My Sweet Degradation by J Phillips

physique that belonged on the cover of a fitness magazine. As I was wearing a bikini top underneath, I too pulled off my T-shirt, not entirely oblivious to the grin and nudge our guests shared in response.
    For some reason the attention I was receiving from his friends seemed to bring out a little grouchiness in Josh, and he kept asking what time Julie would be arriving. It wasn’t long before he suggested he take the boys inside for a few frames of pool, knowing full well that I hated the game, but that didn’t stop me from tagging along, and I even allowed sleazy Christian to show me how to improve my cue action as he leant over me from behind, pressing his fit body tight against my ass.
    The drinking and flirting continued and I made sure that the boys had plenty to see as I bent low over the pool table, before screwing up my shot royally. It’s nothing I’m particularly proud of, but I guess I’ve always been a bit of a tease, and I must admit it did give me a thrill to watch my brother’s handsome friends ogling me.
    Poor old Josh was playing really badly and getting more and more sullen, when thankfully the doorbell rang. It was Julie, and just as soon as I’d grabbed her a cold one, the introductions were made.
    I’ve known Julie since forever, and fairly quickly I twigged that she wasn’t her usual fun-loving self. Josh was hitting on her big style by way of compensation for the attention I was receiving, and despite the fact that I know she’s had a massive crush on him since she was no more than nine-years-old, she wasn’t even responding to him. So eventually I made our excuses and dragged her up to my bedroom.
    Unsurprisingly I soon discovered it was man trouble and that Mark, her boyfriend, had been talking about ‘taking a break’. Now, I love Julie dearly, but this put a real dampener on the whole day. I’d been looking forward to flirting and having a little fun with the cute guys, and who knows, maybe even enjoying a drunken snog or two, but all Julie wanted to talk about was how she knew that Mark was wrong for her, but she didn’t see how she could possibly live without him. There were even the inevitable tears after a couple more drinks, and I’m afraid I actually began to regret inviting her along.
    Later on we ordered pizza and all five of us sat down to watch a movie together. It was just some crappy action flick, but I was enjoying it all the same. About an hour in, however, Julie suddenly leapt to her feet and ran from the room.
    I soon found her sobbing her heart out in the bathroom, and resisted the urge to roll my eyes when she sniffed that she was sorry, but one of the actors in the film reminded her of Mark. In the end, when she announced that she should probably not stay the night and would like to head home, I’m only mildly ashamed to confess that I made absolutely no effort to persuade her otherwise.
    When I stuck my head around the door to tell Josh that Julie wasn’t feeling great and that I was going to walk her home, there was very little in the way of protest and it was plain to see that none of the boys were going to miss her company a great deal either.
    By the time I arrived home, an hour or so later, I immediately sensed that the dynamic among the little group had changed, and not for the better. When I’d left they were all charmingly tipsy, but now they’d moved beyond that and were clearly drunk. I, on the other hand, had pretty much sobered up entirely.
    We listened to some music in the living room and I hung out for a little while longer, but what had earlier come across as engaging confidence from Christian was now nothing short of unappealing arrogance. Ben too was displaying a side to him that I’d not spotted before, making leery comments about my body that ordinarily I could easily handle, but I thought a little crude given that my brother – his supposed friend – was sat right there