章 3371: ROAD TRIPPIN'
Duncan sat in the driver's seat of the idling car. He stared at the place he had called home for eighteen years and wondered how much time would pass before he would see it again.
Duncan had lived with his parents and twin sister in a modest home in a small town just west of Pueblo, Colorado for his entire life. Only once had he ever left the state, and that had been on a camping trip his family had taken in Wyoming when he and Zoe were just eight years old. He didn't really remember too much about that trip, aside from having to poop in the woods and bury it. (That and the ass rash he ended up with after wiping with a mysterious fuzzy leaf.) So, needless to say, he was a little nervous about the fact that he was about to embark on a journey across the country with just his sister.
As he sat in the car waiting for his sister to come out of the house, he thought about all the things that had led him to this terrifying moment. He supposed it all started when his father spoke to an old buddy that held some kind of important position at Clemson University.
"Hey guys!" he had said to Duncan and Zoe one evening several months ago. "I just got off the phone with Ralph, and he said-"
"Who the hell is Ralph?" Duncan interrupted.
"Ralph! You know, Ralph? My old friend from college, he stayed with us for a weekend once when you guys were like ten years old. Anyway, he told me-"
"But you didn't go to college, Dad," Duncan interrupted again.
Duncan's dad cut his eyes at his son, purposely looking as annoyed as he could.
"Well...Ralph did. Anyway, Ralph works at Clemson University, and he told me-"
"Where's that?" Duncan asked.
"Look it up on a goddamn map, son!"
Duncan smiled inwardly. He loved annoying his parents.
"He spoke to someone in the athletic department there, and even though they don't usually recruit this far away, they agreed to look at some tapes of you playing volleyball, Zoe!"
"Oh!" Zoe replied excitedly. "Really?"
"Yep! There's a good chance that they'll consider giving you a scholarship!"
Zoe was an excellent volleyball player. She wasn't super tall like a lot of girls who played, but she was a superb defensive specialist and a great server. When they were just thirteen years old and Zoe's immense talent became evident, their parents had put their all into getting her the best training for her sport. They had even put her on a strict diet that she had followed perfectly for the past five years. Duncan, of course, had refused to go along with said diet, but since he wasn't the future star collegiate athlete that they viewed his sister as, his parents weren't too fussed about that.
"Wait a sec," Duncan said to his dad. "When you started this conversation, you said 'hey guys', implying that you wished to have the attention of both me and Zoe. However, I don't see how this news affects me in any way."
Duncan's dad turned his gaze back to his son, a look of loving disdain on his face (or perhaps it was disdainful love).
"If you would just have some patience, you little curmudgeon, I will tell you exactly how it affects you."
"How about it affects you because it's great news for me," Zoe said to Duncan. "And, you know, I'm your twin...and you care about me...and want nice things for me?"
Duncan considered this for a moment before turning his attention back to his father.
"What else ya' got, Pops?"
Zoe's shoe flew through the air and smacked Duncan on the side of his head. He barely flinched though, as this exact event had happened to him multiple times throughout his life.
"Aside from that," his dad continued, "Ralph also agreed to get someone from their music department to watch videos of you playing your tambourine!"
Duncan closed his eyes, grabbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, and slowly shook his head back and forth.
"First of all Dad, I don't play the tambourine. Only children and hippies play tambourines. I play the trombone. Not to mention the baritone, the trumpet, and the tuba."
"Well...great! The more the merrier I suppose."
"Second of all," Duncan continued, "these 'videos' that you speak of...yeah, they don't exist."
"Sure they do," Duncan's dad replied.
"No...they do not. For every, oh I don't know, five million recordings that you guys have made of Zoe playing volleyball, you've made exactly zero of me doing anything."
Duncan's dad rolled his eyes.
"It'll be nice when you grow out of this exaggerating teenager phase that you've been in for forever," his dad said.
"Forever?" Duncan repeated. "Now who's exaggerating?"
"Besides, you can just borrow my webcam and record yourself playing anything and everything that you can. I'll email you guys links to some paperwork you'll need to fill out online. Try and get it done as soon as possible so I can let Ralph know to look out for it."
"Well I think it sounds great, Dad," Zoe said. "Thank you so much! And tell Ralph thanks."
Their dad smiled at Zoe, then looked at Duncan expectantly.
"Thank you father," Duncan said robotically.
"Huh. I'll choose to take that as sincere."
A couple of months later, Zoe's scholarship offer came in the mail. Their parents were thrilled, of course. Their family wasn't quite poor, but they were certainly closer to poor than they were to rich. The fact that their daughter was going to get a free college education meant a hell of a lot to their family, and Duncan understood that.
More than that, he was indeed truly happy for his sister. As much as he gave her a hard time now and then, he really did care about her. She was a great person. Smart, kind, ambitious, pretty, etcetera. He sometimes wanted to hate her for how great she was, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. She was just too damn likable.
Duncan, on the other hand, was far from perfect. Well...maybe not supet far, but he was certainly no Zoe. He was kinda smart, a little kind, pretty good looking...not at all ambitious. As much as he tried not to think about it too hard, he knew that he had a mild inferiority complex when it came to Zoe. For that reason, he would always purposely go against the grain a little bit, especially when it came to pleasing his parents. That way, he figured, when he didn't live up to the impossible standard set by his sister, they could just chalk it up to him being difficult instead of him just simply not being as good as Zoe.
But, a few days after Zoe got her scholarship, when he found himself standing in the living room, surrounded by his parents and sister, as he read aloud his own scholarship offer from Clemson to play in their marching band, he finally felt for once in his life that he matched up to his sister in the eyes of their parents.
"Congratulations!" Zoe squealed as she hugged Duncan. "I'm so glad I don't have to go all the way to South Carolina by myself now!"
"Wait," Duncan said, "...that's where Clemson is?"
"Idiot," Zoe replied flatly.
The next day, their parents surprised them with a brand new car. Well, at least it was brand new to them. It had a few miles on it, but it was safe and great on gas. Zoe had expressed concern about their parents not being able to afford it, but they argued that it was a tiny cost compared to what they would have had to have paid for two college tuitions.
"Now obviously," their mother had said, "there is only one car, and two of you. So you'll have to share. I figure you guys can trek across the country together this summer on your way to school!"
"That sounds great, Mom," Zoe had said. "But I actually have to be at school by the first of July to start practices, according to my letter. Is that gonna be a problem, Duncan? That's probably way earlier than you have to be there."
Duncan made a point of scanning his letter.
"Uhh...nope, no problem," he said. "My letter says the same thing."
"You have to be there by July 1st too?"
"Yep."
"For band practice?"
"Yep, go figure," Duncan said with a shrug as he pocketed his letter.
So there Duncan sat, a handful of days before they had to be at college, waiting in the car for his sister to come out of the house so they could begin their trip across the country.
"I've packed all your meals and snacks that you'll need during the trip, sweetie," he heard his mom say to his sister as they came out the front door.
"Oh, Mom, you're the best!" Zoe replied as she threw her arms around her mother's neck.
"What about my meals and snacks?" Duncan asked as he poked his head out the window of the car door.
"Would you like me to go in the house and pack you some kale salads and rice cakes, too?" his Mom asked with a smile. "Because I will if you ask me to."
"Uhh...I think I'll just fend for myself along the way, actually."
His mom leaned through the open window and gave Duncan one last hug and kiss goodbye as Zoe got into the car. Just then, their dad came trotting out of the house.
"Hang on!" he called out to them. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.
"Here," he said, handing them each a wad of cash. "You know all that overtime I've been working lately? Well...it was all for you guys. You've both made me very proud."
Their dad choked back tears as he spoke. As much as he tried to fight it, Duncan felt himself getting a little misty eyed too. Dad tears were the worst, he thought to himself.
It was a picturesque moment as Duncan and Zoe pulled out of the driveway, taking one last look at their childhood home, parents standing in the driveway waving goodbye to them.
"Boy, that was rough," Duncan said to Zoe as he turned off his parent's street. "I almost lost it when I heard Dad getting choked up."
Zoe didn't respond. Duncan figured that maybe she was crying herself and just couldn't talk at the moment. Wanting to confirm his suspicion, he cut his eyes over to look just in time to see her rolling down her window and pushing out the bag of healthy food their mom had given her. Containers and bags splattered all over the street.
"Zoe, what the hell are you doing!?" Duncan asked as he slammed on brakes.
"K.F.C." Zoe responded simply. "Now."
"What!?"
"Kentucky. Fried. Chicken. There's one just a few miles up the road on the edge of town."
"You...you want K.F.C.?"
Zoe very slowly rotated her head around and looked at Duncan with fire in her eyes.
"Yes," she said with a terrifying edge to her voice.
Duncan felt very confused, and wasn't completely convinced that his sister wasn't just screwing with him. She ate a vegan diet, and hadn't consumed so much as a meatball since middle school.
"You're joking, right Zoe? I'm pretty sure they don't serve seaweed salads there, or whatever it is you're accustomed to eating. I mean, you can't possibly-"
Zoe reached over and grabbed her brother aggressively by his shirt.
"Don't fuck with me right now, Duncan. I've been hungry for five years, and if I don't get a goddamn chicken leg with a side of cole slaw and mashed potatoes in the next five minutes, I'm going to start eating your fucking face. Now DRIVE, BITCH!"
Duncan floored it.
***
"That's so hot the way you're eating that, by the way" Duncan said to his sister sarcastically in the dining room of the K.F.C.
Zoe looked up at Duncan with a large flap of fried chicken skin dangling from her mouth and a smear of gravy across her cheek. A half empty bucket sat on the table in front of her, and a pile of bones sat on her plate. She held up a greasy middle finger at her brother, sucked the chicken skin into her mouth, and continued her feast.
"You could have kept the food Mom packed for you," Duncan continued. "Or at least waited until we were further away from their house before tossing it. She's likely to see it now."
Zoe swallowed a large mouthful before responding.
"Eh, maybe a raccoon will eat it before she sees it."
"I don't even think a raccoon would want to eat that, honestly."
Zoe shrugged and took a bite of biscuit.
"I'm quite shocked to see this side of you," Duncan said. "You've been such a Hermione for so many years...it's kinda nice to see you break free from your chains for once."
Zoe took a break from eating and looked up at her brother.
"Hermione? Really?"
"Oh come on, it's such an easy comparison. Rule follower, people pleaser, scholar...not to mention your bushy head of brown hair."
Zoe patted her hair lightly with both hands.
"I like my bushy brown hair."
"Oh, I like it too, that wasn't meant to be an insult. But..."
"But...?"
"Well, you've got a few chicken bits stuck in it now."
Zoe dropped her hands away from her hair and frowned.
"So is this your version of college girl gone wild?" Duncan asked as he reached across the table and picked the food out of Zoe's hair. "'Cause I don't think people are gonna want to watch videos of this."
"No," Zoe responded. "I mean, I don't plan on eating like this at every meal or anything. But right now it feels so good just to pig out and eat however much of whatever I want, ya' know?"
"I'm sure it does. Why didn't you ever fight Mom on that crazy diet she's had you on for all these years?"
"Eh, I knew she meant well," Zoe said with a shrug. "And who knows? Maybe the diet was just the thing that gave me that extra zip in my serve, and maybe I wouldn't have gotten the scholarship without it."
"So are you gonna revert back to that way of eating, then?"
"Oh, god no."
Duncan got his phone out of his pocket and pulled up Google Maps.
"So, if we were to drive straight to Clemson without stopping," he said, "it'd take us about a full 24 hours to get there. Now that would be with just me driving, of course. Google Maps doesn't factor in your granny style of driving when it calculates the time of a trip."
"Hey!" Zoe said, spraying Duncan with biscuit.
"Sorry Zoe," he said, wiping the masticated food off of his arm. "That was rude of me to insult old ladies by comparing your driving to theirs."
"I'm not that slow of a driver, Duncan."
"I was riding with you the other day when a school bus passed us!"
"That school bus was going way too fast! Those poor children..."
"Anyway...I figure we'll drive as far as we can today, stop late tonight at a hotel, get up super early tomorrow, and maybe we can make it there by tomorrow night."
Zoe glanced up at Duncan and scrunched up her face in confusion.
"Why?" she asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do we need to get there by tomorrow night? We've got several days before we need to move in. What's the rush?"
"Uhh...no rush, I guess. I just figured it'd be nice to make good time is all."
"Make good time? What the hell for? Why don't we take our time and enjoy ourselves a little bit?"
"Enjoy ourselves?"
"Yeah! I mean, who knows when, or if, we'll get another chance to drive through these states again. Don't you wanna stop and see some things along the way?"
"Uhh...like what?"
"Funny that you should ask, brother of mine. The other day I was looking up fun things to do in Kansas, and-"
"Bet that was a short list."
"No, there were plenty of things that this website suggested! One of them sounded really cool...it's this museum. 'The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things'."
Duncan closed his eyes and thought hard about what Zoe just said.
"Huh?" he said simply.
"The World's Largest Collection," Zoe said slowly as she held her hands far apart in the air as if to mime that something is big. "Of the World's Smallest Versions," she continued, holding her thumb and forefinger close together in front of her face. "Of the World's Largest Things," she finished, again holding her hands far apart.
"Oh!" Duncan said with a nod of understanding. "Okay! ...yeah I still don't get it."
"Ugh," Zoe sighed in frustration. "It's a museum with a lot of small versions of big things in the world."
"Oh...well why didn't you just say that to begin with?"
Zoe rolled her eyes.
"And where exactly in Kansas is this?" Duncan asked.
"Um...a town called Lucas I think?"
Duncan looked on his map and found the town.
"Nope, can't do it sis."
"What!?"
"Sorry, it's just way too far off the route."
"So what!?" Zoe exclaimed. "Again, what's this need that you have to be so time efficient?"
"It's a man thing, you wouldn't understand."
"Right. Well, big driver man, we're going to this museum."
"But we aren't."
Zoe paused and looked at her brother pointedly.
"Either we go to the museum, or I'll make you pay."
"Make me pay? What are you gonna do, serve volleyballs at my head?"
Zoe smiled, removed the last chicken leg from her bucket, and tore half the meat off in one chomp while staring menacingly at her brother.
Duncan looked back at her, feeling a little worried at first, but then shaking it off.
"You've got nothin'," he said to her as he stood up from the table. "Now, I'm going to the bathroom. I suggest you do the same because we don't have another scheduled stop until three hours from now. And mop yourself up while you're in there, you're a mess."
Zoe guzzled down the rest of her soda, never breaking her angry gaze away from Duncan.
***
"I! I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY...I! I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY..."
Zoe had been loudly butchering the chorus of the classic Kiss song for about thirty minutes as they drove, and Duncan's resolve was starting to wear thin.
"We're not going!" Duncan yelled for about the tenth time.
Zoe turned herself in her seat to face Duncan and continued her "singing".
"I! I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY...I! I WANNA-"
"Could you at least just finish the goddamn line?" Duncan begged. "He says in the song that he wants to party everyDAY! Could you at least just say the word day!?"
Zoe leaned over to Duncan and pressed her lips almost directly onto his ear.
"I!" she whispered. "I wanna rock and roll all night...and party every...
"
She paused dramatically. Duncan cut his gaze over to her, rage in his eyes.
"I! I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY...I! I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL-"
"Alright!" Duncan interrupted. "We can go! Just please shut the hell up!"
Zoe kissed him firmly on the cheek and sat back quietly in her seat. Duncan looked over at her briefly and saw that she wore a smug look of satisfaction all over her face.
"Bitch," he mumbled under his breath. Zoe patted his leg gently and closed her eyes.
***
The museum turned out to be pretty cool and worth the trip, Duncan thought. There was tiny mini-golf, a tiny Mount Rushmore, a tiny book shelf with tiny books, and even a tiny version of the world's largest ball of stamps.
"You know, it's just a regular sized ball of stamps," Duncan said to Zoe. "I mean...the world's largest ball of stamps is pretty cool, but to make a tiny version of it...that's just making a small ball made of stamps. I don't really understand the appeal this one."
"It's art," Zoe said. "You don't have to get it."
Zoe ended up buying a postcard from the museum's gift shop, and talked Duncan into buying her a t-shirt.
"You know, Dad gave you the same amount of money as he gave me," Duncan told her as he paid for the shirt. "If you wanted a shirt, why didn't you just buy it yourself?"
"Because it's more special if it's a gift from you," Zoe told him.
"Even if you force me to buy it?"
"Yep!"
"Ugh, fine. But you're buying dinner. You know, food tastes better when someone else pays for it."
They left the museum and walked around for a while looking for a place to eat. They settled on a cafe that ended up having pretty decent food. After that, they got back in the car and drove for a little while longer before finding a motel to stay at for the night. It wasn't the greatest motel in the world, but it was cheap and comfortable, so overall they were satisfied with it.They requested a room, of course, with two separate beds. Zoe ended up claiming the bed closest to the door, leaving Duncan with the bed closest to the bathroom.
"I'm surprised you didn't want the bed closest to the bathroom," Duncan said to Zoe as they got settled in their room.
"Why are you surprised about that?" Zoe asked.
"I dunno...don't girls like being near a bathroom? Like for when you have get up to pee five or six times at night?"
Zoe stopped what she was doing abruptly and stared at her brother in disbelief.
"You think that it's a thing that girls have to get up to pee several times during the night?" Zoe asked.
"Uhh...don't you?"
"No! Maybe older women do...but then again older men probably do as well."
"Oh. Why did I think that?"
"Because you're an idiot?"
"Fair point."
Since Duncan wasn't going to shower until the morning, he took the bathroom first and quickly got ready for bed. When he came out of the bathroom, he walked over to his bed and started to take off his shirt, just like he did every night before going to sleep. But as he lifted the bottom of his shirt up, he glanced over at his sister as she sat on her bed watching television, and stopped short.
"Hmm," he said to himself.
"What?" Zoe asked without looking back at him.
"I feel weird," he said.
"I told ya' not to order that meatloaf at dinner."
"No, not that. I...I like to sleep shirtless."
"Scandalous," Zoe uttered sarcastically.
"Yeah, but somehow it feels weird taking my shirt off in front of you."
Zoe turned herself to face her brother.
"How come?" she asked. "Heck, I wasn't even looking at you before you brought it up. You could have just taken your shirt off and crawled into bed without me being any the wiser."
"I guess...but now that you're looking at me, I feel like I should just leave my shirt on for the night."
Zoe shrugged.
"You can do whatever you want," she began, "but I genuinely couldn't care less if you wanna lay in your bed with no shirt. I'm not gonna be looking, and even if I do look, you'll mostly be under the covers, so I won't see much. And hell, even if I do see something...who cares!? It's not like you have a pair voluptuous breasts or anything. I can see you shirtless without it being weird. The only weirdness is your reaction to the situation."
Duncan took in everything that his sister said and realized that she was right.
"Yeah, I guess I was being kinda silly about this," he said as he began taking his shirt off again.
"Woo, woo!" Zoe whooped as she watched Duncan remove his shirt. "Hot stuff!"
"Goddammit Zoe!" Duncan said in a panic as he fumbled to try and quickly get his shirt back on.
"Oh stop, I'm just screwing with you! Leave your shirt off, Duncan."
Duncan glared at Zoe as he threw his shirt back on the floor.
"You're so weird," Zoe said. "Anyway, you're done in the bathroom, right?"
"Yep."
"Good. I'm gonna go shower and get ready for bed."
Duncan watched as Zoe grabbed a couple of things out of her bag and made her way to the bathroom. He had just grabbed the remote to the television off the table beside him when he noticed that Zoe had stopped just before entering the bathroom.
"It's not fair, you know," she said to him.
Duncan turned his attention towards his sister.
"Uhh...what's not fair?"
Zoe paused briefly.
"Your body," she finally said.
"Come again?"
"For more than five years now, I've eaten as healthy as anyone who's ever lived has eaten, and I've worked out pretty consistently. Now, I recognize that I am in pretty darn good shape because of it, but how is it fair that, with the way you eat and your lack of exercise, that you look as good as you do? Maybe even better than me."
Duncan was shocked to hear her say this.
"You think I look good?" Duncan asked.
"Of course you do. I mean, you're not like super muscular or anything, but you're pretty well toned. How do you do it?"
Duncan genuinely had no answer for her.
"Genetics?" he said.
Zoe rolled her eyes.
"Lucky bastard," Zoe said. "How'd you end up with the good body and the good hair?"
"Me with the good hair?"
"Yes! You've got this cool wavy, dirty blonde thing going on."
"Your hair is so much cooler than mine, Zoe! It's all bushy and kinky and whatnot."
Zoe glared at her brother.
"Those are not typically positive adjectives one uses when describing a girl's hair, Duncan."
"Well I think they are. I love your hair, always have. And your body...well it's very nice too."
Zoe smiled.
"Well, thank you, I guess. I'm glad to know my brother likes my hair... and my ass."
"Whoa! I didn't say I like your ass, I said I like your body!"
"So you like my body?" Zoe asked as she cocked her head to the side.
Duncan felt his face turn bright red.
"I...," he began, not knowing what to say.
"So what part of my body did you mean exactly?" Zoe asked.
Duncan moved his mouth, but no sounds came out.
"That's okay, Duncan," Zoe said with a smirk on her face. "You can just think about your answer while I'm in the shower...washing my body."
"But...I...," Duncan began in vain as Zoe walked in the bathroom and closed the door behind herself. "Goddammit."
***
Duncan suddenly found himself wallowing in a field of strawberries. Not an actual field of strawberry plants, but a field where the ground was literally covered in nothing but strawberries. The sweet aroma was beautiful and overpowering. Then, from out of nowhere, his lover sidled up beside him. She was a faceless woman, but not in a creepy way. Nonetheless, she was lovely and enticing. Strangely, she laid her body perpendicularly across his. Then, she reached over and started stroking his hand lovingly. Duncan let out a soft moan and gently started caressing her back with his other hand.
"Duncan?" the girl said softly to him.
"Mmmm," he replied simply.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
The question didn't fully register with him, so he just kept rubbing her back.
"Earth to Duncan!" his lover said, this time with much more force.
Duncan's eyes popped open, and a wall of brown curly hair filled his vision.
"What's going on?" he mumbled dazedly.
"That's what I'd like to know," his sister said as she leaned across his body.
"Zoe!?" Duncan exclaimed.
"The one and only," she replied.
"What are you doing!?"
"I thought you were asleep, so I was leaning across you to get the remote out of your hand so I could turn off the T.V. Although...I probably would have just walked around the bed to get it from the other side if I would've known you'd start caressing me."
"Wha...I did what!?"
"It's fine, Duncan. You were just lightly running your hand across my back. I know you were out of it, so don't worry about it. Kind of felt good, actually."
Duncan rubbed his eyes and shook his head back and forth. Zoe still hadn't gotten up. Instead she relaxed herself across his body, facing him, studying his face. The pressure of her weight on top of him actually felt kind of nice, Duncan thought.
"Sorry, Zoe. I was...I was just having this dream..."
"Oh yeah?" Zoe asked curiously. "Did it involve a girl?"
"Yeah...and strawberries. Lots and lots of strawberries."
Duncan sniffed the air.
"What's that smell?" he asked.
"Strawberries."
"You've got strawberries?"
"No, dummy. It's my shampoo."
"Oh," Duncan said as he turned his gaze to her hair. "It smells...really nice."
"Well, thank you," Zoe said as she grabbed a handful of her hair and brought it to her nose to smell for herself. "I guess the smell caused your strawberry dream, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess. And your body caused...well, the other part of my dream."
"And here you are talking about my body again," Zoe said with a smile.
"No...I didn't-"
"Oh, don't get all bent out of shape again, Duncan, I'm only teasing you."
Duncan's stomach was a flurry of weirdness, like some sort of emotional stew. He laid his head back on his pillow and shut his eyes, trying to block out all the awkwardness of the evening.
"Well, I guess I'll let you get back to your strawberry girlfriend," Zoe said as she lifted herself off the bed.
As she turned to walk back towards the bathroom, Duncan took immediate notice of what his sister was wearing, specifically on her lower body. He found himself staring at her spandex-clad butt. Her shorts were incredibly tight and very, very short, to the point where a sliver of butt cheek was just barely poking out the bottom on both sides.
"Wow," he muttered to himself.
"Wow, what?" Zoe replied, turning to face him again.
Duncan immediately darted his eyes up and away from the place where they had been, hoping desperately that Zoe hadn't turned around on time to see where he had been looking. Unfortunately, as his eyes traveled up, they landed instinctively on her breasts, which were covered in the thin, white material of her tight camisole. Duncan couldn't help but notice that her nipples were slightly protruding, and he could just barely make out the small, darkened areas under her shirt that were her areolae.
He quickly forced his eyes up even more, over-shooting her face and landing them on nothing in particular on the ceiling above her.
"Uhh...I just can't believe how tired I am," he said, answering her question in what he hoped was a believable and nonchalant way.
He could feel Zoe's eyes on his face, studying him intensely, but he dared not meet her gaze, knowing that she had the ability to read him like a book.
After what felt like centuries of silence to him, Zoe finally spoke.
"Yeah, I bet you are tired. Maybe tomorrow you'll let me do some of the driving so you can rest."
"Yeah, maybe," Duncan chuckled awkwardly, relief coursing through him at the apparent acceptance of his answer. He continued staring at the ceiling.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" Zoe asked.
"Oh, umm...," Duncan began, pointing at the plain ceiling that he was currently staring at. "Uh, I thought I, um, saw a roach."
Duncan chanced a look at Zoe, who was looking in the general area of where he was pointing. She looked around on the ceiling for a few seconds before turning her gaze back to Duncan.
"Hmm," she uttered. They looked at each other for just a moment longer, and then Zoe turned and went into the bathroom.
Duncan laid his head back on his pillow again and shut his eyes. That was when he felt a slight movement in his groin. He slid his hand under the covers and grabbed his penis, which was already well on its way to becoming erect. Images of his sister's tight little ass and shapely breasts floated effortlessly in his mind. He subtly ground his hips into the air and squeezed his cock firmly.
"No, Duncan!" he said out loud, releasing himself immediately and sitting up in the bed.
The bathroom door swung open and Zoe's head popped out.
"What's wrong?" she asked with a worried look.
Duncan's mind moved quickly and in a panic.
"Uhh...roach!" Duncan replied shakily. "I just saw it scurry behind the T.V.!"
Zoe glanced over at the television, then looked side-eyed back at Duncan.
"I think you need to get some sleep, bro," she said before going back into the bathroom.
Duncan laid back in bed and began admonishing himself for getting turned on while thinking about Zoe. What the hell was wrong with him? At no point in their lives had he ever thought about Zoe in any way other than a sister. Hell, he barely even thought of her as a female to begin with. But there was something about being in a motel room with her, smelling the scent of her shampoo, seeing her in her pajamas, that made their relationship feel way more intimate and personal than it had ever felt before.
Zoe walked out of the bathroom while she brushed her teeth and made her way over to her her bag. Duncan's eyes were glued to her as she walked across the room. He noticed the smoothness of her legs, the slight bounce of her chest, and of course the perfect roundness of her butt. When she got to her bag, she bent over and started rifling through it for something, giving Duncan a perfect view of her beautiful ass. With much effort, he kept his hands above the covers and away from his cock, which was as hard as it could be. She stayed in that position for a while, looking in her bag for Duncan didn't care what, giving him more than enough time to burn the image permanently into his brain. Then, after she had found whatever it was she had been looking for, she turned and went back into the bathroom, thankfully, Duncan thought, not noticing at all that he had been leering at her the whole time.
It was at that moment, unfortunately, that Duncan noticed he had to pee really bad. The reason it was unfortunate, of course, was because he was fully erect. and he was pretty sure Zoe would easily be able to spot that if he got up.
He tried thinking about other things, specifically non-sexual things, in an effort to get it to go down. First he thought about baseball, which reminded him of sports, which reminded him of volleyball, which reminded him of his sister's ass. Then he switched it up and tried to think about Zoe in the most unappealing way that he could. He remembered much earlier in the day, the way she tore into that fried chicken at K.F.C., and how gross it was. But really, though, he didn't find it gross at all, instead finding it strangely charming. Before he knew it, he was thinking about what it would be like to smear chicken grease all over her supple bottom.
When she came out of the bathroom, Duncan was still fully erect. His urge to urinate was also getting worse by the second, to the point where he knew he couldn't hold out much longer. Thankfully, Zoe simply put her toothbrush in the bag, turned out all the lights, and crawled into her bed.
A little bit of light peaked through the window, just enough so that Duncan was confident that, if she looked hard enough, Zoe might be able to make out his silhouetted erection. However, since he was about to burst, he had no choice but to take that chance. He threw the covers off of himself and got out of his bed in a way so that he kept his back to Zoe as much as possible. He kept his back to her still when he reached the bathroom, choosing to side step his way in rather than turn and walk through the doorway like a normal person. He was too scared that if he turned sideways that she would see it...in fact, knowing how observant she was, he was confident that she would have.
He stood in front of the toilet and, with effort, took his erection out of his shorts. But as badly as he had to pee, nothing was going to come out of him in the state that he was in. He stood there and imagined his urine, trapped at the edge of his urethra, unable to get around that sharp corner that was the base of his hard penis. He closed his eyes and pushed all thoughts and images out of his head, and, very slowly, felt his hard-on start to subside. Finally, after what felt like a solid minute or more, he was able to empty his bladder.
When he was done, since he was no longer hard, he was able to walk back to his bed normally, without any worry of Zoe seeing anything.
"What were you doing in there?" Zoe asked as he crawled into his bed.
"Uhh...peeing?"
"Yeah, but...you were in there a while before you started peeing, I could hear everything. What took you so long to get started?"
Duncan racked his brain in a panic, searching for any kind of believable response.
"Umm...I thought I saw-"
"A roach?" Zoe interrupted.
"Yeah," Duncan said in a defeated sort of way.
"Oh, okay. I understand. I get why that could make it very...hard...to get started peeing."
The way she emphasized the word "hard" sent a jolt through his body. She knew, he thought to himself. He decided not to respond and rolled over to face away from her, praying that the sweet relief of sleep would come over him soon and he could just forget everything about this night.
"Good night!" Zoe said sweetly in a sing-song manner. "Don't let the roaches bite!"
"Bitch", Duncan whispered quietly to himself.
***
The sunlight shone through the thin curtain of the motel room the next morning when Duncan woke up. It took his eyes a while to adjust to the brightness. When they did, he glanced over at Zoe's bed and saw that she was still fast asleep. He also saw that she had kicked the covers off of herself at some point in the night. She lay on her side facing away from Duncan, giving him another glorious view of her tush. Her shorts had ridden up higher in the night, exposing almost half of her ass. Duncan felt a distinct heat course through his chest and engulf his heart, which started suddenly beating faster. A rush of blood made it's way straight to his shaft, which was taking no time in stiffening.
"Nope, not again," Duncan whispered to himself. He immediately got himself out of bed, went into the bathroom, and turned on the shower.
Try as he might to stop them, images of his twin sister kept popping into his head while he showered. He thought about her toned, beautiful legs, and got hard. He closed his eyes and blocked out the images until his erection disappeared, then continued to wash himself. Then, her perky tits, of their own volition, appeared in his mind, and once again he had to shut his eyes tight and force the image out of his brain.
He grabbed Zoe's bottle of shampoo that was still on the shower ledge and squirted a moderate amount in his palm. The scent filled his nostrils, and immediately in his mind he saw Zoe from behind, her thick head of hair hanging halfway down her back. His eyes traveled just a smidge lower, and there it was, her perfect little ass. Only this time, he pictured what it would look like completely uncovered, smooth and firm and perfectly heart shaped.
That image was more than enough for Duncan to completely lose all self-control. He moved his hand, still filled with strawberry scented shampoo, and grasped his dick firmly. He leaned forward, propping himself up on the wall of the shower with his free hand, and pumped his cock wildly, all the while thinking about every inch of his twin sister's body. The images he manifested, coupled with the delicious scent of strawberries, made it so that, in what had to be record time for Duncan, he was shooting his cum all over the side of the shower.
As he finished, he leaned his back against the shower wall and slid down until he was sitting in the tub, the hot water falling in torrents on his torso. He was almost giddy with relief as he sat there smiling.
"Well...I hope I got that out of my system," he said aloud to himself, standing up to turn off the water.
When he slid the shower curtain back, he was met with the image of his naked reflection in the bathroom mirror. The steam from the shower just barely covered the top of the mirror. It would have covered more, but Duncan had purposely left the bathroom door partway open before he showered. He never much cared for the feeling of stepping out of a shower into a room where moisture hung densely around him, so leaving the bathroom door open was just something that he had always done.
As he stared at his naked reflection, his horniness completely gone for the moment, he glanced down at his penis. He took his hand and just barely flicked it up, watching it comically jump up and fall back into place. He did it again, this time a little harder. Once again, it was flung up into the air, and then returned limply back into place.
Duncan moved his hips from side to side, causing his flaccid penis to be wildly flung back and forth. Each time it reached one side of his body, a loud, wet slapping noise filled the bathroom. Duncan continued this motion for a while until he was satisfied.
"Heh," he laughed lightly to himself. He wondered if other guys ever did this. He figured they must. There was no way he was the only guy in the world who had ever played tricks with his penis.
"And now, for my final trick," he said quietly out loud, "the helicopter."
Duncan began swiftly rotating his hips around and around, and soon enough, his dick followed suit with the motion. Before he knew it, it was twirling around and around in a counter-clockwise direction. Duncan watched himself in the mirror with a huge grin, very pleased with the rotation he was getting this morning.
"Woooh!", he said aloud, cheering himself on as he moved his hips faster and faster with each passing second. He looked down and watched as the head of his penis came in and out of view several times a second. But then, when he looked back up into the mirror, a feeling of terror coursed through his body.
There, through the gap in the partially opened door, stood Zoe, looking utterly appalled as she watched Duncan in the mirror.
"Oh god!" Duncan cried out, immediately making his hips stationary.
"Uhh..." Zoe began, "I'm just gonna pack and meet you in the car." She hurriedly turned around, and the sounds of her hastily throwing things in her bag met Duncan's ears. In a matter of seconds, he heard the door open and shut with a loud, rapid thud.
Duncan slowly turned his head around and met his own eyes in the mirror, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. He stood frozen for several moments, completely unable to move.
"How do I come back from that one?" he asked himself aloud.
He slowly brushed his teeth, got dressed, and packed his bag, not in any kind of hurry to face his sister. He left the room and carried his bag with him to the front desk, making sure they didn't need anything more from him for check-out purposes.
Finally, when there was nothing more for Duncan to do but go to the car, he slowly trudged across the parking lot, dreading the ensuing awkwardness. The car was parked in a way such that Duncan walked up on it from behind, which was good because it meant that he didn't have to make, or avoid making, eye contact with Zoe before he got in.
He opened the back door behind his seat and threw his bag inside. Then, he opened the driver's side door and sat down. He kept his eyes straight ahead for as long as he could, the two of them just sitting in the car and not saying anything. Finally, because he knew it was inevitable, he took a deep breath and slowly turned his head around to look at Zoe.
She, too, was staring straight ahead, trying not to look at Duncan. Possibly feeling his eyes on her, she slowly cut her eyes sideways and looked right at his face. Almost instantly, as if she simply couldn't hold it in any longer, she burst into an enormous fit of laughter.
At first, Duncan felt pretty pissed that she was laughing her ass off while he just sat there feeling like a fool. But eventually, seeing no alternative, he joined in with her laughter. They sat in the car for several minutes, the two of them roaring uncontrollably with laughter.
When they finally started to get themselves together enough to cease laughing, it was Zoe who spoke first.
"Duncan," she said, placing one hand on his thigh and looking him dead in the eye, "what the HELL was that!?"
"I...I call it the helicopter," he said meekly.
That was enough to send Zoe into another fit of giggles. Tears flowed from her eyes, and it was several more minutes before she was finally able to calm down.
"How long were standing there, anyway?" Duncan asked. "And...why were you standing there!?"
"I had just walked up when you looked up and saw me in the mirror, I swear. I heard a weird slapping noise coming from the bathroom, and...I don't know, I was just curious as to what you were doing. I never dreamed in a million years, though, that I would have seen THAT!"
Duncan sighed loudly.
"Well...that's officially the worst moment of my life up to this point, I think," he said aloud.
Zoe moved her hand up and down his thigh in a loving sort of way.
"Aww, don't feel bad. It could have been a lot worse. You could have been...well, you know."
She mimed a motion of pumping an imaginary cock with her fist.
"Ugh...yeah, I suppose," Duncan relented.
"So, uhh...what other tricks can you do with it?" she asked curiously.
"Oh stop! Just leave me alone!"
"No, seriously Duncan! It seems like a lot of fun, having one of those things. I bet you can do all kinds of things with it."
Duncan looked skeptically over at Zoe, but from what he saw, she seemed sincere in her curiosity.
"Well," he began, "I don't know...sometime, in the shower, I'll...you know that metal bar that's in most showers? The one that people can grab on to if they are laying in the tub and need a little help hoisting themselves up?"
"Yeah..." Zoe said slowly.
"Well anyway, sometimes I'll...this is hard to explain. I'll wrap myself around it, you know, like slide it through the back. Then I'll wrap it around the bar completely and connect with myself back where I started."
Duncan looked at Zoe, seeing the familiar face of dismay that he had just seen in the mirror moments prior in the motel room.
"Oh no, I've said too much," Duncan said.
Zoe's face instantly changed back to a smile.
"I'm just messing with you, Duncan! That's...well, that's really something. You know, I bet loads of people would pay good money to see all these cool things you can do with your penis!"
"Oh, be quiet," Duncan said with an eye roll.
"That is quite impressive, though," she said.
"What is?"
"I don't know...you can wrap it all the way around that bar. I wonder if all guys have the...length for something like that."
Duncan felt himself turning a little red.
"Oh, um...yeah I don't know," he said, feeling a weird sense of pride in her comment.
He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
"So," Duncan began, "got any crazy places you wanna stop at today? Maybe one of those roadside flea rodeos?"
"Maybe, if we see one!" Zoe replied. "Really, we can just drive and see what comes up. Are we going through Kansas City though?"
"Yeah, we should be there in a few hours. Why?"
"I want ribs."
"Ribs?"
"Yeah. Isn't Kansas City known for ribs? I feel like that's a thing."
"I think so. So...that fried chicken yesterday wasn't just a one time thing then, was it?"
"Nope."
"Trying to make up for lost time with your meat eating?"
"Yep!"
A few minutes later, as they drove, Duncan heard Zoe sniffing.
"Did you use my shampoo this morning?" Zoe asked, leaning over to Duncan to smell his hair.
"Oh, umm...yeah I did. Hope that's alright."
"But, your hair doesn't smell like shampoo."
"Umm, well I only used just a tiny bit."
"But I smell it very strongly."
"Maybe it's your hair. You did use it yourself last night."
Zoe grabbed a handful of her hair and brought it up right on her face to smell it.
"No, it's worn off of me."
"Hmm...interesting," Duncan said, hoping she would just drop it.
"But if I don't smell it in your hair, and I don't smell it in my hair, then where is the smell coming from?"
"Oh!" Duncan said, thinking of what he though was a perfect way to explain it. "You know what, I packed it in my bag this morning, and my bag is in the back seat. That must be why you smell it."
"Yeah, maybe," Zoe said. Duncan looked over at her briefly and thought that he saw her glance down at his crotch.
"So," he began, trying to change the subject, "how 'bout some breakfast?"
"Nah," Zoe said, "I think I wanna just save room for ribs."
"Okay then," he replied. Several minutes passed in silence, and Duncan found himself thankful that she didn't seem to want to pursue the shampoo mystery any further.
When they got close to Kansas City, Zoe did a little research on the best places to get ribs. When she found a place with great reviews, she typed it into Google Maps and helped Duncan navigate to it.
The ribs turned out excellent. Of course, as hungry as he was when they got there, Duncan figured he probably could have been served a plate of pencil shavings and been thankful for it.
As good as the ribs were, and as much as he was into his meal, he couldn't help but keep a great deal of his focus on his sister as she sat across from him. He found himself several times staring at her as she ate. It was a weird thing to think at the moment, since her face was covered with barbeque sauce and rib meat was stuck in between her teeth, but he found her simply breathtaking. He wasn't even thinking about all her body parts that he had secretly spied on the night before. He was just, for whatever reason, all of a sudden very intrigued by her face. He thought that she might have been the most beautiful girl that he had ever known in real life.
All of a sudden, Zoe glanced up at Duncan and noticed him looking at her.
"What!?" she asked with a mouthful of meat.
"Nothin'," Duncan replied.
"What are you looking at?" she asked again.
"It's nothing."
She swallowed her bite and turned her attention back on him.
"Tell me!"
"It'll sound stupid and corny."
"Tell me!" she whined.
"I'm just...I'm really happy we took this trip together. I've really enjoyed spending time with you, even all the awkward bits. And I don't know how much we're going to actually get to see each other this semester, but I just want you to know that this trip has meant a lot to me so far. And...I love you."
"Aww," she said, dropping her rib bone on her plate and extending her hand across the table. She brought her hand up to the side of his face and lightly ran her fingers across his cheek. "I love you too, Duncan."
"You just got meat grease all over my cheek, didn't you?" he asked.
"Yeah, sorry."
"It's okay."
"And I'm really happy we took this trip, too. I honestly don't know if I could have even taken it without you."
"Yeah, a cross country road trip is much less fun by yourself."
"No, what I mean is...if you hadn't gotten your scholarship too, I might not have gone to Clemson at all."
"Really?"
"Well, yeah! I mean, being away from you for four years? You're kinda important to me, dude. Almost like a twin or something."
Duncan chuckled at her lame joke.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing that I got that letter in the mail," he said.
"Certainly is. Oh, and about you not knowing how much of each other we are going to be seeing this semester? You better make an effort to see me every single day."
"Haha, deal."
Zoe smiled and returned to her meal. Duncan just sat there and watched her eat some more.
"You gonna eat any more?" Zoe asked, noticing that he was still looking at her.
"Eh, I've pretty much finished."
"But you've still got a little bit of meat left on your rib bones."
Duncan looked down at his plate. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't any more meat left on the bones that was worthy of him trying to eat. As he stared down at his plate, Zoe's hand came into view, grabbed the edge of the plate, and slid it away from him.
"What are you doing?" he asked her as she picked up one of his rib bones.
"Cleaning your bones for you," she replied simply, inserting half the bone into her mouth and sucking on it loudly. Duncan watched in awe as she removed bits of meat that he didn't even notice he had left in the first place.
"You just like watching me suck on these rib bones, don't you Duncan?" she asked slyly.
God help me, I do, Duncan thought to himself.
"You know," Duncan began, "I think I'll give you a few minutes of privacy. I'm going to the bathroom to wash up."
"Mm-kay," she replied as she continued sucking Duncan's bones.
"Please don't choke while I'm gone," he said to her.
She raised her greasy middle finger off of the rib bone that she had clutched in her fist and pointed it in Duncan's general direction. He smiled and left her to finish her meal in peace.
***
They drove several more hours that day, making it all the way to the most southeastern tip of Missouri. At dusk, they started looking for a place to stop and sleep, settling for another cheap looking hotel, similar to the one from the night before.
At the check-in desk, the clerk informed them that the only rooms they had available were ones with a single, queen sized bed.
"You mean all your rooms with two beds are booked solid?" Duncan asked. "But there are hardly any cars in the parking lot!"
"Don't know what to tell ya', son," the man said. "We just ain't got no rooms that you're lookin' for."
"You don't have rooms with two beds?"
"Yeah, we gottem', we just ain't got none available."
"Well, why not?"
"Bed bugs."
"Oh god!"
"Now, don't worry...they only found them in the rooms with two beds on the other side of the motel. This side here, the side with the queen beds, they ain't found a single one of 'em."
"You're sure?" Duncan asked skeptically.
The man just shrugged.
"That's what that exterminator guy said."
Duncan turned to Zoe.
"You wanna keep driving until we find a different place?" he asked her.
"Heh, you'll be driving a while, I promise you that," the clerk chimed in. "Ain't nowhere else to stay within fifty miles of here, no matter what way you're traveling."
"It's fine, Duncan," Zoe said, placing a hand lightly on his arm. "I believe him, I'm sure the rooms are fine."
"Yeah, see?" the clerk said. "You're girlfriend's got the right idea there."
"She's my sister," Duncan said impatiently.
"Oh, well that explains why you wanted two beds then, I guess. Although 'round these parts...well, never mind."
Duncan sighed loudly.
"Alright fine, we'll take a room," he told the clerk.
"Good choice, son."
After paying, Duncan and Zoe turned to leave the office.
"Oh, and one more thing," the man called out to them just before they went out the door. "Some folks has said before they seen a haint in that room that you're staying in. Now, I don't know if it's true, but...well, just be on the lookout, I guess."
Duncan and Zoe glanced at each other, each one seeing the mirror image of complete confusion on the other's face.
"Uhhhhhh...okay then," Duncan said. "We'll be on the lookout for...that."
"What the fuck is a 'haint'?" Zoe asked as they left the office and walked towards their room.
"No idea, just some crazy shit he probably made up."
The room didn't turn out to be as sleazy as Duncan had feared. It was about on par with the one they had slept in the night before, so Duncan was satisfied. Just like they had done the night before, Zoe gave Duncan a few minutes to use the bathroom first before she got in there and started taking a shower.
This time, after Duncan had brushed his teeth and used the bathroom, he gave no hesitation in removing his shirt before crawling into bed. Zoe had been laying on her side of the bed reading a book while Duncan was in the bathroom, but Duncan noticed that she turned her gaze towards him when he took his shirt off.
"What?" Duncan asked her as she stared unabashed at his body.
"Nothing," she said with a grin, closing her book and getting out of bed.
Duncan crawled under the covers, making sure to leave plenty of room on Zoe's side for her.
"Is this gonna be weird?" he asked as Zoe rummaged through her bag.
"What?"
"Sharing a bed."
"No, I don't think so. Why should it be?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think it's gonna be weird because you got hard seeing me in my pajamas last night?" she asked bluntly.
"I...wha...nuh-uh!" Duncan retorted.
"Ha!" she replied, turning to look at him again. "I know you were looking at me! I could feel your eyes on me everywhere I went in the room last night. And I also know you were hard when you got up to pee, and that's why it took you so long!"
"I...wha...nuh-uh!" Duncan retorted.
"It's really no big deal, you don't have to feel bad about it. I actually don't mind in the slightest. It's kind of a compliment, I guess. You're just appreciating my body."
"I...," Duncan began again. "Wait...really?"
Zoe just shrugged.
"Sure," she said. "You can look at me all you want. Heck, I just checked you out myself. It doesn't have to be a big deal."
"But, isn't it a big deal?"
"Why?"
"We're twins!" Duncan exclaimed.
"So?"
"We shouldn't be looking at each other like that!"
"Okay, well then don't look."
Zoe grabbed her things and went into the bathroom, leaving Duncan lying in bed in a state of mild shock.
"So she doesn't mind me looking at her body?" he asked himself aloud.
"Nope!" he heard her call from the bathroom right before turning on the shower.
"Huh," he said to himself, settling down into the surprisingly comfy bed.
As Zoe showered, Duncan grabbed her book and started reading it.
"Well this sucks," he said, tossing it aside after reading ten words.
He felt antsy waiting for Zoe to get out of the shower. He didn't really feel like watching T.V., so he just lay there, thinking more about the unique turn of events. Now that he had her express permission to look, he found himself greatly looking forward to watching her move around the room, an event that had brought him much angst and confusion the night before.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the bathroom door opened and out came Zoe, wearing the same exact shorts and camisole as she had been wearing the night before.
"What took you so long?" Duncan asked.
"Why?" Zoe responded. "You miss me?"
"Well..." Duncan said, trailing off.
Duncan watched again as Zoe finished getting ready for bed. He wasn't sure, but it felt like she was purposely giving him opportunities to look as her ass, as she kept finding reasons to bend over facing away from him.
"Have you always worn those shorts as pajamas?" Duncan asked her mildly.
"Yep," she responded.
"How come I never noticed?"
"Well, I mostly just wore them in my bedroom right before I went to sleep."
"Oh."
"They're actually my volleyball shorts from when I first started playing in middle school. As you can probably tell, I think I may have outgrown them a tad."
"Yeah maybe," Duncan said, still staring. He had already become fully erect again, just like the night before. He was being very careful, however, to keep his hands above the covers. Even though she explicitly told him that he could look at her, he wasn't sure how she would feel about him toying with himself over her, nor did he really want to find out at the moment.
Zoe grabbed her toothbrush and slowly walked back to the bathroom. Instead of going in, however, she stopped in the doorway and leaned against it, turned so that she was facing away from Duncan while she brushed her teeth. Duncan soaked in the perfection that was her butt, wishing desperately that he could just grab his cock on rub one out real quick. As much as he was enjoying their new understanding, however, the downside was that it was making him hornier than he had ever felt before, and he wasn't sure what he would be able to do to alleviate the feeling.
Eventually, Zoe went into the bathroom to spit the toothpaste out of her mouth and rinse. One last time, Duncan watched as she exited the bathroom and walked back over to her bag, her movements smooth and purposeful. Then she walked over to the lamp and turned it off, leaving them in almost total darkness.
As she crawled into bed, the smell of strawberries wafted its way over to Duncan. He closed his eyes and sucked the smell in deeply.
"So...you get hard again tonight?" Zoe asked bluntly.
"No," Duncan replied defiantly.
Suddenly, Zoe reached over and quickly started patting around in the general area of his crotch. Before he could react and turn himself away, her hand just barely bumped up against his raging erection.
"Ha!" she said in triumph. "You liar."
Duncan turned himself over flat onto his stomach.
"Whatever," he said, the word sounding muffled due to his face being buried in his pillow.
"Again," she said, "it's okay. I'm a girl, you're a guy. It's only natural."
"Mmmpf," he said.
"Do you need to go into the bathroom real quick and, you know...take care of yourself?" she asked.
"Oh my god," he said. "I seriously don't see how I could do that right now."
"Why not? Won't it help?"
"I'm sure it would, but...with you out here, knowing what I'm doing in there...I just think that's a little much."
"Well, I just did it," she said.
Duncan turned himself over to face her, even though he couldn't actually see her face at all.
"You did!?" he asked. "When!?"
"When I was in the shower, duh," she said.
"Wow..." he responded. "What did ya' think about?"
"I'm not telling you that!" she replied.
"Ugh, fine," he said.
"So if I can go in there and do it," she continued, "why can't you?"
"Nah, that's different," Duncan said.
"How so?"
"When you did it, I had no idea what you were doing in there. But if I go in there and do it, you'll know exactly what I'm doing. See what I mean?"
"Hmm...fair point."
"So, I'm just gonna have to live with being horny for the night, then."
They didn't speak for a few moments. Just when Duncan had figured Zoe had fallen asleep, she spoke again.
"Turn over on your stomach," she said.
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
Duncan turned over, driving his hard cock into the mattress, not knowing at all what Zoe had planned.
She scooted just a little bit closer to his side of the bed, and then, much to his surprise, he felt her fingertips graze his bare back.
At first he flinched, causing her to quickly take her hand away.
"Oh, sorry!" she said, a slight hurt in her voice. "I thought that-"
"Oh, no!" Duncan interrupted. "I only jumped because you startled me. You...you can do that. I mean...I'd like it."
"Okay," she said softly, returning her hand to his back.
She started at the top of his back and used all of her fingers to lightly trace all the way down to the waistband of his shorts. Then, she turned her fingers so that her fingernails were touching his skin, and retraced her path back up his back.
Duncan immediately felt relaxed and soothed, her touch sending a warm tingling sensation coursing all over his body. She continued to trace lightly over every inch of his back for the next several minutes before curiosity got the best of him.
"So, not that I'm complaining," he began, "but why are you doing this for me?"
Zoe didn't respond for a few moments.
"I dunno," she said softly after a while. "I just thought it'd make you feel better and take your mind off your...situation."
"Oh."
"Is it working?"
"Yes."
"Good."
He felt her fingers travel up to the back of his neck and spend some time there, and that quickly became Duncan's new favorite spot. She ran her fingers underneath his hair and started lightly scratching his scalp.
"I know we've talked about this before," Zoe said, "but I've always been jealous of your hair."
Duncan turned his face towards her, staying on his back.
"And as I've said before," Duncan said, "I've always been jealous of your hair. Hell, I've always been jealous of...well, most things when it comes to you."
"Wait, what?" she said, temporarily stopping her petting of him.
"I mean, nothing extreme, and certainly nothing that ever made me feel angry or upset at you. But...yeah, you've always been kind of this model of perfection. Perfect grades, star athlete, and everybody loves you."
"But your grades are good too! I just applied myself a little more."
"I know, and again, I'm not trying to make you feel bad for being good at things. I realize that I chose not try as hard in school as you did, and that I chose to quit baseball my freshman year of high school, and I choose to smart off to Mom and Dad. Looking back on it all now, I guess that I wish I had followed your lead a little more."
Zoe didn't say anything for a moment, then resumed scratching his back.
"Well, I think you are pretty great yourself," she said finally. "Wouldn't change a thing. And for the record, there are some things about you that I've always been jealous of."
"Really? I find that hard to believe."
"It's true. Like, how brave you are and how you have no problems standing up to anyone. Duncan, I ate a vegan diet from the time that I was 13 all the way up to a couple of days ago, and it wasn't because I loved eating like that. I just have this innate desire to please people, particularly our parents. I never once cheated on that diet, and believe me, there were many opportunities to do so."
"Yeah, but that just shows your dedication and self-control!"
"No, it's more about me not wanting to disappoint Mom. I should have stood up for myself like you did and told her that I didn't want to eat like that."
"I never knew you felt that way about it, Zoe."
"Yeah, well...I did."
"It's funny," Duncan started. "Here we are trying to convince the other one that they are better than us. I guess it's pretty cool that we both see the best in each other."
Zoe scooted up right beside Duncan, facing him and laying her head on his pillow. She propped her leg up on his back and wrapped her arm around him.
"I think so too," she said softly, lightly tracing circles around his shoulder. Then, in not time at all, they were both asleep.
***
Duncan woke up and realized three things in succession.
One: it was still night time. He came to this conclusion based on the fact that the room was still dark.
He had always prided himself on his potential to be a detective.
Two: he had to pee. It wasn't an overwhelming need to pee, like it had been the night before, but just enough to where if he ignored it, he'd just keep waking up over and over until he took care of the urge.
The problem was, and this was the third thing that he noticed, he was, just like had been the case the night before, fully erect. And not only was he fully erect, but at some point in the night he and Zoe had shifted their bodies around to where he was spooning her, and his dick was pressed firmly up against her ass.
At first he just laid there and listened, looking for any kind of sign that Zoe might be awake. After a minute or so of listening to her very consistent breathing, he determined that she was asleep. So now it was just a matter of moving carefully enough so that he didn't wake her. Their relationship was changing, that was for sure, but he still didn't think either one of them were ready for his penis to be wedged in between her butt cheeks like it was.
Her round, squishy butt cheeks.
In one swift motion, he rolled away from her and popped up out of bed. He turned back around to face her after he stood up, staying perfectly still and listening for any indication that he woke her up. Satisfied that she was still asleep, he made his way to the bathroom.
"Goddammit," he said to himself with an eye roll as he stood in front of the toilet with an erection. Once again, he closed his eyes and pushed all thoughts of anything sexy, or really anything at all, and focused on picturing his urine sitting right at the edge of a blocked hose, and he just had to unkink it.
The sound of Zoe shrieking in terror from the other room interrupted his thought process. In a flash, he folded his erection back up into his shorts and ran back into the bedroom.
"Zoe!?" he cried out as he ran towards the light switch by the door. "What the hell is it!?"
He turned on the light to find Zoe lying in the bed with everything but her terrified eyes hidden under the covers.
"Where did he go!?" she asked in a panic.
"Who?"
"There was a man!"
Duncan looked around the room for any sign of an intruder. The door was still locked with a bold and a chain lock. He quickly searched every crevice and closet in the room, finding no sign of anyone.
He returned to the bed and sat down gently beside Zoe.
"Tell me what happened," he said softly.
She pulled the covers down so that her whole face was showing. She looked pale and petrified.
"I woke up, felt around in the bed, and noticed that you weren't there. Then I rolled over on my back, and I saw a figure standing at the foot of the bed looking at me. I figured it was you, and just as I was about to ask what you were doing, I heard the sound of you raising the toilet seat in the bathroom. Then, I screamed."
Duncan approached his next question very carefully.
"Do you think it's possible that you were dreaming? Or that maybe the shadows played a trick with your eyes?"
"Nope," she said matter-of-factly. "There was a figure. A head, shoulders, arms, legs...all of it."
Duncan decided not to go against her on this one, figuring no good would come out of telling her that she didn't see what she clearly knew she saw.
"You wanna sleep with the lights on?" he asked soothingly as he rubs the bulge under the blanket that was her arm.
"Nuh-uh," she said. "What time is it?"
Duncan checked the clock on the nightstand by the bed.
"Almost 4:00," he responded.
"Can we just leave please?"
"Absolutely," he said without hesitation.
Zoe stayed right by Duncan's side as they gathered their things. He asked her if she wanted to take a shower, promising that he would stay in the bathroom with her and turn his back so he couldn't see anything. She agreed, feeling like a hot shower might make her feel better. Duncan stood in the doorway and faced the other direction as Zoe got undressed and hopped in the tub, figuring now was definitely not the time to steal glances of her body.
"You mind if I pee real quick?" he asked her after she had fully gotten settled in the shower. There was a thick shower curtain that prevented him from seeing anything at all.
"Go ahead," she said.
He peed, and then returned to his position in the doorway.
"Are you okay, Zoe?"
She didn't say anything for a moment. The smell of strawberries filled the bathroom, and even despite the past twenty minutes or so, it still gave Duncan butterflies in his stomach.
"Yeah, I think I'm feeling better," she said, "now that I know it wasn't a real person or anything."
"Oh, so you think it was a dream or something?" Duncan asked.
"Oh, no, it was definitely a ghost," she said simply.
"Uhhhh...come again?" Duncan said.
"It was a ghost for sure. How else would he have gotten in here?"
The hairs stood up on the back of Duncan's neck as he thought about the possibility of a ghostly man standing at the foot of their bed, watching them as they slept. Then he came to his senses.
"There's no such thing as ghosts, Zoe," he said.
"Well then how come I saw one?" she asked.
"We don't know that-"
"Trust me on this one Duncan, I know what I saw."
He decided not to fight her on it anymore. He could tell that she felt very strongly about the conclusion she had come to, and he didn't feel the need to tell her otherwise.
"Okay, I'm ready to get out now," she said to him. "Is your back turned?"
"Yep," he assured her.
"You're not lying are you? Not trying to take advantage of a wet naked girl in a vulnerable state?"
"Perish the thought," he said dryly.
Zoe got out of the shower, dried herself off, and got dressed. They finished their packing, again with Zoe never leaving Duncan's side, gathered their bags, and walked out of the room into the dark morning.
"I guess I'll go let them know that we're leaving early," Duncan said. "You wanna just meet me in the car?"
Zoe locked her arm around his and held him tightly.
"Nope," she said.
"I'm sure the ghost won't follow you to the car, Zoe. You'll be fine. There's no way this decision could ever come back to haunt you."
A sharp pinch on his bicep caused Duncan to yelp in pain.
"There will be no more ghost jokes, brother," Zoe said dangerously. "Understand?"
"Yes ma'am," Duncan said with a sly grin on his face.
"Now walk me to the front desk, please," she said.
When they entered the office of the receptionist, the same man was sitting there from the night before.
"Leaving so soon?" he asked as he saw them enter.
"Yeah, we're just trying to get an early start," Duncan replied. "We've got a lot of driving ahead of us."
"Alright, I hear ya'," the man said. "You ain't see that haint now, did ya'?"
"Sir?" Zoe asked. "What is a haint?"
"A spirit!" he replied. "A specter! A wraith! An apparition!"
"A ghost!?" Zoe asked.
"Well, that's one word for it, I suppose," the man replied.
Zoe turned to look at her brother with a shit-eating grin on her face.
"Told ya'!" she said in a voice that sounded way to chipper for someone who believed they had just seen a ghost.
"So you seen it then!?" the man asked excitedly.
"Yep!" Zoe responded, "and someone doesn't believe me."
The man glanced up at Duncan and smiled.
"She saw it son, trust me. I've done heard way too many people talk about how they seen it for it to be fake."
They checked out of their room and made their way back to their car.
"I'm sorry if I didn't believe you," Duncan said as he started the car, "and I'm sorry I made fun of you."
Zoe patted his leg and smiled.
"That's okay!" she said sweetly. "If our positions had been reversed, I'm sure I would have had the same reaction that you did."
"So are you feeling better then?" Duncan asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Zoe responded. "I guess you could say that getting confirmation about what I saw really raised my spirits."
"Well I'm glad to hear-" Duncan began before stopping abruptly. He looked sideways at Zoe and saw that she was wearing a very silly grin on her face.
"It raised your spirits, huh?" Duncan asked dryly. "Really?"
Zoe burst out laughing at her own corny joke.
"So you can make ghost jokes, but I can't?" Duncan asked.
"Correct," Zoe said, stopping her laughter immediately.
They got on the road and continued to head east. They were about an hour away from Tennessee.
"Uggggghhhhhh," Duncan sighed loudly.
"You good?" Zoe asked.
"Sleepy," he said.
"Oh, well why didn't you say so? Pull over and let me drive."
"No."
"Why not?!"
"Because it's bad enough that you consistently drive 15 or more miles per hour under the speed limit, but doing that at night would be even more dangerous. Someone could easily be speeding along and then crash into us from behind because of how slow you're driving."
"And how fast they would be driving," Zoe added.
"True, but we can't control what other people do. All we can do is put ourselves in the best situation not to be affected by their decisions."
"And that means you driving while you are about to fall asleep?" Zoe asked.
"Exactly."
"Well, we're going to need to think of something to do to help you stay awake then."
"Just stay up and talk to me," Duncan suggested.
"Eh, I'm not that interesting," Zoe said. "Ooh! I've got an idea! How about I sing to you?"
"No!" Duncan responded immediately.
He looked over at Zoe and, even with how dark it was, could tell she was staring daggers at him.
"Alright, fine," she said testily. "How 'bout a game? Like 'I spy'?"
"I spy?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay," Duncan said, "I'll go first. I spy something black."
Zoe paused for a moment to think.
"Umm...is it the dead of night?"
"You guessed it!"
"Okay fine," Zoe said, "that wasn't the best idea of a game to play when it's dark out."
"It's okay, Zoe, really. I'll be fine."
They got quiet for a little while. Duncan took to slapping himself lightly in his face, hoping that would do the trick. When Zoe didn't speak for a bit, he figured she had dozed off.
Then, all of a sudden, while he stared dazedly ahead at the road, he felt her push a couple of her fingers under his nose.
"Zoe, what the hell are you-HOLY FUCK!"
The most wonderful smell Duncan had ever encountered entered his nostrils. A beautiful earthy, sweet, and slightly sour smell. It was a smell that, although he didn't know why, caused his blood to start coursing furiously throughout his body.
"Zoe," Duncan began slowly as she took her hand away, "what did I just smell?"
"My vagina," she said simply.
"Fuuuuuuuck," he uttered slowly, collapsing forward onto the steering wheel as he drove, breathing more rapidly than before.
"You like it?" she asked.
If she could have seen the enormous bulge in his shorts, she wouldn't have had to ask that, he thought.
"Honestly," he began, "that is the probably the nicest thing I have ever smelled in my entire life."
"Oh, well...thank you!" she said sincerely.
"And, not that I'm complaining," Duncan began, "but...why?"
"Are you still sleepy?"
"Not after that I'm not!" he exclaimed.
"Well then that's why," she said simply. "And you're welcome."
Duncan was indeed very alert after that interaction. They drove along in silence for a while, and even though Duncan wasn't remotely sleepy anymore, he found himself craving more of Zoe's scent. He purposefully took a deep, yawning breath and slowly released it.
"Sleepy again?" he heard her ask.
"Oh, just a little bit," Duncan replied, trying not to be super obvious.
Zoe didn't say anything, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw her slightly recline her seat back. With one eye on the road, he watched in the dark car as she slid her hand up the leg of her shorts. He listened closely and thought he distinctly heard a slight sloshing noise as he watched Zoe move her hand around inside her shorts. Then, after a few seconds, she brought her hand out and, once again, placed two fingers underneath Duncan's nose.
"Dear god," he moaned. "You are, like, the best sister that anyone has ever had, Zoe."
"Ha!," she laughed as she pulled her hand away. "I think someone could argue that this makes me the worst, actually."
"They'd be fools if they did," he said. "Seriously, you should bottle that and sell it."
"That's kinda gross, dude."
"Nuh-uh. I'd pay like twenty bucks for a tiny bottle of that."
"Twenty bucks!?" Zoe said, sounding slightly offended. "That's it?"
"Okay, more like 50,000 then," Duncan corrected.
"That's better," she said.
As he drove, Zoe reached over and prodded his shorts with one finger, lightly poking his stiff erection.
"Figured as much," she said aloud, returning her hand to her lap.
"Well, I had no chance after what you just did to me," Duncan said.
"That's true, I guess you didn't," Zoe agreed. "You should really take care of that, you know. It's gotta be frustrating."
"Like you wouldn't believe."
"How 'bout tonight," she said, "wherever we stop to sleep, I go wait in the car for a while and give you time to do what you need to do."
"At this point," Duncan began, "a 'while' could probably just mean you run out to the car and get your bag, then come immediately back into the room. I'd be done and asleep by the time you did that."
"That bad?"
"Yep," he said.
"Hmm...well this could be an interesting day then."
"What do ya' mean by that?" he asked.
"Oh nothing," she said coyly, not saying anything else on the matter.
In no time at all they were in Tennessee. They faced a beautiful orangey-pink sunrise as they drove. Duncan was still perfectly alert, and gave his permission to Zoe to take a nap while he continued driving, which she took him up on. About an hour and a half later, she woke up.
"Hungry!" she exclaimed.
"Hungry," Duncan agreed.
"Pancakes?" she asked hopefully.
"Pancakes," Duncan agreed.
They found a local breakfast place a few miles down the road. They ordered a stack each of fluffy, hot pancakes with real maple syrup. Duncan ordered a side of sausage links and gave Zoe half, and Zoe ordered a side of bacon strips and did not give Duncan half.
"Can we not spend all day in the car again?" Zoe asked as she dipped a piece of bacon rolled up in a pancake into her syrup.
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