Electric Blue

Laretta and I chose a bedroom and soon fell asleep. The next day was half over by the time we’d woken up. We got dressed, walked upstairs to make some breakfast, or lunch, rather for ourselves and Lana, and we made a little extra expecting Burley to be home sometime in the following few hours. Our time spent previously seemed like a blur; like when you wake up from a dream; and you question everything that happened and you try and separate the facts, from the fiction. Even though our surroundings were what I had thought were a dream, they were real, and I was awake. “Ouch!” I stubbed my toe as I walked up the stairs, yep, there was no denying I was awake after that.
When we got to the next floor, Lana was already in the kitchen, making coffee’s.
“Good morning girls,” she said ‘good’ morning, but I could sense it wasn’t as pleasant a night sleep for her as it was for us. Her eyes were red, face pale.
“Good morning, are you okay?”
She handed us each a warm coffee. “No, I’m not. Burley got arrested this morning and I’ve been on the phone for half the day trying to sort something out.” She burst out in tears. It reminded me of when my father went to jail, when I was young, and I didn’t cry about it, I just tried to move on, but as soon as I spoke of it, it became real. I embraced her in a hug.
“Hey, it’ll be okay. It seems like it won’t right now, but I promise it will.”
“I know, it’s just that, every time he steps out that door, I always have that fear of him not coming back, and at the time I thought I had my emotions prepared for when it happened, but I guess not. It’s a huge charge, as I’m sure you girls would have an idea on. Plus there’s all the things that you don’t know about.”
“Are the police coming here?” It may seem selfish, but I had to ask. Now it wasn’t just my freedom at stake, I felt like I not only needed to be here for Laretta but Lana too.
“No, no. They have no idea where we live; we had to take a big risk on that though. It was either have the police come here, find everything here, and take it and lock up the both of us and whoever else is here, and probably do a life sentence, or cut our…” she paused, took a deep breath and continued, “Cut our losses and Burley gets done for whatever he’s got at the time. Nothing we own is in our legitimate names, so there’s no way that they could find us.”
I wiped the tears from her eyes, with my sleeve, and grabbed her face.
“Look, whatever happens, or has happened, we will always be here for you and Burley.”
“I appreciate that, I really do.” She held Laretta and I tight in her arms.
The elevator opened, and a smaller framed, but very good looking, muscular man stepped in, a white shirt, clutching his biceps and blue jeans on his legs, just like James Dean, his golden brown hair was in a little flip, and he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, a frown in his eyes, but a slight bit of cheek in his smile. He had to be barely a year or two older than us.
“Hello ladies,”
“Hello,” believe me, it was definitely a change of aura when he walked in, for me anyway. Let’s just say that my brain was more “hello sailor” than anything else. I was girl crushing like I never had before. He kissed Lana on the head and gave her a hug.
“You’re okay sis, I know you’ll miss him, but we’ll sort this.” He said to her in almost a whisper. “Well, are you going to introduce me to the two lovely young ladies, I came all the way here to see?”
“Lindon, this is Poppy and Laretta, Girls, this is my twin brother Lindon.”
“Hello again,” he shook our hands separately.
“You guys are twins?” Laretta asked.
“Yeah biological, not identical, obviously, and once you get to know us both separately you’ll wonder how that’s even possible.”
“Speaking of impossible, put that cigarette out, you know the rules.”
“Sorry darlin’,” he said, with a cheeky wink.
“Fuck you,” she said back, playfully pushing him.
“Well, you wanna make me a coffee sis, and I’ll go outside with these two, get into business?”
“Alright.”
We followed Lindon out, he started talking to us, just breaking the ice a little with normal conversation. Though, to be honest, I wasn’t hearing anything he was saying and more concentrating on the movement of his features and the bone structure of his face mainly. I honestly have no idea, to this day, what came over me. It was like I’d never seen a man before, but his smile was just something I wanted to see more and more. Not to mention he was a bad boy; a sweet, good looking, sexy, bad boy.
I know what you’re thinking, but if you’d seen him you’d understand. I definitely didn’t have feelings for this guy, at the time. I just was interested in the way he looked, but I was very stand-offish about men as it was at that time too, and even though he was sexy, the very thought of anything like that hadn’t crossed my mind. We spent the next few hours going through our future business plans, basically without revealing too much, Lindon was now in charge while Burley was gone. After I eventually made breakfast he started us off on our first job, pretty much straight away; this was to test our trust I guess, he wanted us to scope out whether the police were onto the house or not, just to be safe. We both knew that while we were watching for cops, Lindon had someone watching us. I could just feel it in my bones.
That day went surprisingly quickly, as did the weeks and months that followed, doing small operations here and there. It was actually one of the coolest experiences I’d ever had aside from discovering the beauty of our planet. I felt like a spy, at first. I couldn’t tell you my favourite part of those few years, because it was all just too amazing. Getting on a Harley, to ride half way across the country and deliver a package or pick one up, feeling like you were nothing but above the law, it was business, but that’s not what it felt like at all. Oh and the parties, they were spectacular, more than that even.
For months and months Laretta, Lana, Lindon and I tried our very hardest to get Burley out and free as soon as we could. The sentence was final, two years no bail, after that if someone bailed him out it would be good behavior for at least another six. Although the months did fly by, they also seemed to drag on, seeing Lana every morning, the loneliness in her face, coming through from her soul, was an emotion so intense. I was always a bad sucker for feeling empathetic, and I guess for a while there, Lana and I were feeling the same, I didn’t see Laretta much, because we’d be doing different shifts, to save us both from any mishaps, or fuck ups.
One night, Laretta wasn’t due back until morning, Lana and I had been up late into the night, Lindon was over, we stayed up, watched some movies and Lindon fell asleep on the couch. Lana’s eyes were redder than ever and basically falling out of her skull, mine probably were too, both of us fighting sleep, after a three day bender, one of us was bound to break or snap.
“Come on Lana, I’ll take you to bed. You need some sleep.”
“Okay, I just don’t know if I’m ready to yet, I don’t want to be alone.” She started to vent, half asleep, talking babble that made complete sense. I grabbed her by the arm, and gently lifted her up, putting her arm around my neck and taking her to bed. I lay her down, tucked her in like a baby and sat with her for a while, soon falling asleep next to her. I woke up a few hours later, looked over to where Lana was still sleeping and snoring; I kissed her forehead and left the room. I put a blanket over Lindon and went downstairs to bed.
Being in their house; was honestly the highlight of my life, to this day. We were a family. We looked after each other and would literally walk a million miles for each other.
The next day, I woke to the ring of my phone. “Hello?” I said, sleepy.
“Hey beautiful girl, I’m running a little behind schedule but hopefully I’ll be back by tonight. I miss you and honestly I can’t wait to just come home and kiss you and hold you.”
“Me too, I miss you a super amount too, but please be safe. I’d rather you come home late than not at all. I love you.”
“Okay, I gotta go. Talk soon lovely.”
I got out of bed, showered, put on my robe and went upstairs to watch the sun come up from over the horizon. I went out to beside the pool on the deck and looked out over the ocean, I pulled out a cigarette.
“Smoking’s bad for you, you know.” I turned around, and couldn’t see anyone. I looked up, there was Lindon sitting on the roof, smoking a cigarette.
“Oh I’m sorry Mr. James Dean, I didn’t realize that only men were allowed to smoke around here.” He jumped down, and lit my smoke for me, using matches. “Sorry to be forward, but who the fuck uses matches these days?”
“Someone who lost all their lighters and smokes last night, oh yeah by the way I owe you a smoke.”
“Oh, you owe me just one smoke do you?”
“Okay, I owe you like twenty billion smokes now,” He put out the butt on his just lit cigarette and put his hand out. “Make it twenty billion and one?”
“Oh chain smoking, are we?”
“Do you have to question everything I do?” He said with a smirk. Cheeky mother fucker.
“I’ll save you half.” I took a few more drags.
“I think it’s my half now.” He said, pointing to my almost completely burnt cigarette. I blew my last drag into his face.
“Just returning what I stole from your half of my cigarette.” I handed him the rest. He had is drag, and all of a sudden, our lips were locked. I wish it could’ve been more Hollywood and romantic than that but unfortunately I have not a lot of details to fit in there, it just was what it was and happened as quickly as that. I was definitely aware of what was going on, and I was conscious of the fact that if Laretta ever found out, she’d probably never forgive me, but at the same time, hell, it had already happened, so I was going to make the most of it, while it lasted. While we kissed, he presented his bottom lip and I bit down, gently. His lips were very different to kissing Laretta’s, Lindon’s lips weren’t as full as Laretta’s, they were small, even pressed against my small lips. It was a lot more fitting in a sense. We stopped, and he looked at me like a dog that’s just done something naughty like rubbed itself in shit after a nice bath, but sitting there all proud of themselves. I couldn’t resist those eyes. He had another drag of the cigarette, before giving the last little bit to me, just like nothing had happened. I guess I was still in shock.
“Well, that was spontaneous,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
We sat and looked at the sunrise, before going back inside, we both kept exchanging looks as if to acknowledge what had happened but not in an ‘I want more’ kind of way, there was no emotion behind it, just a simple exchange of facts, with our eyes. The whole thing was so weird. He was like a brother to me.

Lindon made us coffees and I invited him downstairs, to watch t.v with me so we wouldn’t wake up Lana. We sat on opposite ends of the three seater couch and nothing had changed from yesterday, or even this morning from our kiss. Except, I kind of in a weird way, felt like I wanted to do it again but I put that thought out of my mind as soon as I could, knowing that thoughts like that, weren’t healthy. It had seemed at the time that Lindon had put them out of his mind too. He was a strange being, and I had accepted that whatever was going on inside his head, wasn’t worth putting it into mine. It was surprisingly easy forgetting what happened and just being happy go lucky friends again, just like that. We laughed about random things and soon started a conversation, completely putting aside the television. As it turned out, Lindon and I actually had very similar pasts, and very similar dreams. This guy was alright, hard to figure out, but alright. It was weird that we knew each other for almost two years and yet, we only just, in the last few weeks got to know each other better. The previous few days were catching up on us, we fell asleep on the couch, a different blanket over each of us, I wasn’t asleep for long, I was more resting than anything, my mind ticking over, like it always did. I was thinking about what Laretta would think if I told her about Lindon and I kissing. I didn’t want to lie to her or keep it to her, and the guilt started to sink in, but at the same time, I knew it would either hurt our relationship and her trust in me, or I’d have to cut ties with Lindon, which made life hard either way. I respected him as a friend, and I think he understood that. I turned the television off, and Lindon was sprawled way out on the couch, his legs kicking me off, snoring like crazy. I tried to wake him up to get him to go to bed. I started with a gentle touch on his shoulder, almost whispering his name. I didn’t want to startle him. He moaned, and rolled over. I tapped him a little harder, this time saying his name repeatedly and following with, “wake up,” he didn’t budge, just continued snoring. I fixed his blanket, which was now half drooping onto the ground and put mine on top of him. I kissed him on the forehead.
Upstairs, I heard music, Lana was awake, so I went up to talk to her. I couldn’t shake the thought, as much as I wanted to about that morning’s events. Not even the kiss, more the talking, the laughing. I tried to snap out of it, before Lana was onto it and I had to get it as far out of my head as I could. This particular day was warm, it was still early morning, not quite midday and the sun was burning outside, creating a beautiful sparkle off the pool.
I waved at Lana, she smiled back, a glow in her face that was once lost before.
“Good morning, you seem happy today.”
“I am, I really am.”
“That’s good, feel like a swim?”
“I was actually thinking that. Why waste such a beautiful day?”
“I’ll go get changed.” I went downstairs, and changed into my bikini. On the way back past Lindon, he was awake now, gazing at the fish tank, in his own little world. “Do you want to come for a swim with Lana and I?”
“Yeah, sounds good, I’ll be up soon. Hey, first come here?”
“Okay,” I said, a little hesitant but honestly, pretty happy that he was awake. I sat down, next to him on the couch.
“No, like come here.” He held his arms out for a hug. I accepted. He looked at me in the eyes, and pulled me closer, going in for another kiss.
“You know, we can’t be making a habit of this.”
“Yeah I know, I’m sorry.” He backed off.
“I need to make it clear to you that I’m not normally the girl I was this morning, I don’t just kiss people for the sake of it.” He didn’t really say much in response to that. “I’m not saying that I’m in love with you or any of that, so don’t get ahead of yourself, and don’t be scared off, I just find it really important that you know I’m not easy, and I know me letting you do that, showed you different. I honestly don’t know what came over me.”
“I know, it’s all good, don’t stress.”
He took a cigarette from the table and lit it up.
“You know the rules.” I said, cheekily. There was mixed meaning behind that, we both knew that I had meant about him kissing me. “Your smoke, outside. Lana will kill me. Speaking of which, I’m still going for a swim. You coming?”
“Yeah, okay rush pants,” we walked up the stairs together and went outside. Lana was already in the pool, gazing out at the view. I snuck up behind her, and jumped in, splashing her.
“Fuck, Poppy, you frightened me.” She said with a serious tone, then dunking me under.
“Sorry,” I said, coughing water out of my lungs. Lindon put out his cigarette, and jumped in too. I swear I had only intended to watch him jump in, to see how big a splash he could do. As he was still under, Lana gave me a look.
“What?” I said, truly oblivious to what was going on.
“Are you making eyes at my brother?” she said, whispering, with a huge grin on her face.
“What? I watched him dive in. That’s all, for a whole what, three seconds?”
Lindon popped his head up, right in front of me, splashing my face with his wet hair, which fell into a perfect flip, how it always sat. He gave me a ‘look’ when he came up I couldn’t decipher the ‘look’ because I was too aware of Lana looking over his shoulder at me from a distance, a grin still on her face.
“I’m going to get my sunglasses,” she said, still making eyes at me. “Do you guys need anything?” she winked at me and made a subtle head movement.
“No thanks,” I said. Was this a test? Or was she legitimately giving me permission to hit on her brother? Either way, I’d done enough that morning as it was, and I wasn’t prepared to push it further. I was trying to get it out of my head, not further in it.
“I’ll have a drink, this young lady will have a wine too if you don’t mind?”
“Sounds good,” I said, a smile arising on my face, but me trying to hide it. Yeah, in hind sight, mixing my already lack of inhibitions, with alcohol after a three day bender, while my girlfriend was gone, maybe wasn’t such a good idea. “I’ll be back in a minute, I’ll go help Lana,”
“I think Lana can get drinks by herself. Besides, I think you should come here.”
I hesitantly looked at Lindon, back at Lana, who did seem capable of handling it on her own. “Okay,”
I sat down on the step in the pool, swishing the water around with my hands. Lindon approached me, came up close to my face and leant in, before pushing his feet on the step and gliding backwards through the water, splashing me by kicking his feet. He had this weird glow in his face, his smile gleamed. I saw his eyes go from my face to the direction of the kitchen. I tried to dull my smile down a little bit, realising I was grinning like an idiot. I was a little bit smitten, I must admit. I turned my head to see Lana, holding a bottle of wine and three glasses. “
“Thanks honey,”
“No worries, can you come help me for a minute Poppy?”
“See Lindon, told you I should’ve helped.”