Siding with the Ex

“I assume you were listening,” Heather said coolly towards Brandon, the quarterback nodding slightly. “Well, what’s your opinion then? What do you think we should do next?”

“I agree with Ashley.”

Ashley was shocked. She’d expected her ex-boyfriend to side with Heather, just as he had when they were planning, when he insisted it was a good idea to take Heather up to the apartment. Ashley wondered what might have happened had Heather not come. Would Hannah have still used the video to **** them not to use the confession? Or had that tactic only come into play after Heather got involved? Maybe if it had just been the sisters perhaps Ashley could have convinced her, somehow. Not that she knew exactly how that might have been possible, but in the perfect, fictional world inside her mind, she thought it possible.

After all, hours ago she would have thought that Brandon agreeing with her over Heather would have been just as impossible as convincing Hannah to turn herself in. And yet, there he was, in no uncertain terms, telling Heather that he too wanted to find a way to outplay Hannah, despite the video.

Brandon was in a strange position though. He understood Heather’s point, in the sense that if word got out about his relationship with his own sister, not only would it affect them legally but the damage to their reputation and their ability to make a living would be devastating. That was reason he’d even tried to convince Madison that perhaps they should see other people. Despite having discussed **** with Heather and being aware that she roleplayed taboo situations, Brandon was still surprised by the extent and that she’d actually gone through with it. Even just listening to it had been odd. He couldn’t imagine what it felt like for Ashley, who was actually in the room and had to watching the daughter with her daddy’s dick in her mouth.

But even knowing and understanding the damage that might do, Brandon still felt that it was imperative that they free Lisa and have Hannah arrested for the crimes she actually did commit. This wasn’t about what Ashley wanted, it was about what was right, and it wasn’t right for Lisa to have her future ruined when she’d done nothing wrong. He’d known Hannah a long time, through Ashley, so he was sure that the older blonde wasn't actually trying to hurt Heather or Zack or their families. This was simply survival of the fittest. But that just meant that they had to prove that they were stronger, faster, better…

“Oh, not you too,” Heather growled at Brandon’s decision. “How can neither of you understand this? There are so many ways that trying a different tactic could go wrong or blow up in our face, but it won’t be either of you who faces the brunt of the fallout.”

“What I don’t understand is how you can turn and run with your tail between your legs,” Brandon countered. “That’s not the confident, dominant Heather I know who wouldn't allow some upstart blonde to tell her what to do.”

“I’m not being a coward. It’s just basic mathematics,” Heather spat, offended. “When Lisa was in imprison, the only thing we had to lose by failing was that Lisa took the fall, which happened if we did nothing as well. So, it made sense to do something and take the risk. Now, the game has changed. Hannah upped the stakes. Not if we do nothing Lisa gets the same thing, but if we do act, whether we succeed or fail, Hannah is in a position to hurt a lot of people and destroy a lot of families. It’s not cowardly not to put your head in a guillotine. That’s what this is. It’d be suicide.”

“That’s if you believe that Hannah would actually go through with it,” Brandon suggested, slapping his fist against his palm. “I say we call her bluff. I don’t think she’d actually go through with it.”

Ashley bit her lip. She wished she had Brandon’s confidence, but he hadn’t been in that apartment. He hadn’t seen the look on Hannah’s face or the assuredness with which she presented the video. Though, in truth, Ashley had been wrong about Hannah a lot lately. Ever since she’d gone to college, Ashley had felt her sister slipping away. No…it was even before that…

Heather’s voice interrupted Ashley’s thoughts, asking, “If you have any great ideas on how exactly we use the recording without hurting Zack or my father, I’m all ears. That’s the only true win that exists here, but it’s a dream. One way or another, someone is going to lose out.”

“Well, no, I haven’t thought of anything…yet…” Brandon insisted, telling himself that he or Ashley would come up with the answer any minute now. No matter how he played it out in his head, Hannah used the video and the whole sordid affair became common knowledge.

The dark-haired cheer captain laughed derisively. “Exactly, and you won’t because, as much as I hate to admit it, Hannah beat us. She outplayed us. She won. She has the nuclear option and any attempt to provoke her could set it off. And I’m not entirely unsympathetic. I understand that it’s my fault that Hannah has the ammunition, for doing what I did with my own father in his office where anyone could see-”

“That’s what you think the problem is?” Ashley recoiled, repulsed. “The fact that you did anything at all with your own father is horrifying, never mind the fact that you did it at his place of business where anyone might have seen, and did and recorded it.”

“Either way, that’s on me,” Heather argued, trying not to get drawn into to defending her deepest, darkest desires for her daddy.

“Honestly, I blame Robert,” Ashley admitted. “As mature as you think you are, he’s still your father. Even if you’re an adult, he shouldn’t be allowing himself to get into inappropriate situations with his own daughter. With Brandon and Madison, they’re both teens, our age, and people our age make mistakes and sometimes go too far. But Robert is a parent. He should know better.”

“Parent’s aren’t magical, Ash,” Heather argued bitterly. “As soon as you have a kid, you don’t just become an ascended being without dreams or desires. They can still make mistakes. Not that it feels like a mistake.”

“Think about it. He came inside your mother and you grew out of that cluster of cells. And now he’s pouring more of that same seed down your throat and you’re happily drinking down all your potential brothers and sisters,” Ashley said, attempting a new tact. “Don’t you see how fucking messed up that is?”

It was messed up. What was more messed up was the sudden heat that rose inside her body and the dampness between her legs. She still wasn’t wearing underwear and all Ashley’s talk of drinking her daddy’s cum had her pussy tingling in the open air. Her breath caught in her throat. Rather than speak, she stammered in a half moan, “I…I…I…ah…”

Ashley’s face became a picture of horror and disgust as she physically took a step back from her best friend. She noticed how rosy Heather’s cheeks had become suddenly, and that glassy hungry glazed look in her eyes and it was immediately obvious that she was aroused. Ashley’s attempt to turn her off had the inverse effect. Ashley shook her head in disbelief, and said, “Holy shit, that’s actually getting you hot? What the fuck, Heather?”

“It-it’s not like I’d expect you to understand,” Heather countered defensively, her tone, shaky and uncertain, sounding rather unconvincing. “Though, my dad did have a vasectomy many years ago, so I’m not really drinking my potential anything or the other.”

“Oh yeah, that makes everything better,” Ashley replied, throwing up her arms.

“I think that’s enough,” Brandon interjected, wary of getting between the two women even despite his strength and stature. “Whose fault it is or why doesn’t really matter. We’re in the predicament that we’re in, so rather than pointing fingers and assigning blame, we need to think of the best way out. One that leaves no man behind.”

“No,” Heather said firmly. “Unless you can guarantee 100% that you know it’s going to work, that you’ve worked out all the possibilities, I won’t allow you to go ahead and try some half-baked, just so crazy it might work scheme that winds up destroying me and my family. We tried that, thinking we knew all of Hannah’s tricks and she still got us. There is no good way out of this. Either we destroy two lives or we destroy seven.”

“You won’t allow it?” Ashley snapped. “You can’t forbid us.”

“I can, and I am,” Heather argued. “Ask Zack because I’m betting he’ll say the same.”

“Really? I know if it comes down to his family and his ex-girlfriend, he’d likely side with his family,” Brandon pondered aloud. “But I really doubt that he’d want us to do nothing at all for Lisa.”

“Well, there’s one way to know,” Heather suggested grumpily. “Let’s go back to the cabin and ask him. If he agrees with me, then I don’t want to hear any more about it. This discussion is over.”

“And if he sides with us, we get to do whatever we want, and you won’t try to interfere or sabotage us?” Ashley confirmed.

Begrudgingly Heather nodded. It would take all of her will power to not do what came naturally to her, which was to protect her father and the business. The business he’d groomed her to succeed him in, the business she’d grown up so much apart of that it felt like home to her, as if it were woven into her DNA, the business that could potentially become nothing if Ashley and Brandon had their way. She would be nothing but CEO of a hill of ash. But they would never agree to the deal if she didn’t offer them something. So, she acquiesced, and the three teens headed to the car.

Heather’s entire future was riding on Zack Bishop.