Don’t ask. I told myself again, despite the brain-pickling incomprehension battering around in my head. Video games had been a bust. I didn’t have a lot of multiplayer stuff. Not locally multiplayer anyways. Anna kinda played games with me sometimes; Theo and I tended to play the one game over and over. It wasn’t for Dawn. I never really picked anything with Dawn in mind. Games were where I retreated when there weren’t girls around.
Dawn wasn’t very talkative and wandered away from the games after a round of Mario Kart and Smash Bros. She grabbed some old comics off my bookshelf, flipped through and kept putting them back.
I was eternally distracted. Boobs were out. Finally, I decided to make a play. I walked up behind her, any closer and she would’ve felt the erection she was responsible for. I took in a long deep breath, intending to reach under her arms and grab her by the titties. I just had to feel them. Why else would she have them out?
“Are you smelling me?” Dawn turned around. She grabbed some of her hair and dragged it under her nose. “Ew. I smell like chlorine and tequila. I need a shower…”
“Do—do you want company?”
“In the shower?” she asked, her eyes falling flat and disbelieving. Then her eyes dropped and her cheeks turned red. “Wow… Um… that might be too much. You just straight up and asked that. Crap.”
“I, um,” I reached out and waved my palm almost touching her nipples.
“Yeah, friend stuff!” She rolled her shoulders back and smiled. She still retreated a step to keep my hand from literally touching her. “But, showering together…”
“That’s not friends stuff?” I frowned. “I promise to be very friendly.”
“Oh very friendly, I’m sure,” Dawn rolled her eyes. “I wanna read comics.”
She spun on her heel and started reading spines again. I had a couple bagged-and-boarded floppies in the closet. But most of the books I owned were trade paperbacks.
“Don’t you need a shower?”
“Wow, you’re a dick!” She shook her head, looking back at me over her shoulder. “Gimme one I’d like.”
“Uh, OK, well you’re silly,” I said. “And you like movies with hot lead girls and stuff blowing up.”
“They don’t have to be hot. I just like girl badasses.” Dawn put her hands on her hips.
“Hollywood’s going to make movies with ugly chicks?” I scoffed.
“Alright, point. I guess that’s the same with comics then?” Dawn said. “Boobs and bombs.”
“Boobs, bombs, and funny,” I corrected. I reached over her left shoulder and dragged a book from the shelf.
“Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.?” She asked. “I don’t recognize these people. Indy?”
I pointed to the Marvel logo on the corner of the cover.
“Oh,” she said. “OK, I read your Ultimate Spider-Man comics,” she gestured to the corner. “And I mean,” she pointed out the MJ, Black Widow, and Phoenix statues on my shelves. All had been gifts from my redheaded large-boobed friend.
“Right,” I said. I grabbed her in a hug from behind and hugged her. “Thanks for the awesome presents.”
“Yeah,” she said. She traced circles with her nails on the backs of my knuckles. “They look good in here. Could use some more posters though.”
“There’s another hot redhead in here.” I flicked the Nextwave book in her left hand.
“Oh? So it’s a ploy,” she said, overly sarcastically. “You want a—” she flipped through a few pages. “An Elsa figure too.”
“Yeah, but this one. Gun’s are cooler than ice.” I rested my chin on her shoulder.
“Don’t read over my shoulder. Grab one for yourself too.” She peeled my hands off of her belly and slipped away from my grip. She walked over and flopped on my bed, crossways, and lifted the comic over her face. I watched her breasts flatten by gravity against her chest. I stood there for a minute.
“Get something and come over here,” Dawn grumbled. “Don’t just keep looking at me.”
Looking at her seemed more interesting than… Brightest Day? I had grabbed a book without looking from the middle shelf. I then walked to my bed.
My bed’s a single. It didn’t really fit me lying perpendicular like it did Dawn. I struggled to get comfy until she huffed. “Jesus!”
“What?” I asked. She shook her head and scooted up to the pillows.
“Lie like normal, then,” she said.
“You’re where my pillows are,” I said.
She patted her stomach. “I’ll be your pillow. This book is good. Stop squirming. I wanna know more about Captain Fuckity Fuck.“
“So that’s how you pronounce that?” I said. “I like Robot Man.”
“Just stop moving around so much!” she said. I climbed onto the bed and ‘misjudged’ where I was laying. I put the back of my head down on her boobs. She went back to reading like it was normal. I couldn’t make out a word in my book.
You can’t touch her boobs. You can’t shower with her. But the boobs are out. I’m laying on them. Don’t ask! Don’t ask! She’ll realize things and it’ll stop. Don’t ask!
“Uh, Dawn? I was thinking. Why are you let—” My phone rang.
“Don’t mind me, I like the book,” Dawn said.
“It’s Mom,” I said.
“Tell her I said ‘Hi’.” Dawn turned the page.
I could’ve got up. I should’ve talked to Mom in private. I wouldn’t’ve moved for the world.
“Hi Mom!” I said brightly. “I’m with Dawn. She says ‘Hi’.”
“Hey baby, just Dawn?” There was a clear tease in her voice. “Yvonne said Anna and Iggy were over with you?”
“They ran home. I think they’ll be back tonight,” I said. “How’s the conference?”
“It’s… It’s work,” she said. “I’ve landed a couple new suppliers. I’m sure they’ll go over great.”
“Excellent,” I said.
“Isn’t it kinda weird a hairdresser goes to business conferences?” Dawn asked. I shrugged. She shrugged. She kept on reading.
“How did last night go? I’m sure the girls loved the party…”
“Um… It was fine…”
“Did you open the liquor cabinet?”
“Of course not,” I said. “Such a thing would be a crime and admitting would make you complicit in underage drinking.”
“Sarcastic… You get that from…” she sighed. “Baby, I don’t want you using the hot tub tonight.”
“What? Why not? It’s fun.”
“I’m sure it’s a lot of fun with all the girls, and Raylene,” she hesitated. “But that fight between Anna and Ray was big. The girls might not mesh well. You don’t want to make things worse.”
“How did you know about Anna and Ray?” I frowned.
“How did you not?” Dawn asked me.
I reached up and flicked her nose.
“Oh! You just started a war!” Dawn said, after flinching and twisting under my head. She settled and then started tapping lightly with her index finger in the middle of my forehead.
“Are you misbehaving with one of your girlfriends?” Mom smiled into the phone. She forced herself to sound parental. “Listen, Lucas. Maybe hold back a little tonight. For Raylene.”
“How come Vonnie had a key?” I asked.
“Vonnie now?” she asked. “I’m not going to fly across the country without having someone I trust checking in on my guy.”
“I’m 18... Mom.” I swatted Dawn’s finger and missed. Tap tap tap continued.
“Sure… That’s why I trusted you with the Love Potion…”
“You mean the hot tub salts?” I laughed. “Worked really well, Mom. The girls can’t get enough of me.”
“As if!” Dawn rolled her eyes. I moved quickly and snatched her finger. I dragged her hand to my belly. She frowned.
“You’re kidding,” Mom said. “Maybe though. There was always a chance. I mean.” She mumbled off into the weeds.
“Yep,” I said, not mentioning the bare boobs parade. “All is kosher.”
“OK, but go slow,” she said. “Like Iggy slow. Especially with Ray.”
“I’ve gotten good at going slow,” I said.
“No, you haven’t,” Dawn said, trying to tug her hand free. But I had a good grip on her wrist. “If you were good at it, you’d go slow a lot faster.”
“Knock knock!” Iggy shouted from the front door.
“That’s Iggy, Mom,” I said.
“I brought Ray with me!” Iggy added.
“We just arrived at the same time!”
Dawn squealed and threw my head off of her boobs. I let go of her hand on the third tug. She scrambled across the room to grab a t-shirt from her bag. She kicked her discarded bra behind the bookshelf. She was tugging down the front of her shirt as Iggy stuck her head in the bedroom.
“Did Dawn go home?”
“Yes, I shriek like that,” I said. I pointed with my foot to the corner of the room with the bookshelf. Iggy stuck her head in deeper and waved.
“Hi,” Dawn said. Her face turned red.
“I’m not coming in your bedroom,” Ray said. “Come out here.”
“I picked this up off the table.” Iggy was holding the ripped paper bag of Pure Love Potion. I frowned at her. I almost missed Mom squawking.
“Sorry Mom, got a little busy.”
“Lucas. Use condoms. Really use condoms. I mean it.”
I turned red. I forced myself not to sound too hoarse. “I don’t think it’ll go that far tonight.”
“I, dammit, I gotta go. Be careful. Don’t get hurt,” she said. She made a couple of kissy sounds and hung up.
“How’s Ray?” I asked Iggy. She flopped on the bed and pulled one of the test tubes out to spin the pinkish crystals around.
“Capable of answering that question herself,” Iggy said. She slapped my knee. “She isn’t Emi or Dawn. I will get mad.”
“What about Anna?” I asked, not quite grokking her threat.
“Anna’s a Dawn.”
“Hey!” Dawn said, with a giggle. “I’m really more of an Iggy.”
Iggy looked as displeased as I had ever seen her. I grabbed her with a hug around the shoulders. She squeezed my middle in reply.
“How much bath salts do you want me to put in the hot tub?” She asked me, as I let her go.
“Well, I should clean the tub first, before anything.” I deflected.
“We can do that!” Dawn volunteered.
“Can we? How do we?” Iggy asked, eyes shining helpfully.
“Drain it and use the cleaning supplies in the pool shed,” Dawn explained. I shrugged.
“I usually drain it, scrub it down with the stuff in the blue bottle and some sponges and then fill it and drain it again.” I explained.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Dawn said. “Go say hi to Ray before she runs away.”
Dawn grabbed me by the small of the back and force-marched me out my bedroom door. I laughed, shook my head, and started moving my legs down to the living room. Ray flitted about.
It was October. It was even a little cool today. It wasn’t leather jacket over fluffy sweater weather, especially inside.
Ray looked blobular in her baggy jeans. Her face was still very pretty. She lacked color, except for the purple lipstick and raccoon eyeliner. Her hair was jet black. It had always been dark but it looked even blacker. Rivaling Emi’s, if Emi didn’t highlight hers. Ray was rounder in the face than the other girls. Even the multiple layers on her torso couldn’t hide her really big tits. She looked at me and looked happy; looked over my shoulder and looked depressed.
“Mom said I had to come,” Ray explained.
“We’ll be out on the deck,” Dawn said. “Hi Ray.”
“Your apology doesn’t count, if it comes through Mom,” Ray countered.
“I never said anything bad about you,” Iggy declared.
“You probably didn’t,” Ray agreed. She looked at Dawn.
“You’ve never been a slut. Theo was lucky to say goodbye with you. I’m sorry for backing up Anna when you two fought,” Dawn said. “I didn’t know who started it and you were always the one to get pushy first.”
“You had sex with Theo?” I said, smiling brightly. “Damn! I wish he’d told me.”
“I—um—Fuck!” Ray said. “You two were going out on the deck?”
“It’s Lucas’s birthday,” Iggy said. It was a warning. I frowned at her.
The girls went outside and closed the patio door behind them. I walked over and hugged Ray. She left her hands at her side, I retreated frowning.
“Theo didn’t tell you? At all?” Ray said.
“I don’t even know the name of the high school he goes to,” I said. “I talk to him every month and I don’t think we’ve ever discussed anything going on in our lives.”
“How could you!” Ray turned angry. “He was your best friend. You replaced him with Iggy? With sluts?”
“No,” I said. “That’s how we always talked. About games, or comics, or movies, or football. About what we wanted to be doing, not how we are or what we’re doing.”
“You don’t know he has a girlfriend now?” Ray said.
“Give me your jacket, you must be on fire,” I said. I reached for her shoulders. She slumped as I pulled the leather down her arms. “Yes, I know he’s dating somebody. Emi made us all follow each other’s Instagrams and stuff.”
“Well…” Ray said. “I, yeah, I slept with Theo.”
“Good work!” I smiled. I offered her a high five. She looked at me like I was crazy. I wiggled my fingers, waiting. She was laughing when she slapped my hand. “It’s good to see the girls I care for with good men.”
“Then you’ve high fived Anna too?” Ray asked, looking dark again.
“What? Anna keeps getting blind-dated by the other cheerleaders to the shittiest—”
“Anna and I had sex with Theo before he moved,” Ray shouted.
“At the same time?”
She punched me. In the belly. It hurt, but it wasn’t as if I doubled over. Then she was saying sorry a half hundred times. I looked at her. She had her arms crossed under her tits and her head hanging forward. Her long black hair was kind of a mess all over her face and shoulders.
“I’m not a slut! I just wanted to say goodbye. We were like fourteen! It wasn’t like we were going to try a long distance thing.”
“Girls who had boyfriends at fourteen broke up if they had to spend a weekend apart,” I said. “I think it was probably for the best. I can’t see anyone thinking that would be a long term thing.”
“Anna did. Dawn did. Iggy did,” Ray said, still not looking up. “I should go...”
“No.” I said. “I want all my girls here. If it gets bad, if anyone gets stupid. I’ll step in and walk you home,” I promised, crossing my heart.
“Walk me? That’s like an hour and change,” she said. “I’ll call a cab.”
“No.” I said.
“What do you mean, ‘No.’?!”
“I mean. I’ll step in. I’ll take you home. My call.”
“You don’t make decisions for me.” Ray narrowed her eyes.
“I do today,” I said.
“I’m not a slut,” she said again. “This isn’t some weird fucking orgy or something, is it?”
“No, it’s a totally above-board mundane everyday fucking orgy,” I smirked.
“Don’t be stupid,” she laughed. “No, of course not. If Anna’s crazy, I can only imagine how brutal Iggy would be if one of the others even kissed you. Thanks for being silly.”
“What?” I said, thinking about Emi yesterday.
“You’re an idiot,” Ray said. “I needed that.”
“Good?” I frowned. “Yesterday… Last night, I mean. I did tequila shots off their boobs. Iggy seemed to love it.”
“Stop bragging.” Ray lost the little humor she had scrounged up.
“Well… No, but I mean, that throws out your ‘Iggy would be brutal’ idea, right?” I worried.
“No, it doesn’t,” Ray said. “She’s not going to take it out on you. She’s definitely ran her mouth off on Dawn though.”
“No, just me and Anna,” Emi slipped in the front door. She smiled. “She’s probably doing Dawn right now. You staying? Anna’s in the driveway trying to figure out what she has to say to you.”
“If things go bad, Lucas will take me home,” Ray countered Emi. “So if Anna wants to go through him, she’ll be stuck here without him for a couple of hours.”
“If Lucas leaves, we’re not going to hang around his place,” Emi said. “Still, I’ll tell her.” Emi started texting on her phone.
“I’d be coming back, you wouldn’t have to leave,” I said.
“Where are you going?” Iggy popped in from the patio doors. He had stripped down to her bikini and wore matching pink rubber gloves.
“Oh my god! What are you wearing?” Ray said.
“It’s a bikini,” Iggy said. “For the hot tub. You wanted us to fill it and drain it after we sponged it down, right?”
“Yeah, that’s amazing. Thank you,” I said.
“Cool cool,” Iggy said, crossing into the kitchen. “I’m just going to throw the gloves back under the sink.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
There was a knock on the door. I popped my head up.
“It’s Anna,” Emi explained. Ray stepped behind me. I frowned.
Iggy, Dawn, Emi, and Anna had not knocked on my front door in at least six years. They just came in. I would knock if I was going to Anna’s. Her dad pushed me to show a level of respect to his daughter. I used to think he thought I was Anna’s boyfriend but she had always flatly denied it.
“You gonna let her in?” Ray said. “No means no. You’re allowed to say no.”
“No,” I said. Blushing and getting frustrated with myself. “Yes, I’m going to let her in. No, I’m not going to say no.”
I shook my head, crossed the living room to the front door, and opened it to Anna. She wrung her fingers, standing in a pair of blue high heels in a light sky blue dress. The skirt was caught in a strong wind, she held it tight to her left thigh as the weather showed off her knees.
“Wow, look at you,” I said. The flush of her cheeks really set off her dress. “You look cute.”
“Cute?!” she hissed. “Wait, cute’s OK. I wanted to look beautiful or hot or… Shit.”
“You gonna hang out on the step? You coming in?” I asked.
“What, I…”
I grew impatient, grabbed her right hand and pulled her inside. She let go of her dress and I shut the door.
“Hi,” Ray said. Ice wasn’t as cold.
“Hi.” Anna lost all of her blush and looked as stark and fair as Ray.
“Great! We’re all friends again!” Emi said. “Any cupcakes left?”
“I think so,” I said. “Can I leave you two alone to talk it out?”
“Yes,” Anna said but was drowned out by Ray shouting: “No!”
Ray had my arm and dragged me towards the kitchen. I looked at Anna and shrugged apologetically. Anna hurried after me. Emi sauntered slowly behind.
“Iggy!” I growled. I found her leaning against the counter holding the ripped paper bag against her belly and reading my birthday card, with instructions, for the nth time.
“What?” she asked. “It was one each?”
“Is what one each?” Ray asked.
“The bath salts,” Iggy wiggled her belly to shake the glass test tubes. I walked over and snatched them out of her hands. I opened the cupboard and shoved them on the top shelf, far out of reach of anyone but me and Anna. “The stuff that gave the water that smell last night.”
“What smell?”
“It was kind of like peach and lavender,” Emi remembered.
“I was thinking sandalwood and blueberry,” Anna suggested.
“Yeah, there was like a citrusy smell to me,” Iggy clarified.
“That’s weird,” I said. “You’d think things would have specific things they’re supposed to smell like.”
“What is it?” Ray asked. I showed her the test tubes in the paperbag. “Oh, that stuff. I found it has a, like, cinnamony smell.”
“Well then, more questions, I don’t have answers for,” I explained.
“Alright,” Dawn said, coming in through the patio doors. She had also stripped down into a bikini. Hers was patterned in triangles of black and dark green. “It’s draining again. We can fill it up after and get right in.”
“Right away?” Ray said.
“We could order pizza or something first,” I said.
“I’m already eating too much,” Emi said, halfway through a cupcake.
“Yeah! Hot tub!” Iggy said, waving around the open birthday card.
“Sounds good to me,” Anna stood straight and reached for the hem of her dress. She ripped it off in a quick motion to reveal her skimpy blue bikini.
“Damn! Way to go, Anna!” Emi said, licking chocolate icing off of her ring finger. “I used my killer one last night. I have one as frumpy as Iggy under this.”
“Frumpy?” Iggy looked down at herself in embarrassment. It was a cute bikini, small, but not as small as Anna’s.
“Frumpy?” Ray said, she looked at me and stared daggers.
“We don’t have to hot tub. There’s lots—”
“Hot tub!” Anna interrupted. Even I heard one girl daring the other. I could’ve stepped in.
“Yeah, we’ll—” Ray grabbed my elbow and dragged me to my bedroom. She kicked the door closed.
Hot Tub Love Machine
By Redsliver
Chapter 6
“Not worried about Iggy brutalizing you?” I asked, half a joke.
“I only have this one piece,” she waved her hand. “Shit, it’s still in my bag in the living room.”
“There’s no dress code,” I said. “You can wear whatever you like.”
“Of course you don’t understand,” Ray sulked. “Get me my bag so I can change.”
“Sure,” I said.
I walked out of the room and the girls were still in the kitchen. Iggy was eagerly waiting for me to come back. I smiled at her and she rocketed her hands behind her back. She still had my birthday card. It stuck out beyond the left side of her butt.
“What?”
“Pure Love Potion?” she asked, slyly.
“It’s from Mom,” I rolled my eyes. “And apparently Ray’s mom. What do you think?”
“Good point,” she laughed. “It’s all glitz and snake oil, right? To get dumb rich women in the mood?” Iggy ramped up her laughing.
“So I assume,” I said. “Unless…”
“Unless what?” Dawn asked.
“Flash me your boobs?” I smirked.
“Hell yeah!” Emi hopped over and yanked her top up and off her tits and jiggled them at me as she flailed her tongue like a rock star. Iggy shook her head, rolled her eyes, put the card down on the counter with a clink, and pulled down and apart her bikini top. Dawn and Anna got theirs out too.
“Uh…” I said.
“What the fuck?” Ray asked. I hadn’t heard her come out behind me. “I don’t care if it’s your birthday! I didn’t come here to be a part of that!”