And Nothing But

“What do you mean you think we should see other people?”

The petite nude form of Madison Cole standing across from him, legs astride, hands on her hips and anger adorning her face like war paint was still one of the most frightening images in the world to Brandon Cole. Though he stood a fair bit taller than his twin sister, and his hulking, quarterback stature made him typically intimidating physically, the fury of his sibling made him feel small and weak. He had a temper himself, and a tendency to lash out, but his sister turned lover was worse, and he, like a fool, had just suggested that she should date other men.

In the clearing, next to the smouldering ashes of last night’s fire, Brandon stood, just as naked as his sister. It’d been too hot for clothes they’d quickly decided that morning. It was too hot for anything, besides fucking. If they were going to sweat, they might as well do something fun with it. They’d already made one trip to the waterfall to cool off in the refreshing waters, but unfortunately, they were also quickly running out of drinking water, and food was running low too. He would need to make a run for supplies soon, the finality of their time in the wild becoming all the more real to the star quarterback.

As he thought about returning to the real world, back to living with their parents, to school, and college next year, and then jobs and marriage and children, and all the things he’d never be able to have. Of all the things that he could never give Madison. He loved his sister. He loved her more than he should. The very idea that there might be something in life that he would deprive her of made his heart ache. And he knew, if he only asked, she would forsake it all for him. And that’s why he had to make the sacrifice, the best thing he could do for her as a brother, as a lover; he had to let her go.

“I don’t mean it like that. There’s no one else I’d rather be with,” Brandon clarified, trying to cut through her rage with his soothing, calm words. “But you deserve to have whatever you want in life. There are so many possibilities out there for you, things that you’ll never do if you’re stuck with me.”

“What are you talking about?” Madison shook her head violently and stamped her foot, fists clenched at her side. She might love her brother and want to fuck him, but she still wasn’t above beating some sense back into him. “You are what I want in life.”

“Come on, Mads. You can’t tell me that there aren’t other things you want to do with your life. I know you love drama club, and with your talent you could be a world class actress. Do you think you can do that and still have a relationship with your brother? Always having gossip magazines speculating about how close we are, always having to answer questions about why we live together or why you’re never seen with other men. Are you really prepared to live this lie?” Brandon questioned her, running a hand through his hair, as he desperately tried to make his twin understand just what she was choosing. “You’re athletic, and you’re smart, smarter than I ever was, and you have the potential for anything with that will and determination of yours. But not if you’re fucking your brother on the side.”

“If I’m so smart, then you should listen to me when I tell you you’re being dumb right now,” Madison bit back, scoffing and kicking at the grass. “You’re telling me what I should want in life, rather than just asking me. Because you know if you asked me that I’d tell you, I don’t want any of those things if it means not having you.”

“You say that, but I don’t think you realise what you’re giving up,” Brandon argued, listing them on his fingers. “We can never get married. We can never have children. Your whole life will be a tangle of lies and deceit.”

“We don’t need to get married. We’re already family and we share the same last name. And Lisa’s catholic. She’ll probably have like twelve kids, so the world will survive if we don’t have one or two,” Madison countered defiantly. “And I’d rather live this lie than the lie of a happy marriage and a perfect family with a person that I could never love as much as I love you.”

“Mads…” Brandon whispered, unable to mount a defence against a confession of love of that magnitude. He could only shake his head and tell her, “I just want you to be happy. I want that for you and I’m afraid. I’m terrified that I can’t give that to you.”

“Why would you even think that?” Madison asked, irritably. “I bet it was what Lisa said the other night. She poisoned your mind against me.”

“What? No,” Brandon insisted, straightening up. “This has nothing to do with Lisa. These are my own thoughts and feelings. I am capable of independent ideas, you know.”

“Well, it’s pretty fucking suspicious that you didn’t put up a fight in the car or out here in the clearing until she appeared,” Madison replied accusingly. “And since she’s come around, you’re suddenly thinking that this is ‘wrong’.”

“This has always been wrong, Mads, I just don’t care,” Brandon remarked taking a step closer to his sister. “Being your brother and loving you the way I do, it still doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that you might not get everything that you deserve in life because you’re too busy fucking me to explore the world and expand your horizons. You should be free to do whatever you want with your life.”

“And that starts with me fucking other men?” Madison snapped, shortly before the sound of a twig breaking followed.

Brandon and Madison both looked over at the same time, glimpsing movement between the trees. Together they dove into the tent, hurriedly dressing. Brandon only had to pull on a pair of shorts, but Madison threw on a pair of short shorts and one of Brandon’s hoodies, its massive size dwarfing her and hanging down like a dress. They re-emerged just in time to see Heather strolling out of the overgrowth, the twins sighing with relief until they saw Ashley following behind.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Madison growled, pointing at the tiny blonde cheerleader.

“Yeah, Heather, not that I mind you coming to visit,” Brandon agreed, scowling. “But I’d rather you didn’t bring her.”

“I know, and really if there any other way, I wouldn’t have, but this is an emergency,” Heather explained quickly, just glad they hadn’t walked in on the siblings having sex. At least this way made it easier for Ashley. “We may have figured out a way to free Lisa.”

“Free Lisa?” Madison echoed, raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Is she trapped somewhere?”

“Don’t you guys read the news?” Ashley asked, refraining from adding ‘or do you just fuck all day’. “Lisa and her father’s arrest have been all any one’s been talking about for the past two days.”

“Lisa was arrested?” Brandon asked incredulous, glancing into the tent at his dead phone, no better than a stone now. “My battery ran out and obviously there’s no way to charge it out here.”

“Oh, wow, I guess neither of you know then,” Heather ran a hand through her hair, realising that they’d have to explain everything from the start. “Yesterday morning the police came to the cabin and arrested Lisa for possession of a Schedule II ****.”

“Good. Maybe someone in jail can help pull the stick out of her ass,” Madison spat, folding her arms, the sleeves, longer than her hands, dangling in-between. “But ****? That’s got to be a set up. No way little miss lawful is doing anything harder than caffeine.”

“Right, we figured they were planted too. But there were only a couple of people capable of putting them there. Long story short, we narrowed it down and…” Ashley paused, swallowing hard as she prepared to tell two more people what her sister had done. With a deep breath, and looking at Brandon, she said, “Bran, it was Hannah. Hannah set Lisa up.”

“Dammit, you Woodsens are a piece of work,” Madison glowered at Ashley. “First Brandon, now Lisa. Anyone else’s life you want to screw over?”

“Easy, Mads,” Brandon told his sister, then looking back to his ex-girlfriend, searching her face, seeing the hurt and the betrayal and knowing she was telling the truth. “Why?”

“You already know that I had sex with Kurt. Well, I planned to have Zack fuck Lisa so we’d be even-” Ashley began, but Brandon interjected.

“Wait, I remember you joking about that on your date. And he was against the idea,” Brandon said, still able to hear the audio of the pair at dinner reverberating in his mind. “But that didn’t stop you, did it?”

“No,” Ashley admitted softly. “I still set him up to fuck Lisa, but Lisa played me. She wanted Zack for herself. I knew I deserved it for not listening and not thinking, but Hannah wanted ****. She wanted to punish Lisa, so she stole Robert Ravers’ Vicodin and planted it in Lisa’s luggage.”

“So, you screwed up your relationship with me and Zack and got Lisa arrested in the process,” Brandon’s jaw clenched, his teeth grinding. “Was it worth it?”

Ashley simply bit her lip and held her tongue. She didn’t want to hurt Brandon by saying ‘yes’. And truthfully, it had been worth it. For as much damage as she’d caused with her scheming and plots, she didn’t want to go back to be the dutiful girlfriend, the cheerleader on the arm of the quarterback, their whole lives laid out before them. Her time with Brandon had been safe and comfortable and boring, but now her life was thrilling and exhilarating and sometimes a little crazy. But with greater risk came greater reward.

“This is besides the point,” Heather interrupted, her voice cutting through the tension. “Lisa is in trouble and we have a plan to save her, but we need to get a confession from Hannah. Another one, one that we have on record.”

“Okay, but what can we do that you two can’t?” Brandon asked, baffled and rubbing his chin.

“The spy app that you used to listen in on Ashley’s date. It can record audio, can’t it?” Heather looked to the quarterback who gave her a short nod. “We want to use that to listen in and record Hannah’s confession. Then we’ll have proof to show the police.”

“Ah, I understand my role now,” Brandon replied, his face brightening with new comprehension. “But, you seem to be forgetting that my phone is dead.”

“We can charge it in the car,” Heather insisted, eager to get going as soon as possible. “There’s no time to stop at the cabin.”

“If Brandon goes, then so do I,” Madison declared, wrapping her arms around Brandon’s upper arm.

“Not a chance. Three people are more than enough for this mission, and I don’t need you distracting Brandon when he should be concentrating,” Heather shot back, already turning to leave. “We can drop you off at the cabin, but that’s as far as you go.”

“She’s right,” Brandon said before his sister could mount her counter argument. “I’m going to do this, but I’d prefer if you stayed with the others while I’m gone. It’s not safe here alone.”

“Tsk, fine,” Madison clicked her tongue, releasing hold of Brandon and walking with a mixture of confidence and anger towards the edge of the clearing, following the others through the overgrown path. “But it’s on you if I’ve killed Zack by the time you return. Especially now that he doesn’t have Lisa to defend him.”

Brandon chuckled, grabbing his phone and a shirt, then casually following the other three, making no effort to catch up. He was content to simply, quietly stroll through nature. In the stillness of the world around him, he could think, though mostly his thoughts were plagued with nightmares of Madison growing to resent him because she sacrificed her dreams for him. In his eyes, that wasn’t a very fair trade off. Madison was adamant she would give up anything for him, but he didn’t know if she really understood what that meant. But, perhaps, he hoped, that some time apart might put everything in perspective for his twin sister turned lover.