Separated

I yawned and stretched, surprised when one of my arms was held down. I looked and found Raine asleep, cuddled into my chest. He looked so cute and peaceful while he was asleep. I really didn't want to wake him. Then what happened last night flooded back into my memory.

"Oh my God." I muttered under my breath. "I kissed my twin brother!" I gasped. Raine stirred a little and I worried I had waken him, but he still again seconds later. I began watching him again. His steady breathing, the ghost of a smile on his lips, and the way he fit perfectly into my arms. I shook my head to try and clear it. He's my brother, and last night was a mistake, I shouldn't have kissed him again. It was a stupid idea.

I started to get up and proceed to showering until Raine started whimpering. I saw tears slowly falling down his cheeks.

"No." He said quietly. "No!" He yelled. I crawled back in bed and hugged him.

"They're not gone! You're lying! They can't be-!" He choked up at then end and more tears spilled over. He must be dreaming about his parents. I had forgotten they were gone. It must trouble him more than he lets on. I squeezed him even tighter. I thought losing my dad was hard, but losing my mom and dad at the same time would kill me.

"Hale." He wailed, obviously awake now. "They're gone." He sobbed even louder, I could feel his hands clutch my shirt.

"Hush, now." I tried to calm him. "It's fine, really. It's okay."

"How would you know?" He shouted at me. "You still have family, I'm all alone, you don't know how I feel."

"I lost my dad." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. He looked up at me, his eyes were red and blood shot.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" He cried even more. By now I wasn't sure if he was crying for himself or for me. I pushed the thought from my mind and hugged him tighter. He deserved so much more than this life gave him. Even though I just met him he seems so nice and generous and happy. Even though, both his parents died in the same day and he was thrust into some giant mansion with a supposed 'twin brother' who may not have been gay. Then he kissed me and screwed up our relationship even more. I don't know if I should kiss him and make the pain go away, or hug him and tell him it'll be okay.

I wanted to kiss him. But we are related, I have to remember that. But it's so hard. He's so cute. But I have to force myself to just hug him. If he's not going to, I need to keep our relationship at 'just brothers'.

"Th-thank you." He stuttered out and looked up at me.

"It's fine, really. I know how it feels." He smiled weakly at my statement. Again this made me want to sweep him off his feet and take him somewhere where it would only be us. Where I could kiss him and pleasure him beyond anyone's imagination. I shook my head. He's my brother! Then he got his look on his face. I couldn't tell what it was. He began to bring his lips up to mine. I wanted to pull away and tell him I couldn't do it, but at the same time I wanted him to kiss me.

"Boys!" Mom called, causing us to jump apart. "Breakfast time!" I wasn't sure if I was glad or sad for that interruption. I hopped up and pulled him to the door. We ran downstairs and enjoyed the best breakfast ever from my mom. She was the bestest cook ever! And I loved her even more for that.

Although, the entirety of breakfast my mom kept glancing back and forth between us with a thoughtful look on her face. I had no idea why so I just brushed it off. She'd get around to confronting me later.

The rest of the day we did nothing. We just lounged around the house and ignored my conflicting thoughts and feelings. I really hoped he didn't notice I was trying not to avoid a lot of touching.

He slept in my bed again that night; I'm beginning to think that's how it will always be. That morning he started school. Even though he had all the same classes as I did, the kids at this school were vicious.



"Hale, turn it off!" I heard Raine moan as my alarm went off. His hands waved around awkwardly trying to find where the alarm is.

"But we need to get up, we have enough time to shower before breakfast is ready." I groaned back.

"No snooze?" He whined.

"No." Then I rolled over to my clock. It was only 5:30 in the morning. "I lied, someone set it earlier." I hit 'snooze' and snuggled back under the covers. It seemed like only seconds later that it went off again. This time we got up and got ready. I had to tell Raine to grab gym clothes because I had gym this trimester.

When we actually arrived at school Raine hid behind me and clutched my shirt all the way down the hallways. He looked around the hallways as if one of the kids would maul him at random. Which may have been true. I thought it was insanely true.

As we walked through the halls we got a lot of strange looks. Most of them were 'what the hell?' kind of looks. Like why is there two Hale's? When we finally got to the office Raine seemed to relax.

"Oh hello, Ms. Stevens, the principle is ready to see you now." Mom nodded and we walked in where a very boring conversation commenced. I sat there and drew random shapes on Raine's skinny jeans.

"They seem really close for just meeting each other." The principle mused, but I pretended not to hear him.

"Yeah, you should have seen Hale at first." She chuckled. "He didn't want anything to do with Raine." The principle laughed as well.

"Alright you're all set." The principle told us and ushered us to leave. As soon as we got back in the hallway Raine hid behind my back. I still thought it was unbelievable cute.

"Okay, boys." My mom turned around and smiled at us. "You have to get to class, I'll see you later." She hugged us quick and waved goodbye. Then we headed to English. Raine and I sat in the back and talked, just a little chat of nothing meaningful. Then the bell went off and signaled us to get in our seats. Except Raine had to go and talk to the teacher. I watched, as Raine seemed to stutter on about whatever the teacher asked.

"Alright we have a new student, kids. Why don't you listen while he-" He was cut off by all the kids talking.

"Isn't that Hale?" One screamed.

"Is this some sort of joke?" Another asked.

"Students!" Mrs. R yelled. "If you haven't noticed Hale is sitting in the back now I'll let this guy introduce himself."

"Um, Hi." He did a little awkward wave. "I'm Raine, I'm Hale's twin brother."

"Then why haven't you been here before?" Someone yelled.

"Um, well, we were separated at birth." He smiled awkwardly and looked at me. "My adopted parents both died in a car accident about a year ago, so once my social worker found out I had a real mom I moved in with Hale and her."

"Was it weird at all?"

"A little." He smiled more genuinely. "You guys should have seen hale the first night I was there, he wanted nothing to do with me. He just sat there quietly and stared at me. It was a little creepy." They all turned to look at me.

"In my defense I had only known I had a brother for, like, 5 days." I chimed in. "And there was only 20 minutes I didn't talk to you." I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"What did you do after that?" These guys were curious.

"We, um... Watched a really scary movie." He blushed and looked down.

"But I thought Hale loved scary movies." Someone said.

"Just 'cause Hale likes them doesn't mean I do." He said defensively. "I was terrified, I couldn't sleep."

"He had to come into my room, and he was crying really hard. Obviously by then I had gotten used to him." Everyone let out an 'awe' but I really wasn't sure why.

"Hale!" He exclaimed and blushed. Then started to pout. "That wasn't very nice." All the girls let out a little 'awe' and Mrs. R let Raine come and sit by me. Then we started class, which is boringly easy. Most of our classes started the same way; everyone thought Raine was me, then I embarrassed him after he teased me.

At lunch everyone attacked us. I sat there silently eating my bile of toxic waste the school called 'food' and Raine tried to answer all of the questions. He would grab my hand and clutch on to it for dear life. I was surprised when he first grabbed my hand but relaxed a few seconds later.

Before I knew it, it was time for gym. It was the last hour of the day, and it was also the last few minutes of the game. Raine had the ball and if we scored we won. Everyone was shouting 'I'm open' or 'Me, me' or 'Over here!'. He looked so confused. So I walked to the hoop, and no one noticed me.

"Raine!" I shouted. Everyone look surprised, they must have thought he was me. He threw the ball and I watched in slow motion. I caught the ball and smiled at him. Then I went to dunk the ball I was almost there until someone tackled me out of the air. I ended up flying 3 feet backwards and smashing my wrists on the metal edge of the bleacher.

I curled into the fetal position and cradled my wrists. Raine was instantly by my side.

"Are you okay?" He looked like he was about to cry. I tried to stand up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I cleared my throat. "I just knocked them, I'll be fine."

"The faggot deserved it." I heard someone say. Then the bell rang and everyone else left.

"Raine, Hale." Our gym teacher called. "Could you help clean up?" We agreed and gathered up all the basketballs and took them into the closet. I propped the door open so it wouldn't close and lock us in. I hated these doors; they annoyed me.

"Sorry about that." I said to Raine as he tried to tie up the bag. It was really difficult; the strings on the bag were stupid.

"It really is fine." He smiled at me, and then all the balls fell again. He grunted and started picking the balls back up; I just leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms. Just then the basketball team came in.

"Hey, Hale, I heard about what happened." Tyler told me and smiled. "Next time you need to toughen up." He joked and pushed me playfully then walked away. I lost my balance and tried to catch myself, and, instead ended up slamming my already injured wrists into the doorframe. I whimpered and cradled them. I sat there for a minute and went to walk towards the door when another basketball player came up to the door.

"Hey faggot, why don't you go back into the closet where you belong." He said and shoved me into the shelves behind me and kicked away the door stopper. I wanted to stop the door from closing but I was frozen in pain. Raine gasped and started pounding on the door.

"You can give up." I said quietly. "They aren't going to open it. They pretend to like me to my face, some of them don't, but they are probably all laughing their asses off right now. Then no one is in the gym after that, so we're stuck."

"Oh." He slid slowly down the door and scooted over next to me. I wrapped my arms around my knees and rest my head on my arms. The names really do get to me, but I don't let anyone see that.

"Is everyone at this school as mean as that basketball player?" He asked timidly.

"In their own ways, yes." I sighed. I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders.

"I know that hurt more than you'll tell me." He said seriously then smiled. "It's the twin telepathy." No matter how much I didn't want to laugh, I did, in spit of myself.

"Totally." I smiled but I don't think he could see that. We sat there in silence for a little while. I really didn't have anything else to say right now. I stared at the wall in front of me and imagined shapes that weren't there.

"Why were you avoiding me yesterday?" I just barely heard him ask.

"I wasn't, I hung out with you all day." I nervously cleared my throat.

"But you wouldn't touch me." I heard the sadness in his voice. "You wouldn't grab my and drag me somewhere or push me if I was slow, it's like I was some nasty thing you didn't want to touch."

"We have to stay just brothers." I muttered, hoping he'd understand.

"But I don't want to." His response made me jump and turn to him.

"What?" I gasped.

"I don't want to be just brothers. I want to be able to hug you and kiss you and never let you go!" He knelt in front of me. "It feels so good when we touch, like fire, and if we're just brothers, I won't be able to feel it as much as I'd like to." I sat there, frozen. I saw tears come to his eyes. Tears of rejection.

"I-I'd like that too." I said in spite of my 'just brothers' attitude. "But it's socially unacceptable, even more so than being gay."

"I don't care." He said sternly. "People are always going to look down on us for being gay, so it's not like it'll get any worse. And we don't have to show anybody. Only our friends."

"But-" Whatever I was going to say was interrupted by his lips.Push him away I thought to myself. But I couldn't. My body was moving on its own accord. Wrapping my hands around his waist and tugging him closer, which caused us to be in an even more awkward position. This closet was much to small. Our lips moved in perfect unison and it felt as if I was about to explode in happiness. I bit his lip and pulled slightly, begging for the entrance I hadn't gotten before. He parted his lips and our tongues fought for dominance. I won, obviously.

I can't deny that if felt utterly amazing; better than anything I've ever felt before. I don't even know how to explain it, it was so right, but so wrong at the same time. Before I knew it our shirts were gone; thrown somewhere. I ran my hands up and down his naked torso and just enjoyed the feeling of it. His skin was so soft, and he was doing the same to me. I felt the electricity surging through me, something I never dreamed I would feel.

I slid my hand down between us to rub him through is jeans. He moaned into my mouth and arched upward. The sound his moan made me shiver with pleasure. I removed my hand from his jean-clad crotch and pushed him backwards so I was laying on top of him. He arched upward and ground his erection into mine. I moaned loudly and ground my hips into his. He moaned back, which I found extremely sexy. I couldn't take it anymore I started unbuttoning his jeans, anxious to see what he had to offer.

Then my phone rang and we jumped apart. I looked at it; it was my mom. I calmed my breathing and answered the phone. "Hey mom." I said nonchalantly.

"Hey, were are you guys; you should have been home ages ago." She sounded worried.

"Well we are currently locked in the gyms storage room."

"You mean that small closet thing?"

"That's it." I nodded even though she couldn't see it.

"How are you going to get out?" She sounded worried again. "Can one of your friends help?"

"They weren't here today mom, and since when would Hillary do sports?" I scoffed.

"Good point. I'll call the school, and come and pick you up. See you later, Honey. Tell Raine I said goodbye!" Then she hung up.

"Mom says goodbye, and we should probably put our shirts back down, and fix our..." I cleared my throat. "Problems." I looked down at his lap and then back at mine. They were pretty huge.

"Okay..." I looked at Raine he was blushing an amazing bright red color. It was so cute. I shook my head, and focused on getting my shirt on. I turned away from Raine, because while I was trying to 'cool down' any thoughts of him would have the opposite effect. First I thought of how painful it was when I slammed my wrists on bleachers, it was so painful. But then Raine was by my side...Well that didn't work. How about when I was shoved playfully into the door and hurt my wrists, then called a faggot. But then Raine and I....

"This is not working!" I said out loud.

"What isn't?" Raine asked, I noticed that he didn't have an issue anymore. Damn, he's must be pretty good at cooling down.

"Every time I try to think of what happened earlier today that was painful you end up being there!" He just laughed and offered to help me. Eventually I did get calmed down and even before they opened the door and let us out. I was actually sad we were let out of there so soon. I could have had a lot more fun.

I guess it isn't 'just brotherly love' after all...