Bond

I was standing in front of our new house, hands in my pockets, gaze fixed onto this ridiculously spacious, old-fashioned porch my parents always wanted to have. And now here it is. Every detail I focused on looked so flawless and expensive, which was exactly what father and mother always claimed to desire the most. Perfection on the outside, great jealousy from the rest of the world. Or our neighbors, in this case. I personally didn’t give much attention to that (or anything that concerned others), but indeed this house was truly wonderful. Without question.
But what was absolutely best about our new mansion was its location. We could stare at this huge lake everyone in the town bathed in, and it took just few minutes from our front door to get to the shore. As far as I knew, no other house in the area was situated like this, everyone had to take their time getting close enough to the crystal water of the lake. Except us, that is.
As I mentioned before, It wasn’t that big of a deal for me or my sister, but it was probably one of the most important reasons why our parents picked this house, paying enormous price like it was nothing to worry about. Truth to be said, we surely wasn’t a poor family, and I can’t accuse my mother of not being reasonable ‘wasting’ so much money. She knew exactly how much she can spend (and it wasn’t a number, but an amount of her smiles to my father so he will do as she pleases) to have everything and live an easy life without concerns.
I shook my head and took bags from the ground.
‘Serah!’ I shouted to my sister, breaking this unnerving silence. She was staring in awe at the lake, her eyes wide and full of happiness. I noticed that she was continuously pinching her slender hand as if making sure she’s not dreaming, which made me chuckle a bit.
‘ Serah, it’s gettin’ late and I’m sure that you’ll have plenty of time to stare at OUR house tomorrow, cmon’ I reapeated, and without waiting for her, started climbing the stairs leading to our new small kingdom.
‘Sweetie, isn’t it just outstanding?’ my mother’s smooth voice sang somewhere close to my ear as soon as I entered. ‘It’s like a paradise, we should have bought a house like this years ago’.
“Everyting is for you, my dearest” a tone of her voice suggested, and I was pretty aware that it precisely was what she wished to say all along, but chose not to.
I knew that she wanted me to express somehow how much I enjoyed luxurious stuff she was always giving me (and me only, Serah wasn’t lucky enough to gain her full parental affection), but I’d been always ignoring this. Now wasn’t an exception and I headed upstairs like nothing happened. Over the years, I got pretty sick of her crowding my life with unnecessary crap, just to fully cover my personal space… making sure I have nothing she couldn’t control, nothing fully mine. ‘Whatever’ I grunted to myself, checking out every room. Soon I forgot about my mother.
I wasn’t paying attention to ‘happy domestic conversations’ for the whole dinner, and just took them as an opportunity to glance from time to time at my sister’s content face. It was a nice thing actually; as I didn’t care about our change of surroundings that much, I did care about her well-being. My sibling’s recent depression was making my heart sink in something dark and dangerous, something I quite couldn’t control, and I was all too happy to observe this slight change of her mood. Seeing that she indeed was doing better now made me smile, honestly and brightly, and this smile didn’t leave my face for the rest of the day.
We were making a new start.

***
‘Hey, Kai, it’s time already’
I heard this voice through something like a thick fog and couldn’t comprehend the words, not that I tried to anyways. It surely was early, too early to get up…
When I felt a soft brush across my cheek, I decided to slowly open my eyes.
‘Serah’ I said, noticing that this pleasant sensation was her hand on my hot skin. ‘Oh…’
I felt my face reddening as I realized, to my own embarrassment, that I was hard. And that she was still touching me so softly, because she naturally couldn’t notice my stiff dick when I was lying on my side, looking like a good boy.
Her innocent eyes were staring straight into mine.
‘Get up? School bus is coming in thirty minutes’ she added and left the room. I sighed.

The first day at school wasn’t half bad. After introduction, I got seated by this young math teacher at the front, next to one really cute guy, while my sister had to head for the back. If my company wasn’t that fortunate, I’d surely want to exchange spots with her. Right now there was no chance.
‘ I’m Kai McCaric’ I told him, even that he had already knew my name.
‘Nice to meet you’ he started politely, and his sweet accent came out like a bliss to my ears ‘I’m Lyle Ginger’.
I really, really wanted to giggle hearing his surname, but managed to keep calm. I had to do everything I could to make a good first impression.
Lyle was looking at me suspiciously, and after a while I realized that he indeed was expecting me to burst into laughter. When it became obvious that I don’t hold such intend , his gaze softened and he reached to grab my hand. Instead of shaking it, he just hold it in his for a while. Then turned away.
“This is interesting” I smiled to myself and made few mental notes.
For the whole lessons I was looking at Lyle from the corner of my eye. He was slim and slender, his light blond hair cut nicely, making him look like some indie star from a music magazine. If he liked that style, then we had something in common. Except for the fact that my hair was pitch black and even shining navy in the sun, our haircuts were certainly from the same shelf. But that was it, really. His neat, white shirt and black jeans couldn’t be compared to my naughty but oh-how-fashionable clothes. After closer examination I got to the conclusion that Lyle must be –to some extend, at least- type of a ‘good boy’ yearning to be spoiled. Which wasn’t bad. At all.
During the lunch break I found him sitting alone. “Bingo” I thought and joined , seating myself in front of my sweet target.
‘May I?’ I asked baldly with laughter in my voice, because I was already sitting.
‘Oh, the fake politeness, yes, yes’ he smiled in response , which made my heart skip a beat. “His voice is too fucking cute…” ‘Sure thing, my Lord’ he added a bit mockingly, but there was no bitterness in his words, just childishly charming curiosity about my strange being.
I looked at him in surprise.
‘How did you know?’ my mouth formed, but he was faster than that.
‘I saw your and your sister’s title in teacher’s notes today…’ he explained, still smiling at me. ‘It’s something rare to greet noble families in this town, you knew that?’
‘I suppose so’
‘Oooh…’ he averted his eyes from mine, focusing them on his plate instead. The poor chicken sprawled onto it by some clumsy chef didn’t seem tasty at all, and he must have thought the same, because he put the plate away and looked at me again.
‘So what do your family do here?’
I sighed and stretched my arms in front of me in a lazy manner, trying to look laid back. Well, not trying. I was a master of masks , after all.
‘Showing off, I guess’ I answered and looked him flirty in the eye. ‘And I can see they’re doing well, yeah?’
‘You are’ he answered after a short silence, and burst into laughter.
Our conversation was so nice and pleasant that I didn’t feel like returning home after classes, I just wanted to stay there, staring at his beautiful form and listen to this voice.
He was like a living doll, full of grace he didn’t know about, doll you want to have and own. And I certainly wanted.

Days were passing by, and I was having so much fun it was almost unbelievable. It was almost too good to be true, taking into consideration how my parents were.
But they were … doing well, strangely, without arguments since we moved, without breaking plates and without shouting madly at each other. I nearly thought that everything was becoming normal, and that finally we can break free from those chains and stresses of being a nobility, concentrating on the real goals instead. Something I wanted to concentrate on.
‘Children, we are painting and redecorating the third floor with your father, so please don’t go there’ my mother announced once, when I was watching tv with Serah. ‘You can mess something so don’t even use the stairs leading there’ she added, and we both nodded, not paying attention to her irritating voice. “She just so wants to spend money, even if everything in the house is perfectly new… oh gods” echoed in my head , and I could feel nothing but a pity for her - my mother, who wants more and more her whole life.
‘Nothing is going to satisfy her’ Serah whispered as if reading my mind. ‘Even if we have money for all of this doesn’t mean that we need to spend it all’
I couldn’t disagree with that and wanted to smile at her in understanding, but noticed that she wasn’t looking at me. Her glassy, far-away look focused on nothing in particular sent shivers down my spine.
My hand reached out slowly, touching her soft, black hair, and caressing them in silence.

***
‘They’re fags, I tell ya’
‘Ye, well… mby, they certainly look like ones’
‘Sure they do. And just watch em glancing at each other, it’s just making me sick man’
‘Totally agree... they should take care of homos, what the hell is wrong with this world’
‘Shooting em is not enough, man’
‘It’s not’
‘What do you think, how should they die?’
‘Doesn’t matter, as soon as they would be dead rly.’
‘Maybe by pushing something like an enormous dick up their asses…what do you think?’
‘Wouldn’t that be pleasant for these pussies?’
‘If that’d tear them apart…don’t think so…’
‘To tear them apart my own dick would be enough, haha’
‘Lol yes, I guess so’
We were eating with Lyle in silence, ignoring this disgusting conversation which was obviously meant to insult us. My blood was boiling and I felt my palms sweat a bit in a growing rage, and I swear to God that I’d beat the hell out of them if not the blond angel in front of me. Lyle’s face expression was calm and he was sending me comforting smiles, making everything he could to avoid a fight. ‘It’s not worth it’ he whispered, and I shook my head in anger.
‘You know’ it was Lyle’s voice again, and I was sure he wanted to do something to distract me, even for a bit. ‘Your sister is really beautiful’
I looked at him in surprise, forgetting at once about the insults.
‘Is she?’ I spoke before I managed to think through my answer, and those words came out flat and strange, like they wasn’t mine at all.
‘Yeah’ he answered and smiled brightly without noticing the slight change in my voice. ‘Her black hair reaching her shoulders, and this straight fringe… it really looks great and matches her pale skin’ he continued mercilessly. ‘And those big blue eyes, just like yours. There’s no mistake that you two are siblings’ .
Lyle’s slender fingers started tapping at the edge of the plastic table, and I was listening to this melody like I was in a trance or something. Everything seemed blurred, and I had a feeling that the cafeteria suddenly became dreadfully quiet and deserted.
‘Do you like my sister?’ I gathered my courage and asked after a long pause, but before Lyle opened his mouth to answer something hit the back of my head.
‘FAGGOT’ I heard behind, and an empty bottle of water fell next to my left feet.
Before I knew it I rose from my seat, grabbed the red-headed idiot who had balls to do something like this by his collar and started punching his face like it was a training dummy.

I returned home full of grief and anger. Punching one guy wasn’t enough to make me feel better after being mentally kicked like this by the only person I admired in the whole school.
Lyle… he was so pretty, so girlish and delicious, could it be that he really was into my sister? I didn’t even want to think about this, and yet I couldn’t stop.
I started recalling things that happened today, the guys laughing at me being – as they called it – a homo, Lyle looking at me sweetly and then saying that my sister was beautiful out of the blue. What exactly made me angry?
I didn’t like them calling me a fag, that’s for sure… I didn’t think about myself like this; in fact I did not think much about my sexual preferences. I liked girls, but I’ve always felt that I can like guys just as much if I meet someone interesting.
And I certainly liked Lyle now, and he was a boy. That means I could be bi… couldn’t I?
On the other hand, I looked pretty girlish myself, or more like ‘emo gay guy’, the label which became so fucking fashionable recently. I was pretty delicate, and it was characteristic when it came to my family – my features not really masculine, at least not in the way you could expect them. So, the idiots were half-excused for calling me a fag. Kinda.
What made me feel the worst was Lyle, and this painful realization struck my heart like a poisoned needle. I wanted to be adored, I deserved that. I mean, a lot of girls in school liked me so much they’d turn all red seeing me somewhere, but that was not it. Becoming popular had never been my goal, so when I really did I couldn’t care less. The only thing which mattered was to gain attention from this one person I chose to like out there. From Lyle.

‘My little boy soon will be 16, happy darling?’
I put down my book and looked at my mother in disapproval.
‘No’
‘Why not?’
‘And why yes? I will just be older, that’s all
I closed my eyes and hoped that she’d leave me alone. No such luck.
‘You’re wrong, honey. Many things will change after you turn 16, and I can assure you that you will be content then.’
I sighed. Whatever she was talking about, I was not interested.
‘I’m going to pierce my lips today’ I said, changing the topic so that she’d shut up and go to hell with her promises of my happiness. ‘ I will be late’
She nodded and smiled sweetly, patting my head. ‘Good luck’ she added and left me alone.
Every other mother would be against the idea of piercing her child’s body or something like this, but not her. She would accept everything I do just to stay on my good side, which was sickening and fascinating at the same time. I didn’t care about her opinion anyway.

Snake bites I gifted myself were definitely a good choice. Of course, in the eyes of my haters I looked even more homo this way, but I paid no attention to words like this. Lyle complemented my rings, and I felt unbelievably happy seeing his starry eyes full of amazement.
My presence in the school settled after something like two ,three months. By then everyone realized that me and Serah are nobility, and as no one but mere citizens the rest were not to say anything wrong about us. That was fine with me.
‘Oh Kai, everyone keeps asking me about you’ my sister announced once, nudging my cheek with her nose .We were sitting in the library doing some research. ‘ Girls are crazy about my sweet brother’
I giggled and kissed the tip of her nose playfully. ‘Are they really’
‘They totally are!’ she laughed and stood up, fixing her short skirt. ‘All I hear is how beautiful you are’
This word caused a sudden pain in my chest. Your sister is beautiful.
I grabbed her hand and smiled nervously, trying to look neutral.
‘It’s not only me they’re crazy about’ I answered, gaining her full attention. ‘Guys have a thing for you’
‘Oh?’ she seemed surprised. Her small brows frowned, pink mouth pouted slightly in a childish manner. ‘Liar!’
‘I swear , sis. But well, that should be pretty obvious for you, with looks like yours it’s easy to have every guy you want’
I was a masochist. No matter how much those words hurt, I just had to say them all out loud.
Serah put a hand on my cheek and started caressing it, something she haven’t done since this time when she tried to woke me up before school. I suddenly remembered how hard my dick was then, and my cheeks reddened at once.
‘Who like me?’ she interrupted my thoughts, and my heart started racing. Should I lie? Or continue what I’ve started bravely?
‘Lyle said you’re pretty’ I admitted finally, feeling both like a loser and a winner. I couldn’t deceive my good and cute sister, not when she was looking at me like this with her huge eyes, long lashes seeming extremely sinful in all of their innocence.
‘Really? That’s a surprise. How nice of him.’ I tried to read something from her face, but there was nothing to notice in spite of what I’ve just heard. If she did like him back, I had no idea.
My heart felt just as heavy as it was before.

The day of our 16 finally came. Parents decided to make a big party for thousands of aunts and uncles, but we couldn’t complain with Serah – it was a tradition, let them have what they want, even if the birthdays are ours, not theirs…
After long and frustrating “fun” my mother ordered everyone to fell silent, because she wanted to announce something in front of them. I felt like rolling my eyes, expecting things like “our cute and wonderful and blabla kids are so mature now, let’s be happy forever” or something equally embarrassing, but managed to keep neutral. Not really interested, but not repulsive either.
The words that came lightly from my mother’s thin throat after she stood up made everyone deadly silent. I looked at her in sudden mix of shock and terror, not believing my own ears in the first time in my life.
“Today is the big day for our whole family. Following the oldest tradition of the nobles, our son, Kai, and our daughter, Serah, are getting engaged in the name of our ancestors, in front of the God and us gathered”.


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To be continued.