A Greater Good (girlxgirl)

Doorstep Talks

I was outside of my parent's house on the cold concrete step staring out at the gloomy, poorly lit street. It was Steph's birthday and the whole family had gathered at the family home to celebrate with a home cooked meal. Everyone was there, smiling and happy, apart from James, he was exhausted after waking up early and travelling everyday so I left him on the couch nodding off to a Friday night football game.

The screen door creaked open behind me and out walked my twin brother, Ricky. He was carrying a coat and a plate loaded with cake.

"Mum told me to come out and give you this." He threw the coat down on me roughly.

"Gee, thanks." I pulled it on over my jumper as Ricky thudded to the ground beside me and balanced the plate on his knees, I leant over and stole a piece of cake. "Thanks for this too."

"Oi! That's mine."

I laughed. "You ate nearly all the cake when we were actually suppose to be eating it, do you really need to be sneaking anymore?"

"I'm a man, Everlyn, I need to eat more than you," he said mockingly and puffed out his chest.

I laughed and grabbed more cake. We ate in silence and stared across at our neighbours' houses. We used to play in the street before us but all that innocence seemed like light years ago, we were now grown adults with problems like affairs and weddings on our minds. I was relaxed around Ricky, more so than with Jane because of the obvious complications. Ricky knew everything about Jane and I, we were close and told each other pretty much everything. He was the only one to know how distraught I was when Jane and I ended our 7 year whatever it was. 

"What are talking about in there?" I asked and nodded back towards our house.

"Something fucking boring, I left as soon as I could."

"Don't swear."

"Sorry."

We went back to silence, chewing up the cake even though we were already full just for something to do. I was waiting for Ricky to ask me, I really wanted him to ask me and I knew he would, I just had to wait.

"How's work?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Being a mechanic isn't as hot as it seems."

"Really? You don't rub the motor oil on your buff chest to get the perfect shine?"

"Ha Ha." He put the plate down after beating me to the last crumb of cake and clasped his hands together, he sighed and mist escaped his mouth.

"Do you remember Dom?" I asked quickly because when I could sense that he was about to ask me, I didn't want to be asked.

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow, completely taken by surprise at the question. "Our exchange student? The one you slept with and rubbed it in my face."

I laughed. "That's the one."

Ricky leant back on the stair and laughed softly. "She was so hot."

"I know."

"I'm friends with her on Facebook, you know."

"Of course you are."

"Why are you thinking about her?" Ricky asked and sat up.

I shrugged. "I was just thinking about what I've done in this house."

"More like who you've done, am I right?"

I laughed and elbowed him. Inside we could hear Mum, Dad, Steph, Mark and Jeanette laughing and talking, but we didn't feel left out because Ricky and I were never really family people, we couldn't stand to sit around and talk about an old uncle or old teacher. Ricky sat back up and looked straight ahead before turning to me and looking more seriously than I'd ever seen him look.