Misery Loves Company

Lacey stood in the foyer, chewing her fingernail in stress, as she waited for Finn and Sean to return from dropping off the older girls' bags. She debated in her head whether or not she should still go and check if Austin needed any help cleaning his bathroom. Everything in her life suddenly felt overwhelming. A few days ago, her life felt perfect. Happy at having a great boyfriend, all be it with a few rough edges that needed smoothing, she couldn't have imagined the situation she faced now. Lacey had watched her parents have sex and found it arousing. She had let Sean finger her to an orgasm while she jacked him to one. And now she found out that her sister thinks she's destined to marry Sean.

"I need someone to talk to," the petite redhead mumbled to herself. But who? Lana is clearly not an option. Even before the whole destiny shit, I couldn't have told her about how I liked watching Mom and Dad having sex. She would tease me about it until the day one of us died. Usually, Peyton is the one I could go to for serious advice, but that's not happening either. Besides her being into this destiny crap, her brother is the one that made me cum. I can't tell her I touched and rubbed her brother's long, thick, wonderful cock.

The main suite door opened, and Finn's voice echoed down the hall as he said goodbye to Ramsey. I need more time! Lacey looked around before deciding to head downstairs before she was seen. Descending, she began to consider her other options. Rammy is completely out. She's such a prude about sex. Whitney maybe could understand that if she's not grossed out by watching my parents, she's always pushing for us to be more adventurous. I bet she would love for Austin and me to break up so she could have a wingman to chase boys with. Yep, no going to Whitney.

Lacey paused at the bottom of the stairs and peeked into the rec room. Luckily for her, the room appeared empty. Skye seems a lot nicer than I initially thought. Would I feel more comfortable having this talk with a stranger? No, I can't tell her some of this stuff. Still, I should be nicer to her for her help. I just hope Finn is okay with her being here. Finn? He's like my big brother, can I...no, just too weird to talk about this with him. I need someone I know, but is not too close to the situation but is also friendly and kind, and willing to help. Someone like--"JoJo?"

The brunette shot up, looking almost startled, from over near the laundry room door. Maybe if Lacey hadn't been so caught up in her own inner turmoil, she would have wondered what JoJo had been doing with her ear to the door, but it didn't cross her mind. The body-shy teen quickly turned and started to walk down the hall.

"Hey, Lacey," she said almost in a whisper. "What's going on?"

She took a moment while she considered her classmate standing before her. She is Sean's best friend, so it could be awkward, Lacey thought before deciding. Fuck it. "Uh, JoJo. I need someone to talk to...it's kind of private. Could you maybe help me out?"

"Talk to me?" JoJo asked with a glance over her shoulder back down the hall. "Uh, sure. How about we go outside for a walk? Um, you know, so we have some privacy."

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea," replied Lacey. A fleeting thought of going to check on her coat in the laundry room entered her mind, but she dismissed it. She had on Rammy's jacket and JoJo had hers on too.

Walking outside into the increasingly cold and windy weather, Lacey hesitated for a moment before leading the other girl down the path to the lake. They walked in silence while Lacey tried to organize her thoughts. She turned twice to look at JoJo, and to start speaking but held her tongue.

JoJo could sense Lacey's **** to start, so she spoke first, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"This is going to be weird. That's why I couldn't talk to Lana or Peyton. Rammy is just too uptight about this stuff. And Whitney, while I love her to ****, she can be a little wild about this stuff. I swear that girl has done some crazy things for people our age?

"Like role-playing?" JoJo asked, stiffening up a bit.

"Oh, you heard about that?" Lacey asked, shaking her head.

"I sure heard something," JoJo responded, not telling what she had heard minutes earlier outside the laundry room.

"Yeah, I couldn't imagine dressing up in sexy holiday lingerie and playing Mrs. Claus for my boyfriend. No way I wouldn't be laughing at the whole situation in minutes," Lacey remarked, happy for the momentary distraction from her problems.

After a long moment of silence, JoJo prodded Lacey again, and the ginger-haired cheerleader started up her tale of woe.

"I love Austin, I really do, but I did something that might cause us to break up," Lacey began. JoJo wanted to be helpful, but she also didn't like Austin. If this talk was all about him, she wasn't going to be happy.

"Okay, did something happen?"

"Oh, boy...yeah, something happened," Lacey said, taking a deep breath and proceeding to pour out her problems to her classmate. "So, last night Sean came back to the boathouse. I re-twisted my ankle chasing after Austin when he almost got into another fight with Jared." Lacey assumed the alarmed look on JoJo's face came from the possibility of another fight and not at the thought of Jared. "I couldn't walk back on my own, so I asked Sean to help me. Of course, he did, as he's always so nice and helpful."

JoJo nodded at the comment about her best friend, feeling worse for what she did to him.

"Climbing down the stairs was way rougher than either of us expected. So we caught our breath for a few minutes before making our way back over to the cabin. Then we saw something..."

JoJo waited for the other girl to continue, but she didn't.

"Uh, what did you see?"

"In the hot tub...there in the hot tub was a couple having sex," Lacey managed to say.

"Oh!" exclaimed JoJo. She felt her face flushing at the thought of catching a couple having sex. After another long pause, she asked a question again. "Who was it?"

"My parents."

"Oh, my gawd! That must have so weird!"

"Yeah, it was. I-we--," Lacey tried to go on but couldn't find the words.

Feeling quite a bit of sympathy for the clearly embarrassed girl, JoJo waited a few moments before trying to move the conversation into a less humiliating area. "So, what does this have to do with you and Austin?

"Oh, gawd! We watched! We watched my Mom and Dad have sex!" Lacey blurted out.

"What?"

"Please, don't think I'm sick, please!" pleaded Lacey, looking at JoJo through the tears now forming. "I'm not a pervert!"

Not knowing how to respond to this shocking and disturbing news, JoJo couldn't reply in time before Lacey rambled on with an explanation.

"It's just I've never seen anyone have sex before. At first, I was shocked--I mean, it was my parents--but then it...it was weird seeing two people who I know love each other so much have sex." Lacey looked down at the ground and continued. "I mean, I love Austin, but not yet the way my parents love each other. So watching them have sex was almost...awe-inspiring."

Looking back up at JoJo, Lacey admitted the hard truth to her. "And it was hot. Really fucking hot."

Holy shit! What is going on at this cabin? Maybe I was right yesterday when I joked to Sean about there being something in the water. Wait, what about Sean? JoJo thought before asking where Sean was during all this.

"Um, he was right behind me watching too," Lacey revealed. "I knew that my mom is beautiful but not sexy until last night. Sean noticed too. He really liked her big boobs."

Yeah, no shit. Sean didn't just notice them last night. I can tell you that, Lacey.

"Okay, I'm trying not to judge here--although it's a fucking crazy thing--but how does this affect you and Austin?" JoJo asked, trying to move on to something less crazy and incestuous.

"Uh, okay, you see," Lacey paused to take another deep breath. "Don't think I'm a sicko, okay? But it was hot, so hot that I started to touch myself. Sean did the same to himself. Eventually, he helped me, and I helped him."

"Helped?"

"We, uh, masturbated each other." JoJo could barely hear Lacey's whisper over the sound of the wind coming through the trees. "Things got awkward between us then. Mostly on my part."

"Is that why you screamed this morning when you saw him?" JoJo asked, suddenly realizing the events of this morning made much more sense.

"Yeah, kinda, but there was more." Lacey noticed JoJo's eyes widen at the thought of more. "You see, this morning when I went to put on my coat, Rammy noticed some spots on the back of the arm. It was Sean's cum."

JoJo gasped.

"I freaked out. If Austin saw that, he probably would recognize it. So I ran downstairs and tried to rub it off, but it wouldn't come off. Skye found me in the laundry room upset and tried to help. I'm not even sure if it came out. I still need to check. But when we started back upstairs, we ran into Austin. I felt so guilty over it, and then minutes later is when I saw Sean."

Damn, I don't need to watch tv anymore; I just need to watch what my friends and classmates are doing. JoJo shook her head at the teenage drama unfolding before her eyes.

"So, that's why I screamed. And that's made things worse. Austin got suspicious. He thinks that Sean either made a move on me when he was passed out or that Sean tried to **** himself on me."

JoJo gasped again.

"Yeah, and I think other people are starting to think that too. I know Rammy's starting to," Lacey stated.

JoJo gasped a third time. Oh, no! Sean's crush thinks he could possibly do that? He'll be crushed when he hears the news.

"I know, JoJo. It's all my fault. Now Sean's reputation is in trouble, and now he's hurt from Austin attacking him."

"Austin attacked him?" JoJo screeched.

"Nobody knows about it, but yeah. He confronted Sean about his suspicions, and now Sean has a big bruise on his forehead. I feel awful. I betrayed Austin without him knowing, and now I hurt Sean."

"I hurt Sean too!" blurted out JoJo, unable to hold back her guilt any longer.

"What? How?" Lacey asked, utterly stunned.

"I betrayed him by telling Jared a secret I've kept for him for five years. He's going to hate me!"

"A secret? Wait, you mean about Rammy?" inquired Lacey.

"Um, what?" asked JoJo. She sure wasn't going to spill about the crush to another person.

"About Sean having a crush on Rammy. Wow, five years? I figured it was like maybe three years at the most." Lacey shook her head at the longevity of Sean's crush.

"How do you know about that?"

"Sean told me last night, well more he admitted it to me after I guessed. I noticed how upset he seemed over Jared and Rammy," Lacey told Sean's best friend.

"He admitted it? I can't believe it." Genuinely shocked that Sean would admit a truth he long guarded, JoJo felt like this trip to the cabin was some crazy dream she would wake up from soon enough.

"Well, I can be pretty nosey when I want to be. Plus, I love the idea of them being together. I even promised to help him...but now I probably screwed that up too if Rammy thinks he's some jerk," Lacey looked back down to the ground despondently. "I fucked up a lot of things, didn't I?"

"I think we both did," JoJo nodded while agreeing.

"Oh, JoJo, you did barely did anything. I'm the one that has to fix all these problems," the redhead insisted to the brunette. "I'm sure you were just trying to get Jared to back off of his pursuit of Rammy."

"Not really. He asked me, and I wouldn't answer either way. So, he..." JoJo mumbled something Lacey couldn't understand.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the wind. What did Jared do?"

"He tickled me!"

"Tickled you? What's with that?" questioned a perplexed Lacey.

"I went through a short phase when we were little. Sean's so nice, and Newt's so shy, that I took advantage of that and started bossing them around. Well, Keira--our old babysitter-- didn't like it one bit, and she started tickling me every time I acted like that. I'm ticklish, so it worked, and I stopped being bossy. This was right around the time Jared moved away, so he remembered about it," JoJo explained to Lacey, who strangely started laughing.

"Sorry, JoJo. I'm not laughing at you. It's just now I know where Lana got the idea from," Lacey said, wiping her eyes now from tears of laughter instead of despair. "She tried that on me right around the same time. It only happened once, as I kicked her smack dab in the middle of her mouth. I gave her a swollen lip, and I got grounded for the first time in my life. But Lana never tickled me again."

JoJo joined in and laughed. She wished she had done that to Keira all those years ago; it would have saved her from the trouble she was in today.

Both girls' spirits perked up with the laughing, and they both looked at each other.

"Maybe there's a way we can fix all this, or at least move on without hurting our friends anymore," Lacey suggested.

"Maybe, but I just feel that Sean's going to hate me," JoJo confessed her true concern.

"Sean's not going to hate you, JoJo. You're his best friend. He loves you," Lacey insisted. "Hey, maybe we can help each other out."

"Really? How?"

"Um, that I don't know. But if Sean doesn't forgive you, then I promise to give him a piece of my mind until he does," Lacey said with a grin, but then she frowned at her own predicament. "With Austin, I don't know what to do. I feel like I cheated, Sean said it was an extraordinary circumstance, so I shouldn't feel bad."

"He said that? Wow, he must have really wanted to calm you down," JoJo remarked while shaking her head.

"Yeah, it's kind of a bullshit excuse, but also kind of true. Yet, I can't tell Austin what actually happened. He might think I'm sick for watching my parents and break up with me. Or he'll get mad about Sean and me touching each other, break up with me, and then kill Sean."

"I don't think you should tell that stuff to Austin," JoJo said, worried about Sean's safety.

"I need to tell him something. If I don't, he'll think of the worst possibilities. Sean wanted to talk about what we should do, but I've avoided him so far. Guess I should talk to him."

"I think you should talk to Sean," said JoJo.

"But the biggest problem is still what to tell Austin. Dammit, why did I have to freak out and scream this morning? If I stayed calm, then I would only have to worry about why I got excited last night," groaned Lacey.

"Hmm, they say the best lies usually contain some element of truth. Maybe use part of what happened and change it around," JoJo suggested.

"Yeah, but what. I can't tell him we watched someone in the hot tub. I know Austin, and he'll want all the details. I guess I could say we saw my parents, left right away, and I was embarrassed to see Sean this morning," Lacey thought aloud.

"That could work for Austin, but what about Ramsey's suspicions of Sean? That needs fixing," JoJo pointed out.

"Absolutely. If anything, I'm going to get Sean and Ramsey together on this trip. I should have years ago, but after Austin attacking him over me, I owe it to Sean," Lacey heatedly vowed. "I just need to get Austin to somehow vouch for Sean to Rammy. Maybe I can tell him I want to get them together?"

"What? You can't tell Austin about Sean's crush!" JoJo shrieked.

"No! I wouldn't do that. I'll tell him it's all my idea, and he needs to be a good boyfriend and help me," Lacey reassured her, liking her idea more and more as she talked about it.

"I don't know, Lacey. That's definitely something you need to talk to Sean about first," JoJo remarked, concerned this idea could backfire badly.

"Of course!" Lacey then moved to hug a surprised JoJo. "Thanks, JoJo! You're the best. I feel better after talking to you. I wish we had been better friends growing up."

"Uh, happy to help," JoJo said, not sure that anyone's problem had been resolved.

Pulling back from the hug, Lacey looked at the busty brunette. "You know, sometimes I used to get jealous of you."

"Jealous? Of me?"

"Yep, I wondered if I could have been Sean's best friend like our sisters are. But now I realize I'm happy Sean has you in his life. "

"Uh, thanks?" JoJo wasn't sure how to respond to Lacey's revelation.

Grabbing the other girl's hand, Lacey pulled her back into the direction of the cabin. "C'mon, JoJo. Let's go make things right!"