“Oh, I don’t think you’re more than a day or so behind, dear,” Candace comforted her. “He’s only just gotten home a few days ago.” She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head thoughtfully. “But unless I misread them, your sister has already had your brother’s dick in her mouth, so you can’t afford to dawdle in getting caught up.”
“But what if they deny it all?” Carol’s mind was working furiously. “They’ve always been thick as thieves, Aunt Candy.” She looked to her aunt, her eyes imploring her to help. “They leave me out of everything.”
Candace glanced down at the slim diamond watch on her elegantly shaped wrist. “Well, what is it that they like to do when you’re not around? Quickly now, there isn’t much time.”
“They just play dumb games. Cards, backgammon, monopoly….” Carol shrugged, her voice revealing how futile the cause seemed.
A slow, knowing smile spread across Aunt Candy’s face. “Okay,” she nodded once and leaned in. “Here’s what you do…”
Their mother had made them a chicken casserole for dinner and had reminded Cissy that it would be ready by seven o’clock so she should be prepared to pull it from the oven when the timer went off. Carol had come downstairs to say goodbye to Aunt Candace and her parents as they were leaving and everyone was pleasantly surprised to see that she had gotten dressed and applied makeup for the first time since she’d been grounded.
No one noticed the quick wink of approval that Aunt Candy gave Carol as she made the rounds, giving her nieces and nephew a quick hug as they were leaving. Their father reminded Trey that they could be reached at Ma Maison, the French restaurant downtown and then they expected to go to the club afterward for drinks, so they shouldn’t expect them home much before midnight. The number for both the restaurant and the club were on the counter on the kitchen if there was an urgent need to reach them, but his father expected that Trey could look after things, as the man of the house, for a few hours.
Cissy and Trey made their way into the living room, once their parents left, and settled down at the coffee table to decide on a game to play. They were surprised to see that Carol had followed them in and took a seat on the couch next to Cissy. Based on past experiences, they had expected Carol to retreat to her room, or jump on the phone, the moment her parents left.
“So what do you two have planned?” Carol asked brightly, looking from Trey to Cissy. Trey couldn’t help notice the alluring cone shape of Carol’s full breasts, beautifully outlined in the soft, white sweater that she was wearing that evening.
“We were just going to play a game,” Cissy shrugged, looking over at her sister, and then quickly across to Trey, to see if he had any idea what was going on.
“Great! What are you guys playing?” Carol seemed genuinely interested. “Can I join in?”
“Sure,” Trey volunteered carefully. “We just didn’t think that you liked games very much.”
“Well, ordinarily I wouldn’t,” Carol conceded. “But with you only being home for a few weeks, and me being stuck in the house until after New Year, I figured I needed to make the best of it.”
Cissy lifted her eyebrows in mild surprise and looked over to Trey. “What do you say? Should we let Carol pick the game?”
“Uh, sure.” Trey nodded awkwardly. He tried not to show his disappointment, that he and Cissy weren’t going to get to spend the time alone like he’d planned, but like Carol, he resigned himself to making the best of the situation. “We were just trying to decide between Monopoly and Life.” He stood to retrieve the games off of the shelf where they kept them.
“Why can’t we play something more grown up now, that we’re all eighteen?” Carol chirped.
“You mean like Bridge?” Cissy wondered.
“No, Barbara’s sister is home from college and told her about a game she learned,” Carol beamed, her eyes twinkling in pent-up excitement. “It’s called ‘Truth or Dare’.”
It took just a few minutes to explain the rules to Cissy and Trey, and after turning down several offers to just play a board or a card game instead, Carol insisted, “You did offer me the chance to choose the game, didn’t you?” She looked back and forth between Trey and Cissy, until they reluctantly admitted that they had, and agreed to play along.
“Okay, I’ll go first,” Carol volunteered brightly. “Cissy, truth or dare?”
“I guess I’ll take a ‘truth’?” Cissy offered tentatively.
“Okay, hmmm…” Carol put her finger to her lips coquettishly. “Have you ever kissed a boy?”
Carol couldn’t help herself from glancing quickly at Trey out of the side of her eye and blushing when she replied, “Yes.”
“Really….who?” Carol suspected it was probably Trey, but was actually curious at that point.
“That’s a separate question,” Cissy giggled as she chided her sister. “And you’ve already had your turn!” She turned toward Trey. “What’s the farthest you ever went with June?” She hadn’t meant to be so blunt, but even as she asked it, she realized that she really wanted to know.
“Uhhh, just kissing and hugging…you know.” He looked uncomfortably between his sisters seated across from him. “Regular stuff I guess.” He shrugged. His face felt warm as the game seemed to be getting much more intimate than he’d thought it would.