Half the Truth

Holly almost did a double take as she walked past the doorway to her lounge and saw her naked niece trapped in awkward conversation with two of her husbands senior colleagues. It was fairly obvious she wasn't there by choice.

"Um, sorry to interrupt your important business discussion guys, but Jessie, wouldn't you rather head back to Tammy's room?" she asked as calmly as she could manage as she stepped into the lounge.

"No, she's fine Hols, there might even be a job opportunity for her" Brett answered dismissively

"She's still in college, and I think she'd rather be upstairs, wouldn't you Jess?"

Jessie turned and nodded to her Aunt, but Brett could almost see the partner nomination that had looked so certain a few moments ago starting to evaporate in front of him and wasn't willing to let it go that easily.

"Sure, just give us five more minutes..."

"No, I think Jessie would like to go back to her room now. Or, if she is going to stay down here, perhaps it might be time for your friends to leave?" Holly was giving Brett her best 'don't fuck with me' glare now "And perhaps you might need to leave for the evening as well if you have an issue with that?"

"No it's fine, off you go Jessie" Brett huffed.

Feeling sure there would be a row between her hosts over this later, Jessie gratefully made her escape and hurried back to Tammy's room. When she got there, Andrew was still sat on the bed.

"That was quick" he told her "How was Tammy?"

"I don't know, I didn't get to speak to her" Jessie seethed "She's gone to her boyfriends place, and your fucking Dad held me hostage in front of his creepy work friends to help him with some business deal or other"

"Shit Dad, that's not cool" Andrew sighed to himself "I guess he assumed you were okay with being naked in front of people"

"Well I'm not!"

"I know, I see that. But honestly, I don't understand it. I literally can't think of any single reason why you would be walking around naked when you don't want to"

"I just can't wear clothes, okay? Accept that"

"But why? Has someone put a curse on you or something?"

"YES!!"

There was a stunned silence in the room at Jessie's outburst. Neither of them could quite believe she had said it, but she hadn't been able to stop herself in her frustration with everything.

"Shit Jess, I wasn't being serious!" Andrew told her.

"Well I am!" she answered emphatically as she sat down on the end of the double bed.

"How?"

Jessie had to be extremely careful here. She really shouldn't have mentioned curses at all, and she certainly couldn't give Andrew any chance of figuring out that others were affected too but as yet unclaimed. Holly would definitely not be amused at her husband's son becoming her master. Jessie would have to go for a similar half truth to the one she had originally told Craig. Hopefully this time, with Kelly now aware of the reality of the Petersen curse, she wouldn't open her big mouth and fuck everything up again.

"My fiance Craig cursed me. He can basically make me do anything he wants"

"And he made you have to be naked all the time? That is seriously fucked up"

"He was drunk out of his mind when he did this. Then he took a blow to the head so he hasn't been able to reverse it yet"

"He'll be taking another fucking blow to the head when I run in to him!" Andrew threatened angrily,

"No, you can't!" Jessie pleaded "He can do anything to me, remember. And as pissed as I am at him, this really was an unfortunate accident"

"Is that why you are having to marry him even though you don't love him?" Andrew asked as he started to put the pieces together.

"Actually I do love him, but only because he made me, which is seriously messed up and confusing as fuck now I know it" Jessie sighed "But I don't want to marry him. I don't even like him much as a person any more. We had a really close friendship before this but it's ruined now. It isn't all his fault though"

"How isn't it? He's the one who decided to put a curse on you"

"Look, can we please just drop it and forget we ever had this conversation. And you have to swear to me you won't talk about my curse to anyone, especially your Dad"

"I won't tell a soul" Andrew promised "Does anyone else even know?"

"Yeah, Tammy, my parents, Aunt Holly, a few others. But you can't talk about it even to them, okay? Just trust me, it would be a bad idea"

"I won't say anything to anyone if you don't want me to" Andrew sounded reassuringly genuine as he spoke "I'm just trying to figure out a way of fixing this"

"I'm not sure there is one. I'm trying to manage it as well as I can. And, as you can see, doing a terrible job"

Andrew paused for a moment before looking downcast.

"Shit, now I feel like a fucking asshole"

"What? Why?" Jessie asked in confusion.

"I was enjoying you being naked around me too, just like those freaks from my Dad's work"

"No, that was different. I enjoyed that as well...I mean, not enjoyed..." Jessie let out an exasperated groan "Fuck, I can't do or say anything right today. God help me when I have to speak to Tammy"

"Actually, you can leave that one for me to smooth over" Andrew offered "Trust me, she is way more pissed with me than she is with you"

"Okay, thanks. I'd actually appreciate that" Jessie nodded.

"I promise I'm not asking this because you're not wearing anything, especially now I know the whole story, but is it cool for me to keep hanging out with you? Because I would really like to"

"I'd like that too" Jessie admitted "and we can until Craig gets back. But when he does, I'm not sure he will be too happy with us being close"

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, if you text me Tammy's boyfriends address I can head over there and talk to her now. One less thing for you to worry about, right?"

"Thanks Andrew, I'd really appreciate that" Jessie smiled "And also, thank you for believing me"

Andrew nodded silently with a sympathetic smile and left the room. Jessie flopped back onto the bed and shut her eyes. She wasn't sure if revealing as much as she just did about her situation was a good idea or not, but it was done now. Her instincts were that this was someone she could trust. She could only hope they were more on point than they had been with Craig.