This is the second chapter of five in a story of eighteen-year-old, mixed-sex twins, who find themselves engaging each other in some things that many people don't approve of. I recommend that you read the first chapter before reading this one, so that you'll know what's going on.
*****
Lola Szymanski was an elderly widow, a member of Dad's church, who lived two doors down. She could hardly hear, but she compensated by being the self-appointed neighborhood snoop and gossip. People on the block knew her, behind her back, as 'Widow Lola'—which had recently become 'Widder Lola,' or just 'The Widder." I heard her voice, very faintly, as she replied at length to Dad. What she was saying, I had no idea, but she seemed to have a lot of it to say.
"Oh, shit!" Bree gasped. "Dad's home early." I looked at the living room clock; it was only about four-thirty.
In near panic, I pulled back from what I had been contemplating, reached for my pants. "Quick!" I urged. "Grab your clothes and get into the kitchen where he won't be able to see you. Get them on as fast as you can and act like you've been in there getting supper. I'll take care of the TV and the DVD." (It was her turn to fix supper that evening, and she'd been working on it when I'd left the house a bit earlier, so this program seemed natural.) In spite of the urgency of our situation, I couldn't help thinking,
And you'd better get used to fixing supper, because you're going to be doing it for the rest of the summer.
)
"Got it!" she answered, getting up, sweeping her sweatshirt, pants, and panties into one hand in a single motion, and heading for the kitchen. I grabbed my own clothes, punched the eject button on the DVD remote and the off button on the TV remote. I grabbed the DVD from the player, punched the player's off button, and ran into my room, clothes and DVD in hand.
Fortunately for us, Widder Lola had never in her life just said "Howdy," and let things go at that. She occupied Dad, who would never be so impolite as to excuse himself from her desire to chat, long enough that we had plenty of time to get dressed. After I had dressed and hidden the DVD under the clothes in one of my dresser drawers, I went back into the living room and noticed that I'd inadvertently left my shoes on the floor in front of the couch.
It wouldn't have been a calamity if Dad had seen them there, instead of near the front door where they belonged, because I could always look sheepish and say that I'd forgotten to take them off before I'd sat on the couch when I got home from work. After all, a wayward pair of shoes isn't nearly as incriminating as a wayward pair of pants…
Nevertheless, Dad's voice, still almost shouting, was now coming from some little distance as he yakked with Lola, and I took the opportunity to move them into the foyer before I went into the kitchen where I could pretend to be helping get supper.
Neither of us breathing hard, or even looked the least bit rattled, when Dad finally escaped and came in just a little before five. But we did exchange some significant glances when his back was turned…
==||<>||==
After supper, Dad asked me to come into his study for a moment.
Shit!
I thought.
Does he suspect that Bree and I were fooling around?
It wasn't that at all. "Brian," he said after shutting the door, "You're being careless with your window shade again, and the Widder's complaining. She says she keeps seeing you in your underwear. She didn't say so, but probably without even your underwear sometimes."
The Widder's house and ours were set back on their lots somewhat farther than the house between, and one of my windows was visible from one of hers.
"She's probably using binoculars," I pointed out. "I wonder if she can see that far without them."
Dad chuckled before he said, "I don't doubt it, but she didn't say anything about that. It's no big deal; this is just a word to the wise. You probably won't make her happy if you stop performing for her. After all, she's been single for a long time, and you're a good-looking young man. But if that's what she really wants she should have kept it to herself. Just try and be a little more careful."
"Okay, Dad," I answered as he headed back toward the door. "I'll try. Thanks for the heads-up."
"That's the ticket," he said. "Let her find something else to complain about." He shook his head. "She will!"
==||<>||==
Brielle was waiting for me, a naughty grin on her face, when I got home from work the next afternoon. (I worked Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays, from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, at a local nursery. It didn't pay very well, but it kept Mom and Dad from whining that I wasn't doing anything useful that summer before Brielle and I started school together at the state university dozen miles upriver.)
She greeted me just inside the front door, delivering a hug and a kiss. Neither the hug nor the kiss was exactly what a guy might ordinarily expect from his sister.
"You're all hot and sweaty," she said. "And kind of stinky."
"It's a hot day, and I spent most of the afternoon working in the beds outside," I told her. "I'd better get a shower."
She gave me a dirty smile. "Later. I like sweaty!" she said. "Sweaty, smelly guys turn me on." She rubbed herself against me—which turned
me
on.
When she pulled back, she said, "Dad just left for the hospital down in Riverton to call on someone; he'll be at least a couple of hours." He'd spend a half-hour each way getting to and from the neighboring town, I knew. She continued, "Let's finish that porn movie. Where'd you hide it? And I like being naked with you, so I'm going to take my clothes off."
"Are you sure—" I started.
"Yes," she said, breaking in, "I'm sure. You can do what you want to, but I'm going to watch it. And I'm going to take my clothes off."
"Okay," I said. "I'll watch, too. I decided on the way to work this morning that I want to finish it later, so I might as well finish with it with you."
"And your clothes?"
"I'll take mine off, too," I said as I headed for my room to get the disk.
Her dirty grin got dirtier. "Excellent!" she said.
A moment later, I was back. She reached for the remote as I opened the player and inserted the disk.
Before she could restart the video, I stopped her. "Ummm… Bree?" I said.
"Yeah?" she responded.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," I said. "I shouldn't have tried to… tried to…"
I trailed off. I needed to say
I shouldn't have tried to fuck you,
but I couldn't get those last two words out.
She knew what I shouldn't have tried to do. We looked into each other's eyes, and I saw that I didn't need to finish. She answered me: "You're a
guy,
Brian. You were just doing what guys are built to do! I shouldn't have put you in that situation."
"Well," I replied, "when you put me 'in that situation,' you were just doing what girls are built to do…"
She dropped her eyes. She was in the middle of unbuttoning her shirt, and she didn't stop. But she said, "I guess there's some truth to that. But I made you be the one who had to decide. I didn't do anything to help you. Girls aren't 'built' to dodge their own responsibility like that." She looked back up at me, bleakly, and said, "At least I hope I'm not."
"You aren't, Bree," I reassured her. "Telling me to stop was enough. What more—"
She interrupted, "Yes, I did tell you to stop. At least I did that. But I could have
meant
it. And I could have
stopped
you! I could have turned away from you. I could have blocked you with my hand. I could have pushed you away. I could have clamped my legs together. There are lots of things I could have
done!
Girls know how to stop guys—the good ones at least, the ones who are worth hanging onto. But I really…" she paused again and raised her eyes to look back into mine. There were tears in hers. "I wanted you to. I really did. I could tell that you didn't know whether you should put it in me or not. I hoped you would! So I didn't do anything to help you decide not to! I wanted you in me…" She trailed off. There was anguish in her face. But her pain didn't stop her, now that she had her shirt off, from unbuckling her pants.
"I really wanted to, too. But I knew that we shouldn't. That we couldn't. I couldn't decide!" I had my own shirt off, now, and I was reaching for my own belt buckle. The sight of her boobs and the prospect of her pants coming off in a few seconds had already given me a boner.
"That's why I'm sorry, Brye. I knew what
I
should do, but I didn't do it. Instead, I dumped it all on you. I left it to you to decide." She stopped to wipe tears from her eyes. She went on, "I told myself I'd told you to stop—and I wouldn't be responsible for what happened if you went ahead and did what I really wanted you to do—and what I thought you probably would do." She sniffled and wiped her nose. "I was wrong. I'm as responsible as you are for what
we
do
together.
" She paused for an instant, and then went on, "What if we'd gone ahead? And The Widder hadn't caught Dad on the way into the house."
"We'd have been in deep shit! And you're pretty tempting!" The compliment brought a smile to her face. I added, "If you hadn't made me come just a bit earlier, I probably would have."
And she said, "I didn't think of
that
!