Pretty Little Liars

Chapter 7: Touchy Feely

After getting home from school, Neah drops her things in her bedroom before changing into a banana yellow bikini, eager for a soak in the backyard hot tub. It's been a long day. Not only with going back to school after summer break, but the whole Ali thing is still weighing heavily on her mind. She thinks about her a lot, but the anniversary or her disappearance is taking its toll. Two years ago, if that sleepover would have worked out, the five of them would be strutting into Rosewood High, with their matching string bracelets and clothes borrowed from each other's closets. Life has a way of screwing those kinds of things up.

Neah slips into the tub once she drapes her towel over the back of one of the patio chairs. She sighs, the jets exploding into the knots of her back and neck as she floats to the surface of the water. As bad as today was, it could have been much worse. She could have ran into her ex-boyfriend, Dylan, and that wouldn't have been good for anyone. Dylan Mayberry, a fellow member of the lacrosse team, recently dumped her out of the blue but Neah doesn't find herself caring all too much. Her feelings for him were never as strong as her feelings for--

She shakes the thought out of her head, willing herself to get a grip. She can't think about that. Not now, not ever.

"Oh, sorry." Tony's voice interrupts her thoughts from the sliding back door. He's naked to the waist, a towel slung over his shoulder. His chocolate brown skin glistens in the sun and his chiseled chest is enough to make Neah's nagging thoughts come back to her. "I didn't realize anyone was out here."

"It's just me, but I can get out if you want?" Neah moves to the edge of the hot tub to scramble for her towel but she stops when Tony holds up his hand.

"No, you can stay," he assures. "If you don't mind me getting in, too."

I'd really rather you not.

"That should be fine," she replies, sinking further into the water again.

Tony climbs in, lowering himself into the steaming tub of water. Neah averts her gaze when she makes eye contact with his nipple.

"So how was your first day back? Dance team didn't wear you out?"

"I was made for dance, if I should have you know," Neah responds. "But I guess it was pretty long. What about you?"

"Pretty good," he answers, popping some of the bubbles formed by the jets. "It's hard to get back in the swing of it all. Seems like life is full of constant adjustments."

"Yeah, I had a similar talk with my mom this morning," Neah agrees, squeezing some water between her palms. "Hopefully this year is easier than last year."

"Well, coming from someone who has had many adjustments, it gets easier." Tony pauses. "Wow, I sound like a cliche after school special."

"You really do. If I didn't know that you meant well, I would totally write you off for it," she jokes, a smirk tugging at her lips.

"I'm too good to be written off." He grins back, a dimple cratering his cheek.

Neah bites her lower lip and looks away from him. "You keep telling yourself that."

"You don't agree?" He's closer to her now, the steam rising in between them from the surface of the water.

"I mean, you don't really care what I think, do you?" She looks at him.

He runs a hand over his head, droplets of water trickling down his face. "Of course I do."

Neah isn't sure if she should be over the moon about that or if she should be trying her best to not be too giddy over it. She can't be. That would be criminal and weird and Ali's voice in her head would taunt her for it, just like she would back in middle school.

"Well, in that case, I won't deflate your ego," she jokes, playfully splashing some water at him.

"Hey! I'm not that bad." He gently splashes her back.

"That's what they call an opinion, my friend." She snickers, kicking his leg under water.

"A right opinion!" Tony jabs at her side with his fingertips, getting her to burst into giggles.

"Tickling is cheating!" Neah huffs out, trying to get away from him as she swats at his arm, water rippling over the edge of the hot tub.

"Cheaters are winners." He laughs, his arms wrapped around her tightly.

"Um... am I interrupting?" Sage stands at the backdoor, his head cocked to the side as his hazel eyes flicker from Neah to Tony and then back to his sister.

"No!" Neah spats, seriously getting away from Tony this time. Her heart thunders from inside of her chest, her little brother's face etching itself in her brain. "Get off."

Tony's smile fades, his cheeks flushed as Neah fumbles out of the hot tub, embarrassed and wondering if they took things too far, just like last time.

"Mom wants one of you guys to grab dinner," Sage informs awkwardly as he heads back inside, leaving the door open behind him.

"I got it," Neah quickly volunteers, wrapping the towel around her torso and creeping inside.

She makes her way up to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her and pressing her head against it. It's hard enough living in the same house as him. Why do they have to flirt like that? Just to make things harder on themselves? A ding sounds from her laptop on the other side of the room at her desk, the top barely closed. Neah tracks water across her room as she opens her laptop, one new email flashing up at the top of the screen. She opens it.

Incest: a human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. Just because he's not blood related, doesn't make it a no no. But that didn't stop you before, did it?

Kisses! A