Stuck: with Each Other

"Sure, I guess. A good prom would be a nice end to high school."

Emily kept her guard up as she took the clipboard. "So why you, why do any of this?"

Martin shrugged. "Brownie points, mum says if I can finish school without stirring shit she'll help me towards new car. Figured this could look good on a Uni application, if I can get to a place far enough away, I can drive the fuck out of this place and study somewhere decent."

Emily handed the clipboard to Arthur. "You know that might just be the first genuinely honest thing you've ever said."

"Was due one eventually."

Martin took the clipboard from Arthur and left to the next table, Nicola watching him intently.

"I don't trust him, he's up to something."

Arthur nodded in agreement. "You're right, I don't know what it is but I don't buy this act, not out of nowhere."

Emily turned away from Martin, fed up of the sight of him. "If it were anyone else I'd call you both paranoid but Martin Fuckin Allen is a wolf and the sheep's clothing does not fool me for a second. Fuck this, I need to find Frankie, I'll catch you both later."

Emily left to find her boyfriend before lunch ended, leaving the couple by themselves.

Nicola chuckled to herself. "You think Megan or Brendan are gonna believe us when we tell them about this."

"Honestly in the state they're in, I don't think they'll even know who we are, let alone what we're saying."

"Good point. Hey, I'm gonna head down to work after school so don't be late getting out of class, I won't have that much time to get home, get changed and get out again. And yes I do mean that I won't have a minute for THAT either, you cheeky little shit, you got lucky in that shower last night."

Arthur just smiled, leaned in and kissed Nicola, he liked seeing her angry, like everything in her life she was very animated and he loved that she was so passionate about the little things.

Of course the fact that he kept so calmed just pissed her off even more.

*

True to his word, Arthur was able to get out of class in time to meet Nicola in the car park, she had taken up a coaching assistant position at the sports centre for an under-15s volleyball team, initially it was an internship but she'd made a big impression and was given the assistant's position so she could gain a little income while helping out. Nicola took her job very seriously and was careful never to be late, which meant she would leave Arthur to walk home should she have to. Thankfully it hadn't come to that.

Yet.

After Nicola dropped him off, Arthur walked into his house to the sound of laughter and giggling coming from the kitchen. Confused he cautiously tiptoed across the hallway, turned the corner and saw his father chatting away with his mother as David seasoned a couple pork chops and Penny cut up the vegetables, both laughing away, almost oblivious to Arthur until Penny caught him in the corner of her eye.

"Hun? Oh my word is that the time? I had no idea, everything went by so quickly."

"Hi mum." Arthur was still confused but tried to hide it in his voice. "I didn't know you were here."

"Well I had a few too many to drink last night at the party so David kindly offered me his bed for the night. I thought it only fair that I help make dinner, plus I get to spend time with you."

Arthur thought it odd that if mum had slept in dad's bed, then why wasn't dad on the couch when he left for school that morning but decided against questioning it."

"I'm happy to see you too mum, I'll go get changed and help out."

David shouted out as Art ran up the stairs to his room. "Ok, but don't rush, we've got things mostly covered here."

As soon as his door was shut, Arthur took out his phone and texted Nikki, hoping to catch her before she started work. 'Just came home to find mum and dad in the kitchen, apparently mum spent the night.'

A couple minutes later Nicola replied. 'Really? I did see them together last night leaving mine but I didn't think anything of it. You think they're doing something?'

'I'm not sure, both of them are way too happy but I don't know if it's just wishful thinking on my part.'

'Keep an eye on them and update me later, gotta go. Love you.'

'Love you too'.

And with that, Arthur put down his phone and fell back onto his bed. The last couple days had been way too heavy for any 18 year old to deal with.

He prayed for there to be a beer in the fridge to calm him down.

*

Not wanting to get an answer to a question he didn't want answered, Arthur let the odd behaviour of his parents go and went on with his life. Over the next week and a half he put his effort into studying, he already had the basic exams from forth year but his Highers and even one Advanced Higher in English were the important ones and he was determined to put in the studying time to pass them, now that Halloween was over. He'd even turned down a part-time internship at Adam's work so he wouldn't be distracted, though afterwards he had doubts he needed to discuss with Nikki.

"Your dad isn't annoyed I said no to the job right?"

Nikki finished typing on her laptop and turned to Art. "Nah, least not that I've seen, he'll understand."

"Are you sure, I mean I don't want to..."

Nikki's laptop dinged as she received a new message, she quickly responded and turned back to Art.

"Don't worry about it; dad knows that your education matters to you. You're way too smart to risk fucking up now just for an easy couple bucks. The placement will still be there if you want it, if not then you'll have enough grades behind you to help you get something decent, better than what I'll have anyway, I'm mostly trying to..."

Nikki was interrupted by her laptop going off again, once more she responded to the message.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Kevin, I'm trying to convince him to spend Christmas with his mum this year, so he can save up to come over in March."

"Why, what's happening in March?"

"Well this is the last year that the girls and I will be able to play as a team so me, Emily and Megan are planning to renting out a log cabin for a long weekend in March, going up and just letting fucking loose as a goodbye. I'm seeing if Kevin wants to join us, been to long since I got hammered with my brother."

"Am I invited to this little gathering?"

"Of course you are dummy, Kevin's family so he gets first notice but I was going to ask you soon as I got a yay or nay from him. Needed to know if I had enough room in the car for both of you since I'm guessing you're a yes."

"Oh is that what you think." Arthur said with mock offense. "That I'm just gonna go along with your plans, well maybe I'll sit this one out, you know I'm no good with crowds."

Nicola smiled and shut her laptop, she crawled off her bed and straddled Arthur in his chair.

"First of all, it's not a crowd, it'll be around 15 of our friends in a rather large cabin. Secondly you love me too much to spend three days without me. And thirdly..."

Nicola pulled off her top, revealing her bra-less breasts directly to Arthur's face.

"...Can you think of anything better than a bedroom all to ourselves with no-one there to give a fuck that we're fucking?"

"You make a compelling argument." Arthur said, his eyes never leaving her nipples, Nikki smiled and lifted Arthur's head up, kissing him deeply as she did.

"Another time hun, I want to take my time with you and I can't do that with mum and dad almost home"

"You're an awful tease. And I'm ok with that."

Giving him one more quick kiss, Nicola climbed off her boyfriend and continued getting undressed, completely unabashed in her nudity.

"About this get-away you've planned." Arthur asked with the cogs already turning in his head. "Have you asked Brendan if he wants to come yet?"

"Not yet, given the tension between him and Megan I thought it best to check with her first, why?"

"This might be good for him, gets him socialising and we can keep an eye on his drinking."

Nicola found an errant bra and put it on. "Sounds good, I'll run it by Megan and you convince Brendan to come with us."

"Why do you get the easy job?"

"Your idea hun, your problem."

Nikki kissed Arthur again just as the front-door opened, the two of them went downstairs to see Lexi walking in, an assortment of bags in her arms.

"Hey mum."

"Nicola, thank God, can you give me an hand here."

Nikki ran up and took some of the shopping from her mother, taking a peek inside as she did.

"What's all this?"

"Well your father's working later than he expected tonight, so I figured I'd use the extra time to cook a proper Sheppard's Pie, been a while and I quite fancied one. Put the beef in the fridge for me would you Nicola."

As Nicola hopped through to the kitchen, Lexi turned to Arthur. "You're welcome to stay for dinner if you'd like Arthur."

"Thanks Mrs McAllister, but I told Dad I wouldn't be staying that long, should already be home by now."

"But my daughter distracted you with her feminine whiles."

Arthur's face went bright red remembering Nikki's nipples in his face mere minutes ago. "No... well, I mean..."

"Relax Arthur, I know yours and Nicola's relationship hasn't been as chaste as you'd like us to think for a while. And I'm ok with it, I made a lot of mistakes in my youth and I'm not ashamed to admit that sex was one of them, I'm happy to see my daughter making better choices than I did."

A pause passed between them, Arthur could tell there was something else on Lexi's mind but didn't want to speak for fear of interrupting something important.

"Did... did Nicola tell you, about me and Adam?"

"Oh, um... yeah, yeah she, uh, did, yeah."

"I see. Have you told your parents?"

"No! I mean, no, Nikki told me it was a secret so I've kept it a secret."

"I'm glad to hear it, most people don't realise that first cousin marriage is in fact legal in this country so it's not officially incest but most people can't see past the whole cousin thing. Took me decades to see past it myself.

"When did you realise that you had, seen past the cousin part I mean?"

"I don't know, just one day after denying myself the love of one of the only men who genuinely loved me for too long, I stopped giving a shit and allowed myself to be happy. Of course it had already cost Adam his marriage, his eye, his relationship with his son and with his best friend but that's on both of us. Why do you ask?"

"I've got a friend who's all over the place in terms of love, I figured coming from a confusing path yourself you might have some insight."

"Well I hope your friend finds balance soon, it's a hard life avoiding love for too long."

"Thanks Mrs McAllister, that should help me out. I'll just say bye to Nikki and run home."

"Anytime Arthur, thanks for stopping by."

As Arthur went through to Nicola, Lexi watched him and smiled. Whether Arthur knew it or not, he was gonna be part of this family for a long time.

*

It was a couple days later before Arthur got the chance to speak to Brendan alone, he used his weekend to visit his friend at home, hoping the personal visit would benefit him.

Brendan opened the door looking a little pale, but considering how drunkenness had become the norm for him, being sober was an improvement.

"Arthur? Fuck man you should've called."

"Wanted to surprise my mate, you feeling ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, found some of dad's whiskey hidden away, took a sip. Way too fucking strong for me, got woozy and bashed my head on the doorframe. I'm fine but I'm trying not to move around too fast."

Arthur followed Brendan into his house, watching his friend slowly use the walls to balance himself to the nearest chair, Arthur took the seat opposite him.

"How's things, haven't seen much of you since Halloween?"

Arthur saw something flash across Brendan's face, as though realising how little time the two of them spent together in the last couple weeks. "Yeah, sorry about that man, I've been grounded after mum found me passed out on the sofa. Figured I'd use the time to study believe it or not."

"Why not say something at school?"

"Embarrassment, I can't remember much of that night but I think I made a fucking arse of myself."

"True, but we're friends, I would've gotten over it."

Brendan smiled but there was little happiness in his eyes. "So what finally made you come round, not to tell me about fucking Martin Allen's sign-up sheet, bastard almost got me a couple times."

"No, nothing as traumatic as a nice Martin, actually it's an invitation, Nikki and her teammates are having one last big party before we leave school, a bunch of us heading up to rent a cabin in the woods sometime in March and let loose, wanted to see if you were interested in coming."

"Let loose? You? Fuck off."

"Admittedly that's not why I'm going but it might be fun."

"Will Megan be there?" Arthur noted a slight rise in Brendan's voice, excitement or maybe fear at seeing his cousin again.

"She's one of the ones planning it so I'd assume so. I can talk to her if you'd like and..."

"No, no, thanks. Tell her I'll be there, and I'll behave."

"Good, it's been too long since we hung out."

"Fuck it, today's good as any, fancy a couple rounds of Fifa? I'm disabled so you'll have the advantage."

"Concussing yourself is not an advantage, it's idiocy."

"Pfft, schematics."

Arthur laughed, happy to have his friend back to somewhat normal standards, as Brendan set up the games console Arthur quickly texted Nikki to tell her the good news.

A few streets over, Nicola lay on Megan's bed as Megan went through her wardrobe trying to find out what didn't fit her anymore.

"Fuck, I loved this silver top, now look at it."

Nicola looked up at Megan, a very nice sleeveless silver shirt that once fit her just fine was not stuck on her impressive bosom, sticking out a few more inches than comfortable and just a bit too much of her midriff.

"I swear Nikki, you're fucking lucky you didn't get cursed with these things."

"You know you don't need to throw anything out, some stuff might work better if you repurpose it. Here, try this."

Nicola threw over a small belt to Megan. "Thanks Nikki but it's my top half that's the problem here."

"Undo a couple buttons then use the belt to hold the bottom your shirt in place."

Confused, Megan did as she was told, to her surprise the look actually suited her, the belt did enough to keep her torso from showing off whilst also accentuating her breasts without feeling like she was showing them off.

"See, find the right pair of jeans to go with that, maybe a better colour of belt and you'll do fine."

"When did fuck did you get a fashion degree? Alright I'll admit, this does look good."

"Try it without the bra, I can see the indentations in the fabric, might look better smooth."

Without pausing to think, Megan took off her belt and shirt and threw them to the bed, barely looking she unclasped her bra and stood topless, nothing Nicola hadn't seen before, only this time the unmistakeable sound of a phone camera rang out. Megan turned to see her friend had snapped a topless pic of her.

"You little cunt, delete that."

"Oh no, I'm holding onto this."

"Nikki, I fucking swear."

"Might share it with Art, see how he reacts to his mate's great tits."

With little regard for her modesty, Megan darted onto the bed to grab Nicola's phone. Nicola made to shift out of the way but misjudged the distance and fell off the bed, landing hard on her back against the floor.

"Nikki! Nikki you alright?"

Megan peered over the side and saw Nicola laughing her ass off, mostly in shock over what just happened.

"Oh my God, I don't know whether that was fun or terrifying."

"You're insane Nikki."

"Probably, probably."

As she lay on the floor Nicola's phone got a message, without picking herself up she check what it said.

"Oh nice, Art convinced Brendan to come to the cabin. Now all I need is for fucking Kevin to get back to me and we can get a full roster."

"Kevin? He's coming?" Megan tried and failed to hide her excitement.

"You interested in my brother Meg, you little hussy. Now I know who I'll be sending this pic to."

"You dare and I break your fucking skull."

The two girls laughed and Nicola picked herself off the floor, there was still a lot of wardrobe they needed to get through.

*

Christmas and New Year's came and went far too quickly but the group welcomed in 2019 happily, now that Brendan was on speaking terms with everyone again even Megan found it in her heart to forgive him. Before any of them knew it, March was upon them and their woodland adventure was underway, Nicola was disheartened that Kevin wasn't able to make it but she was looking forward to spending a long weekend with Arthur.

They stood outside Arthur's house, getting the last of the luggage squared away before their trip, Nicola would do the driving with Arthur, Brendan and Megan as her passengers, Emily, her brother Leon and teammate Shep were already driving the rest of their friends (and most of the booze) to the cabin.

"Come on people, daylight's wasting." Nicola tried to whip everyone into shape. "We got a good four hours on the road and I'm not stopping for a piss every twenty minutes."

Arthur hugged his mum and dad goodbye. "I'll text you when we get there, we'll be fine."

"You just keep yourself safe alright son." David put on his best policeman voice for Arthur. "You're legal to drink but don't wreck the place or it'll cost you."

"We won't dad."

Penny went in for one last hug. "Be careful, ok?"

"Ok."

With one final goodbye to their parents, the four of them set off, ready for their first real freedom from their parents, Nicola passed the aux cord to Megan and made for the motorway.

Megan quickly checked her phone. "Alright Emily's just got onto the motorway, she's asking if anyone's seen her charger cable cause she can't turn back."

"Fuck." Nicola nearly yelled. "I borrowed it last night before I slept over at Arts. It'll still beat yours. Fuck it, tell her we'll be a couple minutes late but we have the cable."

Quickly finding a U-Turn, Nicola made her way back to Arthur's house, a little embarrassed she was the reason they were delayed. She parked up just by the driveway and ran to the house, the door was open so she made her way inside.

"David, Penny, I'm really sorry but I've..."

Nikki stopped dead in her tracks as she watched David and Penny jump away from other, Penny's lipstick smeared on David's face and her top pulled down revealing her bra. What they were doing wasn't hard to see.

David was the first to break the silence. "Nikki, we were, um..."

"Don't, just fucking don't. Jesus how long has this been going on?"

"A couple years." Penny answered, resigned to the fact they were caught. "Taking what every moment we can."

"And you never thought to tell Art that you were back together?"

"We didn't think he'd understand, we've been divorced for over ten years and to be honest we're not sure what this is."

"After two fucking years I think you know exactly what this is. Fuck, wait here."

Still fuming, Nicola stormed upstairs to grab Emily's cable. She caught herself and held her breath, waiting till she calmed down then left. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked over David and Penny.

"I'm going to go and join my friends and I'm not going to tell Arthur about this because I want to have a good time. But when we get back, we're going to sit down and we're going to discuss what's happening here but Art is your son and you need to treat him like a fucking adult."

Nicola left quickly before she blew up again, she was furious at the pair of them but wasn't about to let that ruin her plans, she put on a smile and got back into the car.