But it was nice. During the day he started to warm up a bit. We had a conversation, an honest to god talk, about college. What he was looking and everything else. I knew from what he was saying that my school could be a decent fit for him. That’s the nice thing about a big college; there is plenty of space for everyone.
“I told dad I wanted to go to that little school we took you to in Springfield,” he explained as the sun was starting to go down, “The little liberal arts college. I did it just to get a rise out of him.” He explained and I laughed. My dad was paranoid.
“Where do you want to go? Here?” I asked and he shook his head.
“I want to go to an urban school somewhere, like New York or Boston or something. I just, I like being anonymous. I want to go somewhere where no one would notice me,” he explained. I guess I knew that feeling. But I felt bad for him. Part of his problem was that he was already too anonymous. He needed to branch out.
“Don’t go trying to disappear on me little brother,” I said, “I love you and if you try to become completely anonymous, I will hunt you down and find you.” Then he did something very strange. He reached over and grabbed my hand and held it.
“I love you too sis,” he said, “Sometimes you’re the only person I love, but I do love you.” I was touched. I mean, I really felt lovely when he said that. And we walked the rest of the way back to the dorm, hand in hand.
We arrived back at the dorm around 5:30 and the sun was almost completely out of the sky. Carrie was still sitting on the couch watching television, but I didn’t see Adrienne anywhere. Carrie didn’t look like she’d moved all day and she stretched and yawned when she saw us.
“How was the tour?” she asked. Sammy shrugged.
“It was fine,” I said, “We ran into that mouth-breather guy who likes you at the library.”
“Oh God!” Carrie said and we both started giggling. Then I heard Adrienne’s voice.
“Hey Carrie, are we taking your care to Habitat tomorrow? I was just… Oh!” I turned and looked Adrienne was walking out of the bathroom. She had clearly just showered. She had a towel wrapped around the top of her breasts but it was incredibly short. A triangle of flesh was exposed on the open side and one entire ass cheek was in the open air. If she moved slightly, she vagina would have been clearly visible. Normally this wouldn’t have been a huge issue. I, and to a greater extent Carrie, would have liked Adrienne to be more discreet, but if it was just us girls, who care? The problem was Sammy.
I looked over at him and he was staring at Adrienne’s hip. His eyes were wide as saucer’s and I swear his mouth was actually hanging open. This was probably the closest he’d ever come to a naked woman and I think I could feel his heart beating.
“What are you doing?” I said, laughing, “You knew my brother was going to be here, you pervert.” Adrienne put on a shocked face.
“How was I supposed to know you’d be back? You’re the pervert, staring at me!’ she said and I saw Sammy look away quickly, even though Adrienne was talking to me.
“Whatever,” I said, “Go get changed.” And Adrienne went into her bedroom. She came out a few minutes later in soft pajama pants and a tank top. He outfit was almost identical to what Carrie was wearing, except Carrie had a t-shirt on instead of a tank top. They looked comfortable.
“I am going to put my pajamas on too,” I said, “I will get changed in my room. You can get more comfortable if you’d like Sammy. Just use the bathroom. Please don’t come out half naked, that is Adrienne’s job.” Adrienne stuck her tongue out at me as I went to my room. I came back out a few minutes later wearing a pair of tight gym shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Sammy was already back, wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt. Both black, as fit his sense of style (if you could call it that).
We sat around for a while and watched television. I ordered a pizza and we all ate dinner. For a while the girls tried to get Sammy to talk. I did as well. But it was no use, he was too shy. Eventually, even Adrienne started to give up.
I was thinking about my brother’s eyes when Adrienne walked out of the shower. He clearly found her attractive. He hadn’t given up on girls because he didn’t think they were sexy, he did it because talking to girls stressed him out too much. If there was just some way I could show him that talking to girls didn’t have to be difficult, that it could be fun, I’d maybe make his trip here worthwhile. But how did I do that? Then I thought of something.
“Let’s play a game!” I said. Sammy would be forced to talk, and maybe even attempt to flirt, if we played a board game or something.
“Yeah, this show sucks,” Carrie said and clicked it off, “What do you want to play?”
“I don’t know. We have Risk, Monopoly, and Scrabble. But I am not in the mood for Scrabble,” I said. Scrabble is a quiet game; we needed something that required talking.
“Ah! No Board games let’s play something else. How about Kings!” Adrienne said. I shook my head.
“Even if we wanted to we don’t have any alcohol. How do you play a boring drinking game sober?” I asked. I looked at Sammy out of the corner of my eye. He was watching everything happen, but didn’t seem to be taking much of a rooting interest in anything.
“Well I won’t play if we play a board game,” Adrienne said.
“How about Poker?” I asked. Everyone else groaned at once.
“You always win, that’s no fun,” Carrie said and I laughed. It was true, but I still would have liked to play.
“I know!” Adrienne said, “I played this game with some people last week. You know that game ‘never have I ever?’ well it’s like that, except you have dares mixed in!” I was just about to decline to play that game when my brother spoke up.
“I don’t know that game,” Sammy said and I was shocked to hear him talk. Adrienne was so excited about her idea that she didn’t even notice that Sammy was awkward, she just engaged him, which is what I was looking for.
“Oh I’m sorry,” she said, “Okay so like everyone will put up a hand and then whoever’s turn it is will say something like ‘never have I ever eaten a peach pie,’ and if you ate a peach pie then you have to put your hand down. You can play it with beer, so like if you put your hand down you have to drink.”
“We aren’t drinking,” I said. Adrienne turned to me and rolled her eyes.
“I know that Lynn!” she said in an exaggerated tone, “That’s why I said it can be played with dares. If you play it that way, anytime you play a round everyone who puts their hands down it ‘out.’ Whoever is out, they have to do a dare that the people are ‘in’ make up together. So like on that last thing. If Carrie and I put our hands down because we both have eaten peach pie and the Sampson Siblings kept their hands up because they are sociopaths who’ve never had peach pie, the brother and sister team has to come up with a dare for Carrie and me to do.” She said it all in one breath; it was exhausting just to hear her.
“I don’t know,” Carrie said, she looked a little nervous about the room this game had for potential dangers. I was about to add my voice to the chorus, when I saw that Sammy looked a little bit excited. He was staring at Adrienne in the same way he had when she was nearly naked. Like she’d accidentally forgotten he existed and he was going to get to take advantage of it. I wasn’t happy about this game, but I’d do it for my brother.
“Come on Carrie, it’s this or more Jersey Shore,” I said. And now it was Carrie’s turn to roll her eyes.