Featherscape Tickle Story Collection

Ticklish Weekend at Auntie's - Part 4

"I don't see why you're still so upset about it," said Conner, his face buried beneath a Lakers baseball cap as he sat reclined in the passenger seat of his sister's car. "It was just one math test. You'll make it up later."

"Yeah, it was one math test that I failed because of you," replied Valerie, sternly glaring out onto the road in front of her. "You and the music that goes all throughout the house. You'd think you'd be able to turn it down every now and then, but no."

"Well, now you just sound like mom," said Conner. "The whole reason I go with you to Auntie's is to get away from that crap."

"It's obnoxious, Conner," said Valerie. "I couldn't study for a single minute all night."

"You think it may have something to do with you waiting to the last minute?" asked Conner. Valerie sighed.

"Fine, I'll admit when I made a mistake, but you're just so inconsiderate sometimes," said Valerie.

"You could have gone anywhere to study," said Conner.

"It was the whole house, Conner," barked Valerie. "If mom or dad had been home, you know they would have made you turn it down."

The drive to Marilyn's house had become nearly as natural to Valerie as driving to her own house. She was able to accurately assess the best time of her Friday evening to leave in order to avoid excessive traffic. She had the trek down to three hours and forty six minutes, give or take ten depending on weather and road conditions. Valerie sat in a flustered mess. Her seat was fully inclined, her eyes never leaving the road. She wore shorts, flip flops, and a spaghetti strapped crop top, clothes easy for her aunt's infamous prowess. Conner laid back in his seat. His gym shorts basked in the final moments of the fading sunlight. He too wore his flip flops, bleached from several summers spent at the beach. His shirt was tight, clinging to his thin, frail core. He casually sipped a soda out of a can he brought from home.

"You've already been accepted into college," said Conner. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is you being a jerk," said Valerie, eyes squinted in anger, forced upon the road.

"Maybe you could have studied more for that test if you weren't spending so much time over at Aunties," insisted Conner. Valerie sighed.

"It's for stress relief, you know that," said Valerie. "Maybe I wouldn't need so much stress relief if you weren't such a pain in my ass. I don't even know why I bother driving you around."

"Because mom and dad took away my licence," said Conner.

"Yeah, for your second seat belt violation."

"Whatever."

"In their car. If you're going to be reckless, at least buy your own car to do it in."

"I'm working on it," said Conner. "Jeez, you think you're the only one who needs time alone? I don't get this kind of heat from mom or dad."

"Sorry that I care about things," said Valerie. "You know, stupid things like my grades and my family."

"I care too."

"Uh huh," Valerie dismissed. The argument came to a conclusion when Conner inclined his seat and took a disregarding look out of his window, seeing that Valerie was just then pulling into their aunt Marilyn's elegantly affluent neighborhood. The two fell in a dense silence. Coasting through the winding streets, rivered between rich, emerald grass and towering elms, Valerie and her brother listened to the faint remnants of the radio's lowered volume, the final guitar section of Hotel California. As the song faded, Valerie pulled into the stretched driveway of their aunt Marilyn's estate. The duo gazed upon the lofty columns out in front of the giant stain glassed front door, never finding themselves in a lesser awe with each visit. Verde stopped and parked the car up by the wide, three car garage door. "You get the bags."