10. Piper

CHAPTER 10

Piper

M y fingers glide along the neck of the guitar as I strum the same chord repeatedly.

Shiraz Naimi, my conscience and the band’s drummer, taps her fingers on her knee. “One of the best songs ever written. You know I still get choked up when I hear it.”

“Huh?” I lift my gaze from my guitar to look at her.

Shiraz points to the guitar. “Fast Cars by Tracy Chapman.”

My fingers freeze on the strings as realization dawns on me. It’s like running naked through a cafeteria in the presence of my judgmental mother and out-of-touch father. Nine years since I listened to the song, and I’m strumming along like it’s been playing on repeat in my mind.

When Kaye and I were together, we played the tune and planned the many things we’d do once we got out of our town. We would be traveling artists, seeing the world, creating, and making love until our bodies collapsed from exhaustion. Our minds would retreat into a universe littered with idealistic fantasies. We never realized that you could only live in the realm of make-believe for so long before reality struck down all your grand illusions.

Kaye and I were products of the harsh realities of life. I didn’t fit into the contrived ideal of my parents. They wanted me to be the perfect daughter, get married, and have children—a fate written in the stars for the girls born in my small town. Things that the other girls wanted due to lack of worldly knowledge or the notion that heteronormative domestic bliss was the pinnacle of life. But unlike those girls, I wanted something else.

The rough kisses of boyfriends with their teenage stubble or barely there mustaches did nothing for me. The hard lines of a man’s chest didn’t turn me on. I never wanted the quarterback to glance my way, and when the bad boys caressed me with calloused hands, my body withered, and bile rose in my throat. There was no second-guessing that I was a lesbian, something I knew from a young age. Kaye, however, wasn’t privy to her sexuality until she met me.

From the moment I saw Kaye Cavendish, I was smitten. She was so real, raw, and beautiful—from her long hair and pretty dresses to her ruby-red lips and warm eyes. I knew I’d never look at anyone the way I looked at Kaye.

But she was dating my twin brother. My only option was to be her friend, and that consolation prize was better than the alternative of not having her near me.

I learned all I could about her, shared parts of myself with her that no other human was privy to. Kaye became my refuge in the pandemonium of my life. Before her, I was a spinning compass. With her, I had a true north.

My longing for her intensified slowly until one night when my desires became so intense that like a moth I flew right into the flame willing to burn due to my unbearable need for her.

“Why are you with him?” I asked as Kaye and I stood at the sink of the Jack and Jill bathroom separating my room from my brother’s.

Kaye rinsed her mouth and gazed upward. She always did that when she didn’t want to discuss an issue. There was nothing interesting about the white stucco on the ceiling, but Kaye focused on it like it was a divine revelation that could save her.

“He was there at my lowest point,” she whispered.

I wanted to shake her. To wake her the fuck up. My brother didn’t care about her. Not like I did. He would leave her in the dust without a second glance. I would place her on a pedestal and worship her. “He treats you like shit.”

Kaye shook her head. “No, Larken doesn’t treat me like shit. Being treated like shit means curling up on the floor and protecting your head as your father kicks you until you’re black and blue. Being treated like shit is going hungry for days because your father went on a bender. When you’re ten years old, and you have no food or money to purchase groceries. No, Piper, Larken doesn’t treat me like shit. Larken treats me like a convenience. At least with Larken, I’m safe. He may not care about me, but he’s never once hurt me. For a girl like me, that’s the world.”

The pain in Kaye’s voice was a mallet to my heart. The sorrow in her large chocolate-brown eyes was so visceral that I bit my bottom lip to hold back my tears. It wasn’t fair that Kaye had to live a life of misery. I couldn’t even picture how horrible it must have been to be so young and completely alone. Especially in our small town filled with gossips and judgmental bitches.

I stepped forward until I caged Kaye between my arms. “One day, Kaye, you’ll be on top of the world. One day, you’ll have everything you deserve. I’m asking you to let me go on the journey. I’m begging you to forget your loyalty to a guy who isn’t worthy of you and place your trust and hope in me.”

I circled my hand around her neck and pressed my thumb to her pulse point. Her skin was so supple. Her legs parted, and I stepped between them. My mouth hovered over her breathy, parted lips. “All I want is to make you happy, Kaye.” My tongue darted out, and I licked her bottom lip, getting high on her distinct flavor. “All I want is to make you feel good. You gonna let me do that, Kaye? Are you going to let me make you feel good?”

My hands roamed her body, touching her beautiful curves. God, her body was a temple to be worshipped: full hips, large breasts that were far more than a fist full, her soft stomach that begged to be licked and kissed.

I traced the elastic of her sleep shorts, tugging at them. “Is your pretty pussy wet for me, Kaye? Is that hot cunt desperate to be touched by me?”

Kaye nodded.

I grabbed her waist and lifted her onto the counter. “Oh, no, baby girl. You’re gonna have to use your words and ask me real nice. I want to hear you say how much you want me to finger fuck that dripping fat cunt.”

“Please,” Kaye whimpered.

Dropping to my knees, I tugged her shorts down to her ankles. I slid my hands up her legs, paying attention to her sexy thighs. Parting them, I allowed my eyes to feast on her pretty pussy. God, I wanted to bite those lips, marking her delicate flesh with my teeth so Larken would know she was mine. All fucking mine.

Using my fingers, I spread her labia and opened her up to me. “Look at how this pretty pink pussy is weeping for me, baby. Begging for me to make her sing. Come on now, baby girl, beg for it.”

“Why are you doing this?” Kaye asked as she thrust her hips, desperate for friction against her sensitive clit.

“Because I’m tired of you lying, baby girl. I want you to admit that your pussy is a slut for my tongue and my fingers. I want you to acknowledge that the only time you come is when I’m the one touching you. Tell me how you dream about being with me. Let me know who owns this sweet cunt. Beg me to make you squirt all over my face.”

Kaye’s legs jerked as I slid the pad of my index finger along her clit. “Come on, baby, it’s so easy. All you have to do is admit you're a fuckin’ whore for my touch and my touch alone.”

“Larken, make me come,” Kaye demanded.

My beautiful little bitch. She wanted me angry. She wanted to set me off. Kaye slumped on the counter as I tugged at her ankles until I exposed her big, beautiful ass to my view.

“Is that right?” I asked.

“Mmm-hmm,” she moaned as I stroked her puckered asshole.

“Has my brother ever been in your ass?”

“Oh God,” Kaye moaned. “No, no one.”

“I am going to tongue your asshole while I finger fuck your pretty pussy until you quake from the bliss.” I pulled her ass cheeks apart and spat on her asshole. Kaye moaned as I spread the saliva, making me wet and desperate for her.

“Oh my God,” Kaye whispered as I swirled the tip of my tongue over her anus. “Please stop teasing me. This is pure torture.”

“I’ll give you what you want, baby girl. All you have to do is say the words.” I dig my teeth into her ass, sucking her flesh into my mouth, desperate to brand her as mine.

“Piper, no. Larken will notice. He’ll think I’m cheating.”

Sardonic laughter fell from my lips. “Kaye, you’ve been getting fucked by his sister for months. Baby girl, that is cheating.”

Out of spite and jealousy, I bit harder into the plump flesh of her ass. Kaye inhaled sharply, and I knew she was biting her bottom lip to keep herself from screaming. She’d done it many times to avoid waking my brother as I ate her cunt. One time, I feasted on that pretty pink pussy until she passed out from pleasure.

I pulled away from her ass and examined my animalistic teeth marks. “You think because I have a pussy instead of a cock, it’s not the same?”

“It’s not,” Kaye said as her fingers brushed the mark.

“Baby girl, it most definitely is the same. Guys might not mind their girls being bi and getting some side action, but I promise you that’s only because they can join in. My brother isn’t gonna find that scenario tempting when the other girl is his sister.” I place a kiss on the bite. “This would make a pretty tattoo.” My finger circles her anus again. “You wanna come like a slut, Kaye, or go to bed with an unsatisfied wet cunt? Because I feel like you’re wasting my time here.”

“Please fuck me, Piper,” Kaye begged. “Make me come, please.”

“Tell me what to do, my pretty whore.”

“Finger me, fuck my pussy and tight little ass as you eat me out. Fill me up and let me know you own my holes.”

I slammed two fingers inside Kaye’s tight cunt and curled them up, pressing against her G-spot. “Who do you belong to, fuck toy?”

“You, I belong to you. I’m your little slut.”

“Fuck, baby,” I moaned as I latched onto her clit, sucking hard while my other hand moved to her ass. I used my spit and her cum, working my fingers in slowly, penetrating both her pretty pussy and asshole.

I stared at Kaye, her body slumped on the counter, the back of her head leaning against the bottom of the bathroom mirror. Her eyes were wide as she glanced at the door connecting to my brother’s room.

“Better be quiet, baby girl. We wouldn’t want my brother knowing how much his girl prefers fucking my fingers to his cock, would we?”

Kaye shook her head, her knuckles stark white as she gripped the counter. Blood trickled from the side of her mouth as she bit her bottom lip, moaning in ecstasy. A part of me wanted to push her until she screamed so loud that she’d have the entire house barging into the bathroom. I had her right where I wanted, blissed out and completely at my mercy. My pretty girl was desperate for my touch, my tongue, my fucking love. I realized an irrefutable truth: Kaye Cavendish would always be mine. No matter the time or distance, nothing could tear us apart.

“No one else will ever make you burn with unbridled passion and desire.”

I sucked her clit into my mouth before letting it pop from my lips. “Tell me, Kaye. Tell me who you belong to?”

“Yours. I’m yours, Piper.”

“And I’m yours.”

“You gonna ditch the groupie?” Shiraz asks, pulling me from my memories.

“I already did. That girl slurped way too loud.”

Shiraz’s husky laugh filled the space. “You sure that was the real problem?”

I shrug. “I like to eat, and that girl made me lose my appetite.”

“You know you’re a shitty liar, right?”

“The truth isn’t much better. It’s kind of fucked up to be stuck up on the first girl you’ve ever loved. A girl I haven’t seen in ten years. A girl I’m not sure wants to be with me. I mean, sure, she reacts to my touch, but goddamn it, she fuckin’ walked out and never looked back. Who walks out on someone they claim to love?”

Shiraz tilts her head and smiles sadly, her dark curls falling to the side of her shoulder. “People don’t always leave for selfish reasons. Sometimes, people leave to survive or because they have no other choice. Sometimes, people leave to save the ones they love.”

Shiraz’s words weigh heavy on my chest. She knows the realities of needing to escape more than anyone. Her mother risked her life to escape Iran with her. Her father wasn’t a good guy, and the laws in that country ensured he would have gained custody of Shiraz, banishing her mother from ever seeing her again. A part of me feels like shit, moaning about a girl I loved and lost ten years ago when I know others have been through so much worse.

Shiraz rises from the chair and steps toward me. She places her hands on my shoulder, steadying me. “Piper, sometimes life doesn’t happen the way we want. There are moments that change the trajectory of our lives in deep and complicated ways. Sometimes, we get a chance to set things right. Don’t impede your happiness. You aren’t a teenager anymore, and neither is she. Talk to her. See if she feels the way you do.”

“What if she doesn’t want me?” Fear pricks my heart because my question hits on the profound truth of it all. I’m scared of rejection, of her walking away from me again.

“Then you move on.”

I allow Shiraz’s words to permeate in my very being. Words that echo the truth of the matter but also tilt my world and threaten to shatter my fragile heart.

I look my friend directly in the eye and lay my biggest fears bare at her feet. “I’m so scared she won’t stay.”