Lea

Max turned around in his chair and, watching the curtain that acted as his bedroom door slide open, saw his elder sister Lea, an identical twin contrary to the fraternal pairings that were more typical of the family, the current sets being their mother and aunt and their cousins Tiffany and Ashley.

“Nothing I really want to go into right now,” the young man said. “Hey, since you’re here, do you have any cash on you or back in your room? I have something I’d like to sell you.”

“Really?” the blonde-haired university student arched a thin eyebrow at him. “Normally, I’d like to see whatever it is first, but I’m flat broke right now. Not a penny to my name. Sorry.”

“Oh,” his face fell, thinking quickly. “Well… How about this?” Opening the upper right drawer of his desk, his hand scrabble about until latching onto a pen and pulled it out, her blue eyes blinking in bewilderment at the writing utensil. “I’ll sell you this pen for –” He blinked, looking over his sister standing before him still dressed for bed in a short sleeve V-necked cotton nightshirt. “– for your shirt.”

Her eyebrows twitched, a strange gaze flowing across her blue eyes.

“Okay,” she shrugged, taking the pen from his hand. “Be a couple of minutes, though. I need to change first before I hand it over.”

“Um, sure,” Max agreed, reaching again into the open drawer and removing another writing utensil. “But before you leave, I’ll trade you this pen for complete ownership rights to all the clothes you own and will ever receive.”

Lea’s brow furrowed as she plucked the ballpoint from his fingers. “Um, Max?”

“Yeah?”

“What – what will you do with all my – your – clothes?”

“I could sell them off. Maybe donate them to the needy.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? You would do all that?”

“It’s a possibility,” Max nodded.

“Okay,” she swallowed nervously. “Then, um, would you sell them back to me?”

“No.”

“No?” Lea’s eyebrows rose in astonishment. “But – why?”

“I don’t want to. But – if you’re interested – I could rent them to you.”

She stared at her brother. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

The blonde-haired twin blinked. “Um, okay. I – I guess I could rent them. Just – how much will it cost me?”

“Twelve dollars a month.”

Her eyebrows twitched. “So little? Why? What’s the catch?”

“I reserve the right of denial for what you could wear.”

Her jaw fell. “You – you could make me walk around naked!”

Her brother arched an eyebrow at the blonde twin. “You’re my sister, Lea. Why would I do that? Do you think so little of me?”

His sister frowned at him. “Well, you’ve tried to peak at Meadow and I when you were younger.”

“Mom and Dad told me off pretty good for that.”

“Right,” she nodded. “Then, um, what about Meadow? We share clothes a lot.”

“There’s no need to involve her in this,” Max said. “She can borrow what she wants. But you can’t borrow from her without my permission.”

“Oh, okay,” Lea swallowed. “I can – I can work with that. And when is the twelve due?”

“End of today, if you can get it without borrowing from anyone. Then this day every month.”

“What – what if I can’t pay you by the end of the day?” her voice shook.

“I don’t know just yet. I’ll think about it. But as for today…”

His sister’s blue eyes widened in alarm.

“I’d say – white stockings, white button-down blouse, pleated mini-skirt – plaid preferably, but if not navy blue, appropriate footwear, jewelry will be up to you.”

“O-okay then,” his sister stammered, clutching the two pens in her hand. “I’ll – I’ll see you at breakfast then.”

“Sure,” Max nodded, watching her turn around. “And Lea? This is all Fight Club. Understand?”

The blonde quickly glance at him over her shoulder. “I – of course, Max.”

Without further word, she sped away. The young man grinned to himself. Fucking A! So much I can do! Don’t know how much I plan on using the Machine – perhaps mainly to fine tune things, maybe to make larger changes to my benefit. Hope I didn’t scare Lea too much. I don’t want really want to make people miserable in general although I could make exceptions for the bullies at school. It could be fun turning their worlds upside down. Hmmm… Speaking of worlds, what of my world? My life? My plans? Do I continue? Or shall I now operate completely on whim?