Shooting with Helena

I shook my head, not understanding. "Kissing? With tongues?"

Helena rolled her eyes and smiled. "That's easy" she said. "Actors do that. You can make it look real without it being like a kiss with your boyfriend. You kiss the other person's lower lip, then lick it as you pull away."

I gave her a look of suspicion, but Helena rolled her eyes at me. "Cassie, some of that stuff is third-grade drama teaching. But you can tell the difference, you know. That's why real actors use roleplay, not bad techniques, to make it look real. I mean if I were going to kiss you, and make it look real, I'd actually want to kiss you, tongues and everything. Doing it fake would make it look fake."

"So you use roleplay." I said.

"Exactly!"

"And how does this work?"

"Well" said Helena, moving away from me to sit on the edge of my bed, "I've been thinking about this. As far as I can see, there's three ways it could work. If we both want to take this forward and get something out of it for ourselves."

She sat for a moment, collecting her thoughts, then ticked off one finger with the other hand.

"First way - and these aren't in order of preference, or anything, just in case you ask - is to do it the fake way. We stage manage each photoshoot - each individual photo - to make it look as though the two of us are in erotic positions together. I don't think that will work, as I've already said. Two-" Helena ticked off another finger, "is to use roleplay and work ourselves into positions where we can interact naturally in front of the camera. We can use blindfolds, alcohol or all kinds of ways to give each other a different personality if we're going to do sexual play together."

I winced at the term 'sexual play' but tried not to let it show.

"Three. And this is something quite different. Three is that we have fun naturally."

There was a pause as I waited for further explanation. It didn't seem to be coming

"Naturally?"

"Yeah. Like we just have sex with each other because we like it and because we trust each other."

"Right."

"Hey, you wanted my opinion sis."

"Yeah I know. They all sound a bit weird to me."

"Of course they do. But that's the fascination of seeing two sisters together." Lena got up, all of a sudden. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

I took my sister's hand and followed her out into the hall, then into her room. I sat on Lena's bed while she fired up her computer. While it waited to warm up, I glanced around me and noticed that Helena had a framed picture of us in our cheerleader outfits beside her bed. I smiled, saw that there was something smudging the glass and went to pick it up. But I stopped myself as I recognised what the smudge was. A perfect lipstick kiss, right between the two of us. Why would Helena kiss our picture?

"Okay, here it is" said Helena, double-clicking on her mouse. I got up, leaving the picture alone, and walked over to her desk, kneeling on the floor beside her.

"Here's what I'm talking about with fake" she said, pressing the 'play' icon on her desktop. A new window fired up and a video appeared of two red-haired twin sisters undressing each other in a bedroom. The two smiled and giggled at each other, drawing fingertips over each other's arms and shoulders as they undressed. At one point the two leaned together and kissed very lightly on the lips. The clip ended, and Lena clicked into a new electronic folder.

"Okay now look at this." she clicked another 'play' icon and let the video run. A window sprung up and I saw a slightly more grainy video start with two different twin sisters - both with identical long dark hair - walk into a motel room and close the door. Almost immediately, they closed in for a very intimate clinch. They kissed for a minute or two, not holding back at all, and then moved onto the bed. The camera zoomed in to the two of them kissing again, then panned down and stayed on the shot of one twin reaching into the panties of the other, moving her fingers around as her sister moaned. I was fascinated, and slightly annoyed when Helena clicked the mouse and the scene jumped.

"Watch this bit" she said, sitting back. The image jumped to the two sisters, fully naked on the bed, with one crawling up the other's body to kneel over her sister's face. The one underneath began to use her tongue between her sister's legs, playing with her ass at the same time.

I looked away, realising that my heart was beating faster than it ought to.

"Jeez, Lena. I didn't know you were into all this kind of stuff" I said. Helena turned off the computer and looked at me.

"Cassie, I wanted to show you the difference. Those first two girls only did that video. No-one wanted a sequel. But that second one. That second one had thousands of hit on its website within the first couple of weeks. Hundreds of thousands. All pay-per-view. Do you see the difference?"

I nodded, my head reeling with images of the videos I'd just seen, of my sister's picture of us together with a lipstick kiss on it, of the two of us being photographed together.

"I,uh. I need to think about this" I said, getting up. I walked to the door but Helena stopped me and turned me to face her.

"I'm sorry" she said, closing in for a hug.

"What for?" I said, my voice muffled by her blonde hair.

"For upsetting you" she said, running her hands up and down my back. "If you want to forget about all this, just forget it. It's no biggie."

We stepped apart and Helena smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Love you" she said.

"You too" I replied. I turned and left, went back into my room and went to bed. Surprisingly, I slept well.

*******

In the morning, I got up, used the bathroom, then got ready for my shower. I closed the door on the cubicle and felt the warm soapy water cascade down my head and back. I had my eyes half closed when I noticed the movement outside the door and nearly slipped over in shock. There was a light tapping on the door.

"Hey Cassie, it's me" said Helena.

"Lena? Jeez Lena, you almost killed me! What do you want?"

"My, um, my shower head's broken. Can I use yours, sis?"

"Lena, I've only just got in. You'll have to wait."

There was a pause, then Lena chirped "okay."

I watched her frosted-glass image move away from the door and back into my room. I finished my shower hurriedly, then grabbed a towel on my way out. Helena was lounging on my bed, her towel wrapped loosely around her.

"Hey" she said, flashing me a smile. I felt a bit bad for snapping at her, and said so.

"It's okay" she said, getting up. She walked over and kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks" she said, letting her towel drop to the floor. Lena went to enter my shower but stopped and turned back to me.

"Hey" she said

"What?"

"What's wrong with this picture?" she said, frowning. I crossed my brows together.

"What do you mean?"

"I said, what's wrong with this picture?" she repeated, looking annoyed. I shook my head, not sure I understood what my sister was talking about.

"I don't get it" I said.

"Okay-" said Helena, suddenly adopting a very sexual pose, raising her arms up to push up her hair, pushing out her breasts and dropping one side of her hips. She stared at me in a sultry way.

"So what's wrong with this picture, you sexy bitch" she said, running her hands down her own body and turning to squeeze her own ass cheeks.

"Helena, stop it!" I said, suddenly angry. Immediately, Helen dropped the pose and gave me a sad look.

"You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about" she said.

"Huh?"

Helena sighed. "You seemed perfectly natural looking at me naked when I was annoyed. But when I tried to look sexy, you got angry with me. It's a shame that you're more comfortable with me being angry than you are with me being sexy."

She gave me a 'we're all losers' smile, then turned back to my shower and stepped in.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know what to think. There was a part of me that was still cross with my sister for bringing up this whole sexy sisters thing, but there was a greater part of me that was disappointed in myself because I knew Lena was right. I shouldn't feel more comfortable looking at her when she was angry and sad than when she was smiling and sexy. I supposed it was a long-term natural response between siblings to get annoyed at each other and take it out on each other. But it was also like sisters to make up quickly. I thought about that and made the impulse decision. I got up, walked over to the shower cubicle and opened the door, making Lena yelp. She was soaped up and hand one hand between her legs, the other one holding the shower head not far away from her crotch. She hadn't washed her hair yet. Luckily for me, the shower head was facing the other way.

"Hey" I said, suddenly uncomfortable. "I, uh, I wanted to say sorry. Again. You're right; I shouldn't be like that when you're angry. I, uh. I'm sorry."

Helena fixed me a look, then gave me a beaming smile and threw her arms open wide. I shrugged off the towel I had wrapped around me and stepped into the cubicle. Helena pulled me into a hug and I embraced her, wrapping my arms around her. We held each other for a moment, then pulled back - only a little - and said;

"See? This isn't so bad, is it?"

"No" I said, smiling despite getting wet once more. Lena carried on holding me.

"Stay with me" she whispered. I wondered if this were another test for me, but found myself nodding anyway. Lena, giggled and squeezed me harder. The she turned her back to me and stepped back under the cascade of water.

"Hey" she said; "Do my hair for me?"

"Sure" I replied, picking up the shampoo bottle and squirting some of the soft fluid into my hands. I moved up close behind my sister and started rubbing the shampoo into her long, wet hair. As I worked it into her scalp, I was aware of my body rubbing up against hers. I felt my nipples brush and drag against her back, and her ass cheeks rub against my thighs. I heard Lena moan as the sensation of the head massage and hot water relaxed us both.

"Is, uh, is this the kind of thing you meant?" I said, leaning forward. Helena leaned back into my until we were in a close back-to-front hug, my breasts squashed against her back.

"Kind of" she said, throwing a smile over her shoulder at me.

"Or was it more like this?" I said, running my hands down her shoulders and over her breasts, feeling her raised, hard nipples underneath my palms. Lena squealed.

"Cassie!" she said. I giggled back at her and pinched her sides, making her squirm even more.

"Bet you didn't see that coming" I said. Helena turned to face me and pulled me into a tight embrace, rubbing her breasts up against mine.

"Bad, bad girl" she said, smiling. I smiled back. And then she leaned forward and planted a full kiss on my lips.

"Bet you never saw that coming" she whispered, as she pulled away. My impulse (or was it my sense of competition?) took me over. I leaned forward and kissed her again, opening her mouth with my tongue. I felt her jerk a little, then react to my kiss. We rolled our tongues inside each other's mouths for a few moments. When we pulled away neither of us was smiling, but we couldn't tear our eyes from each other.

"Bet you never s-" I began, then caught my own breath as I felt Helena dip a hand between my legs and touch me there. She stared at me.

"How far do you want this to go?" she said, huskily. I pressed forward a little, into the touch of her hand. Somehow the hiss of the shower seemed a long way away. In that split second, almost as if it were on cue from a film production, my cell phone rang. Despite the moment, the closed door of the cubicle and the loud insistent hiss of the shower water, I could hear that annoying tinny sound wrench me back to some kind of normality.

"I, uh. I've got to-" I said, backing into the door and opening it. I stumbled out, picking up my towel and wrapping it around me as I reached my bedside table and picked up my phone.

"Hello?" I said, taking the call and realizing how broken my voice sounded. I daren't look round to my shower unit in case I saw my sister staring at me. The hiss of the water was still loud in my head.

"-on photos. Can you hear me, Cassie?" I heard the other person on the phone speak. From somewhere in my head I picked out the voice and recognised it; Tamara, a college friend who I studied media with.

"Huh? Sorry, Tam. I was on another planet there. What was it you said?"

There was a theatric pause as Tamara took an overly deep breath. "I said, do we need to bring in that book on 'design journalism and photos' for college today? Only I've lost it and wondered if I'd left it at your place."

"Oh. Um, I Haven't seen it Tam. Hold on a minute." I put the phone down to look under the bedside table but couldn't see the book Tamara was referring to. I picked up the phone, resuming the conversation. It didn't seem to matter as Tamara had moved on to talk about why Paul, her boyfriend, hadn't come to see her last night. That's when I realized that this call was, once again, more about Tamara's fractured lovelife than about any college book. I sat by the edge of my bed and closed my eyes, only half listening to my friend talk about how much she worried her boyfriend didn't think of her. Minutes ticked past and I had trouble keeping my mind on the call, and away from the very intimate and shocking clinch I had just shared with my sister.

Tamara accused me on not listening (which was true), whined at me, then cut me off. I snapped shut my cell phone and opened my eyes. The sound of he shower had disappeared, and the cubicle was empty. Sometime during the call, Helena had left my room and I hadn't even noticed.

I got dressed, left my room and knocked on her door. There was no answer to I turned the handled and went inside. It was empty. Helena had gone already.

******

Later that evening, after a mind-numbingly boring media class at college, I came home to find that mom and dad were out late again. I cooked myself a light dinner and had just finished eating it when I heard the door open. It was Helena. She came in, stopped when she saw me and tried an experimental smile.

"Hey" she said, closing the door quietly behind her.

"Hey" I replied, failing badly at returning a natural smile.

"I'm, um, going out in a little while" said Helena, tucking in a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Okay" I said, trying to be cool about it all. "You want any food? I just make some pasta."

"No thanks" she said, smiling. "I'm okay. See you in a bit."

"Okay."

Helena walked upstairs and out of sight. It was one of the most brief, and most uncomfortable, meetings with my sister I'd ever had. I felt terrible, and curled myself into a ball on the sofa as the TV blared back at me. I started replaying conversations I'd had with Helena over and over in my head. I thought about how sisters should be together; what's the ideal model? And realized there isn't one. I thought about modern values and what people expect of each other, and realised none of that mattered either. Because Helena was my only sister, and I loved her. And it broke me up not to be happy with her. I took that thought up with me as I went upstairs to her room and knocked on the door.

"Lena? Can I talk a minute?"

There was a vague "Uh huh", so I turned the handle and walked in. Helena was sitting in front of her dresser, putting on some eye liner.

"Hey" I said. Lena put down her make-up and turned to look at me.

"Wow!" I said. "You look fabulous." And she did. Helena was wearing a loose red vest top, short skirt and strappy high heels. She had brushed her blonde hair back and put on some wild make-up with glitter on her lips and cheeks. She smiled back at me, almost demurely. "Thanks."

"Listen, Lena, about this morning-"

"Yeah, it was pretty intense, huh?"

"Yeah. Well I wanted to say that-"

"Listen, Cassie. If you want to forget the whole thing, I'm good with that, I just-"

"No, no, no. " I said, holding up a hand to stop her. "Lena, what I was going to say was that I'm cool with it. Really. It's, it's no big deal."

Lena gave me her 'Mr Spock' look. "Really?" she said. I nodded, walking over to her bed and sitting down. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes to gather my thoughts.

"Well, it's not, like your everyday thing" I said, talking to my feet. "It's not like, um-"

"It's not okay, is it?" said Lena, turning in her seat to face me. I sighed again, then looked up at her.

"No it is" I insisted, as much for my own benefit as hers. "It really is. Listen, I've been thinking about it all. I'm good with it. All of it. What you said earlier was true. We should be comfortable with each other, no matter what."

"No matter what?"

"No matter what. And hell, yeah, let's make some money out of it if we can, right?"

Helena smiled at me, jumped up from her seat and gave me a hug, and I was happy to squeeze her back just as hard.

"Hey" she said, settling herself on the bed beside me. "You wanna come out with me tonight? I'm going out to meet some friends at Sharkey's, then find a club to go dancing."

I felt a little uncomfortable, having never really got to know any of Helena's friends, but didn't want to ruin the new closeness we'd just repaired. "Okay, sure." I said. Give me ten minutes to throw some clothes on."

I left Helena's room and went to my own. For speed's sake, I picked out a brown mini-dress I'd bought a couple of months ago. I'd kind of bought it to wear in the summer, given that it was pretty loose, with tiny shoulder epaulettes to hide a bra strap, and a two inch chiffon ruff around the hem making it seem longer than it was. It would do for a party. I pulled on some heels (not too high, if I wanted to dance - and I did!) then sat down to do my hair and make-up. Again, for speed I just brushed my hair back and pinned it behind my ears with a couple of clips so it didn't fall around my face when I was dancing. Then I put on some simple make-up; lipstick, rouge and eye-liner / eye shadow just to highlight the features. Nothing as elaborate as my sister's. Then I hooked in a couple of nice diamante earrings Lena had bought for me years ago. I hoped she would notice they were the ones she bought for me. I grabbed my handbag and met up with Lena downstairs.

"Nice job" she said, looking me up and down as I came down the stairs, "for a quick turnaround."

"Eat me" I said, giving her the finger. Helena laughed and bit the side of her lip, not saying anything, but holding that wicked smile on her lips.

"So are we going?" I said.

We ended up in Sharkey's bar for a couple of hours before moving on to a club that Lena said she'd been to a few times recently. She hoped to meet up with a couple of friends whilst there, and wanted to introduce me. By the time we got to the dance floor-thumping edifice of 'Zone-out', we were both pretty drunk, and very merry. We danced to a few tunes, each of us losing ourselves to the music as we twirled and moved. Although Zone-out wasn't the biggest place I'd been to, it was - like any good club - pretty well stacked. Helena and I danced around each other for a while, then my sister grabbed my head and shouted into my ear

"Follow me!". I nodded back to her and set off behind her as she wove her way through the crowd. She made her way to the washroom and slipped inside. I followed her, wincing at the relative silence as the door closed behind me. Lena was checking the cubicles in front of me. Seeing they were all empty, she beckoned me over to the last one. Her face was glowing with that devil's smile. She pulled me into the tiny cubicle and closed the door.

"Okay" she said, trying to be matter-of-fact. "I've always wanted to do this. There a friend of mine out there who's never met you, but I want to see if they can spot the difference."