Dirty Sex (2 page)

“Already? We just left.” He sort of fell off the couch and started

setting up the Super Nintendo. We were old-school like that.

“No. Aus said he’d see you at Streets.” I caught the controller he

tossed me and righted myself so I could see the screen.

“Yeah, tomorrow night.”

Tomorrow night. There was some meaning there. It was hard to

think through the drunken haze.

“Shit.” It hit me. Reese was coming back, and everyone was going

to the pub to welcome her home. “I hate your sister.”

“She hates you too.” Ryan’s shoulder brushed mine as he leaned.

The player on his half of the screen did the same thing. Ryan was the

type to move with his characters, as if that helped.

“Why doesn’t she just stay at Yale for the summer?” Reese went to

Yale. Of course, she went to Yale. Me and Ryan, state college all the way.

My parents couldn’t afford a school like that anyway. Not that I could

get in to one. Most days, Ryan and I were proud if we both managed to

get out of bed and to class almost on time. Maybe that was pathetic, just

like playing video games in the middle of the night while drunk sounds

pathetic, but we weren’t stupid. We just liked to party. Reese always told

me and Ryan that we were like stupid frat boys without the frat.

“You think she should just stay at Yale?” he said like I was being

an asshole. “That’s nice of you.”

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“It’s not like I’m her favorite either.” I paused the game and tossed

my controller to the ground.

“I don’t care. I’m pumped. I haven’t seen her in over a month.”

He slid to the floor in front of me. His back was propped against the

couch, and all I could see was the smooth, dark hair covering the back

of his head.

“Do you miss her when she’s gone?” I asked even though I already

knew the answer. With twins, they’re always connected even if they’re

a million miles away from each other. Or maybe not. But those two

were.

“You coming with me tomorrow?”

“To the airport?” I knew someone had to go with him to help

Reese carry all her crap to the car. That girl brought so much shit to

college and back home it blew my mind.

“Yeah.” His head dropped back against the cushions so that I

couldn’t tell if he was tired or if it was the booze.

“I guess.”

A slow grin spread across his face. “I love you.” Yep, he was still

drunk. His pure cacao eyes, so dark they were almost black, fluttered

closed. The long lashes fanned across his creamy, tan skin. Ryan had

eyes that were almost sunken in and ringed in shadow, making him

look perpetually sleepy. Chicks always said he had bedroom eyes. I just

thought he looked stoned.

“You want to get some sleep?”

“Mm hmm. You crashing here?”

I didn’t bother answering. We both knew I was staying. Ryan

stumbled toward his bedroom and I headed for mine. Technically, it

was a guest room, but the drawers had my clean underwear, and I’d

picked out the sheets on the bed. They were Transformers. So we just

called it my room. It infuriated his sister.

“Good night,” I called before he shut his door.

“’Night.”

❖

“Get up. Get up. Get up.” Ryan fell onto the bed next to me. He

took my blanket and wrapped it around himself. Then he tried to take

my pillow so I pushed him onto the floor.

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AShley BArtlett

“Five more minutes,” I said as I curled up with the pillow.

“No, I woke up late,” he said from the floor. “We only have an hour.”

“That’s plenty of time.” It wasn’t. From El Dorado Hills to

Sacramento during rush hour took almost an hour. To get to the airport

added another twenty minutes. I rolled off the bed taking care to step

on him.

“Oww. I hate you.” He pulled the blanket over his head.

“We’re gonna be late. If you want a shower, get your ass up.” I

headed down the hallway and shut the door of the bathroom behind me.

When I was done showering, I towel dried my hair as much as possible,

found my hair product, and pushed my hair up into a faux hawk. Ryan

started pounding on the door.

“Let me in. I want a shower too.” So I opened the door.

“Calm down. Does it really matter if we’re late?” I didn’t see why

Reese’s plane was coming in so early in the first place.

Ryan just rolled his eyes and said, “You can borrow some of my

jeans if you want.”

It would have been logical to have more than T-shirts and

underwear at Ryan’s. Too bad I wasn’t logical. At least we pretty much

wore the same size.

❖

We were only five minutes late to the airport. Traffic had been

kind. As we approached the correct terminal, Ryan handed me his

phone.

“See if she’s here yet.” We couldn’t stop and wait at the curb.

Obviously. So we just had to circle until Reese showed. That was where

I came in. I texted Reese to see if she had landed. She said she was

going to baggage claim.

“Let me out. She’s here.” Ryan stopped, let me out, and im me-

diately pulled away.

I waited on the sidewalk for her. I wasn’t going to wander around

until I found the right baggage claim. She could come get me. Ryan

drove past once, twice before I saw her. If not for the familiar haughty

stride she’d maintained since childhood, I wouldn’t have recognized

her. Her face was different. It was all wrong. The chubby cheeks were

slimmer, giving way to the kind of perfect cheekbones and jawline that

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Dirty Sex

models were paid serious cash for. For the first time, I saw why women

became silent and stared when Ryan looked at them with those eyes.

Except hers were more elegant, not quite as shadowed, and contrasted

starkly against her light brown skin. My initial urge was to let my

jaw drop, my tongue hang out, and start panting like a dog. Instead, I

clenched my teeth and summoned the most predatory and bored look

I could.

“Buttercup! I’ve been waiting for you.” She turned and glared

disdainfully. “Well, come on. Give me a hug.” I held out my arms as

if she couldn’t wait to throw herself into them. The small bag she was

carrying hit me hard in the chest. I barely had time to catch it before she

spun and walked back toward the building. Her tight little ass twitched

in her short skirt with every step.

“My bags are this way. I thought Ryan was smart enough to

bring someone who would be able to carry them,” she called over her

shoulder loud enough for anyone within a fifty-foot radius to hear. “I

guess you’ll have to make two trips.”

“Darlin’, you know I can handle anything you’ve got.” There was

a slight hitch in her step. “Don’t worry. When we get home I’ll remind

you.” I was being a little too obnoxious. It wasn’t my fault. I had two

semesters of annoying her to make up for.

“I haven’t even been in California five minutes and I already

feel nauseous,” was all she said to me until I’d pulled all the bags she

silently pointed out. I should have gotten a cart to carry them. I didn’t

because I wasn’t going to let her win. I stacked and slung them until

my T-shirt wasn’t visible through the straps and I couldn’t really feel

my arms.

“Is that everything, princess?” I pretended that my extremities

were not tingling and my lungs were perfectly capable of filling with

air.

“Why? Can’t you carry any more?” She wasn’t even watching the

bags going past us.

“I’ll carry you if you don’t get your ass moving.” I nodded in the

direction of the doors.

“Oh, Cooper, I’m so impressed,” Reese responded flatly. At least

she also started walking.

When Ryan pulled to the curb, he jumped out, opened the back of

his 4Runner for me, and tackled Reese in a massive hug. She squealed

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AShley BArtlett

and let him spin her around. I was going to hurl from the sibling love.

I channeled my disgust into throwing her luggage in the back. They

were like that the whole way back to El Dorado Hills. She would reach

over and play with his hair, tell him she liked the new cut. He acted

affronted when he saw the little glint from a new piercing at the top

of her ear. Apparently, it’s uncool to get a piercing without your twin

present. Reese pulled her hair back to give him the full effect. Her hair

was way longer than when I’d last seen her. It hung halfway down her

back in thick, deep brown waves. When was the last time I’d seen her?

Not Christmas. My parents had forced me to visit my grandparents in

Oregon, my own potpourri-filled hell. It must have been when she left

last summer. Almost a year.

As soon as we got to their house, I took off. As much as I loved

Ryan, I hated Reese. I didn’t care if it was just because I was jealous.

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Dirty Sex

Streets of London was packed when I showed up. Everyone was

in the backyard, a little fenced in place with dilapidated picnic

tables and foliage to hide the road. After giving hugs and high fives to

everyone and a single dramatic kiss to Austin, I sat on the tabletop with

my feet on the bench. Ryan and Reese were on the bench next to me,

Austin on my other side. Carson and Derek sprawled in wooden chairs

across from us.

“You want me to get you a beer?” Carson offered. My twenty-first

birthday was coming up. Sadly, the bartender frowned on being almost

twenty-one so I couldn’t order my own drinks.

“Yeah. Here.” I pulled a couple bucks out of my pocket and gave

them to him. “Thanks.” He nodded and sauntered off.

“Hey, Coop,” Reese said.

“What’s up, buttercup?” I asked in the most sickly sweet voice

possible.

Reese looked like she swallowed something disgusting. It took a

second for her to compose her face. “Why don’t you kiss the boys?” she

asked like she was actually interested. It had to be a trick.

“’Cause they have scratchy faces. Why don’t you kiss boys?”

Cynicism should always be met with sarcasm.

“That’s not what I mean.” Reese leaned back against the table to

see me better. “I mean you kiss Austin, but you give the rest of the guys

high fives.”

“I don’t follow.” I looked at Derek and Ryan to see if they got it.

They looked lost too.

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AShley BArtlett

“Don’t follow what?” Carson returned with my beer.

“Reese wants to know why I don’t kiss boys,” I explained.

“Eww.” He looked appropriately disgusted. “Why would you kiss

a dude?”

“Not a dude,” Reese cut in again. “You guys.”

At that, Carson’s eyes got big and his mouth turned down. “That

would be wrong. Like queer, but…” He thought real hard for a second.

“What’s the opposite of queer?”

“Straight,” everyone responded.

“No,” Carson said. “If Coop kissed a guy, it would be like me

kissing a guy.” It was fun to watch him try to explain why I kissed

girls. “Like, I was born to like girls.” The guys and I nodded in

encouragement. “So was Coop, so it would be sick if she kissed a dude,

just like it would be sick if I did.”

“That was kind of poetic.” Austin sounded appropriately reverent.

“Okay, but you still didn’t answer my question.” Reese hated

when we all agreed. “Because I kiss all of you guys on the cheek when

I see you, but—”

“Oh, but you like chicks too,” Carson cut in. “So you’re wondering,

if you’re both gay, why doesn’t Coop kiss”—he grimaced again—“us

if you do.”

“Yeah.”

“’Cause she’s one of us,” Derek offered. “You’re not.” He was

never one to think before speaking.

Reese looked pissed. “I’m not one of you?”

“He didn’t mean it like that.” Ryan put a comforting hand on

Reese’s shoulder.

“Coop chases girls. I think that’s what he means,” Austin jumped

in, always the peacemaker. So helpful.

“Okay, so she is a womanizer and I’m not?” Leave it to Reese to

make me sound like an asshole.

“Exactly. If only you abused more women you could be part of the

club.” I gave her my sad, serious face. This was why I hated Reese. She

could turn the most innocent conversation into a discussion of how evil

I was. She only did it to make me feel shitty. She knew that when I went

home I would obsess for days about whether or not I was a womanizing

asshole. So I just did what I always did, played it cool.

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Dirty Sex

“I’m confused,” Carson said. He looked it too. His beer was

clutched tightly between his hands and he was staring into it. “I

think I should ask my dads.” Carson was kind of a daddy’s boy, so if

he got in any kind of trouble he just called home. Trouble included

confusion, a common occurrence. He would probably get out his cell

any minute.

“I wasn’t trying to be a jerk.” Reese tried to backpedal. “I was just

making an observation.”

Derek started laughing. “You were trying to be a jerk. It’s cool. We

love to watch you guys argue.”

“Fuck off, Derek,” she said.

“Why doesn’t everybody just chill?” Ryan was the only one who

hated it when I argued with his sister.