Twins

I left with a smile on my face that afternoon, and Karen still none the wiser. A few days later Stacey retaliated by turning up and pretending to be Karen. I looked intently at her, and then sighed at the waste of time and effort these two would insist on by playing this game. I still took the tutoring money, since at least I turned up and watched them play their games.

When I put everything back in my bag I looked at Stacey and, while ignoring the flipping of my stomach, said, "You're not Karen. She has cuter ears than you."

It wasn't often that I got to leave this table with one or both of them speechless, and it sure felt good. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when they set about comparing ears so they could dispute my claim. When they didn't play their games they DID learn what I was teaching them. Both the twins worked hard on the information I gave them and, on a few occasions when they hit a wall, they would phone for verification of something.

I think that's when they realized they could get away with their game of pretending to be the other twin, as I only had a voice to go on. The tactics did change as the semester wore on; both came to the table braless. Well, OK - almost braless. They wore those running tops that female athletes wear at sports events and, judging by the slight bulging in strategic areas, it was obvious to this guy that was all they wore.

Hey I'm a male of the species: of course I looked, then stared, and finally forgot my name. Those jogging bras should never have been made legal. They may have covered the twins' tits, but they showed a heck of a lot of skin in return.

"Do you two..." I stopped, held my hand to my mouth and coughed, since those three words came out as if my voice was way back there in puberty and still breaking. I tried again. "Do you two have to wear those?"

Both nodded before Karen said, "Coach had us on extra practice this morning because of the competition over the weekend."

The pervert in me did wonder if they held the same secret that normal bras did, where a woman could unhook it and pass it out through a sleeve. It was then my mind snapped back to reality, more so when I noticed the matching smiles on both their faces. I was doomed when they sank to this level, and they both knew it.

Of course Charlie still came by and demanded updates. He seemed to take the same sick pleasure the twins did at their antics. As the season changed we moved from our table outside the library to inside. The first time we did this both girls wanted to know why it was so quiet. Not the fact that most of the guys were staring at them. I did catch Karen plugged into the college radio via some nice looking skin toned earpieces, but she just shrugged and handed them over.

On the few occasions I was late I would find them both by the doors leading to the library. Neither would go in without me going first; they even had to get used to whispering. A new art form for them, I assure you.

I was invited to watch the inter-college meeting by the twins, even pointing out where I should sit. Both seemed a little taken aback when I told them that I went to all the home track events, and that I would sit with my friends. They both just sat and stared at me.

"So, just as I assumed so much about you two, you assumed the same about me?"

Both had their mouths open when they nodded their heads. I'm sure they took what I said to heart, although it wasn't intended to be mean. They both still snuck glances up at the stands where we sat, much to the amusement of the folks around Charlie and me.

Another thing I found out about the twins: don't ever tell them a half-truth. I had told them that I couldn't tutor them for three of the upcoming days. Talk about an inquisition: I would have been better off phoning in sick. Eventually, and in an effort to halt the questions, I told them I was going home for a few days.

I had done the Georgia National Guard half-marathon twice before. It was an event my whole family supported and contributed to. We had family in the Guard, and these folks looked after their own. I had warmed up and stood midway between the start line and the middle of the pack. With my concentration solely on the race, I didn't notice anything about my surroundings.

For some reason I did feel a flutter in my stomach, but put it down to nerves. The two minute warning came over the speaker system, and that's when I felt a hand in each of mine. The people around us laughed at me doing a double-take at a twin in each hand. The gun went off just then, so I didn't get to ask them what they were doing there. I did a personal best that day, the girls having kept me company for the first few minutes before they left me on my own. They were track athletes after all, not long-distance runners. The questions started coming when I managed to get oxygen back into my lungs after they met me at the finish.

"You wouldn't tell us where you were going, so we took it upon ourselves to find out. When the sorority girls told us they had seen you jogging around the campus in the early hours, we pieced the rest together ourselves from the pictures in your room."

"So why are you here?"

Stupid question really, made worse when they rolled their eyes at me. We stayed the night and got back to college in time for the start of another day, and no one else the wiser. A week later the girls gave me a gift: when I unwrapped it, the picture was of the thousands on the start line of the half-marathon. I found two blonde heads and figured out it was me standing between them.

Although we were still feeling our way with each other, it was things like the half-marathon that drew the greatest respect from each of us. I had no reason to boast about what I did; the twins realized that, and seemed to want to spend more time trying to peel away layers they seemed to have noticed. I was so busy being me I didn't even notice one layer, let alone many.

It seems it was Charlie who noticed that the twins seemed to be spending more time with me than with the crowd they usually had around them. I just shrugged my shoulders and said that he must be exaggerating.

All three of us were summoned to Professor Marshall's class just before summer break, where he made the twins sit separately and gave them a snap test. I read a copy of what he had them working on. It was the test he gave my class the year before. We stood around waiting for him to mark them.

It took ten minutes before he stood and said. "I watched you both come in, I had you both at opposite ends of my class and I never left this room the whole time I gave you this test."

He dropped the test sheets on the table for us all to look at, both bearing the mark of B+. The girls did that jumping up and down clapping thing, while I picked up both papers and looked more closely. They had answered each question the same way: the wrong answers were wrong for slightly different reasons, but all the right answers could have been written by the same person. This twin thing can sure get weird.

*******

It was over summer break that I decided that I was done tutoring the twins. Carrying a B+ into any test from now on would be a major confidence booster. I let Professor Marshall know of my decision and other than raise an eyebrow he didn't say anything. The hurricane that came crashing through my apartment door a day later caused Charlie to drop one of mom's cookies. He almost cried as he got on his knees to pick up the bits.

Stacey pointed to Charlie and said, "You: get out."

Poor Charlie was still halfway through collecting bits of mom's cookie off the rug, so he didn't notice who they were talking to, but the sight of an unbroken cookie waved in front of his face made him change direction. He held it in his hand like a national treasure and thanked me as I edged him towards the door.

What they both saw when I turned made even them pause.

"How fucking dare the both of you!" I then pointed towards Karen, who took a half step back. "You, get out and fix this with Charlie. I don't care if you have to crawl to make it happen, but you get out and apologize on behalf of the both of you."

I then opened the door and glared at her; she didn't even look at her sister for back up. She wanted out, and had a fair idea of what was coming. I think I timed it right because I'm sure I heard a yelp as the door swung closed and caught her ass as she left. Stacey knew it was her turn; she tried some false bravado and puffed her chest out, but I wanted blood and it was hers I was going for.

Three steps towards her pushed her back against my desk chair. She tried to keep standing and failed. By the time I got to her and placed my hands on the armrests she had nowhere to go.

"I'm almost sure your momma taught you good manners, just as I'm sure that when you both realized you were drop-dead gorgeous your arrogance strangled them. You came here for ME, not Charlie. The disgusting way you treat people shows me that beauty like yours really is only skin-deep."

She winced several times and, to be honest, I just couldn't give a fuck. I was beyond mad at both of them, but Stacey carried the brunt since she turned all wicked witch of the west on my friends. Oh, I was getting up a head of steam all right, and still had plenty to say: right up until when her hands went around my neck and her lips pressed against me, her tongue going in search of mine. Standing up just kept Stacey attached to me. Slamming her back against the wall just fueled her passion, as she even lifted her left leg and curled it around my hip.

It all got very crazy after that. That flip of my stomach just matched the craziness, and when I moved my right hand to push her away she managed to catch it by the wrist and thrust it between us, somehow finding space. Her hand released mine as her own body held it there so I could feel her warmth. Crazy just went to carnal after that, as she attempted to dry hump my hand against her pubic bone. The more I tried to put space between us, the more use she found for my other hand.

That now rested against her chest, her nipple almost piercing the fabric of her clothes so as to rest against my palm, as she pushed her chest into me one moment whilst dry humping me the next. The sound of ripping cloth got a groan out of her. Mom raised a gentleman, but I sure don't know where he went while all this was going on. Her top hit the floor before I discovered that was all that was holding her tits in, and when my hand felt soft flesh it just took on a life of its own.

The moans just kept coming from the wicked witch against the wall, and continued to feed something primeval within me. It didn't matter that my mind was screaming that I shouldn't be doing this, because every move I made to put space between us seemed to be countered by Stacey. It was a battle I was losing, because my own body also wanted this so much that it stopped my mind from thinking up a reason why it was all so wrong.

She finally capitulated and let our mouths part, but our foreheads still rested against each other and her pubic bone refused to give up its prize. We could hear each other panting.

"I know you hate me at the moment, Andy. I'm truly sorry."

As our eyes focused on each other I could see the fear she was trying so hard to keep in check. My own bad mood dropped away, and somehow Stacey knew, so that relief softened her features.

"I will apologize to Charlie for my behavior, I promise."

Nodding caused both our heads to move, and that moment alone acted like a release from the pressure valve of our tension. Stacey's leg moved so that she could stand again, and it gave me room to lift my hand away. Our heads came away next, and I placed one of my fingers into my mouth to taste her. She watched so intently that, when I pulled my finger out, her lips seemed to form an O for me to slide the other finger into her own open mouth. As her lips closed and her tongue circled my finger, she shuddered through a small orgasm.

I looked out the window at the scene below and smiled. Stacey moved to look as well, and giggled. Karen and Charlie were sitting on a bench seat and, while Karen held his hand and talked, other students were walking past, doing a double take at the scene in front of them. I swear Charlie must have thought he could walk on water at that very moment.

That day set the scene for many changes in our lives, the twins now knowing I had a line that even they couldn't cross. It also made me realize that, although the tutoring may have been the start of our relationship, it certainly wasn't to be the end. I apologized to both women personally for not even talking to them about my decision not to continue to tutor them, and they in turn let me know just what an idiot I was for not even noticing that it wasn't all about tutoring.

You have just got to be impressed by how equally we blamed each other that day.

By the time Karen came back from her talk with Charlie she only needed to look at her sister and stopped in the middle of the room to take a closer look at Stacey.

Her eyes narrowed as though she was dissecting her. "You got sweaty with him; I can see it in your eyes." She paused, and seemed to smell the air before opening her eyes again. "I know that smell."

Stacey was crimson as her sister let her know that she knew.

Karen turned to me and said, "You and I are going to Giovanni's, so the slut can go back to our room and shower before she finds clothes that don't hang off her."

I watched with mild interest as they stared at each other for a moment before a smile lit up each of them. Arms came out and they hugged. Stacey said something, but it was into the neck of her sister. Karen just nodded her head and said that she knew; what she knew was still a mystery to me.

Stacey made it for dessert; I think that was her sister giving her equal time with me. This twin thing was still a walking, talking potential nightmare to me, and yet I was the only one treading lightly around it all.

One thing I did find interesting about the twins: neither one was happy with a B+. They wouldn't settle for anything less than an A and, although money no longer changed hands, which caused a few arguments between us, I continued to set tests for them both. Gradually their grasp of math started to stretch even my own knowledge.

We also seemed to be a regular sight around the campus as well, much to the amusement of Charlie. Of course he had already got his leg up on the totem pole of college hierarchy, courtesy of the scene on the bench with Karen.

I just shook my head and smiled before saying, "Once a geek, always a geek."

*******

"I'm bored! Can we go hiking?"

Both of us looked at Stacey. I was waiting for the punch line, but it seemed there wasn't one, especially when Karen started chipping in with ideas on where to go and, just to emphasize her point, she reached for her cell to check the local weather for the next three days. I acted as a bystander while they both bounced around ideas, but eventually Karen noticed me sitting on the couch and placed her hands on her hips.

"In case you're wondering, yes: you are coming along. Call it a bonding exercise if you wish: just get your ass out of that seat and start putting your gear together."

This time I just smiled, shrugged my shoulders, and said, "I don't have any hiking gear."

Oh, boy! Wasn't that a stupid thing to say? Karen crossed her arms, a sure sign from her that someone in the room was going to catch a ration of brown stuff.

"Mister. Just like you can tell us apart, I can tell when you're talking crap. You also forgot those pictures in your apartment of you and your folks with Mount Rushmore in the background. What did they do? Fly you in for the photo-op or what?"

So busted; so hen-pecked!

I stopped by the admin building on the way back to my apartment for a list of the local hiking trails and recommendations on the degrees of difficulty, then phoned the girls while I put my own kit together. We decided to wait out the night and hit the trails first thing in the morning. In English that meant a take-out at my place while we argued over what trail and how long we wanted to be out.

The argument lasted as long as the pizza did. Stacey won using the "it was my idea" argument, and so, with an early night for the girls and more checking and double-checking of my own gear, we set out just after five the next morning. It may have been Stacey's idea, but both of them made sure to grab the back seats for a snooze while I did the two hour drive out to the parking area at the base of the Bingham Reservoir.

The girls wanted to swim some time in the day, as well as hiking the trail that leads in a long loop around the Reservoir. When I took the lead I was accused of being a male chauvinistic pig; when I lagged behind I was then accused of checking out both their asses. You have just got to love women talk. When the girls found a great place for a swim they both decided to go topless, until they saw me standing at the water's edge with a camera.

I swear to God, I was taking landscape pictures. Karen rushed me while Stacey was still getting out of the water. We wrestled for a moment before we heard Stacey scream. We looked at each other for a second before both of us let go of the camera, and we rushed to see what was going on with Stacey.

She was holding her hand, a small trickle of blood oozing from a hole. She was already going grey as she fell to her knees.

"A snake bit me."

Karen gasped, and I pulled Stacey's hand towards me. She wasn't wrong: I could still see a tiny trace of venom on her palm. I knew from our family hikes what to do: both my folks had drummed it into me over every trail we walked. I looked at Stacey and knew she was just a hairs breadth away from freaking out.

"This is going to hurt, Stacey."

Her eyes had already watered up and I honestly don't know if she had even heard me.

Finally she nodded her head, and said, "Do it."

For a second I prayed to whoever was listening that I would get it right the first time; after all, this wasn't the movies. So I grabbed her shoulder, clenched my fist, and hit her as hard as I could. Stacey slumped to the ground while Karen's scream echoed around the cove.

"What the fuck, Andy!"

My knife came out next. I didn't bother cleaning it; infection was the least of my worries at that moment as I cut into her hand and let it bleed.

"Heart rate, Karen. Stacey was set to freak out, and she knew it. Now she's unconscious her heart rate will go down, and the venom will take longer to pass through her body."

Karen had her cell in her hand, the lack of signal bars evident to us both. This cove was a signal blind spot and we had walked right into it, God damn it to fuck.

I looked up at her and told her she needed to get dressed. By now I had mentally counted to thirty and covered the wound I had made. Pulling my rucksack towards me, I lifted out my first-aid kit and set about bandaging her hand. By then Karen was dressed and sitting next to me. I told her to dress her sister and to call me when she needed help.

The rest of the things I needed were deeper in my rucksack. When my fingers touched the familiar leather pouch I smiled with relief and pulled it out, undoing the cord holding it shut and pulling it open. Stopping only to help Karen pull Stacey's pants on, I went back to the pouch and pulled out a wire-saw.

I was still slicing into a branch as I explained to Karen that we were in a cove and I didn't own a flare gun.

"They would never be able to see us, Karen, and look at your cell: we have no signal this side. We have to carry Stacey over that ridge and down to the shoreline, then perhaps the rescue people will see us from there."