Tucking his hands behind his back, per the new family rules, Cameron inched onto his side and rested his chin over the edge of the plate. Inches away, Brianna’s elegant, richly pedicured size-eight foot steamed amongst the pithy remains of his “breakfast.” Her toes wormed and curled, inviting him closer.

            Not one to refuse a delicious breakfast, Cameron lurched forward to fully engage. He first gobbled up the stray bites of pancake which hadn’t been mashed under his mother’s lovely ped. After that, though, it was impossible not to sample the cakes without also sampling the butter-stained flesh of his mother’s foot, matured like a fine wine in her forties.

            This was the plan all along. Cameron tongued away pancake flakes from the ball of Brianna’s foot. He slurped syrup out of his mother’s gladly parted toes. The ravaged stack of cakes were practically molded around the large foot after it was stamped directly through the gooey mash, and Cameron was had no hesitation in chewing every scrap of it away from her marvelous instep. Helpfully, Brianna occasionally lifted her foot up from the mush to grant him access to new bites; strings of syrup guided her wrinkled sole’s arched revelation amongst the sweet mess.

            In these moments, Cameron happily gulped clumps of doughy pancake directly from the thick, tender creases of Brianna’s sole. Every once in a while his teeth would softly catch her skin, and he’d feel her flinch momentarily, not with pain but, as he’d come to notice, ticklish amusement. Eventually his mother’s burly toes found their way to his mouth and pawed suggestively at the lips. Always glad to oblige, Cameron opened his mouth and let his thoughtful parent jam her three largest toes atop his tongue for a thorough slurping away of the crumbs.

            Unable to help himself while he ate, the boy prodded at his crotch through the pajama bottoms, longing for release. However, he knew better than to go all the way in the presence of his family without permission. He compromised instead by lowering his frame down to the floor such that he could writhe his hips strategically on the carpet. Of course, matters weren’t helped when Alyssa’s wandering foot would occasionally jostle itself on his thigh, trying to pry her way under his leg and graze her toes on his bulge.

            For minutes on end, Cameron sucked his mother’s toes like his life depended on it, while Brianna and Alyssa carried on a perfectly normal conversation above about this and that: the weekend plans, Alyssa’s friends, the length of some starlet’s dress at the last awards show. All while each of the women semi-consciously toyed with Cameron in the most intimate of fashions, ways which they hardly deigned to think about at times, but which conversely flooded the boy in a rush of emotion, lustfulness, reticence, and humiliation.

            For beneath the indulgent surface of his new life, Cameron was never unaware of the identity-wrecking acts he was autonomously engaged in. At all times, those facts churned latently in his stomach, even when he was far more affected by stinging arousal. Sure, events like this breakfast, while twisted, were private. But Brianna and Alyssa had no intentions of staying in the shadows for the rest of their lives just because Cameron had agreed to be enslaved. He never had to wait long to have his inner (and outer) demons broadcasted for those beyond these four walls.

            Breakfast came to an end, with Cameron dangerously close to blue-balls. Just as easily as they’d started, both Brianna and Alyssa pulled their adventuresome bare feet off his body. For the last ten minutes, his sister had simply used him as a footstool, while his mother sportingly allowed him to lazily lap at her heels, even though all the pancake evidence had been swallowed, save for the odd puddle of syrup moisturizing her pale skin.

            Then, as per usual, Cameron found himself at sink doing the dishes, while his mother and sister watched a few episodes of some show they were piecemeal binge-watching on stream. He scrubbed the plates, while also smacking his lips at regular intervals, confirming that the flavor of his mother’s molasses-painted feet still lingered like a warm hug in his cheeks.

            “Get yourself cleaned up, loser,” Alyssa blurted loudly into Cameron’s ear after a lengthy period of solitude, suddenly breaking his concentration. “We’re going out in a while.”

            “Out?”

            “Yeah, I’m meeting up with some people, at the mall first, then we’re gonna hang out here. A couple of them specifically requested I bring you, actually. And no offense… actually, yeah, offense… you kinda stink like somebody’s feet.”

            Yeah, yours and Mom’s, Cameron thought to himself truthfully, but without malice. She was right, after all.

            “Soooo… hurry up, once you’re done with the dishes. But you probably don’t wanna take too long, cuz I’m about to shower, too, and I’m planning on using all of the hot water. That okay with you?”

            “Yes,” Cameron said, wincing at the thought of an ice-cold stream.

            “Yes, what?”

            “Yes, Princess.”

            “Good.” Alyssa leaned up, planted a quick kiss on her older brother’s cheek, then puckered her lips and spit a dollop of drool into his ear. She wet-willied him, twisting her thumb like a pinwheel, then patted his cheek and left him be.

            Cameron obediently finished his cleansing duties, wiped his hands, gathered his things while waiting for Alyssa to finish. Once cleansed in the ice-cold water, he was refreshed enough to win the approval of his family, and that was all that mattered, even as he was already slightly ill with the prospect of going to the mall with Alyssa and her friends. Who knew what he’d be asked to do there?

            When Alyssa was ready, she stowed her feet in strappy open-toe sandals, then whipped out the dog collar and leash. Never particularly keen about this part, Cameron kept his mouth shut and let his sister hang the thing around his neck like cheap jewelry, snap it closed, and take up the leash in her fist. The invisible intangible chain was made real. Not that Cameron wasn’t capable of unlatching the collar himself, but that was never what this instrument was about.

            “Have a nice time, you two!” Brianna beamed, waving at her kids as they headed out the door. She winked at each of them. “I’ll have some drinks and cookies waiting for you and your friends, all right?”

            “Cool!” Alyssa laughed as she and her brother hopped into the car. “I don’t feel like driving today, Cameron. You drive me there.”

            Obedient as ever, Cameron turned the ignition. Once they were on the road, Alyssa tired quickly of tugging on his leash to get his attention, and instead relaxed, while the speakers blared with her iPod music. Her feet propped up on the divider drawer, with the gritty soles of her sandals prodding at Cameron’s elbows every few seconds to remind him she was there.

            At the mall, Alyssa led her brother by his rope through the parking lot and up toward the glassy front door of the shopping center. All along the way, Cameron felt the eyes of onlookers questioningly studying him: the college-aged young man with a leash around his neck, gripped in the dainty, confident hands of his adorable younger sister. Maybe they’d think he had a mental disability and had to be guided around? Maybe he was on some bizarre parole? Or maybe they simply thought he was a human pet to his mother and sister, for their constant use and enjoyment?

            Cameron’s cheeks burned hotly with awareness of the strangers cocking an eye and raising a brow at him. Whispers passed between them. Whenever he started getting caught up on this fact, however, he felt the sharp tug of the leash and returned his gaze to the floor, watching and listening for Alyssa’s stylish summer sandals slapping on the tiled floor. This kept him, literally, grounded and, he decided, for the better.

            In the food court, Alyssa reunited with three gleefully waving individuals. The first two, Cameron was expecting to see: Hailee, a petite dimpled redhead in a midriff-bearing tee, Daisy Dukes, and white flip-flops; and Olive, an undeniably pretty but also well-built brunette who ruled Alyssa’s school rowing team and was never not wearing a triumphant smirk, a tan, and her favorite Chuck sneakers.

            The third girl waiting for them, however, filled Cameron with greater consternation and stomach-revolving than any of the strangers around the mall combined. It was Tess, an unassuming twenty-one-year-old with kindly silver-blue eyes, jet-black hair, and a trusting smile; she also happened to be Cameron’s ex-girlfriend of two years, and the only person who knew about his “eccentricities” prior to the ousting by his family. He wasn’t even sure he knew Alyssa and Tess were friends. Were they, or was this simply an ambush?