✏️ Under One Roof

25. One Understanding

Tegan hated that she had wet herself. She needed to speak to a doctor to figure out if there was actually something wrong with her, but that would have meant confessing the problem. And would it really help that much, when she was almost certain that the problem was with her brother, not her?

She didn't need to say anything. She just needed to find some way to knock Ness down so that he couldn't get up again; so that he would be terrified to stand against her. But that would need to be an order of magnitude more than anything she had done before. She needed to take charge here, and she couldn't do this by halves. Even with her brothers, she had never met anyone so cruel; and whatever she could think of would be entirely justified.

She came out of her room not knowing if Ness was back from his jog yet, and just hoping that she could find some way to embarrass him. But she wasn't expecting him to be standing there on the landing just as soon as the door opened. The damp patch on the carpet had faded while she had been sleeping; but it was still prominent enough that he couldn't have missed it. Maybe her dad would have told him some story about spilling something, to save her embarrassment. But if Ness really was responsible for everything that had happened to her, he would surely know anyway. The question popping to the forefront of Tegan's mind was whether he would be so brazen as to admit–

"Hey," his voice cut through her thoughts, and he extended a hand. "I see you had a little problem. Dad told me I shouldn't come upstairs yet, but I could guess you had a problem. What happened?"

She hadn't even thought about what she could say to Ness. She was so sure that all this was his doing, but she knew that she had to deny it. To put some doubt in his mind about whether it had worked, and maybe give him second thoughts about continuing whatever that trick was. She was already composing stories in her mind; something about spilling a drink maybe, as there wasn't a real scent of pee here. Or, while the smell of soap was so strong, she could explain her embarrassment by saying that she had spilled something, tried to clean it up, and then ended up flooding the carpet with strong-smelling detergent. A failure at simple chores would embarrass her, without being remotely close to the truth. And if he still knew what was going on, that would be proof that it had been his decision to put her through this.

"I don't know," she said as she took his hand. "It just kind of happened. I mean, I hid my diary in your room while you were out. I was going to convince our dads that you stole it, and then they'd never trust you. But just before I was going to say anything, I stood there and wet my pants. It was the most humiliating moment of my life, and I'd do anything right now for you not to know about it. I never thought this would be such a big deal, I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't get the dads on your side."

"Feeling embarrassed now?" he asked, not surprised at all.

"Yeah. It makes me feel like a little kid. And I couldn't even shake that impression, because I did some other stuff. I mean, when I was trying to tell Logan what happened, I ended up lisping and I was mortified. Like how is he ever going to take me seriously now? He's the hottest guy in my life right now, and even if I can't admit it to myself I want to have those fantasies that he's attracted to me."

"You're..." For a brief moment, Ness' voice stopped following the regular cadence of the handshake. "You have the hots for my dad? The guy your dad is marrying in a couple of months?"

"I don't know why," she said, desperately trying to think of any explanation that would make any kind of sense. "He's just kind of strong, caring, protective, and everything that a real guy should be. Who wouldn't find him attractive? And his hair, slicked back like that as if he doesn't care about the grey around the edges, that's really hot. That confidence means the world."

"Yeah, I... I guess I see what you mean. But I can't imagine he'd be interested in you like that. He sees you like another kid, you know? A daughter he has to protect, nothing weird about that."