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Monday, May 31

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     Parker left after a few hours on Sunday night. Olivia had come downstairs a couple times throughout, first to get water and then some snacks eventually. Their parents had come home at some point, but by the time Reese headed back upstairs, the door to Olivia’s room was open and she was laying alone on her bed, no Parker in sight. He figured Parker must’ve escaped through the window, like he and Olivia were still high school lovers afraid of getting caught by her and Reese’s parents.

     Monday morning was business as usual, although Olivia definitely seemed to be in an even more chipper mood than usual as she chatted with Reese while he cooked breakfast for the two of them. He didn’t even have to wonder why. He was there last night; it was obvious what Olivia and Parker were up to after Reese headed downstairs.

     Olivia didn’t ask for a foot rub from Reese later that afternoon as was her usual schedule. She still went on her jog in the afternoon, but apparently didn’t feel like cashing in her daily foot massage until later that evening. The family was finishing up dinner when Tracy’s sister Sarah called. They chatted on the phone for a minute at the dinner table, before Olivia asked if they could talk upstairs. “I hate hearing only one end of a conversation, it’s so annoying,” she reasoned. Sarah also wanted to hear about Stuart’s new project he was developing at work, so their dad joined Tracy as the two of them headed up to Stuart and Tracy’s room to talk with Sarah for a little while.

     “If you don’t want Mom to walk in on you giving me a foot massage again,” Olivia said, turning to Reese, “then I think we should get started now.” Reese agreed, and the two of them put their dishes in the sink. 

     Olivia poured herself a glass of wine as Reese headed over to their usual spot, and Olivia soon joined her, glass in hand and ready for a relaxing evening. Reese rolled his eyes as he saw Olivia’s drink as she settled her feet onto his lap. “OK, wow, somehow that just makes it worse,” he said as he gripped Olivia’s soles and began his task. The two of them picked out a TV show to watch that they’d both like, and eventually Olivia turned on her side while Reese continued kneading away at her feet. 

     After a little while, Reese heard someone coming down the stairs, and he whipped his head around to see who it was just as Olivia was picking her glass up off the couch-side table. In doing so, he accidentally slammed his elbow into her foot, startling her while the delicate glass was being carried up, and the wine glass lurched out of her hand as Olivia’s body was subtly jerked by her brother’s sudden action. It thumped on the ground on its side, spilling her drink onto the carpet. “Reese!” Olivia exclaimed, quickly picking the glass back up. There hadn’t been a lot left, but it had already all been spilled regardless. 

     “Are you two fighting again?” their mom asked as she came into the kitchen. 

     Olivia stood up quickly, remote in hand, and stood over the spot on the carpet. She exited the show they were watching and started flipping through the Netflix categories. “No,” Olivia said, turning to address their mom, “he just made a dirty joke. It’s fine.” Tracy sighed but accepted Olivia’s excuse, and unplugged her charger from the outlet, heading back upstairs to rejoin her husband now that she could charge her phone. 

     Wide-eyed, Olivia turned to Reese, who was still sitting on the couch, mouth agape. “You’re welcome, dude!” Olivia said, irritation in her voice. She was acting like she had just saved Reese’s ass, which she did, but she also was saving her own. Her parents didn’t have a problem with her drinking in the living room, but even if Reese bumped her, it was still her drink that had been spilled and she didn’t want to risk finding out how her mom or dad would react. “You better fucking clean it up before it stains the carpet,” she ordered, taking a step back and collapsing onto the couch again. Reese swallowed nervously, embarrassed at having caused the accident due to his fidgety behavior. After all the progress he felt like he had been making with his family, it felt like his parents hadn’t gotten mad at him in at least a week, and he didn’t want to reset that timer. He stood in front of the spot, staring at it for several seconds as he tried to think of the best way to clean it up. “Don’t just stand there, get some rags!” Olivia berated him; clearly he didn’t know what he was doing. “And then get mom’s stain remover from under the sink.” Reese didn’t even bother saying anything, and just rushed off to the kitchen to grab what was asked of him. Olivia turned, expecting Reese to slip up. “Not her kitchen towels,” she whispered harshly, “you’re gonna stain those too. I said to get some rags, like from the garage.” Reese’s cheeks turned red as he shut the towel drawer and changed his course of action. He was trying to keep his mom from finding out, and as a result was getting chewed out by his sister for his ineptitude instead.

     He came back from the garage with several old rags in hand, glancing at Olivia on the couch as he went back to the kitchen to get the cleaning spray. Her ankle was resting on her thigh so she could look at the underside of her foot. “Some of it soaked into my socks when I stood on it to hide it for you.” 

     Well I know what her clean socks smell like and her sweaty socks smell like, wonder if she’s gonna let me know what her socks smell like with wine soaked into them, he thought sarcastically. Fruity and musty at the same time, great. “Do you want me to get you another pair from your bedroom?” he asked as he returned to the living room.

     “No, it’s fine, just take these off and you can wash them with the rags when you’re done.” She lifted her legs up expectantly, and he got on his knees, pulling her socks off. “Do my feet smell like Cabernet?” she asked with a giggle. At least she doesn’t seem as angry anymore, he thought, lowering his head to sniff at her feet. 

     He gave a quick whiff at her left sole, aware of the fact that she still hadn’t showered since her afternoon jog yet. “Yeah, kinda,” he answered. He didn’t what Cabernet was, but wasn’t sure if it actually smelled different from other wines. But there was definitely some kind of fermented, sweet aroma present, mixed with an obvious lingering tinge of sour sweat underneath. Olivia giggled again at having gotten her brother to smell at her feet, and got up to refill her drink. Reese laid the rags out flat across the spot on the carpet, and pressed his palms firmly against the floor. He could feel the liquid slowly start to get absorbed by the cloths, and folded them over to repeat until he was satisfied that most of the immediately available residue had been soaked up. 

     Tossing the dirtied rags aside with Olivia’s socks, he sprayed the spot several times with his mom’s solution and got onto all fours. Olivia returned with her second glass of wine and sat back down as Reese started scrubbing away at the mess. Olivia saw him on his hands and knees and got an idea, biting her lip at the devious behavior that was emerging because of her tipsiness. Out of the corner of his eye, Reese saw Olivia lift her long, lightly tanned legs up, before feeling a sudden weight on his back, that suddenly doubled itself. His sister was using him as a footstool. He didn’t know what to say. “Uhhh…” was all he managed to get out, unsure of how to even ask Olivia what she was doing.

     “Yeah?” she replied innocently, taking another sip of her wine as she gazed at her small brother hunched over beneath her feet. Seeing she was playing dumb, he crawled out from under her and let her feet fall the the floor, then sat back up on his knees and looked at her with a confused expression on his face. She’s probably just playing around, he mused. What else could it be? It’s still annoying though. “Did you finish cleaning the carpet?” Olivia asked him. She looked towards the floor, “Doesn’t look like it.”

     “Well, yeah, cuz I didn’t like having your feet on my back. They’re heavy.” He felt ridiculous explaining it to Olivia as if it wasn’t obvious to the two of them already.

     “Are you calling me fat?” Olivia teased, and Reese rolled his eyes.

     “No, but you don’t have to be fat to weigh more than a lot of people at six and a half feet tall. Even besides that though, your feet feel heavier on my back since I’m… smaller,” he said timidly.

     “Well you don’t have to clean the carpet,” Olivia explained simply. “If you aren’t down there, then I won’t be able to use you as a footrest,” she shrugged. 

     But then Mom will get mad that I made you spill your drink. Or maybe she’ll get mad at you for drinking wine in here in the first place. But I don’t know if I want to make that risk. He thought of another solution. “OK, you know how you said all these…” he looked around, searching for the right word, “favors, or whatever you wanna call them. How you said the other day that they’re all optional? Like, you’d help me out with my homework regardless of if I rub your feet or do your nails or whatever.”

     Olivia nodded, “Mhm.”

     “And that I could, like… deny you whenever I wanted to? Like say I didn’t wanna do something for you?”

     Another nod. “Yep.”

     “OK, good, well… this is one of those times. It’s annoying, and… weird, and it makes it harder to scrub at the ground when you’re resting your feet on me. Just use the other end of the couch, like when I give you massages.”

     “But what if mom and dad come back down before you’re finished cleaning up the stain? Mom’s gonna wanna sit there,” she said, motioning to the other end of the sofa, “and she’s not gonna be as fine as you are with my feet in her lap.”

     “Well what do you do when she or dad normally sits there and you have nowhere to put your feet?” It was an obvious answer, and he was beginning to feel like everything he asked was redundant.

     “I have to just keep them on the ground.” Reese motioned his hands forward, as if saying Right, exactly, so then do that! “But I don’t like keeping them on the ground, it’s more comfortable to spread them out and rest them somewhere.” For fuck’s sake… I wonder if she’d still be this stubborn if she wasn’t several glasses deep right now.

     “Fine,” he sighed, tired of arguing with her, “then if they come back and wanna use the couch while I’m still down here, then you can use me as a fucking foot stool again."

     Olivia smiled, “OK, sounds fair to me!” I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it ‘fair,’ Reese though miserably, as he got back down onto his hands and knees and crawled back over to the stain while Olivia swung her legs up onto the couch. But it’s not like mom and dad are gonna— 

     As if on cue to Reese’s thoughts, the sounds of two pairs of footsteps came walking downstairs, as Stuart and Tracy finished up their call to Reese and Olivia’s Aunt Sarah. “My turn!” Tracy called out, and Olivia smirked at the timing as she hauled her feet off of where she had just laid them. She crossed her arms and lifted her feet several inches above Reese’s back, dramatically dropping one after the other as if to say ‘I told you so.’ Reese gritted his teeth together angrily, but knew that he had agreed to Olivia’s deal - hell, he was the one who proposed it. He wasn’t sure whether to feel more frustrated with his sister or his mother as he continued scrubbing away at the carpet while his sister’s feet weighed upon his back. And he hadn’t even finished cleaning up the stain; he just hoped his mom wouldn’t notice, or get too angry with him. 

     Tracy chuckled as she saw Olivia lay her feet down on her brother’s back. “Gee, what’d he do?” she asked as she looked at her son and took a seat where Olivia’s feet had just been. Stuart glanced at his kids through bottoms of his glasses, before taking a seat in his armchair, not giving whatever antics they were up to a second thought.

     Olivia handed the remote over to her mom. “I’m just punishing him for spilling some food on the ground,” she explained with a snicker. “Don’t worry, it’s coming out.” Although nobody could see it, Reese blushed at Olivia’s deliberately embarrassing choice of wording. My sister’s punishing me? Ugh… I suppose I’d rather her than my mom though. At least Olivia’s just joking. And Mom probably won’t be as mad since Olivia’s doing the explaining. 

     His assumption was right, his mom hardly even cared. “Oh OK. As long as it comes out, I don’t mind.” Good. Now I just need to actually finish the job and make sure there isn’t any sign of a stain. He switched arms, his left one scrubbing intensively into the carpet while his right one propped up his body (and with it, his sister’s large, heavy feet).

     Eventually, he was finally convinced that the carpet looked as good as new, and he heaved himself up from the ground. “Looks good,” his mom said, and he smiled faintly back. He saw that she had her feet resting on the couch in the middle cushion. It frustrated Olivia that while her mom could recline without invading Olivia’s personal space, Olivia was unable to do the same because of how significantly taller she was. One of the reasons Olivia didn’t often watch movies or TV with the rest of her family, unless she was able to user her dad’s chair and ottoman. But even if he was shorter too, he still liked having a footrest of his own, so it wasn’t common for them to swap.

     Reese came back from starting a load of laundry with the damp and dirtied rags and socks, and his mom patted the middle cushion where her feet were. “Come join your momma!” she told him endearingly. “I only have a few months left with you before you’re off to college, or wherever you decide to go.” Reese didn’t really want to join his mom, but he felt guilted into it. He wasn’t sure if she would be right, and he’d be leaving them in a few months thanks to Olivia helping him pass his classes. But there was still a chance he’d fail and have to ask to live with them for another year. And his decision to be on his utmost best behavior wasn’t just something for Olivia, it went for his mom too. So he propped up a mostly fake smile and went over to join her, squishing himself in between his mom and his sister as his mom lifted her feet to let him in. Since Tracy had just seen him bear his sister’s feet on his back (and had seen him the week before rubbing Olivia’s feet too), Tracy was sure that her son wouldn’t mind her own wrinkled, calloused feet in his lap. He did, obviously, but his pacifist behavior meant he wasn’t about to say anything. 

     Olivia leaned over slightly, her head perched above Reese’s as her hair fell onto his face and tickled his head. “Guess I know where I got it from,” she whispered with a smirk, just barely quietly enough so that only her brother could hear, and then lay her head on top of his, leaning the rest of her giant body against his small frame, while the family enjoyed their time together for the rest of the evening.

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Shoutout to yoyo51010 for making an animation of this scene! Here's their commissions page: https://www.deviantart.com/yoyo51010/art/Commission-839600564

 

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