hall from me was Carol, an energetic thirty four year old divorcee which in my books should a crime punishable by the castration of her former husband for letting her go. She was so much fun and had the energy of a much younger woman having previously been stifled by what was practically a loveless marriage.
She stepped out of her flat wearing a two piece grey cotton running suit that covered her wholesome and full figure. She had quite a bubble like bum that was full looking and well molded to her body.
Seeing me standing there with my shopping she grinned at me apparently fighting with my keys that had caught on the inside of my pocket.
“I’m guessing you and Rory are getting hammered tonight?” she asked brushing aside a strand of her dark auburn hair from her face.
“If I can get my bloody keys out…Got ’em!” I growled as I felt a strand of fabric rip in my pocket before my keys were finally freed from their denim prison. “Rory’s sister is coming around as well. She’s staying with him for a few days.”
“Oh!” she laughed. “Lucky her.”
“Yep, got a full night planned too. It’s the Firefly marathon tonight,” I explained to which she again burst into a fit of laughter.
“Ok well have fun,” she said as she locked her own door.
“Why don’t you come around too?” I asked. “Help even it out.”
“Oh I would but I’m more of a trekkie kind of girl,” she replied quite sarcastically yet playfully.
“Hey that’s fine with me, I’m sure I got some old VHS tapes lying around somewhere,” I replied with a smirk right across my face.
She just smiled brilliantly as she said, “See ya.”
“Bye!”
I watched her walk down the hall towards the stairs. I have always had a thing for Carol. As I watched her disappear down the stairs my eyes kept fixed on the firm cheeks of her buttocks that seemed to have her grey running trousers glued to them. It left an impression in my mind that they must have been smooth and perfectly squeezable.
Once she was gone and with it the thoughts I was having about her a little voice in my head said ‘I am a bad man’.
With nothing to do until Rory and Lucy came around I decided to clean up a bit if only to make a good impression on her. I wasn’t doing it for any reason other than not wanting to appear a slob. It was as I was stuffing some old car magazines down between my sofa and the wall that my mobile phone started ringing. I looked down and saw that it was Rory calling me.
“Alright mate?” I said after accepting the call and putting the phone to the side of my head.
Rory sighed, “Bad news. I’ve been called into work. Michael has gone sick again!”
“Aw, and I’ve gone to so much effort too to make my place presentable,” I replied somewhat cynically. “You’ve got to learn to say no. Tell them it’s your night off.”
“I know,” he huffed. “Anyway I have a favor to ask.”
“Shoot!”
“Do you mind if Lucy still comes over? At least then I know she will be ok.”
That didn’t seem like a good proposition to me. It was bad enough having her here with Rory but having a total stranger in my flat all night made me dread hours of uncomfortable silence.
“She’s eighteen not twelve,” I protested. “She’ll be alright at your place on her own.”
“Yea but the guy next door is drinking in the garden again and it’s obvious he is going to kick off with his wife. I’d rather her not be here on her own when that happens. Besides you owe me.”
“Oh?” I asked somewhat confused.
“For what you did on my boat, remember?” I started to laugh heartily as he continued, “I can’t watch Harry Potter ever again without seeing your…”
“Alright, alright,” I said finally giving in. “You going to drop her off on your way in?”
“Yep!”
“Ok,” I said. “See you then.”
I was hardly excited about entertaining Lucy for the evening. She didn’t really seem the type of person I would get on with after what Rory had told me over the years. For starters she was quite intelligent having recently completed her A-levels with top marks. She was waiting to go off to university in September something that Rory dreaded having heard what students get upto in places like that. To cut a long story short, unlike me and her brother her head was screwed on straight.
Quarter to six in the afternoon and my doorbell rang. I took a deep breath before answering it not knowing what to expect or even how she looked. My imagination took over there. At one point a rather horrific thought popped into my head of Rory in a dress and having long hair. That made me shudder in disgust.
I opened the door and there was Rory. Standing behind him was Lucy. She was hardly what I expected. She was quite petite in her five foot seven stature with long shoulder length blond hair that was shaded to an almost bronze colour. She seemed to hold her head down almost submissively in the presence of her brother who hung over her like a hawk searching for its prey.
Rory made a quick introduction before shooting off for work. He barely put his foot in my flat before he was gone leaving me with Lucy standing in the doorway waiting to be invited in.
“Uh…Please, come in,” I said standing aside to let her pass.
She just smiled a polite thank you before stepping inside. As she brushed passed me I couldn’t help but be taken aback by her. She was very pretty in the face her features being both delicate and pristine looking like they had never known dirt. She wore a small pink tank top and light blue denim jeans in a look that said ‘I’m only visiting my brother’s friend’.
As I had expected, the first twenty minutes or so were filled with polite conversation in between extended periods of awkward silence. Several times I wondered if the silence was brought on by me staring or whether it was just me being paranoid. Either way I was on edge for some reason. It wasn’t like she was an alien or something.
It’s just infatuation , I told myself. Don’t get any ideas because you know you would regret it.
I needed to take my mind off it and so I asked her about her plans now that she had left school.
“Well I want to go onto university and get a degree in psychiatry,” she explained quite formally.