The Things You Make Me Feel Ch. 08

"Fuck no! You know how much I detest the obese, Ell!"

"I do, I do, but... if it's Oliver you want, then I couldn't in good conscience let you go through with it without giving you all the facts. And the facts are... Oliver is a fat widower with a kid—and a receding hairline."

"Receding hairline? I didn't see that."

"Don't worry, you will soon. I know what I'm talking about."

"And Dave?"

"Oh no; no receding hairline there. Dave has great hair. No known history of being a porker, no dead wife, has no kids... but it's what's inside that counts, right? And you're clearly digging Oliver, so let's make it happen!"

"Hold it, hold it, hold your horses! I don't wanna be married to a brooding porker with bad hair! And I actually like Dave's personality, that he's goofy and easygoing."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Kara, make up your fucking mind already! The porker is gonna make a move on you any second now! He's probably staggering to here as we speak!"

"Oh, god no... Dave! I pick Dave!"

*

"Dave, where's..." Oliver just sighted his sister and Kara returning inside when family and guests were ready to dine." Never mind."

He'd been feeling very uncomfortable with all the attention, even if Michela helped by stealing much of the spotlight. He'd been telling the story of his disappearance more times than he would have liked, which made him think of Bianca for much of the time. He didn't like thinking about her or about the family he'd left behind in Italy. He was missing Michela's grandparents terribly, and he was missing his wife every day. He wanted to string his sister from a pole by the time she and Kara approached.

"Oh, uh... hey, Oliver," Kara said coldly and offered her hand for a handshake. The last thing she wanted was for the porker to think she might be interested in him. "Happy birthday."

It was somewhat formal and strained, but Oliver preferred it this way, for the last thing he wanted was for his sister to get homicidally upset like the night before. "Thank you, Kara. It's uh... nice to see you."

"Yeah, yeah, you too," Kara blurted absently and cut her eyes at his forehead.

Oliver caught her studying glimpse, and a puzzled look furrowed his brow.

"Well, I should um—oh, Dave, there you are! Excuse me."

Oliver reached for his hair, confused at the way Kara had examined it, and watched her bolting away from him as if he were carrying a contagious ailment of sort.

"Hey you," his sister cooed in a soft, sleek tone.

The second Ellie's catlike blue eyes locked with his, he couldn't recall why he was even mad at her to begin with.

"Hey you back." He stroked his light brown hair, losing confidence in his appearance. "Do um... do I have something in my hair?"

Ellie, who had been watching their awkward interaction in great mirth and satisfaction, giggled before shaking her head. "Your hair is perfect." She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Just like the rest of you, baby." She sucked gently on his cheek and swayed her shapely butt away from him as she sashayed to the dining table.

***

"Where're you taking me?" Ellie asked after the guests had taken their leave.

Her brother led her to his room and shut the door. He pinned her against the door and kissed her passionately, his hands pawing at her hot bod. His sister coiled one leg around his shin, surrendering her mouth and body. She allowed him to hike up her dress and to stroke her white hosiery as he ground against her bare pussy. If he were to fuck her now, when all of their immediate family was one floor down, so be it. She'd long lost all will to resist him.

As dramatically as it started, the same way it ended. Her brother tugged her dress back down and pulled his tongue from her mouth, yet his lips kept lingering an inch from hers. They breathed heavily, cooling down with his erection still pressing to her.

"That was uh... what exactly was that?" Ellie breathed with eyes shut, breasts heaving, lip quivering.

"That was me loving you, bellissima."

"That's great, baby, but"—she swallowed—"can't you love me a little longer, a little... deeper?"

He chuckled, loving how constantly horny she was. "I have a present for you."

Her deep blue eyes flicked open. "What present?"

He opened his closet and took out a large bag with a big, rectangle item in it.

"What is it?"

"Check for yourself."

Ellie sat on his bed and crossed her legs before extracting her present from the bag. She examined the sumptuous white box in puzzlement. "A computer?"

"Not just any computer; a Surface Pro 4." He chuckled when seeing the name meant nothing to her. "In short, it's one of the best you can buy today. And I got you a nicely specced one; it's a real beast. I picked you a red keyboard 'cause I know—"

"Oliver... why did you buy me this?"

"What, you don't like it?"

"I love it! But... I'm a little lost as to why."

"What do you mean why? Your computer is breaking down. Don't you remember last week when it kept booting whenever you played a YouTube video?"

Ellie released a single chuckle, astounded that he remembered that, but also very embarrassed that he remembered that. "My god... you're just absolutely amazing, aren't you?"

He smiled bashfully, finding the admiration in her eyes a bit unsettling, and shrugged it off. "It's nothing."

"It's definitely not nothing. How much did it cost?"

"Doesn't matter. What's important—"

"How much, Oliver?"

"Ellie, you shouldn't—"

"I can look it up, you know."

He sighed. "Twelve-hundred."

"Shit," she said, surprised. "So on your birthday, you go and buy me presents?"

"I love you, Ellie. What difference does it make what day is today? And you need it for work and... is it not okay that I—"

"Oliver, sweetheart..." Ellie set the computer aside and rose to her feet. She wound her arms round his neck and kissed him deeply. "Have I told today how much I fucking love you?"

"Once or twice," he whispered and tasted her luscious lips.

"I love the computer, but I can't accept it."

"Why?" he said, offended.

"I have a confession to make, and please don't get mad at me."

"Why would I get mad at you?"

"Because I... kinda lied to you that night, about my computer."

Oliver chuckled, realizing he'd been had.

"I'm sorry, baby, but I really wanted to talk you, and it was so awkward between us that I needed come up with a good enough reason to get you out of your room, and... that was only thing I could think of. I'm so sorry for manipulating you."

He nodded. "So your computer works just fine."

"Sadly. Because I like this one so much better."

They laughed.

"Well, it's yours regardless. And by the way"—he kissed her as romantically as he could—"you can manipulate me anytime."

Ellie giggled and brushed her lips at his. "Can I?"

"Mhmm..."

Their tongues tangled and stroked slowly yet deliberately as they passed saliva back and forth.

She broke their kiss a minute later. "Wait here."

"Where're you going?"

"Just wait here for a second."

Oliver looked out his window while waiting. He smiled when noting Kara and Dave sitting out in the patio with wool blankets and what seemed like two beverages of sort. He wanted to believe it was hot chocolate they were sipping. They both seemed tense yet excited as they laughed and talked, and it was endearing, if a bit stinging. He knew that if they hit it off they'd be soon kissing and making out, enjoying one another anytime and anywhere they desired, a privilege that he and his sister might never have.

The shut of his door ended his glum ruminations. Ellie smiled as she walked up to him, her hands behind her back.

"What you got there?"

"Your birthday present. At least one of them."

"But I thought you've already given me my birthday present for most of last night and today in the basement."

Ellie chuckled. "That birthday present you're most likely gonna get every day—if you're good," she clarified. "But the present in my hands, that's... something else entirely."

She brought her right hand to the fore and presented him his present. Oliver took the framed picture in his hand and sat on the bed, and Ellie sat beside him as he studied it.

"Do you remember that day?" she whispered softly as she rested her head on his shoulder.

He shook his head, lingering on the picture.

The picture showed a 9-year-old Ellie and a 5-year-old Oliver sitting on a boulder in a nature trail a three-hour drive from home. Both were smiling with the little blonde's head resting on the boy's shoulder, much like it was now, and in the background, a green ravine. The picture was bright and vivid with blue, cheerful skies, and it was easy to sense what a beautiful day it had been.

"We were on a camping trip. We used to take a lot of those when we were younger. You were 5 or 6 in the picture, and even though you can't see it, down there, at the bottom of the ravine, there's a babbling brook. It was actually quite beautiful."

Oliver kept staring at the picture, attentive to his whispering sister.

"Jack and Dave are right there beside us, just outside the frame. And do you know why they're not in the picture?"

Her brother shook his head, learning the picture to the best of his ability.

"They're not in it because... I didn't want them here."

Ellie removed her head from his shoulder as he turned to her, an inquisitive expression on his face.

"I asked Dad to take that picture with just us in it. Dave is actually crying now when looking at us, but I didn't care. I wanted just you and me." She sighed, the blue in her eyes getting misty. "I stumbled upon this picture a couple months back, when I was still torn between you and Jason. Mom and I were drinking wine and going over some old albums, and when I saw this, I... I took it with me, and it's been lying in my nightstand since."

Oliver wasn't sure where his sister was going with this, but he felt that she was going somewhere, and so in silence he remained, learning every detail in the picture: their clothes, their hair, their smiles...

"For me, this picture is very telling. This picture demonstrates the dynamics between, not just you and me but among all of us. I've had two brothers before you, one of them is my twin, and yet... you're the first boy I've ever loved." She rested her head back on the shoulder of the man that was once that little boy and sighed, the urge to burst into tears growing more demanding. "You left me, Oliver; gone for five years, and when you returned, I again found myself loving you, loving you more, more than I ever intended to. It hasn't been easy for me, to cope with it, and for most of the time since your return, I'd been beating myself up. In part, not because I love you this way, but because I've never loved this way before. And I hate you for that. I will always hate you for that. But then I look at this picture, and I feel better. Do you know why?"

He replied with a head shake, his eyes locked in on the picture.

"Because the boy in the picture and the man beside me are two people in fact. There's the Oliver who I grew up with, and there's the Oliver who's crashed into my life with his beautiful daughter. And god knows, Oliver, that you are not the same. I can't see that boy in you as hard as I try to. And it makes me happy. It makes feel less of a pervert. It helps me to accept us. So I hold on to this picture to remind me of that; to remind me of the two people I've loved most in the word: you and... you."

Her brother nodded at the picture, moved by his sister's speech. He could feel the tears smothering his vocal folds when he gazed into her eyes. "So you've found your reasoning, but... what's mine? What's my excuse, Ellie? The girl in the picture and the smoking blonde next to me are one and the same. I don't get to have your luxury."

Ellie's blue eyes released her tears at the sight of her brother's. She could see he was in pain, but she wasn't going to allow him to remain this way. She would die before she allowed him to be tormented by his love for her. She cupped his cheek and gently guided him onto his back as she lay on him. "I have another theory that... might help both of us feel better."

"And what's that?"

"When I look at this picture, it gets me thinking that... we have no good reason to feel bad about us, not really. We're not hurting anyone. Us has genuinely no impact on how worse or better the world is. We feel bad because society tells us to. The same society that once forbade women to vote. The same society that enabled one human being to enslave another. The same society that burned witches at the stake, that outlawed same-sex love, and the same society that tells a girl that there's only one way to love her brother. But here's the thing about society: it is not a moral compass for one to abide to. It is but a reflection of what the masses perceive as right at the moment. And it changes, constantly shifts, but always pushes forward, toward progress and liberty, and free love. It may not be in our lifetime, but there will be a day where a future Ellie and Oliver will be free to love each other."

"But it isn't now," Oliver croaked morosely.

"No. It isn't. And that sucks. It sucks balls."

They laughed.

"But, Oliver... love, any love, is fundamentally good. Wrong love or bad love is an oxymoron. So I refuse to feel bad about us. I refuse to believe that there's a divine entity that forbids us; with that in mind, I do believe in fate. I believe that things happen because they are supposed to happen. And I believe that I was always supposed to love you this way, darling. I believe that you were gone for so long to allow it, to allow this enormous love to happen; it would've never otherwise. And so... let's make a pact that we are not to feel bad about us anymore, not even for a second. That instead of beating ourselves up, we will celebrate, because we know that we are right and the world is wrong, and someday... the world will see it for itself."

Oliver gazed into her eyes for seconds, touched by her beautiful heart. "Did you come up with this on the spot? This speech?"

She stroked his cheek tenderly, proud of herself. "I did. You like?"

"It was... kinda lame, actually."

"Oh, fuck you, baby brother!" Ellie giggled and raised her hand to slap him silly, but Oliver intercepted her strike and rolled them over before he nuzzled her nose and cheeks.

Ellie's bosom began heaving under Oliver as she traced his lips with hers. She couldn't help it. He had an enormous power over her. Like a DJ changing up a track with the equalizer on his laptop, so could her brother when it came to her. He could fiddle with her vitals with a poignant look, with a soft nibble, with a loving kiss... he could make her heart pound, her pulse spike, her breathing frantic, and he could all of that with ridiculous ease. He had total control over her, the way he was always supposed to, Ellie felt.

He rested his forehead on hers, loving how riveted she seemed to be by his lips, and whispered, "Thank you."

"F-for what?" Ellie breathed, aching for him to kiss her already.

He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her with all his heart.

*****