Winter Black

GAVIN

I woke to my twin brother, Josh, straddling my waist and pounding me in the face with a pillow, "dude, wake up." He whined, I mumbled something fuzzily and turned over, knocking him to the ground. I closed my eyes and completely ignored the pummeling he began giving me with the pillow. After about five minutes he gave up on the pillow method and resorted to his favored form of torment; tickling. I giggle-snorted and relented allowing myself to be coaxed (dragged) from the warm nest of our shared bed and downstairs. "Look!" He pointed across the street where a moving van was parked in front of the house that had sat empty for months. From the van popped a woman about mid thirty with waist length black hair wearing tight white pants, white heels and a pink stripped shirt, following closely behind her two girls that appeared to be twins, with matching brown streaked blonde hair, pink and blue tanks, white cut offs and pink sandals. I watched with disinterest even as Josh blabbed about how hot all three females were, my interest however perked when I watched a tall guy with messy shoulder length black hair slouching against the van, his hoodie sleeves pulled down over his hands, his skater pants baggy and black, the tattered cuffs almost trying to swallow up the tops of his ratty converses.
My breath left my lungs and a felt that twinge in my stomach, the twinge of attraction. Josh elbowed me in the ribs, "ooo, someone's in L O V E!" He teased, "why don't we go introduce ourselves?" He raced back up the stairs to change.
"I am not in love!" I huffed, scampering after him, pulling him down by his ankles then running the rest of the way up to our room where I hastily pulled on a pair of white jeans and green striped tank, pulling on the sneakers I kept by the door before heading across the street, Josh a few steps behind me.
"Hi." I greeted the boy, extended a hand for him to shake which he seemed to ignore completely, gaze dropping to his shoes. I let my hand fall to my side with a soft 'oh..'
"Don't mind him,"The woman said backing out of the van with an a large box in her arms, "Kyle here is autistic. And a little pissed about the move, break in the routine, isn't that right Kylie."
The boy, Kyle offered a meek nod.
"He'll warm up soon enough."
"I'm Gavin and this," I gestured to my twin, "is my evil twin, Josh."
"He meant to say that I'm his better half."
My eyes darted back to Kyle who had opened the van door and was pulling out a grey and white kitten. I left Josh who was flirting shamelessly with the woman and her daughters, and tried to start a conversation, "is that your cat?"
"Uh huh." He held it tighter to himself, as though he thought I would take it from him.
"Does he have a name?"
"Her name is Cynthia." He stroked the cat's back.
"Could I hold her?"
He nodded and passed the cat off, I nearly flinched at the sudden closeness. It seemed he had no concept of personal space. The cat stared up at me with icy green eyes, claws slowly, deliberately sinking into my flesh. I handed her back quickly, moping up the blood that was welling up with the hem of my tank.
"She does that sometimes, to strangers." He was so close I could smell the mint of his toothpaste. Josh and I ended up helping them move the boxes from van to house.