Friends like These

Another wasted weekend trying to go on a date with another loser. There were no good men left in the city. Not a one. No matter how the rules changed or how much society insisted that certain things weren't going to be acceptable behavior anymore, men were always going to find a way around it. Men were always going to win.

Lisa arrived back at her apartment building and low and behold some other loser was just camped out with his luggage in front of her mailbox. She was strongly tempted to just kick the guy but the wiser part of her brain objected so instead she tapped her key on the metal and told him to get out of her way.

He looked up at her and instantly she was happy she hadn't kicked him. "Hey, sis."

"Charlie. What are you doing here?" she asked as he got up to his feet.

"Mom kicked me out."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"She wouldn't kick you out over nothing."

"It wasn't my fault. It was Nancy."

"Who?"

"It's a long story."

"Ok, well, come on up I guess."

"Thanks."

Once they were up in the apartment on the seventh floor he stood there awkwardly by the door with his bags.

"Go ahead. Relax. Tell me what happened." she said.

"Well, Mom and Dad have a girlfriend."

"A what?"

"Well, it all started when Mom and Dad started having sex a lot all of the sudden. They were doing it all over the house and walking around naked. It was like they forgot I was even there. And then they hired this new housekeeping lady who was in her thirties but she never did any cleaning. She's Nancy. Anyway, Dad and Nancy started to ... you know, and I thought Mom was going to flip out but she seemed cool with it. What she wasn't cool with was when Nancy started to come onto me. Mom never screamed at me so much. But it wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything. I told her to stop. I said no. Mom didn't care. She didn't care at all. She threw me out."

"What exactly were you saying no to?"

"Nothing happened. Nancy was trying to get me to touch her and she was putting her body all over me. She had me backed up against the wall and I was afraid she was going to pull like a rape charge on me if I pushed her off of me. I was scared. Then Mom came in and the next thing I knew I was out on my ass."

"Ok. Hold on. Let me call Mom and ..."

"No. You don't want to bother them."

"Let me just call. It sounds like just a heated momentary thing. Maybe she's calmed down by now."

Charles watched as Lisa got on the phone to their parents. The conversation was short but very confrontational. It ended with Lisa actually calling their mother a bitch on the phone and then hanging up.

"Can you believe her?" Lisa asked.

"Now you see."

"What the hell has gotten into them?"

"Some new age free love thing that they started trying. They went to meetings for it."

Charles looked around the spacious apartment and wondered silently about what he was going to do. Nothing could really be decided until Lisa's twin got home. She worked in the food services industry so she wouldn't be home for a few more hours.

The twins were supposed to be identical but everyone could tell the two sisters apart even when Mona wasn't wearing her glasses. Of course it also helped that each sister had their own distinctive style. Where Lisa always made her make up and outfits a full glamor production, Mona had a way of looking stunning in simple practical attire with minimal use of any cosmetics.

When Mona got home she passed Charles without even noticing him as it would have been extremely uncommon for Lisa to have anyone over. As long as Charles was sitting still he sort of blended into the background. It was only after she had a shower to wash off the smell of food that she realized her little brother was there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she stood by the bathroom door in just a towel.

"Long story."

Lisa came out of her room and started to explain how their parents had kicked Charles out. Mona stood there in shock with her mouth hanging open and once she heard it all including the phone call from earlier, she went over to her little brother and put her arms around him.

"Oh Charlie."

"So we need to figure out what he's going to do." Lisa said.

"He's staying here, of course." Mona said.

"Here?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, here."

"For how long?"

"I don't want to be a burden." Charles said.

"You're no burden. Don't say that." Mona objected.

"No, really, how long?" Lisa asked again.

"As long as he needs to."

"He's not a little kid anymore. He's going to have to learn to take care of himself."

"If I can just stay here a week or two I can probably find ..."

"You stay here as long as you like."

"I have a date tomorrow. I can't have him here." Lisa said.

"He can stay in my room." Mona offered. "There. Problem solved."

"Then where are you going to sleep?" Lisa asked.

"With you."

"No. I'm not having another guy thinking he's getting a threesome with twins."

"I can just take the sofa if ..." Charles tried to say.

"No, no, no. I won't hear of it."

"Plus you can't be sleeping out here if I bring a guy home."

"You never bring guys home." Mona asserted. "What are you talking about?"

"I said 'if'. If I can find a guy who's not a complete creep then yes, I might actually want to bring him home. What's wrong with that?"

"I'll try to stay out of the way." Charles said.

"Don't let her bully you." Mona told him.

"I'm not bullying him. I'm just saying ..."

"This is a family emergency. Your boyfriends can wait."

"They aren't my ..."

"Please, don't argue." Charles said as he finally pulled away from his sister holding him and her full bouncy breasts. "I'll go in the morning. Uncle Steve lives ..."

"You don't have to go." Lisa said. "Yet."

"You don't have to go, at all. You can stay as long as you need to." Mona cut in.

It was clear that they weren't all going to agree on anything. Charles slept on the sofa that night and spent Sunday using Lisa's laptop to write up a CV and start looking for a job. That was not how he expected his life to go. This was supposed to be the year he took off before starting college. He had other plans that were all shot now. All because of that slut Nancy.

Lisa was very keen to have her brother out of the apartment as quickly as possible. She made a few calls and discovered that the apartment directly across the hall was available. Her initial reaction was that it would be too close and she would still feel imposed upon, especially if she had to pay his rent for him until he found a job. Then again, if she was going to have to be on the hook for more rent, then she wanted him close by so she could jump on him if he didn't look for a job.

In what would be considered a bad move in the initial retrospect, on Monday, Lisa verbally agreed to rent the other apartment for her brother before she even looked at it. The price being so cheap didn't startle her at all and she was only thinking about how thankful she was that she wouldn't have to spend that much. That evening, the building manager came by with the paperwork and the keys and had all three of them sign. Mona was hesitant since she had figured her brother could just stay in her room and everything would be fine but she didn't want to pass up what looked like a good deal.

Once the apartment manager had the papers signed she wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. She was almost gone without even leaving the keys.

"And remember, if you have any troubles, just call the super." Then, with the keys left, she was gone.

Lisa held up the key and showed her excitement. "See. This is all going to work out. Just watch."

They all went across the hall and opened the door. Oh. It was a dump. Unlike the other apartment which had ample square footage, large windows with a nice view, and a kitchen almost as big as the living room; this apartment was very small, had no windows, and the space for a kitchen was really just a side corner of the living room where the carpet gave way to linoleum.

"Well, it's definitely a boy's apartment." Lisa said.

"He can't stay here."

"Well, obviously it needs a few touches and some furniture but ..."

"And a wall." Mona pointed out as she went to the spot where all the drywall had been damaged and the concrete and steel underneath was showing. "All this carpet has to come out. What is that?"

Charles walked over to the dark red spot and looked down. "I guess someone spilled wine." At least he hoped it was wine and not some other fluid that could cause a stain like that.

"Ok, it needs some work, I'll admit but just remember how much money we're saving." Lisa said.

"Charlie, you're not sleeping here tonight. You're not sleeping here at all. We'll let Lisa have this place."

"No." Lisa objected. "We got this place for him."

"I don't mind. It just needs some work."

"It needs a wrecking ball."

"I don't understand how two apartments in the same building can be so different." Charles said.

"You're going to get mold if you don't have proper ventilation." Mona said.

They went to look at the bedroom and discovered that it had no closet since it was little more than the size of a closet itself. Luckily, it did have a window but that window only looked out to a brick wall across a narrow gap that none but the thinnest person would be able to move through. The other room that might have also been a bedroom had been stripped of all drywall, ceiling, and flooring. The wiring was left exposed and none of them dared to venture into the room.

"Ok, look, you only need one bedroom anyway." Lisa said.

"Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost just to get this place livable?" Mona berated before storming out and dragging Charles with her.

That night, when Charles was going to sleep on the sofa again, his sister really insisted that he just share her bed and she pointed out that he might as well get used to it since that apartment was not going to be ready for anyone to sleep there for a good while yet.

Charles tried to say he was fine with just the sofa but his sister wasn't going to hear of it and had him come to her bed despite his protest. Charles tried to stay as still and as quiet as possible even as his sister wanted to cuddle with him.

Charles was not comfortable with this but he had no way to say it. Even before his sisters had moved out, he had discovered that their adult bodies gave him erections. What else could anyone expect once his sisters turned into bombshells?

And now he was in bed with Mona and she kept adjusting her sleeping position while snuggling up to him and he just prayed that she didn't notice his hard on. She was perfectly fine wrapping her arms around him and pressing her tits into him but he spent the night with his eyes wide open and his dick acting as center mast for a circus tent.

...

Long story short, through a combination of a loan and nagging the super, the sisters got the other apartment on the road to getting refurbished for their brother and after complaining about the condition of the place, got a slight reduction in the already very cheap rent.

Lisa noticed with great envy that her brother was able to get a job in the city in a matter of days unlike the weeks and months of job hunting it took her to land a position. Then of course, once Charles had money he quickly found himself with a girlfriend though the girl was not one that Lisa would have recommended to him.

"She's a gold digger." Lisa had told him one night after he had finished taking a shower.

"Then why is she with me? I have no gold."

"She just wants you to pay for things. She doesn't care about you. That's how all these city women are."

"Come on. All of them?"

"Granted there are a few good women out there but most of them are little better than prostitutes. They get you to buy them drinks or dinner and they trade that for sex."

"You don't know her. You don't know what her intentions are."

It was on the day that the apartment was finished and the first few pieces of actual furniture were put in that Charles came home despondent. After only two weeks of dating, Janice had broken up with him. Even though his own bed would not be delivered until the next day, he slept alone on the floor of his new apartment and wouldn't answer the door no matter how much Mona knocked on it and begged him to come out.

By the time the holidays rolled around the new dynamic had set in. Even though it had taken Charles three months to get over Janice he was back in spirits for Christmas and he even made a cheerful phone call to his parents to tell them he forgave them.

On New Years day, Lisa was pleasantly surprised to find Charles kissing a woman's hand in the nearby coffee shop. She observed from afar and tried to think if she knew that woman or not. She'd have to find out about her. But later when she asked about it, Charles dismissed the woman as a P.A.D.

"What does that mean?" Lisa asked.

"She's not 'date-able' material."

Ah, so he was learning. Good for him. There were a lot of trashy and/or loony people in this city, not to mention the sharks who were only out to hurt others; so if you wanted to find quality people you had to be careful.

By the time Valentine's day came, Charles had paid the twins back for the money they'd spent on his apartment. By March he had his own car and announced that he'd been promoted at his job and they now required him to wear a tie everyday. Mona was very happy for him but Lisa was starting to feel concerned by the arrogance he displayed at times. Now that he made more money than her she felt like he wasn't speaking to her with the respect he used to.

That issue of respect soon popped up again when their cousin Regina came to town to interview for a job once she finished college. Lisa thought that it would only be right to let Regina use the extra room in Charles' apartment after all the money they'd spent on it. Charles was not happy that his sister had made that decision about his apartment without talking to him first. Lisa pointed out all the money they'd spent on the room and Charles correctly pointed out that he'd paid them back every penny. Charles only relented and agreed when Mona got home and said she agreed with Lisa.

Of course it was all smiles like everyone had agreed from the beginning once Regina arrived. She was with them for three days, went to her interviews and then returned to university. Charles had to admit, she wasn't any trouble to have around and even though she was his cousin, having a tall, beautiful blond in the apartment was nice.

What Charles was not prepared for was Regina coming back at the end of May and asking if she could rent the other room in his apartment. She had gotten a job from one of those interviews and now that she had her degree in hand she was ready to start her career.

It wasn't like Charles wanted to say no. He really didn't but he didn't want a roommate. Nonetheless, in the end he agreed and before he even felt he had a chance to get ready she was already there with a bunch of her stuff moving in and making his apartment look girlie.

"I forgot how small the closet was." Regina said.

"You get what you pay for." Charles responded. "I keep a handful of things across the hall. Maybe you can do that too."

"Good idea."

And so the dynamic changed if only so slightly. Now, instead of Mona making breakfast for three, she made it for four. Regina wasn't exactly good to her word that she wouldn't get in Charles' way and in no time she and Charles discovered that they had a lot in common. That first weekend after she'd moved in, they spent almost the entire time talking and otherwise just enjoying being together. They had read the same books and liked the same movies. They even liked the same actresses. With each of them earning nice salaries, they did a lot of fun things together like going to the beach, visiting museums, attending concerts, and more often than they should have they ate at nice restaurants. They spent every moment outside of work with each other and there were times when one would change their previous plans just to do what the other was going to do. They were able to pay for the twins to come as well at times and it would be all four of them together doing something fun. However, most of the time, it was Charles and Regina as partners. Even on the days when they weren't going to go out to do something fun, they found themselves at least playing video games together.

If there was something fun or stupid happening, you could bet that Charles and Regina were in the middle of it. Nurf baseball in the hall. Stealing Lisa's fashion magazines and pasting funny captions on all the pictures. Making fun of what the various people who talked on their cell phones while driving were talking about that was so important. Prank calling various companies to ask for things that had nothing to do with their business model. They even played paper football for hours at a time just goofing off.

It was a pretty nice summer that year and everyone was getting along great. Charles had given up on even the idea of going to college at this point since he now had his job and he wasn't going to leave it to go get a degree he didn't need.

The only dark part of that summer was near the end when Janice contacted Charles again and told him she wanted to get back together with him. He had no use for dating anymore and told her so. Charles told her no in such a way that it caused her to track him down and start a huge argument between him and her out in a public place and before he new it, Charles found himself being told off by a cop while Janice cried and some social worker offered her a tissue.

"Listen, you stay away from her." the cop said.

"I am. She ..."

"Don't talk back to me. It's yes sir or no sir or a punch in the mouth."

"Yes sir."

After the incident Charles didn't want to talk about it and in fact never mentioned it. She knew what he needed. To make him feel better she challenged him to see who could do the most push ups. Sure, he was always going to win at something like that but it was the ego boost he needed to get him back to normal.

...

September

Charles hung up the phone at his desk and hung his head for a second. Apparently his new boss didn't think he was doing a good enough job for her. It's always hard to take criticism but he wasn't going to let it keep him down. He had to change her mind. He had to work a little harder and maybe be a little smarter. So he didn't have an accounting degree. He didn't need one to do his job so long as he was good with math. He just wished she hadn't been so vague about her issues with him.

He made a detailed report and emailed it to her to show her what he'd been doing. She emailed him right back and told him to bring the printout to her office. What? He didn't have time for that. Still, she was asking for it and the way he'd learned to get ahead in this company was to do what they wanted you to do with no lip. He liked his job. He liked his salary. He liked his apartment. He liked his car. He was not going to make waves over the new manager asserting her position for the first couple of weeks. Honestly, he should have seen it coming.

"Close the door." she said as he went into her office.

"I brought ..."

"I told you to close the door."

He did as she asked and then she told him to sit. She had two chairs in front of her desk. They both looked the same but when he started to sit in one she wouldn't allow it and told him to sit in the other chair. Charles suppressed a puzzled look, put his poker face on, and just did as she asked.

"How old are you?" she asked him.

"I'll be 20 in ..."

"I didn't ask that. How old are you now?"