- I yawned, stretching my arms up over my head so that they could rest on the black-leather couch behind me. I’d given up on trying to pay attention to the wide-screened television that hung against the living room wall- Claw was flipping through the channels faster than I could hear one full sentence coming out of the TV. characters’ mouths. It was kinda funny… but my boredom was too great to be solved by that.
What was the point of being thirteen years old, free to do whatever I wanted, and then not doing any of it?! It was Friday night, after all! All the kids from school were probably out at the diner, laughing and talking about random crap. Except for me and Claw. It was so stupid… I knew we were identical twins and everything, but sometimes what he wanted to do just didn’t fit with what I had planned. Mother and father were out on some fancy date, leaving a gaping opening for our curfew. Not that they cared what we did when they were actually home… With them out of the house, I’d expected Claw and I to do something else besides watch television.
“Claw, make up your mind already.” I told him, my burgundy eyes slipping over to rest on my brother. His small white wings twitched, letting me know that I’d been acknowledged.
“There’s nothing good on, Fang.” He complained back. Claw’s free hand reached up to scratch his lavender-colored hair, while his other thumb was actively clicking on the little red button. “Don’t you want to watch good television? What’s the point of watching if there’s nothing to watch?”
What Claw had just told me got me even more annoyed. If there was nothing good to watch, then why were we still cooped up inside with nothing to do? We didn’t even have to leave the mansion, if Claw didn’t want to! Really, I was up for anything that wouldn’t involve me sitting and doing absolutely nothing.
Ever so suddenly, the constant channel-switching had come to a halt. Oh, joy… It was one of those retarded, gay soap operas that I had no idea how Claw found them interesting. The pretty blond woman on the television screen was looking across at some brunet man, finishing up a sentence. “... never can be!” her high-pitched voice wailed out to him, as he took a step closer to her.
What could never be, huh? The years that this stupid soap opera would be remembered? I snorted a laugh, earning me a glare from Claw.
“So we’re going to watch this” I asked him, pointing at the screen. “What happened to the idea of watching ‘good television’?”
My twin brother snarled at me, “Shut up, Fang! I happen to like this! Isn’t Emily pretty?”
“How do you know her name? Don’t tell me you’ve seen this before?!”
“So what if I have? You’re going to watch it with me this time.” And just like that, our argument was over. Claw was in control; he had the power of the remote. Besides… He was Claw! I couldn’t stay mad at the boy who I spent almost every waking moment with… I guessed I’d just have to make do with watching this s**t until it was over. It couldn’t be too long, could it?
“Of course it can, Emily- I love you! That’s all we need! You’ve kissed me before! You loved me, you loved us!” the man on the television spoke to the blond girl.
“That was before I found out that my mother was your mother’s brother’s daughter, Zach! I use to love you- but now I can only love you like family!” the woman pulled her shawl over her shoulder, spinning away from Zach. But the man was like any hunky, thick-skulled male TV actor (or at least his character was). Using his strong hands, Zach grabbed onto Emily’s shoulders, and spun her around bridal-style for a kiss. Ew. Incest.
The actor’s lips mashed passionately together, and that poor Emily girl was forced back against the wall of the room. Did that poor woman want it, even? Their kiss was long and disgusting, the love overwhelming. Okay… The disgustingness of the kiss was overshadowing the disgustingness of the incest. “Claw, exactly what is this rat-“ I had tried to say, but was cut off when Claw lunged at me. What the hell was up with that?! I hated to say it, but I’d been taken by utter surprise, and Claw was successful at making me land on my back. His pelvis pinned down on mine, with a hand on either side of my head. My own set of dove-sized angel wings had been forced out onto either side of me, the one that was closest to the couch’s back colliding with it. Meanwhile, his own head lowered down so that our faces weren’t inches apart. Okaaayyy…. This was getting even more awkward than the on-screen kiss that was still going on as he acted. “I promise I won’t tell mother and father if this is PG-13! I promise I won’t tell if it’s R!” what else could Claw want from me? I was sure he didn’t want me to rat out on him… Claw’s expression was puzzling me, however. He was smiling. Smiling like a wolf that wanted to gobble up the chicken it had caught between its paws! And guess who I imagined that chicken was…?
“I won’t tell, I already swore I wouldn’t! Dude… just get off of me!”
“Why would I do that?” Chuckled Claw, curiously stroking the side of my cheek as if it might be hiding some secret from him. The only thing that that did was make a blush appear in my cheek, and cause me to try to wriggle unsuccessfully out of Claw’s straddle. His lips were so close against my cheek, I could feel them pull into a tight smile. “I want to know what it’s like…”
“What what’s like?!”
“I want to know if Emily and Zach are right. I want to know if it’s really that nice to kiss somebody like you… I want to know, and you’re the only one here I can try out.” His pajama-covered chest pressed against mine, as his lips moved closer to mine. My heart was pounding loudly in my chest, drowning out the voices coming from the television.
Was Claw insane?! Did he really believe some stupid TV program that was created for entertainment? Was Claw really going to ignore all those ‘Do Not Try This At Home’ labels that were stamped all over s**t like this?! Did he even care that we were closer than whatever Emily was to Zach, and that we both were dudes?! “Cl-“ for the second time tonight, my sentence had been snapped just like a television channel being switched. Claw’s lips covered mine forcefully, muting all my screams. Goddammit… It had been a mistake to try and fight back- my insane brother actually thought my struggles meant that I was going along with it, and so he kissed me more intensely. I instantly knew that he’d seen too much of those kind of soap operas when he kissed me the way they kissed on TV… Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!
As much as a large portion of me wanted him to get off, as much as that same portion wanted to pretend this thing had never happened… There was another piece of me that was enjoying this. The taste of his lips and mouth were so… so… Oh, I couldn’t possibly manage to describe the thrilling feeling in words. It made my head spin, my heart pound in excitement... For once, I was a rebel. I was living the wild life. There was no way mother and father could ignore something like this! They'd have to pay more attention to me an Claw... they'd have to care more...
This wasn't how I'd planned my first kiss to go. No, not at all... I hadn't even expected anything like this to happen ever... That plan had been thrown away.
On the TV, Emily and Zach had stopped kissing. Out of the corner of one of my eyes, I could see that the soap oprea was over for the time being; the screen had faded to black and tiny white credits soared up and through the TV. Normally, I hated cliff-hangers. They always left me with this empty-kind of feeling, and they left me unsatisfied that I'd never know what would happen next... Claw could care less that his soap oprea was over- he was too absorbed in our kiss, loving it just as much as the actors had made it look like they did.
Emily and Zach's story was over, while me and my brother's had only just begun.
