Carly Sevens
I didn’t even notice we had company until Jack leapt up and pushed me out of the way. In truth, I was just about to giggle around my chocolate mouthful because of how silly he looked.
Upright and naked, sporting a donut erection.
Then I heard the commotion and all the chocolate treat I had just swallowed nearly made a reappearance on the floor.
“No. No. No. This is not fucking happening!”
Jack threw a cushion at me and started slapping the donuts off his dick. That would have been a hilarious sight had it not been in front of his brother.
“I mean this is a fucking shit shower of a nightmare.”
“Jake,” I heard Jack say as he leaned down, grabbed his shirt off the floor and threw it at me. I was still cowering behind a cushion.
“Yeah, by all means give her some clothes. I feel like I’m looking at my kid sister naked.” Jack noticeably bristled at his remark. “After all, that’s what she is. Our fucking family. So why the fuck is she naked in your apartment?”
“Baby, go get dressed and wait in the bedroom for me?”
I clutched his shirt to my front and moved to stand beside him. “No. We’re in this together.”
“For fuck’s sake, Carly, just go get dressed,” Jake yelled at me and then all hell broke loose.
Jack shoved me to one side and raced at his brother.
“No!” I tried, but they didn’t hear me. Jack threw the first punch, landing it on the side of his twin’s cheek, only for it to be swiftly followed up by Jake stepping back and getting his own side swipe in. For the next few minutes I continued to scream at both of them, desperately clutching the shirt I still hadn’t put on as the mirror images of each other grappled in the small space of the doorway.
Things were getting out of control, and with Jack naked and his brother sporting a full police uniform, including body armor, they had the potential to get much worse.
Finally shrugging into his shirt and doing my best not to burst into tears, I went to the kitchen, filled a saucepan of cold water and strode back to them.
By now, they were in a pile on the floor, and both sporting red marks on their faces, I could also see blood. Waiting no longer, I covered them in the water and stood back. They stopped instantly and Jake threw his brother to one side, out of his reach. I could sense his disappointment, but right now, it wasn’t clear whether it was over finding me with his brother, or at having lost control and fought him back.
“You’re behaving like children. Stop it. You’re brothers and this isn’t right.”
They were both breathing hard. Jack was shivering and now keenly aware that he still had no clothes on. Jake sat against the wall, looking lost.
When Jack got up to get dressed, I followed him.
I stopped him as he tried to pull on some track pants to see to his face. “Don’t, Carly. I had it coming and I suspect I’ll get the same from your dad when he finds out.”
The thought of my dad violently taking his displeasure out on Jack did not sit well with me and I’d do everything possible to avoid that outcome. As soon as he was dressed, he left me to put more clothes on and went to start unpicking all the stuff that had happened in the last twenty minutes.
I thought about not going out there. Part of me wanted to stay out of the conversation, but Jake needed to see that we were together, and Jack needed to know that every time he fought someone for us, it would be a united fight, not him taking it all on his shoulders. I was going to wait until I could hear voices, but there was still nothing.
Deciding to be the strong one this time, I walked outside and found them sitting next to each other, leaning back against the wall.
“I’m sorry you found us like that, Jake.” I slid down the wall until my butt met my ankles and then sat with them.
“What, no Uncle Jake anymore?” The derision in his voice was clear.
“Please don’t be like this. And don’t blame your brother. I’m an adult. This is as much my fault.” Jake shook his head throughout my speech and constantly glanced at the ceiling for some patience or divine intervention. Jack just stared straight at me.
“Are you just fucking? Is this just a loneliness thing?”
“Jake,” Jack finally answered, joining in and sounding disappointed with his brother’s assumption.
“Don’t answer that. I already know the answer. It was her you were talking about on the phone, wasn’t it?”
“It was.”
“How deep are you in this? I mean, you get this is going to cause some deep rifts?”
“I do. I tried to stay away from her. I’ll make this right with Tommy.”
Jake started to bang his back against the wall. “You fucking dick. I’m not just talking about Tommy, although you’d better hope I’m around to pull him off you. It’s Lacey I’m worried about. I can’t believe you put me in this position. I’m not going to lie to my best friend, our best friend about this. How could you fucking do this to me?”
“I don’t want you to lie to my mom,” I told him. “But I need to be the one to tell her. I just need some time to do that.”
“We need some time to do that,” Jack interrupted.
In that one line, Jack showed his brother that he was serious about us.
“Have you even thought about what the future looks like? She’s coming home to work with Rebecca and you have a teaching gig here. Although, that’s debatable if anyone finds out about this.” Jake looked past me, around the apartment and then through the bedroom door. “Is Carly living here?”
“I am.”
“I can’t be here. I can’t be involved in this. You’re asking too much of me.” Jake stood up. The level of disappointment in his face had grown again. As he reached for the door, his brother stopped him.
“Give us until after her finals. They’re like a month away. Please don’t fuck things up for her.”
He spun around and faced his brother again, getting angry. “I didn’t fuck things up. You did. You stepped over that line and you can’t ignore it.”
“We’ve all stepped over lines.”
I knew what Jack was referring to.
“Motherfucker!” Jake shouted. “This is different than me fucking some tart you were never serious about. This is so much more and it scares me that you didn’t see that and put a stop to it. Or better yet, stay away from her.”
“I tried to. But Carly is who I want to be with. I can’t help the circumstances.”
Jake threw his hands up in the air. “Don’t you see? This is the same as her mom and Tommy, and look at how that nearly ended.”
Both Jack and his brother clammed up then as unspoken words were passed between them, and I felt my heart wobble for a second. Whatever had happened when I was younger, when my mom and dad got together, it was big enough to make Jack pause and really think about us for a split second.
“This is different. I’m not walking away, Jake. I’m not trying to do the right thing by cutting her out of my life. I’m going to do the right thing and make her my life. And when Carly goes home to Hawkstown, I’ll be going with her.”
Well, this was news. He’d never mentioned it to me and I’d purposely never brought the subject up. I didn’t want to confront the fact that our future choices might not even see us having a future. I couldn’t deny what hearing that made me feel and a cry of relief broke free from my lips.
Jack looked at me and smiled, simply saying, “Baby, of course I’m coming home with you.”
At that moment, I couldn’t be away from him. Even the other side of the hallway was too far away. I needed to touch him and let him know I approved and I loved him.
Jake, however, was stood again, shaking his head with more than a vague hint of disapproval.
“You knew I’d be against this. That’s why you’ve been hiding her like some dark secret. You’ve got until the end of her exams. You’ve fucked up enough things for her and I won’t be responsible for adding her education and future to that list. I don’t want to hear from you until it’s done. Carly, your mom is worried about you. Seems like she had good reason. Unless you want her to come looking for you, you need to up your contact frequency with her.”
Jake opened the door.
“Brother.” Jack’s voice was shaky. The void between them was there again, only this time Jack had caused it.
“I need some space to get my head around this. I respected your request once. I need you to do the same for me. I’ll never forgive you if I lose Lacey because of you.” He left as soon as he finished those words without even looking back at us. A tense silence enveloped Jack and I, and I was afraid to remove my arms from around him.
I was terrified that’d he’d finally understand what we’d done, that what we were trying to become was too risky. There was more than just our hearts at stake. I waited for him to back away and end this thing, wondering how I’d survive if he decided to go that route. But my fears were unfounded when he held me closer and said, “That’s one less person to tell, baby.”