Love Next Door (Lakeside 1)

I click on the internet icon and find it linked to Bee’s Knees, which is the name I gave Bee’s connection when I set it up years ago. Somehow my brother has managed to figure out the password and tap into her internet, which has always been better than ours. She wanted to be able to video chat with her favorite grandson, and she liked watching YouTube videos about figure skating and those shows where people dance and stuff.

Next I go to my brother’s browsing history. As expected, I find multiple hits to the on-demand account associated with Bee’s cable provider. Several a day, in fact. I guess Van had a right to be pissed, since it’s my brother who’s been racking up charges. I poke Billy’s shoulder. He makes a disgruntled noise and bats my hand away.

I snap my fingers beside his ear. “Hey, wake up. I need to talk to you.”

“Time is it?” He rubs at his eyes and cringes, probably having forgotten that they’re still bruised.

“Time to stop hacking into Bee’s cable so you can watch porn.”

“Huh?” He blinks a bunch of times, panic flashing across his face.

I drop the laptop on his bed, his browsing history on display, and give him the middle finger. “Rule number one: always clear your history, dumbass.” I hold up my pointer finger beside the middle one. “Rule number two: four ones is the most obvious password in the world, and it’s your fault if people hack into your phone and steal information.” I hold up my pinkie so I’m giving him the shocker sign. “And rule number three: don’t use our neighbor’s internet connection to watch freaking porn. It’s a wonder you haven’t rubbed your dick off with the amount of whacking you must be doing.” The thought makes me shudder.

“Porn is the only good thing left in my life, and Mom and Dad canceled the good cable package. Besides, her internet connection is way better than ours.”

That this is Billy’s defense is not particularly surprising, but it is annoying. “You owe our neighbor a grand.”

“What? No way. That’s insane.”

“So is the fact that you ordered enough dirty videos to rack up that kind of bill.” I grab his laptop off the bed and head for the door.

“Hey! Where are you going? That’s mine!”

“Not anymore it isn’t. It’s collateral until you cough up the money to pay Van’s cable bill.” I slam the door closed behind me and run into my dad on the way through the kitchen.

I can hear Billy swearing a blue streak from his bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Dad takes a tentative sip of his coffee.

“Other than your son having a porn addiction, nothing much.”

He sprays hot coffee on the counter. “What?”

“I’m taking care of it. We should get going. I have a conference call with a new lumber company outside of town at eight. Harry suggested them.”

“Right. Okay. That’s good. Is that Billy’s laptop?”

“Yup.”

“Well, I guess that explains why he’s screaming like you’ve lopped off a limb.”

I shoot him a look.

He mumbles something about moody kids and follows me out to the truck. He doesn’t balk when I take the driver’s seat, happy to sit back, relax, and enjoy the bumpy ride to the office at the edge of downtown.

“Are you serious about Billy having a porn addiction? Is it something I need to talk to him about?” Dad rubs the back of his neck, his face flushed with discomfort.

The only time either of my parents mentioned sex when I was growing up was to tell me not to have it. I told them it was easy for them to say. They’d grown up together and got married at sixteen with the consent of their parents. Which is incomprehensible to me. At sixteen I was barely capable of keeping my room clean and handing my assignments in on time, let alone running a household. And sex is one of the very few activities that’s free and entertaining when you’re a teen living in a small town.

I went to the clinic in the next town over with Tawny and Allie, got myself a prescription for birth control pills, and made Tucker wear a condom anyway. Turns out that was a good idea, since he had a habit of hooking up with other girls on the side—usually while we were on a break, but not always.

“If you want to embarrass the hell out of him, sure. I get that he’s bored, but there are a million other things he could be doing besides ordering dirty videos all day. I think the bigger problem is that he managed to hack into Bee’s internet and cable because it’s faster and racked up a thousand-dollar bill.”

“A thousand bucks? Isn’t internet porn free?” Dad’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head.