Alike

I lifted the lid on the trashcan and tossed the bag inside. The night was winding down but I could still hear trick-or-treaters in the distance. The door to the side of the house opened, letting light cast its way across the concrete. Whoever it was quickly closed the door behind them. I couldn't see him in the darkness but I guessed it was Brian. I waited for him to speak. Instead, I could hear him walk towards me.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I'm not knocking the candy and costumes but as a kid the real fun was the illicit nighttime prowl of the neighborhood, knocking on the doors of houses you'd passed countless times but never approached, the surreptitious peek into the living room, the thrill of voyeurism while shrouding your identity.

As an adult I suppose the thrills remain the same. Of course it's no longer novel to be out at night but what still remains is to watch without being seen and to express a darker side of ourselves anonymously to strangers.

For me, Halloween provides other benefits. My closest friend Jessica and I live in San Diego and I always head to her house. Between Jessica, her husband Thomas and me, we distribute candy and take their boys to trick-or-treat. I get to dress up, eat candy and spend time with her kids.

As enthusiastic as I am about Halloween, I never manage an elaborate costume. Often, I wear my favorite jeans, a fitted black t-shirt and I tuck my hair under a witches hat. Add some eyeliner and red lipstick and I'm about as badass as is permissible in the presence of minors. On this Halloween I also packed an overnight bag. Jessica was hosting some families for drinks and snacks before heading out. Although I generally liked to avoid work there would be food to serve before trick-or-treating and plenty of clean up afterwards. Jessica knowing she would get more effort from me if there was alcohol involved suggested I spend the night.

I jokingly refer to Jessica's house as Model 3B and for all I know I'm right. She lives in a master-planned community in a San Diego suburb and the houses all look remarkably similar with their stock colors and uniform landscapes. Even during the holidays it is hard to distinguish between houses as everyone seems to buy their decorations from the same places too. The giant ghost hanging over her front door loses some creepiness when an identical specter is hanging from a neighbors house a block over.

As I pulled up to her house, I noticed the other "Model 3B" had already arrived. Jessica, good friend that she is, appreciated my nickname for Thomas' identical twin brother, Brian. Like the neighborhood, Thomas and Brian were also uniformly good-looking and largely indistinguishable.

Pushing her front door open I called out a hello.

"In the kitchen," Jessica called out.

"Mimi!" called Jessica's youngest son, "Come see me!" I followed Nicolas' voice upstairs. Seated on the floor of the bedroom were a very small Spider-man and a slightly larger Green Lantern and Brian playing Legos. Brian rose to greet me.

"Hi Mia," he said, giving me a hug. His hand lingered on the small of my back. I pulled back to look at the boys.

"Hi guys, Spider-man, Green Lantern," I turned back to Brian still standing next to me, "Brian have you seen Nick and Joe?"

"Hmmm," said Brian playing along, "Nope, no one here but us superheroes."

While Joe considered himself too old to find us amusing, Nick giggled. "Mimi, it's me!"

"Nick, is that you? Are you sure? I thought for sure it was Peter Parker."

Nick pulled off his mask, showing his adorable grin underneath.

"My goodness, it is you! I was sure you were Spider-man. You're going to get so much candy with that costume. It's awesome."

"Mia!" I heard Jessica calling from the kitchen below.

"Duty calls," said Brian.

I gave Brian a smile before making my way to the kitchen to help Jessica,

Jessica's kitchen was dominated by a large center island. The white marble counters, white tiled backsplash and white cabinets were pretty but sterile. I thought splashes of blood would have given the whole kitchen a macabre effect. Instead, her decor of choice was a cauldron of punch and arrangements of pumpkins and dried corn scattered amongst platters of food.

Jessica, dressed as Wonder Woman, was arranging vegetables on a platter. Having two kids had only improved Jessica's figure in my estimation. We each admired the other's figure and bemoaned our own. She was voluptuous while I felt too thin. I preferred her boobs, she preferred my hips. I loved her thick almost black hair and she envied my long sandy blonde. She had beautiful thickly lashed brown eyes that she had passed on to her sons. I had blue eyes inherited from my dad. Other than our height we were almost physically opposite. And Jessica had married young and stayed at home to raise her sons while I remained single and worked too many hours. Still, none of it made a difference when it came to our friendship. She was as close as a sister to me.

"Could you grab the drinks from the garage and fill the buckets?" Jessica asked. I scanned the kitchen.

"Sure. You look about done," I said on my way to the garage.

"I think I have it under control," she replied. No surprise there. Jessica always had it under control.

"Where's Thomas?" I called from the garage.

"He'll be home any minute, I hope."

As I stood looking into the refrigerator the garage door opened with a loud bang. I about jumped out of my skin.

"Speak of the devil," I thought. "Here he is!" I hollered as I loaded my arms with drinks from the fridge and waited for Thomas to get out of the car and help.

"Hey Mia," said Thomas.

"Hi. Want to carry some stuff?" I said. I held the refrigerator door open with my back hoping he would gather a load of drinks as well.

Thomas grinned wickedly and tickled my sides. "Not fair you stinker," I laughed. "I may be defenseless now but I can always get you back."

"I'd like to see that," he said.

Thomas grabbed some six packs of beer and made his way into the kitchen. I followed behind. Thomas had always been a flirt but only in the most charming and friendly way. I had never asked Jessica if it bothered her mostly because I had never seen her react to it. In fact, I had never heard Jessica complain of Thomas at all. It seemed like somewhere in their twelve year relationship he would have bothered her at some point. But Jessica was never one to share and perhaps she didn't have any complaints to share anyway.

"Brian's upstairs with the boys, if you're going up there," said Jessica.

"3B, huh?" said Thomas winking at me.

I blushed and busied myself filling the drink buckets. Thomas made his way upstairs and Jessica and I were left in the kitchen.

"Seriously Jessica, why did you find it necessary to share my nickname for Brian?"

"What? It's funny," she said. "Besides, it's not like they're that much alike."

"Um, they're kind of exactly alike. In fact, did you ever wonder how similar they really are?" I said, raising my eyebrows, "Like does Thomas have any weird preferences that you think Brian has too? Like they both like having whipped cream licked off them or hey, does Thomas like to tie you up? Maybe Brian would too!"

Jessica's eyes narrowed for a moment as she surveyed me. Then the moment passed. "So gross, Mia."

"C'mon Jessica, spill the beans," I said hoping Jessica would let some delicious bit of information slip. But Jessica remained silent. I could understand Jessica not wanting to think of Brian in a sexual way since he did look so much like Thomas. In fact, I had always avoided Brian for the very same reason. As handsome as he was, admitting an attraction to him would be the same as admitting an attraction to Thomas and that was a thought I was motivated to avoid.

Just the same, I could remember plenty of moments when Brian's eyes or hands lingered on me for a bit longer than they should have or times when he would brush up against me while working in the kitchen. In fact, he always seemed to find moments to touch me, pull a bit of fluff from my hair, give my arm a rub while talking, those sorts of things. And while it all felt good I was always trying to push those thoughts from my mind. Though sometimes I admit, I failed.

The evening progressed with loads of people drinking and eating. When the guests left, Jessica, Thomas and Brian decided that they would take the boys trick-or-treating while I stayed home to give out candy. I didn't mind too much. I could hand out candy with a glass of wine in my hand. That seemed inappropriate if I was walking the kids through the neighborhood. Also, they lived in a busy neighborhood so there was a steady stream of kids. In fact, I was still standing at the door when they made their way home.

"How was it kiddos? Where's the loot?" I asked.

Jessica stayed at the door while Brian, Thomas and I followed the boys into the kitchen. Nick and Joe had long since lost their masks. Their brown hair was plastered to their faces, sweaty from running through the neighborhood during what was a very warm Halloween night. We gathered around the kitchen island while each boy upended their pumpkin buckets onto the table, careful not to intermix their piles of candy. I busied myself clearing a space for each of them and began to load the dishwasher.

"Mia, you don't need to do that," said Thomas, "We'll get it in the morning."

"I'd like to see the day Jessica goes to bed with dirty dishes in the kitchen," I laughed, "Anyway, I've been promised a place to sleep if I get my chores done." I batted my eyelashes at him and grinned.

Thomas came to stand next to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. "I know you're teasing but you know you're welcome to stay here anytime for as long as you like even if you don't do the dishes." He removed his hand from my shoulder. "What I mean is, we all love having you, the boys, they love you being here." I could feel the lingering warmth of his hand where it had touched my shoulder.

"Yes, Thomas. Just the same, I'm still going to do the dishes." I smiled at him and bumped my hip into his, my hands deep in sudsy water.

"I can help," said Brian gathering a stack of dishes from the island and placing them next to the sink. For the next hour, Brian and I worked together. Thomas took the boys to bed, Jessica wandered into the kitchen for brief time but we shooed her away and she went to bed as well. I think Brian and I both enjoyed the quiet after such a busy night. As we worked I wondered what it would be like if Brian and I were a couple like Thomas and Jessica. From there my thoughts turned away from performing domestic duties to Brian himself. Brian and Thomas both were tall, with short cropped brown hair, and long aquiline noses. They had wide smiles that crinkled their brown eyes.

As we worked and as my thoughts turned over, I kept stealing looks at Brian. The longer we worked, the thicker the air seemed to grow. Occasionally we would brush against one another as we worked and each time our contact lasted longer. Once the dishes were put away, I grabbed a sponge to wipe the island counter. As I reached across the counter, Brian came up behind me. He pressed himself to me and used his hand to stop mine from working. I wanted to turn but at that moment we heard feet coming down the stairs. We held ourselves still for a moment, then Brian turned away.

"Are you two still at it?" asked Thomas.

"Almost done," said Brian.

"I thought you'd be asleep," I said.

"Jessica and the boys crashed. I'm going to fall asleep the minute my head hits the pillow. But I thought I'd check on you one more time. Brian, are you staying?"

"Nah, I'll head out when we're done here."

I surveyed the kitchen. The only remaining job was to take out the bag of garbage that stood by the pantry door. I grabbed it and made my way through the garage. I could hear Thomas and Brian speaking softly as the door closed behind me.

I walked through the garage to the side of the house. As I stepped outside I could hear older kids laughing as they made their way home. It was past eleven by then and most houses had their lights off. I carefully made my way to the trashcan and placed the garbage inside. Thomas had planted a tall privacy hedge along the side of the house and it cast the area in almost total darkness. Suddenly a sliver of light startled me. I turned away from the cans to see who had followed me but the door closed too quickly for me to see anyone but a vague shape coming towards me. I held my breath waiting for him to speak. Instead, he walked up to me and grabbed my hand. He pulled me towards him and kissed me hard. When we pulled away I was panting. He leaned in for more, kissing my neck and pulling at my shirt. His hands slid along my sides, lifting my shirt over my head and dropping it to the ground. He pulled the cup of my bra down and took my nipple in his mouth, at once sucking and tugging gently.

In the background I heard a car beep as someone unlocked the doors. The car started and drove away. The sounds vaguely registered but my attention was now focused on the man before me. I slid my hand to the front of his jeans feeling the outline of his cock, hard and long under my hand. I immediately wondered, "Is this what Jessica takes to bed each night?" I suppressed the thought as quickly as it entered my mind. But a thrill shivered up my back. I tried to extricate Thomas from my thoughts of Brian but they were so similar in so many ways.

Quickly, he pushed me back towards a potting bench. I leaned against it as he unbuttoned my jeans and pulled them down. I pulled my bra off as well and I was now naked in the darkness. He knelt before me as he lifted one leg up wrapping it over his shoulder so that he could dive his tongue between my legs. I could scarcely stand. I ran one hand through his hair, though it was too short to grab hold. I held the bench with the other to steady myself. The night air was still quite warm and sweat ran down my chest.

His tongue massaged my clit as he slid first one, then two fingers into me. His fingers slid in and out as I ground my hips onto his hand. We were on the side of my friend's house and very possibly people were still out walking not too far from where we were. I bit my lip in my best effort to stay silent. His tongue was firm and skilled as he lapped at me. I could feel him savoring my taste. He ran his hand up my belly massaging me as he went. His hand slid back down to my hip and around to my ass pulling me towards him. As I felt my orgasm building I drew in several short quick breaths. I could feel sweat trickle down Brian's temple as I grabbed the sides of his head and held him to me. "Mmmmm," I moaned as quietly as possible. "Oh...oh yes," I said as quietly as I could manage. I moaned again as my climax overtook me. My whole body shuddered as I held myself to him.

As my orgasm subsided, Brian stood and turned me around. I leaned against the garden bench and I could hear him unfastening his jeans and pulling them down. He pressed his hand into my lower back forcing me to bend farther over and I felt him slide himself into me. Again I moaned as I felt him fill me. His cock rubbed me in a way that was almost too sensitive. I shuddered again. It was perfect. I marveled at the feel of him and once again I quickly thought of Jessica and Thomas. No wonder she never had a bad word to say. How lucky she was to have this whenever she wanted.

He used his hand to pull and push my hips as he guided himself in me and then out again. He ran a hand up my back, brushing my long hair away from my neck. He leaned over to kiss and then bite at my neck. As I turned my face towards him our cheeks were pressed together and we held ourselves like that as our rhythm continued. I listened to our breaths as they merged. I could feel another orgasm building. He ran a hand between my legs and began massaging my clit.

"Oh, oh," again I bit my lip to try to stay silent. Somewhere I heard a window slide but shut or open I could not tell. Could someone be listening?

"I'm gonna cum. Is it okay to cum in you?" His voice was husky in my ear.

I nodded, "Yes, now, cum now." This next time my orgasm was stronger. I shook almost violently as I felt him cum in me as well. I felt his hands tighten on my waist as he held me still, pressing himself so tightly against me, into me. I could feel the sweat between his chest and my back. My legs were useless but he held me up as we paused, relishing what we had just done. Why had we waited so long?

"Did you hear the window?" he whispered into my ear.

I nodded.

"I'm going to go inside. Will you wait a minute before you go in?" he whispered again.

I nodded. "I need to find my clothes," I whispered, laughing softly.

I began searching the ground as he made his way into the house. I quietly found my jeans and panties near the potting bench, my bra on the tabletop and my t-shirt on the ground. As I slipped them on I could hear a shower come on upstairs. Why would Brian shower upstairs when the guest shower was downstairs? My stomach flipped over at a sudden question in my mind. I crept quietly back through the garage and into the house. I tiptoed to the front door and opened it. Brian's car was gone.

"Oh no," I said aloud. My mind raced with the implications. Brian must have left while I was in the garage. I just didn't hear the car, I wasn't paying attention, I was listening to the shower. A hundred other excuses filled my mind that ensured it was Brian outside with me and not Thomas.

I walked to the guest bedroom, shedding the clothes I had just put on. I stretched out under the covers. I would figure it out in the morning. In the meantime, I would embrace the anonymity of Halloween.