A Rock and Family Vacation
[17]
Blair didn’t give a smile or frown as they agreed to the terms of this bet. Lacy watched her face though, obviously trying to pick out some twitch or tell. Ever since they were young, Lacy would boisterously announce his plans in any games where you had to discern lies. Then he would try to interpret the little glimpses of Blair’s expression. Exuberantly, he would declare that he saw something and clearly his brother was doing this or that. Then it would snowball with more details and Lacy would be completely confident. And totally wrong.
Following that, Lacy would then resolve the opposite from all the quirks, accusing his brother of trying to trick him with fake tells. And he would be wrong again. Occasionally, Lacy would actually succeed but Blair then liked to seed the notion that he was just giving his brother a win so he would keep playing. Whether this was actually true or just another head game was never something Lacy could determine with certainty.
Blair's current impassive calm also baffled her. With an annoyed, girlish sigh (which then doubly annoyed Lacy that it came from her mouth), she inquired, “So what dumb ‘item’ am I supposed to put on and feel good about?”
Promptly, Blair clarified that her sister didn’t need to feel good about it but rather just needed to feel comfortable. Those were the terms of the bet. Lacy heaved a forceful sigh. “Yeah yeah, whatever. So, you really expect me to put on something meant for girls and I actually feel… comfortable… wearing it. Sounds like you’re cruising for a losing.”
Once again, Blair kept her emotions close without expression one way or the other, replying only, “We’ll see. I’m actually thinking of a second, bigger bet.”
“Whoa whoa, bro… You should just lose one at a time. All right, anyway, let’s get this thing over with, so I can start dreaming up things for you to do for me.”
Regrettably, Blair didn’t hold the best option, but she still had faith this would work. It was also possible that Blair’s limited personal experience with bras didn’t translate to all wearers, specifically someone younger and smaller like Lacy. But she wasn’t worried that Lacy would lie to her. In games with stakes, she held it almost like a code of honor to play fair.
The remaining obstacle was Lacy’s continuing hesitancy to give up their father‘s protective robe. Blair sighed and quipped, “I’ve seen your balls before. It’s totally fine.”
With a sour glower, Lacy glanced down at what of her chest showed through the robe. “Balls…Ha. Ha. The comedian. I’m taking my time.” For emphasis, Blair hunched over and shuffled across the room with his hand curled like it was gripping a walking stick and pushing up imaginary spectacles. Huffing with annoyance, Lacy finally peeled off the robe but kept it very close to her on the bed. With that out of the way, she then carelessly yoinked off her top.
She motioned towards the robe but restrained herself. Instinctively, her eyes scrunched closed, and she kept her head up. “Now, the damn thing.”
Blair helped her with it while she flailed, stretched, and fussed. Once everything was in place, Lacy finally settled her arms. A supremely quiet moment passed, the outside noises swallowed up by the striking size and relative isolation of the house. The roll and repetition of the ocean waves existed more as a natural rumble to be felt than a crash to be heard. Lacy made no obvious gestures.
The stillness was eventually broken by Lacy speaking a single word.
“…..Dammit…..”
Blair finally let herself breathe as Lacy stretched around and puzzled, “This is a bra? Tell me you secretly put something cooler on me and this is a dumb trick? I’m wearing a freaking, dumb stupid bra? Why is it comfortable, you jerk?! Why couldn’t you pick something scratchy and weird?! Friggin sissy stupid pleasant stupid stupid thing!”
She started to explain that other options might feel even better but they would need her to go to a store. Lacy fanned her hands and denounced, “Never going to happen. You just keep getting me whatever the hell this is. I’m keeping this on, but I’m still gonna wear my robe. After… I put on the gross things for tomorrow. As I agreed.”
The rest of the clothes were quite simple. Lacy kept her eyes closed as Blair adjusted everything. Flippantly, Lacy spread out her hands and put on a patronizing smile. What she didn’t realize was that Blair already had her phone out and took a quick snap of that before lying that she was preparing to take a picture. At the end of the countdown, Lacy did her best to spoil the image with a displeased sneer. Blair didn’t even tap the button.
The image that she saved didn’t retain the context of Lacy making fun of her getup. Rather, it simply appeared that she enjoyed and appreciated the outfit. As Lacy restored her robe bulkhead, she finally opened her eyes again and blinked against the harsh light streaming through the side window. Hastily, Blair made her way out the door and back to their parents.
Brooke enjoyed seeing Lacy dressed up the most. Double-checking the requirements from dad, she didn’t see any conflicts. Socks and shoes would be required but Blair fit a nice spare pair and Brooke learned, while Blair was away, that Lacy‘s feet still barely fit her dress shoes and she had appropriate socks for all of them.
“Lacy looks really nice. I’m sorry she gets so upset about hearing that. You look really nice too, big bro. I was really scared when today started that I would be alone and scared but everything still feels the same. There’s weird stuff for sure, but we still feel like a family”, Clare expressed quietly.
The animated movie was over and now the television was playing some goofy shorts. Clare’s attention was on her eldest sibling while her hands twisted and turned as though she were trying to roll up an invisible ball of clay. Blair smiled as Lacy returned to the room with no obvious signs of anything different and grumbled to her sister, “I wanna see the gift box, since you’re playing it up so much.” Blair agreed but instead of immediately following Lacy back to the bedroom, she sent the newest picture into the cloud and around to everyone’s phones. There really was no reason to do and she quite expected Lacy to get perturbed about it, but it was a photograph basically with her sibling smiling and looking pleased, no matter the context, and, therefore, she treasured it.
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Back in their room, Lacy wanted the exact same terms for this wager.
Keeping her expression again restrained, Blair countered, “You might want to change some aspects. I am thinking about raising my threshold to where you absolutely love and are gleefully tickled by what I got for you, for reasons all your own. With the win requirement that you then simply wear it around outside for the afternoon and we have some fun on the beach. And if you win, then you get a back and foot massage along with my bed whenever you request it. But I’m really tempted to ask more of you, like force you to do something cute or act a certain way. Still thinking it over.”
Blair had no confidence that she could win this proposed bet but that wasn’t the reason she said it out loud. She simply wanted her sister to think she was confident. And, indeed, Lacy wore traces of a cold, deepening sweat made worse by how much she was wrapped up in that robe. She asserted weakly, “Not possible. I don’t like anything about this. I’m just s-slightly comfortable. And it would suck to wear w-whatever it is you got. Whatever it is.”
Calmly, Blair nodded and remarked, “We did the big bet. This can be a smaller one with just my solemn hope that you enjoy my gift. No other strings attached for you to worry about. If I win, you give me a hug and a smile. If you win, you still get my bed for any night of this vacation.”
Lacy wasn’t a big fan of rubs, foot or otherwise, so reducing it to the bed swap was basically like setting the same penalty and a much lighter consequence. She was mentally prepared to deal with Lacy‘s bed. In fact, she was looking forward to it since the skylight and the window had fantastic views. There was no convenient spot for her phone, but she would deal. She thought to herself that her parents really should put her in charge of making agreements with Lacy.
As she expected, Lacy took that bet and shook on it again. The box wasn’t that hard to open and push past a couple layers of tissue. Blair braced herself for all the possibilities of how her sibling might react. She held her breath as the last bit of paper fell away and Lacy looked down with wide eyes at what was in the box. For a moment, a strange, grayish tint filtered through the light outside, as though the waves were reflecting off something bright.
The fact that Lacy didn’t chuck the garment, poke out her tongue, and scold Blair confused her. The cold, nervous sweat remained around Lacy’s ears. She cleared her throat as she brought the swimsuit up to show.
“Such… such a you choice. Boys rock. Like to find a boy-making rock. I bet there are even more puns in that. Dammit… I mean, sorry bro, you missed the mark. And who splashed all the paint on it? Dumb. It’s your money and you just wasted it.” Blair motioned to return it with the receipt, but Lacy drew back, hugging the swimsuit to herself.
“Noooo. This was your mistake. You thinking buying me something would turn me into some…heart on her sleeve, giggly bouncy swimsuit-wearing cute younger sister. I’m keeping this. And I’m going to remind you that you threw your money down the toilet. Hahaha. It’s delightful. I love it…WAIT! No no no no! You! You freaking tricked me!” Lacy stomped the ground as Blair freed the wide smile she’d been restraining. It was an outside possibility for a win, and she appreciated the fact that Lacy stumbled face-first into it without her needing to connect the dots.
“You’re so…GRRR. Bite me!”
“Pass and thank you. I will take a hug and a smile though.”
Lacy pointed out that she also needed to try on the swimsuit as part of their deal. Blair noted that she actually changed it so wearing the outfit wasn’t a requirement. To this, Lacy shrugged, “I’m counting the big one because even though you were tricky, you still got me. But! I’m dropping extra consequences on you for that trick. I am wearing this. I am hugging you….with a smuuurr…smile. And then you are putting on your fancy pants swimsuit you got and you’re gonna be stuck outside on the beach with me! Ha!”
Blair was tempted to question how any of that was supposed to be a consequence for her when she actually wanted to wear the swimsuit outside. Had her younger sibling somehow gotten smarter with all this and she had an even trickier endgame yet to play or was she actually dumber and thinking this would be a penalty?… Or was it something else? Either way, Blair couldn’t help but agree to those terms and see where it went.
Lacy still shut her eyes when the robe was off and needed quite a lot of help to strip so that she could put on the swimsuit. Seeing her sibling completely undressed felt momentarily strange. There wasn’t anything unexpected. But she noticed a quiet vulnerability as she stood there with her eyes shut and trusted Blair to support her and prepare the outfit. It took some awkward finagling from both of them but when the zipper went to the top and everything looked right, Lacy actually opened her eyes and sought out the nearest mirror. An instant later, she seemed to realize what she was doing and immediately snapped her eyes shut and asked for her robe.
With the robe covering most of her, Lacy posed in front of the nearest mirror and stretched a few cautious ways before declaring, “I’m super annoyed with how comfortable all this is and mad that I’m not allowed to wear it to the country club.“
Turning to Blair, Lacy stretched her arms out, slipped on an unmistakable smile, and gave her sibling an enthusiastic embrace.
“Satisfied? The smile is just for you and not for any of what’s going on. And that’s enough of that crap. Put yours on and let’s salvage this stupid vacation.”