Twelve and a Half Hours

"Fine." Mark reluctantly rose from the table and made his way over to the girls. It was a lot easier to give advice than it was to follow it. The truth of the matter was that it had been a long time since he had asked anyone to dance besides Amy. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of his sister.

It was Heather's turn to watch her brother in action. She was impressed but not surprised when he and one of the girls made their way out on the floor. She kind of wanted him to get turned down so that she could have something to tease him about. She knew it was mean, but she hated to think that he could possibly be right about everything. The more that she watched the two dance, the more she realized that she didn't like it much. She was jealous, though she knew that she had no right to be. She just wished that they weren't quite so close, that the girl wasn't so pretty...she had to snap out of it and deal with a new potential dance partner that what trying to get her attention.

As the night wore on, the place started to get more crowded and the two were running out of energy. They decided to call it quits before they both dropped.

"So, do you want to go home, or do you want to go to my place?" Mark asked.

"I wouldn't mind hanging out without all the noise, I guess. You don't have one of those girls coming over for a booty call or anything, do you?"

"No, no booty calls scheduled. Why do you ask that?"

"I just figured since you're 'Mr. Action' and all that you'd hook up with one of them. Especially that one with the stripper name, what was it? Mystic? Misty? She was rubbing her stank all over you."

Mark was surprised by her tone. She sounded kind of like she was pissed. "What are you, jealous?"

"No," she replied hastily, turning her head to look out the window of the car. Mark chanced a look in her direction. She sure looked jealous.

"I didn't go out tonight to get laid. I just wanted to dance with you. I didn't even get a number, didn't try."

Heather's mood softened. She knew she was being foolish. "I'm sorry, Mark. That was great, it really was. You taught me a lot. I guess I am a little jealous. I don't know why, just protective, I guess. It was hard for me to watch those skanks grinding up against you." She knew why.

"Hey, it's not like it was easy for me to see my little sister out there dancing it up with a bunch of pricks that I didn't even know. It's just something that we have to deal with. I tried not to think about whatever it was that they were thinking about every time they sized you up. I would have went crazy."

By this time they had entered his parking lot. They left the car and began to climb the stairs to the apartment. "What do you mean?" Heather asked.

Mark shook his head. "You can be a little frustrating sometimes. I mean they were thinking of all of the nasty, sexual things that they could do to you."

"How do you know that?"

"Because that's what I'd be thinking! Didn't you wonder how any of those guys would be in bed that you were dancing with?"

"Maybe, yeah."

"It's human nature. It's what we do. I don't like people having those thoughts about you, but there's nothing that I can do about it. Do you know what I mean?"

They entered the apartment and flipped on the lights. Heather looked down at the floor, feeling even more foolish than she did before. "I'm sorry that I'm so stupid about things like that. I know I ask a lot of dumb questions. I know you were doing something nice for me and I had a really good time. Thank you for letting me come over here and bug you."

Whatever irritation Mark had been feeling evaporated. "You're allowed to ask me anything you need to ask. Don't ever feel stupid, you and I both know that you're not. You've actually done me a big favor by hanging out with me, it's kept my mind off of Amy."

Heather turned to look up at her brother, dangerously close to kissing him. Her heart was thumping so that she was having a hard time concentrating on what she wanted to say. When she opened her mouth, nothing came out.

Mark could sense a bit of what was happening, he was feeling it too. He resisted the urge to scoop her up into his arms, as amazing as that would probably feel. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Heather made some noises, clearing her throat. "Yeah, I'm, I'm good. A little tired, I guess. And thirsty. I'm going to grab something to drink."

"Okay, help yourself. I'm gonna hit the shower. Do you want me to leave the door open, or would you rather just barge in like last time?"

There was the crude Mark that she remembered. "Well, I didn't really get a good look last time, I wasn't ready for it. It's up to you, I guess."

He didn't really know how to respond to that. It wasn't much like her to give him a taste of his own medicine. It sounded almost like she was serious. The only thing that he could do was stand there and shake his head.

"Just take your shower so I can take one. I'm sticky and tired." Heather walked into the kitchen to get her drink, leaving her slightly bewildered brother to his own devices. It was totally wrong to flirt with him like that, but it was fun. She was having one heck of a night; it seemed like her emotions were flying all over the map. She needed to relax before something inside of her snapped.

Mark took his shower without interruption. Despite their flirting, he locked the door to the bathroom this time. After he was done, he lent his sister a pair of sweat pants and a shirt and she took a shower as well. Dancing was a sweaty business and it had seemed incredibly hot in the club that night. His apartment, in comparison, was much cooler.

Heather sat on the couch next to him in the living room. She shivered and rubbed her arms. "It's cold in here, Mark. Can I get a blanket?"

He retrieved one from the closet and draped it over his sister. She curled up beside him and covered him with it as well. "You smell good. What kind of cologne do you wear?" she asked.

"I don't wear cologne. I think you're just crazy," he responded.

"Maybe. Maybe it's the body wash. Either way, I like it." She nuzzled her head against his side, causing him to squirm a bit. "Am I too close?"

Mark couldn't remember them actually 'cuddling' together before. This was a first, and he liked it. "No. You're fine, I just need to get comfortable. Here," he said, draping his arm around her shoulders so that his hand was resting somewhere around her belly. "What makes you so cuddly all of a sudden?"

"I've never had the chance to cuddle with you before. And it feels good."

"Yeah."

"Have you talked to Amy?"

"Heh. I called her like a million times, but she never called me back."

"You really miss her, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"What are you going to do?"

"There's not a lot that I can do. Try and forget about her. I'm not gonna call her anymore, that's for sure. I think I've already done enough to humiliate myself," he explained.

"You shouldn't feel that way. There can't be anything wrong with trying to hold on to the woman that you love. If she can't see how great you are, then shame on her. Some girls would do just about anything to have a guy like you love them."

Mark wasn't used to having the adoration of his sister. It felt...extremely nice. He was glad that she was there. "That was very sweet of you Heather. It almost makes me feel better about spending all of my money on you tonight."

Heather picked her head up, alarmed. "What? Why didn't you say something? You didn't have to take me out. I've got some money..."

Her brother interrupted. "Relax, it's too easy to set you off sometimes. If I couldn't afford to take you out, then I wouldn't have done it. It's fine. Pretty girls don't part with their money when they go on dates, you must have read about that somewhere."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I'm just happy you went with me and got to have a little fun. And I'm happy you're here with me now."

"I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad you took me dancing. I probably would never have done it with anyone else. Um, how come you keep saying that I'm pretty and things? Do you really think so?"

"Of course I do."

"No one else has ever said things like that to me."

"It's because you've never had a real boyfriend to tell you that. I bet they've said plenty of things like that about you, just not to you. Trust me, you look fantastic." He thrust the television remote into one of her hands. "Now find something decent for us to watch on T.V. so we don't have to talk about how pretty you are anymore."

Heather started flipping through channels. "I don't know. I kind of like it. Say something else that makes me feel pretty."

"You shouldn't have to have me tell you that you're pretty to feel that way. I will anyway, though. Let's see. If I had to pick one girl from the club tonight to take home on looks alone, and you weren't my sister, I would pick you. You have a sexy little smile and your eyes are an amazing shade of green. I could just lose myself and stare into them for hours..."

"Okay, okay, you're getting carried away," she giggled. "That was still nice, though. And my eyes are the same color as yours, by the way."

"I knew there was a reason why I liked them."

Heather eventually found an old movie for them to watch and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep after that. She couldn't help it, the dancing had taken more out of her than what she thought and curling up with Mark had made her comfortable enough to where the drifting off came easy.

Mark was tired, but he was still a ways away from falling asleep. The girl clinging to him had something to do with it. The only times that he ever had a female this close to him he was either just about to have sex with them or he had just finished having sex with them. He tried not to think about it, but sister or not, Heather was making things difficult on him. There were parts of his body that were doing their own thinking. When he finally couldn't stand it any more, he was able to escape to his bedroom without waking the sleeping beauty.

Once alone, Mark took his frustrations out with a brief masturbation session. He wiped the ejaculate off the end of his penis with a couple of tissues and lay back on his bed feeling relieved but kind of dirty. He'd just jacked off thinking about his sister. And he still wanted her in the worst way even though he knew how wrong it was. Things were a lot less complicated when Heather was just his little sister that he saw once or twice a month and didn't even have to talk to unless he really wanted to. Now he actually cared about her more than he ever expected to and there was a sexual attraction that he couldn't ignore. Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep, wondering if he should go see a psychiatrist or not.

*****

When Heather woke up the next morning, her brother was already up and in the kitchen. He was sitting at the table having a bowl of cereal. She mumbled something that sounded like 'gmoorring' and went to his refrigerator. She had her head stuck inside for a few moments before closing the door, disappointed.

"Don't you ever eat anything besides sliced turkey and pickles?"

"Cornflakes," he replied, raising his spoon.

She settled on a glass of milk and joined him at the table. "If you felt like going to get some groceries, I could cook you something nice today. Last night was so much fun, I want to do something nice for you."

"It was fun alright. You don't have to worry about me. Besides, you probably want to get home, don't you?" He was still thinking about how unsettlingly turned on that he became on the couch. That it might not be a bad idea to decrease his exposure to his sister for a little while until he came back to his senses.

"Not really. I don't have any homework that I have to get done for a change. Mom and Dad are like zombies or something. I'd basically just sit in my room. I'd rather hang out with you."

"What's the problem with Mom and Dad? I've heard you say a bunch of things like that lately."

"I don't know. Dad's always working even though he's supposedly getting ready to retire. Mom's always running around, pretending that she's busy, but I have no idea what she actually does. It's like they want to spend the least amount of time with me as possible."

"That's not true, they're proud of you. I think it's because you're such a good kid, you're low maintenance. They never have to worry about you or what you're up to. Like a cactus," he said.

Heather was amused. "Really? That's the best thing you can come up with to compare me to? A cactus?"

"How about a perfect little angel, then?"

"That's better." She set her glass down on the table and grew serious. "What do you think of me? Really."

"Well, I think you're young, a little too insecure, but that will go away once you get a little older. Pretty much a nerd, but that's not really a bad thing. You've got a great body and a sexy smile, any you're gonna make some guy really happy one of these days." Mark really had to stop thinking about how attractive she was.

"God Mark, now I know why you get all the girls."

"I don't get all the girls. How many girls have you ever seen me with?"

"Well, I don't know, a couple maybe. I bet you could get a lot of them if you said some of the things to them that you just said to me, though."

"I don't say things like that to just anyone. Being your brother and all, I probably shouldn't be saying things like that to you. People would think I'm some kind of a pervert."

"I don't. And there's nobody here but you and me. Nobody says things about me like you have, it's nice. I'm not going to tell anyone about the things we talk about. Now, are you going to let me stay here and do something nice for you today or what?"

Mark wasn't doing a very good job at trying to keep something improper from happening between he and his sister. He should have stopped looking at her with lust in his eyes, should have stopped telling her how sexy that he thought she was. He should have taken her home. He just couldn't. "Sure. But you better do something really nice."

Heather may have been naive, but she could sense the sexual tension in the air. There was something about it, and about Mark, that was addictive. They way that he looked at her sometimes, and the way that it made her feel wasn't something that she was used to. She loved it and was indulging in it even though the intellectual side of her was telling her that she should be repulsed. She wasn't. She wanted more. And if anything did happen between them, well, like she said before, they were the only two people there. She had to learn somehow.

"I'll try my best."

They lounged around the apartment for a little while, talking about this and that when Mark got a call to go into work. He worked at a print shop and they were having a problem with one of the systems that he was familiar with. With a promise not to be gone too long and to take her to the grocery store when he got back, Mark left his sister alone in the apartment.

Heather decided to tidy the place up while Mark was gone and was working on that when there came a knocking on the door. She walked over and looked through the peep hole to see Amy standing on the other side. She took a breath and opened the door.

"Uh, Heather. I was looking for Mark." She was giving Heather a look like, 'What the hell are you doing here?' Heather took note.

"He's not here. He let me spend the night last night, he's helping me out with some stuff."

"Oh. I can't get him to return any of my messages or take any of my calls. I think that I made a big mistake and I just want to talk to him. Do you know when he'll be back?"

Heather surmised that this woman could totally throw a wrench into whatever plans that she and her brother had yet to make. At the very least she would cause him some kind of emotional distress. She could tell Amy to go away, but there was no way that she could keep her away from Mark forever. She clearly wanted to get back together with him, or she wouldn't be standing there talking about a big mistake that she made. Mark clearly had feelings for her or he wouldn't have been with her for years.

Amy looked miserable. The puffy eyes and unkempt hair suggested that she may have been up all night crying. Quite possibly getting ready to start again right there in the hallway. She looked at Heather expectantly.

"He won't be back until a little later. If you want, I could make sure that he gets a hold of you."

"Would you please? All he wanted me to do was to tell him that I love him, and I really love him. I just don't know why I couldn't do it. Will he listen to you if you ask him to? I need to talk to him so bad that I just...it just...it's just killing me," Amy whined.

Heather frowned. "He'll listen to me, I'm sure. You have to listen to me first, okay?"

"What is it?"

"I'm going through something of my own. I'm not going to tell you what it is. What I am going to tell you is that I absolutely need him tonight. I need you to trust me that he'll get in touch with you tomorrow sometime. I'm sure that he loves you, and he's not dating anyone else or anything like that. Can you just go home and get some rest and try and trust me?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Are you gonna be all right?" Amy asked. She thought it was a bit mysterious that Mark's sister, who he very rarely even spoke to, was here and telling her this weird story. Still, she had promised her that Mark would talk to her.

"I don't know. I hope so. You?"

"I hope so. Please have him call me. Please."

"I promise, I will."

Heather watched Amy walk down the hall with her heart in her throat. She had a plan, hasty as it was, it was a plan. She just didn't know if she had the intestinal fortitude to carry it out or not. It was a long, long couple of hours while she waited for her brother to come home.

*****

It took Mark a little longer than he thought to figure out things at work. Nearly the whole time that he was gone, his cell phone was vibrating like mad from calls and texts from Amy. He had decided to ignore them. She hadn't bothered to listen to him when he desperately wanted to share his thoughts on their relationship. Why then, out of the blue, would she try so hard to get back in touch with him? He just didn't feel like trying to deal with her right then. He already had a girl back at home that he was trying to straighten out, two was one too many. He would have just turned his phone off if it wasn't for his sister, he didn't want to miss a call from her. Amy could wait to be dealt with, Heather could not.

Heather was sitting at the kitchen table, playing with something on her phone when he returned. She looked at him with a worried, deep-in-thought expression on her face. What was going on now?

"Hey kid. You cleaned the place up. Looks good. Thought about what you want to get for food?" he asked.

"Haven't thought much about it. Amy stopped by."

"Oh?"

"I felt sorry for her. She was a mess. She said that she loves you and that she made a terrible mistake," Heather explained. Her voice was flat, almost sad.

"She could have told me that when I asked her if she did or not," Mark stated.

"Maybe it just took her a little bit to realize how special you are to her. Maybe not everybody knows everything about love like you do. Maybe you could have answered the phone when she was trying to talk to you. You have to talk to her and stop being a bonehead. You love her. I know you do."

"Christ! I never said that I know everything about love. Damn. If I understood women a little better, than maybe I wouldn't be in the situation that I am now. I know that I should probably talk to her, I've been stubborn about it, but she hurt my feelings. Bad. Don't you understand that?"

"I know Mark, you told me all about it. I'm not trying to make you feel worse than you already do. I just don't think you should give up on her. Maybe things will work out with her, maybe they won't. You won't ever know if you don't at least talk to her again. I told her that I would make sure that you called her tomorrow."