THIS IS MEANT AS A STAND ALONE STORY, BUT IT IS BEST READ AFTER "THE PORTFOLIO".
I AM A BIG FAN OF DELAYED GRATIFICATION AND FOREPLAY, SO MY STORY MAY REFLECT THAT.
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PART 1. CROSSROADS.
s'épanouir
The sky was blue, a touch of cloud on the horizon. Life was in bloom and...
Jadyn stood at the terrace. Her fingers absently picking at the dry cracking white paint of the ornate cast iron railing. Her mind was elsewhere as she looked out over the small French village through her "Audrey Hepburn" sunglasses that she had bought especially for her trip to Europe. The wind made her short paisley print sundress dance about wildly as she stood there and thought of Brock.
Brock King had been her boyfriend all four years of high school. They met when they were both nerdy freshman and instantly hit it off, that's why Jadyn was devastated when after her senior prom night, Brock decided to tell her he was going away to college and that they should quit seeing each other. Jadyn had worried all through high school that Brock would dump her, especially when he started getting into sports his sophomore year and soon became very popular. His senior year, Brock could have been king of the school if he wasn't always second fiddle to her brother Priest.
Priest was different though. He was the "IT" guy on campus. All the girls wanted her brother and they would befriend Jadyn temporarily to try and get to him, but Priest was always aloof and spent most of his time with a book. He could rarely be found unless you looked in the library, and few knew where THAT mythical place was. Some thought he might be gay or misanthropic, until his junior year when he came back to school dating "THE NEW GIRL" Anastasia, A.K.A "One of the hottest chicks on campus."
"There were a lot of broken hearts that year." Jadyn mused.
Why was she thinking of her brother. She wondered. Maybe because she felt that even though he was her twin, she was always in the shadow of her "Great brother" the "Sports star", the "Honor roll leader" and for that matter the shadow of her older sister Caprice as well, who had her Mother's stunning beauty and who had just happened to be; "Thee; hottest chick in school." Jadyn pondered this. "Yep, I've always been in the protective shadow haven't I? I need to figure out what went wrong with me and Brock" Jadyn thought to herself. "I need to fig..."
"Quit moping!" came a voice from the shadow of the room.
Jadyn sighed but did not respond.
"I said quit moping, sad sack!" came the voice again.
Jadyn turned and lowered her glasses to look over the top. She peered into the shadowy room to see her sister Capri (as she preferred to be called) sitting in a large overstuffed tan chair that was situated between the beds. Her bare feet were propped up on an ottoman and she had a travel book in her lap. Jadyn pulled the ebony hair that played in front of her face aside and responded.
"For your information Grumpmiester I'm not moping: I'm brooding." She said smiling, trying to mask her distress.
"Brooding, moping blah blah blah. Quit it! I didn't travel all the way to Europe to look at your ass "BROODING" out a window all day, and for that matter all the way here on the plane as well." Capri chastised.
The truth be told, Capri didn't mind looking at her sisters ass. She had been watching the way the sun silhouetted Jadyn's legs through her sun dress and marveled at how her little sister had grown up. Capri had been away at college for a year and inspired by the flirtatious nature of a female restaurant owner back home, had almost jumped at the chance to have sex with a girl in her dorm that merely showed an interest in her. It was an awakening when she discovered the pleasures that could be found from another woman.
Capri eyed her sister now, and mentally kicked herself for not saving her little sister from that jerk Brock. She was about to tell her sister that Brock wasn't worth the aggravation when Jadyn spoke.
"Oh no; on the plane: yeah that was moping. I was bored." She said with a wry smile as she walked towards Capri and threw her glasses on the bed.
Jadyn slid into the chair next to her older sister and put her head on Capri's shoulder. She rested her hand on Capri's stomach as she absently traced the image of the evil cat face on Capri's black "Hell kitty" T-shirt. For Jadyn there was nothing sexual about this act. It was not uncommon in their youths to find all three siblings cuddled together on a sofa or bed. Priest had outgrown this before high school and that disappointed Jadyn, but she still relished the closeness she shared with her older sister.
Capri however, sucked in hard as Jadyn slid in next to her. She knew that in a million years she would never "put the moves" on her sister, but she wished now, that she had more than just her black and white striped panties on to cover the building moisture. She couldn't get past how stunningly beautiful her sister had gotten in the course of one year.
"So; 'Cappy' where did you plan for us to visit?" Jadyn inquired.
Capri laid her ebony haired head down on the top of her sisters as she said.
"Jade, you know Brock was a jerk… right?"
"Oh Cappy, I don't want to talk about Brock right now. He wasn't a jerk; you just didn't know him like I did."
"I knew him well enough that he hit on me my senior year." Capri shot back.
Jadyn stirred at this and looked into her sisters Ice-blue eyes to see if she was lying. She had heard rumors about Brock cheating, but refused to believe them. She figured the rumors were girls' vain attempts to gain her confidence so she would set them up with her brother, or attempts to hurt her because she wouldn't meddle in her brother's love life. It wasn't to spite the girls that she didn't meddle; she didn't even meddle when Priest showed an Interest in "Sage", a girl on her swim team. Priest begged her for a week their freshman year to introduce him to Sage and Jadyn refused. Thinking back to how easy her junior year was with Priest having a girlfriend, she kind of wished she Meddled. "Why again was she thinking of Priest?" She thought to herself. Capri Just gave her proof that Brock was cheating and she was thinking of her brother. Jadyn made a mental note to call home and make sure everything was okay. She had an uneasy feeling about her twin.
"You never told me that." Jadyn muttered, a tear forming at the rim of her beautiful indigo eyes.
Capri reached out with a thumb and gathered the forming tear on it. She held it in front of her sister and stated.
"This is why. I knew it would hurt you."
"You could have at least told me before I slept with the jerk." Jadyn said as she slumped her head back on her sister's shoulder.
"YOU SLEPT WITH BROCK THE JOCK!?" Capri screamed in surprise.
Jadyn looked slightly embarrassed. She had not mentioned that she had actually slept with Brock until now, but she was close enough to Capri that she thought she could talk about it.
"I… I had sex with him once"..."on prom night" Jadyn responded meekly.
"WHY?!" Capri shot back. An odd look, more of surprise and curiosity than admonishment.
Jadyn looked at her older sister and would probably have ceased the conversation right then, if it wasn't for the non-judgmental look Capri was giving her.
"Well, I did date him for four years." Jadyn reminded. "School was almost over, I was eighteen and it just seemed the right thing to do with all the trouble he went through for prom."
"Jade; Brock spending a little money on you isn't a reason to give up your virginity" Capri counseled.
"It wasn't just that." Jadyn said thoughtfully. "With all the flirting at "Michaels" and "Funshopping" with Mom, I was curious to fi..."
"Nuff said" Capri interjected.
"You too!?" Jadyn questioned excitedly. "Is that why you gave up your virginity? Who was he, some guy at high school, some guy at college? Didn't it hurt like Cerberus's backside? I don't know what all the fuss is about."
Jadyn had a ton of questions for her older sister, but the look of embarrassment on Capri's face slowed her questioning to a standstill.
"Sorry Cappy, I guess this is, new territory for conversation. I'm just curious to know, does it get better?"
Caprice stammered "well... uh..."
"It's okay Cappy you can tell me, I've been dying to talk to someone about it. I have soo many questions." Jadyn said trying to coerce her older sister into the conversation and give her some insight into the world of sex.
"I'M STILL A VIRGIN!" Shot from Capri's mouth.
Jadyn was stunned; she thought she had just heard her incredibly beautiful older sister, who never had a shortage of dates, or a lonely weekend for that matter, just tell her she was a virgin.
"Wha...what?" Jadyn managed.
Capri's face was red as she meekly said. "I'm; still a virgin... Technically."
"Technically?" Jadyn repeated with a look of confusion on her face. "You've either had sex or you haven't, masturbation doesn't count, I've done that; a lot." She smiled.
Capri's face was even more red as she stumbled over her words. "I've had sex... Just not with... A man."
"APHRODITE'S TOILET!" Jadyn exclaimed using the code she and her sister had developed when they were younger because their Mom was anal about cussing. "You're a lesbian?" Jadyn unconsciously moved her hand from Capri's belly.
Capri, hearing her younger sister still using code for "Holy Crap" smiled a little and was relieved not to see a judgmental look on Jadyn's face. She was aware however, that Jadyn wasn't sitting quite as close.
"Well, I don't know." Capri responded slowly "I don't think I'm a lesbian, I mean I'm interested in guys. It's just that listening to Michael flirting at the restaurant, I got curious."
Michael was a beautiful Japanese girl that flirted like a "Geisha" and owned a Sushi bar their family frequented.
"But." Jadyn piped in. "All the guy's you dated in High school, you never got curious with them?"
