In Defense of an Unmarried Man

“YOU!”

Zack heard the voice before he could even look up, Lisa twisting in his arms to see who had found them. She was mildly surprised to see Brandon and Madison, the sister making a frenzied effort to launch herself at Zack but being held back by Brandon’s strong, toned arms around her waist. Their presence itself wasn’t so much the shock as it was that they were actually wearing clothes. After discovering them naked and watching them fuck, it actually seemed more odd to Lisa to see Brandon in shorts and a thin long sleeved top and Madison dressed in one of Brandon’s t-shirts, the bottom just covering her ass and thighs, though as she flailed about it was clear to see that she had at least put on panties as well.

“If you think what Brandon did was bad, wait until I get a hold of you Bishop,” Madison threatened, trying to pull herself out of her brother’s grasp.

“Mads, stop it,” Brandon insisted. “I don’t care about any of that shit anymore.”

“Well, I do! How dare you betray my brother by fucking his girlfriend right under his nose and calling yourself his friend,” Madison growled, eyes like a wild animal focused on its prey, staring unwaveringly at Zack. “How do you even have the audacity to even stand there? You should just go lie down in a ditch somewhere and die!”

Zack took a step back, guilt and shame hanging over him like a dark cloud. He opened his mouth to apologise to Brandon but couldn’t do it. What right did he even have to ask for Brandon’s forgiveness? Everything Madison had said was true; he’d betrayed his friend and slept with his friend’s girlfriend. Even if Zack thought he and Ashley had something, they went about it all wrong, and Brandon had every right to be furious with him. Madison had every right to be furious with him on Brandon’s behalf just as he would be if someone had done what he’d done to Taylor.

Lisa stepped forward though, sliding in front of Zack, protecting him in case Madison got loose and spoke up, “Zack made a mistake and Brandon’s doesn’t want to be bothered by it anymore, so you should just let it go, Mads. Besides, you can’t exactly take the moral high road when you’ve been out here fucking your brother for two days straight.”

“Hm, you say that but…is that your panties I spy over there?” Madison grinned, pointing to a pair of yellow panties hanging over the side of the rock where Lisa had been sitting. “I knew, even up there on your high horse, that deep down you thought it what we were doing was hot. So hot you couldn’t wait to get out here and touch yourself, I bet.”

“That…that’s besides the point,” Lisa said defensively, her face glowing red as she diverted her gaze to the ground. “Even if it is hot, it doesn’t mean it’s right.”

“And what Zack did was?” Madison scoffed, calming down slightly, but Brandon kept his hands-on Zack’s waist, not wanting to risk her flying off at a moment’s notice. “Zack is scum, Lisa. He betrayed Brandon and he cheated on you once already. How many times do you have to be walked over before you see that he’s no good for anyone?”

Again, Zack couldn’t disagree. He seemed to have formed a horrible habit of destroying the relationships he valued the most. Even Ashley, who he’d cheated on Chloe with and screwed Brandon over for, was now estranged from him because he couldn’t handle when that same playful passion that first drew him to her was directed towards another. He didn’t seem to be able to help himself, often thinking he was doing the good and right thing, only to find later that it had pushed everyone away. Madison was right; how long until Lisa had enough of him as well?

Not yet, appeared to be the answer as she continued to fight his corner, saying, “For fuck’s sake, Madison, everyone does things they regret or wish they’d handled differently. Some day you might come to your senses and regret fucking your brother in a forest. You’re making some pretty strong accusations for someone who’s made some equally questionable life choices recently. But, if you’re intent on fighting someone, you can fight me. Maybe I can knock the **** out of you.”

“Love, it’s called love, you dumb bitch, not that you’d know what that looks like,” Madison spat back, struggling to remove herself from Brandon’s tight hold once again. “But if you think you can take me, you’re welcome to try. I’ve love to give you a black eye to match Zack’s.”

“No one is fighting anyone or giving anyone any more black eyes.”

Zack and Lisa wheeled around to see Heather approaching from the path that led to the back of the waterfall, Brandon and Madison having been too invested in the pair in front of them to see Heather coming. She had a flashlight in one hand and her phone in the other, and a peeved expression upon her face.

“Sorry for running off like that,” Zack said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was just…hearing that…”

“Forget it. I understand…this time,” Heather cracked a smile, showing that she wasn’t all that upset really, and looked up at the siblings. “What’s this I hear about you two fucking in the forest?”

“Apparently they’ve been out here having sex,” Zack began to explain.

“For the last two days straight!” Lisa barked at Madison.

“Just because you’ve never met a man who wanted to fuck you, and only you, for two minutes, never mind two days,” Madison snapped back.

“Enough!” Heather shouted, and the young twin fell silent.

“I guess this means they’re together,” Zack continued, thoughtfully, and then to Brandon, “or I dunno, are you two actually dating or is it just sex? What exactly are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” Brandon admitted. “I guess I haven’t really thought about-”

“We don’t have to explain ourselves to you,” Madison interjected, narrowing her eyes at Zack.

Heather sighed, throwing her arms up as she gave in, already tired of trying to **** the Cole sister to be civil. There were more pressing concerns that she wanted to address. Looking around, she asked, “Where’s Kurt? Don’t tell me he abandoned you as well?”

Lisa shook her head. “Technically, I abandoned him. He was with these two last I checked.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Brandon remembered. “We split up to look for you because we didn’t know where you went when you ran off. Kurt took the path back to the cabin, while we took this path to the waterfall.”

“Oh, well, that saves time. What about our..” Zack’s voice trailed off. The word ‘parents’ stuck in his throat, as if saying the words ‘our parents’ was some sort of admission that they shared the same father. A lump formed in his gullet, heavy and hard, and he felt the breath evaporating from his lungs.

Thankfully Heather deduced where he had been going with his sentence and quickly stepped in, telling him, “My dad sent me a text telling me that they’d found their way out and were on their way back. I told him we went all the way through the caves to the waterfall, which is true so, they won’t be up there waiting for us.”

Zack gave Heather a weak smile as he felt the air rush back into his body, the lump in his throat disintegrating almost as quick as it had spontaneously formed.

“That means none of you found Vicky then?” Brandon said, putting the pieces together.

“No, we didn’t,” Heather admitted, frowning. “But we’ll call the rangers when we get back to the cabin…speaking of which…”

Heather began waving her arms upwards in the direction of the forest path that led back to the cabin. Everyone started to move, Heather herding them, the only break away being Lisa, who dashed off to grab her discarded panties. Madison, on the other hand, refused to move at all, folding her arms in front of her chest and glowering at Zack and Lisa.

“I’m not walking back with them,” Madison declared.

Brandon grabbed his sister by the shoulders and pushed her ahead of him just as Heather moved in front of Zack and Lisa to deal with the problem. “There,” he said, smiling falsely. “Now you’re walking with no one.”

Madison huffed and pouted, but began walking all the same, shooting a glance back at her brother as Heather fell in step beside him, Zack and Lisa bringing up the rear.