by Keelan Storm
* * *
“Hey, guys,” Annie said as she and Emma approached the large oak in the courtyard where Izzy and Tucker were waiting on one of the benches covered in shade.
“Hey,” Tucker answered roughly.
“What’s up with you?”
“Oh, he’s still annoyed about everyone gawking at us all day long. He needs to get over it,” Izzy replied, tousling his hair until he grinned.
“Then I would suggest you don’t look over at the water fountains,” Emma commented.
They glanced over to find Lisa whispering amongst a group of friends and glaring at Izzy. Tucker scowled, his jaw clenching as he wrapped a protective arm around her.
“Well, this’ll be great for his mood,” Annie thought sardonically. “At least, he doesn’t look like he wants to strangle her like he did at the bonfire last month.”
She was about to suggest for them to head out when Izzy pulled at the collar of Tucker’s shirt, tugging him down for a kiss. Tucker’s irritation passed quickly, and he pulled her into his lap, holding her tightly against him as the kiss became anything but chaste.
Annie and Emma stared in shock for a moment before turning awkwardly away.
“So…” Emma began. “Some of us were talking about meeting up at Bob’s Diner after school today. You think y’all might wanna come?”
“Yeah, I’m game,” she replied, thankful when she heard her friends come up for air.
“Whoa…” Tucker breathed heavily, a huge grin on his face. “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but what was that about?”
“I just figured if people are going to stare, we should give them something to stare at,” Isabel smirked mischievously as she leaned back against the tree. “Besides, Lisa considers me her competition, and she’s got to see that there’s no way she’s going to get Tucker,” she added to herself.
Annie followed as her sister’s gaze flicked to the water fountains. Lisa looked stunned, tears suddenly bursting from her eyes, and she turned and ran off down the sidewalk, her friends following right on her heels with attempts to comfort her.
“Good for you, sis,” Annie grinned to herself, glad Izzy was standing her ground.
“Sooo…Bob’s Diner?” Emma tried again. “Annie’s game.”
“Oh, no thanks. Tucker and I were planning on hanging out at his place this afternoon. I’ll just ride home with him, Annie, so you won’t have to drop me off first.”
“Oh, okay,” Annie replied, wondering when she’d get used to Izzy choosing Tucker all the time. She was definitely gaining a new understanding of what her two friends had gone through back in seventh grade.
“Alright,” Emma said, heading for the parking lot. “See you there, Annie.”
* * *
“I’m glad that Benton Hall started that after school program for kids. I love my sisters, but having a few hours away from them at home is nice,” Tucker said when he and Izzy stepped into his house.
“I don’t know,” Isabel replied. “I kinda miss hanging out with the kids all day.”
“Well, I’m sure Chelsea and Victoria would have loved to spend time with you, but they were really excited about hanging out with their friends.”
“Yeah, Tyler, too.”
“Give me a sec to feed Barkley,” Tucker said, heading to the pantry near the back door. “You wanna help? He’d be excited to see you.”
“Sure,” she smiled, following Tucker outside. Barkley was sweet but so energetic. Jenna had demanded that he always stayed outside ever since he broke her favorite vase. ‘It was a gift from my grandmother!’ she remembered her shouting.
She gave the loveable chocolate lab a good scratch behind the ears as Tucker dropped the food in his bowl and refilled the water. Her stomach turned a little at the dog's smell. “You need a bath,” she told the oversized puppy.
Tucker shook his head when she looked at him. “Nope, it’s on Chelsea and Victoria’s chore list this week, not mine.”
She shook her head, picking up a few toys to play fetch when her stomach twisted again. “Do you have any crackers?” she asked, suddenly feeling sick.
“Yeah,” Tucker replied, catching on. “Come on. We probably have some ginger ale, too.”
She followed him back inside to the kitchen when the room started to spin again. “Are you okay?”
She grimaced, holding onto the counter for the spinning sensation to pass. “You mind if I go lie down?”
“Go,” he insisted. “I’ll bring the crackers up.”
She nodded and headed up the stairs, still gripping the railing and a little unsteady on her feet. She was used to getting lightheaded when she was sick, but it was strange for it to keep hitting her so suddenly and intensely.
She lay back on Tucker’s bed, his SPURS basketball blankets cool to touch. It felt good to lay her head against the pillow, and in the quiet, dimly lit room, she felt like she could easily fall asleep…
Thunk!
Isabel’s eyes flew open, and she sat up, her heart pounding in her chest. Tucker was standing near his desk with their backpacks by his feet, the crackers and ginger ale already on the nightstand beside her.
“Sorry,” he apologized.
“Was I asleep?”
“Only a few minutes.” He came over and crawled up behind her, tucking her into his body. “I wanted to let you rest. You looked pretty green downstairs.”
She nodded, nibbling slowly on a cracker to see if it would help. “I know. This cold just isn’t letting up. My mom’s going to want to take me in if she finds out.”
Tucker sighed, figuring that was a pretty good idea. He just wanted her to feel better already. He ran his fingers through her hair as she nibbled, trying in some way to help her, until he heard her soft, even breaths as she fell asleep. Removing the half-eaten cracker from her hand, he settled in beside her to listen for when one of his parents came home, not daring enough to be caught in bed with his girlfriend, even for a good reason.
* * *
Several days passed before Isabel stared at her stricken reflection in the bathroom mirror, her heart racing as her gaze flicked back to the unopened pink box stashed under the counter. She pressed a shaky hand to her flat stomach, just above her bikini bottoms, and turned for a side view of her reflection. She looked the same. “But do you feel the same?” Her mind forced the question. She shook her head. She was only seventeen. She was being ridiculous. “Am I though?” she still questioned. “Could I be?”
Dread filled her at the idea of telling Tucker. Would this be what made him leave? She was being crazy. “There’s just no way!” she insisted, slamming the cabinet closed to meet her friends at the beach, doubt still flickering dangerously at the edge of her mind.
13
Nacho Betrayal
A thud sounded on the table as Annie dropped a thick folder, flyers spilling out around their menus.
“What’s this?” Tucker asked, picking up a brochure from the stack.
“Our potential colleges,” she replied in an enthusiastic tone.
The two guys groaned. “I thought we were here to have lunch. I’m starving,” Tucker complained.
Isabel rolled her eyes. Why was he being so difficult? “Oh, please, Tucker, you just had a sandwich before we left.”
“Well, I didn’t,” Jet protested.
“We can have lunch, but we need to talk about this first.”
Isabel groaned, the smell of Mexican food and her favorite nachos platter wafting from a nearby table had her stomach growling with hunger. “At least, let us order first. I swear, sis, I’m nearly as hungry as the guys today.”
“Seriously? You’re going to complain, too?” Annie gaped. She looked around, realizing her defeat. “Fine,” she huffed, “We can order, but we’re talking about this,” she slapped a hand against the stack, “while we’re waiting.”
Tucker flagged down a waiter and ordered their usual while Jet sighed.
“Why do we need to do this right now? Isn’t it a little early to be worrying about college stuff?”
“Why are y’all making such a big deal out of this?” Annie asked, exasperated. “I am the only one of us who went to that seminar yesterday to find out information for all of us. I didn’t complain that Jet went to football practice, or that Izzy had a headache, or even that Tucker had to stay late to talk to one of the coaches, but now you’re complaining that I want us to talk about it?”
She paused, and when no one said anything, she leaned over the table and gave them all a look. “The earlier we apply, the more likely it is that we’ll all get into the same school. That’s what we want, isn’t it? To all go to the same school? Jet living with Tucker and me and Izzy living together? Hanging out and going to parties, no parents around? Think of how much fun it will be. That won’t happen if we don’t all get into the same school.” She was almost pleading at that point.
“Sweetheart, with y’all’s grades, you and Izzy can get into pretty much whatever school you want. And let’s be honest, the chance of me getting into the same school as y’all isn’t that great. You’re not dumbing down your college for me.”
She gave Jet a half sympathetic, half-angry look. “That’s not what I’m trying to do. We won’t know for sure until we look over the options. Here,” she grabbed the four main brochures from the stack and spread them out. “I made sure to grab the schools that have already offered you basketball scholarships, Tucker. You know you’re going to take one of them, so, if we narrow it down to our best choice from here, we can get started.”
“But this is ridiculously early, Annie,” Tucker tried to reason. “I might get other offers this year.”
“Then we pick one for now and use it as a backup if we need to,” she argued.
Isabel exchanged looks with Tucker and Jet. Annie was in her determined and persistent mode. There’d be no stopping her until they complied.
“Alright, sis, show us what you’ve got,” Isabel agreed, afraid to know what Annie would do if she mentioned Baste Academy or the audition letter she’d just received.
Annie’s eyes lit up, and she whipped her pen and tablet out. “Okay, pros and cons. What’s your first choice, Tucker?”
* * *
“You okay, sis?” Annie asked her when she pushed her plate away and laid her head down on the cool, hard table surface.
They had finally gotten their usual combination nachos platter, and she hadn’t even been able to make it through half a stupid plate of the delicious chips when her stomach started turning on her. How could it be so awful to her when she had been so hungry only minutes before?
She felt Tucker place a hand on her back. “What’s wrong, love?”
Wanting to answer and being able to were two different things if they didn’t want her to toss her portion of the nachos all over the table. She just placed a hand on her stomach instead, hoping that they would understand. The touch on her back did not help her stomach either, and she started taking in slow, deep breaths to try and soothe the churning she wasn’t sure she could win the battle with. She must have looked pretty awful if Tucker actually took a pause from eating to see what the matter was.
“Here, drink some of your soda. Maybe the carbonation will help,” Annie suggested as she held out the drink to her.
Isabel steadied her stomach as best she could before accepting the glass. She was terrified but still hoped that the clear, bubbly drink would ease her nausea.
Uncomfortably aware of all three pairs of eyes on her, she raised the glass to her lips, hating having everyone stare at her like that, but, at that moment, she couldn’t even work up the ability to blush.
The second the soda hit her stomach, she knew the battle was only seconds away from being lost. She wasn’t sure if the glass made it onto the table or not, but leaped from her seat to run to the ladies room. She dashed into the first stall she saw open and dropped to her knees, her hands clutching the sides of the porcelain bowl as the offending lunch left her body.
Seconds later, she felt cool hands touch the back of her neck, and her hair pulled away from her face. Oh, how she loved Annie, and oh, how she hated those nachos. How could her favorite food betray her this way?
Annie stayed with her as her lunch continued to resurface, holding her hair back and waiting patiently for it to be over. When she thought the last of the queasiness was finally gone, she sat back against the side of the stall. Annie handed her a wad of toilet paper so she could wipe the corners of her mouth and flushed to rid them of the smell.
“Feel better?” she asked.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay now, just a little shaky.”
“That’s good. You really freaked us all out, the way you left.”
“How many people saw me?” she groaned, her cheeks already flushed from before. Her eyes darted around to see if she could spot any pairs of feet, to see who might have witnessed when she saw it, the long, white box that hung on the wall outside the stalls.
“Oh, I don’t think anyone really saw you throwing up. The people in the other stalls did rush out when they heard you, though…Izzy?”
She felt herself paling, forced now to admit the possibility of what she’d refused before.
“Izzy?...Izzy?!” Annie said, growing alarmed at her sister’s stunned silence.
“Annie?” she said weakly, leaning her head back against the stall. “Can you spot when you’re pregnant?”
“Yeah, I think so…why?”
She exhaled a long sigh. “Because if you can, there is a very strong possibility that I’m pregnant.”
“Izzy, that’s ridiculous. You have to have sex to get pregnant,” Annie said dismissively.
Isabel looked down at the floor near her feet. She was well aware that you had to have sex to get pregnant, and she was also well aware that she and Tucker were very good at having sex when they got the chance. Her fingers twisted in her hair, unsure how to admit to her sister what she’d been keeping from her for months.
“Izzy, you haven’t,” Annie stated in disbelief. Izzy, having sex? The idea was just absurd. She had to be misinterpreting something.
Isabel looked up into her sister’s eyes, telling her it was the truth.
“Was it Wesley?” she asked, stating the only option she could think of as she started pacing the room. “Did he force you? Of course he did. You wouldn’t do that with him. I’ll kill him!” she cried, punching her fist into her hand. “Why didn’t Izzy tell anyone before?! Damn it! Tucker thought he made it there in time that night.”
“Annie, no!” Isabel tried to shush her before anyone overheard. “I didn’t have sex with Wesley.”
She stopped, relief coursing through her for a moment, but then searched her sister’s expression to make sure it was true.
“But that would mean...” she began to realize, her mind racing. “But they’ve only been together a couple months…but there’s no other option if it’s not Wesley.”
“With Tucker?... You had sex with Tucker?!”
Isabel nodded. The part she was going to hate was coming fast, but she knew she couldn’t put it off any longer.
“When?” Annie asked, shocked. She sat down on the floor next to her.
“You mean the first time?” she asked sheepishly.
“The first time?! Y’all have had sex more than once?”
Isabel nodded again.
Annie took a moment to collect, her voice tight when she spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me? We tell each other everything. Well, almost everything. But this is definitely one of those things we tell each other! I told you when I slept with Jet for the first time.” “How could she have kept this from me?” she wondered, shocked and hurt.
Isabel took a deep breath and sighed, closing her eyes. “I didn’t tell you because the night you told me about Jet was the same night that Tucker and I had sex for the first time.” She paused, but Annie just sat there, her expr
ession inscrutable.
“I didn’t want to ruin your big moment. You and Jet have been together for so long. News like that should have been special between us, not put on the back burner because your twin had sex with her best friend before they were even officially dating.”
“This is so not going well,” she thought, disheartened when Annie still refused to speak.
“I mean, my emotions were all over the place from the Wesley thing when I realized that I cared for him, and the sex just kind of happened. We made our relationship official right afterwards…”
She stopped talking at that point, realizing that the explanation was only going downhill. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both staring at the floor in front of them, Isabel playing with the beads on her necklace, Annie simply still.
“You should have told me,” she finally said, quiet and calm. “I don’t care if I just had my first time only a day before, I would have wanted to know. I might have freaked out a little, yes, but only initially. Honestly, it hurts more that you kept that from me than if you would have just told me.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“Did it ever occur to you that it might have been something that we could have shared together? Important relationship things have always happened to us at different times: getting boyfriends, first kisses, first dates, I love you’s… Us having our first time only a day apart is kind of a miracle. I still can’t believe you had sex with Tucker that night, but it would have been fun to bond over it. I miss spending time with you, time without our boyfriends.”
They sat in silence while Isabel thought about what Annie had just said, things a twin should have known and picked up. She kept her eyes on the floor, too ashamed to look at her sister.
“I should have told you about Tucker and me. I was honestly just so shocked that it had happened, happy and excited, of course, but shocked, that I didn’t think it through when I decided to keep it from you…and you’re right. I miss our time together, too. I’ve just been so wrapped up in Tucker that I didn’t see it. I’m sorry, Annie, for everything.”
