Authors: Stephanie Brother
I shuffle back to my room, not waiting to hear anymore
confessions.
I should never have
listened.
I should never have danced
with my stepbrothers like a harlot.
I
should have kept myself to myself and dated some perfectly boring but perfectly
suitable college dude like any normal girl my age.
All thoughts of Mr. Tatum and his magic mike have been
blasted from my head.
I slip into bed with
a heavy heart and eventually fall into a drink induced sleep.
TWO SHADOWS
For
months, I have been trying to spend as much time with my stepbrothers as I
possibly can.
Now it’s the opposite.
I’m out of the house at 7:30am, deciding that
a walk to collect my car from the bar serves the dual purpose of a reason to
escape and a well-needed opportunity to exercise.
All those nights on the sofa watching movies
and eating way too much popcorn have given my curves some curves.
The streets start off quiet but quickly get busier as
rush hour hits.
I’m at my car by 8.15am
and I head towards the campus, figuring I’ll go to the library and kill some
time before class.
I’m just about to
walk in the door when my phone vibrates with a message.
I usually check my messages right away but
today I’m filled with trepidation.
It
could be Katelin making arrangements to study later.
It could be Mom, checking in.
I pull my phone out, peering at it like it
might explode.
It’s Ethan.
I might have known he would be the one to
message first. He’s always the cockier of the two.
ETHAN – Where did you go this morning, Peanut?
I was going to offer to drive you to your
car.
I stand gazing at my phone like I’ve just read the
most cryptic message in the world.
I
mean, it sounds fine, and innocent, like a message a caring stepbrother would
send to his sister.
But now I’ve heard
his confession and know his intentions it somehow seems like so much more.
He was looking for me, early in the
morning.
And the car thing is nice.
Considerate.
Or is it just an excuse to get me alone in his car so
he can ravish me?
The very thought has
me burning up.
I’m only wearing an
American Eagle retro T and cut-off shorts and it’s certainly not hot at this
time of the morning.
I fan my face,
still staring at the phone, but the screen has gone black to match the dark
place my mind has drifted to.
A place
where Ethan drives us to the deserted football field and parks. There is no
dialogue in my fantasy. No confessions of feelings, love or intentions. No
questions about whether what he does is okay.
Instead, he reaches across and pulls me into his lap until my pussy is
pressed against his huge cock.
His
tongue is in my mouth before I can protest and his lips, oh god.
In my dreams, they are always so soft yet so
demanding.
Eth keeps one hand on my hip,
pressing me down against his erection in the rhythm of the most frenzied sex I
can imagine.
And his hand.
It slips up my T, unsnapping my bra and cupping
my breast before I can even think about pulling away.
I’m so zoned out in my sex thoughts that I don’t see
anyone approaching me until it’s too late.
“Hey Carrie,” Royce says so loudly that I jump like a
startled rabbit.
“Fuck,” I say, dropping my phone as I clutch at my
heart in shock.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry,” he laughs, bending to pick up my phone and
handing it back to me with a grin.
“You
were in another world.”
He peers at me
with amusement.
“You know you’re
blushing.
Whatever was in that message
you were reading must have been hot.”
I feel my rosy cheeks turn into a raging inferno.
“If only!” I say, fumbling around in my bag as though
I’m putting my phone away.
“I’ve got a
headache from last night.
I should have
slept in but I’ve got an assignment to finish.”
“Me too.
Not
the headache.
I was on juice all night.”
“You heading to the library?”
“Yeah.”
He
glances towards the entrance.
“Should we
do this?”
“The thought of studying is about appealing as eating
my own feet but it’s gotta be done.”
Royce laughs and starts toward the library and I
follow, thinking that I have the worst luck in the world.
Of all the people to run into while I’m
trying to hide out from the twins but one of their BF’s.
I’ve got to go in now, but maybe I can make
my excuses about needing coffee or something and find somewhere else to lay
low.
The library is quiet.
I mean, there aren’t many students out and about yet.
Royce and I find an empty table in a tucked
away corner and spread out our books and laptops.
He’s studying math, from what I can
tell.
I’ve got a history paper that I
can work on.
It isn’t due until next
week but no harm in getting ahead.
My phone buzzes again and this time, it is
Katelin.
I message her back, arranging
to meet in the coffee shop in an hour.
There’s my excuse to get away from Royce.
I’m back in my assignment, typing away when
the table vibrates again.
It's Royce's
phone this time.
He grins at the message
and then taps away a reply.
I’m not
close enough to see who it is and that makes me nervous.
It could be Bryan or Doug.
It could be a girl or Royce’s mom even.
But somehow I know it’s one of the twins.
And I know he’ll tell them he’s with me.
We’ve never studied together before so this
is unusual enough to mention.
I carry on typing but I know I’m not making
sense.
Anything I’ve written is going to
need to be redone.
Royce is messaging on
his phone again.
When he’s done he looks
up at me and smiles.
I know I blush at
being caught watching him.
I'm sure I’ve
looked like a beetroot all morning.
I reach into my purse for a bottle of water. My head
is starting to pound from all the stress, and maybe a little from my double’s
binge.
Why is it that everything these
days seems better doubled up?
“You still feeling bad?” Royce whispers.
“Yeah.” I press at my temple for effect.
“I think I’m going to have to head off.
I can’t seem to concentrate.”
He nods and I start packing up my stuff, taking
another gulp of water.
I whisper my
goodbyes and dash outside, almost running down the stone steps that lead from
the entrance to the library.
I’m
clutching my bag on my shoulder when I see them.
Oh lord, they look so good.
How can they look so good with so much alcohol and so
little sleep?
It isn’t fair.
Those t-shirts; the same shade of gray but
with different slogans. Those jeans; just the right side of slim so they hug
their legs.
For a moment I wish I was
walking behind them so I could check out the back view.
Ethan has his hair messy, with some wax in,
no doubt.
Nathan has his neater and
swiped to the side.
Apart from their
hair and clothes, and the slight difference in the way they move, they are almost
perfectly identical and both sporting matching grins.
“Look who it is,” Ethan calls out when we are close
enough to converse.
“Peanut, fancy seeing you here,” Nathan says, and as
usual, they both laugh at my scowl.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“We both felt like an early morning stroll and thought
where better to go than around campus?
I must grimace because they laugh again.
“Royce told you I was here,” I say, in the
grumbliest voice I’ve ever managed.
“Royce?” Nathan questions, but I don’t believe his
attempt at innocence.
I know his
intentions after all.
And damn, now that
I’ve thought about those intentions I get that hot achy feeling between my
thighs that I always get when I think about the Stanmore Twins.
“You know what I’m talking about,” I say.
“Why so angry and suspicious, Carrie? Ethan almost
croons.
I pull my bag onto my shoulder more securely and
glance at my watch.
“I’m in a hurry,” I
say.
“I’m meeting Katelin at the coffee
shop in ten minutes.”
“We’ll walk with you,” Ethan says, throwing his arm
around my shoulders and starting to walk in the direction of the coffee shop.
His size and strength propel me forward, my short legs almost scrabbling to
keep up.
Nathan keeps pace with his
brother with no problem.
They have the
same long legs after all.
“That’s not really necessary,” I say, looking around
for any witnesses to my predicament.
“What isn’t?
The fact that we want coffee too?” Nathan says.
He glances at me with that soft look in his
eyes that always manages to wrap around my heart and turn my insides to
goo.
I’m like one of those chocolates
with a caramel center that oozes out when you first bite into it.
Maybe Nathan would like to bite me.
Maybe he’d get my nipple between his teeth
and pinch it in a way that would have my hips rising off the bed and a gasp
slipping from my lips.
“Fine,” I sulk.
“Let’s all go and get coffee.”
It takes us five minutes to get to the Time Out coffee
shop.
I’m way too early for Katelin but
I pretend to look for her anyway.
“What
can I get for you?” Nathan asks, starting towards the counter.
“Skinny latte, please.
And a chocolate muffin.”
I need
caffeine and sugar to get me through whatever is coming next.
Ethan orders a double espresso – his head must be
hurting as much as I suspected – and a cheese breakfast sandwich.
Then he slumps into the corner of a couch by
the window and indicates that I should take a seat next to him.
The area he’s chosen is pretty quiet.
The nearest other patron is, at least, five
feet away. I sit down nervously, tugging at the frayed edges of my shorts hopefully
as through there might be ten inches of spare material that I can use to cover
my very bare thighs.
His eyes watch my
hands in a lazy way and he makes no effort to conceal the fact that he’s
looking at me.
I glance around and see that Nathan is already at the
front of the line.
I need him here to
diffuse the situation.
Somehow, just
having Nath near me always makes me feel more centered.
He has that calm vibe about him.
“So,” Ethan says, interrupting my train of
thought.
“Last night was great wasn’t
it?
“I guess.”
I’m really
starting to panic now.
Where the hell is
he going with this?
“I haven’t seen you dance like that before…all loose
and…”
I snap my eyes up at him and I must be giving off
negative signals because Ethan stops and looks at me questioningly.
“I was drunk,” I say needing an excuse.
“Not the whole time,” Eth replies cautiously.
“Most of the time,” I say.
“That’s why I feel like shit this morning.”
His eyes are on my face and he leans forward, reaching
out to stroke his thumb across my cheek.
“You look fine,” he whispers.
He’s so close I can smell the fresh scent of his shower products and the
mint of toothpaste on this breath.
Our
eyes are locked, my soft brown fixed with his sapphire blue.
One small move and we’d be kissing.
One tiny shift and I’d finally know what his
lips felt like against mine.
My heart is
racing so fast I feel woozy.
And time
seems to have frozen into this strange moment where neither of us knows what to
do next.
I want him so badly it’s like
real physical pain and I can see the pure longing in his eyes and the way he
has parted his lips with intention. But we’re sitting in the campus coffee
shop, and Katelin is supposed to be arriving soon and we can’t do this.
We just can’t do this.