What to Do with Darla

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"Um, well, uh, I wanted to talk about Mark. Is that okay?"

"Mark? I think you ought to forget about that skeezy douche-bag," Jay said.

"You really don't like him, huh?" Darla asked.

"No, I don't. He's a loser, Darla. Besides, I thought you said you were done with him. You're not thinking about crawling back, are you?" he asked.

"I just want someone to like me," Darla said, her shoulders slumping. "When we were alone he was real nice, but around his friends, he wasn't so nice. Know what I mean? You're like the opposite of that. I know we don't hang out a lot or anything, but you've had friends over and stuck up for me when they were being pigs. You like to pick on me all the time, but at least you don't do it in front of people and make me look bad."

"Well, I guess. If you're gonna make a comment about someone's ass, you can't do it in front of their brother. Just common courtesy," Jay said. "Anyway, you must realize why he was nice to you when you guys were alone, right? I mean you're young and hot, old Mark only had one goal in mind."

"Well, yeah, I know. I liked having sex with him, I think he liked it, too. Why wouldn't he like me all the time? We never really fought or anything."

"I imagine that he did like it, who wouldn't? He didn't like you all the time 'cause he's a scumbag. I don't know what all went on between you two, but he's not the kind of guy that's gonna fall in love with you and get married, have honor and respect and all that. He's just gonna sleaze his way along through life like a lecherous slug until he dies of an overdose or some poor girl's angry brother kills him."

Darla folded her hands on her lap and grimaced. "I'm not very good at finding anyone like that. I want to get married one day. Do you think anyone will ever love me?"

To Jay, she sounded a little bit like she did when she had called for a ride the previous morning. Pleading, heartbroken. "Oh my god, Darla! Of course they will. Don't sell yourself short, you're amazing. I know it doesn't count, but I love you. I may not act like it every second, but I do."

Darla felt something inside of her at that point. It was a little wave that started in her chest and radiated warmth from the inside out. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't for a second. Instead, she leaned into Jay and put her arms around him while she found her voice.

"It counts. You never said that before. I love you, too."

Besides maybe a little pushing and shoving here and there, Jay and Darla rarely touched one another. Hugging was something foreign. Rather awkwardly, Jay draped an arm around his sister's back. She was delightfully soft and her hair smelled like strawberries. It was a bit disturbing to him as to how easily Darla's behavior was influenced by a few words, but he sort of wished that he had told her earlier.

"You smell nice, by the way" he said, in the absence of anything else coming to mind.

"You smell like Doritos," Darla said with a slight giggle. There were worse things that he could smell like. "I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

They broke their hug and wished each other a goodnight. Jay watched his sister disappearing down the hall, wondering if there was anything else that he was going to be dreaming about that night. Something was happening to him now that he was beginning to see her more a woman than an annoying sibling. It was starting to hit him hard what a stunningly sexual creature that Darla was and what a deviant human being he was for thinking about her that way.

How could anyone not find her entrancing when she poured out her feelings, just begging for someone to actually listen to her? How could anyone not see that she was just a beautiful girl with a big heart that just wanted to be shown a little respect? Why would anyone just use her and let her go when she could be a someone's dream come true? Sure, Darla wasn't a genius, but neither was Jay, he'd be the first one to admit it. Even he could see that Darla was something special.

*****

"Your break's almost over. How come you haven't been going out?" Darla asked. She'd just gotten in from her shopping trip with her friend Lisa and it looked like her brother was in the same spot that he was in when she left.

"Haven't felt like it. Besides, I told Mom that I'd keep an eye on you for her," Jay said.

Darla shook her head. "You didn't do a very good job, I've been gone for like four hours."

"It's not like you packed a bag and looked like you were gonna skip town. You told me you were going to the mall. I didn't figure you were lying to me," Jay said.

"I know Mom's been talking to you about me. You can't tell me what to do, you know?"

"I didn't," Jay said. He set his book down and looked at his sister standing in the middle of the room. She was carrying a couple of shopping bags and a drink from a kiosk in the mall. It sure looked like she'd been shopping, just as she said she had, though she was acting strange. "Something wrong? Wanna fight about it?"

"No...I just thought you'd be mad 'cause I was gone so long," Darla said.

"You're weird. You weren't gone that long. It's still kinda early. I promise next time you come creeping in after midnight I'll slap the hell out of you. Is that what you want?" Jay asked.

"No. You don't understand," Darla said. She kicked her shoes off. "You said you worry about me and care about me, but you didn't call or anything."

"You're damn right I don't understand. Are you saying that you wanted me to check up on you? Since when have I done that?" Jay had always suspected that his sister had been dropped on her head a few times, now the crazy was really coming to the surface.

"I thought you'd start," Darla said.

Not being one to ever know how a woman's mind worked, Jay was really struggling to get a handle on what was going on. Maybe this is why Mark let her go. Jay could tell that there was a problem, and that he seemed to be a part of it. Uncertain past that, he chose his words carefully.

"Of course I love you, Darla. Part of that is trusting you, and I trusted that you were going to the mall and coming back home. I didn't see any reason to call and bother you. I can see you're upset, but I can't read your mind. Is there something else going on here that you'd like to tell me?"

"Maybe. I'm gonna put my stuff away."

Jay exhaled. He wasn't sure if he should be angry or frightened. Darla had always been prone to mood swings, but he wasn't usually the focus of them. Mostly, it was their mother that received the brunt of the attacks and he just listened from the sidelines. He supposed that with a proper examination that the right kind of doctor would be able to explain to him what the heck the deal was with the girl, but there wasn't a doctor handy at the moment.

As Jay sat in his customary spot on the couch, watching the minutes tick by on the clock, it occurred to him that his sister might not be coming back out of her room to speak with him. In the past, he wouldn't have given it a second thought, but now he felt obligated to investigate. He walked down the hall and rapped lightly on Darla's door.

"Darla? Are you okay? Can I come in?"

"Just a sec...yeah, okay."

Darla was sitting on the edge of her bed. She'd changed from the outfit that she wore to the mall to an old shirt and shorts. Her hair was down from the strange, braided knot-thing that it was always in. Though she looked much the same as she normally did before bed, Jay couldn't help but notice how cute that was this time. It was hard to believe that this sweet-looking girl sitting there enjoyed booze and multiple sex partners.

"What's going on, huh?" he asked.

"You think I'm stupid. No one takes me seriously," she told him. "I know I'm whining and I know I'm acting like a bitch but I can't help it."

"You seem pretty touchy right now, so I don't really know what to tell ya. I know I've called you a lot of mean things, but honest, I don't mean it. I want you to be able to talk to me if you have a problem, I don't like seeing you all upset. I know that I probably think a lot of things are silly that you don't, but you've got to cut me some slack. I'm your brother, I've got to be able to pick on you a little bit," he said.

Darla seemed to be okay with that and launched into a lengthy diatribe about her day, including the mall journey and all that ensued during such journey. Much of it reinforced Jay's assumption that a lot of things that Darla thought were important he found to be nonsense.

It all started when she was at work. Darla worked part-time as a waitress in a local restaurant that was currently looking for a night manager. She decided that she wanted to put her name in for the position. The manager on duty basically laughed at her and told her that she couldn't handle it and wasn't qualified. Darla argued on her own behalf. She'd worked there for over a year, people ordered food, it was cooked and served, money was collected, and the cycle continued. The manager said that there was more to it than that and that maybe she should take a couple of business classes or something. Darla said that she would, and the manager had the balls (in this case the manager was a woman, so perhaps audacity would have been a better word) to laugh at her again. Clearly, the woman didn't think that Darla had the intention or motivation to ever better herself.

Old buddy Mark kept calling her through the course of the day, wanting her to come over and 'talk things over'. He was willing to overlook how disrespectful she had been the night of his party. Darla wanted nothing to do with that, pointing out that she was tired of being used and put down. Mark told her that was all that she was good for and blah, blah.

Meanwhile, at the mall, Lisa wanted her to hook her up with one of their mutual friends that was hot and single, Darla didn't want anything to do with that either. They ended up arguing about what to look for in a guy with Lisa eventually telling Darla that she was being ridiculous for wanting to have an actual real relationship because Darla wouldn't be able to keep a man for long because she was such a slut. Darla didn't think that she was a slut just because she liked to have sex. Then they realized that they might both be sluts because they were in the sexy underwear store. What did that mean? They didn't know.

"And I don't want to be something just because that's what everybody thinks I am, you know? Am I a slut? What do you think?" Darla asked.

By this time, Jay was leaning heavily on the door frame, wondering if it was ever going to end. "Well, I think that if you don't want to wait tables for the rest of your life, then taking a few classes would be a good idea. It doesn't matter what your manager thinks, just because she's probably wasted her life doesn't mean that you will. You know what I think about Mark, he's a douche-nozzle. Glad you blew him off, I'm proud of you. If you want to try and find a serious guy, that's great in my opinion. And if you get in a serious relationship and don't like it, you can always go back and play the crowd. Just don't get trapped with having a couple of kids right away or you'll end up having to listen to Mom bitch everyday for the rest of your life. She does enough of that already."

"I know, right?" Darla smiled a little bit, feeling better that she finally got someone to agree with what she was saying.

"But why did you seem so mad at me when you got home?" Jay asked.

"I'm not mad, I guess. I just...I'd been thinking about you and I got worried that maybe you didn't mean what you said the other night. It just seemed like everyone I talked to was telling me I was wrong about everything and I don't know. I was kinda hoping you'd call me or something and tell me everything was gonna be all right. I get these ideas in my head and I just kinda fixate on them sometimes. I was stupid, I know," she said.

"Darla, you're not stupid. Maybe a little crazy, I don't know. I won't hold it against you, but do me a favor and wait to start yelling at me until I've done something wrong. Like I said, I can't read your mind. Knowing me, it doesn't take too long in between times that I do something to piss you off, so it's not like you'll have to sit around and wait to yell at me."

"Okay. So you still love me?" she asked.

"Yes. Do I have to say it all the time now?" Jay wondered.

"Yes, because I like it," Darla said.

"Fine. I love you. Feel better? Mind if I go finish my book?"

"I love you, too. Go read your story."

Jay went back into the living room to finish up his reading. Interacting with his sister was starting to feel like a second job seeing as how it was cutting into the time he spent lounging around. It wasn't something that he was terribly comfortable with, but he knew Darla needed someone to talk to. Someone that wasn't a brainless bimbo like Lisa or an asshole like Mark or the merciless punisher that their mother could be. He didn't mind filling the role, someone had to help his sister keep her feet rooted in reality. He didn't like that no one really listened to her and that apparently she absolutely craved someone to love her. She seemed happy enough even if it was him.

It wasn't long after he reopened his book that Darla was standing by the couch. "Hey, I realized that you never finished answering my question."

"Oh? Um, which one?" he asked.

"The one about what you thought," she said. When Jay seemed to still be confused, she elaborated. "You know, do you think I'm a slut?"

"What? Come on. You were pretty open with me about how much you like sex."

"Well, I like that we can talk about it. But you still didn't answer me," Darla said.

Jay sighed, now she was just trying to fuck with him. "Fine. I don't know if you're really a slut or not, but you act like one sometimes. I don't think it makes you a bad person because you like to screw. I do too, but I just don't do it as often as you."

"Well, why don't you?" she asked.

"Why don't I have sex as often as you? Because I don't have a vagina and it's not that easy when you're not a hot woman," Jay said.

"I guess that's true, but it doesn't help that you lay there and read or watch space monkeys shoot each other," Darla pointed out. "I could maybe hook you up with someone," she added.

It was a tempting offer, but Jay thought that it would be more trouble than what it was worth. "Look, I'm just not in any hurry. If the mood struck me, I'd work on it, I promise. Fact is, classes start back up in a little while and I'll be surrounded with eligible women. I'm on vacation right now and I don't feel like putting the effort in. I haven't given up, I promise. If I find myself forgetting what sex is like I can just ask you to remind me. I'm sure you've got a lot of stories you could tell."

"So it doesn't bother you when I talk about guys doing things to me?" Darla asked, grinning her wicked little grin.

Jay set his book down and rubbed his eyes. "That's not what I meant. Now you're just teasing me. What did I do to deserve this?"

"Nothing, but you pick on me all the time and I finally found a way to pick on you. It's fun, but I just wanted to come out and watch TV. I'll let you read," she said, flopping down on the couch beside her brother and reaching for the remote.

"You're a goof ball," Jay said, picking his book back up.

"Let me know if you want to hear a naughty story."

*****

"I wanna go out," Darla said.

"Okay. You need a ride or something?" Jay asked. He was sitting in the living room, reading again. He looked up to see Darla standing there staring at him.

"Well, I don't know. I was kinda thinking maybe you'd want to do somethin'," she said.

"You want to do something with me? Are you asking me out on a date?" Jay wondered, cocking his head to the side. The only time that they ever hung out was at home, which was quite often lately. They hadn't ever done anything but talk, so Darla acting like she might want to be seen outside of the house with him was something different.

"A date, no..." Darla had her hands behind her back and was twirling her toes on the carpet like an innocent schoolgirl. Jay was fairly certain that she wasn't putting on an act. It was doubtful that his sister knew any innocent schoolgirls or how they behaved, so she probably wasn't trying to imitate one. "I just thought maybe we could go see a movie or um, there's other things. I don't want to stay stuck here another night, and it'd be good for you to get out of the house."

"I've been going to work every day," Jay pointed out.

"I mean for fun," Darla said.

"I don't know. Sounds a lot like a date, but I guess it can't be if it's you and I, huh? Sure I'm your first choice?" Jay asked.

Darla could have been out doing whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted. She'd been making an effort not to partake in the nightlife that she'd been part of with the drinking and smoking, among other things. The problem was that she was starting to feel a little cabin fever and all of her friends would be well on their way to some form of inebriation by that time of evening. That left Jay, who would probably rather light himself on fire rather than have a good time. Unlike her brother, Darla wasn't content to sit around reading the dictionary and watching reruns.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't want to go party or anything. I mean, I do but I don't. I thought I'd give it a break, you know? I'm bored," Darla said.

Jay thought he knew what his sister was trying to say, and though he had no desire to leave the house at that time of night, he didn't have any desire to tell Darla to get lost, either. Seeing a late movie meant getting home late and waking up early for work. He'd much rather do that than have Darla go out by herself and end up doing god knows what. He looked over at the clock.

"Well, I better get dressed, then. Are you ready to go?"

"Really?" Darla asked. She didn't know if it was possible to get Jay off the couch or not. "I mean, yeah. Just go throw some jeans on. We don't have to get all dressed up to go sit in the dark, right?"

Jay smiled. "You know, if more girls had your attitude, I'd try harder to get one."

Darla smiled, as well. "I'm easy."

Yes, yes, we've been through that, Jay thought. Instead of standing around making fun of his sister's choice of words, he went to change his clothes. They got to the theater with a few minutes to spare before the late shows started.

To Jay's surprise, Darla wanted to see a science fiction thriller with a lot of alien gore. She did a lot of grimacing and hiding her eyes, but overall seemed to enjoy it. Jay liked it, too, even though his sister had the annoying habit of whispering into his ear about what she thought after each scene. She couldn't help it, he supposed, and there was something terribly cute about the way she leaned into him, grabbing his shoulder and covering her mouth with her other hand as if she was telling him something top secret. When the credits began to roll and lights came on, the two filed out with the rest of the modest crowd.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Darla asked, walking close enough to her brother to almost be touching.

Glancing at the time on his phone, Jay realized that he'd probably still be awake if they'd stayed home though it was getting near his bedtime. Darla's face was bright, as was her smile. If it had been a date, Jay thought that it had been going pretty well so far.

"It was pretty good. I never pictured you being into the scary stuff," Jay said.

"Oh, I like everything. You've got to work early, huh? Want to head home?"

"Yeah. There's probably not a lot of places open besides the bars, anyway. If you were my date, I'd probably be trying to get as much liquor into you as possible. In this case, I don't think it'll do me any good." They got into Jay's car and hit the road.

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