Love Bites

The week progressed without incident and Saturday rolled around. Everyone agreed to go to the 7 PM showing of the voice which would let out around 9:30 PM or so. This allowed them to grab some dessert and stroll through the park and enjoy the night before heading home.

Meeting at the movie theater at 6:30 PM gave them time to grab whatever goodies they wanted at the concession stand and find seats before the movie started.

They stood in line together but separated once inside the actual theater. Max wanted to sit in the middle, which Cory usually sat in the back, so the couples sat in different sections.

Cory watched the gory movie while sharing popcorn with Lily, who wasn’t paying close attention to the movie, but Cory didn’t really notice where Lily’s attention was focused.

Lily was distracted by the other things which she kept to herself. Even distracted, Lily jumped and squeezed Cory’s hand at appropriate times.

The movie ended and the house light came up. Since this was the opening weekend, the movie had a pretty good crowd and both couples waited for the main mass of people to leave by prearrangement before getting up to leave. Kayla and Max stood first as the people higher up were still queued in the aisles. Cory and Lily waited for the other couple to start out before following suit.

Standing, Cory held out his hand to Lily and helped her up. He noticed she was watching his sister and Max intently but wasn’t sure why. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh, nothing,” she replied, smiling at him. “Come on, let’s catch up to them,” she said, nodding her head in the direction of his sister.

They were still enough people filing out that Cory, still leading Lily by the hand, caught up finally to his sister and Max at the doors that let out to the lobby.

Once out of the door, the group stopped in a small alcove and the discussion of ice cream came up. Although Kayla was distracted, the group agreed to go next door an get ice cream store.

Max was the first to arrive and ordered while everyone else was still deciding. Kayla looked like she was studying the menu board but was still distracted and allowed the others to go ahead of her. Cory ordered next, which was an easy decision as he always got the same thing – mint chip. Lily was more interested in looking at Kayla but managed to order her ice cream without looking at the menu, although she had claimed to have never been there before. It wasn’t even something on the menu and Cory asked her quietly how she even knew they had what she ordered since it wasn’t advertised anywhere.

She replied, “Everyone has that don’t they?”

Cory wanted to reply No but decided to drop it.

Everyone else had already ordered, so Kayla couldn’t delay any longer, so she ordered something off the menu at random. Cory looked at her quizzically as she usually ordered the same thing and there was never any thought over something different. Kayla seemed to still be elsewhere, preoccupied.

Each person was server their dessert in order and by the tie Kayla came out, Max had most of his eaten already. The group left the store and strolled up the street two blocks to the park, eating while they walked.

The night still held some of the heat of the day and while it wasn’t as warm as it had been earlier in the day, it was still in the high 80’s.

As Cory noted a few days earlier while the moon was in its gibbous stage, the moon was now full. He had expected more strange people to be out tonight, but it was relatively peaceful. The only real strangeness that he noticed was from an unexpected place – namely his sister and Lily.

Each seemed distracted in their own right. Kayla didn’t seem to have a focus to her distraction and Lily seemed to be preoccupied with Kayla. Max seemed to be in his own little world and after finishing his dessert, he linked his arm with Kayla’s left one which was holding her ice cream.

She had stiffened a little when he did this, but that was all.

The couples had been walking in pairs, separated by a dozen feet giving them a little privacy. Cory and Lily trailed the other pair. This allowed Cory to observe everything and still admire the large brilliant white globe in the sky, which on this clear night, Cory had no problem making out the various optical illusions it provided. The man on the moon face or the rabbit across the face. He thought he could also make out some of the lunar craters on its surface as well.

Once in the park proper, it was surprisingly deserted. There were a few couples and single people walking through and a few benches contained both pairs and singles, but for a nice, and warms summer night, it was reasonably devoid of people.

Reaching a place with reasonable privacy, Max stopped Kayla and they sat on an empty bench. Kayla continued to eat her melting ice cream with reluctance.

Cory and Lily continued on for a few dozen yards to the net vacant beach and sat down. Cory had finished his dessert and had discarded the empty container into the trashcan next to their bench as they sat down. Lily had almost finished hers and Cory noticed that she was eating by rote, not even looking into the paper cup.

She continued to look in the direction where Kayla and Max were, even though they had rounded a bend that placed a shrub in between the view of their bench. The park provided lights but mainly in the areas of the bolted down benches. There were a few scattered light poles placed strategically around the paths through the park, but the better part of it was dark except for the moonlight.

“Why are you preoccupied?” Cory finally asked Lily.

“What makes you say that?” Lily replied.

“Well, you’ve been more interested in that hedge over there,” he said pointing towards his sister, “Than me. Am I that dull?”

“No, sweetie,” she replied, taking his hand, and giving it a squeeze. “I’m not ignoring you; I’ve just got something else on my mind.”

While it was warm night, her hand felt cool in his. It was something he was getting used to, gradually. He was kind of worried about here naturally cooler temperature but let it go for now. “Well, what do I have to do to get me to be the main interest of your mind?”

She set her unfinished ice cream down beside her and put her other hand over the one she currently held. Hid hand was now sandwiched between her two cooler hands, but it felt good. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous,” she said with a grin. I’m not even sure I can be l jealous unless you’re thinking about another guy.”

“I am, but not in that way. There’s no reason for you to be jealous,” she told him, placing a kiss on his cheek.

“Well, I guess that makes me feel slightly better. Not much, but…”

“Well then, how about this,” she said, reaching up with her top hand and turning his head to face her directly, where she kissed him passionately. Once she broke the kiss and pulled back slightly, she asked, “Satisfied?” almost breathlessly.

He replied glassy-eyed, “What were we talking about?”

She lightly punched him in the arm and said, “You’re too easy.”

“I’m not that easy, but…” he said as he leaned into her, closing the two- or three-inch gap to kiss her with fervor.

All of a sudden Lily froze and stiffened. Cory pulled back and said, “What? Too much, too fast?”

She replied, “Shh. Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

They sat motionless and silent in the quiet park. Finally, Cory heard what sounded like a muffled squeal and something that sounded lie stop. He got as far as asking, “What –” before Lily was up and running.

Cory’s reflexes had been sharpened by tennis, but Lily was up and gone almost before he had processed the sounds he had heard. Tennis had made him fast on his feet, but he had a fleeting thought that he ought to swim more if it would allow him to be as fast as Lily.

She had already disappeared around the turn behind the hedge before he had gone two steps. He sprinted to catch up to Lily if he could, not even sure where she was at this point, when he rounded the turn in the path, he saw Lily on the bench next to his sister, who had he head buried in Lily’s shoulder and neck. Seeing this, he sped up even more.

When he got within a few feet, Lily said to him, “Cory. Go home. Now. Wait up if you must, but go, now. If your mother asks where Kayla is, tell her us girls took the long way home so we could talk. We’ll be there in a while.”

“What the hell –”

“I said GO!” she flatly told him with authority.

He stood there for a few seconds, looking at his sister sob into his girlfriend’s neck, contemplating his option when she flashed him a look that decided for him. It was almost a snarl on her face, and he could see the rage in her eyes. “I imagine I won’t let this rest,” he told her.

She replied calmly, “When the time is right,” with a contradiction of voice and look.

He decided to do as she said and quickly walked home, only noting after getting to his porch that Max hadn’t been there with Kayla. Briefly he thought about seeking Max out to get to the bottom of this but decided against it.

As he entered the house, this mom called out, “Kids?” to which he replied it was only him and that Kayla would be home shortly as she was walking back a way with Lily. “Okay, well I’m going to bed. Lock up.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

He went upstairs and sat on his bed, trying to figure out what to do. Having finally decided there was little else he could do, he changed for bed, left his light on, and laid down and waited. He fell asleep but awoke to the sound of the front door closing, then being locked.

Someone came up the stairs slowly and walked into Kayla’s room. Cory was confused because while the build was similar, the hair belonged to his sister, but the shirt was Lily’s. A few minutes later her door opened, and Kayla appeared in this doorway, wearing shorts and an over-sized t-shirt.

Seeing him in bed already, Kayla flipped his light off, closed his door and padded barefoot across the room to his bed. She climbed into bed with him, scooting close to him saying, “You don’t mind, do you? Like old times…”

“Do you really think you have to ask?” he told her. He had seen her face before she turned off the light. It was puffy from crying and still sad. He put his arm around her, pulling her close, and felt her tremble slightly. “You’re safe,” he told him.

As they grew up, any time Kayla was scared she would join her twin in bed to be close to him. He was away able to remove her fear by allowing his strength to pass into her through some bond they shared. While it didn’t actually require a physical connection, it was usually at night, caused by a thunderstorm or a bad dream and because of their closeness, she typically sought out her twin instead of her parents as most children do. It usually ended up with both falling asleep in the comfort of each other’s arms, sharing their strength.

She rested her head on his shoulder and laid an arm across him. Taking Lily’s advice, or maybe it was her vehemence in telling him he’s know when it was time, he allowed his sister to dictate the rest of the night. He decided that he would give her as much space as she needed – or not – and lend her his strength as he used to do. She would tell him what all this was about in due time, she always did.

It surprised him that as upset – no, hysterical was more correct – as she was earlier, she had calmed down enough to be home and as calm as she was right then. She surprised him even further by beginning to speak once the twitches she had stopped.

“First, Lily said to tell you she was sorry she didn’t get to say goodnight to you. She said I was to kiss you goodnight for her and she would make up for the sisterly kiss later.

“It was my fault she couldn’t give it to you herself, but she was concerned about me. Forgive me,” she said and kissed him on the cheek.

“Nothing to forgive. I imagine I can say goodnight to her tomorrow or another day.”

She squeezed him and he squeezed her back. Continuing, she said, “I guess I should start at the beginning. Please just listen. Not too long-ago Max started pressuring me to have sex with him. I told him I wasn’t ready. Kissing was okay, and a few times I let him feel my boobs through my shirt, but that was all.

“Tonight, at the movies, he kept trying to put his hand up my shirt.

Cory tensed some but said nothing.

Kayla waited a beat to see if he would interrupt and when he didn’t, she continued. “I didn’t let him and spent half the movie fighting him off. After, while sitting on the bench, he put his arm around me. I was still upset about the movie, but let it go. He wanted to kiss, so we did.

With his arm around me, he started feeling me up over my shirt again. I let him, reluctantly. But then, pulling me sideways into him, he then attempted to put his hand down my pants. He almost managed to before I was able to twist away, freeing my pinned arm and pulling his hand out of my pants. In doing so he ripped my shirt. Lily insisted we trade shirts right there in the park. I was already distraught enough that taking my shirt off in public didn’t really hit me until I got home. Lily didn’t say it, but I think she traded shirts, so it didn’t remind me of what almost happened tonight. And to have to try and explain to mom if she was still up. Anyway, after I got free, Max took off. I’m done with him.

“Lily told me to tell you not to do anything rash. Actually, she said if you did anything she’s kick your butt.

“She walked e home after calming me down, and here I am.”

Cory wasn’t sure if she was done or not, so he stayed quiet. She started with the hitches in her breathing again and he felt her let out a few silent sobs before relaxing some.

He drew her tighter against him and said, “None of this is your fault. Don’t you even thinking about going there. Max is garbage and he doesn’t deserve you. You certainly deserve better than him.”

Cory knew everything he was saying was inadequate considering what had happened – or had nearly happened. “I know no matter what I say it won’t fix things.” He lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “Just know I love you.”

In a voice that was barely audible she replied, “Thank you. For everything.”

They lay there for a few minutes, each with one arm wrapped around the other, when Cory felt the returning feeling from years before – the steady breathing of his sister, indicating that, now feeling safe, she could, and had fallen asleep. Trying not do think about the night’s events, Cory quickly followed her lead.