30 Days - Episode 01

"Your mother and I have already discussed this," Ralph told Mira. "It's already been decided. Nowhere but school and home for the next month unless you are going somewhere with the family, like church. No car, Brian. And no Spring Break trips for either of you."

"I can't believe this," Brian said, standing up with a bolt. He stared down at Mira, seething. Then turned and stormed away from the kitchen. A few seconds later, the sound of his bedroom door slamming came echoing down the hallway.

Mira looked at her stepfather and her mother again. And without a further word, she stood up and left the table, too. She walked down the hallway and stopped at Brian's door. Grabbing the door handle, she found it locked. She knocked lightly at the door. "Brian?"

There was just silence.

She knocked again. "Brian?"

"Get away from my door, Mira!"

She dropped her head, and her eyes began to water. Turning away from his door, Mira walked across the hall to hers and went into her bedroom.

=====

Brian blew out a frustrated sigh. He decided he might as well go ahead and call his best friend. He didn't really see there being any chance of getting out of his punishment. It didn't really sound like his dad would even be willing to listen to an appeal, let alone consider one.

He launched himself up out of his desk chair, sending it rolling backwards across the room in recoil and it knocked a stack of discs off of a small file cabinet. He looked at the accident and rolled his eyes. Action and reaction, another fucking thing to go wrong. He grabbed his cell off the nightstand, plopped down onto the bed and dialed Mark's number.

"Bri!" Mark answered. "What's up man? All packed? We're out of this shithole in 24 hours!" There was the sound of other people in the background being loud.

"I can't go," Brian stated flatly.

"What?" Mark's voice got a little louder as if he was having a hard time hearing the conversation. Brian figured he was probably covering his other ear as well. "What do you mean you can't go? We've been planning this for six months!"

Brian sighed again in frustration at his situation and now having to explain it. "Dad just grounded me. And Mira."

"For what?" There was a pause, then him yelling at the loud people to 'shut the fuck up!'.

"Breaking curfew last night. And lying about it."

"What? You went to that party? Why? We don't go to those parties, with those people."

Mark was right, of course. Brian and his friends usually didn't associate much with the crowd of 'populars' that Mira seemed part of. A little shallow, they always explained when asked about the 'populars', but Brian knew the truth was that most of the 'unpopulars' wouldn't have the chance to go to those parties, even if they wanted to. Brian, himself, didn't really feel an integral part of either side, just kind of ended up where he ended up.

"They wouldn't let Mira go if I didn't go along, and she begged me. So I went. Then I couldn't find her and we got back over an hour late."

"Well, can't you-"

"Look! I can't fucking go! Alright?!?" Brian interrupted at a volume just below yelling.

"Okay, okay," Mark backed off.

Brian hung up and tossed his phone back onto the nightstand. He fell back and stretched out on the bed. He still couldn't believe his dad had been so harsh.

He wasn't always like that. He was pretty cool, before Brian's mom died. And for a little while after that. Ralph had still disciplined him when he did something wrong back then, but the emphasis was more on realizing why whatever he did was wrong. Not deterrence by incarceration.

Then, about five years ago, Brian's mom went over a hillside after hitting a patch of ice in her car and losing control of it. She died on impact.

Ralph, an agnostic professor of religious studies (at that time, anyways), was lost for a while and started to seek out the church more and more, the one where his wife had gone. The one where he had only really been a 'social' Christian at before. After a while, because of his profession, he was asked to run a bible study group, and the members of the church were so impressed by the faith he had grown, and the knowledge he already had, that when the pastor retired, they asked Ralph to take his place. Brian's dad had taken this as sort of a sign. He accepted.

Then he started emulating what everyone thought a pastor was supposed to be like. In a fundamentalist congregation anyways. Eventually, a little while after he remarried, he became that person, taking as his role model, it seemed, the God of the Old Testament: authoritatively demanding strict obedience and delivering swift, vengeful wrath when he didn't get it.

Brian admitted that his dad wasn't like that every minute of every day, but did take on the role enough times for it to be looked at as a significant part of his personality now.

And now Brian sat here, punished. A tough sentence imposed. Because of Mira.

Mira. How different was that now? Hmpf.

A little over four years ago, before their parents got married, she was his girlfriend and had been for over a year. Though they were young, they were older than their years, more mature than most kids their age, and knew what love was. And that they had it.

Tyran was a single mother, working hard to support herself and Mira, the child she had gotten pregnant with in high school and gave birth to at the tender age of 16. But getting by was hard for them. Brian helped when he could. Stuff around the house, chores. Buying things for Mira, ordering pizza in a subtle way when Tyran would come home tired from work and Brian and Mira were just doing their homework. Just things to help. In whatever way he might.

Ralph met Mira's mother in one of the study groups he taught. And they got to know each other because the kids spent so much time together. About a year after his wife had died, Ralph and Tyran were married. And she and Mira moved in to Brian's home.

For a split second, Brian was excited about his love moving into his very own house. Until it was decided that, even though they had been dating since before all this happened, the parents, especially his dad, couldn't have a step-brother and a step-sister dating. That was just wrong. Families didn't do that, and they were a family now. Besides, they were young. They didn't really know what love was, and couldn't really be expected to stay together for the rest of their unknown lives anyways. Every way any excuse could be used to justify their decision, the parents used it.

It was hard for the kids, but eventually they grew to accept this new arrangement. Mira found a new group of friends when she joined the tennis team at high school and started dating. She became less mature with her popularity and more 'in the moment'. Brian forced himself to stop thinking about it by diving into computers and software programming, which came with its own group of friends. He didn't really date, though. Everyone told him he had become introverted and cynical.

And now here they were. One of Mira's parties, with some of Mira's friends and one of Mira's guys, had cost him his Spring Break. He couldn't believe that, essentially, he was being punished because he was nice enough to wait for her while his ex-girlfriend was off fucking some guy.

How different it all had become.

=====

Day Two - Sunday

3:24 PM

Mira stood at the window in her bedroom. She watched as Brian was finishing his mowing in the back yard. He shut the lawnmower down and sat in the grass along the edge of the large pond that cut through the corner of their property.

Brian had started the yard work as soon as the family had returned from church three hours ago, and hadn't even come inside for a drink or anything in that time. He was avoiding her. And now, as she watched him sitting, shirtless, soaked in sweat, she wondered why he was still just out there in the sun. Why not cool off in the pond? Or sit in the shade of the gazebo their parents had built on the shore? Maybe he was trying not to do anything that might invite company. Her company. He was still avoiding her.

Mira stepped away from the window and went to lay down on her bed. She stared up at the ceiling. She had to figure a way to fix this. She knew it was her fault, and it wasn't like they were especially close, anymore, but she couldn't take this wall that had been erected between them. She had to find a way to break it down.

There came a knock at her door. "Come in," Mira called out.

Tyran opened the door and walked in. "Hey, honey," she smiled.

Mira propped herself up on her elbows. "Hey, mom," she sighed.

"Everything alright?"

Mira glanced over to her window, then back at her mom. She didn't have to say anything.

"Just give it time, Mira. Everything will work itself out."

"I guess," Mira said, without much enthusiasm.

"Well, Ralph and I are leaving for that cookout at the church. Just wanted to see if you wanted to go."

Mira shook her head.

"Didn't think you would," Tyran spoke knowingly. "Alright, well, we should be back around nine or ten, depending on how long the evening service runs. You gonna be okay here?"

Mira nodded. "Yeah. I'll probably just read that book I got to read on the beach."

"Okay."

"Have fun, mom," Mira said, dropping back down flat on the bed.

"I'll try," Tyran said, stepping out of the room. "See you tonight." She closed the door.

The beach. Mira had been excited to go. She was 18 now and it was going to be her first trip without parents around. Just her and her friends. She had bought a popular romance novel from the bestsellers list to read while she tanned on the sand. Now she would be reading it at her house. She thought of other things she had bought for the trip when an idea hit her.

She looked at her alarm clock. It was about twenty minutes to four. That meant a good five hours before the parents would be back. Maybe she did have a way to break the ice.

Mira sat up. After pulling her hair back into a ponytail with a hair band from her nightstand, she stood and started undoing the buttons down the front of her dress. She let it fall to the floor on her way to the closet, where, after removing her bra and panties, she dug around for clothes to change into.

=====

3:52 PM

Mira peeked through the curtains of the bay window that looked out on the front yard and the driveway. Only Brian's car was there. The parents were gone. She checked the deadbolt in the front door. It was usually always set, at her mother's insistence, especially when the kids were home alone. And it was.

Making sure she had everything, Mira turned through the kitchen and exited through the back door. As soon as she was outside, she put her hands behind her back, so that Brian couldn't see what she was carrying. But she didn't see him now. He wasn't sitting where she had seen him last. But she didn't see the lawnmower, either. She looked to the right, towards the small toolshed. The door was open.

Mira walked over and stood in the doorway. Brian was inside, facing away from her. Her shadow, though, made him turn to see who it was that stood there. He saw it was her, and just turned back to what he was doing.

Brian was wrestling with himself in his mind. On the one hand, he was mad at her, and had a legitimate right to be. But on the other, he could scarcely resist her presence. The way she looked right now - her blonde ponytail with bangs in her face, the loose high school tennis t-shirt haphazardly tucked in the front of her denim shorts, but hanging down in the back over her ass, her flip-flops and her little red toenails - Mira was his perfect image for the girl next door. She always had been, when she wasn't trying to impress everyone else. And, her leaning against the doorframe there, with her hands behind her back, her chest stuck out the slightest bit more. Whether she realized it or not, she wasn't playing fair.

"Brian?" Mira said tentatively.

Silence.

"Come on, Brian. I know you're mad at me, but will you just talk to me?"

More silence.

"Fine then, just listen. Look, I'm sorry. You know I am. I know it was all my fault. You were nice enough to go so that I could go to the party and I just got us into trouble. I tried to tell them, you heard me tell them."

Brian dropped his head, but he still wasn't looking at her. Or speaking.

But Mira just continued. "I'll find some way to make it right. Maybe you and I can go after graduation. I'll even pay or whatever. But we're going to be stuck here all week together, and I don't think I could take this the whole time, so, I came here to apologize. Again."

Brian sighed. He stood up and turned to face her. He looked, but still hadn't spoken a word. What upset him more than losing his spring break was the fact that he lost it because he had to wait while Mira was off with some guy. But he'd never let her know that. And he had to accept that without her knowing that, she didn't know the whole situation, so it might not be that fair to hold it against her. She would just have to think it was about the trip.

Mira smiled. Him turning is progress, at least. "I brought a peace offering," she said. When he didn't reply, she pulled her hands from behind her back. In the right hand were two shot glasses. In the left was a bottle of tequila.

Brian was surprised. "Where'd you get that?"

Mira smiled big now that he had finally said something. "I got it to take to the beach. But, you know..." She shrugged.

"What about the parents?"

"Oh, they left about fifteen minutes ago. Mom said they wouldn't be home until after church tonight. Around nine or ten, so that gives us some time."

Brian thought for a few seconds, then relented with a nod, but still without a smile. "Yeah. I could go for a drink."

Mira sighed, relieved. "Good. Thank you," she said. "Come on." She turned and left the doorway, and Brian followed her to the shaded gazebo.

They sat down sideways on two of the white, wooden lounge chairs, facing each other across a little table in between them. Mira set the glasses down and poured a shot of Cuervo into each. "To you," Mira said, raising her shot glass. Brian nodded and held his up too, before they both drank them.

"I was serious, Brian," Mira said, pouring two more. "I'd pay for gas and everything if you still wanted to go to Dallas. I feel really, really bad that you didn't get to go. Because of me." They drank the shots and Mira poured them two more.

"We weren't going to Dallas," Brian mentioned as she poured.

Mira looked at him, confused, while she set the bottle down. "I thought you all were going to that place - Dealey Plaza - where JFK was killed?"

"Yeah, that's what I said, but-" he tossed the shot down his throat, "but that's not where we were going." The last half of that sentence being said with an exasperated growl as the alcohol burned its way down.

Mira drank hers, then said, "Wow. Okay, sneaky, where were you actually going to go?"

"Vegas."

Mira started laughing, surprised. "Really?"

Brian nodded.

"Wow. I'm getting warm," Mira said, standing up. She pulled her t-shirt off, revealing a baby blue bikini top underneath. It was fairly conservative, tying with strings around the back and around the neck, holding snugly around her perky, slightly-more-than-a-handful, breasts.

Brian did a double-take, having been thrown off guard. "Whoa!"

"What?"

"Just wasn't expecting that. I'm fine now."

"Okay." She kicked her flip-flops off and started to undo her shorts. Brian couldn't help but watch her as she stood up, her toned body and smooth skin barely a foot or two from his eyes.

"Why did you even put the clothes on if you were just going to take them off? I mean, we're at home, not at the beach or something," Brian asked, quickly averting his eyes when he saw her catch him staring.

"Well," she undid the zipper, "I didn't know if you were gonna let me stay." She pushed the small, denim shorts down her legs. "And I wasn't sure my self-esteem could take it if a guy rejected me when I was half-naked." She grinned at him as she kicked the shorts under her chair and sat back down. The bottoms were the same blue as the top, and tied at the hips in the same way.

"I'm gonna go cool off," Mira said. "You coming?"

"Sure."

They stood up and Mira walked the ten feet from the gazebo to their little pier on the pond and dove into the water. Brian watched her shapely ass as she did, and only after she went in did he take off his shoes and socks and jumped in to join her.

=====

6:03 PM

"Can I ask you something?" Mira said. The way she looked up at him, slightly nervous, gave the impression that it wasn't going to be his favorite color that she was wondering about.

"I guess," Brian replied.

"Here," she handed him a shot of tequila. They both did their shots, then chased them down with second ones.

"Whoa, shit," Brian groaned as the alcohol burned its way to his stomach. "Okay, what were you going to ask?"

"Why do you lock your room at night?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last night when I was going to try to talk to you, I kinda understood why it was. Then I remembered, a couple of nights ago, I was coming to ask you something, and when I went to turn the handle, it was locked."

"What did you want to ask?"

"I don't remember. Doesn't matter now. I just found the locked door weird and wondered if there was a specific reason."

Brian looked at the ground. He thought of how to answer that. He wasn't sure of how she might react to the answer. Some people were weird about things.

In the meantime, Mira set them up with a few more shots, and after about his fifth one, Brian finally answered, feeling the beginning of the effects of intoxication and not really caring about how she might take it. "I sleep in the nude."

"What?" Mira asked, lost at this point.

"The reason I lock the door at night," he explained.

"Oh. You sleep in the nude? Like, totally naked?" She had perked up now, speaking in surprised excitement.

Brian nodded.

Mira let it sink in for a minute. "Why?" she asked. "Is it because you're 18 and all those hormones and stuff?"

"What!? No. It's just more comfortable."

"Oh."

"I lock the door so nobody walks in. Sometimes I have to get up and get something. I don't bother covering up if I'm not leaving my room."

Mira thought for another moment. "Is it because you don't want to be embarrassed or something? If someone walked in on you or whatever?"

Brian shook his head. "I don't lock the door for me. I lock it for everyone else. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or anything. Truth is, I wouldn't find it embarrassing. If I was sure it wouldn't bother anyone, I'd probably be naked more often. Out in the open. I just feel more comfortable. Totally get nudists."

Mira looked at her step-brother. "Have you ever been naked in front of anyone?"

"Well, no," he admitted.

"Then how can you be sure?"

"I can't, I guess. Just think so."

Mira was quiet for a while. She set out some more shots. They downed them. "Well," she said, looking around, "it's just us here."

"What are you talking about? Of course, it's just us here."

"Just saying, if you wanted to, it wouldn't make me uncomfortable. Do what you will."

"What? Be nude?"

Mira shrugged her shoulders. "If you wanted to. I'm just saying that this is about as safe an environment you'll get to test out your theory."

Brian stared at her. She poured two more shots and sat them on the little patio table between their lounge chairs. "You're serious."

Mira nodded casually. "Sure."

"You think I won't?"

"I'm just saying if you want to, feel free. It won't bother me or make me uncomfortable or anything."