Alex and Andrew were some hot muddascunts on the club scene. At least, that's what the passing glances and awed whispers told them. Or the giggling confessions of girls whose blushes were painted on.
Most people knew them only as the Twins. They were regulars at hundreds of oily black back rooms, but they never stayed long enough to make more of an impression than heat, hot, blonde, heybabywantmetotakeyouhome?
That was Normal.
This morning, the sun came up on a sight that was not Normal.
Last night, Alex and Andrew had taken the truck and driven down the half-paved neon streets as they always had on the weekends, but they hadn't stopped. They drove right into the jungle and kept going until they got to the edge of anything that could possibly be considered a road and then they had stopped the car, gotten out, and walked through the black-green trees until the moon-struck surface of still water blinded their eyes. A flat pool, small and clear and completely isolated. Alex laid down the blanket they had brought with them and silently, they sat.
The moon was unbearably clear and weeping when Andrew finally spoke, pushing his brother to the ground and laying on his chest.
"Lets just run away."
Alex had the gall to laugh, a full-bodied guffaw that rattled the teen perched on his stomach and caused Andrew to gasp and smack his brother's bare arm.
"Shut up! I'm being serious."
That only made Alex laugh harder and so Andrew huffed and bit him on the arm. That made Alex squawk. And laugh even more.
"Y-you bite like a baby l-lizard!"
Yes, Alex definitely took after his dad. Andrew, on the other hand, took after his mum – maybe not as grumpy, but certainly less tolerant of idiocy.
Although Arthur would probably kill him the next time he was called "mum". Alfred would laugh just as loudly as Alex was laughing now. God, what a messed up family.
Scowling and realizing he was going to get no sympathy, Alex rolled off his brother's stomach and onto the blanket, burying his nose in the coarse fibers and smelling the dew-cold ground beneath.
"Why now?" he said quietly. "Why do they insist on doing this to us now?"
"You act like you've never been off the islands!" Alex said, turning onto his side so he could keep up the conversation. His long, straight blonde hair flopped in his face; it was so flat and thick he could never get it to behave. "Uncle Den used to take us up to his house all the time, to show off to the Scary Guy and Santa. And Francis used to baby-sit us a lot, too, until he and what's-his-name got married."
"Yeah, but…" But I don't want to change what we have going. I don't want to see the world. I want to stay on my island. "But we were younger, then."
"And now that I am older I want to see some hot foreign girls."
Andrew smacked his brother. Alex just grinned at him. "Well, now that the states are all grown up and on their own, I guess mum and dad think its time to put a little more focus on us. And that's gotta be nice, right? We'll start to get a little more independence, get out in the world… just think. Our first world meeting tomorrow is going to set us up for the rest of our lives. Maybe one day they'll let us become actually independent."
Andrew just shook his head.
"I don't wanna leave…" he mumbled.
"Don't be scared. I'll be right here, just like I always am," Alex said back, kissing Andrew's forehead and wrapping his arms around him. "Go to sleep. We have a plane to board tomorrow."