This work is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice.
Chapter 2: Fighting Back
Codes: inc, mf, cons, hs, no-sex
(Liz)
He's sitting at his computer and I've pulled my chair in so we're hip-to-hip. Marsha's FB post is showing and the comments run the gambit.
"Well," I say, "at least there are some trying to stand up for you."
"Ya but look at the Likes too. Quite a few agree with her."
"That was to be expected. She's using her status as next year's swim-team captain to browbeat them. Look at the main post again."
He reads it out loud, "'When a guy refuses what you're offering, you have to question whether he's really what he seems.' Is that inferring what I think it is?"
"Yep, pretty weak if you ask me. Look here, Sharon even refutes that."
"Like I said, it was her mom that split us. Her and I are still friends and if she had the freedom, I think we'd get back together."
"Alright, you got supporters. Now it's time to put Marsha on her ass."
"Sounds good. So how do we do this?"
"Easy. Move over, Mar, let my fingers do the walking on this." He rolls his office chair to the side and I take control of the keyboard. Clicking back to his page, I type in a new status message. 'When a gal doesn't want to play it safe you start to wonder. When it turns out she's already played unsafely with someone of questionable status, you have to worry.'
I look at him and he's got a quizzical expression. "Not really laying it right out, are you?"
"You have to be subtle in these things. But given that it's only been four hours since her post, everyone will know who you're talking about. Add in that there's really only one person in all of school that any decent gal knows to stay away from and they'll connect the dots."
"Sounds like a plan. Do it."
I give him a fierce grin and click Post. "Now we watch her try to backpedal and fail spectacularly."
"So what do I do in the meantime?"
"Nothing, no comments at all, either on her post or your's. Answer PMs, but don't post a thing till at least the morning."
"Got it, like a cut that gets infected."
"Yep. Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of a good book so I'm off to read."
He chuckles. "Go have fun. I got a book I'm in the middle of as well. I'll watch both posts, but promise to keep my fingers away."
"Alright." I give him a cheek-kiss then roll my chair back to my room.
+++++++++++++++
It's close to midnight and the parents have already come home and wished us both good night. I've swapped my sun-dress for a long t-shirt, which is what I sleep in. I walk back into his room and ask, "So, keeping track?"
He chuckles. "The likes on her post have been shrinking, guess people prefer the truth to rumor. Comments on mine are more of the WTF variety and I've got twice the likes she has now."
I grin as I knew this would happen. "What about the comments?"
"Sharon liked the post but didn't comment. There is one from Teresa Anderson...I don't know. Here, take a look." He puts his Nook on the desk and brings up the comment.
He's changed into the cotton running shorts he uses as pajamas in the summer and I perch on his bare thigh to read it, and his arm slips around my waist. "Well..." I draw out.
"What?"
"You still insistent on remaining single for the rest of the summer?"
He thinks it over while I watch his face...and part of me wants him to say yes.
Then he turns to me and sighs. "Ya. Even though I'm over her, going to be at least a bit before I get involved with someone again."
I hate to do this, but I have to be honest with him. "If you change your mind, Teresa's looking."
"What makes you say that?"
"You are so dense at times. Look, 'Someone who would rather play it safe than take a possibly dangerous chance is someone to hold on to.'" She turns to look at him. "She's practically waving a flag in your face."
"I thought she was dating Greg Maklin?"
I snicker. "Marsha really must have had your brain turned off. Greg was a senior and is heading south to A&M, they broke up a week before graduation."
"Oh," he murmurs.
"Maybe you're interested in capturing that flag?"
"For a while it was a toss up who I'd ask for a date first. By the time I got my courage up, she was already with Greg so that left Sharon."
"Oh-ho, the plot thickens," I quip. "So there's a possibility that you'd ask her out?"
Another sigh from him. "Not until the start of school. If she's still free, then...maybe."
I peer into his eyes and see that he's serious. "Well, plenty of time to change your mind. I'm off to bed." I give him a chaste kiss which he returns before standing up and heading to my room. I lay there for a while wondering why I didn't want him to find someone else. Just because Steven and I had broken up and now Mar is single shouldn't mean anything. He's my brother no a prospective date.
Doing my best to shove impure thoughts from my head, I turn over and fall asleep...though my dreams are strange.
+++++++++++++++
Next morning I wander downstairs to see baba and Mar at the kitchen table, coffee and breakfast already in front of them. "Well, there's my mikró louloúdi," baba teases. Mama looks over from the stove where she's dishing out my breakfast and smiles. (little flower)
I give him a kiss, then one to Mar. "Everyone is being so sweet lately, patéras," I say to baba. (father)
"Who else has been sweet to you?" he asks.
"Mar yesterday and now you this morning. I'm thinking you might be buttering me up for some reason." I give him a wink to show that I'm teasing.
"Perhaps it's just well deserved," mama says as she puts my plate and a cup of coffee on the table for me before taking her own seat.
I sit, take a sip of the strong coffee...mama makes it Greek style which most of my peers would wince at. "I don't know, mitéra. Usually they're not this way." (mother)
"Perhaps they are not feeling well then," she says with a grin.
"You can say that after last night?" baba asks and mama blushes.
Thought I'd heard something after they came in, hard not to since my bedroom is right over theirs. Even after twelve hours behind the stove baba was able to...nope, not thinking about it.
I dig into the graviera cheese and smoked-pork omelet mama cooked up while she and baba banter back and forth in Greek. I look at my brother and he's got the same expression I know I'm wearing. They banter all the time, but one thing we know...they love each other and us. This is just letting a little steam off so they don't explode at each other, Mar and I do it as well.
Finally they wind down and baba asks, "So what will you do today néous?" (young ones)
"Catch some sun, go for a swim, laze about," Mar says.
"Not take that pretty girl of yours someplace?" mama asks.
I watch over the rim of my cup as Mar winces slightly. "Marsha and I broke up yesterday, mitéra"
"Oh you looked so good together. Perhaps it's something that can be fixed?"
"No mama, a major difference of opinion that there is no halfway point for."
Mama cocks her head, almost twenty years in America and she still has some problems with English. "Syngnómi?" she asks. (Pardon?)
Mar thinks for a moment then says, "Trópous mas na doúme orisména prágmata eÃnai polý diaforetiká." (Our ways of seeing certain things are too different)
Now mama looks sad. "That is too bad, two people should at least try to find common ground."
"This was something that could only go one of two ways, mitéra. I would not bend on it and neither would she. It is best that it is over."
"Such a shame, but there are other girls out there. Perhaps you will find one who will not be so argumentative."
"Mama, I'm not looking for a girl to marry, not yet."
"You never know," she says with a wink.
Baba is working hard to keep a straight face, as am I. Mama was only eighteen when baba and her met and most of her family was equally as young. To her it's normal to marry young, despite the fact that baba was twenty-six at the time.
"Not going to Mazo though?" baba asks.
"Too long of a drive for a day trip," Mar replies.
"We could take the boat to Wawatosa," I suggest. "Can't swim, but we could at least get sun."
Baba sighs. "And we two stuck in the restaurant." He looks to mama. "Sometimes life just is not fair."
"Your fault for owning a restaurant. If you had a normal job you could call in sick," she grins back.
"Now she tells me," he says while tossing his hands up and looking at the ceiling.
We all start laughing. Baba wouldn't want anything else, and mama loves it as well. Probably why it's doing so good, they'd already told us that our college education was payed for. They'd put money away since we were born and even with the luxuries like a boat and a house with lakeshore, they'd put away a good sum.
"We'll be thinking of you slaving away while we're working on our tans," Mar says.
"But not too much, that'd ruin our day," I add.
Baba glares at both of us, but a glint in his eyes tells us it's a ruse. Then he looks back at mama, "Your children have no respect for me."
Mama drops back into Greek to say, "Tha prépei na to párete apó tin plevrá sas tis oikogéneias." (They must get it from your side of the family)
Mar snickers and I giggle while baba fake-fumes at her. "For that, woman, you are consigned to the kitchen all day."
"Since that is where I was going to be, your punishment for me is no such thing," she says with a wide smile.
"True," he muses while Mar and I still try to keep from laughing. "Perhaps I'll think of something to withhold from you," he says with a leer at her.
Mama's eyes go wide. Mar and I shovel the last of breakfast in our mouths, drain our cups mindless of the grounds still in there, and drop our dishes in the sink on our way upstairs. If they're going to go that route, we don't need to be there.
+++++++++++++++
We end up in his room, me sitting on his bed and him in his chair. "When we were younger, the kind of banter they're doing now was puzzling," he says with a shake of his head.
"It wouldn't be so bad if they kept to Greek and we didn't speak it," I say with a sigh.
He chuckles. "I overhear class-mates at school talking about how they have to watch their language around their parents. Wonder how they'd react if they knew how...dirty ours talked."
"At least we got more of an education in some things than they have."
"I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing," he grins.
"Depends. How much of what you learned by hearing them did you use?"
A shrug. "Quite a bit actually, so maybe a good thing."
"I think so," I say. "So what about my idea?"
"Hit the island and get some good sun?" he asks back. I nod and he smiles. "Better than making Mrs. Murphey next door have a heart attack."
"Great. Lets give baba and mama a bit more time. Their bantering and the inevitable make up session never goes more than fifteen minutes. Then we can load up a cooler with something for lunch."
"Sounds like a plan."
When we head back downstairs, they've finished teasing each other and I can see that mama's hair is mussed. Wonder how much of a 'make up' session they had...on second though I don't want to know.
"Both still alive and not needing a doctor," Mar teases them.
Mama blushes but baba smirks. Ya, they made up and probably did it in the kitchen since we weren't here to see.
"Fix your hair, i omorfiá mou, it's time to go open the doors," baba says to her. (my beauty)
"Yes agápi mou," she says in a tone that makes me gulp. (my love)
I look at Mar, he shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Ya, we got quite an education from just listening to our parents.
We go and start making some sandwiches to take with us as well as grabbing some fruit and drinks.
"Don't forget your oil," baba says. "Too much sun and even you can burn."
"I know patéras," I toss back, and grab the bottle from the lower cabinet.
Mama comes back out, fixed again, then after kisses from both they head out to start another day at the restaurant. Mar and I finish packing the cooler and take a couple minutes to put something on for the boat ride. He comes back down in his khakis and a t-shirt. I've put on another one of my sun-dresses. He grabs the cooler, I grab the bottle of oil and we head out to the old tri-hull baba bought when we were still little.
Doesn't take long before we're scooting across the water, heading for one of the smaller islands on the lake.
** End of Chapter Two **
© Copyright Andrew Williams December 17, 2015
Your comments on this story are appreciated. You can e-mail me direct here: Andrew Williams
Or use the anonymous Form-mail provided by ASSTR
Loving Twins Chapter List Story Directory
ASSTR needs your help to continue to provide the infrastructure that allows you to read the zillions of stories that have been posted here. Please go to www.asstr-mirror.org/donations.html to learn about the Internet Free Literature Corporation which provides ASSTR and how to make donations which are tax-deductible in the USA. Thank you.