A Twisted Love

Those three words seemed to hang in the empty silence that followed Cameron's voice. Colton was taking slow, shallow breaths, afraid he might start hyperventilating any second now. His mind was running on overdrive, trying desperately to process what Cameron had said without having a mental breakdown.

Cameron....loved him. The more he repeated it, the more it sounded right in his head. Do I love him? Colton asked himself. Of course, Cameron was his brother. His twin, in fact. Loving him should come naturally, although for Colton it was a whole different story. He wasn't sure if he was capable of loving anyone. He had thought that since no one loved him, he didn't love anyone. Now, he wasn't so sure. He knew his dad sure as hell didn't love him. All his dad had done was drink and smoke, a habit that eventually killed him, and something that Colton was starting to do too. His mom was always there for Cameron and Olivia, but she never really seemed to care for Colton.

Colton let out a sigh, knowing that he was taking too long to answer. He found that his throat felt dry, like someone had been pouring sand down it for quite a while now. "I-I...do too?" He finally croaked. It sounded to Cameron more like a question than a statement. Cameron let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and tried to shrug nonchalantly.

"It's okay if you don't, or if you can't say it." Cameron said softly.

"No, I...do." Colton insisted, forcing the words to come out of his mouth. Cameron leaned forward and placed a quick peck on Colton's cheek, before he had a chance to object. He ruffled Colton's soft hair, making it even messier than it was before.

Cameron slid out of the bed, pulling a tired Colton with him. "Come on, we should do something today since Mom isn't home. She left late last night to go drinking with a 'family friend'." Colton rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway. He was glad that the whole awkwardness of just a few minutes ago seemed to have dissolved.

"Lets go for a walk." Colton suggested, not wanting nor caring to hear his brother's other suggestions, which would mostly likely include TV or video games. "Alright." Cameron agreed. Colton ran back into his room, and changed into the first decent outfit he found in his piles of random clothes. When he walked downstairs he found that the front door was open, and Cameron was leaning against the door frame, waiting for him. Colton stepped outside, feeling the hot summer sunlight wash over him immediately.

They made their way down the streets, which were pretty much deserted due to the intense heat. "School starts soon." Cameron suddenly acknowledged. "Yay." Colton said, with an obvious amount of bitter sarcasm in his voice. Cameron chuckled lightly to himself. "It won't be so bad. Maybe people will be nicer this year."

"Oh, right. I'm sure they will totally forget to call me "Emo Freak"." Colton said, his eyes narrowing at the thought.

"Relax. You'd be surprised how many people will have sympathy for us." Cameron said. Colton frowned. He didn't want people's pity or sympathy over what had happened to Olivia. If anything, most of it would be directed towards Cameron. "I don't want sympathy." Colton spat, turning his head away so Cameron couldn't read his expression. Cameron sighed. "Sorry I brought it up."

"Whatever." Colton said, trying and failing to sound casual. A few minutes of silence passed between them before they rounded a corner and the sound of chiming bells filled their ears. Cameron turned his head in confusion, until he saw the ice cream truck headed down the street. "Ice cream!" He yelled, almost knocking over Colton as he started to run down the block to catch up to it. Dazed, Colton followed behind him. By the time he was standing next to Cameron, he was already ordering.

"I'll have two scoops of cookie dough in a sugar cone." He said, rifling through his pocket for money. He turned to Colton, just noticing his presence. "What do you want?"

"Uh...one scoop of chocolate in a waffle cone." Colton answered, looking over the choices that were taped to the side of the truck. The man in the truck handed them their orders and Cameron payed him gratefully. "Thanks." Colton said, gingerly licking his ice cream.

Cameron licked it as slowly as possible, savoring the refreshing coldness in his mouth. "No problem." Cameron mumbled, lost in the task of trying to keep his ice cream from dripping on himself.

Cameron licked one side of the cone, not realizing when the other side dripped down and fell right onto Colton's pants. It dripped down slowly until it reached his converse. Cameron cursed under his breath and looked up to see a pissed off Colton. "You moron! These were new fucking converse!" He said glaring at his brother. Cameron gave him an innocent look. "Sor-" He was cut off by Colton dumping at least half of his ice cream on Cameron's shoes. "Hey what I did was an accident! You did that on purpose!" he pouted.

Colton smirked and shrugged. "Oops." Cameron gritted his teeth. "Well they were old shoes anyway."

"Uh-huh." Colton said doubtfully. As they continued to walk Cameron began to whistle suspiciously. Colton glared over at him, just as his brother poured some of his liquid ice cream all over the front of his shirt. Cameron smiled triumphantly, but his smile was erased seconds later when Colton dumped the rest of his ice cream all over Cameron's shirt, making sure to smear it.

"Cole! You retard!" Cameron seethed. Colton took off running towards the house, his brother not far behind. When finally they both reached the house, they were out of breath and panting. Colton collapsed in the living room, and Cameron almost fainted next to him. They could both feel the ice cream seeping into their shirts as they lay, breathing heavily. "We should get changed." Cameron said finally.

"I'm too hot and exhausted to move." Colton complained. Laughing slightly, Cameron peeled off his wet shirt, rolled it into a ball and threw it to the side. Colton copied his brother's actions, and was already starting to cool off without his messy shirt on. Colton lay back down on the carpeted floor, not caring if he was uncomfortable or not. After a while, he felt Cameron's eyes on his body and he looked over to him. He noticed the way Cameron's eyes were sort of just glued to him, and somehow it didn't make Colton uneasy at all. In fact, he was happy about it.

"You know you're not being very inconspicuous about staring at my amazing chest." Colton said out loud, clearly amused. Cameron's face flushed and his cheeks seemed to turn a million shades of pink and red. Colton's stomach knotted, and a weird unidentifiable feeling took over him. "It's okay Cameron, I know you're just jealous." He joked.

Cameron snorted and tore his eyes away, glancing around the room casually. "As if. You know I'm way hotter than you." he bragged. Colton shook his head. "Dude we're twins, we look the same." He pointed out.

"So? I work out more." Cameron said proudly. Colton scoffed. "Sure you do buddy, keep telling yourself that." Cameron lifted his arm, and flexed his muscles. "Yea! Look." He told Colton. He moved closer and felt Cameron's arm. "I'm stronger than you." Colton stated matter-of-factly.

"I doubt it." Cameron said, rolling his eyes in disbelief. "Let's wrestle." Colton suggested out of nowhere. Cameron thought for a moment, and then nodded in approval.

This should be fun. Colton thought.