Paige Aftermath

Wanting to make sure I didn’t hear anything else, I’d put my headphones back on and was currently blasting music while looking up ways to bleach the brain. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t have any warning of Paige coming. She practically kicked the door down. Breathing hard, she stared **** at me. Ripping my headphones off, I said nothing and sat as still as I could—as if she was a predator and me playing dead would have her move on.

“How long?” Saying nothing was the incorrect answer. She took two steps into my room, anger barely under control. “How long were you watching you fucking pervert?”

“Pervert? I’m not the one who left their fucking door open for the world to see!”

“You weren’t even supposed to be at home! Why aren’t you at practice with Kaylee?” She ran a hand over her face. “God, this is mortifying.”

“You’re telling me. I have to live with that memory now. Thanks.”

“Of all the times,” she muttered.

I held up my hands. “Hey, I’m not judging. If that’s the type of guys you’re—”

“I will cut your balls off and feed them to you.” She glared at me in silence, daring me to continue. When I didn’t, she went on. “But seriously. How long?”

I debated lying, but I didn’t feel like pissing her off anymore than she already was. I suppose I had her at a rare disadvantage, but I didn’t have it in me to push her. Even if she was an immature brat, she was still my sister. “About the time you started chewing out the guys for sucking at their job.” Groaning, she buried her face in her hands. Normally, I’d expect her to yell and scream at me. The lack of **** was new too. Rubbing my chin, I felt bad for her. It wasn’t like I’d meant to see that, and I had a feeling that was something special for William. I remembered her telling me he was into that sort of thing. In a way, it reminded me of what Kaylee and I went through, though Paige’s version was next level. It was a bit scary how close I’d come to being put into William’s position. Even if I knew it was part of the ‘game’ or whatever, I don’t think I could stomach hearing Kaylee tell me all that stuff. I could tolerate watching her to some extent, but that? No way. That had almost destroyed me during our trip together.

Getting out of my chair, I moved over to her. She seemed a bit surprised when I hugged her and I felt her tense up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

With a huff, she pushed me away, but not until several seconds passed. Paige ran a hand through her hair, not looking at me. At least she didn’t look pissed now. “I know. That doesn’t make me feel any better about this. Any other time, I wouldn’t even care, but that?”

“William’s thing?” Hesitating, she nodded. “I uh… didn’t expect William’s friends to be so…” My mind came up a blank for a polite word to describe them.

“Grotesque?”

“That’s a harsh word.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, looking like she was fighting off a chill. “But fits them perfectly. And they aren’t William’s friends. His actual friends are okay people and decent in bed. Oh god, have my standards fallen that low?” she added silently, shaking her head slightly. Biting her lower lip, she looked conflicted. Her eyes kept flicking towards me before looking away. It looked to me like she wanted to talk but was holding herself back. She knew I hated talking about sex-related things. That she was acting like this showed how **** she was to get whatever it was off her chest.

With a heavy breath, I gestured to my bed before sitting back in my chair. “Might as well get it all off your chest.” She looked surprised. “What?”

“You’re sure?”

“You don’t want to?”

She continued to look at me, but the way she did shifted. It was like she was studying me. “You’ve changed.”

“People tend to do that.” When she still didn’t move, I shrugged. “Or don’t. I would prefer—” I didn’t get to finish before she was sitting on my bed. I noticed the face she made as she sat down, shifting uncomfortably. I didn’t need a reminder of why her ass was sore.

We didn’t say anything for a long time. I think both of us were weirded out by this reversal of roles.

“William has a new thing,” Paige said softly, surprising me when she broke the silence. “It’s pretty much what you saw.”

“Trying not to think about what I saw, thanks.” Her glare made me hold my hands up. “Okay, okay. Two guys at the same time?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve been having threesomes for a while now.” More information I didn’t exactly need to know, but I didn’t stop her. “I’m talking about the guys I was with. They are old acquaintances of his. I don’t know exactly how he finds them, but they are all pretty much like that.”

“Less-than-desirable?”

“Ugly as fuck,” she corrected. She shivered. “Anyways, he loves watching them fuck me while I—well you saw,” she said with accusing eyes. Before I could say anything about her accusation, she was already moving on. “It drives him crazy hearing me talk about these guys like they are some sort of sex gods while demeaning him. The sex we have after is… phenomenal. I mean, sex is always great with him but that—”

“Paige.”

She cleared her throat. “Not important. It’s why I do it though. Besides, he really enjoys it.”

“But?”

“But this is consuming him!” she burst out. I knew right then that my one word had dynamited the dam and nothing was going to stop things now. Her words tumbled out of her at a machine-gun pace. “He doesn’t let me fuck any of his friends anymore. Things were fine when it was every-so-often. I didn’t even complain when he was inviting two of them at a time. It’s been almost a month since William and I have had sex. A month! Every time he invites me over and I think, finally I can enjoy some time with my boyfriend, one of them is waiting for me.” Of all the things I expected, tears were not something I was mentally prepared for. Paige always seemed to flip between sarcastic and pissed off. Seeing her show vulnerability was something I hadn’t seen in a long time. It drove home something I hadn’t thought about. Paige liked William. Considering the side of her I was often exposed to, it was hard to imagine her giving a shit about someone especially the glimpses I’d seen of them together. Yet here it was in full display.

I was the last person who could judge someone on the quirks of their relationship. It worked for them—or at least had until recently. If both my sister and her boyfriend were happy, that’s all that mattered to me.

She continued for some time, venting her frustrations. I listened as best I could, even through some squeamish points where she was giving more detail than I wanted. I remained silent the whole time, only offering customary noises and words to indicate I was still listening. I couldn’t help but draw parallels between this moment and the past with Kaylee. It’s how I knew to just shut up and listen. Paige, like Kaylee, wasn’t talking to me for my sage advice. They needed an ear to vent. Sitting here listening, I didn’t see this as a negative thing like it would have been in the past. The me now wasn’t the dumping ground I’d been not too long ago. I recognized what was happening and embraced it. Paige and I may have had a weird sibling dynamic, but we still cared about each other in our own ways. I wanted to help—even if that meant listening to some sordid details of her love life.

There was a pause as she took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. As her shoulders relaxed, she seemed a lot calmer than she had at the start of her long-winded rant.

“Feel better?” I asked with a grin.

“Sorry,” she said, rubbing her forehead. Paige still hadn’t raised her shields, but I knew it was only a matter of time before the regular hardass sister of mine returned. “Normally I’d tell all my girlfriends about this stuff but…”

“You don’t want them to know?” I finished for her.

She nodded. “Part of the deal is no one updates their Profile. For me, I just add William so people don’t think I’ve gone celibate or something. I have a rep to maintain, and if people found out I was fucking those freaks…”

“No need for that.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to deal with their pawing hands.” She shivered, rubbing at her arms.

“Have you talked to William about it?”

“I’ve tried bringing it up a few times.”

“And?”

She hesitated. “I never get that far. You don’t get it, Scott. The way he lights up when I mention it… I find I don’t have the heart to crush that.” Her eyes fell to her lap as she fiddled with her hands. Damn. She had it bad for the guy.

“You need to talk to him about it. Trust me.”

There was a shift in her. Her walls were starting to raise as a hard look set in her eyes. “Easy for you to say. You have no idea how hard this is.”

“I kinda do,” I said. Paige didn’t believe me at all, doubt written over her face. Hardening my anxious gut, I pushed myself to talk. “Kaylee and I almost broke up over our trip.”

I expected a look of shock from her but found nothing. When I was silent, she shrugged. “What? To be honest, I’m surprised you two have lasted this long.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Hey, I’m not wishing for things to go south, but I know both you and Kaylee.” She didn’t expand on that, and I found she didn’t need to. I knew what she was talking about.

“Anyways, on our trip, she fucked these two guys while I watched.”

“Lucky,” I heard Paige mutter. I ignored her. I guess it didn’t phase her too much because that was the common thing in her relationship with William. He was always watching her with other guys.

“I didn’t like it. When it happened again, she went farther and dabbled a bit in what you do with William. It devastated me, and not in a good way. We since talked things out, but when I think back on it the situation should have never happened in the first place. I thought I was being a good boyfriend by making sure Kaylee was happy. If she was happy, I was happy too.” I shook my head firmly. “That’s bullshit. There are plenty of things we can do to make us both happy. I shouldn’t have to shoulder misery to make the person I love happy, and they sure as hell shouldn’t be happy I’m miserable. The thing is, if you don’t tell them your miserable and pretend you aren’t, how are they supposed to know? More importantly, how are they going to feel when they do find out? If they care about you—truly care—they are going to feel like shit.”

There was a long silence as she stared at me. “You really have changed,” she finally said. Four words and the old Paige was back. The confidence that bordered on arrogance, the relaxed state she put on like she was in perfect control of everything around her, and that smug grin had replaced the **** girl who had spilled her heart out only moments before. “Never expected something somewhat intelligent to rattle free in that empty head of yours.”

“They call me Sagely Scott in school.”

“Not in the slightest.” She frowned. “Some whisper you are some sort of sex god though, which is super weird considering I remember a certain someone begging for advice on how to touch his girlfriend.”

“I didn’t beg!”

She chuckled. “You totally did.” With a breath, she hopped to her feet. “Thanks for listening though. I know—” She stopped. “Just don’t tell anyone about this. I swear, I will kill you.”

“As if I want to relive any moment of this.” She moved to leave. “But seriously, Paige. Talk to him. As someone who has been in a similar position, you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

She had paused by the door, listening to me. She didn’t nod or acknowledge my final words of advice. I did get the bird though and a promise that I would be losing important things if she caught me peeping again. Grossly unfair to call that peeping. That would require intent, and I had no intention of ever seeing anything close to that again.

Letting out a long breath, I slumped down in my seat. This was supposed to be my moment to recharge and relax. Why did it always seem like things were being added to my plate faster than I could clear them off?