Better Off Together Chapter 4

[Fantasizer]

Better Off Together Chapter 4 – Story By Panzerfeck

The next day went as lazily as any quiet Sunday could expect to go. Music, laundry, and light cleaning, took up the first few hours. The rest went to lounging around and reading in the sunlight by the living room window. Well, I was the reader. Rebecca's reading material all came from Facebook where she spent most of her spare time.

I was reading some boring sci-fi novel, or so she thought, but the novelist known as Christine Feehan was known not so widely for her knack for intense sexual chemistry. Not that I was sporting a raging hard-on in front of my sister, but my jeans fit me a little tighter than usual that evening. Suddenly the questions started again.

'What'd be your ideal relationship right now?'

 

'I don't know,' I consciously sidestepped. 'I never think about them seeing as I don't seek them. What, are you trying to set me up?'

'Oh just spit it out. Since when do I judge?' she persisted, and avoided my question.

'Fine,' I relented. 'Same as I'm doing right now.'

 

'Oh fuck off,' she spat. She wasn't telling me to go to hell in so few words.

She just wasn't biting down on the bait. She'd only ask again if I didn't tell.

 

 'No, really,' I insisted. 'How can you have the energy to do much other than to go to work all week and then to relax in between the amount of shagging I'd be getting up to if I could? She, whoever she is, would have an Olympian vagina, and an appreciation for procrastination.'

Rebecca grunted, stifling a typically-Rebecca boisterous laugh deep in her throat, and then sighed. 'Uh-huh,' she replied in agreement. I too sighed. Then; 'You know you don't have to meet anyone special to have that in your life. That's almost everybody.'

'And would you recommend the Polish, Russian, or Filipino mail order bride?' I asked and then tittered sarcastically. I dove quickly back into my book. 'If something comes up then great, but it's not my priority. I just like my space.'

'When do you want me out?' Kerry asked.

'I don't want you out,' I said. 'If somebody makes themselves available to me then I'll just ask you to disappear for a few hours, like you ask me to. '

'And what about at night?' she asked.

'Well then one of us gets to listen in to the other getting their brains fucked out I guess, unless you have headphones!'

I started to laugh at the absurdity of having this conversation with my sister. 'Is something else on your mind? You're asking a lot of questions lately...'

She stiffened awkwardly. It seemed to me that she was conflicting as to whether she should remain where she was sat, opposite me on the same couch, or to get up and go. I couldn't figure her out.

'I think I'm just frustrated and taking it out on you. I'll stop.'

What was I to make of that? Now I had to put down the book, and once I put down the book I had to focus my attention solely on her and to try to figure her out.

'You know you don't have to be my sister all day every day,' I suggested, meaning that she didn't have to worry about boundaries or treading on eggshells.

 

I couldn't tell whether she understood me or not when she replied with, 'I'm trying not to be.'

Was she? And how could she even begin to take her very obvious frustrations out on me, brother or not.

'Think about what you aren't saying very carefully,' I suggested.

Her eyes widened and then intensified their returning gaze, a hard, unbelieving glare. 'How the fuck do you do that?'

 

'It doesn't matter,' I dismissed. 'Just be careful of what you're *not* saying. Or just fucking say it all,' I concluded.

 

She fidgeted with her fingernails. Her eyes also concentrated on her fidgeting fingers very hard, with a creased and troubled brow. 'I just get stupid ideas sometimes, thinking that we're just better off together. Do you get me?'

'I've said many a time, I'm happy to have you,' I said again.

'But that's not what I mean...'

'No shit!'

'Maybe we'd be better off,' Rebecca said and shrugged wildly. Hint-face! Just when I thought that she was repeating herself without knowing it, it turns out that she had used the word together, each with a different meaning. 'Do I have to spell it out for you?'

'You might,' I said dumbly. I was struck utterly stupid, like someone had cracked my head open with a spoon and given my brains a stir. Rebecca bit her lower lip and carried that anxious look into an impregnable silence where I waited and waited.

'Forgetting that we're related,' she finally said, and the unease in her voice concerned me.

Considering what was being hinted at that evening, and yes I did hear right when she reiterated what she was saying, to say that I was startled would be an understatement. Did I lose my mind, or panic, and keep my little sister at a distance? No, I made my excuses and said I'd think about it when I was in the right mind, which might have been never!

But that night I did sprawl out on the couch and invited her to snuggle up with me and I made sure to tell her that I loved her and cared about her. I made sure that she knew that I wasn't scared of her. I did what I could to make her know that. Not far from my mind was the possibility that she meant "here and now" rather than some day in the near future.

Our closeness came at the risk of a little awkwardness that night and I sensed her stiffness against me, just the slightest bit of tension within her, as her face drew nearer to mine. But no matter what, at least then, I wasn't about to kiss her like I'd forgotten that she was my sister.

 

End Of Chapter 4