Send her a text.

Leon wanted to talk to Jessie. Partially because he wanted to hear her how she’d coped with the events of last night but also because he missed her. It had barely been 8 hours since he saw her last, but he already missed the musical pitch of her laughter and friendly banter between them.

Knocking on her door might wake her up if she was sleeping, so he decided to text her. Just because they didn’t talk much up till now didn’t mean that they hadn’t swapped numbers in case of a house emergency.

He thought about trying to be funny, but he wasn’t sure what kind of mood she would be in, so he settled for the safety of a neutral text.

Leon: how did you sleep?

There wasn’t an answer by the time he brushed his teeth and got dressed. Poor girl must have been worn out after getting so worked up last night.

If she was asleep, he guessed he could spend time like he always did. He picked his camera up off the bed and started heading towards the window, but stopped short.

Why should he continue taking photos of Lily like a peeping Tom when he had the advantages of the Chronicle System? More likely to talk to me and an invisible camera? I might as well just go say hey. He put the camera in its case so that he wouldn’t look suspicious and slung it over his shoulder.

Am I crazy? Even if she’s more likely to talk to me, that doesn’t mean jack shit. There’s no guarantee that she’ll be excited to get to know me.

Taking a courageously deep breath, he opened his front door and walked across the yard toward his neighbor’s house. I’m going to knock on the door, and if Lily isn’t the one who answers, I’ll make up an excuse and leave.

It didn’t take long for his plan to go off track. Hell, he did the very first step wrong. Instead of knocking, he rang the doorbell.

Then, instead of Lily, or maybe Marlene, Harlan Fairchild opened the door wearing a bathrobe that had the haphazard look of being thrown on in the heat of the moment.

Harlan was Lily’s father, and Marlene’s husband. The fact that he was built like a truck did little for his physical appearance, and it wouldn’t be unfair to compare him to a slug. How he’d ever bagged a beautiful woman like Marlene, Leon didn’t know.

“What the- yer the neighbor kid right? Whaddya want? I’m a lil busy in here, if you catch my drift.” There was certainly a strong musty smell wafting off of him. Sex, Leon realized. I must have interrupted him having sex. Guess that explains the bathrobe this late in the afternoon.

“Errr... sorry Ha- Mr. Fairchild. I was just gonna ask if I could borrow some... turkey.” Turkey!? Who the hell knocks on their neighbor’s door to borrow turkey? I need to double check if there’s a brain on the floor after I bash my head open, because I’m almost positive I don’t have one. Jesus Christ! “But you’re clearly busy so I’ll just-“

“Borrow turkey?” Harlan said in sheer befuddlement.

Then Marlene came walking up behind her husband, wearing a matching bathrobe. Her hair was a frizzy mess, and the olive skin of her neck was adorned with numerous red patches that could only be hickies.

These people were making no effort whatsoever to hide what they’d been up to.

When she saw who was at the door, she nonchalantly spread open the top of her robe so far that he was sure she planned to flash him. The amount of sweaty cleavage she revealed, stopping just short of straight up whipping out her nipples, was almost enough to knock a young virgin like himself down for the count.

“Oh, what a nice surprise! Hi there, Leon. Out enjoying the fine weather?” It was humid as hell today, even for Florida. Not exactly what most people would call ‘fine’, but he had a hunch this was the first time she’d managed to get out of bed today.

“The kid was just asking if could borrow turkey! Y’ever heard of an asinine thing like that?” Harlan laughed harshly, obviously at Leon’s expense. How is that absolute fox of a woman stuck with this guy? Some women must really dig that muscular dumbass vibe.

“That’s not very neighborly, Harlan,” Marlene scolded. Leon watched her lips move when she talked, remembering the way they’d sucked so hungrily at her daughter. The only thing keeping his cock from springing to life was the hulking form of Harlan separating him from Marlene.

There’s no way I’m seeing Lily today with these two blocking my way.