Chapter Six: What You Learn From Little Sisters
This chapter dedicated to CCScott23, Chrissy, who made my day right back. Thanks.
The simple fact that William Hunter wanted to sleep with me was oddly liberating. Despite his faults, despite the fact that I hated him, he was widely known as quite the catch. And he wanted me. Maybe he only wanted me in my sister's dress, but he wanted me.
I drifted through the rest of the dance with Aidan, talking amicably and poking fun of many of the other people in attendance.
When I got in, at eleven, Mom and Dad were still out. Tara was waiting for me in the living room, legs slung over the arm of the chair, spots appearing on her face, looking oddly accepting.
She bounced up eagerly when I walked in.
"So, how was it?" she asked.
"Okay. Hunter grabbed my ass," I said, going to the fridge and pouring myself a glass of milk, happy to be a child of sorts again.
"He'll do that. And Aidan..?"
"And I are never, ever going to happen. Good dress though," I complimented.
"I have to say, you look damn good," she agreed.
"So, how were they? Still alive? Did you set the house on fire? Get Liss to bed okay?"
"Nice to know you have so much faith in me. Yes, everything's fine. Better than fine. It was kind of fun," she admitted.
"God, I hate that I spent the evening with your recycled dates," I moaned, kicking off the uncomfortable sandals.
"Get used to it, if you want to meet any decent guys. I've pretty much been there, done that. Anyway, Aidan's a great guy," she said. I sighed.
"Did it ever occur to you that he's actually in love with you?" I asked.
"Joey, I'm not going to be our parents," she said. I smiled.
"Me either. As well as it may have worked out for them," I agreed.
Both of us swiftly turned our heads toward the door as we heard a loud thumping noise. Tara muffled a shriek as I grabbed an aluminum pot from the stove and advanced slowly toward the front door.
Mom shrieked when we burst out of the door and discovered her locked in Dad's embrace, kissing aggressively on the front stoop.
"Get a room," I joked, slightly disgusted at seeing my parents with their tongues down their throats.
"You guys go at it like rabbits. And you're really getting old," pointed out Tara. I let the hand holding the pot drop.
"Thanks kid. Now go back inside. And isn't that fairly formal dressing for a babysitting gig?" asked Dad in surprise.
"And you look all…" began Mom, looking at Tara.
"Spotty? Yeah, uh huh, I know. Joey went to the dance instead, with Aidan, because I have chicken pox. Great, huh? But doesn't she look hot?"
"Too hot. We'll be inside in a minute," said Mom, closing the door as we retreated back indoors.
"God, ew. Normal parents aren't like that," I said.
"Not remotely. But normal parents are a lot older than ours, so…" she said.
"More like our grandparent's age, which is pretty freaky," I said, mounting the staircase to get upstairs to bed.
"Don't go there. Do you think I can get some days off school for this?" she asked, sticking out her arm and regarding the red spots.
"Oh, sure. Milk it girl, I sure did," I said.
"You were live seven. What were you trying to miss out on, having to wait in line for the swings?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm a Scott. We don't wait in lines," I said, yawning as I reached my bedroom and fell onto my bed.
Somewhere during the night I managed to strip down to my bra and underwear and discard the red dress on the floor, but I never progressed onto my pajamas.
I gasped as Lissie leapt onto my bed at eleven o'clock the next morning.
"What are you doing?" I asked sleepily, making a grab for my alarm clock.
"Silly, it's time to go," she said. Daintily slipping off my bed again, the revealed herself to be wearing a pink leotard and ballet slippers. She twirled around, and her blonde ponytail flew out around her.
"Ballet?" I mumbled.
"Yeah. Mommy said you were taking me," she insisted. My vision finally cleared, and I was able to look at the red digits of the alarm clock: 11:07. Shit. I had promised Mom.
"Right, of course. We'll get going as soon as I'm dressed. Why don't you go downstairs and um… watch TV for five minutes?" I suggested, already madly digging through my closet.
We walked out of the house six minutes later. I was toting a travel mug and wearing an outfit that made my others look formal.
"So, you excited?" I asked
"Yep," she said.
"Are any of your friends going to be there?" I asked.
"Yep," she said.
"Baby, are you nervous?" I asked.
"I'm not a baby," she said sweetly, tucking her hand in to mine.
After a few blocks we reached the community centre, where many other little girls in pink leotards were streaming into, their long hair tied back. Lissie hung back a little, obviously shy.
"Sweetie, you have nothing to worry about. I'm sure they're all very nice," I said, dreading going into the building looking so unkempt.
"Come in with me," she ordered, yanking on my hand. Running a hand through my hair, I reluctantly agreed.
As I walked into the building, the vast amount of women present gave me dirty looks, presuming Lissie was my daughter. I figured they didn't live in Tree Hill, because otherwise they'd known my life as well as I did.
Lissie eventually found a friend of hers, another little blond girl, and they ran off together.
I gasped when I saw the familiar dark blonde head turned away from me.
"Hunter?" I said in surprise. He spun around and his eyes widened.
"Hey Duchess," he said, looking incredibly uncomfortable.
"Is one of them… yours?" I asked.
"Uh, no. My half sister, Robyn. My mom has to work a lot and I try to help out," he explained. My mouth dropped open. Somehow this piece of information didn't fit into his puzzle. He was a cocky, arrogant basketball jerk that was extremely helpful to his Mom?
"I thought your parents were wealthy?"
"My Dad and my stepmom, yeah. And I live most of the time with them because of the divorce settlement and since Robyn's Mom's daughter and not Dad's, there's no child support because her father was a real ass, she has trouble making ends meet," he explained.
"So you help. That's really great," I said.
"Thanks. Lissie's here?"
"Yeah, she decided it's her new lifelong ambition to become a ballerina," I joked. I was even annoyed at him-if he was a good person, it would be much harder to hate him.
"Robbie did too. I think it's a stage they all go through," he said.
"I never did. I wanted to be a major league basketball player," I said.
"And I'm sure you will be. But Tara did?" he asked.
"Sure."
"And I thought you'd done everything she did?" pressed Will.
"Not this thing. She was always girlier than me," I said.
"Yeah, I know," he said, grinning.
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" I asked. He smiled again, naturally and easily.
"A major league basketball player," he answered. I rolled my eyes at the corniness of his response.
"Please," I said. I glanced into the large glass window into the ballet studio where ten little girls in pink leotards were leaping around the room.
"That's one's Robyn," he said, pointing to a girl with a blonde ponytail. The same girl Lissie had run in with. I held back a smile.
"I'm glad she has a friend," I said truthfully.
"Me too. Sometimes I think she's lonely," he said, looking into my eyes.
"I'm not," I said, before I could think. I backtracked. "She's not. Robyn's not."
"I hope not," he said.
Lissie skipped off again with me three quarters of an hour later, delighted with her own success, eager to go back.
On the basketball court up front, Daddy was coaching Charlie into a lay up, who wasn't exactly taking to it. I glanced at him. Daddy had counted on Charlie to be great. It made sense.
"Think fast," he said. My hands went out before my eyes and I caught it neatly. I glanced between them, afraid to make the shot that I knew would sink into the net. On one hand, it would make Daddy happy. On the other hand, it would show up Charlie-by a girl.
"Go on," said my little brother. I raised my eyebrows, but made the shot.
"Nice. Did you have a good time?" asked Daddy, directing his attentions toward Lissie. She flew into the air and into his arms.
"Yep. It was fun. Robyn was there," she said.
"So was Hunter," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Speaking of which, Aidan's inside," said Dad.
"Speaking of which? How is that speaking of which? They're in two completely different leagues. They're not remotely 'speaking of which'," I shot back.
"I thought they were both your friends," said Daddy, handing the ball up to Lissie, now on his shoulders, so she could go for a slam-dunk.
"They are. But Aidan's not an asshole," I said. Dad's jaw tightened for a second, and I blushed. Charlie and Liss were both under ten.
"Sorry. I'm going to go now," I said, running toward the house.
Aidan was in the living room, sitting on the leather sofa, drinking a soda and watching the game. I dropped down next to him and watched with him.
"What's up?" I asked, as the commercials came on.
"Everyone in the entire world's hung over," he commented.
"Will's not," I said.
"Will?"
"Hunter," I said quickly.
"You were with Will Hunter? You hate Will Hunter," he reminded me.
"I do hate Will Hunter. It was merely a very evil trick of fate. He has a little sister in Lissie's ballet class. It's so unfair," I moaned.
"Be careful with him," he suggested, staring forwards at an ad for cat food.
"We're not friends," I protested.
"He has a history with girls like you," said Aidan.
"Girls like me?"
"Yeah. You're a bit younger, a bit… innocent. Naïve," said Aidan.
"Oh, come on. I'm not stupid. I'm not going to sleep with him. And besides, hasn't he slept with Tara? I make it a point to not sleep with guys she's slept with," I said.
"No, they haven't. He's just her back up date. And anyway, I saw you guys at the dance. He… wants you," admitted Aidan. This seemed surprisingly difficult for him to say. I figured it was because I was as much a woman to him as I was a handbag.
"Well duh. Who doesn't?" I asked, smiling.
Surprisingly, Aidan didn't smile. He just looked back toward the game.