Sibling Rivalry Ch. 05

Lena was surprised that he noticed; especially that he'd mentioned it. Still she ignored the thrill that ran through her as he continued to look at her.

She decided that at this point honesty was the best policy. "You should know that Nicholas intends to have Stacy" she told Gavin as she walked over to him.

"Yeah well he can't have her" Gavin practically growled back at Lena.

She handed him the invitation she'd come to bring and smiled sadly at the possessiveness in his tone. He took the invite and laid it on his desk as she explained what it was.

Gavin told Lena he wasn't sure if he and Stacy could make it but that he would talk to Stacy about it as he walked her to the door.

As she left the office Lena felt her eyes start to sting, though she refused to cry.

When she got back to her car she seriously thought about driving straight home as she was having a hard time keeping her tears at bay. But then she went ahead and made the drive that she had been reluctant to take in the past weeks.

When she pulled up in front of the small complex her first thought was wondering whether or not her car would be safe. This wasn't the worst neighborhood but then it was far from the likes of her neighborhood or that of Gavin's for that matter. She rolled her eyes at the thought that Stacy had no doubt been the one to suggest she move into a place she could afford on her own. Getting out of the car and double checking that her doors were locked Lena walked quickly to the door she knew to be Stacy's and rang the bell.

***

I was in need of a break from unpacking when my doorbell rang. I had no idea who it could be, maybe UPS because I'd recently purchased some books through amazon.com.

I opened the door and my heart dropped. Lena stood there looking as fabulous as ever, not even breaking a sweat, even though it was warming up outside.

The first thing that I noticed was that she'd changed her hair color. The new color looked stunning on her, especially against the red dress that she was wearing.

I had to stifle the urge to run my fingers through my tousled hair and straighten my clothes.

I moved to let her in without saying hi and as we stood in my living room she looked around at the place.

"I haven't finished unpacking and everything so it's still kind of a mess." I told her.

"I'm sure you've had other things on your mind." She said in that dismissively arrogant way of hers as she took a seat on one of my two small sofas. Ever the queen, she asked like I had no manners and wasn't going to, if she could get something to drink. I went to get her a bottle of water from the fridge.

When I came back she was still sitting in the same position and held a small pink envelope in her hand. I handed her the bottle of water which she promptly sat in the middle of my coffee table, on top of a pile of take-out napkins.

"Aren't you going to drink that?" I asked her.

She smoothed her bangs and I noticed her nails were perfectly manicured and the same wine red color as her dress.

"Sometimes I don't know how we grew up in the same household and yet came out so different" she frowned speaking to me as if she hadn't heard my question.

"Why are you here?" I asked as she rolled her eyes like I was daft.

"I brought an invitation to Nicholas and my anniversary party."

She handed the invitation to me, which I took, wondering why I was so bothered by the thing. As I looked at it in my hand for maybe longer than necessary I looked up to find her eyes on me.

"Take it from me" she said. It would be a mistake to try to have your cake and eat it too."

"I'm not—

"And I thought I was the liar in the family" she cut me off then stood to leave. She then turned back to me once she reached the door.

"Don't worry I'm not going to tell anyone your little secret. It would be too much fun to watch you fall on your face when they both dump you" she finished as only Lena could.

I let her out not commenting on what she'd just said, and then I locked my door. She was being a bitch, it was her middle name but I also knew that she was hurting. It pained me even though she'd been acting like the wicked witch of the east for the past few months.

***

Lena walked back to her car and got in. As she's left her twin's apartment the tears she had been holding at bay started to run down her face. She couldn't stop them if she tried. Once she was inside her car she dabbed at her face with some napkins and then checked that she looked okay in her rear view mirror. Her eyes were red but she was okay. She would be okay she told herself as she started her car.

It was still in the middle of the afternoon when she got home. Nicholas had told her he wouldn't be in until late so she expected the quiet and yet it unnerved her somehow. The house seemed as empty as she felt.

Just as she headed toward her room she could hear the phone in there start to ring. She walked at a brisk pace to get to it. She picked it up just as the message beep sounded.

The receptionist from Dr.Banks office, who said that she glad that she had caught Lena in, took what seemed to Lena forever to come back on the phone after asking her to hold. Lena wondered what was going on. She had gone in recently for her annual check-up. Dr. Banks had taken some blood because Lena opted to be tested for diseases, just to be on the safe side. Oh my god she thought as she continued to wait, what if she had some terrible disease.

Lena ended up speaking to Rachel, Dr. Bank's midwife because Dr. Banks was not in the office. She had started the call pacing around her bedroom but by the time it was over she was curled up in the middle of her bed bawling her eyes out.

She could not believe that this was happening. The thought of it had her gasping deeply in the effort to try to get enough air into her lungs to breathe when the urge to vomit had her jumping off her bed and running to the bathroom. She hadn't had anything to eat all day so she only dry heaved over the toilet while holding her stomach.

When she was done she washed her face and rinsed her mouth out. She went to lie down in her bed feeling all kinds of NOT okay. Anger, confusion, disbelief, fear, and other emotions she could not name all vied for position at the front of her brain. She wanted it all to go away. As her head hit her pillow she thought back over the last few weeks even though she didn't want to. She already knew that she'd had sex only once in that time. It had happened about five weeks ago.

The memories played in her mind like a car accident now.

She had come home to find Nicholas on the couch in the living room palming a bottle of his favorite alcohol. From the looks of it he'd downed enough to give a person alcohol poisoning. It wasn't that she'd felt bad for him, not after she'd just come in from driving by Gavin's house to see if his car was there. It had been and she'd watched morbidly as he had fucked her sister inside the car. They hadn't even been able to wait to get inside the house. But anyway Lena didn't think she should allow Nicholas to drink himself to death. After all, someone might try to pin it on her somehow.

Inebriated herself, she had laughed at the joke she'd made then she went to stand in front of his down bent head. She took the bottle from his hand and poured her a shot and then downed it in one gulp. When she left the room moments later she took the bottle with her.

She had no intentions of drinking any more of it and was just putting it away in the case in his study when he came in. He stood there looking at her. His eyes were so hazy from the alcohol that they were unreadable. Lena had been horny, hurt, and past tipsy. She didn't know who had taken the first step towards the other but suddenly they were kissing and ripping each other's clothes off and then fucking on the floor of the study.

In the light of day she couldn't even remember the details or much about it. She had woken up in the guest bedroom and he had been nowhere in sight. She told herself that next morning that she would never get so wasted again. And she hadn't. The two of them had given each other plenty of space after that.

And now Lena was pregnant. She had no idea what she should do, the one person she called whenever she had problems was as liable to hang up on her or curse her out as she was to give Lena the kind of support she needed. She couldn't call Stacy and she decided she couldn't tell Nicholas either, not yet, if ever.

***

It was after 8 pm when Nicholas pulled into the parking lot of Hal's Sports Bar. The sun had already set. He got out of his car walked inside and looked around for the person he'd come to see. Finally he noticed that Gavin was already at a table in the back of the bar. Nicholas walked over and sat down across from him without speaking. Neither man was entirely comfortable with being in the other's presence so the atmosphere around them was very tense. Gavin asked Nicholas why he had asked to meet him here tonight.

Nicholas didn't beat around the bush. He told Gavin that he wanted a night with Stacy, to which Gavin scoffed and swallowed some of the Scotch he'd been drinking before Nicholas had arrived.

"I could have just made love to her that night and not let her go to you when you called begging, but unlike some men I'm not that worthless."The look on Gavin's face let Nicholas know that he had hit his intended mark.

"First of all" Gavin growled, " I didn't know that Lena was married when we were together and second you couldn't take my woman from me yesterday, today, or tomorrow" Gavin smirked. "You couldn't even keep your own wife away from me."

Nicholas gritted his teeth as his hands ached to grab Gavin around the throat and choke the life out of him.

"Did Stacy tell you she met me for lunch last Tuesday?" Nicholas smiled at Gavin nastily.

Gavin looked at Nicholas as if to judge his sincerity and decided he was lying.

"She didn't, did she?" Nicholas asked again his smile widening across his face then he said, "One night is all I'm asking for and considering the circumstances of our acquaintance I really don't think that's a lot to ask."

"l--love--her" Gavin ground out, fast losing the little patience he had left.

"Yeah well, I love her too" Nicholas declared.

The two men glared each other in the eye for a moment then Gavin stood up to leave before he did something that he would regret in the light of day. He swallowed the last of his scotch and ignored Nicholas as he called out to him.

"So you'll get back to me then?"

A waitress chose that second to walk over and take Nicholas's drink order. He swallowed it down the minute she sat in front of him and then asked for another.

After I finished working for the day I looked around at all that I had done and was satisfied with what I had accomplished in a few hours. My back and shoulders were a little stiff. My brain hurt as well from trying to keep thoughts of Nicholas and Lena's visit at bay. I took my time in a steaming hot shower hoping that it would relax my aching muscles. It did a little. Then I got something to eat. I'd made a trip to the grocery store earlier after Lena left so now I had a few basics. I made a sandwich and a small fruit salad. I washed it down with bottled water.

After doing all of this it still wasn't late enough for bed and I wasn't even sleepy but I wanted to be. My head was literally hurting from the thoughts floating around in my brain. It was so quiet in the apartment since I was alone and that didn't help. I couldn't stop my mind from wandering as I was wound way too tight.

The thought came to me that if I had an orgasm I would be relaxed enough to maybe go to sleep. I could definitely use a release from some of the tension that had built up all day. I went into my bedroom and relaxed back onto my bed with my purple colored, dolphin shaped vibrator for company.

The thoughts that came into my mind as I began to touch myself were of Nicholas. I was so tired of fighting thoughts of him that I didn't push them away. It was his hands that I felt on me as my own hands crept into my panties. They parted my thighs and I could feel his mouth moving towards my clit, as my two middle fingers did the same. I could feel--.

The fantasy was cut off as light flooded my bedroom and a pissed off looking Gavin stood in my bedroom door.

My hands stilled immediately and I knew I looked as guilty as I felt.

"Don't stop on my account he said" sending me through a tunnel of déjà vu.

"I have one question. Where were you last Tuesday, for lunch?" he continued to stand inside the door like he didn't trust himself to get too close to me.

My eyes closed as a feeling of regret and anger at Nicholas overwhelmed me.

After I told him I had been with Nicholas he glared at me like he wanted to kill me and then he walked over to my bedroom closet and started taking his things out. I found it hard to breathe watching him, even though I knew I was wrong.

"I probably deserve this for fucking his wife" he shook his head, "but no more, the two of you can have each other."

"I don't want Nicholas." I told Gavin as I stood up to go over to him. His voice stopped me from doing that.

"No of course you don't" he roared. "That's why you send me home so you can spend time alone with your thoughts of him while making yourself come."

"I had to be fucking stupid to believe that you're not like your sister." He spit out as he left the bedroom.

I found him in the bathroom getting his toothbrush and other things and carelessly tossing them into the box he'd grabbed from somewhere.

"Gavin please" I said as tears filled my eyes and spilled over, "don't leave."

"Why are you crying? You should be happy, now you can have him with nothing in your way and you won't even have to worry about him thinking of Lena when he's with you" he snarled as he passed by me to leave the bathroom.

That last statement had me lifting my eyes from the floor and I followed him through the apartment and into the living room.

"What did you say about my sister?" I yelled at him though I'd heard him just fine.

The implications of that statement are what made me scream out a second later, "you motherfucker, you've been seeing her behind my back."

He turned to me in a sigh and in a calm voice said, "Funny how angry you are about that considering why I'm here right now, but no I'm not seeing your sister. She stopped by my office today to give me an invitation to her anniversary party. Now could you get my keys, I don't want to see you again."

I immediately felt horrible about my outburst. "Gavin I don't know what it is, these feelings that I have for Nicholas." I pleaded with him to understand.

"Yes you do", he sighed, "before you met me you were in love with the guy.

"I thought I was." I sighed heavily.

"All the more reason for you to see what's there" he said walking out of the door with his box of stuff.

I ran outside after him because I just couldn't let him go. "Gavin please I don't want to be with Nicholas. That lunch wasn't about getting together with him. I just needed closure."

Gavin closed his trunk after putting the box into it then walked around and got into his car without a backward glance at me. Moments later he sped away.

***

Nicholas didn't feel like going home after he left the bar. He knew that he would just sit in one spot and drink himself into a coma. The last time he'd done that he'd ended up fucking his ex-wife on the floor of his study.

He drove around town for a few hours. It still wasn't late enough for him when he finally got home.

He made his way up to his bedroom and then promptly turned around at the sight of it. He had no plans to straighten it up tonight so he decided to go to his study. The door to Lena's room was open as he passed by but she wasn't in there. As a matter of fact he had to do a double take, there was not much of anything else in their either.

The room was clean, too clean he thought as he walked into it. The bed was made but that wasn't too unusual, the fact that her dressers were cleared off completely was. The phone and answering machine were still on their stand but her iPod dock was missing. Walking over to the closet he opened it to find that all of her clothes were gone.

He left the room upon seeing that her clothes were missing and went through the rest of the house in search of her. He didn't know why his heart was thundering in her chest at the idea that she was gone. He looked all over and found that to his absolute disbelief that she had left. He found a note in his study on the desk. On top of it were her wedding and engagement rings.

He picked up the note.

She told him in the letter that she'd had enough of 'everything' and that she no longer wanted to help him get her sister back. She wrote that it had been a dumb fucking idea in the first place. She wished him luck in his efforts and told him to take care of himself.

Nicholas balled the piece of stationary up in his hands as he contemplated what to do next.

When he went back into her room for no good reason he noticed that the red light was flashing on her answering machine. He pushed the play button. The first call was a hang up, then a woman's voice spoke and then Lena's. This made Nicholas pause and pay attention. He listened as the woman clearly a receptionist, asked Lena to hold. There was silence and then a moment later another woman came onto the phone speaking to Lena. Rachel something or other, Nicholas didn't care.

He almost took a dive when he heard the woman tell Lena that she was pregnant. The dead silence following the statement made him think the call had ended but then the Rachel woman started to say hello. She had to say it more than once to get Lena to speak again. He then heard the woman ask Lena if she would like to set up an initial appointment. Lena's very curt no made him feel as if someone had shot him in the chest at point black range.

Nicholas barely made it to the toilet before he lost all of his liquid dinner.

After he was finished in the bathroom he felt so weak that he curled up on the guest bed and just lay, there shutting his eyes. He was going to find Lena in the morning when he felt better and when he did--. He really hoped for her sake that she hadn't done something stupid.

***

I had called Gavin so many times after he left that he'd turned off his phone. I spoke to his voice mail for the third time in an hour begging him to call me back. When he didn't and I couldn't stand waiting around. I got out of bed and drove to his house only to found out that he wasn't there. The next place I looked was his condo. His car was out front as I pulled up and parked.

I got out of the car not caring that I was in my pajamas and house shoes or that my hair might have needed a brush. I hadn't been thinking of those things before I left home. I walked to his door and knocked pretty hard.

He came to the door wearing only boxers. He had a drink in his hand as he looked down at me his blue eyes were bloodshot. I wondered how much he'd had to drink. He had only opened the door slightly at first but now he swung it wide open and stepped back to let me in.

I closed the door behind me while he staggered back to the couch where he sat watching Financial TV.

I walked closer to where he was sitting and asked him why he had turned off his phone.

He turned to me with a smirk on his face and said that he hadn't turned his phone off his battery had gone dead.

"Then why didn't you answer my calls before?" I snapped.

He shrugged. "I was pissed off and didn't want to talk to you."

"That's very fucking mature Gavin—

He moved fast as he pulled me down onto his lap and then barked at me to watch the way that I spoke to him.