Quicksand

The following morning dawned with a foul taste in my mouth and blood pumping through my skull. I felt sick to my stomach and my skin felt sticky, opening my eyes and allowing daylight in only caused my headache to deepen in intensity however upon noticing the body still in deep slumber beside me, my headache threatened to shatter my skull completely.
“Oh my God,” I whimpered, seizing the bed sheets and glancing down.
Words couldn’t express my relief upon seeing that I was wearing pants.
The figure beside me tossed and lo and behold, Demitri’s familiar face turned my direction. My heart rate began to increase and I quickly scampered out of bed, desperately trying not to wake him up.
However, my efforts at subtlety were foolishly deterred by my hangover and I promptly tripped over my bed sheets allowing a loud thump on the carpet and enough noise for Demitri to wake from his stupor.
“Shit,” I breathed, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Oh God,” Demitri moaned. “What the fucking- Beth!”
I scrambled to my feet and faced him. Demitri gave me a confused look before his face paled and he too lifted up the bed sheets to confirm his thankfully non-nude body.
“Thank God,” he breathed with his head in his hands. “Can you imagine what would’ve happened if we had slept together?”
I narrowed my eyes, waiting for his memory to return. Surely the kiss we shared was not a drunken hallucination, although it would not be beyond Kathryn to lace my drink. I watched as Demitri ran a hand through his messy hair before his eyes bulged and he leapt to his feet, still clad in last night’s attire.
“Shit!” he hollered. “We kissed, Beth!”
I nodded impishly, not sure how to react otherwise.
“I kissed my best friend’s sister,” Demitri whimpered.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered under my breath causing Demitri to snap his head towards me.
“No, no, no, this isn’t your fault,” he grabbed my face in his hands before thinking better of it and quickly lowering his hands. “It’s my fault,”
“Please Demitri. You made yourself perfectly clear at the fair that you’re not interested in me,” I whined.
I could tell from his hand gestures that Demitri was nervous and anxious. “Beth please don’t for one second believe I’m not interested in you,”
The words he spoke seemed to stun us both momentarily, I stared at him with a quizzical expression on my face but he didn’t break eye contact.
“Look,” Demitri grabbed my arms gently. “Theo will be home soon, I imagine, go and have a shower and we will sort this out once Theo is done yelling at us for ruining Kathryn’s gathering, okay?”
I nodded silently. Slowly, Demitri leant in and kissed the top of my forehead before striding out of my bedroom and, presumably, heading towards Theo’s bedroom to shower and change his clothes.
I, however, stood still. I ran my fingertips over my lips softly and attempted to remember what it was like kissing my brother’s best friend. Which, as much as I didn’t like to admit it, felt really lovely.

Thirty minutes and a ninety degree shower later, I had thankfully scrubbed off the dirty feeling on my skin and changed into a much more comfortable outfit of the day. Slowly towel drying my hair on my bed, I reached for my phone and immediately punched in Parker’s number.
“Are you sure your celebrity status hasn’t risen beyond people like me?” Parker asked in the form of a greeting.
“I am an absolute cock,” I muttered into the phone.
“Oh no, what have you done?” Parker questioned although I could hear him smiling.
“You have to promise not to judge me, okay?”
“Please Beth, when have I ever judged you?”
I inhaled deeply, leaning back on my bed and closing my eyes. “I may or may not have kissed Demitri last night,”
There was silence on the other end of the line as I allowed Parker time to process what I had just told him.
“And the problem is…” Parker questioned.
“THEO IS GOING TO KILL ME!” I exploded which further destroyed my headache.
“Okay, calm down,” Parker’s voice sounded calm. “Perhaps you can delay the impact,”
I was half listening to Parker’s voice when I heard a car door close outside, fearing Theo’s arrival I sprinted to my window and peered outside only to see Demitri getting inside the car. Although covered by sunglasses, I saw his face instinctively peer up to my window before the car door closed. I observed as the car wound around the driveway and out of the main gates.
I furrowed my brow. Did Demitri not just say that we would suffer Theo’s wrath together? More than that, I could not tell a lie to save my life, and he had left me to face him alone?
“Whatever, he’s a prick,” I said swiftly, moving away from the window.
Parker’s next words were interrupted by my door being flung open and my brother standing in the doorway, looking livid.
“Can you knock?” I asked exasperatedly.
“Not the time for jokes, Beth,” Theo growled.
“Well I can see that you’ve got your hands full, bye Beth!” Parker chirped before the line went dead, I rolled my eyes and unwillingly turned to face my brother.
“Okay, I’m sorry I ruined Kathryn’s party,” I said.
Theo closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “That’s not what I’m angry about, Beth,”
I counted to five in my head before Theo spoke again.
“Crash is bad news, he-he’s bad news, I thought we had warned you of that,”
I felt a crash of guilt spill over my chest. “I’m sorry,”
“No- don’t be sorry for God’s sake. I just want to make myself clear that you need to stay away from Crash,”
I nodded impishly. “I wont go near him again,”
“When he’s drinking,”
“Okay, when he’s drinking,” I said with a glimmer of a smile.
Theo pulled me into a rough hug and ruffled the top of my head. He turned to leave before remembering himself and turning around.
“Oh- did you know why Demitri left?” he queried.
My face turned red and I felt my heart stop momentarily. Why did I think I could lie to my brother?
“Uh no, did he say anything to you?” I turned away and hoped Theo couldn’t smell lies.
“Nope, just thought he might’ve mentioned it to you,” Theo swung out of the room and closed the door behind him with a click.

Showing up at the York estate was never a pleasant experience.
Although all of the staff respected Demitri, at least to his face, he knew that, despite being the ‘man of the house’ they were taking his mother’s money and had to offer at least an element of loyalty to the person signing their checks. The wide double doors opened without Demitri lifting a finger and he automatically veered to the right where his mother’s studio was.
“Hello mother,” Demitri chirruped strolling in and picking up a spool of thread and tossing it between his hands.
“Ah my long lost son,” Astrid lowered her glasses to the tip of her nose. “Fancy seeing you here, at home,”
“Would you believe me if I said I missed you?” Demitri lied through his teeth.
“Not one bit,” she snapped back, not missing a beat. “Celia’s engagement party, next weekend,”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Demitri called although he secretly had. “I’ll be going with Theo and Nicholas,”
“And the new one,” Astrid said.
Demitri paused and closed his eyes slowly. “Beth,” he said through his teeth.
From behind him the door swung open and out came a female version of himself, only younger, prettier and with less clothes on her body. Andrea, Demitri’s fourteen year old sister, adopted the same attitude towards Demitri that Astrid did.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” she simpered with a wide array of fabrics in her arms. “I didn’t think you lived her anymore,”
“Ah if it isn’t your clone,” Demitri said to his mother. “Tell me Andrea, how is it having your head so far up our mother’s ass? Don’t you ever see sunlight?”
Andrea didn’t flinch at her brother’s biting words. “Sorry Demitri, I can’t hear you over the sound of my inheritance, which is significantly bigger than yours,”
“Yeah and so is your dick-,”
“Enough,” Astrid snapped. “Demitri I’m having a meeting today about releasing a male line, if it moves forward I will need you as the driving force and the spokesperson of the campaign,”
Demitri raised his eyebrows. “Can’t you pay someone for that? I don’t want to work with you, or her,” he indicated Andrea.
“It’s a family business, we need our image to be in the family,” Astrid moaned. “Your sisters are modeling the entire spring collection and you can’t come to a few meetings?”
After begrudgingly accepting, Demitri strolled out of his mother’s studio and made his way through the much more vast mansion owned by his mother. It seemed that whenever Demitri was alone with his thoughts his mind was only straying to one particular thing, or person which was specifically off-limits.
“Fuck,” Demitri swore, taking the large stairs two at a time until he reached his younger sister’s bedroom.
Hearing muffled Taylor Swift music playing, Demitri knocked on the door twice.
“C’min,” he heard Nikki’s usual dull call.
Upon opening the door all Demitri heard was a soft shriek before the short girl had practically crash tackled Demitri to the ground in a hug. Demitri laughed and hugged his sister back tighter.
“Nice to know you still live here, D,” Nikki said flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.
Still in the pubescent adolescent stage of her life, Nikki York was very obviously experimenting with what kind of person she wanted to be. Mildly rebelling against their mother, Nikki had a very immature blue streak in her hair and walls lined with posters ranging from famous pop icons to girl bands from the 90’s.
“I’m sorry,” Demitri moaned. “I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been helping Theo’s sister, Beth,”
The mention of her name caused a small back flip in Demitri’s stomach.
“Yeah, she’s pretty,” Nikki sighed. “You have a crush on her don’t you?”
“Oh please Nikki, that’s so seventh grade,” Demitri got to his feet and went to saunter out of his sister’s bedroom.
“Theo’s gonna kill you,” Nikki sang as Demitri closed the door behind him, knowing that despite her immaturity, she was right.

The next morning I had school and was nervously awaiting the presence of Demitri who had stayed at his own house last night, allowing quality bonding time with Theo and I, which largely consisted of me dodging his questions about last night and him attempting to teach me how to play Grand Theft Auto.
Once at school, Theo and I saw the blonde boy standing and talking with some friends, Mary-Ellen among them.
Theo sauntered up and gave Demitri a hug, proving their obviously co-dependant relationship once more. I allowed Mary-Ellen to excitedly chatter around me about the events that transpired after I had drunkenly left Kathryn’s the other night.
A series of chimes chorused through the school indicating first class, however I felt a hand grab my upper arm. I wheeled around and saw Demitri indicating for me to wait behind so, while the others strode off to their classes Demitri pulled me aside so we were out of view.
“We need to talk,” he muttered in an undertone and I felt my heart race.
“Forget about it,” I said quickly. “It never happened,”
I went to move away but Demitri gently grabbed my upper arm once again and pulled me closer to him.
“Please don’t do that,” he sighed. “I can’t afford to lose Theodore in my life,”
“I understand that, that’s why it never happened, okay?”
“No Beth, that’s not what I’m saying,” Demitri seemed to be smirking. “What I’m saying is, for now, maybe we can keep this our secret?”
I nodded slowly, not quite understanding what he was alluding to.
“So, when things like that happen, we don’t automatically have to tell Theo, okay?” Demitri reassured me.
“Yeah, of course,” I shrugged. “It was nothing, just a drunken mistake,”
Demitri’s eyes flashed warningly. “It wasn’t a mistake and you know it,”
I bent my head and looked at my black shoes hoping beyond hope that Demitri would walk away and save me this embarrassment. However, I felt his hand underneath my chin, lifting my head up. Swiftly, Demitri kissed the side of my mouth and smiled.
“Thank you,”