“Well let’s have a toast, here’s to my little graphic designer!” Alice said, probably a bit louder than she intended as she raised her margarita glass. Colleen let out a loud “WOOP WOOP!” as she raised her own margarita to connect with her mother’s. And although she wasn’t imbibing with her mother and sister, Ashley still opted to raise her glass of water to participate in the fun.
“Yes, yes… we can all agree that I’m awesome.” Colleen said jokingly, eliciting a laugh from the rest of the table. As the trio of beautiful women continued to dine at Colleen’s favorite local Mexican restaurant, Alice asked a never ending slew of questions about her daughter's latest semester of college. Ashley was content to enjoy the free food and let the other two ladies chat to their heart's content. Eventually as the drinks continued to flow, Alice began to grow less and less responsive as she approached the limits of her body’s ability to metabolize the alcohol.
“Alright, we should probably get her home.” Ashley suggested after Alice made a suggestion that neither of the girls could reasonably decipher as English.
“Yea you’re probably right. She’s always been a bit of a lightweight.” Colleen joked, helping her mother out of the booth and escorting her out of the restaurant and over to the vehicle. Once both women were safely loaded in, Ashley began driving everyone home. They rode for a mile or so, not saying a word to one another before Colleen finally broke the silence.
“So tell me. How’s little Chris doing? And how come he didn’t come out to see me at dinner?” Colleen asked. Ashley bit her lip. She knew that question was coming, sooner or later Colleen was bound to want her favorite toy back.
“Oh he wasn’t feeling great tonight. I think he’s got a bit of a stomach bug.” Ashley lied, keeping her attention on the road.
“Hah. You’re a shitty liar, you know that?” Colleen said, her eyes still glued to her phone screen. Ashley grimaced but chose not to say anything. She didn’t know what to say. “I really thought I taught you better than that, ya know? When I left you in charge of that little runt, I thought that you understood the importance of keeping him in his place. And now I come home to find that he’s running the show? Christ.”
“He’s not running the show. I’m just… wait, I don’t need to explain shit to you.” Ashley reminded herself. “And for your information, Chris spent most of the afternoon inside my gym bag.”
“Oooh what a badass.” Colleen said sarcastically. “Whatever, you know I’m gonna find him, don’t you? And I’m gonna let out a semester’s worth of stress on our little stress ball brother.”
“Ha, good luck. He’s my toy now and I’ve never been great at sharing.” Ashley said, now grinning from ear to ear. It was a sort of rush to stand up to Colleen like this.
“Oh this is gonna be fun.” The older sister said quietly before closing her eyes and enjoying the rest of the ride in silence.
Eventually the three ladies made it back home and the two daughters helped escort their drunken mother inside. Once Alice was tucked away in bed, Colleen came back into the livingroom and tossed herself down onto the couch. Ashley eyed her with anxious nerves as Colleen began flipping through videos on YouTube.
“What? Not gonna start looking for Chris?” She asked quizzically.
“Nah, before long you’re gonna check in on him and I’ll catch him when you do.” The older sister smirked as Ashley stomped off to her room.
“Whatever you say.” Ashley walked off towards her room and began getting ready for bed. The young woman made her way back to her room and changed out of her clothes and into a pair of pajamas. In typical ritualistic fashion, she began scrolling through social media on her phone. Several times her eyes darted over to her closed closet door upon hearing various noises from elsewhere in the house. Every time she heard a creaking floorboard or a closing door, she had to suppress the urge to get up and check that Chris was still safely hidden. But she knew that she just had to play it cool, otherwise Colleen would start to catch on. So with that in mind, Ashley put her phone aside before pulling up her covers and drifting off to sleep.
Elsewhere in the house, Colleen was mindlessly scrolling through videos on her phone when she realized that it was almost 4 in the morning. She silenced her phone and listened to the noise in the house. Once she was certain that Ashley had fallen asleep, Colleen got up off of the couch and began quietly stalking around her old house. Slowly she walked through the halls, poking her head into the individual rooms that she remembered so well.
“Where are you hiding little man?” She whispered softly as she checked various cupboards and cabinets through the house. She knew that Ashley probably had Chris stashed somewhere in her room and so getting him tonight wouldn’t be possible. But on the off chance that Ashley was overthinking things like she normally does, Colleen figured it couldn’t hurt to give all her usual hiding places a quick once over.
“Oh no way.” Colleen said softly to herself as a lightbulb clicked on in her mind. With a wide grin the attractive coed quietly skulked off to her old bedroom and shut the door behind her.