The Tale of the Too Close Twins

I probably thought about the strange situation with Karen and Gareth's date more than an average person would, given my unrequited crush on Karen. What Gareth described was odd, and not like Karen at all. What could have happened?

There was of course the simple explanation, that Karen just didn't enjoy the date for a variety of reasons. Perhaps she was in a bad mood, had a bad day at school or it was her time of the month? I didn't know about the details of Karen's periods of course as it was a private female thing, but in school that day Karen didn't seem to be cranky about anything and she did PE in the afternoon, although she could have inserted a tampon for this class so menstrual problems couldn't be ruled out entirely.

But if Karen was in such a bad mood, why did Gareth find her talking on a public phone to somebody he assumed to be one of her friends, laughing and joking? It was pretty bad manners on Karen's part, and she was normally very well-mannered, she certainly wouldn't behave like that on a date.

Or would she? So far as I knew, Karen had never had a steady boyfriend or even dated, despite her good looks and nice personality. But was it really so unusual? Shane despite his good looks and charming ways like his twin sister had never to my knowledge had a girlfriend or been on a date. And at age 18 I like the twins had never been on a date or had a girlfriend. The three of us had such heavy study-loads for our HSC, not to mention part time jobs and sporting commitments which reduced the time available to go out on dates anyway.

Perhaps Karen had simply accepted Gareth's invitation to go out on a date as a spur of the moment thing, and regretted it? Then not sure how she should react, was withdrawn and wanted to speak to a friend about something else, hence the phone call.

I was probably over-thinking things, I reasoned, and it was just the simple example of a guy and a girl going out on a date together and things not working out. Satisfied that this was probably the case, throughout the rest of the week I concentrated on school, and largely forgot about it.

On the next Friday, a week after Karen's failed date with Gareth, I had to get up early to go to the twins' house before school to finish a rather large chemistry group assignment with them. Neither of their parents were there. They had left even earlier, Mr. Jones to Wollongong for a meeting at the company's Illawarra division, and Mrs. Jones for an early morning nursing shift.

Shane, Karen and I worked fast and finally finished the enormous assignment - the deadline was this morning - and we grabbed some cereal, toast and juice for breakfast. I had already put on my school uniform before leaving the house and Shane and Karen were wearing their uniforms when I got there so well prepared, but regardless we were starting to run late.

The breakfast radio advised of heavier than usual traffic in our area of Sydney's northern suburbs this morning, which would affect our bus ride to school. This frustrated Shane, who was cleaning up after the cat had vomited up a large fur-bull on the kitchen floor became even more frustrated as he noticed his sister was nowhere to be seen and time was running short.

"Andrew, could you please tell Karen to get a hurry-up?" he asked. "We're going to be late for school and get tardy slips the way we're going, we need to be there on Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time, not Karen Standard Time."

"Sure Shane," I said. Assuming Karen was in her bedroom, I walked out to the area where Shane's, Karen's and the spare bedroom were located in their house.

Karen's bedroom door was open. "Karen, hey Karen!" I called out.

Karen soon replied, but her voice sounded muffled and her tone was cranky. "Oh, what is it Andrew?" she snapped back.

"Shane said we'd better head off now otherwise we'll be late ..." I commenced as I went to the door of her bedroom expecting to see her in there, but paused as I saw the room was empty and stopped, feeling puzzled. "Karen, where are you?"

I then heard Karen's voice again, filled with indignation. "Andrew, I'm on the toilet. What is it?"

Turning around, I noticed that the adjacent toilet door was closed, and felt my skin blushing and going hot. "Sorry Karen, I didn't know you were in there, I didn't mean to disturb you. It's just that the traffic is really bad this morning, and Shane says we need to leave really soon to get our bus ..."

"Oh, just hang on both of you, will you?" Karen snapped back.

"Sorry Karen, I'll just leave you to have some privacy," I said, backing away from the door and hearing Karen unwinding some toilet paper from the holder as I did so. From the way Karen advanced the toilet roll, it was clear she wasn't too happy about me disturbing her while she was sitting on the loo.

In a few minutes time I heard the faint sound of Karen flushing the toilet, then the door slam open and Karen going into the bathroom, the taps running as she washed her hands. She came into the kitchen with her school bag, the unimpressed teenager adjusting her knickers through her school dress as she did so, Karen clearly having uncomfortable panties after pulling them up when she finished on the toilet.

Clearly I had gotten Karen offside by disturbing her while she was sitting on the toilet by the dirty look she gave me when she entered the room. "Karen, again I'm really sorry I bothered you while you were..."

Karen cut me off with a sigh. "Andrew, it's okay, it was just a misunderstanding. Let's just forget it happened, okay?"

This was a relief, Karen seemed really pissed and in a shitty mood, pun not intended, as I had bothered her while she was on the loo. "Thanks Karen," I said.

Being such a nice person, Karen didn't hold a grudge and by the time we were on the bus and on the way to school, and she was laughing and joking with Shane and I as though nothing had happened. Apart from making a mental note not to disturb Karen while she was using the lavatory again in the future, I would have largely forgotten the incident.

Except for what happened a week later which was the catalyst that gave me the first real sign that something about my best mate and my crush in the form of his twin sister was not quite right.

The day and the evening were nothing extraordinary, a sunny morning across Sydney that turned overcast and humid by noon and rain by the evening. Mum and Dad were having a dinner party for their friends at home that evening, so to be out of the way I was sleeping over at Shane's place, again nothing out of the ordinary, I had slept over there many times in the past.

By chance, Mr. and Mrs. Jones were away that night, they had gone up to Newcastle overnight to see Shane and Karen's grandparents. Evidently they trusted their teenage son and daughter not to throw any wild parties while they were away. Had they seen what happened a few years ago when my parents had the misguided notion of leaving Kevin in charge when they went to the Blue Mountains overnight, I think they might have had a change of thought on this theory, over 500 drunk teenagers turning up at our house after Kevin's stupid mates invited more friends, and so on and so on until the police were called to break it up.

However, things were far tamer in the Jones house this evening. With rain falling outside and the occasional flash of lightning and distant roll of thunder, Shane, Karen and I sat in the Jones family living room, all three of us as well as the dog and the cat glued to the television.

After an Australian soap, we watched a popular teen drama about the trials and tribulations of rich kids growing up in a Californian town with a five digit postal code starting with 9 and which by chance counted a pair of brother-sister twins in its cast of characters. When this show finished we turned on the VCR and inserted a video tape we had hired from the local video shop.

It was a 'so-bad-it's-good' science fiction comedy about how some slacker surfer dudes more through luck than actual competence prevented an alien invasion in California. Throughout the movie Shane and I laughed at the actual comedy and at the unintentional comedy from bad acting, cheesy dialogue and terrible special effects. For example while the movie was set in California, the fact that one scene showed the sun rising over the Pacific Ocean clearly indicated that the movie was filmed on America's East Coast, and we were in fact watching the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

Sitting across from us, Karen who was dressed in a white tee-shirt, a navy blue pleated skirt that came way above her knees and had bare feet shook her head and said, "I'm worried about you two, if you keep watching this crap you're going to lose a lot of IQ points."

"Yeah, like you haven't been laughing too," I pointed out, while still laughing.

Shane also laughed. "I lose IQ points, so do you Karen," he pointed out to his twin sister. He then turned to me and said, "It's true, Karen and I have exactly the same IQ."

"We've taken a few IQ tests, and the results have been identical every time," said Karen to me. She then turned to Shane. "That's why you shouldn't watch junk, it makes me dumber too."

When the movie came to an end, Karen reached for the remote control and pressed stop followed by rewind, the VCR making its typical whirring sound as the tape was wound back to the start. Karen jumped out of her seat, her pleated dark blue skirt temporarily going up to show that she was wearing pure white knickers tonight. Seeing my crush's underwear made me feel a tingling in my groin and I reminded myself that I had to behave, her brother was sitting right here.

Fortunately my view of Karen's pretty white teen panties only lasted a second or so, which meant that my erection died on the vine and I was able to stand up without embarrassment at the front of my shorts. We tidied up, made sure that cat and dog had enough food and water in their bowls and the like, then it was time for bed, we all had work at the shop tomorrow morning.

I was sleeping on a fold-out bed in Shane's room, something I had done plenty of times before. Wearing a tee-shirt and boxers I got in and got comfortable, but then I could feel how thirsty I was so got up to go to the kitchen and get a glass of water.

Shane and Karen were still up, and neither brother nor sister seemed to notice me in the darkened house as they walked down the hallway together when Karen stopped outside the toilet door, reached inside and turned on the light. "I just need to go to the toilet," she said to Shane.

Her twin laughed in response. "Have fun, Karen."

Karen also laughed. "I don't know about fun, Shane."

She stepped into the lavatory on her bare feet, turned on the light and closed and locked the door behind her, and I was able to hear the sound of her putting down the toilet seat to sit on it. It was as the door closed that I noticed that Karen held two things in her hands. One was a packet of sanitary napkins and the other was a container of wet wipes.

Obviously Karen was on her period. I thought back to earlier in the evening and how I had seen Karen discretely rubbing her tummy at one stage, no doubt to relieve her menstrual cramps. And thinking about it, I had heard a faint rustling noise from between Karen's legs when she stood up. Obviously this was the sound of the teenager's period pad moving around in her knickers.

I expected Shane would just go on his way, so I was very surprised when he remained outside the toilet door, engaging his sister in conversation as she sat barefoot on the toilet, her pleated skirt up around her waist and her knickers with a sanitary napkin attached down around her ankles. This was weird, really weird, and I thought Karen would mind given she got pissed at me recently for unknowingly disturbing her while she was on the toilet.

It seemed though that Karen didn't mind her twin talking to her while she was using the toilet, even though she was currently menstruating. She and Shane engaged each other in conversation as though they were simply sitting next to each other, the brother and sister laughing and joking.

Obviously they didn't think I was around or that I was asleep, and with the house in darkness plus the floorplan of the hallway I could stay concealed and watch was happening. I couldn't believe what I was observing, perhaps I had fallen asleep and was dreaming all of this? But I wasn't dreaming, I was wide awake and all of this was happening for real, and Shane and Karen kept right on talking through the door as she continued to sit on the toilet.

My mind tried to rationalize this. Shane and Karen were brother and sister, they had grown up together. Perhaps this was normal for them, maybe they always talked when one of them was using the toilet and the other was outside waiting to go? But Shane wasn't waiting in line, if he needed the toilet he could just go and use their parents' bathroom. And this would have always been the case, there was only the two of them. It wasn't like in the old days, where families had lots of kids and just one lavatory creating long lines in the morning.

Did other brothers talk to their sisters while they were on the toilet? I didn't know, I had one brother and no sisters. I'd never observed this in my cousins where there were boys and girls in the same family, but until tonight I hadn't seen it with Karen and Shane either. And I couldn't go around guys who did have sisters about this, I would be thought a weirdo and get punched in the face at best, have the police called on me and a date in court as the most likely outcome.

The most bizarre thing is that Shane would have heard everything that Karen was doing while she was on the toilet, and Karen would have known this. Shouldn't at least one of them - most likely Karen as she was the one using the loo - be freaked out by this?

From my hiding spot I could hear Karen urinating when she first went into the toilet, but Shane would have heard his twin sister peeing in far greater detail. Karen was taking ages to go to the toilet, obviously she was having a poo as five minutes was now approaching ten and she was still nowhere finished. I couldn't hear her pooing from where I was, but Shane would have been able to hear his sister's shit splashing into the toilet water each time she moved her bowels.

I could hear her unwinding toilet paper from the roll each time Karen wiped her bottom, at one stage using the last of the toilet tissue from the existing roll and changing it over for a fresh one. All the while she and Shane just kept right on talking and laughing. And Shane would be able to hear each time his twin gave a practical demonstration that pretty girls do fart as she got rid of her wind out of her back passage into the bowl.

Then there was the small matter of Karen's period, and Shane would be able to hear the rustling noises of his menstruating sister as Karen changed her dirty period pad for a clean overnight one to wear to bed. It was also strange, and also found myself pondering just how long Karen was going to be on the loo.

Finally after twelve minutes, Karen flushed the toilet, the sound of the cistern refilling audible in the house late at night. The lavatory door opened, and Karen stepped out on her bare feet, turning off the light, the dim hallway light the only illumination now. She carried with her the packet of period pads and the wet wipes, and also the empty toilet roll, with something white stuffed inside. I assumed it was her used period pad.

As Karen walked towards the bathroom adjusting her panties through her skirt, Shane followed her. "What took you so long?" he asked his sister. "I thought you'd fallen in there, or a redback spider bit you on the bum."

Karen laughed. "Just one month Shane, I'd like to transfer the period shits from me to you so you can see what I go through every 28 days and why I take so long on the toilet when I have my period."

Shane feigned indignation and repulsion. "Oh yuck, I don't think I'd like that very much."

"No, I'm sure you wouldn't," said Karen. The twins went into the bathroom, and I could hear the taps running as Karen washed her hands pretty thoroughly. They came back out and Karen this time carried with her the empty toilet roll and this time a new toilet roll, which she placed on the toilet cistern.

"Lucky I used the last of the toilet paper from the first roll," said Karen, indicating the empty cardboard tube with her napkin stuffed inside. "I forgot to take a sanitary bag in with me, so this came in handy."

"Um Sis, I hate to be the one to remind you, but you forgot something else," said Shane, waving his hand over his nose.

Karen sniffed the air and recoiled. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed, grabbing the can of toilet freshener and spraying it around liberally to cover her toilet smell. "How could I forget that, I was the one sitting on the toilet over ten minutes gagging at my own stench."

The twins continued to laugh about how smelly Karen's poo was, before Karen said, "I'd better take this to the outside bin." She turned to leave, but had a bout of period pain through her uterus, stopped and clenched her abdomen, grimacing.

"How about I take this out to the bin for you?" Shane suggested to his sister. "You look like you need your bed."

"Are you sure?" Karen indicated the cardboard tube containing her used panty pad. "It's pretty gross and smelly."

"No problem at all," Shane said, he and his sister bidding each other goodnight, Karen heading to her bedroom, the barefoot teenager again clutching her crampy tummy on the way.

I was in bed by the time Shane returned from the wheelie bin after disposing of Karen's period pad, feigning sleep. But while Shane immediately went into the world of nod after getting into his bed, it took a long time for me to fall asleep after what I had seen.

*

Shane and Karen were up before me the next morning. Upon waking to the sound of light rain outside, my mind was still analyzing last night's events over and over and over again. I must have been tired, I reasoned. I was misinterpreting things, I had always known the twins were close, perhaps talking through the toilet door was something they did without thinking having grown up together, and not realizing an outsider would see it as odd? And in any case, they didn't know I was there watching them, they thought I was in bed asleep.

And not having any sisters myself, perhaps it was normal for Karen to be so open about her periods with her brother? Okay, probably not, but that twin bond thing again, and all families were different. But what of Shane volunteering to take his sister's used period pad out to the bin? Well he was just doing her a favor so she could go to bed and lie down to relieve her girls' problems. If he had volunteered to take some food containers out to the bin to save Karen the job, I wouldn't think anything strange was going on. I mean, it's not like they were making out, and it wasn't like Shane had actually gone into the lavatory with Karen and stood over her while she was on the toilet, she had closed the door. All of this was due to my imagination getting things wrong.

It took only a second for my assertion that nothing odd was happening to be broken. Like me, the twins were in their nightwear, Shane wearing boxer shorts and a tee-shirt as I did, while Karen wore an over-sized tee-shirt over panties, her legs and feet bare.

Karen's panties this morning were white bikini-briefs. How did I know this? She was bent over feeding the cat, her ass thrust in the air and her tee-shirt had ridden up to show off her underwear. Karen's bottom I had to admit looked pretty good covered in the soft white cotton of her knickers, but between her legs one could see the unmistakable oblong bulge of Karen's period pad, the sanitary napkin having been in place around Karen's pussy overnight for her to bleed into.