Misadventures of Crystal and Jim (Sibling High Schoolers On Break)

He was lounging on the couch when his sister walked into the living room.

"Jim, hey." The slender brunette spun around, her flowery pink skirt circling around her legs then coming to a calm rest. Looking up, he noticed she had on a fitting, black-and-white striped shirt tucked into it, and found it dashing enough. "How do I look?"

"You look great, Crystal," Jim complimented, and meant it.

"How about these new earrings? Just picked 'em up from the store."

Jim once again tore his eyes away from the TV set. They drifted to his fraternal twin sister's ears, and focused on them. It felt strangely harder than it should have been, as if they made that little of an impression. But surely enough, there they were; two tidy little earrings, with what appeared to be the letter 'N' dangling off each of them.

The teenage boy looked back to his TV screen, lifting his energy drink to his lips.

"They're... nice, I guess." After taking a whomp and a restrained belch, the young man put the can to the side and yawned. Pulling into a stretch. Meanwhile, Crystal walked over and plucked the remote off the table, sitting down on the other end of the sofa.

"Thanks for the enthusiastic response," she shot back, as she changed the channel.

Jim watched as his **** motor sports was switched over to some teenage soap opera. He crinkled an amused brow. Who knew those were still aired?

His sister had her eyes on him as he watched the unfolding argument with relative disinterest.

"Jim, hello-o."

Jim looked to see his dolled up sister staring at him curiously. "What's up?"

She nodded her head towards the TV. He looked back. On the screen, a shirtless man stood at the entrance of a bedroom, looking down at the bed, where a woman and another man lay entangled in each other's arms.

He scoffed.

"Love triangles," one hand lazily falling onto his leg, "the key ingredient to any successful--"

"You're not gonna go whining that I just changed the channel?" Crystal finally said.

With another crinkled brow, Jim sat up. Then, he shrugged. "You can do what you want, honestly, sis. It's not like the TV remote is genetically linked to me." He paused. "Well, technically, we have the same genes, so..."

A harrumph left the girl's lips as she leaned back on the sofa. "Well well. Looks like you can be a gentleman after all."

This amused Jim.

"Pff," the brother waved. "Please. It's just that it's no big deal or anything, that's it."

"Yeah, but you would usually be a reeal crybaby about it. Before today anyway."

"Oh, yeah? Me, a crybaby?" Jim grinned, giving his sister a look. It looked more like a playful challenge. Shaking her head, Crystal just released a tuft of air.

"Something like that..."

She eyed him. It was funny. Usually he'd get riled up about that, too. But today must have been a mellow sort of occasion, 'cause he was taking her jabs in stride.

Then again, maybe he had just rolled up a blunt earlier, or something.

Suddenly, the dressed up girl remembered the time. She stood up and walked over to check the mirror by the front door. Her earrings gave off a slight glare from the glass, and she frowned.

Initially she picked them up because the 'N''s also correlated with her (and Jim's) surname, Nelson. Sure they were somewhat off-the-wall, but she liked spicing things up every now and then. But now, with her reflection looking back at her, she felt herself undergoing a last-minute reevaluation.

Maybe it would be better if she left them here, for another time. She may have just been going out with friends to the local mall, but what if these just made a reeally awkward first impression with someone she hadn't anticipated seeing? Twisting the earring with a finger, she curled her tongue in a rapid-fire assessment.