Make or Break Time

The cabin was just as dark and uninhabited as Madison expected. There was only one car outside, Trent’s, so from that alone she could deduce that the others hadn’t returned from their missions yet. There wasn’t any hurry now that Kurt had successfully found Victoria, the information disseminated via a group text. Madison was relieved to hear that she hadn’t went back to Shawn, but now she was at a loss what to do with herself, all alone in the Ravers cabin. She could check in on Gavin and Trent, but they weren’t exactly that close, and Trent would probably just get upset for disturbing him. He really had been acting odd since-

THUMP

The opening of the cabin door made Madison jump. She turned but rather than being faced with a large, machete wielding masked man, she saw a much more familiar face, short and blonde but potentially just as terrifying. Ashley balked when she reached out and flipped on the lights, revealing Madison.

“What are you doing standing around in the dark?” Ashley asked bluntly, looking around for any other signs of life.

“I just got back,” Madison folded her arms defensively across her chest. “I was trying to decide what to do until everyone else got back.”

“Priority number one should have been turning on the lights,” Ashley insisted, softening slightly. Though both of the Cole twins had soured on her recently, Ashley hoped that she could still remain friends with Madison despite what mistakes might have been made with Brandon. Madison hadn’t exactly made it easy though, her fierce loyalty to her family slowly corroding her relationship with Ashley. “You gave me a fright, just standing there in the shadows.”

“YOU gave me a fright when you came in the door,” Madison threw the comment back. “Why are you alone anyway? Wasn’t Peter with you?”

“Yeah, but he dropped me off and went to see Mary,” Ashley explained, crossing the room and sitting on the armrest of the couch, nearer Madison. “Heather was supposed to be with you, wasn’t she? I bet she did the same; dropped you off and then went home to ‘Daddy’."

“That’s right,” Madison admitted. “Said she wanted to check in with the business after everything with Zack this afternoon.”

“Pfft, of course she said that, but we both know what she’s really going there for.” Scoffing, Ashley rolled her eyes. “She’s been simmering all day, just dying to get back to him.”

“I think it’s nice,” Madison replied defiantly, as the image of Heather running back to her father conjured memories of those first nights with Brandon, camping beneath the stars, unable to keep their hands off each other. “She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her before.”

“She’s being just a bit too barefaced about the whole thing, don’t you think?” Ashley asked, earnest. “They’ve already been nearly discovered once, and there’s still a video out there of them as far as we know, but she’s as flamboyant as ever. At least you and Brandon had the decency to hide out in the forest.”

“We only did that because he couldn’t stand to be in this cabin with you and Zack. But, honestly, I don’t know if anything ever would have happened between us if we hadn’t ended up alone in that car for the night, so maybe I should even thank you” Madison frowned as she shrank into herself. “Or I would, if I wasn’t now the one he can’t stand to look at.”

“I know it’s of little consolation, but I really never meant to hurt Bran. With Zack and me…there was just this undeniable spark between us. It was just so invigorating. Concepts like should or shouldn’t just kind of ceased to matter,” Ashley explained, apologetically, then musing on the notion for a second, added. “I guess that’s like you and Brandon and Heather and her dad. The **** thing creeps me out, but guess I do understand how it can happen.”

“Think you could convince Lisa of that?” Madison joked bitterly. “Look, I don’t begrudge you your happiness. You were my friend as much as you were Brandon’s girlfriend, but if he wasn’t everything you wanted, then you have every right to move on. I just think it was pretty shitty how you did it. Going behind his back, lying and letting him think everything was still good. At least with Heather and her dad, or me and Brandon, none of us were hurting anyone else. You doing whatever you wanted, right or wrong be damned, hurt Brandon.”

Ashley stood and turned her back on Madison. “I know, I know. Everything just happened so fast, and it was so much fun, and I know I should have just told him, but I knew it would ruin it. It wouldn’t just be fun anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what pisses me off,” Madison said, unsympathetically. “You holding your own fun above Brandon’s feelings; I never realized you were so selfish.”

WUUWOOF

A gust of fresh evening air entered the cabin as the door was opened again, welcoming the return of another two teens. Chloe led the way, her fiery red hair bobbing along with her jiggling tits as she flounced her way back into the cabin, the confidence instilled by the photo shoot adding pep to her step. Behind her, Brandon followed, regaling her with the ‘awesomeness’ of meeting Pietra Smith, a subject he had been avidly revisiting repeatedly since they left the studio. He fell silent, brought back down to earth, as he locked eyes with the other two girls in the room.

“I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Chloe offered politely. “We…uh…got held up.” She refrained from explaining what exactly had held them up, lest they thought they’d been slacking while looking for Victoria.

Ashley shook her head, as she watched Madison and Brandon, trying not the meet the other’s eye. “No, I just got back, and Madison was just in before me.”

“What about Heather and Peter?” Chloe raised her eyebrows. “They were with you guys, right? Did they make it back too?”

“Oh, yeah, everyone is safe and well,” Ashley confirmed. “They just had some other things to take care of.”

“It’s good to see everyone made it back in one piece.” Madison’s bashful glances at Brandon made it clear that it was him that she was most glad to see back safely.

“Mmm, I was worried what might happen if one of the groups ran into Shawn, whether Victoria was with him or not,” Chloe said. “Even in pairs, something terrible could have happened.”

“Yeah, like they fall and land on his dick,” Brandon muttered, mostly to himself but loud enough that all three girls could hear. “It’d be terrible if that happened…again.”

“Cattiness really isn’t a good look on you Bran,” Madison snapped. “Maybe you’d like to borrow my cheerleading outfit, if you really want to play the bitch.”

“Well, it certainly suits you,” he fired back. “I never thought my sister was the type to trade her body for what she wanted. I feel short-changed. I should have haggled more before fucking you.”

“You bastard, you know it wasn’t like that.” Madison recoiled, gritting her teeth as she held back tears. “It wasn’t like that with you.”

“How are you two still fighting over this?” Ashley threw up her arms in exasperation. “You both know you want each other; you’re just being too stubborn to admit it.”

“This doesn’t concern you,” Brandon remarked pointedly. “Though if anyone knows about giving it away…”

“You know who this really doesn’t concern? Me.” Chloe began backing out of the room. She paused, considering dragging Ashley from the room to let Brandon and Madison fight it out between themselves, but decided that even that wasn’t for her to get involved. “I’m going to check on Gavin.”

“I’m nothing like her,” Madison insisted, ignoring Chloe. “I made a mistake, but it was a mistake I made for Victoria, and to prove you to that you don’t really want to see me with anyone else.”

“Well, you got your wish,” Brandon spat as he turned back towards the cabin door. “Now I don’t want to see you at all.”

“Real mature, Bran. Run away again, that’ll solve all your problems.” Ashley rolled her eyes. “For such a tough guy, you’re a real coward.”

“Oh, yeah, I should just hang around and watch while my girlfriend and my sister screw me over, for fucks sake.” Brandon clenched his fists at his side, wishing there was someone he could punch right now. “Let me just hand you my balls first of all.”

“If you had any real balls, you would have stayed and worked it out. You could have just been honest with me about why it hurt,” Madison said, her mood dropping from aggressive to simply sad. “I was here. I apologized. I know I messed up and I want to make it right. Even if we can’t go back to…that…we still have to find some way to still be brother and sister. I don’t want to be part of a family that doesn’t have you in it.”

“But you know that you want that,” Brandon revealed with a sigh. “I don’t know what I want.”

“Well, that’s just a lie,” Ashley noted bluntly. “You know what you want. You just have to be all macho about it, because admitting what you want means admitting you were wrong to push Madison away in the first instance. And you can never be wrong. God knows, you’ve always been like that.”

“So, what if I was wrong?” Asking without actually confessing. “I should just accept her running off and having sex with deplorable assholes just for information? Shawn kidnapped Gavin today. KID-NAPP-ED. And he kidnapped Kurt before that.” He looked at Madison. “That’s the guy you fucked.”

“It wasn’t supposed to go that far,” Madison wiped at her eyes. “And it’s not like I’m particularly proud of it.”

“We can go around in circles, passing the blame, Brandon. She wouldn’t even have been there if it wasn’t for you suggesting she see other people. Shawn wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for Victoria. It doesn’t matter,” Ashley mediated. “What matters is what you feel, and those are things you’ve never been good at expressing. Throughout our relationship I was never sure if you loved me, or if I was just fun to have around and sucked your dick good.”

“Ah, now your cheating is my fault too, makes sense.” He let out a long breath, wanting desperately to storm out, but knew they’d call him a coward again. “Ash, I told you I loved you. Many times.”

“Sure, you said the words, but the longer we were together, the less I believed it. But it’s obvious that you love Madison,” Ashley said, calm and factual. “You never would have done for me what you did for her. You never would have suggested that I could be happier with someone else. My future, my feelings, my welfare, beyond the superficial, never conjured such introspection in you. And it’s not because it’s taboo. It’s because you love her. You love her and you want her, but you think you have to let her go. Trust me, I know, I’ve had to do that. But you don’t.”

Brandon swallowed. It couldn’t possibly be that Madison best life could be with him, hiding, pretending for the rest of their days. Of course, he wanted her. There was no one else he wanted to tell that he met Pietra Smith. There was no one else he wanted to lie back and look at the stars with, and there was no one else’s body be wanted to feel, warm, pressed against his in the morning. But after everything…

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I can’t…”

“Fine,” Ashley growled, turning to Madison. “Let me show you.”

She turned to her ex-boyfriend’s twin sister and kissed her full upon the lips. Her hands moved up, pressing tenderly upon her cheeks as she felt the brunette tense against her touch. Mouth parting in surprise, Ashley’s tongue slipped inside, clear and obvious for Brandon to see. As the kiss deepened, Madison watched Brandon out of the corner of her eye, seeing his shock mimicking her own surprise. She began to kiss Ashley back, seeing that Brandon wasn’t disgusted. In fact, he was far from disgusted, as his shorts grew tight, straining against the growing bulge underneath.