Chapter Thirty - Cheek

Saki accompanied me to the hospital and, of course, had been right. I was fitted with an air cast and, after leaving Saki to return home, was treated to an hour-long lecture on how my mother never raised me to be rough and tumble like this and why I was careless and how much she sacrificed and, in general, how much I sucked as both a person and a daughter. None of which came as a surprise.

I’d been lucky it was my left arm so I could still draw and help with the maid café and, of course, masturbate. Though, honestly, I didn’t feel much like doing that since Typhoon Aria hit. That was probably the most tragic side effect of my love life imploding like a neutron star, I thought. Even earlier in the evening after my mom had released me and I'd retreated to my room, the idea of touching myself just made me feel sad.

I scowled at the drawing taking shape on the pad beneath my hand and cocked my head. What should a venomous mermaid with fangs and a unicorn horn and dragon wings even be wearing? I traced a gauzy see-through blouse over her torso, highlighting her ample breasts.

“You shouldn’t draw porn,” Mio lectured me, looking at my drawing as the end credits of the show she was watching began to scroll across the tv.

“You shouldn’t look at the porn I draw,” I sniffed.

“Mom’s gonna be mad if she sees you drawing that stuff,” Mio shook her head disapprovingly.

“Mom!” I shouted. “I’m drawing porn!”

“Don’t torture your sister!” Mom called back, most likely gossiping with her friends on the phone.

“See? She doesn’t care what I do so long as I don’t drag anyone else into my private hell with me,” I smirked at her, both smug in the knowledge I was right and a bit disappointed in that same knowledge.

“Well,” she changed the channel before turning and shaking her head at me in disappointment, “you’re going to go to jail for being a pervert and your only cell mate will be Emi-senpai and she’ll just show you her bony butt every day and you’ll go blind.”

“Aren’t you just a little ball of doom this evening? You seem to be talking about Emi’s butt a lot. Is there something you want to tell your onee-chan?” I put on my best “talk to me about your sexual frustrations” face and waited for the explosion. Mio nibbled her lip worriedly and glanced away, her cheeks reddening. What the fuck? I thought. Was I right for once?

“D-Does Emi-san have a nice butt like she says?” Mio finally muttered. Oh, my, I thought. How curious young Mio was this evening.

“Well,” I said, being careful with how I worded things, “I think whether something’s nice or not is in the eyes of the beholder. If you think her butt is gross and skinny, then I guess it is.”

“Do you think she has a nice butt?” Mio muttered. I eyed her curiously. This was obviously something weighing on her mind.

“You don’t honestly think people go to jail for liking H things, right?” I asked gently. Mio wouldn’t look at me, simply shrugging in response. She’s so repressed, I thought and shook my head slightly. It’s the schools. I nearly chuckled at how worldly I felt in that one brief moment. “They don’t, Mio. You can like butts and boobs and H things, and no one’s going to be mean or send you to jail.”

“Will you go blind?” Mio turned to gaze at me curiously.

“Am I blind?” I giggled at her. A smile crossed Mio’s lips and she shook her head.

“Do you do lots of H things?” Mio was so innocent and adorable I just wanted to hug her.

“I will neither confirm nor deny,” I copped out.

“Do you…um…do H things with Emi-senpai?” Mio looked nervous and I was confused for a moment before something occurred to me. Did my little sister like Emi?

“No, no, no,” I shook my head and waved my hands. “We’re just friends and we don’t do H things.”

“I see, that’s good.” Mio chewed her lip, deep in thought. “I’ve decided!” She smacked her fist into her open hand in determination.

“What have you decided?” I cocked my head slightly to the side.

“Emi-senpai has a nice butt,” Mio declared. “It’s a little bony, but it’s still nice!”

“Well, good for you!” I chuckled. “I’m sure Emi will be happy to hear that. Her butt seems to play a large role in her self-created legend. Not as large a role as her pubic hair but, still, it’s important.”

“You can’t tell Emi-senpai I said she had a nice butt!” Mio looked stared at me in horror.

“Oh, well, my lips are sealed,” I nodded.

“Why is she so obsessed over pubic hair? It’s weird,” Mio shook her head as she got to her feet.

“If you look under the word weird in the dictionary Emi’s picture is there,” I shrugged. “But I think it’s that she hasn’t developed as fast as us in that regard, so I think she feels it makes her a child still.”

“Emi-senpai’s plenty grown up, I think,” Mio decided with a faint head nod. I smiled at my little sister who seemed like she was growing up before my eyes and, possibly, turning into a huge disappointment for my mother in the process. That’s three out of three, mom! I thought with far more glee than I should have.

“I think so, too, Mio.” Mio nodded again and grinned at me.

“I’m taking a bath and then going to bed, onee-chan.”

“Ok, sweet dreams,” I waved as she marched proudly out of the living room like she’d just discovered penicillin or something. I tapped my eraser on the pad of paper in front of me and sighed.

Mio was finding a crush, Emi had her pubic hair, Mizuki had a mutant boyfriend but a boyfriend nonetheless and Saki was more mature than all of us combined in every conceivable way. What did I have? A girl who said she loved me then turned right around and fucked the biggest asshole in school and maybe more from what Midori-senpai said and a broken arm. I was absolutely coming out with the short end of the stick. I closed my eyes and leaned back over the couch cushion, putting my aching arm over my eyes.

In a month I’d found a crush, been dragged through some kind of love mincer, and deposited unceremoniously on the other side in a bunch of different pieces. Was love always like this? Did it suck this bad all the time? I wish life were a game, I thought miserably. Then I could scum save until I got the right answer and didn’t have to feel like everything I came up with ranged between wrong and absolute disaster. There was always a right answer in games. Always some skill check you could pass to make the girl take off her clothes and love you unconditionally forever. Except for the games where there were only bad endings.

I hated those games, but I was beginning to become convinced love was simply a bad ending game. I’d been euphoric when Aria said she loved me and then felt dragged through the lowest pit of muddy hell imaginable when everything disintegrated. Was there no middle ground? I had always tried to live my life in the middle since it seemed safest that way. The middle seemed vast and welcoming. Never anything too high or low, a nice, constant cruising altitude was pleasant. Occasionally there’d be some turbulence but otherwise smooth flying. I sighed again and scowled.

I just wanted to get the girl without sharing her with half the goddamn population of Tottori. I wanted to grab Aria by the collar and shake her and scream “Could you just not be a fucking slut?” Was that too much to ask? I wasn’t sure what god was fucking with my love life, but I did not appreciate the meddling in the least. The notification of a text message sounded on my phone and I grabbed the device and tapped in the code to unlock it.

Which looks better?

Emi attached two pictures, one with her wearing a maid outfit extending to her ankles and the other stopping literally at the point where you could still see her panties. I scowled and shook my head.

We are not wearing that second one.

Why can’t I wear the panty duster???

Because if the principal doesn’t kill us the parents will. You need to think these things through.

But the proper maid outfit is totally unfit for sexy young maidens such as ourselves. How can maids even clean in something that long???

Come up with something at the knee, then. There has to be a middle ground between showing ass cheek and preparing for the nunnery.

Fine. But let it be sung from the highest peak that I have cheeks to show and a need to show them!!!! Muahahahaha!!!!

So noted.

I laid back onto the couch once more and shook my head. If Emi and Mio ever did date it wouldn’t last long. Mio would have a heart attack after a week of Emi. It wasn’t long before I felt my eyes growing heavy and I knew if I didn’t get to bed soon, I’d just pass out half on the couch with my venomous mermaid porn on display. Blinking back sleep I pulled myself upright and began to pick up my art supplies in preparation for going to bed when Mio screamed.